SORCERY

(A/N: Warning. Expositions ahead)

"Congratulations, its an honour to be tasked with educating the next generation of Sorcerers, Carl."

"Thank you very much, ma'am. I consider it a great honour as well."

"Good. However, don't get carried away and reveal knowledge those kids aren't supposed to know yet."

"I won't ma'am."

"Make sure to answer their questions. They are kids. Reach out to them. Underneath that puberty is a desire to learn. It's your job to yank it out."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good. You may go now. I believe your students are waiting."

"Yes, ma'am. I'll be taking my leave now."

Carl stood from the seat and bowed towards the woman sitting on the other side of the desk. She was a tall woman with caramel hair tied into a bun.

She was an Ascended Sorcerer with the occupation that would be akin to a Principal in modern school terms. On her desk was a large tablet which she kept scrolling and typing on as she spoke.

Carl exited the office and walked down the pristine white corridor of the building and turned left into a hall that led to a massive double door entrance at the end .

On top was inscribed the words "Lecture Hall".

This place was an Outspace.

A branch of the Mobius of Arcana. This one was a school for new talents. A school.

Outspaces were sub-dimensions where important structures were set up by the Mobius for protection. Student protection was even more so important and having children learn while in a volatile place like Eriss was too much of a risk, especially given that the Order was on the loose.

Even recruits were getting scarce as the threat of being affiliated with the Mobius was extremely high. Most just didn't want to take the risk.

Carl had just reached the Elite Sorcerer Rank and was thus given a new job, graduating from following Ascended Sorcerers around.

His job was to teach the youngsters the basic principles of sorcery.

Basic principles were etched into every Sorcerer as they grew and almost all could teach them as long as they had a mouth.

Upon entering he saw a wide space that was fit to be called a theater more than anything else. Seats were assembled, ascending till they reached all the way to the back.

At the front was a huge light screen that had the words LH1 constantly disappearing and appearing like a screensaver.

It was the Sorcery version of a projector, the only difference being that the images projected on the light screen had to be conjured from Sorcery.

On the seats, were children that looked to be middle schoolers, donning dark blue robes as well as formal shirts, ties and pants underneath; skirts for girls.

These youngsters were socialising and chatting without a care, most not even noticing Carl standing in front of them.

Clap! Clap!

Carl clapped his hands to gain their attention.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen. Class is in session. Please take your seats and pay attention," he said.

Reluctantly the students went to their seats, some continuing to talk thereafter.

There were roughly a hundred students in the hall, making it quite a big class.

"Alright. I'll be taking you for the basic Sorcery class. My name is Carl Gilber. You can call me Mr Gilber," he said, looking around at the different faces. Some held excitement, some indifferent while some were already looking for comfortable positions to sleep."

This was a tough crowd.

Carl didn't want to make a bad first impression, otherwise these little brats would think him a pushover.

He took a deep breath and released a pulse of transparent energy that rippled in the room like a wave. It struck each and every one of the students making them sit upright and quiver lightly.

Carl's gaze became extremely stern and his eyes glowed a deep shade of green that emphasised his natural eye colour.

His brown hair fluttered a little from the demonstration of power.

The whole room was drowned in his Essence.

"Let me make something clear, children. I'm your teacher, not your daddy or your babysitter. I'm here to teach deserving students, not runts who are here to waste such a divine opportunity to learn the secrets of their powers. I can easily get you expelled and back to the mortal world where you will die someday without so much as a morsel of recognition."

That was a lie.

He had no such authority, but it made the scenario sombre enough to invoke the children's attention.

Amidst all the panic and fear that the students were experiencing, one little girl with a side ponytail was biting her lips in enthusiasm, her eyes glowing at the display that Carl had just done.

"Now, can anyone tell me the specifics of how our world came to be so unnatural. Hmm? Anyone? None at all.. Well that's unfortunate I was-"

"Me! Me! Me!" the little girl with a side ponytail raised her hand with an almost sycophantic zeal.

She had hesitated at first to lift her hand and answer, thinking some of the other students would he more knowledgeable, but she saw the opposite. She was the only one raising her hand.

"Yes.. you. What's your name?" Carl asked with a sigh.

"My name is Diana."

"Yes, Diana. Can you please give us an answer?"

"Yes. Ahem.. There were three worlds. Modas, the human world, Absodahl the Night Spawn world and the Spirit World that covers all.

However, the Grand Outbreak, a phenomenon that caused the Spirit World to shatter, changed everything, making unique energies from the Spirit World to meld into Modas and Absodahl. The energies were too much to handle, so Modas broke into 6 individual worlds that now exist distant from each other while they made a crack in Absodahl.

Thereafter, the Modas worlds, due to exposure to the unique energies birthed the Gifted, the Sorcerers and the Deviants."

'Sigh. That's the textbook explanation, huh? Well at least it seems coherent enough,' thought Carl.

"Good, Diana," he said. "We are unique existences because of an accident that happened a long time ago. It's a gift. One not received by everyone. Which is why I stress that you use this opportunity wisely.

Delving into sorcery is not easy. In total only a few get past the apprentice stage, because the energy we have to manipulate is tough to handle with a normal human mind."

