Magic

Mr. Carlos dismisses us when the 3-hour-schedule is up. He also tells us that we can get a 30-minute break for us to eat as it is already past lunchtime. I have to wait for an extra 10 minutes as Alice asks us to wait for her to finish cleaning herself up because she sweats excessively after she exercised.

Anna and Kana has decided to join Alice in the bathroom as they are also sweating a lot. Well, Kana sweats a lot less as she's in a ranged lesson together with me. But we got a lot of dirt and dust on our body as we move around the field as we try to learn how to position ourselves and dodge some attacks.

I have no intention to clean myself as it will take a long time plus the fact that I am already starving. Seeing the girls taking their sweet time, I have decided that I may as well clean myself up. James and I move towards the Male bathroom with Luna while the girls go the other way.

Time passes by so fast as we relax ourselves. After we finish our meal in the cafeteria, we jump straight into Ms. Layla's lesson in the big classroom on the third floor. When we arrive in the classroom, the 1st row is already full so we choose to sit behind them.

Not long after, waves of students fill the class before finally, Ms. Layla shows up with 2 other people in tandem – 1 male and 1 female; the man looks like a scholar with full set glasses and book on hand; the girl looks like a magical girl that you will only often see on anime – staff, red hair, big eyes, and excessively fancy clothes.

Ms. Layla stands in front of the class while the two new students sit behind her. The lesson starts easy but it exponentially gets harder as the time goes by.

"Mana is the energy in your body that you control according to your will. Mana has 3 distinct features; they are stable, harmless, and like energy, it can't be created nor destroyed. Does that mean that once we spend our mana it can never regenerate back? The answer is NO."

"When you cast a spell, some of your mana would be released into the world as they become unstable due to the spell that you cast. That will cause you to lose some of your mana in your body as your body can't hold unstable mana. But you can also regenerate that by absorbing a stable mana from your surroundings into your body."

"The world would slowly turn the unstable mana that you release back into a stable one with the help of time – making an endless loop of mana circles."

Ms. Layla lost half of her class after she finishes explaining things about mana. I look at the time and it's only halfway through the lesson. She explain a lot about mana in our body and how they constantly move around.

She also teach us how to feel the presence of the mana and how to controll their flow. I wonder how many would survive her lesson as it becomes more complicated as time goes.

"Now, for those who have magic-based skill, listen and watch carefully, I'll teach you how to cast a spell but be very careful. To cast a spell, you are required to change your mana characteristic. I'll use my water magic as an example but this would apply to every single one of you."

"How do you change your mana characteristic? You use a rune. I believe you already know at least 1 rune if you have any skill related to magic. This here is a basic water rune." She explains as she waves her hand, creating a visible calligraphy in the air.

The students exclaim in awe as they see the floating words in front of Ms.Layla. I do not recognize the word that she writes at all. It's not Japanese, it's not Chinese, but it's really complex though.

"Now to create a rune, you only need to do it with your minds. Just imagine every stroke and dot and voila! There you go. You'll get used to creating rune as you train, but for now, just watch."

"With this basic water rune, I can change my mana characteristic into water." Suddenly the inscriptions that are floating in the air glow before they disappear – the ball of water starts forming in Ms. Layla's hand.

"To successfully cast a spell, you need to perfectly draw the rune in your mind and supply it with enough mana as an energy. Every stroke in a rune has its own meaning. When you miss even a dot, there's a possibility that it could ruin your spell."

"Experts, though would intentionally erase a dot or even add a stroke to modify their rune so it would suit them better. I advise you to not do that if you don't have a deep knowledge of what you are doing. Any question?" Ms. Layla halts her explanation as she sees that most of the students are daydreaming and cannot keep up with her fast paced teaching.

Students start raising their hands asking questions, mostly they ask her to repeat or clarify what she said before. Some of the stubborn once ask her on how to modify their rune so it can be stronger.

"You." Ms. Layla points at me as I have been raising my hand and dares to ask her a question.

"You said that to cast a spell, I need to change my mana characteristic using rune as the mediator, right? Does that mean that if I have the capability to create water rune, I can also cast a water spell like you even though I don't have water manipulation skill?"

After I ask my question, the room suddenly erupted in deep noise as the students realize that if what I said is possible, then it will be HUGE. Doesn't that make a skill that you have become useless as long as you study?

"Good question!!! The answer to that question would be yes and no."

"Yes, if you can recreate the rune perfectly and supply it with enough amount of mana. The problem to completely copy a rune is an impossible task. Why impossible you ask?"

"As I said before, every stroke and dot in every rune has its own meaning. Without the meaning, it would only be a kid's scribbles. So, if you can perfectly copy the rune including the meaning behind it than the theory is, then yes! You can but since nobody can achieve it so we can't know for sure."