Basic Magic Training - 2

A rambunctious laughter came from one of the students seated in the front row. It was a guy who was around 1.7 meters in height, a bit on the heavy side.

Xander recognized him: he was the son of an international shipping mogul, Faykes Valentine. He was one of the few people in class who was already an Elite-4. What's more, he's just 16 years old as well! He wasn't from the Delta or Gamma region, but was at the Beta region, located by the seaside of Ete continent.

"Bravo! Someone finally taught that Faris a lesson, haha!" Faykes chortled, and others who knew him couldn't help but laugh as well. Xander knew that this person, albeit young, had a lot of connections already, from ranging from middle-class families and aristocrats to government and military families.

Xander smiled and approached Faykes, raising his hand for a greeting.

"Hi there. My name is Xander Cloverfield. What's your name?" Xander asked calmly, still retaining his smile. Faykes grabbed his hand and shook it while he introduced himself.

"The name's Faykes Valentine. So you're the so called centennial genius, eh! Looks quite right to me." Faykes briefly eyed Xander, before letting his hand go, nonplussed.

"Thanks for the compliment." Xander smiled in response and continued to greet the other students. After around an hour of socializing, most of the seats were already filled with students, but the teacher wasn't there yet. Xander wasn't anxious as the class officially begins in half an hour.

For the remainder of the time, he decided to check the course curriculum.

Basic Magic Training

Description: Teaches the basics of magic formation, casting, and theory.

Sections:

Magic Theory (1)

Magic Theory (2)

Magic Meditation (1)

Magic Meditation (2)

Magic casting: Magic selection

Magic casting: Instantaneous casting

Magic casting: Spell switching

Magic casting: Introduction to Spell fusion

Magic Practice (1)

Magic Practice (2)

Magic Practice (3)

While looking at these subtopics under Basic Magic training, Xander couldn't help but feel thrilled; he was learning magic in a structured way, not just by reading, but also by practicing! Xander had already downloaded the books required for this class; he was a bit surprised since he had already read these books from cover to cover 2 years ago; he had already memorized it by heart and even received some inspiration from it.

Half an hour later, the room opened from the outside the a steady figure entered the classroom. Everyone returned to their seats and sat down quietly. Xander observed the teacher distantly; he didn't feel the need to develop much interaction towards a Legendary-1 teacher, especially one that has been stuck on the same stage for 50 years.

Although she looked young, Xander had already seen the information about this teacher: Sandra Lim, 187 years old, Life and Wood element, majoring in Botany and a Doctor of Medicine. She had served as a field doctor in the military, as well as served in the public health division of the government.

Although she had experience and the connections, Xander immediately crossed her out from potential allies and networking source for two main reasons.

One, she was old, meaning she has experience, meaning it is possible for her to easily outwit me or even manipulate others around me…not. She is simply a risk factor the moment I add her, given that she has too many considerations. At the same time, I have no leverage at all against her so I can't control her in any way.

Second, her history is quite suspicious. With the help of the system, He had watched the recording of the meeting that took place the same night after he had done the contract signing with the 2 sprites. Since their consensus is making me feel "loyal" to the country with forcing me to be, could it be they would start doing so through the people I interact with? Xander smiled grimly to himself, shaking his head.

What a pity, Xander spoke softly. It seems no one can be fully trusted. He was shaken out of his musings as the teacher, Ms. Lim, cleared her throat, and said,

"Hello, students. Welcome to Grand Hyatt University. I am going to be your teacher for this semester, Sandra Lim. You can call me Ms. Lim or Ms. Sandra. I assume most of you have interacted while waiting for the class to start, so I wouldn't need any introductions. Now that introductions are done, let's begin with the lesson."

With that, a projection appears behind her, specifically, a model of some sort. Others were quite confused with the model, but Xander had already seen this model countless times: A magic circle, specifically, a 2nd-class magic circle, as it had 2 concentric circles.

"Magic circles are basics of the basics, the foundation of magic."

"To understand what magic circles are used for, let's first recall that magic casters are divided in stages, commonly known as classes."

"The first class is known as the Mundane stage; this class is where one adjusts and adapts to the elemental particles around us. At the same time, this is where one begins to select a particular element as their primary element. It is quite common to have 2 or 3 primary elements. However, having more than 3 primary elements can be considered both a blessing and a curse for the magician."

"The body is the vessel for magic, and it is also the medium in which magic and elements are released. If one would look back in our history, magicians had weaker bodies when compared at the same stage. At the same time, you should have noticed that ancient treasures or artifacts such as orbs, wands, and staves/rods/staffs were common tools where magic is channeled and elements are gathered."

"The Mundane stage is basically the culmination of research from ancient past, reducing the amount of artifacts for our powers to be channeled to, allowing most, if not all, magicians to cast spells without implements and strengthen the body's affinities."

"The second class is known as the Elite stage; during this class, one creates a total of 9 magical seeds in which each one contains their own unique structure, and this structure contains a magic spell, and is considered a pseudo-magic circle."

Ms. Lim immediately showed a new projection. There it showed 9 magic seeds, each one having their own pseudo-magic circle.

"I mentioned that these magical seeds are unique to the magician, and even if you have the same spell with another person, the pseudo-magic circle you produce will never be identical. Why so, you may ask. This is because of the process how a magic seed is formed."

