Author's notes:

First of all guys I want to give you my big thanks for reading through my story. Your views, and especially the followers, the favs and the people who comment, are a big incentive to keep me writing. So, thank you!

Secondly, I'm really sorry for taking more than usual to update this time, but my carpal tunnel flared up, and I had to stop using a keyboard completely, even now, I need to rest my hand as much as I can, so I expect only one chapter next week as well.

Lastly, and more importantly, we are now beginning the first school ark. I want to take this opportunity to not only establish characters, personalities, and relations, but also, since it's the first "serious" school Martyn attends, I want to focus and explain a bit better the magic system itself. I'll try to make it sound as natural as I can, but this chapter has quite a lot of information shoved into it. 

What I ask of you, if you can, is post in the thread if you enjoyed the way I introduced the system, or if you want me to give it in smaller pieces interwoven with more "other things". Simply put, if this is too much of an information dump on you instead of a story chapter.

Thank you again for reading.

Chapter IX: A lesson on mana weave

Martyn looked around at his fellow classmates that compassed the 'seventh apprentice support mages class', or S7 for short. The first four support classes were compossed by the apprentices of older years who didn't make the cut for adepts yet, and the three last ones where for the people like him who had just joined the academy.

Only eleven people out of the forty two were in his class, which, from what he understood, had the lowest amount of knowledge about magic, the most untrained of the support, and thus, the bottom feeders of the whole school. At least, there were some people around that weren't as aggravating as most of the other apprentices he had the chance to talk with.

"For Gods' sake Donovan, stop looking out the window at the battle mages and focus!" Kat's voice shook Martyn out of his own boredom.

Of course, he knew the stuff Kat was trying to teach them, but since they were the lowest of the classes, they had started from zero, once again.

"As you all know, the two forms of magic is pure and runic. Eren, what's their main differences?"

Martyn had to give Donny that. The girl was breathtaking for her age. A little too young for himself, but he could easily understand why most apprentices her age were fawning over her. Her rich black hair were tied in an elegant braid behind her back, her big, brown, eyes threatened to captivate you if you looked long at them, and her figure, for her fifteen years of age, was already fully developed. Her neat appearence obviously required alot of attention each day to reach that level, and probably life magic was used aplenty.

But as Donny said, that's where her good points ended. She wasn't stupid or anything like that, but her talent for magic was almost nonexistent. Rumors were aleady circulating that it took quite a bit of money and influence from her family to even get her accepted as an apprentice here. Despite that, her native arrogance was irritating to say the least. She obviously didn't care at all about her the actual studies of magic, and yet, she always managed to showcase herself as a higher existance compered to the rest of the class. For his life, Martyn couldn't understand why boys and girls flocked to her like she was some sort of bright beacon instead of punching her silly as they would have done back in his village.

"Ehhh pure is, like, minor magic. You just use your exterior mana to do your binding, but you are limited by the amount you can channel. Runic is like pure but this time, instead of your imagination, you use the Gods' language to describe what you want to do, and so it's immensely more powerful."

"Minor magic?" Kat snickered. "You are wrong. How strong or how weak pure magic is, is directly linked to your own mana supply and your own state of mind at the time of the casting, yes. But minor magic? I've seen people who could engulf the whole classroom in a blazing inferno with just a simple thought. Do not underestimate pure magic. If anything, pure magic is the strongest form, and the most important to master first.

This ties in with your explanation of runic magic, in which you are wrong. Again. In runic magic, the most important factor is your own imagination, your own mana supply and your own state of mind. Exactly like pure magic.

Then what about the actual runes you say? That is simply knowledge, nothing more, nothing less. You have to realise that you don't shape your magic through the runes, you use the runes that fit what you want to shape. It may sound similar, but it's worlds apart.

For you, for all beginners and apprentices, it's dangerous to tamper with, so tried and tested runic formulas are what you will be taught. But by the time you are mid level adept, IF you ever become adepts, you are expected to be able to deconstruct and reconstruct your own runic 'sentences' to be able to power up your magic.

As for why it's first important to master pure magic it's really simple. Everything you do IS pure magic. Let alone the minor spells like using your fire affinity to lit a bonfire or even fill the room with the predescribed inferno, those are parlor tricks. The very reason and way you regulate your inner mana and pour it as a sheath, the mana strands that you use to form the runes, even your mana sight, they are all just different aspects of pure magic.

Everyone, open your mana sight and look at me for a moment."

