Chapter 3: The First Step

Registration was settled quickly thanks to my new friend Cedric who seemed to have quite literally studied the handbook given out. I may not have set a brilliant example to the staff by asking what the booklet even was but I moved towards the first lesson I had - practical magic.

Cedric had kindly given me a run-through of all the subjects that we were going to cover throughout our time at the central academy. All of the lessons had value to me but a few stood out amongst them.

Practical magic, theoretical magic and finally, a guide to the Trials.

All these lessons had higher levels for them but they were only entitled to the senior students unless proven that you are capable.

While I excelled at both practical and theoretical, getting the higher levels of those classes were essential to me in order to further supplement my growth.

All I needed was the chance to prove myself.

***

Cedric and I had made our way to the first lesson of the day. Practical Magic.

The lesson piqued my interest but the worried expression that hung on Cedric's face was telling me otherwise.

"What's wrong?" I asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"Uhh, it's just that I've heard this lesson has a really strict teacher and he always puts people in their place." His dismayed expression sank deeper into his face.

The cogs in my brain began clanking together as I formulated a plan to make the most of the jackpot information I had just learned.

"What better way to secure my position in an upper class?" I thought to myself.

A slow tapping sound started to emerge from the classroom we were lined outside of. It was unnoticed by most until the tapping subsided and a loud snap came out again as what sounded to be a foot slamming down, silenced everyone.

"A noisy bunch aren't you?" A tall figure clad in dark, thin robes marched out of the classroom and gazed upon us all in an eerie silence.

His sharp eyes and stern expression spoke volumes to a perceptive person like me.

Even without Cedric's description, I would have easily identified what sort of man he would be just by a quick glance at his posture. Seconds ticked by as his eyes remained vigilant and darted from student to student, obviously picking out the potential trouble makers and arrogant snobs.

He broke the awkward silence with a quick "Enter." and we all followed in suit. The classroom itself was something to be awed at as well.

Its large space and immaculate equipment definitely represented one of the most prestigious schools on the continent. The classroom was divided into 2 sections, one was a duelling area large enough to stage a mock war if needed whilst the other side was filled with tables, whiteboards and meditation areas.

The professor strode up towards a podium in front of the many seats and desks and waved a hand for us to sit.

Being the last people to enter, the only seats remaining were near the front so I gladly took a seat beside Cedric near the right side of the podium.

"Welcome to my Practical Magic Class. I'm professor Higgins from house Chapel and to my left is my assistant, Ella."

My eyes flickered to his left and saw a small dark-haired girl with deep black eyes and a faultless face. Her small figure was hidden behind the podium and she made no effort to welcome us beforehand.

With a humble nod, she brightly smiled and allowed Professor Higgins to proceed.

"You may already know this, but mana is mostly used in combat rather than house chores. Its practicality in this field is unrivalled and the more powerful the mage, the more influence they would have in this world."

He stopped and looked at the students once again before continuing.

"Everyone possesses a type of affinity from water, fire, earth, and wind, but only people who study magic would hope to achieve primary or even secondary aspects. I won't delve into this too much as I'm sure you've already familiar with how this works," he explained, his tone sharp. "What I'm doing as a professor is teaching you how to efficiently manipulate mana for combative use, whether you have double affinities or primary aspects, all of it will improve under my supervision."

He moved down from the podium and walked past all the desks through the walkway in the middle to the far end of the room where a giant ball was erected on a small stone pillar around waist height.

"Now before we move onto a demonstration, I would like to record all your affinities and aspects so I know what we're dealing with."

The students closest to him immediately jumped at the thought of leaving a good first impression on the professor. As they started a queue, I trotted to the near back where shy people like Cedric were embarrassed about having their talents put on display.

"Oooh a double affinity, I'll make sure to push those skills to the limits" Professor Higgins smiled as his eyes beamed with enthusiasm and wonder.

I quickly turned to Cedric who was clinging to back and the sudden reaction almost made him jump.