She flashed another projection, and showed two pseudo-magic circles for the spell, "Iridescence", a light-magic spell. When she zoomed in on the same location of the circle, the runic writings were different.

"A magic seed is formed by two things: The primary elements, and the life force of the magician. When they form, they aren't 100% complete; it requires the magician to transform the inner structure of a magic seed into the structure of the magic circle of their selected magic, turning their magic seeds into pseudo-magic circles."

"Thus, you may choose the same magic spell to transform into a magic seed, having the same runic structure, but the moment your life force perfects and controls the seed, the structures begin to change to suit you."

"Of course, majority of clans have their own fair share of spell models different from the classics. These were models from their powerful ancestors, and each modified spell model is passed down. So if we count the spell, "Iridescence", being inherited by 3 different clans, by the first generation, there would be 3 different spell models for it; by the 2nd generation, there would be a minimum of 6, and so on."

"When selecting spell models to use as a magic seed, what one generally looks for is a balance of form stability, power output, and elemental compatibility. This is because of the next class, the Master stage. Before one reaches the Master stage, one needs to have a thorough understanding about their set of magic seeds. This is why the very first magic seed spell you select is usually the most important; it can dictate the compatible spells you can select on future stages within the Elite class that would have the greatest compatibility with it, making the comprehension of these magic seed spells faster and more complete."

"This is a vital step if you want to break through to the Master class, as it requires one to use their comprehension and understanding of the magic seeds to create their own Magic Circle, meaning a brand new spell, and becomes part of their foundation."

Ms. Lim showed the first projection; it was a 2nd-class Magic circle.

"Here, you can see a 2nd-class magic circle, with 2 concentric circles. The number of concentric circles usually determines the strength, quality, and rarity of the magic spell. Classes of magic circle exist as well, ranging from 1 to 81."

"From 1st class to 9th class, it is considered to be average quality.

From 10th to 18th class, it is considered above average.

From 19th to 27th, it is considered High.

From 28th to 36th, it is considered near perfect.

From 37th to 45th, it is considered perfect.

From 46th to 54th, it is considered Legendary.

From 55th to 63rd, it is considered Mythical.

From 64th to 72nd, it is considered Demigod.

From 73rd to 78th, it is considered Divine." Ms. Lim explicitly listed the classes of magic circles to the students. One of them noticed what was wrong and asked,

"Ms. Lim, how about the 79th, 80th, and 81st class of magic circles? What do we call these spells that reach this class?"

Ms. Lim looked at the chubby kid with glasses and responded,

"Michael, right? Well, beyond the 78th class magic circle, no one has actually seen one, in the entire history of our civilization. You kids should know about sprites, correct? The oldest known sprite, the Heavenly Tree sprite, can cast magic spells, and it only has one 79th class magic circle which, according to records, was only cast once in the history of our planet."

"Oh I've read this! The spell's name is "Heavensfall", right? According to our history, a vicious being from the stars appeared and attempted to devour the planet! According to magic historians, it was estimated that the being was at least a Demigod class expert!" Faykes shouted, interrupting Ms. Lim. Ms. Lim nodded, and continued,

"According to historic records, it seemed to have happened 20,000 years ago. The monster was immediately destroyed, leaving only the magic core. The Heavenly Tree sprite was then said to keep it sealed and hidden, unknown to all."

Xander wasn't surprise that his classmates knew of the existence of alien beings, those that did not belong to their planet.

After all, in the recorded history of various clans, cities, countries, and races, numerous times had everyone in the planet united to fend off these beings from entering and ravishing their homeworld.

"Of course, I say by no one, I meant it as publicly known. This also revolves around the safety of the magician, the people behind the magician, and as a type of trump card. Who would want their abilities to be fully exposed to a potential enemy, within the planet or outside of it?"

"Now, going back to magic circle quality, similar to your first magic seed spell, your first magic circle quality determines whether you would have an easier time to reach Legendary class, and continues to affect your chances of reaching the Mythic class!" Ms Lim lectured passionately, igniting these group of students to be above the others. Xander just laughed inwardly at them; he could see that these students were easily riled up by the discussion.

He was wondering about something, however. Technically, the spells he had been making were Master class spells, or advanced magic spells, with the exception of [Absolute Defense] and [Absolute Time]. The thing though, he didn't use any of his elite class' seeds to comprehend and create these spells…

Beyond that, Xander had noticed whenever he cast a spell from the 5-elemental series, however, there weren't any concentric circles at all; it was just a dot of light. When he tried focusing his eyesight on the dot of light, he could see that there were thousands upon thousands of runic writings continuously shifting and changing in form and structure every second.

It was also the same case for his advanced magic spells; whenever they were cast, there weren't any fancy concentric magic circles appearing, but rather a dot of light. Xander thought for a minute, before wondering: Could it be possible that with the help of the system's optimization and my naturally endowed talents, my advanced spells have already reached the so-called 81st-class magic circle?

Maybe, at this stage, the number of concentric circles were already to the point that there is no more space in the middle, resulting the formation of a dot? Maybe, the 81st class magic circle refers to magic returning to origin, of its essence as a spell? After all, the ever-transforming runic writing seemed to showcase this idea, where one is at the point of multiple possibilities.