A hand raised in the front, "Mana is mana, professor. It allows us to cast spells and achieve all sorts of magic." Lilly—the girl who had the run in with Felix yesterday—spoke up, her tone matter-of-fact.
Professor Max seed dissatisfied with her response, imdiately raising his gaze to look for soone else to answer. "You there, next to the blue-haired miss."
Wha? ?
Michael did not have his hand raised, nor was he confident in answering the question. To him, mana was far too foreign and ethereal to explain properly.
"I... I think mana is the essence of the world." Michael stamred, feeling his cheeks redden from all the eyes suddenly gazing at him.
"Hmm? Essence you say?" Professor Max raised a hand to his chin, contemplating the answer. "Please continue."
Damn it! That’s all I had... he cursed inwardly.
"Erm, well... mana is both ethereal, but tangible in its different forms—yet it all cos from the world. I think that calling it life essence wouldn’t be too incorrect... maybe."
While it wasn’t pretty, Michael sohow managed to verbalize his true thoughts, though he certainly wished he’d had ti to prepare.
"Wonderful!" Professor Max clapped his hands together in delight, "Ten points for you, Mr... Blondie." He said eventually.
"It’s Michael sir..." Michael replied, feeling both relieved and confused.
Ten points? What does he an by that?
"Anyway, as Blondie was saying," the professor continued, turning towards the board. He collected a piece of chalk and began to furiously write, though his script by hand was far worse than when he’d used the chalk with magic.
"Mana is the breath of the world—or life essence as our friend so eloquently explained." He stated, still writing furiously, "It can be sorted into three categories."
"First! Ambient mana," he announced, slamming his chalk into the board emphatically.
"Present all around us—in the air, soil, water. You can think of it as naturally occurring mana, produced by the world."
"Second! Personal mana." Professor Max turned, his gaze seeming almost crazed, "I think it’s rather self-explanatory, but for those of you who lack fundantal reasoning capabilities—it’s the mana inside us."
"And finally, infused mana. The type that is stored within magical objects." He finished, wearing a fanatical grin.
"In this class, we will explore the endless possibilities of mana. Manipulation, inscription, spellcrafting, enchanting—all these subjects are a branch of fundantal mana theory."
Judging by the way the man spoke about mana, it was clear that he was obsessed. While Michael liked to think he was passionate about mana theory, he couldn’t hold a candle to Professor Max.
The professor straightened his robe, composing himself to a sowhat presentable state.
"Now, open your textbooks to page twelve, we’ll be reading about the impact of different tiers of personal mana on spells." He spoke waving his hand and causing all of the written words upon the blackboard to disappear.
"Um, professor... We don’t have our textbooks yet," A hand was raised by one of the students in the first row beside Lilly.
"Hmm? Oh right," the professor remarked, waving his hand distractedly—causing a bunch of textbooks to fall onto the floor in front of him.
Unlike the headmaster who was able to perform space magic, these textbooks were clearly dumped out from his storage ring.
"Co and get your textbooks, but take care of them—they contain precious knowledge." He said, turning his back towards the class and beginning to write on the blackboard once more.
"..."
Every first-year in the room stared at the professor incredulously, their minds in sync. The guy who had just dumped all the textbooks on the ground like they were worthless pieces of scrap had advised them to handle the said textbooks with care.
"Hurry now, open to page twelve." Professor Max urged, still writing dutifully on the board.
The students began to move to the front of the class to pick up their discarded textbooks, muttering complaints under their breath. It was worse for the first-years up the back who had to descend the stairs to collect theirs.
Rudy stood up from his chair, about to follow suit—however Michael stopped him with an arm.
"Stay there, I’ll get you one." He said, extending his left hand.
Using the techniques that he’d learned with lody and Charles, Michael visualized a thread of mana extending from his palms—locking onto the three nearest books from his position.
Once they hit their mark, he pulled back, sending the three thick textbooks flying towards them in the fourth row like shells that had been fired from a cannon.
A few screams rang out from the girls in the front row who only felt the rush of wind over their heads.
Just when it seed like the thick textbooks were going to crash into Michael, he created a cushion of air with a simple discharge of mana—causing the books to float gently in front of him.
Without a word, he grabbed them, handing one each to lody and Rudy beside him casually.
"Whoa dude! Can you teach that?" Rudy asked with wide eyes.
It wasn’t just him who was staring at Michael—the whole class was. But it was the figure at the very front of the room whose fanatical gaze was upon him that made Michael the most uncomfortable.
Professor Max looked like a dog who was staring at a delicious al, his mouth practically drooling. "A first year who can manipulate mana outside their body on the very first day of class... How interesting."
Michael shuddered, feeling the hairs on his neck stand up.
"It’s not just , professor." He called out, his head turning to lody beside him who froze suddenly as the man’s gaze fell upon her.
"Two!? My oh my..." he said, fixing his collar.
Michael felt a sharp pain on his foot almost causing him to let out a groan of pain. He didn’t need to think long to know that it was lody who had stomped on it out of annoyance.
"Ahem... Page twelve, hurry up everyone." Professor Max managed to control himself and turned back towards the blackboard, but only after sending another ambiguous look towards Michael and lody.
"I’ll get you back for that..." lody whispered, her annoyance evident.
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