Nice to meet you!"
Blinking his eyes a few times Kai finally registered the small boy who just popped up in front of him.
"Nice to meet you too.. I'm Ka-"
"Kai! Yes I know I watched you fight. You. Were. Amazing."
Kai nodded, "Thanks…" Then turned to look at the boy again.
"Your name was–"
"Jilas!"
The boy bounced on his feet before pausing, as if to suddenly remember something important.
After a second he smiled,
"Wanna see my pet!"
Kai raised an eyebrow, "Yes? Sure."
'This kid is kinda weird… but a bit cute.'
He had a shallow face, with olive skin, and brown eyes. Short tufts of jet black hair jutted from his head, as if cut off haphazardly in an accident.
But the boy's appearance was soon forgotten, as a small lizard crawled through a magic circle, hopping onto the boy's outstretched hand.
"This is my Drake! A Draco-Ignis-Caelum."
Scratching the small lizard's head with his finger, he continued.
"In other words… This little guy is a flying drake! With a fire affinity."
'Huh, so it seems like most of the people in this class are here for general education about magical creatures…'
"Are there a lot of students with… pets like yours?"
Jilas shook his head.
"No, as the son of marquis Wynn, I'm the only one with a drake out of the people in my house. This little guy is the progeny of my father's drake– Morthorax."
Kai nodded.
"I meant pets in general, but that's cool."
The young boy's face brightened instantly, "Isn't it! In any case, yes, most people in this house will have a pet of their own, and if you don't— part of the curriculum is to foster a magical creature the teacher chooses for you."
Kai nodded, his earlier suspicions confirmed.
"So who are the other people in the class? Do you know anyone?"
The boy scratched his chin lightly, before pointing to the other side of the room.
Right at a girl with deep purple hair,
"That's Bella Shrouh- Her family specializes in snakes. Her pet is a nasty viper, with poison that can even affect dragons."
Next he pointed out a young man with silver hair.
"That's Garris Beorn, his family works with seraph– his pet is a small winged goat."
"Seraph… like angels?"
"Not quite, but I suppose angelic is fitting, seraph are gentle creatures with natural light affinities, they heal.
Kai nodded intrigued.
"I'm sure there are a bunch more people I'm forgetting… But those two are probably the most influential in the class– besides me of course!"
"Yeah of course, drakes are mythical creatures after all…"
The boy turned to look at him.
"Drakes are like- the most common form of long distance travel. Way cheaper than Wyverns and a Dragon would never."
He fidgeted with the button on his uniform, adding–
"What are you… some country bumpkin or something?"
Kai slushed, embarrassed.
"Something like that-"
-
"Hi, I'm Kai- I hope I'm not too much of a bother…"
The young man spoke sheepishly.
"I'm not very good at Caster based magic, so would you mind helping me, it's a bit embarrassing honestly."
The girl beside him rolled her eyes,
"Idiot Augmenters, they always take this class thinking they can handle it…"
Kai smirked.
"For a caster who needs remedial studies… that's a bold statement. You can't even pass your own class."
Her face twisted.
"I will have you know that the only reason I am in this class is because I skipped too many classes of my last Mana-Engineering class, for self study of course… and well, there was the time one of my golems ripped the transfer students arm off–"
"It wasn't my fault of course, no one knew a new student was coming, so how could I have added his identification into the golems memory."
Kai… didn't know how to react, someone had lost an arm, and it was her fault.
But she didn't even seem to mind!
'This school is full of nutjobs.'
"Sounds like it was your fault…"
"NO."
"Yes…"
"No."
She bit her cheeks, adding,
"Well… maybe a little bit, probably shouldn't have kept a combat golem as a pet."
'At least she can somewhat admit it.'
"So- What's got you interested in magical engineering Mr…"
'She's suddenly chipper.' Kai thought, before speaking,
"My weapon, it's an Elite-level weapon spell, I wanted to see if I could learn anything to improve it."