"I thought you said he was strict." I looked at him curiously as my first instinct also gave me that feeling.

"Well, so did I but he seems like a really nice guy doesn't he!" Cedric exclaimed as the thought of a caring and intelligent teacher set his heart ablaze.

A small chuckle came from behind us and my eyes darted towards where I heard the noise, keeping my head and body still to let them catch on.

Ella the assistant was losing herself in her laughter and her cheeks turned slightly red before quickly regaining her composure and giving me an embarrassed glare.

"Next!"

The queue that once separated me from the orb was now gone and the professor had his arms out, welcoming the next student.

Stepping forward towards the professor, I outstretched my hands and placed both of them on the pearly dark blue orb that radiated a majestic aura. My fingertips sizzled as the galaxy within the orb twirled around and splotches of orange littered the dark blue ocean before spreading until it covered about a twentieth of it.

"Very impressive indeed, a strong fire affinity that covered around twenty percent of the orb. That would be around…" The professor looked up and stroked his chin as he calculated what level I would be around.

"High-level one?" I questioned as I remembered the last time I took one of these tests.

"No, no, no my boy. I would say barely level 2. That would make you a pre-intermediate mage."

The people around that had been listening all stared at me with mixed reactions. The ones that had originally gloated about being a lower half basic mage stared in jealousy and resentment whilst the others gained a newfound respect for me and realised how much effort I must have put in to get to this spot.

I should have felt overjoyed that I was progressing so fast but I didn't.

This was nowhere near the level I wanted to be, I needed to push myself multiple times harder while I was still building my solid foundation.

Ephrais was built on a system of rankings that every mage fell into. It was mainly decided through the mana orb that tested the capabilities of the person who made physical contact for a short period of time.

Inside the orb was a constant flow of deep and rich mana where people had to try and utilise as much mana as they could with their signature affinity. Because the mana was so potent, even controlling amounts like twenty percent at a young age was seen as something special.

As we got older, our learning potential substantially increases as our bodies start to fully integrate with the mana surrounding us, allowing people to claim and manipulate more mana.

The gap between a child and a fully grown mage was enormous and this lead people to think that the prime stage for growing more powerful would be the late teens to mid-thirties.

The evidence fully supported this claim but I had always sought out a way to surpass even the strongest mages in Ephrais. I had the heritage of a noble family so that gave me a slight advantage, but I also wanted a good foundation and become immersed in mana at a much younger age to widen my potential.

The levels and ranks of mages were decided as the following:

Level 1- basic mage

Level 2- low intermediate mage

Level 3- intermediate mage

Level 4- high intermediate mage

Level 5- low advanced mage

Level 6- advanced mage

Level 7- high advanced mage

Level 8- battlemage

Level 9- tactical class mage

Level 10- catastrophe class mage

Snapping out of my thoughts, professor Higgins looked deeper into the orb, inspecting further details of the colour change and flow of mana.

"It seems you don't have a primary aspect yet, but I'm certain that you'll come across one soon after hard training." His eyes were still fixed on the orb.

"Mhm. Very peculiar. Something like a black tendril of mana caught my attention but it disappeared as fast as it appeared. Oh well, you should be glad about your results, they were the most promising I've seen so far as my time as a professor."

Waving me away, he encouraged Cedric to move up and put his hands on the orb.

I walked back to my seat without batting an eye.

"Maybe I should at least have the decency to watch my friend?" I asked myself in my head.

Nahhhh.

The news of my progress burned up my insides. What have I been doing all this time? After all this training, I've only just made it up 1 level above my peers. I had expected it to be 2 at the minimum but for such a disappointing result to brandish itself on me was humiliating.

Letting out a deep sigh, I slumped on my chair and waited for the professor to start with the live demonstration.

Around 5 more minutes passed but he eventually came back and started the next exercise by telling us to go to the open-spaced training area.

"We don't have much time left but I would like to get on with a physical demonstration to show you a glimpse of how capable a mage you will be after your tuition."

