'''WHAT THE FUCK!''' was the collective response of the class. '''How!?'''
Drakell stood with an impassive look on his face, waiting for the class to calm down, however, even after 5 minutes had passed, not one had calmed down. He motioned to them to stop, but they didn't comply.
"ALRIGHT... Alright, calm down now!" Drakell yelled. The class hushed instantly as if someone soundproofed everyone's mouths. "Whilst Grey truly is unprecedented, Mana capacity is not the focus of the class. Magic itself is, so let's get into it."
The students sat still, and Drakell's lecture began. He spoke of the history of Magic, how the 4 races had originally worked together upon its discovery; an elf had by chance used the first Spell, and from there it had catapulted into the research of Magic.
The vampires had later split from the group of races, some unknown reason causing them to start a war, but they still knew Magic. That, coupled with the Element all vampires innately had —Blood— alongside their second Element, made them ferocious foes.
Drakell almost started to talk about the differences between vampires and other races, but stopped himself; it was the place of their theory teacher, not him, to educate them on that.
He veered back on topic and began to teach about how Spells other than the first Spell were used.
"To use a Spell, for example, TenebrisVincula, which creates chains of Darkness, you must have 3 things.
1. You need the correct Attribute, of course. You can't cast a Dark Spell when you have Attributes of Fire and Water.
2. You require the correct amount of Mana. Apart from the first Spell, which takes close to no Mana to do, the Mana required for a Spell correlates to its complexity. Since anyone can create a Spell using High Elven, the range of Spells never ends.
3. Spells move and shape your Mana for you, like a guideline, but you need to have a high enough level of control in each aspect of the Spell. You can't create a Spell, shoot it, and then lose control of it midway, can you? That is also why concentration is needed."
He took a deep breath, letting the class digest the information he gave them, before moving on.
"Before we get into practical use of Magic, we need to measure your Efficiency. Whilst devices that measure both Mana Capacity and Efficiency exist, I prefer to do it separately. Makes it more fun, you know! Now, I'll begin."
"Let's hope that he's not too abnormal here, too." He mumbled under his breath.
Once more, he went through each student. This time, however, Drakell chose not to look at the score on his own. Grey assumed that he was trying to surprise himself.
'Strange. I wonder why he does this. Doesn't he have our test results?' Grey had been aware from the moment he stepped into the school that the teachers would know their results. It made sense, why wouldn't they be aware? So he was truly confused as to why Drakell did this.
He watched as Drakell pointed the machine to his heart, and then listened for the sound of it confirming his results.
BEEP!
'There it is. I wonder how much I've improved in a week since the last check. .1%?' He knew that improvements in Efficiency were the hardest to gain, but he was sure that he was close to moving that .1% closer to 30%.
Drakell stood in front of the class and listened to the murmurs of the students. They were making bets about the difference in Efficiency between Rank 0 and Rank 1.
'It won't be too far between grey-haired boy and blue-haired boy, right?'
"Alright, class. Here are the Capacities of the top 11. Get ready." He announced to the class, hyping them up.
//
Rank 0 - G.H - 29.9%
Rank 1 - E.D - 15.0%
Rank 2 - D.B - 14.1%
Rank 3 - A.N - 13.7%
Rank 4 - P.S - 11.4%
Rank 5 - H.R - 11.2%
...
Rank 9 - N.S - 9.1%
Rank 10 - V.H - 9.0%
//
"Damn, he has almost double the Efficiency than Rank 1! I'm done being surprised." A voice said from the front.
'As expected of my rival.' Var thought, similarly to Elijah.
Jaehyun and Aurora also had similar reactions, thinking, 'He's truly a mystery.'
Meanwhile, after looking around and seeing that no one was looking, Grey pulled a quick fist pump in celebration.
- Congrats. You're almost at 30%. Nowhere near 100%, but it'll do for your age. You still have the golden decade. - Fallen Star commented, to which Grey gave a charming smile.
As students turned to look at him, to see his reaction, they froze seeing his face. The boys in jealous, and the girls are in shock. Grey was unaware of his effect on the people in the room, and he wouldn't find out, for Drakell quickly brought the class' attention back to him.
"Alright, alright, stop staring at the grey-haired boy. I've got a lesson to teach. Clear out the desks."
---
"So, let's start. We'll go from the top to the bottom. Grey-haired boy, you're up first." The teacher's voice was full of excitement, clear that he was excited to see what Grey was going to do.
Grey moved from the ring the students had made around the class centre, and stood in the middle next to Drakell.
"You know I have a name, right, Sir?" Grey asked, tired of being called 'grey-haired boy'.
"Mm, OK." The professor responded blandly. "Begin, please."
Drakell had no interest in his name, only his Magic. His eyes gleamed with unbridled excitement; every time the professor looked at him, he felt a little scared.
