After leaving Jason, Asami covered her red face with shame while joining the other students. She was beyond embarrassed at being caught but refused to show weakness in front of anyone.

“Hey, where were - you ok?” Alina asked while Michelle who was checking her gun looked at the two.

“Yep. I’m fine. Great! Why wouldn’t I be ok?” Asami asked in one breath, unaware of how nervous she sounded.

“Nothing,” Alina answered to Asami’s relief, which doubled when she saw Emily joining them.

“Hey, Em! Whoa, what happened to you?” Asami turned to Emily, successfully drawing Alina’s attention to the newcomer.

“I think I caught a cold,” Emily replied in a nasal voice. Her red nose, flushed cheeks, and uncomfortable gaze informed them of how ill she was. “I also have cramps, I think.”

“Do you wanna go to the infirmary?” Alina asked when she saw Emily rubbing her forehead with a hand, trying her hardest to massage the headache away.

“No, I want to stay,” Emily answered rather firmly and the others nodded, respecting her persistence. Emily was insistent because she was hoping to gather more information about how to progress her Esper powers from Jason's lesson. If he didn't mention anything about improving levels, she planned to ask him privately after class.

“Alright,” Alina answered and all four returned their attention to Jason who was now at the front of the class.

Once Jason returned he noticed that everyone had gathered. Almost three hundred students gathered in the large gym, a scene that would make most teachers sigh but Jason simply smiled. He was thinking of how much fun it would be thrashing them all in the name of teaching them combat.

"All right, let's start … with …" he noticed all the students looking in a certain direction and he followed their gazes to see Alice, sitting all prim and properly on a chair. 

She turned her innocent eyes to Jason and he realized that the students were wondering if he'd beat them up in front of her. As he thought of this, Alice looked at him with a gleam of smugness that passed through her eyes and faded almost immediately; he knew that she was thinking about how accurate she was about his violent teaching methods.

"On second thought … I'm tired. Let's take it easy today," Jason said while yawning in a fake manner. The students sighed with relief when they heard him and Jason looked at them with a mischievous glance. "What was that? Hey, if you guys hate it that much then we could always …"

"No, sir, no! We wouldn't dream of it!" One student shouted loudly.

"He's right, professor! We're fine with taking it easy today!" another chimed in.

"Yeah, we're happy! Excited!" a third student said while grinning ridiculously to show his happiness.

"Ecstatic!" another added to the third voice.

"Besides, if you're tired, you should rest, sir!" a student said with concern.

"Damnit, you saying I'm old?!" Jason yelled at the last student who flinched when the other students, especially the females, turned to glare at him. He shrunk back and shook his head frantically while looking around for help, only to realize that his pals had moved away from him and pretended not to know him.

“Ah, whatever,” Jason muttered to himself before raising his SEC gun and shooting at the gym floor. A magic circle covered the entire floor, surprising the students who had never seen such a large magic spell. The spell formed soil which solidified and hardened into stone chairs.

“Well, what’re waiting for? Sit, sit,” Jason said while gesturing at the students and he himself sat on a stool. Taking out a handkerchief, he coughed violently in it for a minute. He quickly folded the handkerchief so no one would see the bloody coughs inside it before turning and smiling sheepishly at the crowd. “And, now you know why I’m taking it easy today.”

As he spoke Asami turned to look at Emily who was sitting next to her, grateful at being able to sit and take it easy. “Looks like it’s the flu.”

Emily nodded but didn’t reply while Jason continued talking.

“Now, we can’t just chill here doing nothing,” Jason said. “Silvie will kill me if I did that. Instead, let’s talk about … ah! History.”

“Awww…” A series of groans sounded out.

"Hmm?" Jason raised an eyebrow.

“Yah!!” Several students screamed when they saw his dissatisfaction.

“All right, all right,” Jason said. “Let’s start with simple stuff … hmm … ah! World War Three. Five years after the start of the war, the AKEERA made its debut. Now, what does AKEERA stand for? Michelle.”

