First draft of my novel (chapter 1)

Within an elegant classroom found inside a medieval-style castle, a group of forty-four children, who appeared to be around the age of twelve, could be seen waving smooth brown wands in front of a small pile of sand while wearing grey-colored robes and black scarves with a school badge sewn onto both ends.

Blink. Blink. 

"Huh?" A child blinked twice in confusion as he woke up in a classroom filled with grey robed child, but before he could make a scene he remembered the twenty minute 'Dream Pattern' ritual he did out of curiosity before going to bed. 

'W-wait... that dream pattern stuff actually worked?' Oliver, or Oswald as this body he was in was called, thought while looking around and seeing vaguely familiar faces ; his best friends, friends, and classmates.

Though there was something different about their usual appearance, as right before him weren't the teenage faces he was used to seeing in his own class; they were more youthful and childlike. Even their heights had decreased, making them look no older than twelve years old.

{Task: Use Noistativel to levitate the sand in front of you.}

Hmm? 

'Oh yeah, that ritual page I read did say you'd get tasks and other things to keep your dream lively and interesting' Oswald thought after reading the panel in front of him, recalling what his internet friends had told him about the Dream Pattern: a strange combination of symbols and patterns drawn in blue, red, and green colors, which was said to heighten brain activity and allow you to lucid dream on a different level, prompting Oliver, a closet Otaku, to try it at least once.

Oswald looked at the panel for a few seconds and then began to look around the room, finding it a bit strange: suits of knight armor at the back of the class, shields and swords mounted on the wall, which was also covered in beautiful yet elegant wallpaper that seemed to have slightly visible writing on it.

Oswald then turned to look out the window on his left. After he had gazed around the classroom a bit and satisfied his curiosity, he looked out of the window and discovered that they were currently in a tall tower connected to a medieval castle.

'This actually feels way too realistic' Oswald thought, taking a long look outside the window and admiring the beautiful scenery outside before looking away from the window and back to the classroom.

He watched as miniature versions of his actual classmates tried to cast a spell repeatedly on a pile of sand, with only a few managing to lift half of the sand on their desks. Most of the other students, or wizards and witches, weren't even able to pronounce the incantations required to levitate the sand on their desks.

After a few minutes of watching his miniature classmates, dressed as witches and wizards, fail to complete their spell assignment, his inner Otaku decided to join in the fun and attempt to cast the spell as well.

*Noistativel?* Oswald said as he no longer paid attention to the classroom and instead enjoyed his current situation to the fullest. He chanted the words needed to elevate the sand in front of him after rereading the panel that had appeared before his eyes, just to ensure he had the incantation right, before a white light began to emit from the tip of the wooden wand he was currently holding, pointed at the pile of sand on his desk.

Swiss~ Swiss~

"Whoa!" Oswald exclaimed in amazement as the sand pile on his side of the desk began to swirl around and came together to form a ball that floated above his desk.

!! 

"Oh my! It seems we've had our first successfully cast spell. Five personal points to Mister Oswald Greenleaf!" a grey-haired woman, who looked no older than fifty and wore a dark purple robe and witch hat, said as she waved her emerald wand in the air, summoning a silver statue of a child holding a single flower with three petals.

"Hmm? What's going on?" Oswald thought as he looked at the statue that was made in the likeness of his twelve-year-old self, which gave him a bit of nostalgia, like when looking at an old photo in your photo album, floating in front of the grey-haired woman with interest.

*Esaercni slatep~* the grey-haired woman said in a careful tone as a green light emanated from her wand and shot towards the statue hovering mid-air, before five petals grew in the empty spaces of the five-petaled flower on the silver statue, nearly completing the flower, as two more spaces remained on the flower that the statue of the child was holding.

The children in the classroom look up at the statue with mixed emotions, so had clear looks of jealous for some reason, other's were panicked for some reason and began casting and canceling there failed spells quicker, while also watching the progress of other's, and those who hadn't even been able to pronounce the incantation just clapped and cheered for Oswald. 

"Now then, Mister Greenleaf... I didn't expect anyone to complete that assignment so fast. Hmm. I guess you'll have to take the next step of our practice ahead of the others. Hmm~ Mister Greenleaf, I've decided that I'd like you to cancel and successfully cast Noistativel on the pile of sand in front of you three more times as the next step of our practice. This also applies to the rest of you young witches and wizards after you've succeeded in casting the spell once!" The grey-haired woman said in a motherly tone, having debated with herself about giving him this assignment in her head before deciding to let him do it ahead of time. And then she flicked her wand and made the silver statue disappear.

