Two weeks later
“Uh, professor, are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Maybe.” I nodded, purposely leaning into Mona’s uncertainty.
“Alright, if you say so.”
The girl closed her eyes, and like static charging the air around her, I felt mana begin to buzz about the girl, a literal vacuum when it came to drawing in mana.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone with that much propensity for mana since… well, ever.
To be fair, I didn’t spend much time around people when they were actively working on refining their mana core, but that was a minor digression.
Perfect for showcasing today’s lesson, though.
I continued watching the girl, the mana which was abuzz with activity, slowly at first, but with each passing second, was drawn in ever more quickly into her. Then, like water finding its way down a drain, the mana twisted around like a helix of energy.
Of course, I was the only one who could directly see the effect. Still, I knew even without my ability to see the bonds between mana, a practiced skill, the rest of the students would at least be able to feel the change.
“As you can see, err, feel, what Mona here is doing, is nothing as simple as the standard principle of core refinement, drawing mana in and simply letting it ‘do its thing’ inside your core. Everything you’ve learned, every principle that for so long preached that ‘mana is tranquility’ is a load of shit.”
The students were strewn about in various states of sitting or general at ease, watching Mona as she demonstrated from the center of the field.
A field which might I mention, I requested access to at nearly the very beginning of the year, and only now, several weeks later, did I finally have access granted.
“Mana is not tranquility; it is not stillness. Mana is action, energy, chaos, and entropy.” I made sure to enunciate each word for extra emphasis, making sure the class was paying attention. “Because everything, everything is action. Even in the stillest, calmest, and most serene moments, chaos abounds, the very field of energy that permeates reality like one vast explosive field littered with endless fireworks. That is what mana is. If you ask me why well, that may be the most principled question in reality, an answer that no one has. Why is everything made of chaos and change? Who knows, but for now, that is a simple truth that must be accepted. So rather than simply image mana and how you utilize it as some tranquil state, I challenge you to go further. Do not simply let it exist; challenge it. In stillness, there is movement; in movement, there is stillness. Therefore, for those of you at the stage where you will be actively working on core refinement and mana cycling, I want you to focus on adding the step of mana rotation, actively twisting and rotating the mana as you draw it within your core.”
I took a deep breath, taking the time to examine my class again. Three more faces had joined the course in the last two weeks, the last chance to sign up for elective courses, bringing my advanced magic class to a whopping eighteen.
Mind you, some professors had lectures of over one hundred kids.
The class seemed intrigued, as usual; those in my advanced magic class were here of their own volition, so it only made sense. Several had begun to fidget; even curious, they were still teenagers who had been seated for a while.
“Alright.” I clapped my hands. “Demonstration complete. I want the rest of you to find spots throughout this field to begin core refinement for yourself, emphasizing attempting mana rotation.”
One hand suddenly thrust upward, belonging to Rias Aizenbern.
“Yes, Rias?”
“Why did you have Arete do the demonstration and not do it yourself?”
God, I hate this question.
It was a question or avenue of question that I’d begun to grow to expect, students curious why I sometimes went to such lengths to have students perform demonstrations, wasting more time than had I simply shown them myself.
What should I tell them that anything to do with a mana core, I can’t do?
“The issue is my current ability. You would be unable to detect it from me, as I’ve long since streamlined and become proficient to the point where no residual mana fluctuations can be detected, thus rendering the demonstration null.”
Nice save.
“Oh, okay.” The girl nodded before glancing to her side as if suddenly unable to continue holding my gaze.
Teenagers. Always so quick to feel awkward.
“Alright, any more questions? Otherwise, you may scatter. Sitting too close to one another can interfere with your ability to properly draw mana toward you.”
I wasn’t too worried about that last point. The level most of these kids were at was far from where they would be interfering with one another. Still, it was a practice that was better learned now than later.
Not like these kids are ever likely to be stuck in a situation where they are forced to undergo core refinement while cramped together.
I silently acknowledged the truth of my own thought as the kids began to disperse. After all, these were nobles and rich kids, not adventurers. They would have all the draughts and refinement aids they could generally want. Even with that, few, if any, would ever rise to the level where they would need the real high-quality stuff that even nobles and rich kids would have to carefully budget for.