Hearing her name, Michelle stood up with a straight posture, her arms at her side like a soldier.

“Oui! AKEERA stands for Avancée, I mean, Advanced Kinetically Enhanced Élimination & Reconnaissance Armor,” Michelle answered in a clear voice.

“Very good,” Jason answered. “So basically, Gundam bots.”

A few laughs and sniggers echoed as Jason continued. “These were large mechs that were used to fight in World War Three. The first series had a cockpit, like a fighter jet, but later versions were streamlined to a standing control system. There were several reasons for that, just pick up your textbooks if you wanna know.

“Instead, let’s focus on the creators of the AKEERA and, yes, this will come up in the exams. Now, can anyone give me the names of the brilliant minds behind the AKEERA?”

Olivia raised her hand while standing up, catching Jason’s attention who nodded at her.

“The original prototype was created by Dr. Aiko Hirano and Dr. Mariia Kuznetsov,” she answered confidently while looking at Michelle competitively. “It was a prototype meant for aiding space exploration. Lunar mining for helium, to be specific.”

“Right on both accounts,” Jason said. “The name Mariia Kuznetsov should be known by all of you though. After all, you all know a descendant of hers.”

Jason looked around incredulously when he noticed the blank stares directed at him while ignoring the pleading stare from Olivia.

“C’mon, you guys really don’t know? Your student prez! She’s half-colombian and half-russian! Damn, saying it out loud … that’s a really hot combo there,” Jason muttered the last line but students were able to hear him clearly since he was using an audio enhancing spell to increase the volume of his voice.

Most girls were unimpressed and Alina, Emily, and Michelle sent Jason a piercing glare that made him clear his throat and look the other way.

“So, AKEERA blah, blah, blah. Onto the next part,” Jason said as he stood up and walked to Alice. 

The little girl was eating a small ice cream cup with a wooden stick and Jason used telekinesis to grab another spoon from her stash of snacks. He reached out to take a spoonful of ice cream from Alice but was taken aback when she glared at him and hissed while pulling her ice cream away from his reach. Without breaking eye contact, she reached out and pulled a packaged butter tart and stuffed it into Jason’s outstretched hands. Jason, stunned, watched her return to eating her ice cream blissfully before looking down at the tart and walking away. Occasionally, he would turn to look back at her with a slightly muffed look before he focused back at the crowd.

“Where was I? Right, next part,” Jason said to the crowd who watched Alice with admiration. She was able to defeat the strongest teach that no one else was able to handle with a simple glare. “The main reason why the AKEERA was streamlined to perform better. Can anyone take a guess why?”

Asami raised her hand and Jason nodded at her. “Asami, go.”

“A wild Spellcaster appeared!” Asami said loudly and her reply elected a few laughs.

“Yep,” Jason agreed as he sat back on his stool. “Spellcasters were able to defeat the first-gen AKEERAs almost effortlessly, forcing the Militaries to create a new generation of AKEERAs that were faster, stronger, and much more lethal than its predecessor. And that brings us to the next subject: Spellcasters. The Meteor Incident slowed the war’s progress and before anyone realized it, the meteorites brought something new to Earth. Psionic Aether, the energy Spellcasters use to cast their spells. Now, what is Psionic Aether?

“Scientifically, the asteroid was a form of matter that contacted strange quarks and mutated. It turned into strange matter. Now, strange matter has been theorized to exist in neutron stars or quark stars. We didn’t actually know much about strange matter until this meteor arrived and irradiated our planet. The radiation mutated all lifeforms, plants, animals, and humans. Some rocks have even mutated because of this, the most commonly known but rare Dragonite is the prime example,” Jason explained and students quickly made notes on their holo-devices. His explanation was short, concise, and a lot less boring than the textbook version.

“We call this … new form of energy, radiation, whatever you wanna call it, Psionic Aether. Can anyone tell me why it’s called Aether?” Jason asked.

