Classes should be illegal this early in the morning. Who can even learn at 0800 when you're fresh out of bed? Alwin slumped at his desk, trying to keep his eyes open. He blinked slowly, staring blearily at the clock on the wall. The hands of the clock seemed to move agonizingly slow as if they were mocking his sleep-deprived state. He sighed, a yawn threatening to break free, and forced his attention back to Milvus.
"So how's everyone finding their Spirit Hands? Pretty handy right?" asked Milvus.
They were useful alright. Perfect for silencing Milvus' endless chatter. With those, he might finally get some decent shut-eye. Alwin contemplated the prospect, mulling over the pros and cons. On one hand, it would certainly shut Milvus up. On the other hand, he'd likely be expelled. Either way, Alwin was prepared to give it a shot.
Then before he could enact his nefarious scheme, Milvus said, "Keep practicing and your mastery rank will go up in no time. Now for today's lesson, I'm going to introduce another new skill."
Another skill? Abort mission, abort mission! New skills in his status would trigger a rush of happy juices in his brain, and happy juices were what he needed to freshen up.
Milvus turned to face the chalkboard, picking up a piece of chalk, "So this next skill is called Spirit Barrier. It's a defensive skill that allows you to create a shield of spiritual energy around yourself."
The words "defensive skill" got Alwin to sit up in his seat. This sounded like something that would come in handy if he ever got into a fight. He couldn't wait to try it out.
With chalk in tentacle, Milvus began sketching on the board. His tentacle moved swiftly, outlining a simple slime monster, then surrounding it with a protective barrier. Along with a bunch of instructions on how to create a Spirit Barrier.
"Conjuring Spirit Barrier is similar to Spirit Hands. First, gather your mana," Milvus explained. "Next, you visualize and shape the mana, and then release your gathered energy in one concentrated burst.”
As Milvus spoke, his body shimmered. A glowing shield appeared around him, encircling him like a translucent bubble. Alwin stared in awe. He wanted nothing more than to pop the bubble, but that would be rude.
"And that's how you create the Spirit Barrier," said Milvus. The glowing shield faded away, leaving him unscathed. “The key to Spirit Barrier is leaving the center hollow and also big enough to surround you.”
"Mr. Milvus, I have a question," said Uchronia.
"Ask away."
"We've just learned Spirit Hands and now we're learning another skill. Shouldn't we focus on mastering what we already know before jumping to the next thing? Aren't we progressing too fast?"
"That was a cause of concern when me and the other teachers were coming up with a curriculum for you all. We decided that it was for the best to set your foundation by introducing to you all some basic skills first. It's best to learn a variety of skills first instead of focusing on only one, if not you'll get so hung up on that one skill that learning other skills would become a challenge."
"But if we keep learning multiple skills and never improve on the already learned skills, won't we just be making ourselves weaker? Isn't it better to have a few A-ranked skills instead of multiple weak F-ranked skills," retorted Uchronia.
"That's true, but it's not always easy to improve mastery. After a certain rank, you need insights and a deeper understanding to advance. Sometimes those insights come easily, but most of the time, they're hard to get. The best way to gain more insights is to learn new skills. One of them might lead to a eureka moment."
"I understand, thank you, Mr. Milvus."
"Great, now everyone get practicing."
Milvus hit a button under the teacher's desk, and once again the ground opened up swallowing all of the tables and chairs. Finally, they could get started on learning some new skills. Alwin was just about to fall asleep, listening to Uchronia and Milvus drone on and on and on and on and on about... something. Alright, he wasn't gonna lie, he hadn't really been paying attention to their conversation. Who cares about learning too many skills or going too fast? Not this guy.
First things first, feel the mana inside of his core. Alwin closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He focused his mind, tuning out the world around him. Slowly, he felt it: a current of mana, swirling and eddying like a rapid whirlpool deep within him. Mana from outside his body poured in like a drizzle of rain, merging with the swirling torrent within him.
Second thing second, shape the mana into a barrier. But, how to shape it? Previously he imagined the mana was like clay and from there shaped them into a pair of hands. He could do that again, but where's the fun in that? He had to shake it up and be creative. Sphere, sphere, sphere… but how to make a sphere? It would have to be a hollow sphere. A protective bubble just big enough for him to fit inside.
Bubbles? Bubbles pop, and you know what else pops? Balloons! That's it! He was going to shape his mana using paper mache! Now comes another question. How do you do paper mache using mana? The three things that he would need were paper, a paste, and a balloon. The paste was the easy part since it was basically his own mana. Maybe he could make his mana act like paper? Would that work? Well, his core, his rules, so of course it would work. Hopefully.
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All that's left would be the balloon. Perhaps he'd just imagine a balloon or something. If he can imagine a pair of hands to help mold his mana, he can imagine a balloon as a base to mold his mana around. His core was his playground. His imagination, his tools. And his mana, the material to create whatever his heart desired.
Within his core, an orange balloon began to materialize, starting as a tiny, deflated speck. Slowly, it began to inflate, expanding with each pulse of his breath. The vibrant orange surface grew rounder and fuller, stretching and gleaming against the backdrop of the dark blue swirl of his mana. The contrast was striking, the balloon's color glowing brilliantly, almost like a tantalizing, juicy orange ready to be plucked and savored. Boy, was Alwin hungry.
