Untalented

The class continued through the morning, right up until noon. The old teacher delved into the history of magic and then even deeper into the specifics of mana nodes.

Zephyr now fully understood the depth of how fucked he was. He'd been dealt a terrible hand when it came to magical talent. He was the lowest of the low. And the gap between him and his colleagues would only widen further and further the more they progress.

To summarize the rest of the lecture; Basically, after a person awakens their mana core, the core begins to develop naturally, somewhat like a magical organ. As it grows in magical energy, it reaches various bottlenecks of growth that are essentially a qualitative leap in power. People are classified in tiers based on how many evolutions their mana cores have gone through.

This is where things start to skew hard. Building up to each evolution after tier one, a person has the chance to open new mana nodes in their core, based on the multiplier of their base mana node count.

So, for example, someone who awakened with two mana nodes at Tier One, after evolving to Tier Two, would theoretically have the chance to open up to four new mana nodes. At Tier Three, up to eight.

'Which means that someone like Jet or Kathelyn, at Tier Two, would theoretically be working with up to thirty-two mana nodes..." Zephyr thought absentmindedly where he sat, as the other students streamed out of the auditorium and toward the cafeteria.

'And they're just going to keep pulling further away at each tier... At Tier Five, they'd both be working with a cap of 256 mana nodes. And I... I'd be stuck with what Jet started off with.' He let out a dry, mirthless chuckle and leaned his head back.

Regardless of his natural inclinations, he was still human. A very tiny part of him had still held on to the hope of what could be. But reality had made itself very clear. The talent gap was massive... And oddly enough, he felt a strange sense of... Peace?... in accepting it.

'Maybe it's just the finality of it?' He exhaled slowly just as Anna and Helga appeared, climbing the stairs toward him. He stood to meet them as they reached him.

"Hey— what's with the melancholic look on your face?" Anna asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You look like you just accepted a terrible fate or something."

Zephyr just stared at her with pain in his heart as she joked.

'She hit the nail right on the head.'

Anna tilted her head as Zephyr still kept mute. "What? Let me guess... You're feeling down because you awakened with four mana nodes?"

Zephyr just kept on looking at her blankly.

Her eyes widened then she leaned in closer, pressing. "Two?!"

"How?! You looked really strong earlier today, so I figured that at least, you must have awakened with four!"

"It's not the end of the world though," she sighed as she kept talking. But then she started trailing off when she saw that Zephyr was still staring at her pointedly.

"...No— No way... One... One?!" She whispered silently as she stared at Zephyr, who gave a slight nod.

"One... One mana node..." She whispered repeatedly as she stared ahead blankly. Even Helga was clearly shocked.

"One mana node..?"

"How is that even possible..." She asked, but Zephyr just shrugged.

"I mean, I've heard of it happening, but I've never seen anyone like that in real life," she said as she looked Zephyr up and down like he was a rare species.

"Hey, that's alright now. I mean... I know it's rare but it's not that crazy right?" Zephyr said in mock annoyance.

"No. No. I'm just in awe." Anna said quickly, waving her hands as if to apologize.

"In some ways, you're basically like a reverse genius."

Zephyr stopped walking.

Helga burst out laughing as he stood frozen with his eyes raised toward the ceiling like a defeated man.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It just slipped out," Anna laughed as she tried to apologize.

Zephyr sighed, surrendering to the moment before he changed the subject. "Jet and Kathelyn seem to be getting all the attention," he said, nodding toward the crowd.

They were surrounded by a small crowd of people eager to introduce themselves and strike up conversations. Jet seemed to thrive on the attention, but Kathelyn... not so much?

One actually couldn't really tell, her face still stayed stoic as usual.

"Should we wait for them?" Anna asked.

"I dunno. The others seem to have gone off on their own. I don't see Cedric or Zeke anywhere."

"Yeah, well, they'll find us in the cafeteria or something," Anna said, turning with Helga and Zephyr toward the exit.

"And anyway, you should even be sitting right now. You took a real beating earlier this morning," she added, glancing at Zephyr's face which was... mostly healed?

"Huh? You actually look kind of okay. I could've sworn you looked worse off earlier today," she said, surprised.

"Yeah, well. I've always healed faster than normal since I was young," Zephyr lied smoothly. He'd actually even been slowing down his passive body healing so as not to draw attention, but it was still faster than normal.

"Maybe it's a bloodline thing. My mother was a half-elf, so..."

"Ohhh..." Anna nodded slowly as she reassessed him. "I think I can see a bit of that elven look... Your ears aren't really pointed though. Maybe it's just your good looks?" She grinned teasingly.

Zephyr's expression didn't change though.

"Hmm, maybe most of your talent went into your physique then?" she mused, snapping her fingers.

"I think so too," Zephyr nodded like Anna was right on point as they finally arrived at the cafeteria.

Lunch was uneventful. Zephyr sat with Anna and Helga, who seemed to want to stick with him for now. They were both cool though, so he didn't mind the company. They joined Cedric at his table, since he was sitting alone. The others also found other acquaintances to sit with.

Everyone in the cafeteria was starting to make connections, cautiously forming early bonds. But there was still a sense of formality in the air. Everyone knew that most people here wouldn't cross paths again after the camp, so there was always some kind of distance in their interactions.

Besides, they were all competitors.

The strong ones already understood they were gunning for the top ten spots. The average ones were trying to latch onto anyone who looked promising, hoping for some advantage down the line. Jet and Kathelyn were the most sought after by far. Even while eating, people approached them constantly. They stuck close to each other though, which helped them manage the attention. Most of the ones who approached were from merchant families, clearly hoping to align themselves early.

Soon enough though, it was time for the next item on the schedule: Practical spell casting.