With a thought, he summoned Keldreth, its golden rings glinting in the light of the room.
The girl in front of him whistled, her brown curls bounced as she adjusted her hair behind her shoulders.
"That's a high level form it took, something like that can definitely be improved upon… but I don't know if the academy has the facilities for that."
She reached out and touched one of the rings, frowning.
"Possibly the royal family's lab… You're friends with Vaelric right?"
Kai paused, not really sure how to answer.
'We might be friends, we might not be.'
"I think so? I'm not sure, we only talked for a bit at the written exam, and then the practical started and we haven't talked since, then the whole duel thing… I'm not sure."
'Although he did see me sobbing, and hid me from the crowd, I heard about that.'
Kai smiled to himself, the girl scowled at him, tossing her hair.
"I have a boyfriend."
Kai deadpanned, "I wasn't thinking about you-"
"I'm taken!" She crossed her arms.
'Good luck soldier' Kai thought mentally saluting the poor boy.
He felt sorry for whoever had to put up with that…
"I'm Valencia Balnayara–"
"I'm taken." Kai said, smirking.
The girl bristled.
'Oh this is going to be fun.'
-
"I am professor Borus, and I will be teaching you the basics of manatheory and shaping."
Kai looked at the dark skinned man with blood-red eyes.
'Professor Borus, a mage on Sylvia's level, I'm intrigued to see this class.'
"Normally I would lecture the whole period… But based on feedback I received last semester, it turns out species with shorter natural life spans aren't easily able to digest hours of content."
He adjusted his glasses slightly, pushing them up his sharp nose.
"As an elf myself, that was a complete blunder, I failed to take into consideration your attention spans."
Pacing around the room he pointed to the rows of students.
"So– I will be running the class differently this time."
He clapped his hand once, 8 figures rose from the ground– wooden dolls.
"These dolls will be constantly absorbing and shaping mana, you can study them, dissect them, watch them heal."
Ceasing his pacing, he snapped his finger and 100 puzzles appeared in the center of the classroom, on a raised table.
"These are shaping puzzles, the one on the far left is the easiest, the one on the right is the hardest."
Pointing to the 25th puzzle- 'This should be the average level for most casters, due to frequent Mana-shaping with circles and spells."
His arm traveled over until it was perpendicular with the 15th puzzle.
"This is the average level for augmenters due to most not using complex spells, and just shoving mana into their bodies."
Sangrid clasped his hands behind his back, surveying the rows of students.
"You may begin now."
-
Looking at the puzzle in his hands Kai leaned against a wall, fiddling with it, he slowly infused mana into his fingers, it was difficult to manipulate mana at the tips of his fingers but due to his constant shaping with Mana-Neglection he quickly got the hang of it.
'Straight path up, then a curve to the left, a tiny spiral through this corkscrew area, and then let it pool into the core at the center.'
It took him around 15 seconds to complete the puzzle labeled '10'.
He started with such a low level because 15 was taken, and also because he wanted to see if he was below average.
'Looks like this is too easy to be a good test.'
Moving onto the next one, Kai picked up 16.
It felt different, yes, but not horribly so.
A narrow path that burst if there was too much pressure, he had to subtly control the flow rate.
Then a sharp left curve that widened out naturally decreasing the velocity of the mana whilst also timing the section, forcing him to make rapid adjustments to the mana's speed.
All in all it took…
'Thirty seconds huh, looks like I'm above average for augmenters.'
The next puzzle he picked up was numbered 20…
A full minute later he finished the puzzle, sweating slightly.
'That took more effort but I still feel good.'
Picking up the 25 he started to channel mana, roaring waves through tiny needle pricks, spindly passes with narrow exits, before the energy pooled into the center of the cube.
'This cube has two energy wells- crap!'
Before his mana faded– he quickly started pushing it out the tiny fissure in the bottom of the first bulb, up the jutting path and back through a line that already had mana flowing inside it!
'Crap!'