Instructions

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The Practicum continued, Morgan's voice loud and consistent, punctuated by sighs of the cadets and muffled explosions of mana bolts. Often she addressed an individual.

"Ms Liu, this is not a competition, you will gain nothing by trying to outrun the gun."

"Excellent work Helen. Recover your mana. Feel the mana recovery through your sigil as well. Use your intent and see if you can accelerate it."

Sometimes the whole class.

"When you use your mana, try to feel the mana rushing back into you too."

"Teams, work together on your pacing. Take turns shooting and recovering mana. See if you can spot differences amongst yourselves."

Professor Kim aka Babyface had been a nightmare, literally. Other teachers had yet to leave an impression. Morgan did though.

"Everyone, mana shaping is not an exercise in mysticism. There are specific rules. We'll learn them over this course. All I want from you is your best effort at following instruction. I promise you'll notice the proportional results, quite quickly at that."

"We'll end the class here. For the rest of the week, we shall focus on your sigil usage - feeling mana through it, and launching the mana bolt. Simple, in theory. See you tomorrow."

In a corner, Tommy was lying on the floor. He had expected to be outclassed. He could balance a ledger faster than anyone else here, but mana manipulation was like theater to him - enjoyable when performed by others, and something he found himself floundering in, even with support of the teacher.

Try as he might, he could not launch another bolt. His mana drained from his efforts, the number going down, and staying there for a while. He tried feeling the mana through the sigil - an uphil battle that became progressively harder. 'I made more progress when I didn't even use this thing.'

His groupmates weren't much better. They were among the worst in the whole class. Aldy could barely launch a bolt, exhausting himself and his recovery rate was abysmal. He was the second last after Tommy himself. Asva too had succeeded earlier, and often, but her rate of success fell until it was no better than a coin toss. She was like a broken clock, getting it right for all the wrong reasons.

"Teams 18, 20, 21, stay back after the class."

'The team ordering wasn't random after all. One mystery solved.'

"Team 18. Come here. You too - Mr Miles, Ms Kuroki."

"You all are simply distracted.. You lack killing intent. I feel nothing from your sigils, and I should be able to. Although regular mana manipulation doesn't work like that, today's class was about how to employ a real intent to destroy the dummy. You must do that, to even eject any mana at all via that mark."

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"People subconsciously avoid breaking things. What kind of maniac would it take to hate a wooden dummy, right? And yet, I am least worried about you. You shall come to hate that puppet with a vengeance. The frustration grows with each failure. By the third class, I expect no issues at all. Rather, if you ever find yourself needing the aid of your mark, you better think of that training dummy. It works. Hating that dummy is how you may survive some day in the future."

"Now, go hit the dummies 5 times each. Then you may leave."

"Mr D'vier, Ms Decat, Ms Calyx. I rarely find myself tongue-tied. Congratulations to you for this achievement. Life can be quite monotonous when all you get is the cream of the crop, the heirlings and the most talented nobles with years of prior training. One look and I can tell that not one of you has ever manifested mana outside yourselves."

"You first, Helen. You have an excellent form. The mana bolts practically flow out of you. You may well be a prodigy. And yet, your body won't last. It is overstrained. What have you done to it? Were you that desperate?"

"I'm just a bit tired."

"Really? The swelling in your fingers and eyebrows too?"

The girl broke hiccupped, barely holding a sob in, finding the ground quite interesting at the moment. As the pause lingered, she finally spoke.

"I'm.. I'm sorry, professor. I just want to stay at the Academy. And I'm not very talented."

"I see. You are to stop any non-essential mana usage. Use the practicum time to train only your body. Specifically, you will jog for as long as there's someone still in this gym."

"But-"

"Non-negotiable. I am still debating whether or not to report it. Start running."

"Aldenaat D'vier, you were a knight-in-training, were you not?"

"Indeed, professor."

"And how did you train. Tell be about your use of vital energy."

"I focus my internal energy on physical strength, channel it to my muscles in controlled bursts, as required by the battle art."

"Exactly, that is an advanced application on mana, one the other's will learn next year. It is easy to do really, only reason we teach it later is to avoid creating habits like yours. You have trained to absolutely not leak any vital energy. To not exude mana.

Am I right?"

"A knight must be able to do that much."

"An elite knight, yes. But a mage must. What the mark makes easier for the other kids, is hard for you. Your body is an even better conduit than your mark. I can only recommend focusing on your mark in meditation and sword training, until you get a better feel for it, and get the mana to move through it. Have you ever used any other form of magic?"

"I have not, instructor."

"The fact that you were able to throw any bolt at all is promising. You may leave."

[Ms Decat, you lack mental control. It is a common condition among the nobility and adventurers. Your instincts govern your actions. It's a powerful habit that is honed through life and death situations, in your case - your exploits over the seas.]

Asva was aghast, [How did you know?]

[I have friends. Even without that, do you believe Academy unable to do a basic background check on its candidates, even strapped for time as we were?]

"Anyway, you have a choice."

"First, you can train your instinctive command over the wind aspected mana. This path will render you unable to truly study nuances of mana, and most branches of true magic will be lost to you. But you'll progress really fast. A lot of that muscle memory will do you good in survival classes, but your structured mana control can only remain as rudimentary as it is now. You will also be a danger to yourself and others if any trauma befalls you."

"Second, follow the advice I gave your teammates. Train your intent with Mr Miles. Train yourself to identify and assimilate your mark with Mr D'vier. A long and hard path to total mastery over elements. Choose wisely. You may leave as well."

The classroom emptied. The boy at the range failed to deliver another bolt. The running girl hit her toe wrong and almost fell. Morgan just stood and watched.