My eyes drifted to the side, landing on the girl still deep in meditation beside me, drawing in mana like a dehydrated dragon sucking down water. She looked much the same as always, save for the new necklace hanging from around her neck, a small golden orb encapsulated by a silvery chain occasionally interwoven with sapphires the color of the deep sea.
I swear. The wise decision would be to have kept the mana marble discrete, but instead, she broadcasts it to the world.
Not like it was a real issue. Most would assume the necklace as nothing more than ordinary jewelry.
Whatever, not the point.
While some of the kids in my class showed talent, few showed anything that stood out as anything exceptional; perhaps they’d make the level of a gold-rank mage one day with the proper support. Maybe my lessons could even help them achieve marginally higher than that. Still, talent vastly differed between a nizeium mage and an ordinary gold. The resources needed to artificially bridge the gap between the two were exceptionally expensive or dangerous to acquire.
Yet, as if screaming out the injustice of the world, it was the most talented one here, Mona, a talent that outstripped anyone I’d met, who had the resources to obtain those resources if she so pleased.
Combine those resources with her talent and….
A shudder passed through me at the thought.
I told them their families don’t matter here, but….
Mona was talented, undeniably so. She would have resources that only the royalty of other countries could compare with. I’d then gifted her the mana marble to further uplift her growth. I was even fostering that growth with teachings that, sorry to toot my own horn, far outstripped traditional teachings.
It would be less of an issue if she was a nobody, but she was the crown princess, the regent-to-be, the next in line for the crown. There was a real chance that with everything she had going for her, she could reach heights few saw, past even the likes of a nizeium grade mages, into the halls of heroes of legend.
Was it right then to gift so much, to foster so much growth, to one who was to become a monarch? What was to stop her from going on to become a tyrant, neigh unopposable.
Dreary thoughts, Rook.
I shook the dramatic but genuine concerns away.
Focus on the now.
While my worries weren’t unfounded- one just had to flip through a few chapters in nearly any history book to know what too much power could do to a ruler -when I found myself focusing on how the girl very subtly seemed to be smiling as the mana flooded inward. It should have been inconsequential, a matter of irrelevance, but seeing how at ease the girl appeared, I couldn’t help but feel some of my own worries ease.
Anyway, the world is far vaster than that.
If she did reach the pinnacles of magical prowess, the heights of even legendary ornnax mages and adventurers.
What did it matter?
I’d seen it myself, a so-called ‘Sage-Hunter’ with those very heights of power, burnt to a crisp with as little effort as it took to cast the rays of a magnifying glass on an ant.
An ant, how fitting.
Because really, compared to the likes of the old Great Sages or True Dragons, we were nothing more than ants.
We?
I frowned at the thought. ‘We’ wasn’t correct. I wasn’t an ordinary mage. I had no mana core, and while that was a limiting factor, my growth wasn’t tied to such things. Sure, my mana reserves would permanently be stunted. Still, one’s raw capacity for mana was hardly a dictator for the strength of one’s magic.
And I was no exception. I was a fourth-ring Sage, even if I didn’t generally like to refer to myself as such.
Well, technically.
Technically I was still a fourth-ring Sage. Yet for nearly half a year, I’d reached the point of conceptualization, the final mark of manifesting a new Sage ring. At any time, if I chose it, I could finish fully manifesting my fifth sage ring, the aid of the mana matrix made gathering the mana needed for building the rings a trivial process compared to what it had once been.
Which was good, given the growth pattern of a Sage was that of an exponential curve. The early rings required comparatively little to build and grow. As one reached further and further down the line, though, it would have been all but impossible for me without searching for drastic measures.
The point was that I’d all but reached the fifth ring in everything but finality alone. The only reason I’d refrained from finishing the fifth ring conceptualization was that something felt as if it were missing.
The first sage ring, the foundation ring, was relatively simple. It boiled down to understanding the crystallization of the primal structures of mana and using those to form that first ring. Upon completion, it allowed the vesting of a Sage’s first spell in their arsenal of word magic.
For me, that was flow, a state of superhuman heightened physical prowess.
