Emily brings up her system, checking on her remaining mana and new skill.
¯¯¯¯¯
[Mana:] 200/345
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[Basic Gesture Casting (passive)]
User can proficiently weave hand signs and gestures together to form basic magic circles.
-Grants +10% casting speed when forming up to third circle spells with the hands.
_____
Her mana doesn’t surprise her, having fallen exactly 15 since she checked it before casting Burning Hands. Over the past few hours, she noticed her mana was increasing slowly whenever she wasn’t actively casting a spell, recovering over 30 of the points that she spent.
However, the skill does surprise her a little.
Increases casting speed? How’s it going to do that when casting is making the hand signs?
To test, Emily quickly casts Burning Hands again and this time finds performing the required movements feels slightly more natural and only takes eight seconds. Happy with her new skill, Emily checks the time. Upon seeing she still has two hours till Juliana should arrive for dinner, she decides to test manifesting other elements again.
Closing her eyes and clearing her mind, she pictures the air around her. Imagining the tiny particles floating everywhere, she applies a small force to one and watches as it moves forward and collides with another particle. Another particle behind it is pulled into the space it left and soon a small chain reaction grows, with more and more particles of air forming a wave of motion.
Slowly she increases the force applied to the particles and grows the light breeze into a gale of energetic particles. Pushing mana through the image and out into the space in front of her, Emily opens her eyes and grins at the formless fluctuations she’s created.
Good, I have one manifestation more to show already.
Moving on, she attempts to manifest water, earth and metal again, yet still can’t quite grasp a solid image for them. After failing to manifest any other elements, Emily does some exercise and showers while waiting for dinner time.
At 8 pm on the dot, she hears a familiar knock on her door. Opening the door, she smiles and greets Juliana.
“Hey, how’s it going?”
“It would be going better if you didn’t ignore me at lunch. I know you only had one lesson this morning, so you were totally in!” Juliana complains while glaring at Emily sulkily.
Giggling at her friend's cute antics, Emily walks past her while saying:
“Sorry, I got my first spell earlier and was really focused on trying to cast it, so I didn’t even hear you. Is there any way I can make it up to you?”
“Hmm.” Juliana grabs Emily’s arm and hangs off it as she stares at her sceptically. “Well, if you didn’t ignore me on purpose, I guess I’ll forgive you if you let me pick dinner.”
“Haha, sure. We can have whatever you want,” Emily agrees easily, glad Juliana accepted her lie.
***
A couple of minutes later, Emily and Juliana are sitting at a small table in the cafeteria with a large selection of finger foods spread between them. Emily happily digs in, filling her plate with an assortment of breads, meats, and vegetables, as Juliana asks her about her day.
“Wait, two full manifestations?”
“Yeah, I can actually do three now, but it took me a little while to work out the third, so I didn’t show it in class.”
“Wow, I knew you were going to be talented, but that’s ridiculous.”
Seeing Juliana’s shock makes Emily grow excited about completing her quest.
If three elements are enough to surprise her this much, how will she react to four or five?
“Oh, by the way, I was talking to some classmates earlier about mages’ lifespans, and they didn’t know how long fourth circle mages live. Can you tell me?” Emily asks, drawing Juliana out of her surprised stupor.
“Hmm? Sure, fourth circle mages normally live about five to six hundred years. They’re lucky, I want to get to a high circle so I age slower! Apparently, higher circle mages stay looking like their prime till they– “ Juliana pauses her excited explanation as two people step into their table’s sound barrier.
Looking over with an annoyed frown, Emily sees Tom and Hester smiling at her as they approach.
“Hey Emily, can we join you?” Hester asks before freezing when she looks over at Juliana.
Emily raises an eyebrow at her reaction, then looks to Juliana for a response.
“Sure! I don’t mind.” Juliana cheerfully agrees.
But I do…
Emily grumbles internally as the siblings sit with them.
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“I’m Juliana Madonna, first circle, lovely to meet you.”
“Hester Valentine of house Dahlia, also first circle, nice to meet you.”
“Tom Valentine of house Dahlia, ditto, why are you hanging out with commoners?”
Tom doubles over in pain after asking his question, and Emily looks at Hester to see her glaring at her brother.
He should really look into shin protection.
“Are you okay?” Juliana asks with concern.
“Just ignore him, and sorry about him asking such a rude question,” Hester responds while bowing her head.
“Oh, it’s fine, and to answer, I hang out with commoners because I don’t see a reason not to. We’re all people, right?”
Juliana’s innocent smile seems to catch Hester off guard, as she stares blankly back at her without responding. Seeing their interaction, Emily narrows her eyes and comes to a quick decision as she goes back to eating.
I’ve changed my mind; I’m not talking to these two till my final reset.
Half listening to the conversation happening around her, Emily eats in silence until Tom directs a question towards her.
“How did your spell learning go? Has the great genius already learned a spell?”
Emily wonders if he meant to insult her, but his expectant gaze says otherwise.
“Yeah, I have,” she answers offhandedly, looking back down at her food.
The table goes silent, and after a few moments, Emily looks up again. All three of her friends are staring at her with shock.
“Did you manage to cast the spell already? Can I see?” Juliana asks excitedly.
“Sure, are we allowed to cast spells in here?”
“It’s only first circle, so it should be fine. There are no explicit rules against casting spells anywhere in The Dome, only a rule not to damage the building or harm other mages outside of training.”
Hearing Juliana’s response, Emily nods before placing down the slice of bread with pepperoni and cheese she was eating. Leaning back in her seat, she brings her hands up before her under three expectant gazes and begins casting.