A hand tentatively stood out and Jason looked surprised when he saw it was Daria, Silvia’s younger sister who was two years older than Alina.

“Daria,” Jason said with an awkward smile and the girl stood up. 

Like her sister, Daria wore a pair of stylish rectangular glasses. Her black hair was in an updo styled bun with several strands leaking out, giving it a fashionable but messy look. Her fair skin contrasted well with her naturally red lips that had a hint of a bashful smile, especially when she met Jason’s onyx eyes.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Uh … it was named after the Aether theories, old theories that were replaced by both Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Quantum theory,” Daria answered in a melodious voice.

“Right, what she said. Which, I already knew …" Jason said in a low, slow voice and another wave of laughter came from the students.

“Psionic Aether allowed us to create quantum calculations that bends the fabric of our universe. And that, is Spellcasting,” Jason said. He then raised his railgun pistol so everyone could see it. “See this? It’s a handheld railgun, the only useable railgun in the world that’s as compact as a handgun. It also serves as a SEC device. Now, what is a SEC device? Alle, shoot.”

Alina stood up and cleared her throat before speaking. “It’s a, uh, computational device that calculates the quantum mechanics needed in casting a spell?”

“Correct,” Jason said with a smile as he tapped the side of his head. “The calculations needed to manipulate the very reality of this dimension is impossible to perform in a human mind. That is why we use SEC devices to do it, they're computation devices that translate the calculations into a program before releasing it. That's why the magic circles are composed of 1s and 0s.”

Jason coughed a bit before continuing. “Of course, you still require the calculations to perform Spellcasting. These calculations are referred to as spells. That’s right, folks. You’re all wizards. And the SECs are wands.”

Jason then leaned to Alina’s direction and changed to a British accent, his voice sounding throaty and gruff. “Yer a Wizard, Harry.”

“Well. you always did strike me as a half-giant,” Alina muttered after rolling her eyes and Jason, who heard her with his sharp ears, winked at her.

“Now then…” Jason looked around and paused with contemplation. "Espers. What are Espers? Emily?"

Emily shakily stood up and Jason frowned. He noticed her pale face in the morning but assumed it was because she slept poorly during the night. Now, he could tell that she had a cold.

"You alright, Emily?" Jason asked. He then gestured at the exit as he continued speaking. "If you want, you could head to the infirmary."

"No, I'm fine, I'm staying," Emily answered and Jason acquiesced when he saw her determination.

"Espers ... are people who have special abilities that can manipulate the physics ... without the use of SEC devices. Scientists don't know how this occurs or why. Just … that Espers use Dark Energy to power their abilities," Emily said before sitting down and nursing her dizzy head. Jason flicked a finger of green energy towards her. The bolt of energy entered her body and Emily felt a surge of heat warmth and comfort her, easing her cold.

"Correct. We don't know much of Espers, only that there are 9 levels to the power measurement," Jason said. After a moment, he looked around and shrugged. “That’s it, folks. I’ve got nothing else to teach. I’ll be answering your questions instead." 

Asami stood up and eagerly raised her hands, but Jason ignored her and answered the questions of several other students. Once he was done, he looked around when he noticed that Asami was the only one remaining with a raised hand.

“Any other questions? Any?” Jason asked, almost imploringly when he noticed that no one else had a question. With a sigh, Jason nodded at Asami. “Fine, Asami, ask your question.”

“Ahem,” Asami stood up once again and cleared her throat. She fixed her clothes and pulled her pen shaped recorder and asked in her most serious voice. “Are the allegations involving your relation to the Student President, Melanie Sofia, true?”

Jason didn’t answer and instead looked at Asami with a mixture of perplexity and exasperation while slightly shaking his head; he didn’t understand what that had to do with his lesson. He felt helpless when he noticed how the students were far more eager to hear his answer than his lessons.

“Are you dating Melanie?” Asami asked the question again in simpler terms. Suddenly, Asami's eyes widened along with every student, their eyes were staring past Jason who failed to notice their astonishment.

