Magic Meditation (1)

Xander, who was technically the victim, was confused and surprised by the sudden physical touch employed by Maryann. He had a weird feeling bubbling inside his mind.

He didn't know how to describe it, but it felt weird? He immediately checked the smartwatch health monitoring application, which immediately did a full-body scan of his current state.

According to the results, he had elevated heartbeat, as well as increase in neurotransmitters being produced and used by the brain. Xander thought for a moment before realizing: It seems what I am experiencing is what they call "puppy love?" or something similar to it, Xander thought to himself. He wore a pensive look.

In the meantime, Maryann was bumbling around attempting to apologize to Xander. After all, she thinks Xander didn't like physical contact. The momentary pensive look he showed also supported her thoughts.

"Ah! S-s-sorry Xander. I forgot you didn't like being touched! It was an accident, really!"

"Hmm. No worries. I never said I didn't like being touched." Xander mumbled audibly, causing some of the girls who were in class, but acutely listening to the conversation between the two students perk their ears up. Some of them also glanced at each other, as if formulating a plan.

After all, these girls saw Xander... as their own small brother! He was sooo cute!

All of them were teenagers compared to Xander, who was like an interesting younger sibling.

"A-ah, is that so... it seems I overreacted. Sorry about that, Xander." Maryann still apologized, forcing Xander to well, 'forgive' her.

"Anyways, I haven't seen James or Alexa. are they skipping class?" Xander asked curiously, attempting to shift the topic.

"Eh? Xander, you haven't heard yet?" Maryann was perplexed at Xander's question. She had thought that Xander might have heard the news.

"What heard? I was in my laboratory the whole week. What happened?" Xander responded puzzledly.

Before Maryann responded, it was another voice who responded to Xander's question, another girl in class. He recognized her; her name was Valerie Verdny, of the Verdny clan in Alpha province of Eta. The clan had a Divine magician ancestor and several Demigods elders managing the family.

"Both James and Alexa had to withdraw due to personal circumstances. I'm sure you remember what happened 4 days ago, right Xander?" Valerie said, her voice hinting at something.

Xander then realized that it seems their families were also affected by the backlash, with the demigods of their families being out for the count.

"Oh, the magic wave, right? It was quite surprising actually! I actually raised my cultivation to Master-1 after I had woken up from the trance, haha." Xander said, scratching his head. Of course, he couldn't just tell them that he was already Master-9 and was just planning to breakthrough once his birthday comes.

However, upon hearing what he said, Maryann, Valerie, and the other students in the class froze, not sure if what they heard was correct.

"W-w-what did you say? You reached Master-1?"

"Yeah, it was a surprise really. I had prepared my pseudo-spells beforehand luckily, allowing me to integrate them seamlessly to the magic seeds! I just needed to combine and form my master-1 unique spell to advance. Shocker, right?" Xander said, releasing a portion of his power, showing his fellow students he was already a master magician. Of course, the release of power was only up to Master-1 level, with the help of [Absolute Defense] and his increased control over the origin elements, he could easily disguise his true power if necessary.

He didn't really plan to brag about his current cultivation with his classmates, given that they had their own pride and were in an age that were sensitive to hormonal changes.

Maryann, who was now an Elite-6, couldn't believe it. Even Valerie, who recently advanced to Elite-7, couldn't understand how it happened. After all, she had received numerous instructions from the family ancestor concerning Xander, who seems to be the reason why the whole thing happened in the first place.

Some of the older guys and girls were in awe, however, at Xander. One even approached him.

"U-um, Xander, can you tell me what I should do to have a faster way to advance, while making my foundations stable? Can you teach me?"

Seeing that brave girl, more and more girls approached Xander, some taking the opportunity to touch his hands and even his hair. Xander didn't mind it much; they were harmless gestures anyways.

"Uh...you're Carly, right?"

"Waah! He remembered my name, so cute!!!" Carly, the first girl who approached Xander, gushed. Xander couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Hey, hey Xander, call me by my name too! Serena. S-E-R-E-N-A. Oh my gosh so cute!"

