The light from the explosives spread across the area, ridding it of any shadows. The enemy was now completely out in the open, with no shadows to hide within.

My spear shot forwards, ripping straight through any flying debris like a sword through wet tissue, but my opponent dodged the throw by skillfully stepping to the side. The ring on my index finger shone, causing threads of mana to attach themselves to nearby debris, which I chucked at the hooded figure as I brought my spear back.

I overloaded my augmentation, launching forward and delivering a series of precise strikes. My spear curved like a vicious serpent, but it was skillfully redirected by the opponent’s dagger, eviscerating part of a building by the sheer force of its strike.

I called on my mana, watching as nearly a third of it disappeared in the blink of an eye and formed a large greataxe of ice in my hands, the axe head alone being almost as big as me. If skill wasn’t going to cut it, raw force would.

Threads of mana attached themselves near the axe head, helping me control the weight of this huge thing. My opponent also let out mana, this time using earth magic to create pillars of rock and chuck large pieces of the pavement at me.

His proficiency with earth magic clearly wasn’t on the same level as shadow magic, and I simply cleaved through all the earth with my axe and continued on unabated.

Flames raged across the city as I chased my assailant, getting closer and closer to hitting them with every strike of my greataxe. My mana was now at about only a third, so I had to be quick.

After a few more literally earth-shattering attacks, a horizontal strike connected, splitting my opponent in half if not for the comparatively tiny dagger in their hands blocking the attack with the flat of the impressively durable blade. Their knees buckled under my powerful blow and the earth under them cracked. My axe’s durability was not as impressive as the dagger’s, as it started to crack, so I poured in almost all the remaining mana I had to strengthen it even further, increasing the weight as well. This was all or nothing. Their hands shook as they tried to push against the sheer weight of my axe, and I continued to apply more and more pressure, causing my assailant to bend backwards, and their body continued to lower itself.

Finally, the pressure was too high to manage and my opponent’s body gave out. They fell to the ground and the academy’s shield rippled as my axe drove into them powerfully, cracking the ground below them further. Without the academy shield, they would no doubt be split in half, but the shield merely rippled and didn’t completely break yet. Pulling out my spear, I drove it into the opponent’s chest, finally causing the barrier to crack.

“Huff, huff… That’s enough, you pass. Hell, I didn’t expect to be defeated by a student..” The teacher said in between sharp breaths.

“Was defeating you not the criteria for passing?”

“No, hell no. I’m not nearly the strongest of the instructors, but I’m still an instructor. For a student to defeat me should under normal circumstances be unthinkable. Usually we just see how good of a fight the student can put up despite their weakness being used against them, and if it’s good enough they pass.”

“Fair enough, I suppose. Shadow magic is really annoying.”

“As a shadow mage, I completely agree.” He stood up, still breathing hard. “How many of those bombs have you got? Each one of those had the power of a damn superior fireball.”

In my past lives, in a situation such as this I simply would have cast a few dozen of those and gotten this over with quickly.

“I only had about 12, I kept creating new ones in order to improve them, so there’s a bunch of them ranging from weak to the strong ones you saw.”

Bombs were by far the easiest to create as well as use. Unless they were somehow timed, the user just had to cause the entire thing to combust, which would release a lot of energy from the mana crystal inside. Of course, my idea was to use layering to create multiple layers of explosion runes, fire runes and whatever other rune I wanted. If I had done this on a regular item, it just would have broken in a matter of seconds, melting from the inside or having some other bizarre side effect, but this time the overload was rather favorable because the runes all actually activated before it exploded. There was simply no time for the mechanism to fail as by the time it would have broken the bomb was already detonated.

“Well, Johanne, it’s safe to say I’ll be seeing you around. My name is Varrod, my cabinet is on the top floor and I specialize in shadow magic. If you need help with something, make sure to give me a visit.”

“Quite the unique name. If I need any help with that, I’ll certainly visit you. Have a pleasant day.”

I left the academy grounds and immediately made my way into a restaurant. That fight really made me hungry for a burger.

…

An uneventful month went by. I continued my training, using up every last bit of mana I could to increase its quality at a faster rate. During the latter half, I was officially accepted into the academy’s special class and given an academy library pass. I instantly raided the place, grabbing a huge stack of advanced artificing books and books on advanced mana theory. The library desk clerk looked at me like I was some sort of madman, because the stack was truly about twice my height.

I had to assure her multiple times that I’m a fast reader and would have all these books brought back before the deadline, and she eventually allowed me to take them by virtue of the fact I was a student of the special class.

