Actual First Day Part II

(I'm eating the fattest fucking burrito while writing this. My stomach is in pure bliss.)

As soon as I stepped through the door to the classroom, Jacob assaulted me with questions. Due to his persistence, I explained what happened while we walked to our next class, Mana 101.

Jacob was shocked. "Damn. Those were runes? What did they do?"

I laughed. "They were just simple runes apparently. It doesn't take much to do something as simple as replicating a smell." I turned to the rest of the group. "Do you guys know anything about runes?"

Yanni nodded sheepishly. "I can't say much more than that they are used for magesmithing."

If I was being honest, he didn't need to say much more than that. Endless possibilities were formed in my imagination.

Yanni shook his head. "Become a royal magesmith if you want to learn more."

I sighed. "I'm not sure if magesmithing is my type of thing. I'm also not too sure that I want to be locked down to this kingdom. I want to go exploring some day. All I know in this world is some small town."

Yanni nodded. "That is completely reasonable. I didn't even think about it that way."

I smiled. "We live in a big world. Maybe I could even meet an elf!"

Jacob raised his brow. "Are you into that?"

I waved my hands and shook my head. "Nonono. I just want to see what their society is like. They're so mysterious."

Jacob laughed. "Sure, keep telling yourself that."

I shook my head as we walked into the lecture hall that our next class would be in. We sat down near our preferred area of the room and waited patiently.

When the clock struck 11am, the door didn't open. Instead, a portal formed in front of the professor's desk. A middle aged man walked through. He wasn't wearing the typical professor robes but rather a sweater, slacks, and dress shoes. He was extremely good looking. His dark hair, green eyes, and toned build was enough to make the waters fall.

He summoned an orb of each element in a ring around him. They slowly orbited him. "Mana, what is it?" A bunch of people raised their hands but he ignored them. "Mana is… everything."

He swung his hands outwards and the room went dark. Then orbs of light formed all over the room. A fog poured over the floor. Nothing below my shins was visible.

He then pointed to a random girl in the middle of the room. "What is mana?"

The girl was silent for a moment. "It is world energy. We impart our will on it to control the elements."

He frowned and then shook his head. "Wrong. Who actually knows the answer?"

I looked around. No one raised their hand. Almost a minute went by in silence.

He laughed. "Come on. I know that someone must know it. I'll even raise the stakes. Give me the correct answer and I'll give you 100 points."

A hand shot up. He pointed at the boy. "You."

The boy smirked and replied. "Mana is energy made up of the 6 elements…"

He cut the student off. "Wrong. Last call. If someone can give me a correct answer, 100 points."

I sighed as I put my hand up. He just looked at me and gestured for me to give my answer. "Mana is energy. It flows through the particles of the elements and dictates their state, form, and movement. We impart our will on mana to control the elements but that is only half of it. When we make use of mana, we affect the balance. What we see as magic is actually nature trying to restore equilibrium."

The professor smiled as a single tear rolled down his face. "That... was a perfect answer. Bravo." He clapped as if he just listened to a masterpiece of a speech. "100 points to Callum. Now we will begin the lesson." He waved his hand and a stack of textbooks dropped onto the floor. Using magic, he flung them around the room and had them land on everyone's desks.

He smiled and bowed to the room. "Greetings, my students. This one is named Louis Thoreaux but you can refer to me as Professor Louis. I will be teaching you about the art of mana and how we can use it to create the beauty of magic."

Louis dropped to the floor and sat down. "Everyone put your textbooks away and come sit with me. I prefer a more intimate and informal environment. Sitting in chairs is too restrictive when studying art."

None of the students knew how to react. This professor was… eccentric. Thus, the only thing they could do was follow his instructions and go sit on the floor. Aside from the fact that the floors are spotless thanks to magic, their uniforms cleaned themselves so there is no worry of them getting dirty.

After a solid minute of everyone shuffling and sitting down onto the floor, Louis smiled and relaxed. "Magic is the art of nature. If one thing is out of place, the piece will be ruined. As Callum said to us so elegantly, art is all about balance. When we use our mana, we create an imbalance. Nature paints its masterpieces by restoring that balance through the use of the elements."

"FIRST! I will teach you about how to properly use your mana. You children might think you know how to use your mana but you are sorely mistaken. Since we are all sitting comfortably on the floor, we can do an exercise. We will do this for the rest of class. I also want you to do this when you are resting. The more still and relaxed you are, the more effective it will be."

