Flawed Blessing

The mana enhancement lesson finally ended, and it was time for his final lesson for the day. He stepped into the hallway with nothing but his sword strapped to his belt.

Arthur hadn't noticed it yet, but a lot of female students also eyed him because he had a handsome face and was fairly tall. Today, he had taken some time to work on his hair and clothing since he was planning to talk to Eris—he had to have that charm since she was a princess after all.

Personally, he couldn't care less about what happened to her. Eris was simply a pawn to get him where he wanted—their connection meant nothing to him. So when the time comes, he will drop her and move on with his goal.

He felt a pat on his shoulder and turned over to see. it was the handsome pervert.

"I guess this is where we split paths my dear rival. Keep out of trouble when I'm gone."

"How do I get into trouble in the first place? No one notices me…" he answered with a yawn.

"The life of a basic character must be uneventful—but you're connected to the main character, so it can't be boring."

'You have no idea.'

They split ways and Adrian continued to the right side of the hallway to his next class. The Academy was a huge place so it made sense that both sectors were facilitated by the same buildings.

Arthur sighed after seeing that Adrian had disappeared into the crowd. Then moved on to the next and last class of the day for him. Professor Obsidian had recommended him to it and so now he was the only first-year in this specific class. It was meant to improve his incantationless spell casting which many described as a flawed blessing.

In the magic realm, spell casting was known as the language of gods bestowed onto those who could manipulate mana naturally. Arthur on the other hand didn't have that ability, spells came to him easily and casting felt so natural. He could have been the strongest in the academy if he had more mana—but the gods don't bless one with everything.

.

.

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The next class was an outdoor practical class that took place in the most mana-rich area of the academy. It was a vastly spaced area, far from the academy's unnatural buildings. The wind here howled strongly, the grass was greener than usual grass and the sun's light angelically lit up the place—it was heavenly.

He could feel his veins pumping, along with his sword that was tingling in response to the mana density.

'I guess I should expect this from a top-class academy—'

Suddenly, he felt something approaching from behind. And without wasting a minute, he jumped out of the way and the ground exploded after being hit by an invisible force. His instincts had grown sharp thanks to the training he had been doing with Elizabeth. She was faster than him so he had focused on sharpening his senses instead to keep up with her movements. Recently, he had perfected it during their previous training session.

He drew his sword and waited for the next attack while keeping all his senses on high alert. The lesson had already started.

He sensed another invisible attack coming from above. This felt like the perfect time to test his wind magic since they were in an open area.

He started by quickly absorbing as much mana as he could from the air then released it all at once in the form of a wide wave of wind from his body.

Boom*

The blast pushed away everything that was in close range of him, including the invisible attack itself.

'Wow…'

Arthur had no idea he could do something like this, he didn't even intend for it to be this lethal.

"Is it because I've altered dense mana."

He heard hovering coming from above. When he looked up, he saw a giant bird flying toward him. On top of the bird, a green-haired woman in light armor and a greatsword strapped to her back rode it on a saddle like a horse.

But he didn't sense any hostility from her so pushed his sword back into its scabbard.

It landed and he got a better look at it. The beast had the face and body of an eagle but it was thirty times the size of one and had golden feathers spread across its body. This was his first seeing a creature like this, it had a unique golden-colored aura and the amount of mana flowing from it was insane.

The green-haired woman jumped off the beast's back and landed on her two feet and said:

"Alright everyone, you can come out now!"

"Everyone?"

Arthur noticed students appear from different corners field. This was a joint class because some students carried wands and swords as part of their arsenal.

'There was an illusion spell.'

But there was one familiar face that caught his eye, Bairon's older brother and the vice president of the student council, Lance Crown. Like his younger, Lance was on another level compared to everyone else in this class. He had compressed most of his presence but even the little he had left not concealed was so intense it was hard to avoid.

"He's speed needs some work, but he's not bad," he said to the green-haired woman standing.

She looked surprised by his comment. Then faced Arthur once again.

