Alice Pyralis POV
Johanne made his way about 25 meters away from me with a slight smirk on his face. I had seen his capabilities, so I was very curious what he would be able to do with his limited amount of mana. The quality of it has definitely risen from last time, and his very limited quantity was still slowly rising as he was growing up.
His cloak started slowly fluttering as he gripped his spear, mana building up around it. A powerful influx of mana flowed out from within his mana vessel, the spells unknown to me. A purple, ethereal energy surrounded his spear, its inside looking like a window to deep outer space. Glittering white stars shimmered within the purple and black void, exuding a powerful pressure.
Suddenly, I heard Johanne’s voice. The same spell I had cast earlier floated next to my head, perfectly replicated.
“I’m sure you had some ulterior motives in mind when thinking up this exercise, instructor, but I’ll humor you. Take this as a way of repaying your kind gift, so make sure to watch as I showcase to you the pinnacle of my magic, aptly named Starlight Essence. I wish I could showcase more than an empty husk of this spell, but you’ll have to be understanding due to my lack of mana. Maybe, when I improve at artificing in the future, you will be able to see the true form of this magic.”
Blood dripped from Johanne’s nose and mouth as his body couldn’t handle the mana overload, but his spell was ready. His body augmentation ceased as all the mana in his mana vessel ran out, and he weakly threw the spear at me. The spear accelerated in mid-air, flying towards me at respectable speeds.
My barriers were ready, but something in the back of my mind screamed at me to reinforce them. The closer the spear got, the louder this little voice got, and I quickly realized it was right. I fully augmented my body and the world around me slowed to a crawl, the only thing that still had some visible movement being the spear.
I layered more and more barriers in front of myself and watched in horror and intrigue as the spear cut through them like a hot knife through butter and continued on unabated. No, it was more accurate to say that the ethereal energy surrounding it had corroded and decimated the barriers so fast that I couldn’t even see it, like some kind of extremely potent acid.
Every bit of magic I tried to hit the spear with was corroded and simply melted away as if it had never been there. I backed up along with the spear’s flight path, but nothing I threw at it seemed to even slightly affect it, let alone touch it. I shuddered to think what would happen if the spear continued forward without anything to stop it.
I retreated several meters and gathered my mana, crafting a dense barrier of multiple specialized layers to counter different magical effects. Despite being half a meter thick, the spear nearly pierced through. The last wisps of ethereal energy dissolved my barrier before dissipating completely, and the spear stopped.
The spear finally fell to the ground and flew back into Johanne’s shaky hands, who then sat down to rest.
“What the hell was that?” I asked through my spell, this time establishing a two-way connection.
“Cool, right? That was a nice barrier you made there at the end. Just out of curiosity, how much mana did it cost you?” He sent back.
“I don’t know the exact number since I used up a bit at the beginning, but I reckon about a quarter of my entire capacity?”
He just laughed weakly. “Hah, It wouldn’t be possible to cast even with four me’s then. How depressing.”
“How did you manage to cast that, then? I’m sure you’d find a way. There’s probably tons of ways to cut the mana usage on that thing, but I simply never looked into it too deeply. Try taking professor Valen’s lectures, they will probably help you.”
“Well, I have a ton of experience with that spell and I’ve also been heavily researching and experimenting regarding cutting back mana usage of my spells. I’ve been moderately successful, but I do hope professor Valen can give me a push as I’ve been in a bit of a rut lately. By the way, from the other’s perspective you’ve just been standing there staring at me, you might want to start talking or they will think I’m even more of a lunatic than they already are. I don’t want any rumors to spread about me hypnotizing a teacher or something.” He sent back, amusement visible on his face. This brat, how the hell was he only 13?
I cleared my throat and spoke.
…
Johanne POV
I sat down with a searing headache, watching the other students’ attacks. I applied all the theory and practice I had done regarding limiting the mana usage of spells to my spell, but it still took almost all of my mana. Once my mana quality rose further, It would definitely be strong enough to pierce through the barrier, but the problem was quantity. Professor Valen better have something interesting to say.
There were three interesting students other than me, who were above average even in this special class. They were of course Lily, Albert and a third student whom I hadn’t spoken with yet, Daryll.
Lily’s ice magic clearly improved, evidenced by the powerful ice comet she cast. Upon being blocked, the large comet shattered into small pieces which flew at professor Pyralis incredibly quickly and tenaciously. These shards continued to split until there was nothing left to split.
