Mana Manipulation and Magic Theories
I am currently walking to my class, I have magic theories.
I am really curious, what those magic theories are?
I went inside, to my desk and waited. Pia came shortly later.
"Morning Clair, did you sleep well?" Pia
"Morning, yes and you?" Me
"Yes, my roommates talked about your speech. Something like "she is such a sweet little girl", they want to hug you..., hey say, how do you think our teacher will be like?" Pia
"Don´t know, I only know Miss Malinda." Me
"I hope it´s a hot guy." Pia
"Why? it´s not like you can date him."Me
"You don´t know? It´s allowed to have a teacher-student relationship, as long as it doesn't influence the lessons." Pia
Really? How liberal-minded.
"I´ll cross my fingers for you." Me
"Tehee, thanks."Pia
"Morning, please go to your desks I want to start the lesson. " Male???
We both looked to the front and saw a man. He was 178 cm, has black hair, a well-kept beard, slender with a few muscles and was around 35 years old.
"Is that to your liking?" I asked Pia and turned my head to her.
Is she drooling?
"°Gulp°, totally." Pia
He scribbled something on the blackboard and said while pointing at it.
"My name is Mr. Teach, as you can read, your magic theories teacher. Please make a nameplate and put it in front of you, I´m bad with names. Any questions?" Mr. Teach
Pia raised her hand.
"Yes, the cat-girl in the last line." Mr. Teach
"I´m Pia, are you single?"
I face palmed. And I could hear some giggles.
"I am. But don´t get any hopes, I´m not interested in little girls." Mr. Teach said and Pia got red.
"I´m not a little girl." She mumbled and was quiet after that.
Ouch, maybe she needs a Burn Heal.
"Anything else? No? Then let me begin. What do you think are magic theories? " He asked.
I raised my hand.
"Yeah that extremely young elf girl." Mr Teach
"I´m Clair, I think magic theories are a science, which are trying to explain the functions of magic." Me
"Good, good, you´re right we try to explain how magic works. Do you know why water gets to mist and why it freezes?" Mr. Teach asked us, but nobody had an answer.
How advanced is the science here?
He asked a boy.
"You there, what do you think?" Mr. Teach
"I think the gods are turning the water into steam and ice." Classmate
"That would be a too easy answer, I don´t think that it´s so easy. Clair, what do you think?" Mr Teach
Crap...
"Ähm, if we take a little drop of water and put it to another drop, both merge together and if we hit a puddle of water it splashes up and looks like many little droplets.
Also, if we heat water, it becomes steam. I think the heat turns the water into many, many little droplets which then forms steam if we cool steam down we´ll get the water back.
And if heat turns water into steam, then maybe coldness turns water into ice.
So when we use magic we use our mana to influence the water to become ice or steam.
But only if the gods grant us the affinity for water magic." I tried to explain it as simple as I could.
"Astounding" Said Mr. Teach baffled. " It´s a little different but almost the same theory that I have come up. Who told you this?"
"No one, I observed the water while I cooked."Me
" Just by observing? Good, I hope you´ll keep your way of thinking.
As Clair suggested, we think that specific things are able to influence our magic. It is harder to turn water into steam if it´s in a pot than if it´s in the air. That might be because the water in the air is not merged with as much water, then the water in the pot." Mr. Teach
"What´s with flames?" A student asked.
"They are also influenced by other things, more than just heat. If you blow strong enough into a flame it might vanish, but if you blow carefully you can make the flame bigger. So we have to conclude that air influences flames.
Are there any air and fire mages here?" Mr. Teach
Two students raised their hand.
"The next time you conjure a fireball, try to put a breeze spell into it," He advised.
" The next thing with magic is the mana consumption, you can reduce it if you can manipulate your mana. The consumption will raise if you want to make a bigger spell or shoot your spell on more than one person.
We think that´s so because everything has his own magic field, the air, the ground, plants, and animals.
Your own spells are easier in your field and you have to overcome the field of your enemy, to hit him with the full force of your spell.
If you are weaker than your enemy, your spells will simply be not as strong as it would normally be.
There is also the option to make your magic field larger, you have to put your own mana into your surroundings. But beware, the enemy will do the same and you have to overpower his mana.
There might be a case, in which you won´t be able to cast any spells at all.
If that happens, then the mana from your enemy is too strong for you and disrupts all your own mana." Mr. Teach
Interesting, I might try that later.
"You could even put your own mana into the body of another person. Most healing and buff spells work that way, but again, you have to overpower your enemies magic field if you want to harm him.
There were some experimentation´s, in which magicians tried to enhance the body of other people permanently. It did not go well. Said people either died or grew extremely large muscles which then burst.
Some think that this happened because the magicians were not good enough with their mana manipulation skill, other have the opinion that it just doesn´t work. We don´t know who is right.
All this is just a fraction of magic theories, in the coming years you´ll all learn how to influence your spells. But be careful, you´ll have to train your other skills as well, or else you´ll die in a real fight, just because you have not enough trained." Mr. Teach
We continued our lesson with random questions and most of them were basic knowledge, like flame able gasses or usage of highly condensed water.
