The Bully (5)

Shawn POV

Mr. Arthur then showed us how to properly do it with a demonstration of his control over mana, an energy that is in our bodies and the surroundings, and it is used to control magic, though mana itself in its pure form can be used to hurt someone, it's better to just convert mana into elemental energy.

He told us to imagine the writings or symbols on the paper as a hose, and our common mistake during the test that caused us to destroy the talismans is us basically dumping water onto the hose using a bucket, what he wants us to do is for us to act as a water tap that hoses are usually attached to.

If you just dump the mana, not only would it be wasting a lot of mana, but if any of it leaks to the white part, the talisman will be destroyed, you'd want to shape your mana and guide them through the letters.

"You will be slow at first, but it will later become muscle memory the more you do it." Mr. Arthur said

A student raised her hand, and he then pointed at her, giving her permission to ask the question.

She's Diana Flora, 18 years old, 1 year older than me, a girl about 162cm tall, she has a slightly tanned skin color, got dark brown hair and dark green colored eyes. She comes from the famous Flora, a family famous for earth and wind magic and she possesses those same affinities.

"What's stopping the manufacturers from just dipping the paper in the black ink?" she asked "We'll have no chance of messing up if that were the case."

"The paper of every different kind of talisman in the world is made from the Hex tree, a tree that started to grow after the invasion of angels." Mr. Arthur explained "And the ink was made from the fruits of the said tree but in the makings of the talisman, it was found that if they use even a drop extra of the ink, the talisman will be rendered useless.

"Now, just a bit of an extra fun fact." he added "The talismans have Japanese writings because it was first created by a Japanese couple who found out how to use the tree, and their company, the Fukuda Company, is still responsible for manufacturing a large supply of talismans today, though most of their production is also taking place elsewhere due to labor cost."

|Author's note: the closest-looking example of the talisman used in this story would be the talismans used in the twin star exorcists. You can use those as a reference, I'll try to post a reference picture in the paragraph comment as well.|

"Any other questions?" he asked to which he receive no reply

After a while, he then let us start right in the classroom with the reassurance that our class has things made of magic-resistant materials if things go wrong, he'll also personally watch over us to make sure no one gets hurt, we're only told to light the talisman up or turn it into a ball of one of our elemental affinities.

I then looked toward my classmates, all of them who have had tutors in the past year or so for some preparation. Though most of them have used wands in their test footage, wands, unlike in the stories, in the real world, are basically imbued with pre-cast spells, and after a certain amount of usage, they'll crumble and break, they are also so much more expensive, a 10 spell wand can cost at least 5 times as much compared to 10 talismans, but wands are only used for emergencies when a wizard or witch is low on mana.

Since they are taught to use wands and train their magic control with wands in the past, they all struggle with the talisman.

Diana and Ollie are from famous families, and as for the 7 others, even if some of them aren't from famous families, all their families still have produced a lot of good sorcerers in the past.

There's Kenneth Flint, a 180cm tall guy, 18 years old, who has bright red hair and blue-colored eyes. His family is famous for producing fire sorcerers, led by a famous fire witch that is his grandmother. He is a fire and earth wizard.

Dylan Griffin, a 167 cm tall guy, 17 years old, has black hair and red-colored eyes, his family has a mixture of different affinities and has a deep military background, Dylan himself is a water and wind wizard.

Glenn Ridge, a water and earth wizard. He's also our age, 17, 181 cm tall, got olive skin, black hair, and dark red-colored eyes. His family has a background working with the UPF's own defense forces.

Alaine Faven, a light and fire witch, she's 18, 170cm tall, and got dark brown skin, black hair, and amber-colored eyes, her family also has military ties with a relative who once worked as a general who lead a force of sorcerers to defend a whole city against angels.

Kiera Sullivan, a dark and earth witch, also 17, 164cm tall, she got blonde hair and violet-colored eyes. She comes from the Sullivan family who is famous for producing sorcerers with the dark affinity.

Mei Strega, a dark and fire mage, 17, 166 cm tall, she got black hair and hazel-colored eyes. The Strega family is famous for its few level 8 mages, 2 of which still serve in the front lines against the angels.

Tynan Daray, a wind and earth mage, she's 172cm tall, she got bright orange hair and light green-colored eyes. Her family is also quite famous for their production of sorcerers with the wind affinity.

Just being in class with all of these people intimidates me a bit, of course, I have Perseus whom I can confide in, but having just my own brother to be friends with is a bit...well...I'm going to have to make friends with at least 2 of these people, otherwise it'll be hard to go forward with anything.