“Gently pour the concentrate into the vial.” The teacher lectured from the front of the laboratory. “The mixture is unstable at this point, so any stirring or minimal movement will make it inert.”
“Well, at least it won’t explode.” Adrian whispered at my side as he held the vial tightly.
We were in the laboratory having an Alchemy class at the moment. What we were making, according to the teacher, was a mana elixir. Instead of the common mana regeneration drinks that were everywhere, whether they be potions, juices, or wine; this mixture was an actual mana potion that actually replenished the mana pool upon consumption.
“Gonna pour it.” I said with a low voice as I prepared to empty the concentrate into the elixir’s base.
This step was vital as the chemical reaction between the liquid mana and the neutral base was intense by itself, so any external kinetic energy could offset the feeble balance. Or so we were told by our teacher the other day when we were having our first Alchemy class.
“Does everyone have the liquid poured?” The teacher checked on the class and nodded. “Alright, now you must inject your mana slowly onto the liquid to activate the dormant mana inside it. Use only arcane mana, or force mana if you aren’t able to. Any other elements may produce other concoctions.” She made a demonstration slowly transferring a mote of pure mana to the vial. “Be sure to do it slowly. You want to activate the mana by yourself and not a chain reaction.”
It seemed that this whole process, from the pouring to the mana transfer, was a budget version of the Cleanse spell. It made sense to have this process as not everybody could use arcane magic reliably, but I was dying inside to spellcast Cleanse to make the brewing more efficient.
Either way, Cleanse was only a four-star spell, so more proficient mages could cast it easily by sheer brute force even if they didn’t have any proficiency with the Arcane element.
“Try to infuse it with mana.” I told Adrian.
“Wouldn’t ya’ be better at it?” He inquired. “Mana-weaver and all that stuff.”
“Yes, but I want you to do it.” I looked at him.
“But what if I jinx it?” Adrian expressed his doubts and nervousness.
“Then we will have failed and that’s all.” I dismissed his preoccupations. “It doesn’t matter if we do bad at one small exercise but try to do it.” I reiterated. “Think of it like practice, a great control of mana is not only imperative to arcanists.”
As I did with Marissa, I liked to help young people strive further in other fields. Marissa herself had even managed to outclass me in some fields, but Adrian was an uncut gemstone ready to be polished, and I would make him understand everything he was doing.
With a wry smile and an unsure expression, Adrian did as I said and after an exhalation, he readied himself for the infusion. Truth be told, I was overwatching the manaflows of the vial to correct any error that would pop up. Managing the mana of a small enclosed system was within my capabilities.
Even though I was ready to interfere at the first anomaly, that didn’t mean I thought Adrian was going to fail. He might be the worst mage of our group, but he still managed to earn a scholarship to the academy, he wasn’t as clueless as he may like to act.
“As wind, mana flows.” I told him in an inspired moment.
Marissa often compared the flowing of mana to wind currents, even if I saw it more as a bloodstream or a river. So, I thought it would help a fellow aeromancer like Adrian, and it did work. Whilst it was nothing but a simple reminder, Adrian was renewed as a small stream of mana flowed from his fingertips through the vial.
“Keep the flow steady, perturbations on the torrent will induce a chain reaction.” The teacher reminded us as she circled around the laboratory to keep an eye on his students.
Pure mana filtered through the vial as it induced a chemical (alchemical?) reaction. Slowly, the grey color of the solution turned into a light blue, and then when all the solution had adopted the new color, it transformed into a darker shade of blue.
A minute later the teacher talked. “By now everyone should have ended the mana infusion. If your vial hasn’t turned dark blue, that means you were wrong at some step. Don’t worry about it, not everyone is born a master.”
Her words somewhat inspired Adrian as he probably expected to fail at every moment mana was flowing away from his fingers. I also liked that we had a tolerant professor.
“Those who have achieved it, now pour the final solution on the test tubes in front of you.” She told calmly.