As Martyn looked at Kat he saw the familiar, thin and robust, mana sheath surrounding her form. Tiny tendrils of mana flickered on it's surface, but beyond that, nothing, he couldn't pierce throught the thick weaved strands that formed the shell. All around him, every student had his own sheath, some had thick, wild layers, blazing with huge strands that extended towards Kat as they tried to probe her sheath as well, and others were thin, weak, like his. But most of them, all except Donny and Margie, had their sheaths so lously and widewoven that he could could easily pierce with his own mana strands and peak directly into their inner mana.

Suddenly, Kat's sheath flared up. The moderately thin layer of mana grew explosively as it transformed to a full aura two palms wide around her. The tiny tendrils burst through, thickening to a man's arm width as they extended outwards, enveloping the whole classroom. The last thing he saw was them rushing towards everyone, and like whips, crashing on their own pathetic strands, and knocking their mana sense out.

"And that is pure magic apprentices" She said with a grin. "Anyone cares to explain how I did that? Margie? You seem to have a pretty good grasp of moderating your mana, care to explain to the rest of the class?"

The short bispectacle girl was still rubbing her temples turning the stray red strands of hair into a mess as she did so. As she compossed herself, she took a breath and tried to straighten the long wild strands behind her ears as usual. She stood up and cleared her throat, assuming a much more regal posture with her hands close to her sides and resting directly underneath her impressive bosom.

"Instead of your inner mana being the size of a human you have one the size a battleship?" She said with the most serious tone one could imagine.

Amidst the laughter of the class, Kat's voice rose and took a more grievious tone.

"I have indeed the inner mana you'd expect from a battle mage. But this wasn't really the question was it? So, since you want to crack jokes, I am correct to assume that you know the right answer? And, thus, you wouldn't have a problem if this battleship comes crushing on you if you fail to answer correctly. Right? Go on."

"Sure! Unlike the poor apprentices you tried to assert dominance over, that can't regulate their inner and outer mana, you, and every mage worth calling mage, control how much inner mana you allow to seep through you to form your sheath. You usually keep only a tiny bit of well woven mana outside, and what you did was, simply, allow your reserves of inner mana to violently surge forth." Margie said calmly, like the glare Kat was piercing her with was nonexistant."

"...Correct." Kat said with a dissapointed undertone that her young student had gotten it completely right. Turning her eyes towards the rest of the classroom, she continued.

"The reason all mages must do this, and the reason this will be my first priority to teach you is simple really. Everyone has their inner mana. Naturally, this seeps out, and thus all living beings have a natural sheath of mana surrounding them. This is what you use when you use any kind of magic. This is the strands you extend to manipulate, to see, to craaft runes, to use any and all forms of magic. But, the one thing you can't do, is take it back inside. Your inner mana regenerates with time and rest, meditation also helps, but you can never re-absorb the mana that is surrounding you. And while this stays relatively innert, it always, slowly, seeps away to the world.

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What you need to do, as a mage, is thus simple. You hold on to your inner mana as tighly as you can and only let out the necessary amount to have a decent protection and a decent reservoir for what you have in mind. Then, if the need arises, you let more and more inner mana leak out, until you again have what you need.

The second reason to regulate your mana flow, as we call it, is the most severe one. Everything that runs out of inner mana, dies. Or to be more precise, becomes a souless, mindless, unresponsive being, as its functions close naturally one by one. You don't have to worry too much about that at the moment, because your natural defences prohibit you from overdrawing your reserves. And the technique that unlocks that restriction is only something taught to Adepts and above.

In the off chance that any of your previous teachers was stupid enough to show you how, consider yourselves banned for life from the academy if you use it without direct approval from me or from a Master and higher mage."

She stopped and look at her classroom, letting her words sink into them before continuing.

"The next thing to notice is that the more the outer mana, the thicker the mana strands. That has ups and downs. The thinner the strands, the most control you can assert, the more delicate they are, the better their finesse. And this has direct applications as to how perfectly you can form your circles, your sheath, and your runes. But the thicker they are, the more strong they are as well, and the faster you can channel your mana.

Take your standard mana sheath as an example. By using my control over thin strands, it's very tight woven, it can't be easily pierced. But if I was in a duel, and someone used an overwhelming amount of mana to crush it, then it would easily crumble away. Similary, if I wanted to use my magic to scorch an entire enemy platoon, I would shift to thick, strong strands, but if I wanted to heal someone, when his life is on the hands of a delicate spell, then I would use the thinnest strands I can form.

Speaking of which, anyone knows why we first form a circle and then inscribe the runes within?"

"..."

"No one? I'll give you a hint. You don't need to. Use your mana sight again and look."

Above Kat's head her strands weaved and wobbled as they created three stand alone runes. As the mana poured into them, a single thin ray of fire shot from her hand and cleanly seared one of Donnie's chair's legs, causing the chair to topple and throwing the boy clumsily on the ground.