The bell rang and it was lunch time.
"That´s it, we´ll see each other next week. " Mr. Teach said and left.
"Hey Clair, come we´ll have to hurry or else we have to wait." Pia said and I followed her to the cafeteria.
The cafeteria bustled from activity. It has five floors, each with an own food disruption.
The students were not sitting on benches, there are chairs with round tables.
And I could not see a specific order for the students.
I have to mention that the color of the badges changes with each year. Mine was red, the second year is blue, third years have violet, fourth years have yellow and fifth years have green.
There were many students from different years mixed.
"Let´s sit on the fifth floor, I´d like to watch the people while I eat," I suggested.
Pia agreed and we went upstairs.
We got in line and I could see on a sign, how much each meal costs.
Expensive! The cheapest is around 500 points.
"Hey Pia, I think I know the differences between the floors." Me
"Really, what are they?" Pia
"The prices, one meal costs at least 500 points." Me
"Ouch, we just have 1000. Let´s go down." Pia
"It would be better until we had the chance to earn a few points." Me
We got out of line and looked through the different floors. The first floor had mostly plain bread and uncooked vegetables. The second floor had some warm soups but without meat. The third floor had some meat. The fourth floor was normal food for my old world, here it was higher class food. And the fifth floor had the best of the best. Prices were as such, 1.= 10 - 20, 2.= 30 – 60, 3. 100 – 300, 4. 400 – 2.000 and 5. 500 – 25.000.
I heard from Lina and Kira that they´ll get 500 points each month and that the B-Class gets 1000 points. So it is not possible to eat from your points alone if you're in a C-Class.
We decided to eat on the second floor. Pia ate a salad and I had bread with cheese.
I don´t understand people who like salad, it doesn´t make you full.
We talked a little bit until.
"I think we should go to the dungeon after school, we have to sell some monster parts or ores. Else we soon won't have enough points for simple food." Pia
"You´re right, we have to get some points. We could look for high-point-goods at the material discharge. This way we´ll know what we have to hand in." Me
"Let´s do that." Pia agreed.
"Eat up or we´ll be late." Me
We finished and went to our Mana Manipulation classroom.
It´s not the same and I knew why, as I saw the room.
It was bigger, we had normal desks but behind them was more. Some crystal balls and things that looked like chessboards.
Again we sat down in the last line and a woman came in.
She has dark hair, is around 40 and a little chubby.
"Hello, my name is Mrs. Fortary. Your teacher in mana manipulation. Mr. Teach said you have nameplates? Please put them on your desk."
We did and she looked over our names. She saw me and made a short smile.
"We all leak some mana, some more some lesser. A few of you have just a little mana leakage. But this girl there." She pointed at me. " Has no mana leakage at all, why do you think is that so? " She asked all.
What did I do now?
Mr. Chubby raised his hand
"Because she has not as much mana as us humans," He said with antipathy.
"Nope, that´s because she is way better at controlling her mana than you." Mrs. Fortary
Mr. Chubby was red with anger as she clearly said that I am better than him.
"You all will learn to control your mana as good as she." Mrs. Fortary continued and "I assume your skill level with mana manipulation is at least 3, am I right? " she asked me.
The people were shocked as they heard that, 3 is really high. Most mages stop at three because they are not skilled enough. And here I am, a 13-year-old girl with a skill level of 3... at least they think that.
"Hehe, yeah, I am good at manipulating my mana... " I said in a tone that suggests that I am not accustomed to praise.
" You all can set her as a goal. Well, look behind you, there are some devices that´ll help you to control your mana. The crystal lights up if you put enough mana in it, the colors are different, it gets more difficult the brighter the color is.
The pieces on the chessboard can be moved with mana. Each piece has his own difficulty. And you must be on LV 3 to control all pieces. But it is not your normal chess game, you could move more than one piece at once, but that is significantly harder.
Now go to the crystals and try to light them up." Mrs. Fortary said.
We did and began to put mana in the crystals. I just changed the color of the crystal from black to dark green and began to make a small, dark light show.
The other students got quickly tired and had to make some brakes.
While I continued my light show.
Two hours later we had to play chess. My opponent was a woman, with pale skin who continuously fidgeted. I think her name is Leera
"Your name was Leera wasn´t it? Why are you so nervous?" I asked.
She got a little red and said.
"Y..you now my name?... it´s because you are way better than me, I... I don´t think I am a good opponent for you...." Leera
"Don´t underestimate yourself, let´s try and see then. You can start." I tried to cheer her up.
She tried to move her knight, but it just budged a little. She then moved a pawn.
I did the same and we first had a war with pawns. I noticed that it´s easier to move the knight if he is alone.
The difficulty order is pawn, knight, tower, bishop, queen and then king. I explained Leera the difficulty of each piece and she was able to move the pieces up till the tower.
In the end I still won and we had to change our partners.
I continued to win until Mrs. Fortary said.
"Clair, please play from now on against me." Mrs. Fortary
I did as she said and had a funny chess game, I didn´t try to move more than one piece but felt that I´m able to move all of them at once.
I think I was able to fool her.
