Wait, what? Viktor is a teacher?

  Now that the possibility had entered his mind, a few puzzle pieces of information clicked into place in Valar’s mind. The fact that Viktor had managed to get Valar into the most prestigious school in the nation, his collection of basic magic books and things like that made a lot more sense when the man himself was a teacher. The only thing that made no sense was why he would even be teaching others at onyx rank, but Valar didn’t have time to figure that out just yet.

  “Some of these people may be familiar faces to you, but let me introduce them to you anyways. Main teachers of the elements, would you please walk forwards?”

  Four people walked up, two women and two men waving to the gathered student body with smiles on their faces. They were all at gold rank.

  “From left to right: Lydia Relwyn, fire mage, Boln Steinmor, earth mage, Bryn Withers, wind mage and last but not least Eric Dalton, water mage. One of these four fine mages will be the main teacher for most of you. Let them hear your appreciation for their hard work!”

  Deafening applause filled the hall, some students even whistling or shouting in support for the teachers. They bowed, retreating back to the line of teachers after that.

  “Some of these teachers are assistants for the main teachers of these elements, and may even hold their own classes. We do not have time to introduce them all, but let them hear your appreciation too!”

  The hall erupted in applause once more, some teachers bowing with polite smiles on their faces. Viktor was among them. Wait what? He’s of a higher rank than the actual main teacher? What in the abyss is happening here?

  “Finally, I’m proud to announce all the teachers we have for rare affinities this year. Rare affinities are numerous and we simply can’t have staff for them all, but rest assured that you will receive the best teaching even if your affinity isn’t mentioned. Without further ado, please step up!”

  Six teachers walked forwards, Elaine among them. A couple of them were gold rankers, but most were at silver rank instead. I guess that’s understandable. It would be hard to find gold rank teachers for all the rarer affinities.

  “From left to right: Titus Aurelius, force mage, Elaine Livren, life mage, Drox Thrawn, space mage, Diana Flynn, light mage, Tobias Erenfall, dark mage, Carmen Ryder, lightning mage. Please give them a warm welcome!”

  The applause they got was a bit more subdued, as most students were more interested in the elemental teachers. The rare affinity teachers still retreated with smiles on most of their faces, already looking for prospective students of their affinities in the crowd. Elaine even waved to the back row, Valar not being able to wave back but still glad for the recognition. She’s one of the Livrens? She doesn’t really look like one though, blonde hair and all…

  “I will now leave the stage for Brynn Withers, as she will be your teacher for this very first class. Do your best and you’ll find yourself among the legends of this nation!”

  Valar had to listen to yet another round of applause. He suspected this would be the last for now, as the thin woman seemingly in her 40s walking up on stage was already trying to calm the crowd. When the class finally quieted down sufficiently, the woman quickly cast a spell and coughed into her hand, the sound echoing through the whole class.

  “I have cast an amplification spell for my voice. Those on the back rows, can you hear me well?”

  She got a thumbs up from the row in front of Valar and continued with a small smile on her face. “Then we can start. I'll begin with a question: What is magic?”

  Silence fell over the lecture hall, the middle-aged woman trying to find any raised hands in the crowd. “No one? Nobody can tell me what magic is? I promise it’s not a hard question.”

  When the silence stretched for even longer, Valar heard Zeke practically growling. He had been whispering and muttering something, but the man seemed to be reaching his limits. “IT’S A FORM OF ENERGY, YOU MORONS!”. His shouts of course fell on deaf ears, only Valar being able to witness the outburst.

  The dark skinned abstract mage’s bright blue eyes were almost manic as he started to rave on about magic, energy and everything between. He was getting up—his goal being the door out of their little private area—but the professor’s continued speech saved him from any future embarrassment.

  “I’ll let you all out of your misery. Magic is wondrous, that’s for sure, but if boiled down to its very basics, mana is a form of energy and magic is simply the method to utilize it.”

  “Huh…” Zeke snapped out of his manic state instantly. “She’s a smart woman, that one.”