At the edge of the table, there were a set of five test tubes on a wooden stand. At first sight, I could see that only four tubes would be needed, but I reached for the whole stand as it would be easier to pour the elixir into the tubes if they were well-gripped.
I held the vial with the utmost care and transferred the product to the tube. A menial task, though I won’t deny I felt a bit nervous doing so. I didn’t want any drop spilled. I raised the vial as the test tube was almost filled to the top. Well, three more times.
As I finished filling the four tubes, I noticed a box of corks at my side. I waited for the teacher’s instructions, nonetheless.
“You can now seal the tubes with the corks.” Eh, I wasted my foresight for nothing.
With a plop, Adrian sealed all the test tubs and grabbed them with his hand. Each tube at the space between his fingers.
“Give me two of them.” I told him. My words had two intentions. To have my portion of my job, and to remove those tubes from his hands as they felt like they were going to slip from his hands at any moment.
“Sure.” He gave the ones being gripped at the side. “It looks cool. Look, it’s sparkling.” Adrian agitated slightly the tubes, the deep blue liquid spiraling inside.
“I like the tone.” The bottled mana had an interesting color.
A dark shade of blue, very different from the expected colors from mana. Blue, white, pink, purple. The main colors of the ellari civilization as well as the ones naturally taken by mana. Also, a few sparkling dots of light blue light could be seen popping around the tincture. It reminded me of the gas bubbles on carbohydrate drinks.
I suddenly grabbed hard the two test tubes to not let them fall from my hands as an ache from my soul assaulted me. Another remembrance occurrence. At least this was one light and short as I didn’t pry any further into my memories.
“Your potions should be stale and safe right now, so why don’t you try one of your tubes?” The teacher offered to the class.
Adrian hastily uncorked the tube and drank all of it in one go. His eyes opened up, cheeks deflated, and he looked like he was about to cry.
“Beware, the taste is very bitter.” A bit too late teacher, one student was already down. “Next session we’ll work on an additive to make it more tolerable.”
The corners of my mouth rose as I watched the pain on Adrian’s face.
Oh, the schadenfreude.
With that, an omnipresent ringing filled the room, marking the end of the class. It wasn’t unexpected for the most prestigious academy on the island to have a weird magical artifact to announce such moments instead of a common bell.
I stayed behind in the class, separating myself from the flock of students as they flooded the exit door. That was when I noticed that Marissa, Monica, and Adrian were already gone, though the latter was probably going to rush to the bathroom and clear his mouth. He even forgot that this was a laboratory and there were several sinks to help with types of problems.
“Oh, well. I suppose that’s what I get from being patient.” I added with a sigh.
The laboratory had become empty, only me and the teacher remaining. She gave me a friendly look and spellcasted Purify, an advanced version of Cleanse, as all alchemical wastes disappeared from the test tubes and other apparatus. Then the old lady telekinetically manipulated all the dispersed alchemical equipment with care, and surprising ease, and left them in their closets.
She seemed to have this act practiced and memorized to the last detail.
“Are you coming out or not, youngling?” The old teacher said with a key in her hand, swaying it from side to side, ready to close the classroom.
“Sorry, coming.” I apologized and rushed out of the laboratory. “I was distracted by your prowess. I have never seen any act of prestidigitation with such finesse.”
“Well, I had a lot of time to practice.” She told with a smile. “At some point, I stopped ordering those rascals to tidy up the place and just did it by myself. Henry suggested me to do so.”
“Henry as our teacher? Professor Innit?” I asked her.
“The same one.” She nodded after closing the laboratory’s door. “The man’s a great telekinetic, probably one of the most experienced in the academy.”
“Sorry for wasting your time.” I gave her a slight bow and parted ways. She responded with a friendly scoff.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
I made my way out of the building and enjoyed a solid stream of light blinding my face. The afternoon sun shone directly at me. For having an enormous tower beside us, it never pointed its shade to the academy.