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Mrs. Fortary POV:
A new year, a new class. I am eager to see this girl named Clair. Malinda said she is good and Teach praised her while we had lunch.
I think they exaggerate. She can´t be a 13-year-old girl if she is so good as they say.
I reached the class and introduced myself.
Let's see, from their mana leakage most of them would be on LV 1, some even LV 2. Oh, this girl, she has no mana leakage at all, she must be LV 3, almost 4 to do that. I think that might be Clair, the description matches.
I did my normal introduction into mana manipulation and tasked them to lit the crystals.
Most of them were tired after a few minutes, only Clair continued. Why is she only using dark colors? You can lit it with white light with LV 3, does she try to hide her skills? If so, she does a bad job. She has to make a break...
She lit the crystals for two hours. That is not normal for a 13-year-old girl...
They continued with chess, but Claire's opponents were too easy, I have to test her.
I said, that she has to play against me from now on and we played a few rounds.
She is better than me... I noticed that she tried to move all pieces at once but stopped before they did.
I am not able to do that, I can move all pawns and both towers at once but all pieces? I think only the headmaster is able to do that.
She can´t be 13 years old. I´ll keep her in mind for now on....
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Clair POV
The lesson ended and we had the rest of the day free time.
Pia and I went to the material discharge place and found out, that the dungeon has more than 50 levels.
Level 1-10 was mostly used by new students, 11-20 by second years and so on.
The things we can hand in would give us points from 1 to 50 if we hunt only from level 1 to 10.
The things on LV 50 could give you more than 10.000 points.
I´ll have to go inside, alone. Maybe at night.
"Let´s meet here in one hour at the dungeon entrance and then hunt some goblins." Pia suggested and we went to our rooms.
I equipped a leather armor, my sword and also took four daggers with me, they are out of steel and were made by me.
Plain Steel Daggers
These daggers look plain but were forged by a master smith. They are made out of steel and have
the sole purpose to look plain, while cutting the enemy.
Durability: 20.000
I went to the dungeon entrance and waited.
There were some groups who wanted to go inside. Some of them had pickaxes with them.
Pia came a few minutes later. He also wore a leather armor and had two daggers at her side.
"Hi, let´s go in, I want to kill some goblins." I said and walked inside.
"I want to test out, what Mr. Teach said. " Said Pia while following me.
"So your affinity's are fire and wind?" Me
"I also have light. What are yours?" Pia
"Let's say fire, wind and earth." Me
"Let's say?" Pia asked, but I did not reply.
Some groups were inside, they fought goblins.
We passed them searched for a group of goblins.
But we haven´t found one after 30 minutes.
"I think they are over-farmed." Me
"You might be right, should we go further inside or are we trying it later?" Pia asked.
"Let´s go further inside." I said and we had to go to the third level to find a few enemies.
They were goblins, with hobgoblins.
We sliced the first group, with wind magic, apart and collected the things we can hand in.
"I have a dimensional pocket, we can put them inside of it." Me
"You must be rich to have one, you sure your no noble?" Pia asked jokingly.
"It´s a heirloom from my family." I lied and she believed me, the persuade Skill sure is handy. I don´t think I could have lived in the village without it.
"Let me try to attack the next group, I want to test my daggers." Me
"You have daggers?" Pia
I just took them out and rushed to a group of five goblins and a hobgoblin.
I sliced the throat of a hobgoblin and smashed the face of a goblin with my boot.
The other goblins were dumbfounded to react and stood still.
I threw my daggers into the eyes of two goblins and broke the neck of a fourth one.
The last goblin tried to run but was cut in half by a wind blade from Pia.
Ding!
Ding!
Skill:
Dagger Mastery
The dagger is the perfect weapon to kill your opponent as fast as possible, It might not work against plate armor but there are always unprotected areas.
Be an assassin or just play the funny game, where you hack your dagger, as fast as you can, between your fingers. LV 0
Skill:
Dual Weapons
Kill your enemies twice as fast as before and block, while attacking. LV 0
I maxed them both.
"That was pretty good, didn´t think you could fight this well. Why did you not participate in our little tournament yesterday?" Pia
" Don´t want to look too strong for others, I want to surprise them in the school tournament." Me
"And why are you fighting when I'm here?" Pia asked.
"Because your nice and I need a friend in my class, and it wouldn´t look good for a friend if I lie about my fighting capability." Me
Sorry, that I don´t say the whole truth, maybe at a later time.
"Your right...let´s be friends." She said cheerful and I gave her a bright smile in response.
We gathered the loot and continued to hunt for a few more hours.
"I think we have enough," I said after countless of fights.
We had enough, one goblin can give you 150 points if you salvage everything and we fought many goblins....
"You sure are good at salvaging." Pia
" I learned it at my village." Me
"You´re able to get everything out of these little fuckers, I could only cut off their ears and tooth's.
But you are able to get the whole heart, liver and other things. And all of them are undamaged..." Pia
I finished with the last goblin and said.
"Let´s go back, we have enough to eat for two weeks at the 4th floor."
"Yup" Pia
We went back and handed our loot in, we shared our points equally and said goodbye.
I´ll have to see the 50th level tonight....