The year went by quickly with barely any hiccups. Most of the final classes were of a very high difficulty level and the subsequent exams were also as such. Even for me.
It was customary for seventh year students to produce a final project of sorts that would encapsulate your study in the school and that is what took the majority of my time this year. It was opt in, meaning you can decide not to take it, but most people in my class knew that was never really an option for us. The competition was too fierce and this was an area where they hoped to be able to finally beat me after all these years. But that will not be.
‘They really never learn.’
All of them came up with things befitting of their position in this homeroom as the most abnormally exceptional students in our cohort and according to some teachers, in the past few centuries.
‘Though I’m sure that mostly, it's my fault.’
The princess, as the perpetual second place after me, developed a device that measures and gamifies the magic of a person, quantifying the amount, affinity, density, control and so much more. The control, specifically, was made on a percentage scale where it seemed impossible to reach one hundred percent, showing how little control most people have of their magic.
‘Though my control, according to the device, is 100%. Which is good. I would be embarrassed if it was any less given just how experienced I am.’
It is a device that would absolutely revolutionize how magic is taught for generations to come. It’s not like we didn’t have such devices before, they just have never been that accurate or an all in one device. And it was many times smaller than the alternatives.
‘I guess that’s the princess for you.’
Brandon, ever lagging behind, created a spell that took its roots from the witches and expanded on it. As long as you have the belonging or DNA of somebody, you could perform a spell that could lead you directly to them. The spell can also be used on mediums like maps to locate the person. Even I was impressed by the spell, and though I’ve seen others of its kind in other realities, it was entirely unique in this one.
Serena, surprisingly, produced a compendium of self created spells and procedures that all have to do with healing along with an expanded look on the human anatomy. I was especially surprised because the spells were actually really efficient and the anatomy was surprisingly accurate, more accurate than should have been possible without specialized spells, in this reality at least.
‘Guess you can’t judge a book by its cover.’
Those spells and information will have ample use in the medical field as they are dissected for the next few weeks to months to vet them against the industry standard but from what I saw, they were very good. Not the best they could be, but good. Suspiciously good, actually. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye.
‘She could also be a reincarnated individual.’ The thought had gone through my head a few times, but it didn’t really matter to me.
In my….’trip’, I guess you could say, through different realities, I had met other individuals who had been reincarnated as well. Nobody I had met had been reincarnated more than once though. I had also learnt to stay away from them as they are usually overzealous from having a second opportunity to live.
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‘I guess if she is, it would explain her behaviour.’ I looked away from her.
Bam, the ever quiet, created an array that could be folded into the jewelry making process to improve the space capacity in interspatial devices by some 500%. He of course just showed the product and will be taking home the method to his jewelry making family to improve their already vast wealth.
‘The Udonavon family is about to multiply their wealth. Well, they have always been one of the only families financially on the level of the Medici so I shouldn’t be surprised one of it’s progeny will look to increase that wealth.’
Octavia, meanwhile, used her sorcery and her feel for plants to develop a pill that helps in the cultivation of aura using the most basic of plants. To do this, she enlisted the help of Wei An as his people are known for their pills and elixir cultivation aid. But that has always been for chi and never for aura, so her product was also quite a standout, especially for the prominent warriors stuck at a level.
Lancelot, the odd one out, had nothing to show for so he opted out. He was the only one in our class to do so, though nobody really faulted him because his strengths cannot be showcased like that.
As for me, I developed something…...different.
“It’s a runic array.” Professor Colbert said, while holding the ‘book’ I gave him up to his face.
“Yes, a group of arrays.” I replied. I was in front of the class submitting my project on the last possible day. He looked down at the first array for a while before looking at me.
“I feel some mysticism from it, but I can’t pin down what exactly it does.” He said and I smiled as he looked up from the book.
I knew the whole class was listening to me, waiting to hear what elaborate thing I had designed but it was quite simple really. I took the opportunity given by this end of school project to do something I was never able to do before in all my other lives, hence these arrays were born.
After activating the first array with mana, whoever looks directly at it will feel themselves being forced into a calm meditation and getting pulled into their subconscious, and that was the function. It forces the activation of meditation and pulls you into your subconscious, from which you can do numerous things.
The subsequent arrays all train in individual facets of the mind arts like thought partition, memory sorting and retention along with other ‘parlor tricks’ while working your way up to the more difficult ones, like astral projection.
And that was my project, the handbook of mind arts mastery, simplified for even the stupidest of people. It provides training wheels so secure that getting your hand on the full set guaranties mastery.
‘Well, only if you take the time out of your day to do it.’
Writing down these intricate arrays was only possible due to my innate understanding of balance, I instinctively felt the wrong areas in the arrays I drew and knew how to correct them to achieve equilibrium.
“Upon activation, you enter a forced meditative space and are pulled into your subconscious.” I simply stated. His eyes widened.
“What.” He looked stunned.
“With this, the biggest hurdle of mastering the mind arts is overcome. The other arrays are all techniques that will be forcefully trained after activation as well, all with instructions on use of course.” I explained a bit.
“Is that even possible?” I heard Serena say from behind me. I turned to face the class.
“It has been tested by me, it works perfectly.” I turned back to Mr Colbert.
“It only requires that you have at least a drop of magic in you.”
“You understand what you are saying, yes? A master of the mind arts will have perfect recall. It’s not something that can just be learnt by anybody. I’m not even sure if I would want it readily available.” He replied to me. I just looked at him, before turning to partially face the class.
“If I couldn’t at least do this much, then I would never be able to be the best in this class with all its inhabitants.” I said with a chuckle.
“I assume this is not the only copy?” He asked.
“No, you can have that.”
“Good, class dismissed.” He turned and left as I turned to face the whole class.
‘Let’s see what they say.’