“Never approach her ever again! You understand me?” Professor Isabel shouted. Alec was just walking down the hallway of the lecture hall building and was pushed against a wall. When the Professor’s hand slapped the wall half an inch away from his face, a shockwave spread throughout, caressing Alec’s neck in the meantime. This wasn’t a spell, as even the teachers couldn’t surpass the defensive ward array inside the school. The woman had just expelled mana, and it was enough to create wind without any force behind it.

Alec felt his hair stand up on their end as he looked down at the woman who was a head shorter than himself but could wipe the floor with him if she wanted. He had gotten used to the whispers, curious looks, and annoyed grunts from jealous men, but this was a new level of unhinged the people of this school could apparently reach.

“I’m sorry ma’am. But-” Alec tried speaking, however, he had to shut his mouth after feeling the murderous intent being emitted by Professor Isabel.

“I’m not going to say this again, you little bastard,” she grumbled. Her eyes wandered on Alec’s face for a second before she brought her finger up and tapped his forehead with great difficulty because of her short stature. “Stay, away, from, Iris. Understood?”

“But we are not-!”

“Understood?” her voice rumbled once again. Alec flinched as he tried to fuse with the wall. Getting scolded by a Professor was one thing, but he definitely didn’t want to get scolded by a walking-talking human superweapon. The Professors in this school were not over level 100 but were definitely strong enough to take on a small army on their own.

“Y- Yes,” Alec answered timidly. When he did, Professor Isabel looked at him for a few more seconds and backed away. Alec loosened his tie as he watched the woman leave, but stopped when she turned back around.

“You fucking idiot!” She shouted. Alec looked around to make sure no one was around, as even he felt weirded out by the Professor’s uncaring attitude toward her reputation. “If you had just become my assistant instead of that bastard’s, you could have done anything with Iris! I would probably cheer you on even!”

Throughout this whole ordeal, Alec had felt mostly weirded out. Now, however, he could only feel anger.

“I clearly asked for help!” he said. “And you were even one of the first people I reached out to!”

“You are a nutjob!” she said. “Who would even agree on giving you… A mana brain...” her voice trailed off. She thought for a second, then came back on with even more vigor. “Andrew actually agreed! You can’t do it, Alec! You don’t know how much it hurts to—”

“I already did,” Alec answered. He crossed his arms and looked at Professor Isabel with a disappointed look. Although they hadn’t interacted with each other much before, he had expected better conduct from a professor with a good reputation like Isabel. He even felt like Professor Andrew was much better, even with his distrustful and cynical nature.

“You…” Professor Isabel’s eyes widened with worry. However, without giving her time to spiral, Alec undid the middle button of his shirt and showed her his pristine mana brain. Professor Isabel’s expression became even more ugly, as she kept looking up and down on his mana brain. “There is no problem… You… You endured it all? But that’s…” She muttered. Without waiting for her to finish, Alec did his button.

“We don’t have anything going on with Iris,” Alec said. It was true. The only feeling he had toward Iris was guilt, nothing less, nothing more. “Why do you even care about this?”

“Iris is my assistant,” Professor Isabel said with a half-guilty, half-angry expression. “I don’t want my assistant dating someone that isn’t… Especially not Andrew’s.”

“You seem to have a past with h-” Alec was about to comment before a cold glint flashed in The Professor’s eye. This was a good enough sign for him to let go of the topic.

“I will take your word for this, Alec,” she said.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Alec nodded and turned around.

‘Like I didn’t have enough on my hands… Now I have to deal with this bullshit,’ he mentally commented.

He had a lot of stuff to deal with. He had started stacking up on mana and focus potions since yesterday, just in case it would be needed. He also kept to his training at full speed, trying to improve with each passing day. The school life in the academy was mostly peaceful. Even with the gossip here and there, some disciplinary committee tasks, and the slightly psychopathic Professors, this place was supposed to be the perfect place for a mage to grow up and learn.

‘Then why…’ Alec thought as he looked around him. Everything seemed relatively normal except for one thing. ‘Why does it feel like there are fewer students as the days go by?’

“Alec!”