The second ring had been centered on splitting ‘heavier’ forms of mana into their lighter states and using that to create the next ring. Besides obtaining the mana, it was hardly different in execution from the foundation ring.
The third ring was where things had become more complex, needing to be formed of more complex mana, ‘composite’ mana. Given that the composite forms of mana comprised less than ten percent of naturally occurring mana, the third ring’s creation was almost impossible by deriving the mana from what existed naturally. Thus, rather than fissioning mana into lighter states, the reverse had to be undertaken, the fusion of naturally occurring mana states into composite forms of mana, an exponentially more complicated process.
Much like the third ring, the fourth ring required mana fusion to be formed, made up of composite mana and mana of an even higher energy state, deviant mana. Deviant mana was already considered barely more than a myth; only those capable of utilizing deviant magic would actively draw upon it, hence where the name came from.
The fifth sage ring, in theory, would follow the pattern of the last two. If the third ring was entirely composite, the fourth was majorly composite, and some deviant, then it stood to reason that the fifth would be wholly composed of deviant mana.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
And yet…..
It was as if I instinctually knew that wasn’t the whole story.
Is it some sort of intuitive understanding ingrained within me from the Sage Above All’s apprentice?
It was that feeling of missing something that had led me to strike upon searching for clues for months, attempting to parse some hint from the tiniest insights gleaned from observing the mana interwoven through the physical word. At times, I’d felt like I’d seen something, some sort of clue or hint, only for it to escape me like a word at the tip of my tongue.
Damnit. There must be something I’m missing.
“-essor Koor? Are you okay?”
Suddenly I was snapped out of my thoughts as a voice called out to me from nearby.
“What? Huh?” I looked about, noticing Mona’s concerned expression, watching me intently.
Oh, whoops.
“Are you okay, Sir? You were scowling and muttering to yourself.”
“I, uh, sorry, I was deep in thought about some things. Is something the matter that requires my attention?”
“No, well, not really. Nothing bad, at least I don’t think.” The girl smiled at me sheepishly, raising her palms up as if showing me something. “Uh, I did a thing, though.”
I narrowed my eyes, looking for what she was trying to show me. It took several seconds of hard squinting before I finally noticed it, small, no, a tiny clear bead in her hand.
It was a good thing I wasn’t drinking anything at the moment, else I would have spat it out in a surprised sputter.
“Uh, professor?”
“Sorry.” I waved at the girl, putting the sudden swell of anxiety across her face at ease. “I was just… well, surprised. I didn’t expect to see something like this from any of you kids.”
“What? What did I do? I wasn’t trying to create whatever this is. I was just focusing on everything you instructed when suddenly I felt this in the palm of my hand.”
“It’s a mana crystal.” I chuckled. “You should remember some of our classes mentioning them before.”
Mona’s eyes went wide, staring down at the bead before looking back at me. “But I thought-”
“Yes, ordinarily, the artificial creation of pure mana crystals is something only capable by extremely talented mages, as in I’m not certain if there are any in our current era who can create them at will, at least not from anything short of the nizeium or ornnax caliber of mages.”
“Then how did I do it?”
How indeed?
Closing my eyes, the world was strangely lit when I finally opened them, like I’d been plunged into some shadowy reflection of our natural world. With my mana sense fully open, I also channeled mana through my eyes to see what my perception of mana detected.
My ability to perceive the magical underside of our reality at its fullest, I couldn’t help but let out a low whistle when I turned to examine Mona.
“What?” The girl asked, filled with nervous energy.
“Your core,” I noted aloud. “It’s full.”
“It’s full?”
“That’s what I said.” I nodded. “Normally, such would be impossible for you and your peers. Your cores simply lack the development to physically contain the mana fully in the first place, like taking a balloon poked through by a pin and attempting to fill it with water. But-’
“But?” Mona asked, her slightly panicked face looking strange in the purple hues I was seeing the world through.