The next two months would be spent reading, researching and practicing. After that, school would finally begin. By augmenting my brain I was able to read and think at a much faster pace and got all the books down in just a few weeks. The mana theory books didn’t give me much, but the artificing ones were very interesting.

They went over basics and intermediate layering, how various materials responded to mana, rune combinations, offensive vs defensive combinations, and many more topics. I figured books about advanced layering were not available because the noble houses and professionals in the field hoarded the information for themselves, greedy as they were.

What I didn’t expect, however, was that a book about advanced artificing would be delivered to my doorstep. It wasn’t signed, but had a note.

‘I hear you’ve been taking lots of artificing books from the library. This might come in handy. :)’ Ending with a little smiley face drawn on the bottom right corner.

I opened the book. It truly had advanced material on the topic, covering topics like layering extensively. But there was also a technique which I didn’t know about - artificial mana channels.

This wasn’t gone over with too much detail in the book, but it basically involved drilling small holes, etching runes onto the inside of them which would attract the flow of mana and reinforce the material at that particular point, increasing the flow of mana and decreasing the leakage of it substantially. This technique was, according to the book, leaps and bounds more precise and difficult than simple layering, but paired very well with it. The book didn’t mention which runes precisely should be on the inside of the channels, but I could figure it out with some trial and error.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

This gave me a burst of motivation and I immediately sprinted to my workbench to try this technique, but I failed miserably. The channels were supposed to be extremely thin, comparable to a single hair, and even drilling the tiny holes was extremely difficult. I had no idea how I would etch the runes inside the tiny holes, because there truly needed to be dozens of them lining the inside of each channel. I simply ended up ruining a chunk of rather expensive metal by peppering it with tiny holes which would fill with mana and cause all manner of issues if imbued.

There must be some specialized tools for this exact task, and I sure didn’t have them. This, however, didn’t deter me from trying for another few days before I finally admitted it might be a bit too much for me, choosing to save it for later.

The political tensions between the demonic lands and Alderast were like a rubber band stretched just a little too tightly, about to snap at any moment. Demon assassins had already attempted to dispose of some key political figures in the country, and Alderast responded in kind. The war was soon upon us, and I wasn’t even close to strong enough. My physical body was improving at a rapid pace, but it was still nowhere near its limit. My mana quality was improving at a decent pace, but only because I made sure to wake up every few hours every night to use up my mana, speeding up its refinement. The best way to do so was fighting, but this was the best way available to me.

Two productive months passed by, and it was time to move into the academy-assigned dorms and begin pestering some poor artificing instructor to teach me. The process of moving in was quite mundane, as every special class student was assigned their own small apartment at the higher floors of the huge building. Our uniforms were black with some gold embroidments added in. They were similar to a two piece suit, but were very comfortable to wear and looked fashionable. By noon, I had settled into my room, which housed a large window with a beautiful view over the city, and it was time for the first and only class of the day, which was a simple introductory class outside in the training grounds.

When I arrived, about two dozen students stood there, many of them clearly of royal origin. To my delight, I saw two familiar faces. Lily stood idly, away from the other students, while Albert was in the midst of a conversation with a group of them, clearly an extrovert. He was also the first to speak after our match, congratulating me.

I approached Lily, as Albert was busy conversing. “Hello Lily, remember me? You were the second person I’d fought in the entrance exam. Glad you made it into the special class.”

“Oh.. Hello.. Yeah, I remember. I’ve been training.”

Albert finally noticed me, inserting himself into our conversation. “Johanne, what’s up! Good to see you. I’m not surprised you’re in the special class, you really beat my ass that time. Who’s this?” He seemed a little too high-strung.

“I-I’m Lily. Nice to meet you.” She said quietly. It seems she has some social anxiety, which Albert completely missed as he excitedly extended his hand. “Albert, nice to meet you. I like your red hair, it contrasts well with Johanne’s black.” Why would you blurt that out to someone you’ve just met? “Do you two know each other?” Lily sheepishly took his hand, but was clearly a little uncomfortable.

“Yeah, she was the second person I’ve fought in the entrance exam. She was very good, but she’s purely a long-ranged mage.”

“Yeah, I tried that. Damn, was I bad, you couldn’t imagine. But when I picked up a sword, it just kind of felt right, you know? Plus my family’s bloodline ability is blade related, so there’s that too. Do you guys have bloodline abilities too?”

“I.. No, I don’t.”

Lily just nodded yes, not saying anything.

“Why didn’t you use yours during our duel? You would have done better.” I asked the slightly hyperactive boy.

“Well, because that’s cheating. If you had one and used it, I certainly would have as well, but you would have been kind of a dick in my eyes from then on. Also, you’re one of the few people where It would actually serve some purpose to use it. My second duel was a total snoozefest.”