A young boy in the front row raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"Um sir. I read the books we received on sorcery but the terms used made it difficult for me to understand how exactly we can manipulate our energy," the boy said.

'Right. If you had read the books you'd know that it's called Essence not energy.'

Diana raised her hand again.

"Yes?"

"Can I answer his question?" she said with delight.

'Hey! I'm the teacher here. I even put up a show to make you brats pay attention and now you're stealing the show?' Carl thought.

He gave a very kind smile towards Diana, who felt a chill from seeing it.

"Sure. Educate them," he said.

"Un! Sorcerers are special because we manipulate a certain energy that is in the atmosphere known as Raw Essence. To normal humans it doesn't register to their senses, but to us, we awaken an additional sense that we call World Sense to perceived this raw essence.

This is the prerequisite to becoming a Sorcerer. After that, one has to work on making World Sense, which is rooted in the mind, into World Flow, which is a state where the mind is able to interact with external forces. Achieving this is what makes one an Apprentice," she said while puffing up her chest.

"Yes that's correct," Carl gave a smile to Diana.

'I would have sounded so professional while saying that to the class.'

"Right. Let me take it from here," Carl said seeing that Diana was happy to lead the class in his stead.

'Sit your ass down. I'm stealing back my thunder.'

"Sorcery has stages of mastery and power. Mastery is how much of an art of sorcery you have comprehended, while Power, is the amount of Essence you can control.

Apprentice, Novice, Intermediate, Elite, Ascended and Grand Sorcerer.

These are the ranks that you must look to. Mastery and Power are necessary to achieve these. If you have only mastery and no power, you can be obliterated by pure unbridled power. If you have power only, skill can also best you. But having both makes it so that you are a force of nature. Now le-"

"Sir!" Diana raised her hand and said.

"Yes," Carl gave another smile, with his eyes like little crescents.

"You left out another rank."

"I was getting to that, Little GIRL!" he said with a big smile whole also gnashing his teeth.

"Indeed. There's a rank above Grand Sorcerer. Its called the True Sorcerer Rank. But you don't have to worry about that for now. Only three people in our hundreds of thousands of history have ever reached that stage.

What we must now talk about is how to handle Raw Essence," he said while smiling and glaring at Diana who was about to say something else.

"To use Raw Essence, you must be able to handle it. We use what are called Arcana Crests to draw in raw essence effectively. They are structures that we implant into our minds and use along with World Flow to perceive and absorb Raw Essence into our beings.

The mind is different from your brain. It is the crystallisation of your soul. It's where your consciousness lies. Where all your delicate memories and features as YOU reside.

Our minds make us special. They are capable of perceiving what normal people can't. We get stronger through this, storing the Raw Essence within our minds and shaking our very being to perfection. That's the essence of a sorcerer.

The capability to make growth apparent in the soul."

The students were now paying attention. In awe at his words.

'Let's take it up a notch,' he thought.

"Now Sorcery also has variety. Different Fields. For example," he said as he raised his hand and swept his fingers slowly in the air.

A stream of thin circling bolts of lightning rotated around Carl's fingers, crackling powerfully as they lit up the space around him in white.

"Destruction," he said.

He stretched his hand, and grabbed the bolts of lightning, which gathered into his hand and formed a small black orb that then exploded silently, covering his figure which then vanished from their eyes leaving only the light screen behind.

"Phantasm," he said, and then appeared before their surprised gazes.

A circular ring appeared beside him, with different strings of writing all around. From the ring appeared a beetle, roughly the size of a football with sharp mandibles that glowed with a blue hue as they only clacked once before the entire insect was dragged back down the ring.

"Summoning," he said.

A dark mist latched onto his body and enveloped him in a split second. Then he disappeared.

"Law Sorcery," Carl's force was heard as he walked into the class again.

"And Divining Sorcery. However, demonstrating that one would take away from the demonstration's ... flow," he said and smiled.

"This is what you'll be capable of doing if you work hard in this place," he said. "Any questions?"

Almost the whole class raised their hands, and Carl cursed himself for asking.

He deliberately dodged Diana and went for another little girl with pig tails behind her.

"You," he said pointing at her.

"I wanted to ask. What kind of sorcery do you use to travel to other worlds? Is it law Sorcery as you demonstrated?" she asked.

"Good question. Though, also dangerous. Travelling through worlds is a very tricky endeavour because the only way to do so is to enter the Spirit World. Law Sorcery is only necessary for opening a path into the spirit world.

Traversing through it to go to another world or even Absodahl, requires a spirit guide. And trust me there are barely ones that do humans solids," Carl answered.

The girl nodded and sat down to think.

Carl picked another one.

"Sir, why are the Night Arts banned from use? Wouldn't being able to contract Night Spawn be helpful for any Sorcerer?" asked a young boy with large rimmed glasses.

"So you do know your stuff but refuse to participate in class? <Sigh>. The answer to that is simple. Night Spawn are a race of dangerous beings. Unlike summoning creatures from the Spirit World, contracting Night Spawn requires a transaction, which might not be in your favour as they are the ones that set the contract. The effects of a failed contract would be cataclysmic," he said.

The boy raised his hand again even more energetically.

Carl clutched the bridge of his nose and sighed.... it was going to be a long session...