“-but such a thing could theoretically be possible if suffused with enough high-quality mana, pure mana free of nearly all impurities. Again, that should generally be impossible for the likes of you and your cohort, except,” My eyes glanced down at her necklace, making my point clear. “Even if a mage could produce such pure mana, they would have to do it faster than it could radiate from their undeveloped core. Combine that with the fact that even for a developed core, it takes several days’ worth of mana cycling to fill... What I’m getting at is that a certain someone would have to spend hours each day on core refinement to not just balance out the expected loss of mana from normal outward radiation of mana from their undeveloped core but also achieve a net positive of mana influx within their core, to the point of bursting. Speaking metaphorically, of course, the chances of your core actually bursting are extremely slim.”
“Slim, not impossible?”
I ignored the comment with a knowing half-smile.
Mona, in turn, glanced away. Not so fast, though, that I overlooked the corners of her mouth curling upward in self-satisfaction.
Gods and lords above, she is a monster.
Talent, resources, and hard work.
“Anyway-” I shook the sudden swell of pride for the girl away, finally giving the answer to her earlier question. “It takes a highly advanced mage to create a mana crystal because it requires a core entirely suffused with high-quality pure mana. By further attempting to refine an already filled core that is already highly refined, the excess mana can be crystalized into a pure mana crystal. It is impossible for lesser mages because the rate of truly pure mana collection is far too slow compared to the lack of refinement of their core, which will readily drink in the purest of mana to polish out any imperfections, and afterward further reinforce itself. You, against all odds, have simply overwhelmed your core’s ability to 1. Use pure mana to refine itself, 2. Strengthen itself, and 3. The natural depletion rate of an undeveloped core. So, the excess mana began to crystal outwardly.”
Finishing my explanation, the two of us were silent in our own spheres of contemplation. I could only imagine what would be going through her mind. Still, as for myself, I began to mull over the considerations.
What rate of growth could this lead to? How many months of steady growth could she achieve in a single month? Or perhaps even more? Years?
It was equally frightening as it was astounding.
That much talent…
Was it because she’d never had a proper teacher before?
No.
I shook my head. While I was sure I was perhaps one of exceptionally few, if any, with the insight into mana stemming from the modern era, that didn’t mean her last tutor was incapable of fostering her growth. After all, it was a former ornnax adventurer.
So, what then?
The answer was obvious, really. The girl simply felt as if she’d finally been freed to indulge. Between being named the regent-to-be, few could even think of reprehending her now, and being placed into an environment where her growth could be fostered by one with the ability to properly enable it, the girl could finally grow as she was always capable.
Otherwise known as me if you didn’t quite catch that.
“-essor Koor? I think you need to see this.”
I was once more snapped out of my thoughts, this time not by Mona but by none other than Coi, the boy clearly worked up over something.
“What is it?” I questioned, curious about what had the boy so flushed.
Rather than say anything, the boy merely pointed toward the edge of the field behind where I was standing.
“Oh,” I muttered, nearly a growl of annoyance as Coi flinched back like he were afraid of being in the crosshairs of my ire.
There was a fight going on, two kids against one. Had I not been enflamed by the sight of the fight, I would have been taken aback by just who was doing the fighting.
On one side was Rias and Leo, and facing against them, bruised and battered and looking worse for wear but still standing up after being knocked down, was Elios.
What in the blazing hell?
With the ire of a roused bear, I began to march across the field, Coi following behind dutifully.
“Is…that… all you’ve got?” Elios balled his hands up, raising them as I felt a feeble draw at mana from within him; the boy was by far the least talented of the class.
“Stupid wanna-be.” Leo barked, whipping his hand out with a mutter as I saw a smooth-looking black stone bullet out from the ground.
Directly at Elios’s head.
“Enough!” I snarled, and in an instant, I’d crossed the remainder of the field, my hand darting out and snatching the rock from midair, staring down Leo’s surprised face.
“I, I didn’t mean- ”
“What in the gods damned blazing hells is going on here?” I hissed, doing my best to quench the worst of my reflexive anger.
“I-we-”
“No, not you three.” I snarled once more before whipping around to find the nearest bystander, only two or three kids. “Iiah, talk.”
It was one of the new students who’d only just joined the class, a girl of maybe thirteen or fourteen years old, daughter to a minor coastal lord.
“Well, I didn’t hear it all, but, uh, Leo and Rias seemed to have been bickering with Elios about something. Then something about honor was shouted, and, well….”
