Imagine you are under the water, with goggles on. If there is a different type of fluid like oil or soap in the water, even when it is colorless, you can still more or less distinct it away from the water if you focus.
That is what Mana is to humans. Like almost-invisible bubbles of water floating around that we barely notice. Among these bubbles are ones forming around each living being.
“The Mana that emerges passively from yourself is called the Dormant Mana. But for short, we can call it Aura, which is also the name being used in some Magic systems that heavily utilize it with Martial Arts.”
“While you can perceive and control your own Aura with your mind, forming it into any shape you want,” the Professor rotated and changed shapes of his own Aura, which, under a spell, became more visible in a form of golden liquid to the students, “normally, that alone is useless.” He formed the Aura into the shape of a giant sword and swept it through the class. The sword went through the students, the desks, everything, as if it is just some form of illusion.
“However, Aura is a crucial part to cast a spell. Each of you, do this to a point in your Aura.”
Professor Soren's Aura returned back to the golden sphere of 2 meter-radius around himself. Then, it was as if someone tapped a finger into a surface of water, a point in front the Professor vibrated and gave out small circular waves.
Doing all these is a child-play. Even babies when they start to notice their own Aura can do these tricks at ease.
And more surprising was the students not in the Academy uniforms were taking this exercise seriously.
“Good! Look like all of you have no problem with Humming. By concentrating a hum into a point of your Aura, you are in the first step forming your Mana into a spell.”
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“Now, hum this sound into the sphere that was given to you earlier.” Professor Soren instructed while humming a sound that is amplified for students to hear.
The students tried to copy the sound, with some immediately seeing the effect on the spheres. The white cloud inside the spheres changed into red for a moment, then turned back to white when the hum stopped.
“This is a Dummy Sphere.” Professor Soren explained. “It's an artifact designed to react to your Hummings of the 12 Runes of Constellations. The rune we just did is ♌︎, the Essence of Fire. It changes the color of the sphere into red.” He picked the chalk and started writing the Constellation Runes on the board in a circle. As if the black board is enchanted, circles and lines formed around the Runes.
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“I will now demonstrate and explain each of the 12 Runes.”
“♌︎ - Essence of Fire. Color changes to Red.”
“♏︎ - Essence of Water. Color changes to Blue.”
“♒︎ - Essence of Air. Color changes to Green.”
“♍︎ - Essence of Earth. Color changes to Yellow.”
“♐︎ - Speeding Character. Cloud particles move faster and get hotter.”
“♈︎ - Melting Character. Sphere gets softer into a rubble ball.”
“♓︎ - Slowing Character. Cloud particles move slower and get colder.”
“♋︎ - Hardening Character. Sphere gets harder into a crystal ball.”
“♎︎ - Levitating Character. Sphere gets lighter.”
“♊︎ - Diffusing Character. Sphere grows and multiplies.”
“♉︎ - Attracting Character. Sphere gets heavier.”
“♑︎ - Strengthening Character. Cloud particles radiate brighter.”
Professor Soren demonstrated and observed the class humming the Runes on the Dummy Spheres. As expected, they could perform the Hummings for some Runes correctly in the first try, and take 2, 3 turns with others.
“Your homework is to take the Dummy Spheres with you and practice Humming with them. As Spellcrafting is the Art that requires precision, you should feel familiar with the 12 Runes and activate them correctly and fast.”
The Professor concluded the class with a stern reminder.
“The homework is not difficult, but very crucial to what we will learn in the next class: Elemental Conjuration.”