It was interesting to me how the sunlight wasn’t always affected by the dome. Sometimes you experienced violet-tainted rays, and other times, normal yellow ones. There had to be some phenomenon at play because it didn’t look intentional. Too random to be a feature specified in the colossal spell’s framework.
“Ah, how soothing is the afternoon sunlight.” I said to myself as I walked down the cobblestone road to the rendezvous point where I expected Marissa to be.
I was practicing my pseudo-meditation at the moment as I didn’t have anything to do meanwhile. I became a tad bit fidgety lately, especially on the sadistic side, and I couldn’t help but bury myself in work. I need to always do something. I considered it a scar from being stationary on the river for lady knows how much time.
Pseudo-meditation not only helped in that aspect but also in getting myself with the mana pools of my level. Emphasis on level, as I already had more mana than people of my age. Even if Marissa would deny it. Common mana pool scanning methods didn’t really detect the mana at one’s soul.
The way there was short, and I found myself waiting. She may have forgotten we had a date and was probably rushing here right now. I sat on the nearest bench, resting on the shadow of a pergola where beautiful turquoise vines had grown onto. Quite fancy to be honest. My hand reached into my pocket where I still had the mana elixir I had just made. I toyed with the tube as I made time.
“What are you doing here, you lowlife?” I opened my eyes to find a guy shouting at my face.
“Nice to meet you too,” I responded politely unlike the unknown figure. “What do you mean by that?”
“This is the noble’s zone, scum.” Augh. I mentally sighed. Of course, how not. A damned noble. And a hot-headed classist one at that.
Now I noticed the pale scar he had on the side of his face. Such birthmarks were what identified the commonplace ellari from a highborn.
“Well, I clearly didn’t know about it, there was no need to be aggressive.” I told him calmly, getting up from the bench and still having to look up as he was a few fingers taller than I.
“This newbie commoner should know his place; don’t you think so?” Another voice told from behind the noble boy.
Really, though? Did you just lash at the first opportunity you saw? How were these brats even allowed to be without parental supervision? I felt an internal rage on par with the Offensive Coalition recruiter from a year ago. Something inside me just boiled.
“You look like freshmen to me too.” I told them in a condescending tone. I was too old for these bullying events.
“Better watch your mouth.” The other noble told as if he was a jailer talking against a serial murderer. “We might have let you leave with only a notice, but now, now will have to teach you a lesson.”
I prepared a Mana Void spellcast just in case. “There’s no need for violence, if you want the bench, I will leave right now.” I took a step to the side and pointed at the empty bench.
“Nah, nah.” He pushed me down, my back hitting the bench. Ah! I recoiled from the pain. “You won’t run away.”
A fireball came flying to my face, then I promptly released Mana Void before me. As the spell quickly fizzled without my personal intervention, it showed that it wasn’t a true Fireball and just a random fire projectile.
While the noble duo was masked in confusion, I stood on the bench and jumped behind it, and stayed at the back to create distance. A backflip would have been cooler, but I was a mage, and physical prowess wasn’t my thing. I prepared an Astral Projection to neutralize them if they went further.
I had to be smart about it. Astral Projection would instantly knock them down for a brief moment as they probably had zero resistance to soul attacks, but I wouldn’t be able to defend myself as I controlled my soul avatar.
“Come here, you coward!” The pyromancer shouted in rage.
“Says the guy going two versus one.” I scoffed at the hypocrisy.
The mana-absorbing field of the Mana Void gave me some moments to prepare the complicated sorcery. As I casted the spell on my soul, the movement of mana was unphased by the properties of the field, an interesting synergy I had discovered between mana-absorbing spells and soul magic.
The nobles tried to spellcast some cantrips and low-star spells, only to be dispelled immediately. So fast, that as a matter of fact, I wasn’t able to see what type of magic had been used by the second noble scion. At least they weren’t going full out and were keeping themselves to warning shots.
