Mana Theory

Ding—!

[3 Edit Points have been rewarded]

"Did you choose this class purposefully?"

After my additional subject class ended, I was confronted by Amelia.

As fate would have it, I chose the same class as her.

Honestly, fate is such a prude little bitch. If only I had known the original story then I might have been able to avoid attending the same class as her.

Anyway, currently, in an almost empty kitchen classroom, Amelia was standing right in front of me.

Her silky raven black hair was tied into a bun and her emerald eyes, which appeared to have a shine of their own, were staring at me deeply.

"And how could I accomplish that?"

Unless the said person has revealed it themselves, there is no way for cadets to know what extra classes were chosen by someone.

The Academy follows strict privacy rules as there are a lot of children hailing from influential families who value their private information.

So, there is no way I could've known that Amelia would be in this class unless I hacked the Academy's system.

Amelia also knew this but she looked determined to find fault with me.

"Who knows, you might have been stalking me?"

"Isn't it the same as saying that I'm better than you?"

Amelia turned silent at my words. She must be thinking that I couldn't stalk her without being noticed. And since I was a noble who was kicked out of the family, and basically had no connections, there was no way for me to have known about this from other methods.

"Trust me when I say this Amelia, I for one don't want to be involved with you or anyone else for that matter. It's just your rotten luck that we both are seeing each other so much lately."

Narrowing her eyes, Amelia doubled the intensity of her gaze at my response. From her look, I could guess that she was clearly trying to hold her anger back. 

"Just know this, I'm not the same weak girl as back then. If you try to pull anything, I will certainly bring you down. And this time, Morningstars won't be able to save you."

Without bothering to even wait for my response, Amelia turned around and left through the door.

"Not the same weak girl, huh?"

No one knows it better than me.

She attended the same middle school as Lucas.

When she was 14, he tried to force himself on her.

Because Lucas belonged to the ruling family of the western continent, there was no legal action taken against him.

That event made Amelia realize how weak and powerless she really was. It must have inflicted severe trauma on her.

Amelia might've thought that she covered it up well, but I could clearly see through her act. She acts tough on the outside but suffers on the inside.

To overcome that trauma, Amelia pursued strength.

"Haaah, This is getting rather troublesome."

No matter how much I tried to avoid her, I somehow kept coming across her. And I am not so optimistic to believe that I can avoid her in the future.

Clearly fate, or to say, the story had already begun, and now everything must be flowing in the determined direction. And not knowing anything about it makes it harder for me to purposefully avoid her.

All I can do now is to play along and intervene at crucial moments.

******

"Mana, as you all may know already, allows one to bend the laws of the universe and grant them the power to make the impossible happen."

Starting today, cadets will be learning about mana theories

Although most of the cadets present here already know what mana is and how to manipulate it to control elements, our instructor, Liz, still decided to go over the basics.

"Now, I know many of you present here have already learned a spell or two, so you all may know this, but can someone tell me what exactly manipulating mana can let you accomplish?"

A few hands raised when Liz asked that question and without delay, she picked one of the cadets who raised their hand to answer.

-"Manipulating mana lets us control elements of nature like fire, water, wind, and earth. It can also strengthen our body to inhumane levels and let us accomplish feats unheard of in the past."

Wow, that was a perfect answer. But it looks like Liz had something more to add to it.

"True, but mana grants us much more than the ability to control elements. Aside from controlling the basic elements, you can control their variables. Now, who can tell me what variables are?"

Again, as soon as Liz shot a question, many hands were raised instantly.

With a satisfactory smile, Liz again picked her own protege, Nero, to answer.

"Each of the basic elements has a higher version of itself. These 'higher versions' are called variables.

"One element can have more than one variable and individuals with affinity to two or more elements can sometimes unlock a completely new variable.

"For example, the variable of fire is lightning. But the earth has two variables— metal and gravity. Also, if you mix earth element with fire, you'll create a new variable— magma."

After concluding his answer, Nero slightly bowed and sat back in his seat.

"As expected, brilliantly answered," Liz commented.

It was clear that she was showing favoritism towards Nero. But well, his answer was indeed beautifully summed up.

"Anyway, as I was saying, while mana grants us the ability to control elements of nature and their variables, we can control so much more than that.

"For example, people born with an affinity toward light can control light, and the same for the people born with an affinity for darkness.

"Both light and darkness are not related to nature. As such, both of these elements have so many unknown variables.

"For example, I use darkness to manipulate the souls of the dead. Some darkness users can even use necromancy. Whereas some light element users can move at the speed of light, bend it, and use healing magic."

At this point, half of the class was in awe.

Although all of the things which Liz just said were widely known facts, it doesn't make these things any less amazing.

Also since affinities for light and darkness are rare, most of the cadets present here don't have it.

As such, they will never be able to achieve the feats Liz was talking about.

Oh, by the way, fun fact– Lucas was born with an affinity for light.

But of course, the elements of light and darkness are hard to train as much as they are rare. So Lucas never once learned a light spell.

Sigh, he was truly an example of wasted potential.

"Anyway, for now, let's end here with theories and start practicing some real magic."

As soon as Liz spoke those words, the whole class started beaming with excitement.

"Now, those of you who have already learned some spells, come forward. Those who have yet to learn, remain seated."

And just as we were instructed, a handful of cadets got up from their seats and walked down toward the podium where Liz was.

Since Lucas had learned two basic spells before coming here, I too got up from my seat and started moving.

"Hmmm," after counting the number of the students who got up and came forward, Liz nodded.

"Okay. Those who haven't yet learned any spells, I will personally give you all some basic spells according to your elemental affinity." Liz took out a few scrolls from her dimensional bracelet as she said that.

After that, she started distributing those paper scrolls among the cadets who were still sitting.

Most of the cadets who didn't get up were commoners. Even Amelia and Anastasia were sitting.

It's no surprise since spells are filthy expensive. Only rich families could ever hope to afford them.

As I've explained before, there are multiple ways to cast magic spells— drawing, hand signs, chanting etc.

Of course, one can't mimic a spell merely by reciting a chant they overheard or redrawing a rune they saw somewhere.

No, to cast spells, one must not only know the meaning of those chants, drawings, or hand signs, but one must also know the particular way they have to move their mana in order to create a successful spell.

"Learn the spells written in these scrolls by next week. Since you all can already move mana within your bodies, spell casting won't be very difficult. The language written in these scrolls is High Elven. It's very similar to Latin and it's translated word by word in these scrolls for you all to grasp easily."

After allotting spell scrolls to the rest of the class, Liz turned toward the ones who were standing.

"Now then, you all. Since you all have already learned to cast spells, show me the best you can do."

I couldn't help but sigh after hearing those words from Liz.

However, the rest of the cadets standing beside me didn't react so calmly. They were confused.

-"Show you? You mean to hit you?" from my left, someone asked.

In reply, Liz nodded. "Yes, hit me with your best spell one by one."