“If you’re asking if I’m single, then the answer is yes,” Jason said after a moment of consideration.

“Any other question?” Jason asked as soon as he saw Asami open her mouth again.

“I have one,” a mellow voice from behind him said and Jason froze before smiling wryly.

"Melanie," Jason said as he turned to look at her with a cramped smile plastered on his face. "How long were you …?"

"Oh, long enough," Melanie answered softly. Her smile sent shivers down Jason's neck, he was certain she would hold this against him.

"Right," Jason said. He looked down at the floor, before looking at Melanie's eyes. Her brown eyes were bright, so bright and tender, he had to turn away. "So. What was your question?"

"May you explain the Esper levels to the students? And how to increase them?" Melanie asked. Her eyes moved to Emily and stayed on her for a while and the latter's heart skipped a beat. Emily was precisely after this information and it wasn't a coincidence that Melanie brought this up. That gaze she gave Emily seemed to hint at knowing Emily's secret.

Jason smacked his forehead with a hand before standing up and walking around. He muttered to himself: "I knew I was forgetting something.

"There are nine levels in total for Esper abilities, and they're grouped into four categories. Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced, and lastly, Unknown. Elementary is exactly as it sounds, it's when you first manifest your Esper ability. Levels 0-1 are categorized as Elementary. Then there's the Intermediate category, which is comprised of Levels 2-4. After that is the Advanced group, which is levels 5-7."

Emily, who still felt unwell, perked up and listened to Jason's words carefully as he explained in a clear and concise voice. Her research in the library provided with less than half of what she learned today.

"Increasing your level from 0 to 1 can be difficult. It's the first block you encounter when training your Esper ability. Some of you are lucky and awaken your ability on a higher level, like 1 or 2. But for those of you who don't, the only thing I could say is practice, practice, practice.

"Your Esper ability is like a muscle. You need to exercise it so it gets stronger," Jason slapped his bicep that he was flexing as he spoke, emphasizing it as an example. "And that's what the Elementary level is all about. You learn how to move the minuscule amount of energy you have around your body before emitting it outside your body.

"Once you fully succeed that, you should be at Intermediate level. So, on the threshold of level 2, going to level 3. Then, it's all about increasing the amount of energy you can hold. It's like a can of soda that's frozen and unfrozen. Okay, bad example. Basically, you expand and compress your energy, allowing your body to hold more. The most common way of doing that is by exhausting your powers. The second, more difficult method is to compress your energy but there are repercussions to doing this. I only recommend doing this once you have a better understanding of your ability.

"And that comes to our Advanced category," Jason said while he stopped walking. "That is comprehending your ability."

Jason turned to Melanie his eyes looking at her inquisitively. "I don't need to explain the advanced levels, do I?"

"It would be insightful for the students," Melanie replied. Her hips were cocked to one side and her arms were crossed together.

"Ok, Advanced level," Jason said. He took a deep breath while thinking over what to say before continuing in a slow voice. "To advance your level, you need to understand, comprehend, exactly what your ability truly is.

“Let's use an example. Alina, please stand," Jason raised his hand, gesturing at Alina to stand and the latter complied. "I will use Alle as an example. Right now, you should be aware that her ability is to manipulate and control electricity. If she had awoken as a level 0, her ability would have been static electricity. At level 1, it would increase to a taser standard of shock and at level 2 it would be EM control, etc.

"What I'm trying to say is that when you first start, your powers are vastly different from what they'll evolve into. You must understand what your powers could become. You must comprehend the base, the origin, of your powers. Once that's done, you should know the method to achieving Advanced levels," Jason ended his lecture and looked at the students who were busy jotting notes. "Any questions?"

"You missed a category," Melanie reminded Jason. "What are the Unknown levels?"

Jason stared at Melanie, his eyes narrowed. The subject of Esper categories was a tender subject, to begin with, but discussing the Unknown category was a big no-no. It was just as bad as talking about Practitioners.

