(Chapter 2)

(Seven minutes later) 

In an elegant classroom located inside a medieval-style tower built into the west side of a medieval-style castle, a group of forty-four children, who appeared to be around the age of twelve, could be seen practicing magic, waving their smooth brown wands in the air as the sand in front of them began to levitate. 

Tisk! 

'This is frustrating!' Oswald, thought as he stared at the scattered sand on his side of the desk while stretching his arms.

"There's got to be something I'm missing…" he said as he looked around the classroom, where a few students who had successfully cast Noistatival were now attempting to do it again for a total of three times in an effort to win the remaining points available for the first three who could complete Miss Morningdew's second assignment.

' Time's running out; it's been six or seven minutes already, and I haven't been able to move a single grain of sand... It seems like I won't be able to complete this task~' Oswald thought as he placed his hands behind his head and propped his legs on the desk.

He then leaned back a bit and began to pay closer attention to his classmates, waiting for any of them to successfully cast the levitation spell, hoping to gain insights and hopefully find what he was missing. But it seemed like luck wasn't on his side, as he wasn't able to find anyone; they all seemed to be struggling to cast a successful Noistatival for the second or third time. 

Sigh~

Oswald sighed and then, paid attention to the brown-haired boy seated next to him, still trying to successfully cast Noistatival on the pile of sand before him.

"Noistatival!" Eric, the boy who was seated next to Oswald, said in a helpless tone, on the verge of tears as he looked at his wand, which now had green writing all over it and the number two written on its shaft, counting his last two attempts before he wasn't allowed to practice casting Noistatival for the rest of the class.

"Come on! Just once!! Please~" he pleaded as he forced his mana into his wand but ultimately still failed, as only a few grains of sand lifted up briefly, unlike the levitating ball of sand needed as a sign of success. 

Bang! Bang! 

Bang! 

"Bullshit! This is bullshit! Shit! Shit! Shit! This isn't fair! " Eric screamed with rage as he repeatedly hit his fist against the desk. Then he stopped when he saw that a few students had turned to look at him having his little tantrum. 

Argh! 

"I knew it… Another failure" Oswald thought as he looked at his desk mate, who he had already predicted would fail his current attempt.

He then closed his eyes for a bit before returning to observe the classroom.

"Failure, failure , failure , failure , failure" Oswald thought as he marked those whom he believed would fail their castings on Noistatival while continuing his search for the missing piece.

Though Oswald's actions might have seemed a little cruel, as he expected someone's failure before they even had a chance to prove him wrong. But you see these judgments of his were not born of his ego or underestimation of his classmates ' abilities, but rather from his assessment of the facts he had gathered so far, utilizing both the lengthy amount of experience with Noistatival, that had been implanted in his mind and the knowledge he gained from observing his classmates.

That had led him to realize that the working of mana inside his dream was not a quickly replenishable resource, like most anime he had been watching lately, and that spells themselves were also like vacuums that consumed a certain amount of that resource at a time , with their effects and success differing based on the mana one could supply. It was this newfound knowledge was what led him to be so confident in his judgments.

Sniff~ 

"Hahaha. I'll just have to do better next time~" Eric said, defeated, as he had pulled himself together a bit and stood up from his seat while wiping the tears that had flowing down his face with the sleeve of his grey robe. 

"Miss Morningdew, can I go use the restroom...?" he asked after pushing his chair into his desk and wiping the last tears from his eyes while looking at the old witch seated behind her desk. 

"Go ahead. And Oswald—" Miss Morningdew was about to ask Oswald to accompany Eric, his desk buddy, to the bathroom. But she was interrupted mid-sentence as Oswald yelled out. 

I'VE GOT IT!!!" Oswald exclaimed, a light bulb lite up in his head as he realized what he had been missing. The basics of mental chanting; he had initially thought that Miss Morningdew had left something out of her explanation , but as time passed and he observed the classroom practicing the fundamentals of Noistativel, his thought process began to change as another idea floated into his mind:

" What if she hadn't omitted anything in her explanation of how her technique worked; rather, she just hadn't clarified that she wasn't using mental chanting in the first place?"

This was his second thought, but it was still incomplete, and the fact that his task instructed him to successfully mental chant Noistativel made his theory even more shaky.

This caused him to shove it to the back of his mind until his current outburst as he stared at a red-haired girl who was waving her wand around while a ball of sand floated in front of her.

That moment was what made him realize his final piece, as he watched the girl attempt to mimic his earlier actions of moving the floating ball of sand, created by a successful casting of Noistativel, but she failed because she didn't know what he did; she didn't grasp the fundamentals of the second application of Noistativel.

.... 

(One minute earlier) 

Staring at a red-haired girl who was chanting something while moving her wand to the right, a pale, dark-haired boy wearing a grey wizard robe and a black scarf with a school badge sewn onto both ends, and who looked to be eleven or twelve, couldn't help but open his eyes wide as realization hit him like a brakeless truck.

!!! 

'What if she hadn't truly omitted anything in her explanation as I thought rather, she instead used a variant that excluded the basic steps required for a beginner to perform it!! ' 

{Hidden Task: Find the core principle of Noistatival} (1/3) 

[Magical Inspection Exp: +60] [Magical Inspection: Lv 1] 

"Miss Morningdew, can I go use the restroom...?"