Albert showcased an even more refined version of the stab he had used against me, but he added an element of elemental magic to the fray as blue fire burst out from his sword during it.
Daryll was a user of lightning magic, and thus as his attack he created a large burst of lightning which scorched almost half of the grass in the open training ground before curving towards the professor. The lightning moved like a snake, curving towards professor Pyralis from all sides in a brilliant display of control and power. Lightning magic was notoriously difficult because the mana had to be very precisely controlled and molded into difficult structures to influence it, but he seemingly did it with little effort.
The rest were also impressive, however these three stood out the most. The class ended shortly thereafter, and after arranging plans with Albert and Lily I instantly beelined it to the other professors in the institution to arrange my classes. First professor was obviously the professor who specialized in artificing, Gerald Byrnes, known as a bit of an oddball. There were two artificing professors, and most preferred the other one, so Gerald usually didn’t hold any classes. But his oddball nature was precisely why I wanted to meet him.
I knocked on his office door and heard a faint, “come in!” Opening the door, I saw what was probably the most messy room I had seen in my life. Stacks of paper were scattered everywhere on the floor, there were multiple exotic plants sitting on top of some of those stacks, and in the back of the spacious room stood a large wooden desk covered in various metal sheets, books, slabs of wood and other things. A large chest was placed in the corner locked by about 15 locks, but the weirdest item in the professor’s office was some sort of gray-ish glob of goo, which was situated in the corner directly adjacent to the wooden table. This goo had various artificing tools such as saws, knives, screwdrivers and many others stabbed in it, only the handles sticking out.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
A man dressed in white robes stained with what seemed to be years of various chemicals walked out from behind a particularly large mountain of paper. He had long, disheveled hair and purple rings under his eyes, but was unexpectedly quite fit despite his slimmer body. He wore multiple rings and necklaces, and parts of his clothes also had runes carved into them.
“Ahh, hello! I heard the new students were coming to the academy, sit down somewhere boy! Sorry about this room, it’s a bit messy from work, personal projects and all. So, what brings a budding student such as yourself into my humble office? Surely you aren’t here because you want to be taught by me?”
“Hello, professor. My name is Johanne, and that’s exactly why I’m here. I want you to be my professor for my artificing studies.”
The professor’s face scrunched up as he looked me over. “Nope.”
That’s the thing with oddballs - they’re unpredictable. But I was sure I could convince this particular one. “Pardon?”
“I said no. I’ve taught far too many kids who just tried to use my class to flunk other classes and have a nice little excuse for their mommy and daddy as to why they suck in all the other classes. ‘Waaah, mommy! Professor Byrnes is giving me soooo much work, I really didn’t have any time for my other classes! Please send me my allowance now so I can go dri- I mean, study!” He said in a high pitched voice. “Why would you be any different?”
I smirked and opened my bag, pulling out and unfurling my spear and cloak. “Take a look at this, professor. This should show you that I am truly serious about this subject.”
The professor pulled out glasses from god knows where and yanked the items out of my hands, looking them over in detail.
“Huh.. A spear that amplifies any force acting on it with two layers, one which indiscriminately amplifies the force and one which can be controlled by the wielder, and a cloak which dulls physical blows and disperses magical blows. Some self repair functionality too.” He perfectly described the core functions of each item, leaving me a bit speechless. “It’s passable, but I need proof you made it, kid. If you truly have made it, you’ll surely be able to tell me a lot about the process?” He challenged.
I had him, like a starving fish in a particularly foodless part of the river, he took my bait easily. I grinned as I pulled out my notebook, proceeding to flip through the pages and talk in great detail about each and every blueprint and theory in the damn thing. It took almost two hours, but the professor listened intently all the way through.
“Hahaha! Who could have thought there would be someone worth a damn in this academy? You’ve gotten quite far alone, boy, but you haven’t seen anything yet!” He said, his excitement shockingly apparent from his voice. He then put his hand behind his back and proceeded to pull 5 different books out of seemingly nowhere once again, and handed them to me. “Class is in 5 days, that’s one book per day! Make sure you read them all! I’ll know, I wrote the damn things myself! Now, chop chop, get outta here, I’m busy.”
“I’m looking forward to your class, professor.” I said as I started leaving the room.