Warning shots that could burn off someone’s face, but were still inoffensive enough as magic was considered.
They quickly realized, in a matter of seconds, that they should avoid the sphere of influence of my spell. Though it wouldn’t be necessary if they had decided to use five-star spells and upwards. I couldn’t manually hijack their spells while I casted the soul magic, so it was a good thing they kept trying low-tier spells.
Now there were a few meters of distance between us with the Mana Void working as a wall. At this point, I had already an Astral Projection ready, but I kept it on the burner.
The second noble, who I had yet to see its spells, smirked. Well, little boy, you just confessed that you are about to attack. As I had the Astral Projection in the queue, I couldn’t use another spell without releasing it, but the soul spell would leave me vulnerable if I did so. Dodging was my only chance. I acted as if I didn’t notice his smirk.
“Die, commoner!” Die? Ohoho. Now I want to beat your entitled face into a pulp.
A beam of white energy unexpectedly came toward me. Instead of traversing the Mana Void, it curved around it, clearly defying the laws of physics on light applications.
Though the ray danced through the air, it was too telegraphed. As if it was a ball launched by a child, I just dodged it to the side. But, taking advantage of the situation, the noble pyromancer came toward me from the other side.
What seemed to be now a real Fireball came flying towards me, it was inevitable. The low-intensity shield that I kept at all times wouldn’t help against it. I wasn’t fast enough. I readied myself for the impact.
The heat-charged wind swallowed my face, but it was devoid of fire. Then, as I opened my eyes, I saw the fast-spiraling wind shield before me.
“How dare you!” An angry Marissa shouted at them.
Marissa descended onto the scene with wind crackling around her arms, levitating in the air as if she were a wind goddess.
The pyromancer scoffed at her. “Pff, another commoner. They are like rats.” He told to his lumenmancer sidekick who responded with a snicker.
The spoiled kid failed to notice that this was a two versus two, the tides of battle had changed. Either way, I was capable of defeating them alone, they were too obsessed with their status that at the minimal slip I would have thrown an Astral Projection at them.
I unleashed my Astral Projection, but left it on standby on the spiritual plane, to at least not be hindered by the uncasted spell, so I could conjure other spells if I needed.
“Who are you calling a rat?” As Marissa shouted, she conjured a gust of wind. She was enraged by the behavior of the noble duo.
The noble scion tried to defend it with a translucent frame barrier, but the spell crackled as it was overpowered by Marissa’s attack. The pyromancer was shoved back by the powerful impact.
“You dare hit me, wench?” He replied with bloodshot eyes.
I could feel a vein pop up in my temple as the babbling idiot spoke. That word had two connotations in ellari, and we all knew he wasn’t using the good one.
“What did you say?” Marissa’s feet touched the ground as she unleashed a stronger wind attack.
Taking advantage of the downtime between attacks, the light mage tried to shoot a laser beam against Marissa, keyword: tried. As the ray of energy approached her, and she almost recoiled, suddenly it lost all energy and dissipated into the atmosphere. You won’t get her with a four-star spell.
“Eh, what happened?” The light mage whispered to himself in confusion.
A smile crept onto Marissa’s face as she spellcasted a Cyclone Blade. Because this time she was fighting on my side as opposed to against me, she had the luxury to spam lower star spells.
She rushed towards the knocked pyromancer at surprising speeds, clearly the combined effort of Rush and Tailwind. Once again, she didn’t need to worry about an arcanist’s dispels, so she could use all her passive spells to her heart’s content.
To defend himself, the pyromancer emitted a burst of fire from his hands, but lightning-fast Marissa deflected it with her Cyclone Blade, cutting through the fire and flames. Her blade got incredibly close to the boy, too close for my comfort. I dispelled it.
“Enough,” I told her. “They’ve learned their lessons, there’s no need to physically hurt them.”