“Thank you, Iiah.” I sighed, quenching my anger in the cold depths of logic. “All right. Elios, you’re up.”
The boy seemed startled that I’d called out to him, my back still to him as I turned around to see him gulping.
“I, well, I won’t deny it started because of me.”
“Excuse me?” I raised an eyebrow, surprised.
“I…” The boy sighed, taking a deep breath as he steadied himself. “I overheard them talking about their parents. And, well, I may have insulted them.”
“And why is that?” I was just surprised the boy was apparently so honorable as to admit his fault in the conflict.
“I said it was unfair what they were doing. Then they said it wasn’t them, it was their parents, and then what business of mine was it… After that, I may have called them ‘spineless louses’ who just coast off the privilege of their parents’ bloodied hands.”
Got to hand it to him. That would probably do the trick at pissing them off sufficiently enough that they’d decide on violence.
“Alright, what you said was definitely out of line.” I shook my head before turning to face Leo and Rias. “But we should know better than attacking our peers with dangerous spells. Leo, you should know better.”
“I... I didn’t mean it… Really.” The kid looked as if he were just as surprised with himself as I was. “He wouldn’t stay down, and I got so angry that without thinking about it, I just sorta….”
“Just sorta attacked him with magic that could easily have killed him. I shouldn’t have to spell it out for you, so I won’t. Instead, I’ll say this, attacking those weaker than yourself in a bout of anger is a good way to end up with blood on your hands.”
Trust me, I’d know.
“And Rias.” I turned my cold ire toward the girl, who seemed to shrink under the pressure of my gaze. “I’ve come to understand Leo here can be a bit hot-headed, but you?”
“I…. well. He insulted our honor, and when the honor of a family is insulted, it must be met with a challenge.”
“Ugh.” I groaned, already guessing where this had come from. “Is this from your pragmatics class?”
The girl was silent, staring hard at her feet.
“I asked you a question,” I said, my voice deadly serious.
“Yes, sir.”
“Idiots.” I shook my head, making sure they could all hear me. “An honorable duel is far different from ganging up two-versus one in a fight against a peer in your class.”
I held my tongue, nearly mentioning that even individually, they were more than a match for poor Elios regarding magic.
“Right, so here is what we’re going to do.” I shook my head, annoyed I had to even be having this conversation. “Elios, I expect you to write a formal apology.”
The kid mumbled but didn’t argue his case.
“Rias, Leo, detention.”
“What!?” Leo suddenly shouted. “Why does he only have to write a letter, but we get detention?”
“Because he insulted you with verbal remarks, you two assaulted him. Not ‘dueled’ not ‘challenged’ assaulted.”
“But he agreed.” Rias added quietly.
“It doesn’t matter if Elios here is too much of an honor-bound numbskull to know the better part of valor is discretion. You were the ones who fought him in an unfair fight, and then Leo here could have killed him with that spell at the end. Therefore, detention. Have your parents discuss that issue with me if you have a problem. Now-” I glanced down at my wrist where I’d started wearing a small timepiece. “-class is basically over. You’re dismissed. If I don’t hear from the Director that you went to detention later today, it will be doubled.”
The two didn’t dare argue and instead hung their heads in shame, slouching as they made their way from the field.
“As for the rest of you, the same goes for you; you’re dismissed. Make sure to tell any of your classmates on the way out. Elios, I’d like to have a word with you.”
I could see the nerves on Elios’s face. Still, the boy did his best to otherwise seem brave, standing as tall as he could as I waited until the rest of the nearby students left us alone.
“Alright. Explain.”
“Explain what, Sir?”
“I’ve had you in class for a few weeks, Elios. I know you aren’t the type to blow up over stupid squabbles or petty politics. So, talk.”
The kid was silent, staring at his feet as he searched for the right words.
“I… do you know what their families do?”
“Rias comes from a southern noble house, and Leo is the son of a prominent merchant whose family has seen enough success that they warrant being wed together. Why?”
“They’re oppressors.”
“Excuse me?” I raised an eyebrow at the kid, surprised at the venom in his voice.