Forcing his thoughts back on track, Alwin watched intently as the balloon continued to grow, the sound of his breath like bellows fanning a roaring flame. Until eventually, it took the form of a perfectly round and voluminous sphere larger than Alwin. Now to use his mana as both paper and a form of paste.
Alwin began by tearing up strips of his mana, before dipping them back into his mana pool and pressing them onto the balloon. The translucent layer clung to the balloon, conforming to the smooth curvature of its surface.
Continuing, Alwin tore, dipped, and pressed more pieces of his mana on the balloon. With every layer, he carefully smoothed and aligned the edges, making sure there were no gaps or bumps. The balloon gradually transformed into a soggy shell, wet with mana, encasing the precious orange sphere within.
One last layer of mana should finish the job. Tearing off the last piece, Alwin gently applied the sheet, watching as it formed a thin film over the shimmering bubble. Now came the most important step to complete his paper mache Spirit Barrier. Wait for it to dry.
This was boring. Nothing to do but stare at the stupid Spirit Barrier and wait for it to dry. How long had it been? Five minutes? Ten? Thirty? He couldn't even open his eyes to check the clock. One lapse in concentration of his core and he’d had to start all over. Alwin was so bored, that he felt like crying.
Time continued to tick by. Every passing second dragged on for an eternity, making the experience that much more excruciating. Alwin kept himself occupied by watching tiny raindrops of mana fall from the ceiling of his core, into the swirling abyss below. The mesmerizing drip, drip, drip was his only solace. That paper mache exercise took a lot more mana than he thought. About half of his mana had been used up.
When his mana had fully replenished, he looked back at his Spirit Barrier. It looked... dry? At least it didn't look wet anymore. He gingerly poked the Spirit Barrier. The mana didn't budge. Okay, it was probably dry.
Alwin cautiously manifested a tiny pin, no bigger than the tip of a toothpick. Holding his breath, he stuck the needle into the barrier. There was a loud pop and the imaginary balloon within his Spirit Barrier exploded. But, still, the paper mache Spirit Barrier held firm.
Alwin exhaled, relieved. He was fine. He was safe. It had worked. He did it... mostly.
Third things third, release the shaped mana. Previously, he had just thrown the Spirit Hands out of his core and the rest was history. The Spirit Barrier was basically a ball so chucking it out of his core was definitely an option. But, where's the fun in that? Like he said before, the inside of his core was his playground, and boy was he going to have some fun.
Alwin manifested an imaginary bat within his core. It squared up against the Spirit Barrier and took a few practice swings. Then Alwin swung the bat with all of his might, hitting the Spirit Barrier and sending it rocketing out of his core. That same familiar welling feeling surged forth, filling his throat. Alwin's mouth tingled, the sensation building up before bursting out into the world.
"Spirit Barrier!" Alwin shouted.
As the words left his mouth, a deep blue transparent barrier, slightly larger than the size of his slime body surrounded him. He sat inside the newly formed barrier, staring at his classmates.
"Your Spirit Barrier looks great, Alwin," said Milvus, walking over on all eight of his paper tentacles to inspect Alwin.
A single tentacle reached towards the Spirit Barrier. Milvus tapped the surface, prodding and poking the barrier. Each touch sent ripples across the barrier, distorting the energy momentarily before it settled back into place. The whole time, Alwin eyed the tentacles warily. Was his barrier up to par? Did it at least meet Milvus' expectations? A flurry of thoughts rushed through his mind, and yet his expression remained placid and calm.
"Seems solid enough, good work. Just keep recasting it until it registers in your status," said Milvus.
"Okay."
Alwin was over the moon. Milvus gave him a compliment. Alwin could have done cartwheels at that moment if he could do cartwheels. Just before Alwin closed his eyes to continue his practice, the words of a fellow classmate caught his attention.
"I don't get why I have to learn this useless skill. I've already got my awesome Impenetrable Shield," said Tess the Leafling.
"Maybe you should learn it, seeing how your Impenetrable Shield got penetrated by me yesterday," said Galeo the Furball.
"Shut it!"
"Make me!"
"Now, now. Galeo, Tess. No fighting during class," interjected Milvus. "And Tess, you shouldn't over-rely on your Core Skill. The best way to grow is by learning new skills, even if they overlap with your Core Skill. You never know, you might gain some deeper understanding of your Core Skill.
"Fine."
Now that the distraction had been dealt with, Alwin was finally free to begin practicing the Spirit Barrier again. Deep within his core, he repeated the entire process: inflate the balloon, cover it with paper mache, wait for it to dry, pop the balloon with a needle, then release the mana. With each cast, the Spirit Barrier became easier and faster to create. One after another, Alwin practiced shaping the barrier. Within a couple dozen repetitions, it became second nature. Although casting the Spirit Barrier still depleted a considerable chunk of his mana and took some time to form, namely because of the drying process. But it was a start.
After who knows how many tries, Alwin received the notification he had been waiting for.
New Skill Learned: Spirit Barrier (F)
Awesome! Now he could get out of this class and head on over to the cafeteria for lunch. However, there was just one teeny tiny problem. Where was everybody? Alwin scanned the classroom and the only sign of life was Uchronia right next to him. What happened to everyone else?