“But they attacked you!” Marissa replied, moving away from the boy on the ground and approaching me.
“And that means we have to lower ourselves to their level?” I lectured her. I hate talking like an adult to her, I was her friend, not her tutor.
“Lower to our level, how dare you!” The pyromancer ignited his hands and rushed towards Marissa.
I audibly sighed. We literally pardoned you, and you have to go out of your way to make things worse. I dispelled his flames once again, but as I did so, the light mage spellcasted another beam.
Marissa was fast enough to avoid the unpowered pyromancer’s punch, but the beam was another matter. Time seemed to become slower as my brain worked overtime. Because she moved away from the punch, the beam now pointed to the back of her head.
It was a five-star spell, a step-up from his previous light ray. I wouldn’t be able to dispel it on time. What to do? What to do? A shield? Useless, I didn’t specialize myself in defensive magic, it would be penetrated. Move the Mana Void? Too slow. Even if I managed to intercept the ray by moving my construct, the absorption rate wouldn’t be enough. I needed three seconds to dispel something of that tier.
What to do?
Soul magic was utterly useless, it only had defensive properties against other souls. And while the Astral Projection was fast enough to attack the light mage in the time window, knocking him wouldn’t erase the spell.
What to do?
The only solution was arcane magic. Mana-absorption? Too slow. Dispelling? Too slow. Mana-weaving? Hmm…
As wind, mana flows.
Out of desperation, I remembered my own quote that I told Adrian a few minutes ago. Wind was movement and mana was energy. Both flowed at their own rates, both were able to be woven.
A stroke of doubtful inspiration struck me as I moved my Astral Projection toward Marissa. The bodiless avatar reached her in a fraction of a blink as the spiritual plane worked differently than the physical one, making my plans seem less crazy than they actually were.
I used the Astral Projection as a medium to my soul to transfer my own mana remotely to Marissa, and to that extent, her magic. My mana rapidly flowed through her wind in a makeshift syntony, not perfect, not harmful.
My mana began moving hers, displacing the winds around her. I picked up the useless currents of winds on her front made out by Tailwind and Rush and moved them to the blind spot on her back where the attack was immediately about to impact.
I swirled my mana faster and faster. The wind wasn’t anywhere enough to dissipate the light magic. I stopped caring about my mana pool and infused all my mana into Marissa’s winds. Finally, she noticed something was wrong, fractions of a second had passed.
As my unbound mana precipitated with hers, the once colorless winds began crackling with a violet hue. I dismissed my momentary distraction and poured even more mana into Marissa’s makeshift wind shield.
My head began to spin, I had lost count of how much mana I had used in a such minuscule window of time. It didn’t matter to me, though. As the wind spell was now mainly composed of my own mana, I was able to redirect it toward the laser.
The light beam instantly volatilized, and high currents of winds shook up the place. Now, after my adrenaline had lowered, I noticed that I may have overreacted.
I controlled the arcane-laden wind towards the air as I feared the worst outcome. Mana had become too unstable following my forceful injection and I was losing my control over the spell by the instants.
The spell hastily flew upwards, draining more of my scarce mana, and in less than a second exploded violently. It shook everyone’s clothes, and almost made Marissa and I tumble to the ground. The light mage wasn’t so fortunate as I moved, unconsciously, the air have flown slightly bomb towards him. He fell to the ground with the aftershock but, otherwise, he seemed unscathed.
The arcane wind lingered in the air for a brief instant, sending sparks of arcane energy everywhere, showering us with violet light. A spectacle worthy of a fireworks show.
After recovering from such a fast-paced exchange of magic, Marissa sent a wind-powered jab to the pyromancer’s purple face.
My pointy ears might have failed me, but I swore I heard a crack. The boy was sent flying into the Mana Void’s area of effect. He stood there, eyes closed, knocked down. With rugged breaths, a racing heart, and an agonizing headache, I could sweetly confirm the end of the battle.