Chapter 17- The professors

Aldin Randell

I could immediately tell that the man in front of me was insanely strong and if I were to accept his offer I would definitely learn a lot from him.

"I accept, but I have a request," I said.

"Ask away." He answered.

"I would like to be allowed to go hunting on the weekends."

He was a bit puzzled by my suggestion but nonetheless, "I accept." He said." From tomorrow, I expect to meet you in my office every evening. You may take your leave then." He said.

And with that, I headed out and went to my dorm where I met my dorm mates. They all had questions about my visit to the principal's office but I chose to keep it all to myself. I went into my room to get some rest but I inevitably found myself cross-legged accumulating mana. Ever since I had advanced to the second tier I had been accumulating mana continuously without even the slightest hitch and It was as if my mana core had become a bottomless pit and it seemed almost impossible to drain it.

In the end, I had to stop and go for lunch but everywhere I went all eyes would be on me, this was all an effect of showing the entire school my power. They even left the line empty for me. I took my lunch with my roommates silently and occasionally they would look at me, I was getting tired of this, so "All I can say is that I didn't get into any trouble." I said since they had been waiting for me to explain what had happened while I was in the principal's office but still I kept the rest of the details from them.

"Then why did you have to go into his office," Terias asked.

"The principal was commending me on taking those two out without killing any of them even after the Eddy brat stabbed me, he seems to take his philosophy seriously."

All of them were dumbfounded except Terias and Barrin. And so after lunch, I went to my room and continued accumulating mana and stayed there for the rest of the day, but I was very anxious I couldn't wait to start my lessons tomorrow.

Early the next morning we all went off for breakfast where I could see Ivan all alone eating his meal. It seems after making an example of him nobody wanted to try anything with him and he had become a pariah—the entire school. At least now I could study in peace. And after we headed to the classrooms.

The classes were large and fit all thirty of us and even had space left. I chose a seat at the front of the class. Professor Penelope walked in immediately after the bell rang.

"Good morning, I believe all of you know who I am so were are going to jump in directly to the lesson."

"I will be your instructor in the basic arts of magic, most of you may believe that this lesson is of no use but unless you grasp the underlying basics of magic you will never be able to use magic to its full potential for which are the roots of magic itself and for to those who think this lesson is a waste you may leave this instance."

Silence reigned over the room and only after a minute of complete silence and nobody leaving did Professor Bloom continue.

"That's what I thought. As a starter all in this room have awakened and so you all must know how to use mana. Mana is drawn out from one's core and used as the fuel for spells and each attribute has its own way of being drawn out."

"To understand this, all attributed mages form water in your hand!" She said and they did and she went around observing their performance."

"Most of you fail to bring out the potential of water because you just lump up mana leading to a lot of waste. To properly use water magic instead of forming it with mana use your attribute and draw in water in the air and only when there is no water in the air should you lump up mana." She said.

For the rest of the lesson, she taught about how to properly use each element. Wind users were taught that they just had to control air rather than form a gust of wind, earth users were advised to cause a coordinated disturbance to the ground, fire users were to combust the air using a spark of mana instead of forming a flame purely out of mana, light and darkness users were tired simply control their respective attribute. Almost all the students were not properly using their attributes.

And after the lesson we were dismissed and headed out for lunch but before I left she called me over to her desk.

"I'm really impressed by your performance today, your deep knowledge is commendable." She said.

"Thank you for your compliment," I said

"But that's not the reason why I called you here, tomorrow the class will be split according to attribute and I'm sure you'll find it hard to be able to attend all of them and so the principal has asked the other professors to privately tutor you in all of your attributes who you will meet with"

In the afternoon when we came back taught us the potential of each element. Air users and water users were said to be able to conjure thunder, earth users could control metal and fire users and water users could conjure ice. But she said it was a matter to be learned on a later date since it was advanced magic and everyone stared at me at those words including her. And after classes were over I waited for everybody to leave and then went to the principal's office. I knocked his door when I got there. "You may enter." He said from inside the room.

"Welcome Aldin." He said when he finally saw me get in and I could evidently see him smile.

"This way." He said as he got off his seat and we walked out of one a door at the side of the room. We had walked into a room with an extremely white surface.

"You will not regret accepting my offer." He said. "Today I wanted to help you improve the benefits of your accumulation. The common method is just to fill the core but this only focuses on growing the mana core."

"Isn't that the only purpose of accumulation?"

"That is the common belief but apart from growing the mana core, accumulation can also be used to improve your body. Try piercing my arm." He said.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes." He affirmed.

I decided to fire an ice arrow since using light would destroy his arm but a simple arrow would not cause too much harm to his arm that it would be unrepairable. When it hit I expected it to pierce him but the arrow shattered when it hit.

"Even if the method is not used a mage will still be able to develop this but those who use the method will get better results."

I was flabbergasted, I couldn't believe this was possible.

"Now I want you to sit down cross-legged and do as I instruct you."

And so I did. And began following his instructions.

"Draw in mana from your core and instead of taking it out of your body settle it in." I continued drawing our mana but it would sometimes get out of control and be released."

"No need to hurry just take your time and ensure you maintain control of your mana." He said from behind me.

It was difficult to perfectly control it and I could even feel sweat dripping on the side as I struggled to control it and after great trouble I finally got proper control over it. And begun to fill my body with mana. Due to the absurd amount of concentration I put in I was in a state of tranquillity but after some time I was woken up by the sudden aching of my whole body.

"You've done well for your first time, but from your expression, I can tell it was definitely painful." He said.

"Yes it was, and why was that," I asked.

"Because with this method you are forcing your body to undergo great staring it normally does not. But the only way to overcome this is by continuous use of the method until your body gets used to this with due time it will be easier but to get there it will take some time."

"For now you can leave we will continue this tomorrow and since this technique is not common knowledge I would like you to keep it just between us."

"Yes, I will," I said.

And left. I went back to the dorm too tired to even head out for dinner.