"I warned you not to look outside at the battle mages when I'm talking didn't I?" She said with a smile.

"Now, as you all saw, no circle was made. And yet, the spell still went on flawlesly. So, why do we bother with circles?"

"..."

"Ok, how about this. Everyone try to shoot such a ray, without a circle, at the blackboard. Anyone who manages it, is free from classes today."

Instantly, everyone woke up. Mana flared all over the room as the young apprentices tried to form the runes as fast as they could. Half of them fumbled in their haste. It was a simple spell, and power was irrelevant, but Martyn watched in horror as he wasn't even done with the first rune by the time the rest of the class had almost finished their full spell. As he focused on his weave, trying to make it move as fast as he could, he saw Kat's own mana strands expand and split. Each strand hitting the apprentices' runes directly, messing them up, and causing the spell to fail.

The whole classroom turned with a puzzled look towards her.

"The whole purpose of the circle, the only purpose of it in fact, is to protect the runes themselves from outside tampering. In order to mess an opponent's spell, you must first break the circle, and then the runes. The circle is, thankfully, a really simple form, it has no edges, no complicated glyphs on it, it's the simplest form you can imagine. This makes it hard for enemy threads to find an imperfection, a crack if you may, to slip through. But it can be done. It works exactly like your own mana sheath, so remember, thick and strong versus crushing attacks, and tight woven versus someone who tries to slip through. Yes Martyn?" She finished as she saw the barbarian at the back of the room raising his hand.

"Why?"

"What do you mean why?"

"If it's just a circle, can't we still attack the runes from the front or the back?"

Kathlyn's color drained a bit off her face as a thought crossed her mind.

"Try it against me"

She saw the thin strand expanding from Martyn as it raced towards the runes that were forming above her head within her circle. As it reached the runes, the strands recoiled and stopped, like they were facing an invisible wall.

So, still, everything else about him is normal so far she thought as she smiled in relief.

"As you see apprentices, while what Martyn said is technically correct, it doesn't work. Lower your hands, let me finish. Why? There are two answers, the short and the long one. The short one is, we don't really know. The long one is outside the purview of this class, and it's a matter highly debated between theologicians and archmages alike. Oversimplifying it, it boils down to:

Runic magic is nothing more than using the Daeva tongue to reach their realm. Through this act, we call upon their assistance, and the pure magic of the Gods' realm powers up our spells. Runes are not letters, they are whole sentences by themselves, they represent the will of the Gods' manifest on our world. And the circle represents the protection of those words. So, in effect, while we only see a circle, what we really draw is a symbol representing a full protective bubble around our attempts to communicate with the Daeva. The only way to disrupt the words, thus, is to first disrupt that bubble, which means disrupt the circle itself."

As she finished her sentance, the calm sound of a bell echoed in the room and the students shop up from their desks throwing their notes with haste in their packs, ready to rush off.

"Stand down a minute!" Kat shouted over the noise of the classroom.

"There is one last thing about outer mana that I need you to keep in mind. As supports, most of the time you will be using thin weaves. Strength isn't as much of a boon as it is a hindrance for most of us. But despite that, before even thinking of becoming full fledged support mages, it should become your second nature to instantly shift from one weave to another. A mage who only uses thin strands, and a mage who only uses strong strands, are both, just, dead mages.

Finally, I want to let you know that there IS a way that you can have simultaneously both strong and thin weave. Pouring all your inner mana outside, while retaining the calmness and finesse of the thinnest strands imaginable. This is called Mastery. And this is what you must accomplish if you ever want to reach the rank of Master.

Go now, and train controlling your outer mana for the weekend."

As Kat finished, she sighed a breath of relief, and as the last apprentice left, she rushed behind Martyn, catching him and tugging the fabric of his robe.

Gone was the stern and vicious teacher Martyn has observed this last week. In front of him was the regular, smilling Kat he had come to know the past month, her head bobbing as she was trying to catch her breath, her cheeks flushed red.

"Seriously Martyn? Your teacher hasn't taught you anything about that?" She said overly excited. "I'm so happy that I get to be the one to show you how to use magic for real!"

"You act... differently?" Martyn said with disbelief creeping in his eyes.

"Aww man! I have to act serious when I'm in missions. I have to act stern when I'm teaching. I have to act serious AND stern when I'm working with father. But this is the weekend! So can't I act as myself?" She said as she lowered her head and raised her eyes towards him, looking all pitifully towards him.

Before he could get the chance to answer, she shot her head up again and shined him a bright smile as she continued.

"Just kidding! Let's go help you practice your mana manipulation together!"