Aided by the map and his eagerness to begin his studies, Percy made it to the classroom early. By now, the first of the twin suns had fully emerged from its slumber, the other still bathing the sky in all sorts of vibrant hues as it slowly rose through the horizon.
The room itself wasn’t very large. It only contained twelve wooden desks, neatly arranged in four rows of three. It reminded him a little of the place where he and Nesha had had their orientation, back during their first day in the Guild. Though the desks all faced a yellowish board, smooth as glass. He’d no idea what people wrote on it with.
‘I guess I’ll find out soon…’
Sighing, he sat in one of the least conspicuous locations near the back of the room, right next to a window. Hopefully, the students weren’t assigned specific seats, or he was about to piss somebody off. Propping his satchel against the wall, he took out the Pre-casting 1 notebook, along with a food bag, placing them both on the desk.
Opening the snack, he grabbed a handful of small, brown seeds, tossing them in his mouth. Unlike the krimbian leaves he’d eaten the day before, he’d seen several mentions of these ranki beans in Leo’s diary. Apparently, the boy had often had them for breakfast.
“They’re bitter!” he blurted out, his features scrunching. “But… I can see the appeal…”
The flavour would take some getting used to, but his half-closed eyes jolted wide open, the exotic snack instantly knocking the last traces of sleep out of his system. For a minute or two, he just sat in silence, watching the rest of the sunrise as he finished his meal.
Only once he was done did he finally flip the notebook open, intending to do some last-minute reading before the other students arrived. Supposedly, he still had some time left.
‘Let’s see… So, pre-casting essentially involves priming your mana in preparation for a spell while it’s still inside your core…’
‘I wonder if I’d be able to see through this with my eyes…’
Following one of the training exercises in Leo’s notebook, Percy tried to split the air mana in his core into three parts. When a mage wanted to shoot multiple projectiles, they’d normally separate the mana after it had already left their body. Splitting it from the core and drawing it out through different channels would lead to slightly faster spellcasting. Granted, the difference wasn’t huge – just fractions of a second, really. Still, a valuable advantage to have.
Sadly, things didn’t go smoothly.
‘This is harder than I thought.’ he creased his brow.
Even the slightest perturbation had sent his mana into turmoil, making it difficult to grab a hold of. No wonder he’d never encountered this technique elsewhere. It sure seemed like an absolute pain to master…
Not that it was difficult to exert his will on the mana. In fact, the exact opposite was true. The problem was precisely that the mana was too responsive while in his core. Getting it to do as he wanted would need a delicate touch.
And there was another issue.
Percy was keenly aware that pre-casting wasn’t very compatible with his current arsenal. Most of his spells involved either his mutated eyes, his bloodline, or constructs that took ages to craft. He currently lacked any spells that would immediately benefit from the technique, making it a little useless at the moment.
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‘It’s still a handy trick to know. Maybe I can learn to form runes inside my cores after some practice…’
Obviously, he wasn’t sure if that was even possible. Nothing he’d read had mentioned anything of the sort, but that just might be due to Felmara’s runes not being suitable for the task. Or, perhaps, the difficulty involved was simply too staggering. After all, Percy already had his hands full with the basics. Let alone shaping the mana into something as intricate as a rune and maintaining that for a long time.
‘But if it works… the possibilities are endless.’
For instance, he could draw concealment runes to hide his second core from within, eliminating the need for an enchanted bandage or his armour. And who knew what else he’d come up with?
“Leo!” a chirpy voiced called out, snapping him out of his thoughts. So absorbed had he been in the exercise that he hadn’t even noticed the newcomer.
“Eh… good morning…” he replied by instinct, trying to put a name to the girl’s face.
Olive-coloured eyes, light brown hair, dimples when she smiled… he vaguely recalled his host calling her Lyn, though he wasn’t certain that was her. If it was, she’d been mentioned several times in the diary too. Another close friend of his, no less so than Klatz.
‘I should avoid calling her by name until I’m sure.’
Then again, talking to somebody who knew him so well was just as risky as getting her name wrong. His best course of action would be to keep his distance from her entirely. Sadly, that instantly became a great deal harder, as she opted to sit right next to him. Would it be rude if he moved elsewhere?
“I’m glad you’re taking classes again!” she spoke again, oblivious to his thoughts. “Do you still have trouble sleeping?”
Percy raised an eyebrow. Apparently, Leo’s problem was a bit of an open secret. How should he even respond? Telling her he was fine would alleviate her worries for now, but they were still supposed to find him dead in his room a few weeks later.
“It was a little better last night.” he said, carefully measuring his words.
She looked like she wanted to say something else but, fortunately, two more kids entered the room, cutting the conversation short. They both greeted them before taking their seats. One of them was even kind enough to say Lyn’s name, verifying it was her.
More people walked in shortly after, the classroom rapidly filling up with students. Some of them gave him the side-eye again, others ignoring him entirely, just like yesterday. One of them appeared even more annoyed than the rest, glaring at him for a couple of seconds as he grumbled something illegible. The owner of the stolen desk, perhaps? Luckily, he didn’t make a scene, sitting at one of the remaining spots instead.
The teacher arrived too. A middle-aged man. His fur was pitch black, a Green core thrumming in his chest. He wore similar robes to the students, though his were embroidered with a few intricate symbols, indicating his higher status.
“Wanna grab lunch later?” Lyn whispered while the man unpacked his stuff on the desk.
Percy deliberately ignored her, taking advantage of the fact the class was about to start. Internally, his mind was racing, however. He knew she’d ask him again later, and he had to think of a good excuse by then.
“Ahem.” the teacher cleared his throat, gathering everyone’s attention. “As you all know, today’s our last class this term. I’ve no idea how many of you intend to sit the exam at the end of the year, but here’s a list of things you need to be proficient in, should you choose to do so.”
Turning around, he wrote on the yellowboard with some kind of enchanted stick. Each stroke made a squeaky sound as it brushed against the smooth material, leaving a deep blue line in its wake. Every now and then, the man made a mistake – scrubbing the words out with the back of the stick.
The students were silent, their eyes glued on the list of topics they’d have to revise by the end of the year. Clearly, most of them planned to sit the exam. Percy himself didn’t care about that, but he still paid close attention, trying to get a clearer picture of the things he needed to catch up on.
As soon as he was done, the teacher spoke again.
“By now, you should all feel very comfortable with the training exercises taught in the first three courses. I’m actually in charge of the next part too, and I hope to see all of you there in the next term. Obviously, you’re not obligated to stick with the subject if you don’t want to. Still, in my humble opinion, it would be a waste to drop it now that you’ve finally reached the best part. In Pre-casting 4, you’ll have the opportunity to put everything you’ve learned into practice. The objective is to incorporate the technique into an actual spell. That is also the basis on which you will be examined at the end of the year, should you choose to take that exam too.”
Percy swallowed hard at the sound of that. The prospect of developing a new spell was exciting, but he didn’t look forward to cramming three months of Pre-casting exercises along with two months of Alchemy theory.
‘Can’t be helped, I suppose... Either I squeeze out the most valuable lessons the academy has to offer, or I waste the trip…’