“Fair enough. You’re pretty good with a sword, I’m better tho.” I probed, trying to see how the boy would respond.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. That weird spear move you pulled on me at the end there is still in my mind, I’ve done a lot of image training with just that you know. And, I don’t mean to brag, but as I am now I could block it.” He pointed at himself with a large smile.

I honestly didn’t expect that, his attitude was very humble.

“Haha, sorry for acting arrogant. I can give you a practical example of it anytime you’d like. I’m glad you’ve grown, cause I’ve been growing myself. The three of us should spar, we can learn a lot from each other.”

“I’m down. My family has quite a large training ground we can spar in. How about Lily, are you fine with that?”

“Well.. I don’t know, I’ll think about it.”

“Go with them darling. You will learn a lot, especially from Johanne. Haven’t you wanted to make some friends for a long time? It’s good to go out of your comfort zone once in a while.” The sound of boots pressing against stone could be heard.

That voice.. of course she’s the instructor of the special class, I sighed. I turned around as Miss Pyralis made her way to our little trio. “Long time no see, Johanne. I trust my gift was appreciated?”

Yeah, I’d guessed it was from her already, but confirmation is always nice.

“Very, thank you, but it seems I have no way to repay such kindness.”

“You’re repaying it right now, dear.” She glanced at Lily, then turned around to the rest of the students, whistling to get their attention. “Hello, my dear students. My name is Alice Pyralis, and I have been bestowed the privilege to be the instructor for the special class for the year 785, exactly 150 years since the academy has been founded. Some of you got here through talent, some through sheer hard work, and some through a mixture of both. It is my job to prepare you for the real world, whether you become a mercenary, a merchant or any specialized profession dealing with magic. As students of the special class, you can choose specialized instructors which will be guiding and teaching you. Even if only one student selects a particular instructor, that class simply will happen as a one on one. This way, your passions can freely be explored and you will get specialized instructions as Alderast’s greatest talent. Any questions?”

‘What an eloquent speech,’ I thought. I raised my hand.

“Yes, Johanne?”

“I have a few questions. Can I arrange multiple sessions with the same instructor? If I’m deemed fit, could I possibly become the instructor for a class or for a particular student? What manner of classes are available to take?”

“Phew. That’s a lot to take in, so let’s take it from the top. Let’s see.. It is possible to have multiple with the same instructor, but it’s up to the instructor’s discretion. As for your second question - it might be possible, but has never happened before, so I really don’t know about that. And for your last question, there are all manner of classes as there are hundreds of instructors. Some of the most interesting, which I would recommend to everyone are these. Dimensionalism - useful not only for flashy spells. Magic theory with professor Valen - the man has one niche, and it’s magic theory, so he naturally knows a crap ton, excuse my language. Third would be some form of close-ranged combat, even for mages who prefer to fight from a distance. You never want to be helpless when you come up against an opponent who can close the distance on you, which is why we will be covering it in my classes as well, but not to the depth a specialized professor would.” Our instructor finished talking and took a large breath as all that was said in one singular breath.

No one else had questions, but some were looking at me weird, probably because I mentioned becoming an instructor in one of the questions.

“Now - I have a fairly good grasp of your abilities, but you don’t have a grasp of each other’s abilities at all. We’ll be doing a quick exercise so that each of you can see at least a small part of each other’s abilities, as it will be important later for establishing good teamwork. Please line up by the wall, I’ll be calling on you in no particular order.”

A small bit of magic materialized in front of me, flying to my ear. I could tell it was Miss Pyralis who cast it, so I let it be. Her voice rang out in my ear, coming out of the magical construct next to me.

“Testing, testing. Uhh, do something to show me that you can hear me.” What the hell did that even mean? I just looked at her with a confused expression, shrugging my shoulders slightly. “I assume this means you can hear me, great! Johanne, I’ll be calling on you first. Some of these noble kids are pretty arrogant, so I really want you to give it your all to knock them down a few notches, alright? Uhh, just nod if you agree.” I kind of wanted to see what she’d do if I didn’t nod, so I did exactly that. “You’re not nodding. Does that mean you can’t hear me or that you don’t agree?” I shrugged. “Okay, you can hear me. What does a shrug mean?” I laughed, probably making the other kids think I was even more of a weirdo than before, before nodding. “Alright, go show them what you’ve got.” She said before the construct vanished into thin air.

“Johanne Henderson, you’re up.” She called on me, then turned to the other students. “In this exercise, you will be launching your most powerful attacks at me, and I will then critique them, mainly the mana-spent-to-power ratio, precision, and more. Understood?”

‘Oh, this will be fun,’ I grinned.