The buzz in the Grand Recruitment Hall shifted from idle chatter to bewildered murmurs. Students pointed, whispered, and stared at the corner where the "Trash Professor" had just performed the impossible.
Elara Vance—the girl known across the first year as the "Academy's Crutch"—was standing. She wasn't just standing; she was radiating a faint, biting cold that kept onlookers at a distance.
"Did you see that? Blue fire?" "It looked like ice steam. And she isn't screaming in pain." "Maybe Kane just gave her a painkiller?"
Valerius ignored the gossip. He checked his pocket watch. Fifty minutes remaining.
He had one student. He needed four more.
"Elara," Valerius said, his voice cutting through the noise. "Wait inside the booth. Do not circulate your mana. Just breathe."
"Yes, Professor!" Elara nodded enthusiastically, hobbling slightly but moving with a newfound lightness behind the velvet rope of his booth. She looked at him not as a failure, but as a savior.
Valerius felt a pang of guilt. He hadn't saved her yet; he'd just opened a pressure valve. If he didn't figure out a long-term engineering solution for her "Cryo-Furnace" body soon, she'd turn into a human popsicle.
'One crisis at a time,' he told himself. 'Next target.'
He scanned the crowd again. The Axiom Archive whirred to life, overlaying the world with blue wireframes and floating text boxes.
[Target: Student C. Potential: Low. Flaws: poor memory.][Target: Student D. Potential: Moderate. Flaws: incompatible elemental affinity.]
Most students were average. Their "flaws" were boring—laziness, bad study habits, lack of funds. Valerius needed outliers. He needed structural anomalies that the rigid academic system of Aetherion had discarded.
He needed trash that could be recycled into gold.
"Oof!"
A heavy thud echoed from the nearby "Combat Magic" section. A boy had been thrown out of the ring, skidding across the polished marble floor until he hit the base of a pillar.
"Get up, mud-rat!" a voice jeered from the ring.
Valerius turned.
The boy on the floor was large—wide-shouldered and thick-limbed—but he curled in on himself like a frightened pillbug. His clothes were patched, identifying him as a scholarship student from the slums. He was covered in bruises, his nose bleeding.
In the ring stood a noble student surrounded by sycophants. "Look at him. Thick as a brick wall and twice as dumb. He can't even cast a basic Mana Shield."
The crowd laughed. The large boy wiped his nose, his eyes dull with resignation. He didn't fight back. He didn't even look angry. He looked used to it.
Valerius narrowed his eyes. The Archive focused.
[Target: Kaelen Moss][Constitution: Aether-Dense Osseous Structure (Unawakened).][Current Status: Mana blockage in 90% of pores.][Flaws: 24 Detected.][1. Subject is attempting to absorb mana through skin pores, but his skin density is comparable to tempered steel.][2. Subject has zero magical sensitivity due to dermal hardening.][3. Subject believes he is weak because he cannot cast spells...]
Valerius's eyebrows shot up.
'He's not a mage,' Valerius realized, analyzing the schematic rotating in his mind. 'He's a tank. A living, breathing bunker. The Academy is trying to pump fuel into him through the exhaust pipe. No wonder it isn't working.'
This was perfect.
Valerius adjusted his cuffs and walked over. The crowd parted for him—mostly because they didn't want to be associated with the "Trash Professor," but partly because the aura of mystery around him had thickened since the Elara incident.
He stopped in front of the bleeding boy.
"Name," Valerius demanded.
The boy flinched, looking up. "K-Kaelen. Kaelen Moss, sir."
"Get up, Kaelen."
Kaelen scrambled to his feet, keeping his head low. "I'm sorry, Professor. I was just leaving. I know I don't belong here."
"Who told you that?" Valerius asked.
Kaelen pointed a trembling finger at the ring. "Everyone. Professor Hugo said my mana sensitivity is zero. I... I can't feel the magic, sir. It just bounces off me."
"It bounces off you," Valerius repeated. He looked at the noble student in the ring. "You. Cast a Stinging Hex at him."
The noble student blinked. "Professor?"
"Do it," Valerius commanded, his voice bored. "Unless you can't hit a stationary target the size of a carriage?"
Provoked, the student raised his wand. "Fine! Don't blame me if he cries!"
A bolt of yellow energy shot from the wand, hissing through the air. It struck Kaelen square in the chest.
THWACK.
It sounded like a pebble hitting a cast-iron skillet. Kaelen didn't even flinch. The spell fizzled out instantly upon contact with his skin.
"Did that hurt?" Valerius asked Kaelen.
Kaelen blinked, patting his chest. "Uh... no, sir. It felt like... a mosquito?"
Valerius turned to the noble student, who was staring at his wand in confusion. "Your Stinging Hex carries 50 units of mana force. Enough to leave a welt on a normal person. Yet, Kaelen here didn't even feel it."
Valerius turned back to Kaelen, tapping the boy's shoulder with his cane. It made a solid, metallic clunk sound.
"You aren't magically insensitive, Kaelen," Valerius said loud enough for the onlookers to hear. "You are magically resistant."
"Resistant?" Kaelen's jaw dropped.
"The Academy is trying to teach you to be a glass cannon," Valerius said, using an engineering term that went over everyone's heads. "But you were built to be the wall. Your skin is too dense to absorb ambient mana, which is why you fail meditation classes. But that same density makes you naturally immune to low-tier magic."