“Didn’t I tell you to get outta here? Why are you still here?”
I rushed out of the room smiling like a little kid who had won a carnival contest. This overly eccentric, slightly crazy professor was truly a gem hidden in the dirt. My next destinations were the dimensionalism professor, because one of the books professor Byrnes had given me was actually a book regarding the topic, and professor Valen for his mana theory classes.
My final stop was the school principal’s office. I knocked and entered, before me a beautiful room with a massive convex window overlooking the city. The shelves had all manner of magical artifacts and books, the room was spacious but exuded a feeling of comfort. In a chair behind a table in the shape of a half-circle sat an old man, with short gray hair and a beard. He looked up from some document he was reading, giving me a nod to gesture at me to begin speaking.
“Sorry for disturbing you, sir. My name is Johanne Henderson, a special class student, and I have a request slash question for you.”
“Ah, you’re the child Alice was talking about. It’s been a while since I’ve seen her this excited. Of course, Johanne, feel free to ask or request away, but I’m not sure this old man will be able to grant it.” He said with a warm smile on his face.
“I would like to teach my own class at this academy. The class would be regarding battles, proper utilization of mana, and things in that nature.”
“Well, that’s certainly a first! Hahahah!” The principal burst into laughter, settling down a few seconds later. “I apologize - I am not laughing at you. I am honestly delighted about the request. I suppose I could make it work, but I’m also not sure you have what it takes to be an instructor. I know you beat one in a fair fight, so you have the battle capacity, but being an instructor takes an open, calm mind and a lot of patience. Some children may not be as talented as you are, my boy.”
“I am not suggesting right now. But some time in the future, a few months perhaps, after I see how the other instructors are handling their classes and have enough information on how they proceed, I would like it to have one of my own. When watching my classmates, I noticed some glaring weaknesses. There were many, ranging from the way they handled mana to the way they structured their attack. I believe I could correct them.”
“Ah, so you have a good eye for those kinds of things, I see. I will allow it, but you must first pass a small test from me. Is that alright with you?”
I nodded. I was fairly confident I could pass most tests he could throw at me.
“Please, augment your body to the maximum.” I quickly obliged. He let a slight bit of his mana flow out of his mana vessel, but that slight bit of mana created a truly palpable pressure. His mana was completely pure and many times denser than instructor Pyralis’ mana. My knees almost buckled purely from the small amount of mana leaking from him. This man was truly one of the few of the continent’s greatest mages, far beyond the ranks of an archmage, an astral mage.
I once wielded such power myself. Astral mages truly were forces of nature beyond comprehension of those under them, in more ways than one. Raw power could always be attained by merely using magic over and over for some decades, but someone who became an astral mage only through such means was a disgrace to the title. No, the skill was arguably the more important part.
“Don’t worry, Johanne. You’ve grown considerably even though your setbacks are severe, you will reach this level soon enough. Now, onto the test. I will cast two fireballs, please tell me if you see any issue.”
The man spread out his arms, and first cast a fireball which floated silently on his left palm. Then, he cast a fireball which floated silently on his right palm.
I didn’t see any issue.
“Do it again please.”
The principal did as instructed, but I still saw nothing. I circled around him, telling him to do it again once in a while. Should this have been apparent to me at first glance? Was he tricking me by telling me there was an issue? He never actually told me there was. Is he just waiting for me to catch on? He is an astral mage, if there was an issue it would be so minute that It would be almost impossible to no-
My train of thought cut off right there and went back to my previous life.
“Hey, why do you mainly use your left hand for casting? You should really learn to use your right hand as well as your left,” I advised my friend.
“You think I don’t know that, dummy? I already told you this Johanne,” the girl’s purple hair fluttered in the wind as she rolled her beautiful green eyes. “When I was younger, I injured my arm by losing control while trying to cast some powerful magic and some of the mana circuits got all screwed up. Now, the mana flow in my right arm is a little bit slower,” she said.
My mind snapped back to the present. I carefully studied the principal’s arm, prodding at it. No, the left arm seemed fine, onto the right. I examined the right arm carefully, and during the ninth fireball cast I finally spotted it. A small deviation of the mana channels caused the mana to lag behind, causing the casting speed to be slightly slower and a little bit more imprecise. Because the principal was so powerful and skilled, it was barely visible, but it was there.
I grinned widely. Even after her death, my best friend and partner is still aiding me.