The PCA (1)

"What are those two doing? Are they just practising basic mana manipulation? Shouldn't they already know how to do that?"

The supervisor stared at the students of classes 1A to classes 1D who were all testing out the facilities. They were playing around with equipment and experimenting with the technology.

Several students impressed her such as Rank 1 - Ryan Coeruleus, Rank 2 - Fiona Wilde, Rank 3 - Tobias Gravonide and Rank 5 -Jeanne Terrano.

Tobias and Jeanne were using their family's fighting styles to great effect, with Fiona's archery and Ryan's swordsmanship being a sight to behold.

Meanwhile, a guy and a girl were just sitting and doing what was equivalent to baby exercises.

She went up to the class 1C homeroom teacher who taught them to glean more information about them. "What are their ranks and potential."

"The girl's rank is 1326 while the boy's rank is 1438. Their potential is S+ and A respectively ma'am. They are both gift users." Vincent Wells responded, almost like a robot.

'What wait?' She nearly exclaimed out loud. Their ranks made sense relative to the skills they were displaying. Those two having gifts explained how they got into this school made sense considering their low abilities.

However, their potential made no sense compared to their skills. A rank potential was only reserved for the top 10, or top 20 at best.

While the S rank was so rare, that even getting one in a single year was a rarity. They were blessed this year with having 3 S+ ranks, but one of them was given to someone with that low of a ranking.

"What is the girl's name?"

"Her name is Alexia Terrano-Wix."

Well, that was a familiar last name. But the second half didn't make sense to her.

"Terrano? But why the hyphen at the end? I don't recall there being a Wix noble family."

Just before she was going to prod even further, she suddenly remembered who the S+ level prodigy was. "Oh, she's Vicky's daughter. That makes sense. Victoria Terrano was my commanding officer back when I was in the military."

She then immediately understood why she was given that S+ potential ranking. Talent such as hers doesn't appear regularly. But she was disappointed that Alexia only progressed this far.

"Little Alex has grown so much. The last time I saw her, she was much smaller and her hair was all black like her mother."

Then she turned her attention to the boy next to her.

"What is the boy's name?"

"He is Shivan De-Wani."

The supervisor couldn't recall anybody with that first or last name. There was nothing that should've awarded him the A potential.

"Who evaluated him."

"Ma'am, according to the report, it was Jeremy Walker."

Jeremy was a retired military general. He wasn't a powerful fighter but his intelligence and commanding abilities were outstanding. 

He graduated from the PCA's academic branch and was renowned for bringing out the best in his soldiers, especially when he was dealing with gift users.

(AN: The academic branch serves as an early university for talented academic students. Depending on the course chosen, they may take longer than 4 years to graduate.)

"If it is Jeremy, then leave it. He's got a lot of experience and his predictions are rarely wrong. We'll see his progress this year and we'll change his potential if he doesn't do as well as expected."

***

The lesson ended after an hour and everyone returned to class. As Shivan was leaving, he saw the next group of classes enter the training area.

Though the PCA's combat branch was specifically made so the students could fight aberrants efficiently, they still had to complete the basic curriculum. Maths, English, Science and other subjects were all essential along with electives.

After an arduous maths lesson, which Shivan didn't find that bad, he had his final lesson of the day - Magic Class.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) for him Alexia was in his class, so she gestured for him to sit next to her. Though he couldn't understand why she got attached to him, Shivan had no reason to refuse her.

Our teacher then came into class, introducing herself as Mrs. Evergreen.

"What is magic?" She asked that question as soon as the class underwent.

Many enthusiastic students put their hands up to answer the question. She picked a boy who was sitting near the front.

"Magic is one of the three branches of the Thaumaturgical System. It involves using mana to create or manipulate existing objects for various uses." His response was straight out of textbook.

"That's a good answer. But I want more. Give some examples of uses of magic and how it achieves this effect?"

Pick another student, her answer was...