Someone raised their hand and Louis pointed to them. The student then inquired about something. "Professor Louis, why can't we just build on the knowledge we already have? All of us were able to get into the academy so we can already use our mana and practice magic."

Louis nodded. "Great question. 10 points to you. I wouldn't be an artist if I didn't explain the art to my students. Just because you can put paints on a palette and then spread them on a canvas, that doesn't mean you can create a masterpiece. Think of your mana as the paint and nature as the canvas. When you put your brush to the canvas, the canvas absorbs the paint and then it dries to form a color. You can then use your brush to make strokes to spread that paint into the desired form. You can also mix paints together to achieve new colors but that is for another lesson."

"This exercise is to teach you how to properly use your palette when putting paints on it. Everyone, get into a relaxed and seated position. This will require your full attention." He gave a moment for everyone to adjust into a meditative posture and then continued. "The next step is to begin taking deep breaths. We will use a method of breathing known as square breathing. The reason you will use this method is because it is perfectly balanced like nature and will help your body get in tune with the art of magic. You will start by emptying your body of air with a deep exhale. Once this is done, you are ready to begin square breathing. Count a slow four seconds while inhaling, hold for another four seconds, then exhale for four more seconds, and then lastly hold for four more seconds. Repeat this over and over until you feel calm and in tune with your surroundings."

I sighed as I just listened to his words. Closing my eyes, I pushed all of the air out of my lungs. Then, I counted to four as I inhaled slowly, filling my lungs with air. I then counted another four seconds while I held my breath. I then released the tension by exhaling for four seconds. As I did this, I felt my body relax. As I held my empty lungs shut for another four seconds, I felt my body craving more air. It was a weird feeling that wasn't quite suffocation but also wasn't the most pleasant.

Once the four seconds were done, I broke the dam and sucked in a deep breath of air through my nose. As I did this, I felt energy flow into me. This euphoric feeling washed over my body. I felt the energy flow in through my lungs, through my stomach, then spread out to my arms and legs before coming back. This all happened while I was holding the fresh air in. As I let the breath out, the energy I had pulled in exited with my breath. While I held my empty lungs shut, I noticed something. There was some lingering energy from when I inhaled. I honed in on it and noticed something. It was sticking to my body's flow of mana! I wasn't able to directly feel it but I could almost visualize the internal flow by feeling where the foregin energy was being gradually absorbed.

Upon this shocking revelation, my eyes shot open and I tensed up, interrupting the breathing exercise. Looking around, I noticed a few others having the same reaction. Weirdly enough, my three friends were included in this group. They all must have experienced the same thing.

Louis laughed grandly. "It seems that we have a few prodigal artists in the room. For making the connection, 20 points to each of you! Allow me to explain what you all just experienced. When using square breathing, you can truly feel the flow of natural energy that intrudes your body with each breath. This energy that you take in will move along the pathways that your mana follows to circulate around your body to nourish it."

"Most of this energy will just circulate through your body and then depart with your breath, but some of it will remain and seep into your own mana, growing your mana pool temporarily. This is a great method of recovery when feeling tired but more importantly, it is the greatest tool for a beginner to better understand their own mana. Continue this exercise for the remainder of class and try to better understand your own mana flow. You'll find that this breathing method also doubles as a great way to enter a meditative state. It will clear your mind and lower your heart rate as your focus will be entirely on breathing and counting. Enjoy!"

Louis floated up from the floor and plopped down on the desk, falling back into a meditative state. Occasionally, he would yell things out to correct people's form and timing.

"Straighten your back to clear the path of the flow."

"Keep your head up to open your airways."

"Relax your muscles to ease the resistance."

"Stop peeping at the girls, pervert."

Aside from the occasional outburst, the remaining time passed by quickly and quietly. I found this breathing method quite relaxing and enlightening. I felt totally relaxed and in tune with my surroundings. The professor did leave us with a parting message, however.

Louis stood up on the desk. "It is now half past noon and class is over. You all did great today and I can see the budding seed of an artist in each one of you. Tomorrow, we meet here but then will be going outside. You are dismissed!" A portal opened and he disappeared.

Everyone was still confused by this unusual teaching method so we all shuffled out of the room silently. We all had put our belongings in our spatial rings or the spatial pouch built into our uniform so no one had to return to their seats.

On the bright side, it was lunch time now. I was eager to have another one of those wraps that Jacob recommended to me. Maybe I'd add bacon this time too!