A Touching Moment

Next was my magic application class. I had no mana left from the fight so I was provided with 2 high-tier mana recovery potions. I drank them and that sensation of regaining my power was so sweet.

'Ahh, so much better.'

<i>I really went all out against Dengen huh? He was never this powerful in the game? It's strange, there are some characters with abilities that weren't in the game. Dengen never had final stand in the game for example. </i>

Well that just spoke for my inexperience, I needed to be prepared for situations like that, he really wasn't giving up though as if he was possessed by a demon. No matter how much damage he took he would just have kept going. <i>I just need to get even stronger!</i> Mage was looking really strong for me right now actually. I should focus on that for the time being.

I wiped my mouth with my sleeve after seeing that. I looked at my mana bar, it was 402/661. Not optimal but good enough. I saw that Akari was taking this class. Her job was a grand magician so it would suit her.

Jobs are titles that can boost a particular aspect of your character, you can change them as you wish. Usually, you would have selected your starter job at the start of the game. But people from this world don't even have jobs to start with.

So I would need to focus on getting those achievements. Some of the best jobs in the game were grand magician, hero, paladin, high priest and grand healer. The job I was aiming for wasn't any of these but I would only be able to obtain it by my second year.

'Hello everyone, I am Professor Altima, and I will be teaching your magic application classes.' People were whispering around me. Walter Altima was a war hero in a Great War 5 years ago.

Of course, people would be excited to have him as a teacher for this class. He was also a Ranker, someone who is in the top 50 most powerful people in the world. That was the part that had me excited.

'Everyone will be needing a partner for our first activity.' After about 2 minutes everyone had already chosen their partners. Everyone except Akari and me. Talk about a coincidence. I approached her first.

'Hey, Akari right? We talked before at the castle, guess we'll be working together!' She was surprised at my sudden approach but nodded quickly.

'Nice to work with you too Mordred!' She smiled, my heart lit up and I smiled back.

**

I didn't trust this Mordred guy. No man has ever approached me first before without an ulterior motive, so I had to stay cautious around him. <i>He's so much like Nii-san though.</i> I couldn't get it out of my head.

The way he talks, his small gestures, and even the way he walks. He was so much like Takeuchi, but I needed to get it out of my head. For now, though I needed to work with him.

'Everyone here should know about elemental reactions right?' <i>What is he talking about? I'm still so confused about this world.</i>

'Alright, for otherworlders who don't know, applying two elements together creates an interesting reaction. For example, lightning and water makes the water extremely dangerous to get near. It could even kill an ordinary person.'

<span><i>Seems simple enough, water just conducts electricity well and that's <span>all.</span> Not much to be confused about. </i></span>That's what I thought at least, then he started to get into the different types of mana and that's where he lost me.

'The reaction of ice mana and fire mana is quite interesting. Instead of destroying each other they make harmony with each other and are pretty stable. Lightning mana and fire mana have an extremely volatile reaction with each other.'

He was silent for a moment. 'It creates a huge explosion that would also shock nearby enemies and disable them for a minute or so. Never use this on an ally or experiment with this, it is highly dangerous.'

I was having a hard time understanding it, but that Mordred guy seems completely fine, maybe I should ask him for help.

'Hey, Mordred?' He turned to me with a relaxed expression on his face.

'Yeah, what's up?' He looked exactly like my brother, down to his expression.

'I'm having trouble understanding this concept.' He smiled and brought out a notebook from his bag.

'Here I'll help you out.' He started drawing various symbols. <i>Even his drawing is like my brother's!</i>

'You've cast fire magic, ice magic, lightning magic and others right?' I nodded my head. 'One important concept that you should know is that right now all the mana inside your body is neutral. It doesn't belong to any element.'

I nodded, it seemed pretty simple. 'When you cast any kind of spell, the mana turns from neutral mana into mana of the element of spell you're casting. If you're casting ice magic your neutral mana will turn into ice mana, that applies with any element.'

'Ahh, so if I cast fireball I'm turning neutral mana into fire mana?' He nodded his head.

'That's correct, so our professor is just talking about reactions between different types of mana.'

'But if that's the case how can you get just the pure mana, like right before it's turned into a spell?'

He rubbed his chin with his fingers. 'How to put it?' … silence. Then, 'Ah got it! Imagine you're casting a small flame in your hand, but right before that fire mana gets turned into a flame, stop casting the spell.' <i>Alright, I can do this. </i>

I gathered the mana into my hand. 'Flame!' But just before the flame in my hand started I ceased casting. I did it!

Floating above the palm of my hand I saw a cloud of red dust sort of.

'Yes, you've done it! Now hold that for a second.'

'Okay!' I looked down at my hand, the red dust felt pure and hot.

'Ice!' When I looked at Mordred, there was a light blue dust floating above his left hand.

'Wow, is that ice?' He nodded.

'Remember what the teacher said about ice and fire mana? How they actually harmonise with each other instead of destroying each other?' I nodded my head. 'Put your hand forward near mine, then start slowly trickling your fire mana into my ice mana. I did as he said.

I willed my fire mana into the ice mana, at first there was a bit of opposition but slowly the mana gave in and went into the ice mana. As I saw it slowly trickling into the ice mana Mordred closed his eyes and focused it seemed. I took my hand away

The ice mana started swirling around the fire mana. He used the flow of the ice mana to dictate the direction the fire mana went. The fire and ice mana swirled round and round into a shape of a beautiful pattern of waves.

It was mesmerising to watch, it felt like I was getting lost in the beauty of it. Then after some time he brought the fire mana back down, I held out my hands and the red mana then passed back into my hand then dispersed.

Clap, clap, clap, clap. People around us were clapping. I felt happy.

'You two, what are your names?' The professor was interested in us.

'Mordred Xander sir!'

'Ah, Akari Kisaragi sir!' He nodded his head in approval.

'Great job to both of you, five points to both of you.' After that, he dismissed the class. The first day of school was over. Phew, that was a long day. This world really is full of surprises huh? But magic, I love magic! I wanna be even better at it! Even better! I need to live up to my title as grand magician!

While I was walking back to my dorm, Mordred approached me again.

'Hey, Akari! Do you have any plans right now?'

'N-no, not necessarily.' What does he want?

'Then do you want to go and eat out in the city?' I stopped, I was frozen. I got flashbacks of Nii-san asking me out to eat lunch the day he got hit by that car. He must hate me. I said such horrible things to him.

Unbeknownst even to myself I had started tearing up. If only I was a better sister. If only I was less useless, he wouldn't have died. I started crying. There was no one around to see it except Mordred too.

'Hey Akari, don't cry Nii-san's always here for you? Didn't I promise you that I would always protect you that day when we got lost in the woods? Don't cry, it makes me sad too, it feels like I jumped in front of that car for no reason if you cry.'

I looked up at Mordred shocked. How does he know that? Why is he speaking like that?

When we were kids, Takeuchi and I got lost in the woods. I started crying.

'Promise me not to cry Akari. I will get us out of here, so just trust in your onii-chan, okay?'

'Mm.' I nodded, my legs were weak back then so he carried me on his back.

'Nii-san?' Mordred nodded and smiled.

'I'll always be here for you Akari!'