'It's hard...'
I realised after trying it out for the whole night, improving mana quality is no easy task.
I meditate all night long, exhausting my mana, drinking the recovery potion, then meditate again while letting our painful groan out of my mouth.
Pushing myself over the limit doesn't seem to work either.
'Should I try dying of mana exhaustion?'
Some reckless thought started to appear on my mind.
I then realised that it's already bright outside, and I haven't slept at all.
'Damn...'
I got up to prepare myself for the day.
---
(Few hours earlier, before class was over)
(Bang!)
"Headmistress!!"
I opened the door to the headmistress office in a hurry which resulted in a loud sound.
The headmistress is currently sitting on her desk and writing something on a piece of paper.
She then looked at me.
"What is it, teacher Liam?"
"Alex, do you know that he can use elements?"
"Yes, I do?"
"He uses spear as well right? Then he's a magic spearman!"
I said while basically shouting.
"Okay, okay, quiet down a little bit will you?"
"Oh, I apologies..."
I then continued to speak normally.
"Anyway, why don't you announce it in the staff meeting?"
"Why should I?"
"He's a rare talent! He should be guided properly so that he can utilise it!"
"Now now, teacher Liam..."
The headmistress gestures me to be quiet with her finger in front of her mouth.
"Tell me, what do you think of the noble class' first year?"
"I haven't seen them for myself yet, but I heard there is a rumour saying that an S-ranked aptitude appeared among them..."
"That's right, she's the direct descendant of Grand Duke Gracein"
"His daughter?! she's enrolled here?"
I exclaimed in surprise, then continued
"Why is a direct descendant of Grand Duke Gracein enrolled in the academy? I thought they have their own private lesson!"
"They do, but they want to hide her existence because the royal family is not safe at the moment... that's why she's enrolled here and due to the Grand Duke personally requesting me to hide her, I need something else to divert attention from her"
At her explanation, I opened my eyes wide.
"So, you're saying that you didn't tell anyone including the person in question so that he can be the centre of attention instead?"
"That's correct."
"But rumour has already spread that there is an S-ranked aptitude within first year of noble's class! There's no point in hidi-"
"We can kill rumour quickly, that's easy"
She said cutting me off, before continuing
"And he's not the only guy that's catching people's attention right now, his friends both has S-ranked aptitudes you know..."
"But-"
"That's enough, Liam."
Just as I was about to continue talking, she immediately emitted pressure powerful enough to froze me.
'I can't talk...'
I can't even move from my current spot.
"What happened within this academy is under my control, and you don't need to fuss over it. Just continue to teach your class as usual. Now, go back and don't bring it up with anyone else"
After saying that, she continued to work on her paper.
"Tch..."
I then clicked my tongue before leaving the room.
'There's this much difference?'
With that thought in my mind, I went back to the classroom where the students are at.
---
I washed myself up and got ready to go to class.
But before that, we gathered in the dining table just as usual to have breakfast together.
"..."
"Why do you look like you're dying, Alex?"
Adrian suddenly asked me.
"Do I?"
"Yeah, you have bags under your eye"
"I spent the night meditating, so I'm a little tired"
"Oh I see...."
I then asked them for tips regarding how to improve mana quality.
"Well, the easiest way is through medicine for sure, but raising it naturally through training is better than using medicine due to foundation purpose..."
"I see..."
"Anyway, take it slow... you've been training too hard nowadays."
"I will, don't worry."
After that, I stood up and got ready to walk to my class.
"I'll go to class first then, I might be able to sleep a little before class started. Wake me up when you arrive at the class later."
"Okay, take care..."
On my way to the class, I can't stop yawning even though I drank recovery potion.
It seems that although you can recover your mana and health, you can't recover fatigue instantly.
Arriving at the classroom, there another guy who's already here reading his book.
I then walk towards an empty seat at the back of the classroom and uses my hand as a pillow to sleep for a bit.
---
"Oi..."
"Wake up..."
