021 Sigillogy 101

"Good morning everyone," Instructor Irene began. "If you do not know already, I am Instructor Irene. We will start with a definition. Sigillogy 101 is the study of mana through Persona and Shadow symbols."

Kelseran definition of Persona and Shadow closely resembled Nico's interpretations.

"Mana have many forms, and the best way to understand them is to feel them with our roots, meridians and auras," Instructor Irene continued, she was a lot more animated than she was in the previous class. "For centuries, scholars have been studying the structure of mana. Our understanding of mana is accumulated into the study of Sigillogy. So far, Sigillogian scholars have uncovered more than five thousand Personas and 100 Shadows.

Sigillogy is the foundation for talismans, inscriptions, and many magical fields.

Personas are the faces, the names, the descriptions, and the language of mana. If we want flame, we need to use the flame persona. If we want water, we need to use the water persona.

Shadows are the hidden face, the power, and building blocks of mana. If Personas are our skin and personalities, the shadows are our organs.

Manacores and many raw materials consist entirely of shadows.

Whereas, alchemy pills consists entirely of manas that are reformulated by Alchemist, so we call it the Ego."

Ah, is that why I can't analyze anything from the Boost Strength Pill? Nico wondered and scribbled down notes.

"Over the course of this class, I will help you become familiar with the different shadow symbols first," Instructor Irene explained. "Then we will move into Personas, which are more numerous."

Nico raised his hand. "When do we learn about the combinations of symbols and Egos?"

"That's the more advanced class, starting with 301," she explained. "But you should focus on memorizing the shadows first, then the Personas."

"Are there books we can borrow and look through?" asked Nico.

"Books on Shadows and Personas are quite rare. Because they hold a certain amount of power, a normal layman can't easily write them down." Irene walked to a board and chalked down a simple water persona symbol.

The water persona symbol faded away soon after she wrote it down.

Nico jaw dropped.

"Wow!"

"Amazing!"

The kids were in awe.

"Shadow symbol and personas can only be written with special mana-ink."

Nico had always used mana-ink from various manabeast innards. He had never attempted writing with regular ink.

"This isn't the only reason why Sigillogy books are rare," Irene continued. "A book containing more than a dozen symbol, written correctly, may combust on its own. It requires a special binding to hold the book together.

Okay, back to today's lesson."

The Constantine's 108 Fundamental Shadow Symbols was fine, did it have a special enchantment? Oh S***, my journals! Wait, they haven't self-destructed yet, it should be fine, Nico hoped.

"That was actually helpful," Jack said after the class and stretched both arms out wide.

"Yeah, she explained it better than some of the books I've seen in the library," Nico commented.

"It's lunch time!" Jack suddenly woke up.

Nico also wondered what food the Academy was offering.

"Can I join you guys?" Asked Anya.

"Sure." Responded Nico and Jack.

Vincent tilted his head down, it was barely a nod.

They walked to the cafeteria, located in the Student Hall. The first floor was for the general body, the second floor was for the green robes, and the third floor was the red robes and above.

The large open room was lined with tables lined with chairs. In the spring, all the doors were opened to allow fresh air and light inside.

They grabbed the trays and lined up to collect their food. As it was their turn, they watched as the grumpy cafeteria ladies poured the runny stew into a frail wooden bowl, slopped on the mashed potatoes and threw two slices of bread on their trays.

Oh, how he missed the food from Killo Restaurant Inn.

"Hey! Why don't we eat out for lunch next time?" asked Nico.

The Academy didn't restrict students from going out as long as they registered. Killo Restaurant Inn was only a 15-minutes walk, and afternoon classes were Academic classes like history, math, and physics. Nico was sure most of his roommates were planning to skip them anyway.

"Should we go to the Jantilo Restaurant?" Ashe was a green robe, but he usually sat with his roommates.

"Nah, I have a better place, and it's closer to the Academy." Nico suggested.

"Oh, hi, my name is Anya," Anya introduced herself to Ashe with a short bow.

"Careful with this guy, he's cold to everyone," Jack warned Anya.

"Beautiful miss Anya. I am Ashe of the Hartley Clan. I am beyond honor to make your acquaintance." Ashe took a hold of Anya's hands and gently kissed his other hand, for his gentlemanly introduction.

"What the..." The boys were shocked by the change in Ashe.

"Oh my, what a thoughtful gentleman." Anya bowed back. "It is so wonderful to see chivalry still exist in this generation."

"Can you stop talking like we are still in the Kinbarl era?" Jack forced a piece of bread down his throat to keep himself from gagging.

Ashe narrowed his eyes looking at Jack. Jack whistled and looked away.

After lunch, they skipped history and math to focus on training.

Nico returned to his room and reexamined his journal. It was the 12th journal he had written. The other journals were hidden in the cave behind his farmhouse.

The journal had 60 pages of notes written mostly in personas and Kelseran. The journal was bound together by cashmere thread from managoat and protected by the hide of manadeer. His oldest journal was still in tack and it was written when he had discovered shadow symbols through Minko's vision. The paper he had used at that time was regular linen paper.

Nico wrote a simple flame persona symbol on regular paper. After a few moment, the symbol disappeared.

The same thing happened when he wrote the shadow symbols.

Next, Nico tested a flame persona with the shadow characters using the regular ink. As soon as he completed, a little fireball shot out.

"Ah!" Nico quickly chucked the paper out of the balcony.

Good thing he was in the balcony and the fireball dissipated in the air.

That was close. Nico exhaled in relief.

It was good decision to head to the academy. He felt like an infant child in this world. There were still many things he did not understand.

During lunch, Nico introduced his roommates and Anya to Killo Restaurant Inn.

"Who's your friend?" asked Busho seeing Nico leading a group of students from the Academy into the restaurant.

"My roommates and friends from the Academy," Nico then introduced everyone.

Everyone said a friendly hello, but Ashe was a bit more extra.

"It is an honor to meet two beautiful ladies," Ashe performed his gentlemen kiss on both Lulu and Innes.

Jack wanted to poke his eyes out.

"It's good that you're here, Mumu has been so depressed since you're gone," Busho said.

"He's fine, he's just experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Maybe eating too much good food is giving him brain damage." Nico looked at the board. "Can you get everyone the special?"

"Sure." Busho started another flame. "I heard the Academy food is pretty good, why aren't you eating there?"

"It's just the second floor and above," Ashe stated. "First floor food is pretty plain."

"It's bad," Jack added.

"If it's bad, stop by here for lunch then," said Busho. "Nico has helped us out a lot."

The following days, they went to Beastology, Elementology, Mineralogy, Spiritology classes offered in the morning. The classes were formatted the same way as Herbology and Sigillogy, except it dealt with how mana affects beast, the elements, minerals/rocks and man.

They continued to skip all the academic classes in the afternoon.