The academy

The process of enrollment was rather simple, as the aptitude test was already taken, they had already given Jez a dorm room and explained the classes are extremely lax, as magic has to be learned at a personal pace, batch learning did little to help people learn. The academy was less of a school and more of a loosely shaped organization that teaches magic, the only requirement is that battle ready mages must be ready to muster during their stay at the academy. Battle ready is a designation for mages that become capable of combat. War magic is restricted outside of the academies. Jez was then led to the library to choose out a set of introductory war spells, Iron shield, flame lance and tracer fire. Iron shield produces a transparent barrier around the user out of mana with the metal attribute giving it strength and durability but makes it conductive. flame lance is medium to close range as it forms a lance of flames and a metallic mana core that can be used as a melee weapon as well as thrown for some range. Tracer fire was a ranged attack as it shot tiny balls of steel mana with a condensed fire core that detonates on impact. All of these spells have their individual cast times mana consumption and nuances. As soon as Jez received these spells he was shown to his room, which was only a bed, a drawer, a cabinet and hidden safe. It was a simple room but it would do, he left his room to enter the gym, which would be more similar to a military armory than a gymnasium, the walls were heavily reinforced and none of the walls in the inner room was load bearing. Jez sat in one of the corners of the room and started to practice Iron Shield, only on his arm to see how it would react. As soon as he put his mind to it, a burst of mana streamed towards his arm before producing a thin metal plate gauntlet over his hand, although it was stiff and didn't move, seeing this Jez started to tweak the design little by little until he had a gauntlet that extended part ways up his arm, he then tried to inject some chaos energy into the gauntlet, which underwent serious changes. The simple shape of the gauntlet became more jagged and primal and the grey blue of the plates gave way to blood red, a thin layer of blood mist wafted from it. He tightened his hand into a fist before punching it into the wall, which seemed to give way like butter, and as he pulled his hand back, red vein like patterns extended from the point of impact and broke the wall down even further, this caused Jez to quickly retract his Chaos energy to prevent people from noticing which was met with mild success  as the people who had noticed just blew it off as an advanced spell. Jez then chose to learn Tracer fire instead of flame lance, as Iron shield already worked as a half decent melee weapon. But he decided that it would be good to learn it at a different time to attract less attention. As he left the gym he inspected the daily course catalog and saw something of interest, 'introduction to advanced spells and casting', he might have jumped the gun with what he did earlier today in his gauntlet experiment. 'You think? You had no clue what was going to happen and had no understanding of the base principles, no matter what you have to learn from the basics up.' scolded Jake, who was quite annoyed with the complete and utter disregard for the scientific process. The class was not packed nor was it empty, most of the other students were young, probably the same age as Jez. Jez Sat down in the back of the classroom and waited for class to start. The teacher walked into the classroom he had set a book on a desk before turning to face the students. "Spells are the use of magic to affect and change the world using mana. As for what mana is? We don't know, but we do know the properties of mana can be adjusted with the physique of the caster, your aptitudes. We also know that mana is used in spells to change the normal rules of the world around you. Casting a spell that breaks more rules uses more mana to break said rules and has a weaker effect. An example of this would be like trying to split a log against grain and with grain, if i was to split a log into two pieces and cut against the grain it resists more and i use more energy reaching the same result, however if i was to split the wood with grain, than i could split it in an instant. Understood? Good, Now to talk on what rules to follow". Jez tuned out the rest of the lecture, he thought about how it pertains to the magic he uses, If he was to stack the individual "atoms" of metallic mana into crystal lattice structure, then wouldn't it become stronger than if you were just trying to change the aspects of the metallic mana. 'Looks like the information from your previous life will be more useful than expected' Chuckled Jez. Jez turned his attention back to the teacher, who was bringing the lecture to an end. "In conclusion, spells cast with the understanding of natural law included are more powerful and more efficient, these spells are called augmented spells, these spells are what differentiates good and bad mages. Almost all augmented spells are unique to the individual, as it requires the individuals understanding of the natural laws.", ending the lecture.