"Hmm. I guess there's more to him than just a pretty face. I heard you top all your theory classes, very impressive. I am Glory, your professor for incantation mechanics."

She offered her hand with a smile on her face.

"I sense nothing from this woman, she must've mastered dark arts to a greater level."

"It's almost impossible to believe a first year made it into this class because of a flaw…" another student with long gray hair stated as he angrily walked toward Arthur and Professor Glory. He was slightly taller than Arthur, with a white bleached complexion and azure color. He was a mage, judging from the gold-coated staff in his left hand.

"Be kind to him, Lucas. He has just cast a spell that would take a mage a minute to conjure at least."

A cute girl with short brown hair and glasses shouted from the back and he stopped his ranting.

Lucas snorted at her statement. Then raised his voice to be heard by everyone else in the class.

"So what?! Some of us worked hard for three whole damn years to qualify for this class and this weak ass kid just walks in after three weeks. He's a pe—"

"Enough, Mr. Wylkes!"

Professor Glory snapped before he could finish his sentence.

"You may be a noble but remember that this is my class. And If you wanna prove how strong you are, then why not fight me instead?"

Not a single word flew out of Lucas's mouth after that. Instead, he bit his lower lip and glared at Arthur who was completely clueless about why this kid had grown hatred toward him without reason.

Dramatically, he turned his back on them and marched away from the class without saying anything else.

"Don't worry about him. This class was recommended to him by his father, he'll come back. So don't go around feeling guilty that you've made a kid quit," Professor Glory tapped Arthur's shoulder and then walked passed him as the class gathered around for the lesson to begin.

They were roughly a class of fourteen members because it was the hardest class of all the classes in Ace Academy to pass. He had heard rumors that no student in this class was below Rank B—and were all-powerful magic users who had better control of their magic.

"Okay, everyone. This is Arthur Bellrock, he can't cast spells but can use magic. From the sword and uniform, you can tell he's in the dark knight sector and I think his affinity is wind. Any questions…? I guess not."

She grinned after her stunt.

"Since today is his first day, why don't we show him what we do here with a friendly match of crystal dash?"

The professor was so full of energy as she spoke, like a person who loved her job.

"Crystal dash?"

"It's a team against-team battle where we get to test how fast we cast spells. We form four teams and protect each other's crystals. The first team to lose its crystal gets punished," the brown-haired girl answered.

"Punished? How?"

"I don't know, Professor Glory is filled with surprises. I am Linda by the way, a Rank B water mage. Wanna be on the same team?"

`

"Sure," Arthur responded. And her brown eyes shimmered with excitement.

"I also want to be on the same team," said Lance after eavesdropping on their conversation.

"I can use lightning at its highest form so I won't be holding back anyone."

He continued—all that with a straight face.

"S-sure…" Linda nodded, sounding nervous.

"Mind if I join you guys?"

Another student walked out of the small crowd and everyone got silent. It was a boy who looked just slightly older than Arthur. He was a blonde with cold intelligent blue eyes and an emotionless face.

'This boy had to be an A-ranked student, his presence is completely concealed.'

His uniform was completely different from theirs, it was completely black with golden stripes moving from his trouser up to his coat.

"Mr. Theo Reginald took you long enough. I was about to think you've skipped one of your favorite classes," said Professor Glory with a cunning smile on her female face.

Theo sighed and smirked, "You know I can't miss today, ma'am. It's just that being the leader of the disciplinary committee is a bit annoying, especially when these kids think they're strong enough to beat me," he said with both his hands in his pocket. "I had to teach them a thing or two about the rules of this institution, and hence I missed the first session." He had a very calm and blunt voice as if he was bored by everything.

"Fine. Which team are you on then?"

"The one with the first year," he moved his eyes around and noticed Arthur staring at him. "I wish to know more about him."

A cold chill moved up his spine that moment their eyes met. At that moment, Arthur felt like the temperature had just dropped to zero in an instant. This wasn't a skill, this was his bloodlust leaking out of his body.