"Unknown are the levels beyond 7," Jason said after considering for a moment. If anything happened, he would blame Melanie, and with this thought, he continued without any worries. "Levels 8 and 9 have been theorized, but no one has been able to reach that height of accomplishment. For good reason too. You'd be close to a God if you achieve level 9 or even 8."

"Mind if I add something?" Melanie asked Jason when he stopped to take a sip and quench his parched throat. He nodded at while gesturing at the crowd, silently indicating that it was her stage and she took a step forward when he pulled back. "For those that are willing, there's another option to increase your powers: combat. By fighting in a battle, you learn to use your powers more effectively. Unfortunately, combat experience comes at a price, you have to be willing to accept the risks. In this case, the risk of being injured.

"Luckily, in Sanctuary, we have the arena which has a spell that can negate lethal attacks into flesh wounds," Jason's eyebrow twitched when he heard her mention the arena. Most students listened eagerly as it was the first time they heard about the arena.

Alina narrowed her eyebrows when she heard Melanie. She had searched everything about Sanctuary online before joining the school but she never found anything about the arena. Accessing the internet through her holo-lens, she searched again using an advanced algorithm that A.V.A developed but still turned empty-handed.

Of course, A.V.A, Alina thought with a grimace before glaring at Jason who noticed her glare and looked back at her bemused. She must be blocking me.

"Ms. Pérez?" A student raised their hand before asking. "What is the arena?"

"The arena is a little secret that most keep quiet about," Melanie said in a sweetly while flirtatiously winking at the student who, along with the boys around him, blushed profusely. The girls near them rolled their eyes while giving the boys disdainful glances; just a bit of eye contact and they were twirled and wrapped firmly around the student president's fingertips.

"The arena is a place for both aspiring and pro league fighters to compete in," Melanie explained. "It's a place where you can rapidly improve however luck also plays a major role. You -"

"Ahem," Jason coughed, interrupting Melanie before she could continue. He could feel Alina's scathing stare and tried his best not to look at her. "Now, class is dismissed. You have, oh, about an hour left for this course." 

The crowd sighed knowing that they wouldn't get anything more from him as Jason looked at his watch. "Take that time to study or relax, I don't care. Oh, and Emily? Infirmary. Now."

Jason walked to Alice and lifted her up without warning. The latter, who was not expecting it, reached out and grabbed her bag of snacks as Jason hauled her away. 

"What are you doing?" Jason asked when he saw her sniffing a bag of chips.

"Stinky breath," Alice said while looking at Jason disdainfully. The scent of the alcoholic poultice was still lingering around Jason, especially his breath, forcing her to breathe in the scent of nacho chips.

Cheeky brat, Jason thought as he intentionally blew his breath at her face, causing Alice to gag.

As Jason exited the gym while play fighting with Alice, Alina, and her friends gathered together.

“He’s right, you should head to the nurse,” Alina said as she looked at Emily in concern.

“I’ll take her there,” Asami volunteered. The others were about to agree with her when they were interrupted.

“Oh, Emily. I was looking for you,” Melanie arrived close to the group without any of them noticing, surprising them. 

Alina, in particular, narrowed her eyes when she saw Melanie. She wasn’t able to detect the newcomer at all, which worried her since she discovered that Melanie was as unfathomable as Jason.

Is she … a Practitioner? Alina thought with concern. It shouldn’t be possible to sneak up on me. Not unless ...

“Asami, I’ll take Emily to the Infirmary. I need to have a chat with her afterwards,” Melanie said while staring at Emily. She didn’t pay any attention to Asami, it was as though the latter was insignificant.

Michelle was about to decline when Emily smiled.

“Actually, I was looking for you as well,” she said while walking towards Melanie while speaking over her shoulders to the trio. "Sorry, I'll try to meet up with you guys at lunch."

As they all nodded, Emily turned back to Melanie. “I hope you don’t mind me visiting the Infirmary first?”

“Not at all,” Melanie replied while gesturing at the exit. “After you.”