From the second day of the week to the fourth day of the week, so I'll do a quick summary of what happened after the Julius encounter.
After Julius left, the teachers took care of the students. Thankfully, none were seriously injured, as if Julius deliberately avoided damaging any student.
I honestly don't know why he did it. He follows no patterns and does whatever he wants.
I couldn't get the coat I was looking for in the first place, so I'll have to look for Lycree Doolvo some other time.
The day after, I spent it mostly training up Atro. Kaida's group and Silva Traltrae also joined for the second day in a row, and while Fran was still opposed to them joining us, especially Kaida and Silva, Yani and Theo put in their tongues to convince her to let them be.
On the night of that day, I finally finished learning how to cast breeze step. The fact that it took me three nights to learn that spell just proves to me once again that I am not magically talented.
Today, the fourth day of the week, is going to be practically the same. More training until we can get Atro to a decent level where he could survive duels and not leave the S class.
But, as always, we're meeting after classes to train. Before that, I had my special class with Kafka Crowbell and Hellen Goldenlaw.
Once I arrived at arena six, the same arena I'm using to train with everyone, I see the blonde director sitting on a chair while sipping a cup of tea.
"Good morning, student Alen" she leaves the tea cup on a nearby table and waves at me.
From Kafka, I get nothing more than a silent nod.
I also greet them both.
"Alen. Do you remember the bet we made on the first class?" The black-haired teacher asked me.
"You'll teach me second year stuff" I only mentioned the outcome of the bet we made.
"Exactly. So I've got to teach you about the main magical technique learned in the second year, elemental defense"
"First year's main magic skill is element manifestation. Second year's is elemental defense" Goldenlaw added.
"You've seen Julius Der Botcam and Enrick perform the techique"
Not only that, elemental defense is a skill in the game.
"Yea"
"What do you think of the skill?" He got silent as he awaited for my answer.
"It's... not that interesting to me. While it's a good 'get off me' tool... that's all it is. It doesn't give you perfect defense, you have to do a weird pose to even activate it, and you need to stay perfectly still"
In-game, the skill was just a better defense. It was mostly useless because it gets outclassed by simply wearing better equipment. Normal defense command is better anyways, as elemental defense requires mana to be used, and mana is better used by casting damaging spells, not wasting it on defending.
The director giggled as she heard my answer.
"You're at least smarter than most second year students" Crowbell sighed as he crossed his arms.
"Most rookie students think too high of this skill, and that makes them easy to predict" Goldenlaw took a sip of her tea.
"In truth, elemental defense is only taught because it leads to an important skill in the third year"
I perked an eyebrow at that statement, as I don't know of any third year skill.
This caused the blonde to ask me something important.
"Student Alen. Do you know how much we teach here, in Aurum Academy?"
"Up to tier five magic?"
"Exactly!" She raised five fingers in one hand "Over the course of three years, we help students reach, and we teach about five of the seven tiers of magic" she raised two fingers with her other hand.
"Different classes have different requirements. Let's use the two extremes in your class, the S class, and the F class"
"In the first year, students in the S class are required to have perfected the second tier of magic to pass to the second year. Meanwhile, first years in the F class are only required to be proficient in tier one, not even a mastery over it is required"
"Second years in the S class need to have mastered the third tier and learn some tier four spells. Second year F class on the other hand, needs a high proficiency on the second tier"
"Third years in the S class have to master the fourth tier and at least get the fifth circle in order to graduate. The worst class just requires their students to develop the third circle, not even needing to learn any spells"
I already knew some of that info. [Dragon's Roar] spans roughly a year and a half of in-world time, meaning that you, as Kaida, get to move on to your second year. But, due to plot related reasons, most students have to abandon Aurum Academy on Kaida's second year.
"And what does that have to do with the skills learned?" I asked, looking at the director with interest to learn about this topic. [Dragon's Roar] is a game I really loved, so getting to know more about it makes me feel... nice.
"First year' skill is manifestation, second year's is elemental defense, and third year's is... inner realm..."
My expression of disbelief made her pause a bit.
"Inner realm is used to move Inner mana faster and with more precision"
"What do you need elemental defense for?"
"I don't understand how a skill all about controlling your own mana outside to defend yourself could be necessary for something that centers on the inner mana"
I started snapping my fingers as I thought about that inner realm.
Was it the same Inner place I accessed when I dealt with the circle?
"The answer is control" Kafka told me with a frown, clearly annoyed of me snapping my fingers.
"Manifesting is required to learn spells, and elemental defense is nothing more than a way to learn to control isolated mana. Inner realm focuses on changing how your own inside mana works"
"What about the circles? Don't you enter the inner realm when creating the circles? Why not teach about ma-"
"It's different. Magical circles are mere images that show the level of a mage. They're nothing more than measures" Kafka explained.
"Despite magic existing for a long time, there're still things we don't understand. And the existence of those circles is a mistery"
"But those circles use mana... and they basically act as roadblocks, a stop when learning spells..." I muttered to myself, although it was loud enough for them to listen.
"Don't think of it too much. It's not something you'll learn here"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Aurum Academy isn't only a place to learn about magic. We form students in a lot of other subjects. Your friends, princess Von Themys and prince Theo, for example, are here to learn to be rulers of their kingdoms. They learn about politics and how to be a leader" the black-haired said.
"Although it did start as only magic. Alen, do you know about Aurum Academy's history?"
"A group of mages got together to learn and research mana without intervention from kings and other people I power"
"Exactly! When there were only four kingdoms, before elves came out of their gates and settled onto Terra. Magic was controlled by the kingdoms. Tired of being restrained, various mages from all over Terra came together and settled here, establishing Aurum Academy city" Goldenlaw added to the history of Aurum Academy.
"For those who graduate and still want to delve deeper into magical studies, they can be admitted into the yellow tower"
Blue tower is basically a prison. Red tower and green tower are a bit of a mistery to me, I only know that they're used as entrances to Aurum Academy city.
"To enter the yellow tower, you need to know several tier five spells. It's where tier six and seven are studied, and where magic is truly learned"
The game went on a completely different direction before reaching this development.
"I thi-"
"Don't waste your time theorizing about mana and magic. You don't know nearly enough to discover something that hasn't been thought of before" Crowbell interrupted me.
"He's right, student Alen. You can either speak without knowledge or arrive at something a scholar got to by sheer luck"
I open my mouth to object, saying that I have some advancements on outer mana. But I close my mouth and decide to keep my secret.
"Hoo? Those were the eyes of someone that had something important to say" Goldenlaw smiled while she kept her left eye closed "Is it related to your many secrets? Like your incantationless casting? Or how you could cast a tier four spell while only having a tier one circle?"
I clenched my fist. As much as I wanted to say something, not to prove myself, but because the thought of learning is much more interesting to me, I can't talk about my only redeeming quality.
I can't mention the only thing that makes me strong. The only thing that balances out my lack of strength or magical talent.
"I... won't... comment on it" was the only thing I could say.
I sighed and looked at Kafka.
"I know your manifesting is the worst in the S class, to the point that your manifesting abilities belong more on the F class. But you'll have to make do with what you've got"
Whatever was needed to learn elemental defense, I was willing to learn it.