"Understood, Miss Morningdew!" the classroom filled with gray-robed children said in unison as they looked up at the gray-haired witch dressed in purple with a black scarf that had a school badge sewn into it, just like the scarves of the children she was teaching. 

{Task: Use Noistativel to levitate the sand in front of you} (Complete) 

[Exp: +40] [Level Up] 

[Noistativel Exp: +30] 

"Hey, Oswald, was it? Can you tell me how you pulled off this spell, please?" a brown-haired boy with long hair that reached down to his shoulders asked, looking at his desk mate, who was gazing into space after successfully casting a magic spell.

{Tasks: Help Eric in casting Noistativel} [Optional] 

Hmm? 

'Eric? So I'm not the only one with a name change' Oswald thought as he looked at the boy next to him, whom he had known by a different name outside this dream. 

"It wasn't much, really. I just pointed my wand at the pile of sand and said the spell we were taught. Though maybe it'll help if you saw it yourself..." Oswald said as he was about to cancel the spell on the floating ball of sand in front of him but got stuck on how to do that exactly. 

*Ahem?* 

{Task: Stop the supply of mana that's being sent to your wand and cancel the use of Noistativel, then reactivate the spell on the sand in front of you} (0/3) 

'And how am I supposed to do that exactly?' Oswald thought after reading the panel that appeared in front of him.

He looked at the brown-haired boy next to him and then smiled lightly, before turning back to the floating ball of sand. He pointed his wand at the ball while trying to flex his muscles in an attempt to stop his mana flow but was unable to cut it off, as that was how it worked in a certain anime he had watched a while back.

But sadly his anime knowledge hadn't helped out as he wasn't able to stop the ball of sand from floating in place, and after being unable to cancel his spell for a few minutes, he turned back to face the child who had asked him for help while trying to do the same.

"Hey, by any chance, do you know how to cut the supply of your mana to your wand?" Oswald asked the brown-haired boy next to him, but before the boy could reply, the sand that was hovering in mid-air fell back onto the school desk after Oswald gave up on trying to cancel his spell and unintentionally relaxed his arm, cutting off the mana that was flowing through his wand and supplying the levitation spell placed on the sand.

"...." (x2)

Hahaha. 

"I guess you already got the answer" Eric said after laughing a bit before wrapping his gray robe-covered arm around Oswald's shoulder, before resuming asking for help after seeing that he had canceled his spell.

"Now then, can you show me how to cast Noistativel before these witches and wizards figure it out ahead of me and steal all the personal points right from under my nose~" Eric said with a playful tone and a bright smile on his youthful face. 

"Yeah, yeah, get off me first, weirdo" Oswald replied a bit harshly as he pushed the arm of a familiar yet unfamiliar boy named Eric off his shoulder. 

Eric just shrugged at this before briefly glancing around the classroom and noticing that a red-haired girl had successfully casting Noistativel. 

"I didn't it!" A red haired girl yelled with joy as a complete ball of sand floated in front of her. 

"Congrats, Holly!" a blonde girl sitting next to the red-haired girl named Holly said cheerfully as she hugged her, a gesture that was warmly returned by the young red-haired girl.

"Four personal points to Miss Holly Butterfly!" Miss Morningdew declared in a cheerful tone, waving her emerald wand in the air. She summoned a silver statue holding a single flower with a single petal, which looked exactly like the red-haired girl named Holly. 

Eric watched this scene with a panicked expression as he felt he had only a limited amount of time before all the assignment points were given away, prompting him to turn back to Oswald with urgency.

"Os—" Eric was about to tell Oswald to quickly cast Noistativel but paused, instead paying closer attention to Oswald, as he was getting ready to cast the levitation spell, they were learning.

*Noistativel* : Oswald said as a white light, richer than the first time he had cast the spell, emitted from his wand, causing the scattered sand on his desk to gather into a ball. 