Suddenly, he heard someone shouting his name. He was currently walking toward his dorm and was passing by the alchemy supply shop. So, this voice could only belong to one person…

“Alyssa?” Alec said as he turned around. The girl with auburn hair ran toward Alec. This was the girl whom Alec had met the first and last time he went to buy alchemy supplies. Although he didn’t feel like talking to her, it was not like he could ignore her, could he?

“Hey. Are the rumors—”

“Not true,” Alec said with a bitter expression. “Not at all.”

“Then you might want to hear what I am about to say,” Alyssa continued. She looked around before getting closer and whispering, “There is a guy who seems to want to challenge you for Iris.”

“What..?” Alec muttered. He found it unbelievable that the situation could escalate this much. At first, he had seen the rumors to be funny campus banter that people would eventually forget about. Now, however, things seemed to be getting derailed slowly but surely. “I am not going to—” he was about to answer before his mana brain forcefully took over his mouth and stopped him from talking further.

‘What the fuck?’ Alec thought. A brief exchange of ideas later, he started feeling more and more uncomfortable. ‘What did we just think with the mana brain? I can’t…’

“I will fight if things come down to it,” Alec said with a decisive glint in his eyes. Forgetting that his decision had been affected by the mana brain, he thanked her and turned around, leaving behind a confused Alyssa.

“Yeah… There is definitely nothing going on between you two…” she muttered to herself before crouching next to the entrance of the alchemy supply shop to rest for the remainder of her break.

***

The smell of sweat, blood, and rot filled Alec’s nostrils. They penetrated deep into his mind. However, it felt more familiar than ever. Nothing was wrong with it in his opinion. Then more death, stars, explosions. And sulfur. An ungodly amount of sulfur. Everywhere, like ants crawling all over his skin, sulfur assaulted him from every direction.

He reached out for The Author’s Pen and wrote. The sulfur ceased. It wasn’t there anymore. However, Alec felt weary. This weariness was much more different than any he had ever experienced.

Then, he was nowhere. Walls were filled with strange writings. Stories untold…

So, he woke up.

He was completely covered in sweat as if he had been working out for hours. However, Alec was pretty sure that he had been in his bed all the time.

‘Sulfur? Brimstone… Either God’s wrath, or Satan…’

As the memories of the dream started waning, he noticed the time to be 3 a.m. All his friends were asleep, but he felt rejuvenated. So instead, he decided to go and take a cold shower. Fortunately, the dorms were pretty lax with their rules. Students could pretty much do anything as long as they didn’t disrupt the order.

However, as Alec took out a fresh change of clothes from his closet, he noticed a piece of paper on his desk.

When he picked it up and tried reading it, he noticed that he was unable to do so. The writing was pristine, each word made sense and was written in common Toalqeshi.

‘Each word I read… Every time I glance over a word, I forget the previous one,’ Alec thought to himself. The mana brain was silent as if it was asleep. However, there was no such thing as the mana brain going to sleep. As long as he kept it active, it would keep working.

‘Even when I sleep…’ Alec muttered internally. Then, his eyes widened in worry. He made an attempt to deactivate the mana brain but wasn’t fast enough.

The next moment, he had already forgotten about the paper. And it didn’t seem to be on the table anyway.

As Alec showered, he remembered that the exams were starting tomorrow.

‘I really have to get that first place…’ he thought.

Just like Professor Andrew had said, telekinesis magic was very limiting. Essentially, it utilized either brief bursts or maintained flows of force on objects to control them remotely. So, throwing a dagger with telekinesis magic was essentially the same as slapping it with a pan in a certain direction. For that reason, every single maneuver required the caster to use another spell. Not to mention the second spell would have to use more mana as it would have to cancel out the existing force behind the object.

Gravity magic would be different as far as Alec could guess. Perhaps he could amplify the attraction between two objects and cause his daggers to have an innate guidance system.

Or he could just crush the enemy with gravity.

Putting aside these thoughts, Alec took a deep breath. In the morning, he would probably have to deal with whatever that guy was about to challenge him to.

‘I can’t hand over Iris,’ he thought with knitted brows…