They repositioned themselves, Grey on one side of the circle, and the professor on the other.
"ObiceTenebrarum." The professor casually chanted a high-level Spell and gave a few details on it while Grey got himself sorted. Not that he had anything to sort. The Spell caused a thick wall of Darkness to erupt from the ground and hover in front of the professor. It was square, and pitch black, like the void of death, or the inside of a soul.
"What I just used is a high-level Spell. Spells are considered high-level when they change the base word. In this case, instead of Tenebris, we have Tenebrarum. The Spell means 'A barrier of Darkness'. We sadly won't be going further in-depth; it's not my job, it's Miss Erth's."
He looked at Grey and gave him a nod.
"I'll start with my main Element and its First Spell." Grey pointed his hand out, aimed toward the floating square.
"Lux Flore." He chanted the Spell, to hide the fact that he didn't use Spells, and moved the magic in his body himself.
He envisioned each step of the Magic, how it flowed in his body as Mana, and how he would need to guide it to create the effect he wanted. He thought about how the Magic interacted with the world, the properties that guided Light.
When he first started to invest time in each subject for his Magic, he hated it. Research was always a fun topic for him, so researching stuff for Magic should have been extra fun. But... it wasn't. Neither Grey nor Fallen Star knew the reason —looking at how light¹ works is boring as hell. It was worth it, though, for now he could create Light Magic with a thought, and be so much more creative than regular people. He could even change Magic whilst casting it, giving him so much more diversity.
The Spell took form, a bud of Light threading itself together from strands of Light that left his palm. The bud bloomed rapidly, turning into a flower of golden radiance. The bloom released a ball of Light, flying fast towards the wall of Darkness.
The impact occurred without a sound, the ball of Light being absorbed into the wall. It caused a few 'Aah's and 'Ooh's in the crowd, but no one put much thought into it. They were taught that when a Spell has an overwhelming amount of Mana in it compared to another, then the small one is devoured; quite literally too, the Spell uses it as sustenance.
"Good! Good!" The professor suddenly cackled. "That Spell was much faster than it should have been. How did you do it, boy?"
Grey internally panicked upon hearing this. He knew each Spell had different speeds depending on its Element, but he didn't know how fast the First Light Spell was meant to be. No one he knew had a Light Affinity.
- Just say that it's always been like that, you don't know why. - Fallen Star interjected, giving Grey the answer he needed.
"Um, it's always been that way. Is that not normal?"
"Why yes indeed. It should be just a bit slower, in fact, I'd reckon that your Spell is 1.5 times faster than the usual." Another glint left Drakell's eyes, along with his voice that dripped excitement. "May I uhh, ask you to participate in an... experiment?"
"No, thanks." Grey quickly denied. 'I'll experiment by myself, thank you very much.'
"Oh well, it can't be helped. Move on to your second Element and get off the stage, so we can keep it moving."
"Of course, Professor Drakell."
Grey stood still again, his arm re-raised, pointing at the barrier before Drakell. Somehow, the monotone professor, who only got excited when new Magic concepts were involved, had managed to keep his barrier up, even whilst his concentration wavered, focusing on Grey.
"Venenum Flore." Grey 'cast' the First Spell for Poison. This Spell was a bit more complex for someone who Manipulated Magic, like Grey, because he had to choose a type of poison, potency, how long it lasted and a myriad of other effects.
For this Spell, he chose a simple corrosive acid, a weak one that didn't last long. Acids and poisons were different things, but they were grouped together under the banner of Poison, so he looked no further into it. More utility.
The Magic weaved itself into existence, the Poison Mana ebbing in threads from his hand, flowing into a flower bud. Once more, the Spell bloomed. This time, out came a green ball of lightly corrosive acid, moving at the same speed as his Light Spell.
Since no-one else had Poison, he could do as he pleased, right?
The Spell clashed against the Darkness, sizzling as it was absorbed into the barrier.
Hiss!- Hiss!-
"OH MY, YOU, GREY-HAIRED BOY!" The professor shouted.
Every time Grey thought the professor's face couldn't get creepier, he proved him wrong. The dwelf's face was magically inches from his, and Grey could see every pore on the man's face. It wasn't a pleasant sight, to say the least.
"YOU HAVE AN EXTERNAL ELEMENT!?"
'External Element? Does he mean Extraterrestrial?'
- They don't know that it comes from another planet. They assume that it is rare and outside the regular pool of six, so they're not wrong. Technically. -
'I see.' Grey thought. "Yes, I do. Is that a problem?"
Grey stared straight into Drakell's eyes, hoping to get him to back off.
It worked, fortunately, and Grey was freed from the sight of that dwelf's face
_____
¹ = Here I'm on about light as in regular light, not light as in Light Magic, hence the lowercase. Hope I didn't confuse anyone; it's not a spelling mistake, I swear! :)