"Ugh, shut it bitch! Xander, call out my name too, hehe. Faeria."

"No, call my name first!"

"Stop pushing!"

"Ohmygosh, he rolled his eyes, so cute!"

Some of the guys were crying frustratingly, unsure why there's such an injustice among people with talent. Why did you have to be cute, talented in cultivation, and smart at the same frickin' time!

One of the brave guys, a dude who was Elite-7, coughed and tried to approach the girls, saying,

"No worries girls, I can help you with your cultivation problems, just-" Before he could even finish his words, a barrage of deadly looks and mocking stares came from the girls.

"Hu-uh? Who is this clown?"

"Ugh, not even cute to look at. Why does he keep on talking?"

"Why are there walking trashes near us? Valerie, can't you use your powers to sweep these kinds of trash?"

"Yeah, yeah Valerie, you are the strongest one of us, hehe ~ save us from harassment!"

The brave boy could not do anything but swallow his words and retreat back to the guys when he saw them calling for Valerie, who everyone in class knew had a hatred for boys and championed the girls. The guys, on the other hand, sneered at the guy who retreated back and looked again at Xander.

Most of them were curious, while some were genuinely interested at Xander's capability and mastery of magic.

Xander coughed, loudly, trying to get the attention of the girls. The girls, on the other hand, just screamed after seeing him act so mature for his age. It was like imagining their younger brother wearing a small suit trying to be professional. Seeing that his actions had no effect, Xander sighed before utilizing his [5-elements foundation] spell, launching 3 simulated spells in succession.

[Silent Wave]

[Calming Heart]

[Quiet Breaths]

Each spell targeted the following: the screaming girls' voices died down, their adrenaline and blood pumping slowed down, and the last ensured that they do not open their mouths to say anything. [Silent Wave] literally did as it is titled: it killed all the noise produced by the girls in the area. [Calming Heart] decreased the movement of water and blood within the targets in the area. [Quiet breaths] involved the elements of air, sound, and life; the three elements purposely controlled the contraction of muscles, reducing one's heart rate.

If [Quiet Breaths] was used in junction with [Calming Heart], it can rapidly decrease heart rates, mania, and shock brain function; it was as if one received a cold shower, but instead of the heart spiking up, it normalized its beating.

Upon experiencing the 3 spells cast in succession, the girls were both surprised, scared, and a bit...turned on? Their faces were quite red, even the guys who were also within the area of effect were as well.

"Ok, now I can speak." Xander spoke, his voice childlike still, but to the observant listener, who was obviously absent in a room full of teenagers, his voice contained a hint of aged tiredness.

"Um, Carly and the girls, as well as you guys, you can already consider this magic wave phenomenon a rare opportunity. Not only did the wave increase your cultivation levels, it also improved your current affinity with the elements, the most affected being your primary elements."

At this point, everyone agreed on this point. That was the most noticeable benefit for them. However, Xander continued on,

"Right now, some of you might have increased perception, understanding, and comprehension of your primary elements' representations, right? Fill your next pseudo-spell slots with spells that showcase these representations. You would not only have a greater foundation for breaking through Master class, you would also have an easier breakthrough to Legendary Class, when you select and mix your primary elements' selected representations and create a Magic Sphere."

The students, at this point, had realized that the treasure was already there and they only needed to utilize the opportunity to improve their foundation. A few were surprised and even some were flushed red in surprise and happiness, but it rapidly cooled down and returned to their normal states, making them feel…unfulfilled?

"My situation is very rare because I had already prepared my pseudo-spells in advance, and all I needed was to inscribe them on the Magic seeds when they formed. General rule of thumb: The more complex and layered a spell is, the stronger the pseudo-spell you create. But it would generally be impacted by the size of Magic seed you develop. If the size is too small, it cannot handle a spell array that you are attempting to inscribe as a pseudo-spell!"