Swiss~ 

{Task: Stop the supply of mana that's being sent to your wand and cancel the use of Noistativel, then reactivate the spell on the sand in front of you} (1/3) 

[Exp: +40] [Level Up] 

[Noistativel Exp: +30] 

*Inhale~* *Exhale~* 

Oswald couldn't help but take a deep breath and release it as a strangely comforting sensation washed over him after leveling up for the second time, sharpening his mind and making his body a little more resilient.

''This feels...' Oswald tried to find a word to describe the strange sensation coursing through his body but couldn't quite figure it out, while he relaxed the muscles in his right hand and watched the sand fall back onto the table.

"Amazing!" Eric yelled out after watching Oswald, unable to help but feel amazed at how effortlessly Oswald made casting the incantation appear.

Mmm~

"It does feel ama—oh! I-I am, aren't I?... Who knows, Eric, maybe by the end of this dream, I'll be casting Fireball like a real wizard!" Oswald said playfully, trying to mask what he had blurted out in a daze to the boy next to him, who didn't seem to have listened to his words as he returned to attempting to cast Noistativel.

Sigh. 

Oswald sighed inwardly , feeling as if he had just been ignored, but he didn't really mind that much because if Eric succeeded in what he ignored him for, he would receive some rewards.

Eric truly stopped paying attention to Oswald the moment he finished casting Noistativel. Instead, he decided to cast Noistativel while the image of Oswald's casting was still fresh in his mind.

"Noistativel!" Eric said as he pointed his wooden wand at the untouched pile of sand on his side of the desk. A faint white light emitted from his wand, barely lifting a few grains of sand like most of the children in the classroom.

"Just a bit more..." Eric said, pointing his wand directly over the pile of sand, but he was unable to make any additional grains lift up, resulting in a failed casting.

'Well, I guess he failed... Though I guess the task wasn't about him successfully casting it' Oswald thought while turning away from the boy next to him, before glancing at the panels that had appeared in front of him, along with the experience of seemingly having practiced Noistativel over hundreds of times. 

{Tasks: Help Eric in casting Noistativel} [Optional] (Complete) 

[Noistativel Exp: +80] [Noistativel: Lv 2] 

 'So I gain a bunch of actual training experiences directly sent into my brain, after a spell levels up. Nice!' Oswald thought to himself as he prepared to cast Noistativel again.

*Noistativel*: Oswald said in a more experienced tone than in his previous attempts at the incantation, as a powerful white light illuminated the tip of his wand before the sand on the desk began to levitate and form a ball. But unlike before, Oswald felt he could make the sand ball move in any direction: up, down, left, right. He even felt he could split the ball in two if he wanted to. 

"So this is level two" Oswald thought as he waved his wand slightly to the left and watched the sand ball float that way before it collapsed in on itself after having beed disconnected from Oswald's mana flow. 

Miss Morningdew, the witch assigned to teach this class of young witches and wizards basic magic application, walked towards Oswald's desk with a gentle smile on her face while her wand faintly emitted a white light from its tip.

"What a splendid display of Noistativel, but let's stick to the basics, Mr. Greenleaf " Miss Morningdew said in a cheerful tone as she waved her emerald wand, which had been emitting a faint white light. That now transformed into a richer glow, seemingly causing all the scattered sand on Oswald's side of the desk to gather into a neat pile. 

{Tasks: Stick to the basics of Noistativel for the rest of the class} 

"Yes, ma'am" Oswald said as he looked at the panels that appeared in front of him. He decided to play along with the scenario his mind had created for him before swiftly recasting the spell, realizing that his last casting of Noistativel hadn't counted towards the task. 

*Noistativel*: Oswald chanted right after responding to Miss Morningdew, as he wanted to see what would happen after he completed the third task he had been given. 

Swiss~ 

{Task: Stop the supply of mana that's being sent to your wand, cancel the use of Noistativel, then reactivate the spell on the sand in front of you} (2/3) 

[Exp: +40] 

[Noistativel Exp: +30] 

'I didn't level up this time?' Oswald thought, wondering if his exp bar had gone up, given that he had been receiving the same amount of Exp the whole time and had previously leveled up twice so far, except this time. 

"Cancel!" Oswald called out, flicking his wand and manually deactivating the flow of mana, canceling the levitation spell on the ball of sand in front of him. 

*Noistativel*: Oswald said while ignoring the brown-haired boy next to him, who was frustrated by the fact that he couldn't successfully cast the spell they were tasked with learning. 