"Magic can be used to create fireballs, earth spikes or even deploy barriers. Casting magic involves the creation of magical formulas, similar to writing code. Each symbol represents a different aspect of the magic being cast."

"Hm." The teacher nodded in approval. "Asking any more of you is unfair, so I'll take over from here.

Erica, in your answer you also missed that casting magic can be sped up by incantations or hand signs.

Now that we all have a basic understanding of magic, I'll start my lecture.

Magic along with mana manipulation and innate techniques comprise the Thaumaturgical System.

They define three ways mana can be used. Magic is the most studied branch due to its infinite possibilities and how everyone can use it. Though talent is involved, the fact that is it universal still stands.

Magic also has the most uses out of combat, which also contributes to its status as the most researched. Though we'll primarily focus on the combat uses.

Magic has a major disadvantage compared to the other two branches. That being casting speed. Magic requires some level of a combination of incantation, hand movements and imagination to use.

But mana manipulation has little versatility, so for the non-gifted, magic is required. Gift-users' gifts are very versatile and lack the casting speed problem, so many stick solely to them. Though gift users should learn some magic as well, as they can also prove useful."

After concluding her introduction, a student put his hand up to ask to question.

"Umm... Mrs Evergreen, I know the difference between innate techniques and the other two, but what is the specific difference between mana manipulation and magic." He spoke nervously.

The teacher had a thoughtful look on her face before answering. "I guess I can explain it this way. Let's say mana is electricity.

Mana manipulation involves the direct control of electricity to complete. It is very difficult to do and you're very limited in your uses. The most basic use is enhancing yourself and the weapons you wield.

While magic requires the creation of a machine to achieve certain things, making electricity more useful. You can now refrigerate and microwave food, vacuum etc. That creation is the casting time.

Meanwhile, gift users have a built-in machine in their brains that they can use. Since the machine is already pre-built, they can immediately use the electricity to power it.

Got it?"

The student nodded in understanding.

After answering some more questions, the teacher got over to what she planned before.

As part of the first lesson, Evergreen gave everyone a metallic cube that was glowing blue.

She told them to solve the magic formula inside the box. The faster a person could do it, the more talent for magic they had.

After starting the stopwatch, everyone tried to unscramble the formula as fast as possible.

'Well, I'll give it my best shot. How hard could it be?'

***

Very hard. 

It's been ten minutes and Shivan nearly finished it. The others in the class including Alexia finished all within two minutes, while he was the only one still going. 

At this point, the teacher ignored him and started going with the rest of the class. Shivan did understand what he had to do, but the issue was that the formulas were barely responding to him.

It was like threading a needle, but the eye of the needle was smaller than the thread. 

Eventually, after 12 minutes and 49 seconds, he was finished. He wiped the sweat off his brow and sighed in relief.

Shivan decided he would hand in his box after class so he wouldn't be the laughingstock of the class. That would be annoying.

Soon, 40 minutes later, class ended and everyone started to leave. The school day was over and Shivan could finally go to his dorm.

Just before he left, he handed the magic box to his teacher.

"Mrs. Evergreen, I'm done." 

After looking at Shivan's time, she sighed, probably in disappointment.

"Shivan. Do you know how bad of time you got?"

"I don't know." Nor did he particularly care. His interest waned as soon as he finished it. Obviously, Shivan didn't voice his thoughts.

"An average civilian can finish this box in 5 minutes or less. I've never seen someone do this badly on the Magic Formula Box. I must say, you have absolutely no talent in magic."

Shivan found her statement to be pretty harsh. Most people would be really sad if they heard that. But he only found a benefit.

"Does that mean I don't have to attend these classes anymore?"

"Haaaah... Fine, it is pretty useless to you if you come to these classes. Dispelling magic and engraved magic doesn't start till the second semester so you don't have to come till then."

'Well, that's nice.'

On Shivan's first day of school, was able to gain a free period nearly every day.