After saying his fill, Xander canceled the 3 spells, causing the students to be able to talk once again. He then continued,

"This is why majority of people break through to Elite at around 11, 12 years old, and breakthrough to Master Class at 21-24 years old. They use the time to reinforce and strengthen their magic seeds. And how do they do that? they use cultivation skills."

He had just finished when he heard clapping sounds coming from the doorway, causing everyone to turn to the source of the sound, revealing the figure of Ms. Lim, who was genuinely impressed with Xander's progress. Even if he skipped a week off class, he already had reached the Master Class, and even realized the importance of cultivation skills in improving one's foundation and future development.

"What Xander had said was truly correct, and coincides with what we are going to discuss for this week and next week: Magic Meditation through the process of utilizing cultivation skills."

Ms. Lim said, appearing heading towards the podium facing the students. With her was a stack of documents and even a projector.

"Class, return to your seats. Mr. Cloverfield, congratulations on your breakthrough. I hope you yourself have established a very, very good foundation when you were still an Elite class?"

Ms. Lim's words were not simply a congratulatory statement, but also to confirm the status of his family and his current abilities.

Xander answered humbly, "Just so-so, ma'am Lim. I only managed to make it the size of an exercise ball after several compressions and accumulations. I couldn't make it smaller, sadly." His first statement gave a bit of hope to the guys in the class, even some of the overachieving girls, before being smashed to pieces to what Xander said in the latter half.

Hey, hey, our magic seeds aren't even as big as a rice grain! How could you even cause it to go to the size of an exercise ball! How big were the magic seeds you formed to lead to such a compression size? And you say that was after the multiple compressions and accumulations you did? When did you really reach Elite class, huh? Did you really cultivate the same time as us?

...Wait, it seems he cultivated in a shorter period of time than us. WTF!!!!@! A lot of thoughts rapidly flashed in the minds of these confident and energy-filled teens in the room. In the end, they all reached the same conclusion: This was a monster!

Ms. Lim was also flabbergasted. Although her pseudo seeds weren't as small as a rice seed, they were only as big as a regular-sized strawberry, and that was after using a Perfect rank cultivation skill and before compression, hey! if those strawberry-sized seeds were compressed... they might barely be reduced in size. After all, spell seed compression wasn't as simple as what Xander mentioned.

A large factor of seed size compression involves how simplified the magician made the pseudo spells etched in each seed.

Branding, Writing, Simplification, and Compression. Four steps in forming a magic seed with a pseudo spell. The spell is branded into the seed. The spell then is re-written to form lines upon lines of runic magic, transforming the spell into their own, but not completely. This produces an enlargement of the magic seed, and in cases where the magician overestimated their foundation and magic seeds, explode on the spot, forcing them to restart all over again.

Simplification is the stage where the runic writing is basically summarized and paraphrased, before being compressed to its maximum. This process should still evoke the same spell and function, but just with lesser runic symbols and space utilized in the magic seed. In rare cases, this process is the kind of sublimation of the spell by the caster, making it easier for them to "use" them, hence the simplification of its overall structure, leading to the decrease in size.

The Compression process aids with this sublimation in a way that magic would easily be circulated within the seed much faster than the uncompressed form.

Ms. Lim lightly coughed, before regaining the normal tone of her voice, and said to Xander,

"T-That's great! Ehem! However! Remember that now you have officially stepped into the ranks of Master magicians, time is of the essence! The spells you create on your own need enough time to be perfected!" Ms. Lim finished off, acting like senior giving pointers to a junior, to save some face for herself and for the class.

Not wanting to make things more awkward for Ms. Lim after her inquiries were diverted, Xander nodded vigorously, taking everything to 'heart', hehe. She didn't even realize that he was already a Master-9 magician!

Xander didn't bother talking in class since he already knew the syllabus up until the 3rd year curriculum, as well as he had just taken the Midterms in advance compared to his classmates. Instead, he just focused on playing his games on his smartwatch quietly while Ms. Lim began to teach the rest of the class.