"Hey!"
(Slap!)
"Ouch! What the f-"
I woke up feeling a slight pain on my cheek.
I was about to curse out loud when I realised its Kim Jaesuk who did it.
"You told us to wake you up..."
"True..."
"Pfft"
I turned around to see Adrian laughing while covering his mouth.
"What's so funny dude?"
"Nothing...lol"
The teacher then entered the class and it started.
As usual, although history class is boring, there a guy next to me who seems very interested.
Adrian.
He's paying attention to what the teacher is saying while writing something on his notebook.
After the class is over, we took a quick meal at the cafetaria before joining our next class, Spiritual Power.
There were no class last week because the teacher is out, but I can finally learn what is spiritual power.
Taking a seat around, there are lot of people in this class compared to other classes.
The teacher then walked in just a few minutes after we took a seat.
Then I know why this class has lots more people.
"Hi everyone!"
It's headmistress Alice.
'I'm sure she's not out last week though???'
"Before we start, let me introduce myself. My name is Alice, and I'm the headmistress of the academy as well as the teacher for this term's spiritual power... nice to meet you"
"NICE TO SEE YOU HEADMISTRESS!!"
Everyone's basically shouting at this point.
I then realised that the headmistress is looking at our way for a bit before starting her lesson.
"Okay, who here knows what a spiritual energy is?"
"Me, I know!!"
"Choose me!"
"I know better!"
Lots of people raised their hand straight away.
'What the heck?'
Other classes has never been this enthusiastic before, seems like everyone wants to show their good side to the headmistress.
Taking a look around the room, she looked at me a bit before calling out a name.
"Adrian."
"?!"
"Explain what spiritual energy is."
"Yes..."
I was surprised that she chose Adrian instead of the people who had their arms raised.
"So basically, spiritual energy is similar energy to mana which is provided to us humans by the spirit around us."
"That's correct, but not quite"
After that, she continued her explanation,
"The spirits does not provide energy to human only, it provides to ANY LIVING BEING. Before learning about spiritual energy, let's learn about spirit first..."
She started to chant a spell, and a magic circle appeared right in front of her that summoned out the bird who trained us before.
"This is the spirit I'm currently contracted with, Flamming."
The bird flew around for a bit before putting itself on headmistress' shoulder.
"To tell you guys the truth, the spirit actually does NOT favour human being. Rather, it despise human because of our nature, which is greed.
To satisfy our greed, we cut down trees, burn land, killed creature within the forest even though it's not necessary.
But of course, not all spirits hates human, such as Flamming over here."
She then patted the bird's head for a bit before continuing to explain about contract.
"Next is about contract. To summon a spirit is easy, but to form a contract with it is very hard.
Spirit, can see through human intention, whether you have good nature, or evil nature, which the spirits are very sensitive of.
That's why even if you've succeed in summoning a spirit, it's hard to form a contract with it.
The contract can't be forced as well, because when you summoned the spirit, it will only take spiritual form which can't be touched because it's real body is in the spirit world.
After you form a contract with it then it will form its' material body with your mana."
"Ohhh..."
The explanation continued for a while before she finally stopped.
"Now what I want you to do, is to try to summon a spirit and form a contract with it."
"Eh? But we're not a summoner though?"
She smiled slightly before answering a student's question.
"Now there's a saying that only summoner can summon a spirit. That's wrong.
Everyone can summon a spirit, but the difference is that summoner have a high amount of mana, which enable them to provide for the spirits to be used in a fight.
As for those who're not summoner, you can summon spirit as a company in your everyday life."
After that, we started to line up in front of a magic circle which the headmistress drew.
"Ah before that, Adrian doesn't have to do it. He already has a spirit after all..."
"Gasp!"
Everything then gasped and looked at Adrian for a bit before whispering among themselves.
I then snickered and whispered to Adrian.
"A centre of attention aren't you?"
"Dude, spare me will you..."
Then the first student started the first summon.