Valerius leaned in, his eyes gleaming with the thrill of a mechanic finding a rare engine part in a junkyard.
"They call you trash because you can't cast spells. I see a fortress that can walk through a firestorm untouched. Do you want to learn how to cast Fireball like everyone else? Or do you want to learn how to break their wands with your bare hands while their spells tickle you?"
Kaelen breathed heavily. All his life, he had been the punching bag. The idea that his "thick skin" was a gift...
"I... I want to be strong," Kaelen whispered.
"Then pick up your bag," Valerius ordered, pointing to his booth. "Class is in session."
[Student Recruited: 2/5]
"Unbelievable."
Professor Hugo Voss watched from across the hall, sipping his tea with a grimace. "First the cripple, now the blockhead. Is he trying to build a circus?"
Beside him, a younger instructor laughed nervously. "He's desperate, Professor Voss. He's just grabbing anyone with a pulse to avoid expulsion. Those students are defective. He won't last a month."
Hugo narrowed his eyes. "Perhaps. But that trick with the Vance girl... it was clever. Too clever for Kane."
Hugo set his cup down. "Keep an eye on him. If he actually manages to register a full class, let me know. I want to see what kind of failure he manufactures next."
With thirty minutes left on the clock, Valerius was in "Power Saving Mode."
He had recruited Elara (The Glass Cannon) and Kaelen (The Tank). He needed three more bodies. He didn't have time for dramatic speeches or life-changing diagnoses for everyone.
He scanned the stragglers—the students wandering aimlessly, rejected by the main departments.
[Target: Zhuo Yan. Flaw: Unstable Mana Control. Causes explosions when nervous.]Recruitment Strategy: "I have a fireproof classroom. Sign here." [Student Recruited: 3/5]
[Target: Miller. Flaw: Extreme nearsightedness causing aim issues.]Recruitment Strategy: "I'll teach you Area-of-Effect magic. You don't need to aim if you hit everything." [Student Recruited: 4/5]
[Target: ???]
Valerius paused. He needed one more. The hall was emptying. The sun was dipping below the stained-gla.s.s windows, casting long, bloody shadows across the floor.
"Excuse me."
A soft voice came from behind him.
Valerius turned. Standing there was a boy who looked... impeccably average. Brown hair, medium height, standard uniform. He looked so normal he was almost invisible.
"Are you Professor Kane?" the boy asked politely.
[Target: Lucas.][Potential: ???][Flaws: Analysis Failed. Subject is shielding information.]
Valerius blinked. Analysis Failed?
The Archive usually spat out data instantly. This time, it gave him static. That meant one of two things: either the boy had an artifact blocking the scan, or his "level" was weirdly high.
"I am," Valerius said, wary. "And you are?"
"Lucas," the boy said. He held out a registration form. "I would like to join your class."
"Why?" Valerius asked. "Everyone else thinks I'm a fraud."
Lucas smiled. It was a polite, practiced smile. "I saw what you did with the girl. And the big guy. You see things others don't. I... appreciate that quality."
Valerius stared at him. The Archive flickered again.
[Hypothesis: Subject is intentionally suppressing his mana signature.]
'Interesting,' Valerius thought. 'A smurf account?'
"I have one spot left," Valerius said slowly. "But I warn you. My teaching methods are unconventional. You might die."
"I'm a fast learner," Lucas replied smoothly.
Valerius signed the form.
[Student Recruited: 5/5][Mission Complete: Survival Secured.][Reward: Starter Pack - "Eye of Insight" (Upgrade).]
GONG.
The great clock tower of the Academy tolled six times. The recruitment period was over.
Valerius slumped slightly, leaning his weight onto his cane. He was exhausted. His brain felt like it had been running complex simulations for hours. But he had done it.
"Professor Kane!"
The sharp, nasal voice of the Dean's Secretary cut through the air. She marched over, looking disappointed that he was still there. "The deadline has pa.s.sed. Please hand over your badge so we can process your expul—"
Valerius slapped a stack of five forms onto her clipboard.
"Five students," Valerius said, his voice raspy but steady. "Registered and signed."
The secretary blinked, flipping through the papers. "Elara Vance... Kaelen Moss... These are the rejects. And... Lucas?" She frowned at the last name, as if trying to place it, but shrugged. "They are technically students."
She looked up, sneering. "Congratulations, Professor. You live to teach another day. Though looking at this roster... I imagine you'll be begging to resign within the week."
"We'll see," Valerius said coldly.
He turned to his group of five misfits standing by the booth.
Elara, the overheating ice-mage. Kaelen, the magic-immune tank. Zhuo, the nervous bomber. Miller, the blind aim-bot. And Lucas, the mystery box.
They looked at him with a mix of hope, fear, and confusion.
Valerius straightened his coat. He channeled every ounce of his "Cool Anime Professor" energy.
"Welcome to Applied Mana Theory," Valerius said. "Tomorrow, meet me at the Old Engineering Sheds behind the dormitory. Don't bring your wands. Bring a wrench and a change of clothes."
"Why a wrench?" Kaelen asked.
Valerius smiled, and for the first time, it was a genuine smile of a mad engineer.
"Because we aren't going to learn magic," Valerius said. "We're going to fix it."