"Now, please may we have a volunteer?"

My hand shot up as I looked for a way to vent my anger, almost forgetting my original plan of doing it.

A hand also shot up across the area where we were standing. A tall muscular boy had a raised hand and a condescending look was painted on his face.

Seeing my hand go up first, professor Higgins chose me and that earned a frustrated grunt as the other boy backed down, unable to question the authority of a central academy teacher.

"What's your name, boy?"

"Valen". I replied simply with a sharp tone.

"Well, Valen please go to the opposite side of me and try your hardest to best me."

I walked softly to the other side before taking a deep breath and reaching out to the mana that surrounded me.

Mana was naturally uncontrollable and ecstatic, flowing wherever it felt like and going through anything it wanted to. My old teacher once referred to it as a wild untamed horse that needed subduing before you were able to ride it safely.

Like the hundreds of thousands of times before, I drew power or influence from my mana heart and allowed it to spread across my body and escape to my surroundings.

It took around a second for the mana to give in and bend to my will before my mana heart absorbed it. The collection of mana under my control could be used freely, whether that be strengthening a part of the body or expelling it from my body in the form of a spell.

I decided on the latter and willed my mana into the palm of my outstretched arm that pointed directly at professor Higgin's head.

When there was enough condensed mana formed there, I ignited the mana with my affinity that took base at my mana heart. Instantly, flames burst forth and twirled in a circle in my hand.

The spell I used was fairly simple; however, I increased the size of the ball in my hand till it was similar to my body. Breathing out and taking another breath, I launched the fireball towards the professor who stood amazed at the ball of intense heat that was hurtling towards him.

Unsurprisingly, he also did the same thing and held out an outstretched arm towards the fire that would incinerate his limb if it made contact.

In rapid succession and without even faltering, he blew two gusts of wind that easily dispersed by spell and headed straight towards me.

"He really won't even let me land a hit on him even though he's holding back" I muttered under my breath as a smirk flitted across my face.

Imbuing mana into both my legs and setting them alight with my fire, I dashed to the side, narrowly avoiding the two gusts of wind before sprinting towards the left side of the professor, leaving a trail of fire where my feet connected with the ground.

With my legs ablaze, I easily closed the distance and found myself feinting a kick to the leg and instead arcing it directly at his head.

"Oho, that seems dangerous."

"Surely you jest professor." A bead of sweat trickled down from my forehead.

As expected a veil of wind enveloped the esteemed professor as he effortlessly sent me flying across the arena.

But it was expected.

Just as I could feel the mana around him condensing, I had released a spear of flame from behind his back, directly opposite his solar plexus.

My efforts were fruitless as the veil expanded and a storm of wind berated the arena with professor Higgins standing in the eye of the storm, not fazed one bit.

"The overall idea was smart; however, the execution and practicality were flawed."

Noticing the confused look on my face he elaborated further.

"Fire is easily quelled by wind. That is the natural order of things and if you took into account the difference in our magical capabilities it should have been obvious that in order to fight me, you would need close-range fighting techniques, much like your second attack."

My mask of confusion broke away and was replaced by an energetic laugh as I released the mana under the ground where the professor was standing. An eruption of red and orange flames engulfed the area and caused students to jolt back from the heat that was created.

Taking advantage of the smoke barrier created by the explosion, I ignited the flames on my feet and twirled into the air above the decimated area, looking for any opening it had created so I could end it with a clean punch to his abdomen.

Catching me off guard, a spiral of air gushed out of the black fumes and cleared the area of the vile smoke.

A vortex of wind was tightly enclosed around the menacing professor as he glared at me with frustrated eyes as his once spotless gown was covered in a murky black that ruined the whole outfit. Apart from that, he seemed unscathed.

Biting my lip and charging at him, I found myself moving slowly as the professor appeared behind me at an unthinkable speed before feeling my entire body collapse as his punch landed square on my face from where I turned my head to look at the annihilation that was to befall me.

"Well, this is gonna hurt."