{Task: Stop the supply of mana that's being sent to your wand and cancel the use of Noistatival, then reactivate the spell on the sand in front of you} (3/3) (Complete) 

[Exp: +120] [Level Up] 

[Noistativel Exp: +300] [Noistatival: Lv 3] 

"Argh!" Eric yelled as he was about to snap his wand in frustration, but before he could, the wand in his hand glowed and flew out of his grasp towards an old witch dressed in purple, Miss Morningdew, along with six other wands. 

"Calm down, children. Your understanding of magic can't be rushed, and it can only be honed through endless hard work, sweat, and tears. So please clear your minds and just try your best" Miss Morningdew spoke softly from the front of the classroom, having just walked back to the front of the classroom to better observe her students.

Miss Morningdew looked at her students and then stood up from the desk she had just sat at moments ago, smiling as she adjusted her witch's hat and lightly patted the dust off her backside.

"So then, young witches and wizards, let's get back to work since we still have fifteen minutes together," Miss Morningdew said with a sweet smile on her face as she surveyed the classroom before turning to look at a slightly pale-skinned boy with short raven-black hair, who was now shaping the sand she had distributed to the class into different forms: a pyramid, then a cube, and back to the spherical ball it had started as before he began reshaping it.

*sigh~* 

"I thought I told you to stick to the basics, Mister Greenleaf~? But I have to admit, you truly are a talent in the field of magic. And I assume you've completed my second assignment too, right, young wizard~?" Miss Morningdew said, having briefly paid attention to Oswald after giving him her special assignment. 

"I have, Miss Morningdew" Oswald replied as he deactivated the levitation spell, letting the sand fall onto his desk. 

"Wonderful then~ Five more personal points to Mister Oswald Greenleaf! Oh!, and congratulations on advancing to your second flower in advance~" Miss Morningdew said before she waved her emerald wand in the air, summoning a silver statue made in the likeness of the young wizard in front of her; holding a flower with eight petals in it's hands. 

And without speaking further, Miss Morningdew emitted a green light from her wand, which soon shot towards the silver statue that was hovering mid-air.

Swiss~ Swiss~ 

The light then flew into the silver statue, tinting it with a light green glow before two petals grew in the remaining empty spaces that the flower the statue was holding used to have. Before, a petal-less flower stem appeared in the statue's hand, which also sprouted a few petals.

Whisper~ Whisper~ 

Whisper~ 

This scene caused a few whispers within the classroom as most of the students talked about how close Oswald was to getting the sixteen points needed to access the first-year library.

"Man, I'm jealous" Eric said as he laid his head on the desk in defeat, while a half-formed ball of sand, constantly dropping sand, floated on the desk he shared.

"Don't be; you're halfway there, young wizard!" Miss Morningdew said in a cheerful and encouraging tone as she flicked her wand, making the silver statue vanish .

"Oh, Miss Morningdew. I've been meaning to ask, how are you doing that without incantations?" Oswald asked, as that was the one thing that had been bugging him.

"Oh, that's something you'll learn in your second year~ Hmm, actually, how about I just tell you and see what happens~. Listen closely now , Mister Greenleaf, and you too, young witches and wizards. What I've been doing is something called mental chanting, which is a form of visual incantation that was first designed for combat but later integrated into the mundane use of experienced witches and wizards-" Miss Morningdew paused as she realized she had begun to ramble, but she stopped herself from going into one of her infamous rants that the first-years in front of her hadn't known how close they had been to receiving.

*Ahem~*

"But I'm not going to delve deep into the history of this technique, as you will be thoroughly studying it in your second year~. So, to get back on track, mental chanting is simply a form of incantation by which an experienced witch or wizard casts a spell within their mind while also visualizing its desired effects. Though this technique isn't deadly, it is more draining and time-consuming to master than basic incantations, and I'd like you, Mister Greenleaf, to attempt to successfully use this technique to cast Noistatival on the sand on your desk~" Miss Morningdew said with a warm smile on her face as she had decided to test Oswald's talent in magic.

{Tasks: Successfully mental chant Noistatival on the sand in front of you.}

Smirk.

"Very well then, Miss Morningdew~. I accept your challenge" Oswald said with an equally warm smile, as he was always up for a challenge.