As the alarm set on his phone went off, Trevor immediately woke up. He didn't have problems with getting out of his bed, since the second day of school was looking just as exciting as the first. He felt determined to make progress with his abilities, and with those thoughts, he moved straight to the bathroom, to wash. Then he dressed in his robe, and as he was about to leave, he glanced briefly at the door leading to the safe room.

Yesterday, after classes, he closed himself there to practice the 'Shell' spell, but despite hours of practice, he didn't succeed at casting it. He was too frustrated to think about it previously, but now, with a fresh mind, he decided to open his status, to check how was his 'Control' looking, because that seemed to be a problem causing his failures.

The 'Energy' was stuck at 144, but his 'Control' actually moved up a whole six points, to eighty-five.

"Probably because of all that practice," he thought to himself and switched the view to the 'Spells' tab.

There was a new entry there called 'Shell'. As he focused on it, a whole description showed up, explaining how to cast the spell. Below it was also the proficiency percentage, which at that point was equal to 0.8%.

- I'm close - he said surprised, and then finally left his room, shutting the door behind himself.

He already wanted to get back to the saferoom and practice, until he would be able to cast the spell properly, but there was no time for that. He needed to get breakfast and then go to school.

"My first lesson today is the theory of magic, then some bullshit, and I'm finishing with the history of magic. After that I should find the library, to get the books Professor Remedi mentioned. I should do some notes about the ingredients we used during the alchemy, and maybe then I'll have some time to practice. I can't slack off on other courses", he thought making his way on the staircase alongside other students, heading to the ground floor.

He didn't spot anybody from his group, so he didn't really try to talk to those people. Besides, to pursue progress, he had to invest a lot of time, so there was very little of it to spend on making friends.

Trevor left the dormitory and headed to the cafeteria, where he ate a quick breakfast, and then headed straight to school, to evaluate himself. Professor Martin Winchester was already waiting for his group, with a few other teachers, and led them to the correct classroom.

It was the same one, that he showed them originally, on the day of the inauguration of the semester. Trevor took the same spot he did previously and was joined by Lena, who just sat next to him without a single word.

She didn't even look at him, watching the teacher preparing for the lecture, as the other kids were still figuring out where to sit.

For some reason, her presence combined with silence irritated him, and he couldn't help but kept glancing at her over and over.

- Hi - he eventually said.

This made her finally look at him. At first with a blank expression, but then she suddenly smiled.

- Hi.

She didn't stay focused on his person too long and moved her gaze to look again at the professor. It made Trevor feel awkward. The girl was so strange. Sometimes she felt more like a robot, or a doll, than a human.

Everything suggested that she wouldn't leave him alone, which bothered the boy. He wouldn't admit that, but he was quite afraid of her, after what she did to him. Even though, it more and more felt like he just had to deal with her, because it wasn't looking like she was going to leave him alone anytime soon. Especially because of what she said on the previous day.

- Hey - he whispered as he was pulling his notebook from his backpack. - W-wanna to hang out after we are done with our classes today?

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

She turned to look at him again.

- Yes - she said out loud, causing the teacher and a few classmates to briefly look at the two of them.

Trevor nodded. He was about to add something, but Professor Winchester cleared his throat loudly.

- Ok, everybody. I think we should start now. I'm not gonna lie to you, or try to beautify what this class is. The theory of magic is quite a weird course, as we will be often touching on other disciplines to achieve one and only goal. To give you a better understanding of magic, and how it works, so you can utilize your powers more efficiently.

He turned around, to face the blackboards hanging on the walls, and moved his fingers, scribing something with it in the air, clearly utilizing magic, as there was a faint light visible around his silhouette.

The chalk that used to lie in a through under the whole length of both blackboards suddenly moved, and shot upwards, to then stop in midair. As the teacher kept moving his finger, it also moved, writing on one the blackboards.

- What is magic? - he spoke out loud about what he wrote, then turned around and continued talking. - We know that is a form of energy that can be turned into anything and also used to achieve various goals. There is seemingly no limit to what can be done with magic.

The piece of chalk didn't drop down and remained drifting in the air behind him.

- Those effects that I'm talking about, when we see them, we say that somebody has manifested their magic or powers. There are two main types of manifestation. The inner manifestation, and the outer manifestation.

As he spoke, the chalk moved again, noting on the blackboard.

- The example of the outer manifestation could be the chalk behind me, nothing for you the more important information. An example of the inner manifestation could be enhancing your own body, making yourself stronger, faster, or more durable. But, as probably some of you know - for some reason he briefly looked at Lena. - It's an imperfect division since there are examples of inner manifestations, that are actually visible on the outside. Some call them the exceptions, other semi-outer manifestations. There is also this weird word, inner-outer manifestation. An example of such a manifestation could be transforming a part of your own body.

As he spoke the last sentence, his gaze returned to the girl.

- Some of the twelve great families are known for their different looks, which are those mentioned transformations.

Trevor got a flashback from his memory, when Lena grabbed him by the throat with a force, that he couldn't even imagine she was capable of, with her rather skinny body.

"Inner manifestation", he thought to himself.

There were also her red eyes and snow-white skin, cold to the touch.

- I would encourage you, to not use those distinctions, because they are pointless. Still, I have to point out here, that some of you will have more talent in inner manifestations, and others in the outer, as both of them seem to work a little differently. The exact differences are still a subject of tests and many arguments to this day, but that's a more advanced topic, so we won't pursue it for now.

Trevor was noting stuff from the blackboard, and also some things the professor mentioned, trying to get as good notes as he possibly could.

- For now, let's focus on the external stuff, as it's easier to research, and witness with a naked eye. So those things are usually called spells. We form them by forcing the energy we have control over to flow in a special way, which then gives it special attributes, or causes special effects. The example is right behind me, in the form of that levitating piece of chalk. I'm making my energy flow in a way, that caused the object to levitate, defying the force of gravity, and then linking it to my thoughts, so I can have complete control over it.

The chalk wrote the word 'Control' and underlined it.

- The smaller amounts of the inner energy you want to control, the more difficult it is, but it allows you to cast more complicated spells. During our lessons, as we progress with the material, I will be teaching you how to practice your control in your everyday life with some simple tricks. Thanks to this it will be easier for you to learn how to perform some necessary processes you will need to pass for example your alchemy classes. Although probably not during your first year here - he smiled. - That's why I want you to, for our next lesson, bring ink and a quill. Because those items will be necessary.

Then he again turned his back to the class and using his finger, started to move the piece of chalk creating a simple drawing of a person, that seemed to inhale something through the mouth. After he was done, he started to explain how the breathing techniques work, to improve energy reserves for whoever was practicing them.

Trevor noticed, that the ones presented by the professor were different from the ones he learned thanks to his system. They all had one common thing, which was accumulating the energy in the practitioner's stomach area and compressing it into the smallest possible piece in various ways, which then was supposed to interact with the energy that the practitioner already possessed.

The effect of that interaction was supposed to increase the output of energy produced by the body, and the capacity of a person to hold it.

He kept repeating over and over, that the person's inner energy is fundamentally different from the one present in the surroundings, and can't be controlled.

The boy kept noting everything until the class finally ended, and his group left the chamber, to get picked up in the corridor by the next teacher.