“Rias’s family has been a close ally of the crown for a long time. Whenever discontent rises in the south, the Aizenbern are the ones to crush it on behalf of the crown. Then Leo, the Grucias, for years now they’ve been a key player in the trade routes in the south. Like the Aizenbern, whenever discontent rises, they just happen to cut food caravans, taxing them to high heaven if not outright redirecting them, literally starving the people. Leo’s father helped stamp out the Oxent rebellion. They starved those people, and when that wasn’t enough, under the guise of goodwill, they let ‘grain caravans’ return. Except, those caravans carried the Aizenbern troops and then some.”
“I see,” I muttered, unaware of the…darker history behind those two.
“I know it wasn’t them who did any of that. It was their family, but…. I couldn’t help it. I heard them prattling on about this and that, and it was all I could think about.”
“So you insulted their families.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Elios, you’re a good kid-”
“It’s not just that.” Elios crossed his arms. “I heard rumors they were on the move again.”
“Everything has ‘been on the move’ again.” I sighed. “Tensions were high for a while, but things have begun to relax. That’s part of why this school exists.”
“Are you sure?” The boy asked me, his eyes piercing into me.
“Sure about what?”
“If that’s the case, I have one question.”
“That is?” I tilted my head at the boy, curious about what he was getting at.
“Why has there been a surge in lumber orders?”
I remained silent, unsure what to say as the boy shook his head.
“Look, I’m sorry, professor. I’ve just been stressed, freaking out over anything, and seeing things that probably aren’t there. I know why. I’m not an idiot. I’m not suited for magic, aren’t I?”
Happy to change the subject, I let out a sigh of relief.
“Elios, to be frank, no.” I answered.
In dismay, the boy hung his head, but I tutted once in disproval.
“Elios, you may not be a natural prodigy, but you’ve got resilience like few I’ve seen, especially for a noble kid.”
“Well, I’m a backwater ‘noble.’” The kid laughed bitterly. “I lived my life with more in common with a farmhand than a noble brat.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Since I was six, my father had my help with the ‘yard. Made it clear that if I wanted to run the place one day, I had to pay for it with blood, sweat, and tears.” The kid raised his hand, showing me his hand, marked by callouses long ago earned. “I worked side by side with all our guys. I can’t stand half these pretentious assholes.”
Forthcoming, aren’t we.
The kid was clearly venting, but I had nowhere to be, so I let him continue.
“Anyway, the only reason I got to come here was on special invitation.”
“Special invitation?”
“Yeah.” The boy laughed. “In return for giving a discount for lumber up in the north for future projects, I got a ticket in. I’m not notable enough otherwise to be here. So, when I heard there would be a magic class, I thought maybe….”
“You could earn a name for your family, some respect, through magic.”
“Something along those lines.” Elios sighed. “I just don’t want to see people bullied. My father’s golden rule has always been to treat everyone who works with us with respect and pride. But when you can get bullied around by other nobles, it’s hard to help take care of your people.”
I stared at the boy, seeing him in a new light. Where Mona was a monster of untapped potential regarding magic and influence, Elios was the opposite. He was a nobody noble with no talent to speak of, who just wanted to carve out a place in the world for others to be treated with respect.
I think I like this kid.
“Tell you what.” I looked up at the sky, already doubting whether what I was about to offer was a good idea. “If you want, three days a week, meet me after classes. I’ll write it off as extra lessons needed to keep pace with your fellow students in class, so there should be no issues. You’re resilient enough that I can put you through some tougher education, but I’ll tell you now, it won’t be easy.”
The boy lit up like a pine tree hit by lightning, his smile spreading wide.
“Really?”
“Let’s just say I can understand a bit of your background,” I said, half-smiling at the boy. “Now, get going. You still have more classes for the day, and I need to report the events of this little conflict in an official report.”
Nodding vigorously, the boy jogged off, a pep in his step that hadn’t been there moments before.
Be a teacher, they said. It will be fulfilling, they said.
I looked again at the sky shining overhead, hands on my hips.
“One kid a talent freak, the other a talentless freak.” I mused before shaking my head. “Sorry, that was rude.”
I was apologizing to no one in particular, but it still felt needed. Then, with a groan, a wave of exhaustion hit me as I remembered the report I would have to write about the… ‘dispute’ today.
“I just want to lay in bed with my demon cat.”