Weaving together her hand signs, she finishes casting after eight seconds and presents her burning palms. Tom and Hester both look surprised, while Juliana is staring at her with her mouth hanging open.
“What’s wrong?” Emily asks as she traces shapes in the air with the burning trail left by her hands.
“That was chantless casting! Also, why is your fire so pretty?”
“My fire’s an odd colour because my mental image was metal-eating flames. And yeah, using the chant made the spell too weak, so I worked out how to draw the circle with hand signs, freeing up my mind for a solid mental image.”
“Amazing, chantless casting of any form is considered a huge advantage and a difficult skill. Can you teach me?” Juliana asks while flashing Emily a set of puppy dog eyes.
“Sure,” Emily smirks in response.
“Can you teach us too? That looked so cool!” Tom comments excitedly.
“Tsk, how about you ask me again when you’ve learned how to cast a spell normally.”
Emily goes back to eating and the meal passes quickly. After finishing, Emily and Juliana say goodbye to the siblings, whom Juliana confirmed to be twins during their conversation, and head back to Emily’s room.
They pick one of the simplest of Juliana’s wind spells and go through the same process of drawing out the spell formula, which Emily quickly memorises, adding it to her Spellbook.
¯¯¯¯¯
Spell memorised: Air Blast
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[Air Blast]
[Circle:] First
[Cost:] 20 Mana/cast
[Description:] Fire a blast of wind from the palms.
_____
As she looks with satisfaction at the new spell, a thought occurs to her and she asks:
“Is it okay for you to show me this? I was told not to show my spells to other people.”
“It’s fine, this is the free spell they give you for wind, and it’s not like I ever want to fight you, so what problem is there in you knowing how my spell works?” Juliana’s carefree response clears her doubts and brings a small smile to her face.
They spend the next few hours working out which hand signs and gestures to use. Unfortunately, Juliana fails to memorise them all by the time they finish.
“This is so much harder than you make it look, my fingers just get tangled,” Juliana grumbles.
“Haha, you just need practice. Though fun as this was, we may need to do something else next reset because I’m not sure how many times I can teach you the basics before I get bored.”
“Huh?”
Emily silently smiles at her confused response and pulls out The Clock. Pressing the button, she sits through the familiar feeling of being pulled through time and finds herself lying in her bed nine hours before her first lesson.
***
Nine hours later, Emily opens the door and steps into the classroom. This time ignoring Tom’s attempts to grab her attention, she walks to the third row and sits alone.
The lesson progresses the same as the first time, however Emily avoids the glares of Jeremy and Kyle as Tom laughs at them. The first major change happens after Miss Forsythia asks them to attempt to manifest wind. Emily summons a small formless gale which catches Miss Forsythia’s attention.
“Well done, Emily! A full manifestation of two different elements is a rarity, especially when this young. Ten points to Emily Coldstone!” Miss Forsythia calls after stepping back and placing a hand on her podium.
Emily thanks her with a polite smile, while expectantly opening her system. However, to her surprise, her mission still sits uncompleted.
¯¯¯¯¯
[True Magical Genius #1]
[Rank:] D
[Description:] Living up to your title of technomancer, you have manifested an element using your understanding of physics! But are two manifestations truly worthy of a magical genius?
Requirements:
-Manifest 2/3 Elements in your first manifestation attempt (Not Complete)
Rewards:
-Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Material Science
-Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Kinematics
_____
Why isn’t it finished? Do I have to do all three manifestations in this reset for it to count?
Blinking away her system with slight annoyance, she returns to focusing on the lesson. As Miss Forsythia finishes going over the common elements, the second major change occurs. The moment she finishes setting the class a challenge to manifest a higher or exotic element, she directs all her attention towards Emily.
“With your affinity for fire and wind, you may have a chance with lightning, give it a try,” she advises with a small smile.
Emily raises an eyebrow, but quickly thanks her and closes her eyes to focus. Following a similar image to last time, except now replacing the metal orbs with charged water vapour, Emily once again manifests a fizzling bolt of lightning above her hand.
“Very good! Come with me.” Miss Forsythia flashes a gentle smile and motions for Emily to follow her as she walks back to her podium.
Emily pauses, feeling a familiar rush of information flooding her cortex. After a few seconds, her mind settles, and she blinks the system windows away without looking at them.
I’ll check later.
She catches up and stands to the side of the podium as Miss Forsythia places her palm against it and says quietly:
“Twenty points to Emily Coldstone.”
From up close, Emily sees the detailed runes covering the top surface light up and pulse with a soft green hue. As the light fades away, Miss Forsythia looks back to Emily and speaks to her quietly so as not to disturb the rest of the class.
“Have you received any formal training before coming here?”
“No.”
“I see, and has house Mandrago given you any resources on manifestation to help you?”
Emily notices a slight edge to Miss Forsythia’s voice as she says house Mandrago.
“No,” Emily says, then letting her curiosity get the better of her she continues. “Why would those scumbags ever help me?”
A look of shock and intrigue spreads across Miss Forsythia’s face at Emily’s words and she quickly glances over at the students still standing in a line with their eyes closed. Seeing they didn’t hear, she calms down a little and looks back at Emily.
“You shouldn’t be able to insult them…” She curiously taps her fingers on her chin while considering Emily. “Stay behind after class and chat with me, it’s not safe with so many extra ears.”
Emily nods and walks back to join the line of students.
Looks like I’ve found who I can talk to about their brainwashing practices.
She settles back into place, impatiently waiting for the lesson to end.