"Go ahead. And Oswald—" 

"I'VE GOT IT!!!" Oswald yelled as he felt a wave of knowledge about the principles of the backward tongue rush into his head, confirming his theory to be true. He now understood what was needed to utilize the basic form of mental chanting. 

Hahaha. 

Oswald let out an almost sinister laugh before he looked at the elderly woman who was currently sitting at her desk, while a boy with shoulder-length hair now had a bitter look on his face, which somehow filled him with a foreign sense of accomplishment as he smirked slightly and began to prepare to mentally activate the levitation spell Noistativel.

*Inhale*

"Noistativel! Noistativel! Noistativel! Noistativel! Noistativel!" Like a madman, Oswald began repeating those words nonstop, as he attempted to memorize the movements of his tongue while saying Noistativel over and over again .

"Noistativel!" "Noistativel!" "Noistativel!" 

This continued for a few minutes, prompting Miss Morningdew to send Eric off with another male student. As she began watching Oswald attentively, she realized that he had figured out the key to performing mental chanting, but she knew that knowing how to achieve the mental chanting technique didn't guarantee that you would be able to perform it. 

"Oh my, what an interesting first year~" a voice that sounded neither male nor female said as two silver mice climbed up Miss Morningdew's purple robe and onto her shoulders. 

"That he is~" Miss Morningdew replied as she crossed her legs and flicked her wand, causing two wands with green writing all over them and the number zero drawn on their shafts to fly toward her.

"What's he doing?" Holly Butterfly asked as she looked at the dark-haired boy behind her, who's actions had not only drawn her attention but also that of the whole classroom. 

"I don't know..." a blonde-haired girl said as she also looked at the dark-haired boy, who was repeatedly casting Noistatival, but this didn't seem to be his objective as he hadn't once supplied mana into his wand. 

The two girls weren't the only ones confused, as the whole class that first thought Oswald was trying to cast Noistatival but somehow failing to do so. However, after a while, they realized he wasn't even channeling mana to his wand, which intrigued them even more. 

"Noistativel!" 'Noistativel!' "Noistativel!" 

"Noistativel!" 'Noistativel!' 

"Noistativel!" 

'Noistativel!' Oswald yelled in his mind while visualizing the effects he wanted to perform and also mouthing the incantation before he finally let his mana flow through his wand, casting a white light that engulfed it's tip. 

Swiss! 

A loud swishing sound was then heard as the once scattered sand on his desk began to spiral together and then formed into a sandball that floated midair. 

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

[Exp: +150] [Level Up] 

[Noistatival Exp: +500] [Noistatival: Lv 4] 

"I—I've done it!" Oswald screamed, disregarding the panel that appeared before him and the influx of physical and mental strength that followed it. 

He soon jumped out of his seat and cheered victoriously as the knowledge of how difficult it really was to perform a mental chant became clear in his head, knowing that what he just did was pure luck for his current self. And that had brought upon his need to celebrate.

*Cheers!*

The classroom erupted in celebration. Even though they didn't fully grasp how difficult his actions were, they still had a general idea based on how effortlessly he used the adviced applications of Noistativel prior and how challenging it was for them to even attempt it, serving as a reference to understand how difficult mental chanting was if it could even make him struggle.

"You truly are astonishing, Mister Greenleaf~" Miss Morningdew, who still had silver mice on her shoulders said as she flicked her wand and made all the sand she had given away at the start of the classroom disappear into nothingness. 

"To be honest with you, I had only given you this task to keep you busy, but who would have expected that you'd manage to pull off a technique most third-years are still struggling with?" Miss Morningdew said with a soft smile on her lips, as she adjusted her hat and then patted of her behind as she stood up elegantly from her chair and began clapping for Oswald. 

Clap. Clap.

Clap.

"I wish I could give you some more personal points for your achievement, but alas, I don't have the authority to give out anymore points~ but it feels wrong to not at least give you something" Miss Morningdew said as she flicked her wand and conjured up a bag of sweets that then flew over towards the young wizard she had given an almost impossible task.

Swiss~

"Those sweets are the best in RedWind, so I'm sure they'll be quite popular with you youngsters~" Miss Morningdew said before she flicked her wand again and made a single sweet appear on the desks of the other students as well.

"Thank you, Miss Morningdew~" (x35)

A few of the children in the classroom happily took their treats with open arms as they stood up from their chairs one by one, looking at the clock above Miss Morningdew's desk. 

Ding! Ding!

Ding! 

"Oh my! Would you look at that! I guess it's time for lunch, young witches and wizards!" Miss Morningdew said as she looked at the clock before turning back to the classroom.

"So now that our time together has come to a end, I won't keep you any longer. Young witches and wizards... Class dismissed~" Miss Morningdew said in a teasing, yet cheerful tone before she spun around three times, before she turned into a puff of green smoke, and disappeared from the classroom. 

(Ten minutes later ) 

 After Miss Morningdew had left, a few of the students also decided to leave the classroom after taking their leather book satchels and wands. While the others began to chat about their experiences of casting the levitation spell, they even competed with each other as they started making small objects levitate midair.

"Hey, Oswald! Do you want to head down to the dining hall together?" a blond boy asked as he and a few others approached Oswald , who was returning to class after having left for a random task that suddenly appeared when he was halfway down the tower.

{Tasks: Don't leave your satchel behind} (Complete) 

[Exp: +5]

"Sure, I could eat, and I was wondering what the food here would taste like" Oswald replied while holding his bag of sweets in in one hand and the shoulder strap of a leather satchel in the other.