The elegant carriage jostled along the busy streets of Cillanova city. Large extravagant shops dotted the streetlines, stretching up to the sky like fantastical wizard towers in the fairytales Kai had grown up reading.
Of course— they weren't actually wizard towers but multi-tiered shops that Kai had never seen before, and the Manor, which had three floors, well that actually was a wizards tower technically… So could you blame him?
Speaking of the youngster, Kai had his hands pressed against the window of the carriage, neck craning to see more around him.
The driver chuckled.
"It opens you know… Just infuse some mana."
Kai's eyes widened, sure he had seen the fancy carriages the kings tax collectors rode whenever they came to collect tribute— but he could never have imagined something like this existed, a magic window!
'Sylvia was right, magic is amazing.'
The glass vanished as soon as Kai pushed a small bit of mana through the construct.
This allowed him to stick his head out, taking in the grand cityscape, the center of the town was just ahead, his destination, the gates of Elytrior academy.
Now the academy itself was massive, like a castle, Cillanova city was situated in neutral territory, this meant that Kai was no longer in the House of Wind, but at least he wasn't in the territory of Fire either.
The school had its own walls, and gates. The stones weren't made with mundane rock like the town around it, no these were each natural treasures, mana infused rocks all from enchanted forests.
Just one of these cornerstones could pay for the entire village Kai used to live in, of course this made sense, wealth generally stopped mattering around the 4th realm, for mages, and Cillanova city had a large amount of them.
The treasures that were valuable to them were already too expensive to be bought by any mortal amount of money.
The new method of payment? Mana stones, an energy rich natural resource, used to power anything from stoves, to siege weapons.
Mana stones could be made but that was very inefficient requiring a full day's work of a mage with an equivalent tier.
But the wonder of the city, the massive walls, the golden gates, none of that could drown out the ugliness that is human nature.
Noble people with their exotic pets, slaves, and attendees, sneered at Kai as he passed.
Unhappy by the wonder he found in his own life, because their own weren't fulfilling enough.
But luckily, Kai only locked eyes with one of them, raising his eyebrows.
'Man that guy must hate his wife.'
Chuckling at his own joke, he was content to take in the architecture and wealth flaunted by the city. He reveled in it, as a farm boy who had his first taste of wealth for the past two months, he was addicted.
Alas, all good things must come to an end, and soon so did the carriage ride. The wheels slowed to a stop, and the door popped open, almost flinging Kai —who was still clutching on— out with it.
His foot stepped down on the cobblestone. His first step in a new country, just two months ago the scope of his world was the size of a thumbtack, and now? Well his world had just gotten a lot bigger.
Steel tipped boots clacked against the stone, he summoned Keldreth on his left, the silver weapon delicately draping off its golden rings and connecting to the cuff at his wrist.
On his right, the space ring caught the sun, and the emerald signet did well to compliment it, however the most striking ring was the bone white quartz jewelry, it was exquisite.
The young man's arms had now grown in bulk too from his strenuous training of Mana Neglection.
Rich dark hair adorned his head. It had gotten healthier, the rich food at the manor having nourished his body.
Bronze was the color of his skin now, from the long hours in the sun, it fit well with his amber eyes, and domineering build.
When he had arrived at the manor he was just shy of 5 '10, (177 cm) now, due to his training and eating he was pushing 6 feet (182 cm).
Before Kai was just a green kid, but now, he was fully integrated into the world of magic.
-
'Man this test is hard…'
-What is the equation for the law of basic mana theory-
Scratching his head, Kai thought back to Sylvia's classes… but he really didn't remember any of them.
You can't really blame him, he was mostly distracted playing with mana.
'Mana theory... something about spell efficiency. Doesn't really apply to augmenters, but technically it's, -energy over cost- right?'
Smiling to himself he wrote down a simple -E/C-
-What is the order of the levels within a realm-
'Easy enough, Initial, Secondary, Tertiary, Quaternary, and Apex.-
Writing down that too, his eyes wandered to the next question.
-Define mana saturation, and why it's useful-
Kai furrowed his brows,
'But it isn't…'
He shook his head and trusted his gut.
-Mana saturation is not a benefit, at the start it may seem wonderful to have all your fatigue erased, and honestly it's probably beneficial to Casters, however, to Augmenters it is wasted potential.
By devoiding your body of mana and training in a state of mana starvation, you can actually reverse your body's reliance on mana that was generated during your awakening. There are side effects like increased appetite and more difficulty, but the body is the same in terms of mana weight, which means that the body's quality is made much higher. This leaves the other aspects to mana, like healing, and manually erasing fatigue, allowing for a near double the amount of mana efficiency in a warrior.
All in all, no it is not a benefit, it is a drawback.-
Smugly smiling, and satisfied with his rough draft answer, he moved on.
'Maybe this test isn't actually that hard.
The rest of the questions went fairly smoothly, they all required basic surface level information on mana and its uses.
Everything changed on the last page.
-Create the theory for a spell that uses time magic defensively, not offensively.-
-Create a practical use for darkness mana strictly non criminal.-
-What is fate, is it magic, or is it simply just perception, does it even exist at all?-
-Name the primary level spell for every single realm of mages up to the 7th.-
-A ward is placed on a box, made to activate when it is opened, however, the ward only activates of anyone in the near vicinity believes the box is opened.-
'What the… is this bigotry? In my magical academy!'
Kai scrunched his nose at the gross obviously Caster inclined questions, it's not that they were impossible, but that they required knowing how Caster's functioned. In fact most of the test had been centered around casters, now isn't that unfair?
'It seems like the arcanocentrism of nobles has found its way into the sacred halls of education…'
Mentally saluting Sylvia for her Non-Arcane-Supremacist behaviour he began to work on the questions.
-By making time slow in a domain around the spell user you could slow down projectiles giving you enough time to dodge, or speed up a mages casting to throw off their aim.-
-Simple, sleep spell, some people like mana night lights, others might like complete darkness, a simple artifact covering one's eyes with darkness affinity mana.-
-Fate, Fate is what you make it. No one can decide your fate, not even fate itself. I refuse to believe that one's fate is not their own.-
-primary spells, 1 - mana bolt, 2 - haste, 3 - levitate, 4 - domain (depends on the affinity of the caster), 5, 6, 7, no idea– ask a caster, I'm sure they'll be thrilled to monologue about it.-
He smirked.
'Good enough… ugh, those condemned mana addicts.'
Fingers thrummed against the desk as he mused.
'Mana in your body wasn't good enough? Yeah put it directly into your brain, you casters are no different than drugees!'
Looking at his paper, he then slapped himself in the face.
'Focus you idiot, you can discuss their augmiphobia later.'
-To open the box without triggering the ward, make sure you knock out every witness, open the box at the same time as casting a short term memory forgetting spell, and then get out quick, the ward won't know the box was opened because no one around is aware of opening it.-
Stretching his back he looked around, realizing everyone else was still working, with scrunched brows.
'Did I miss a page?'
But further inspection brought to light that Kai in fact did not miss a page.
'Oh well better turn it in then. Turns out learning how to punch through magic teaches you a little about magical application.'
He jabbed at no one in particular, his arrogance knew no bounds inside the confines of his head.
After he put the papers in the elegant silver holster he opened the door and strolled outside,
It was time for the practical, and Kai couldn't wait to show them powerful magic wasn't only about flashy effects and fancy circles.