  “Every single living being has a soul. Endless mana pours out from them through our gate, giving us an infinite source of energy. However, that energy is in a hard form to utilize. On its own, mana does nothing, just lingering around in our bodies—the excess flowing out into the world. There it mixes with the ambient mana, rendering it unusable for us sapient beings. That gives us our first limitation. Even though our souls can pump out endless mana, our bodies can hold only so much. To make it worse, your gates are barely open, limiting your available mana to a pittance of a higher rank mage.”

  The professor’s explanation actually helped Valar a lot. He had been thinking why mages didn’t just cast endless spells at their enemies. Carla had used her spells sparingly, and now Valar knew why. She simply couldn’t cast more.

  “I just called the lack of mana the first limitation of us mages. Would any of you fine young men and women happen to know what the second limitation is?”

  This time a lot of hands were raised, and Brynn pointed at one of them randomly.

  A tanned young man in clothing with yellow symbols rose up, speaking when the professor urged him on. “As you already said, mana is a hard form of energy to utilize. Spells require visualization and runes to work.”

  “Good answer, young scion of the Boltons,” Brynn smiled at the young man as he sat back down. “That answer is near perfect as it encapsulates the whole point of these academies. Excuse my Khateshi, but magic is fucking hard!”

  That got a laugh out of the class, even Valar and Zeke chuckling on the back row. “But seriously, magic—especially higher rank magic—is one of the hardest things you could ever try to learn. I must warn you that even getting through the iron rank semester will probably require some sleepless nights of studying. When you see one of your house members cast a spell, the runes may not look especially difficult. As you’ll find out, learning is much harder than ogling, especially when doing something wrong may seriously hurt you. Now, what do we get from all this learning?”

  “We get to be more powerful than the affinityless!” A loud voice rang out in the crowd. The young man’s shout got some cheering from his neighbours, but that came to an end quickly.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Brynn was laughing. She had practically doubled over with mirth, leaning on the podium for support. The voice amplification spell carried that laughter over to the entire hall, making the young man and his friends quiet down in confused silence.

  “More powerful than the affinityless… I swear I’ll never get tired of that line. Hah!” The woman finally managed to get a hold of herself, rising back to where she had been standing before her outburst. “No, you do not get more powerful than the affinityless, Kalron boy. You certainly do not.”

  Kalron… Where have I heard that name before? Valar looked at the young man dressed in green and something in his mind clicked. He was in the caravan! That boy was sitting next to the man who tried to cast a spell on that Livren girl!

  “Don’t fret too much though. Someone has answered my question in a similar way for nearly a decade straight without fail,” Brynn consoled the young man. “It’s a common misconception that the noble families of Leoria keep up for some abyss blasted reason. Your families were probably overjoyed when you awakened to an affinity, and that makes many of you think that you are better than the affinityless. I don’t blame you for that misconception, but it needs to go.”

  The class, including Valar, was following the professor’s words with rapt attention. Most were finally hearing something that they had never been taught, and that made them interested.

  “Let me be the first to tell you that your affinities don’t make you more powerful than those who don’t have them. Your affinity only changes the nature of that power, giving you a chance to give it a different form. While you train magic, a swordsman trains with his body, mind and weapon. The same amount of mana is flowing out of his soul as yours; It’s just used differently. Can any of you tell me how that affinityless mana is used?”

  Valar was surprised to find Elizabeth’s hand shooting up, Brynn giving the floor to the young Wendir scion. “Affinityless mana is generally used to enhance the physicality of the person instead of outward utilizations like spells. That means that they are physically much stronger than us mages, as all the mana they gain through slaying their enemies is allocated straight to their bodies instead of their mind like for us mages. Additionally affinityless mana is used to actively empower them in combat through things like martial techniques, making physical fighters a nightmare to deal with!”

  “An excellent answer, young lady. Am I right to assume your father told you all of that?”

  “Yes, ma’am. He has fought quite a lot of people and always says that a mage is much easier to kill than a good warrior.”

  The professor grinned widely, turning back to the class as Elizabeth sat down. “As some of you may know, Elizabeth Wendir’s father is Adrien Wendir, the so-called false phoenix. You may have heard of him…”

  Elizabeth seemed to curl into herself as the class erupted in whispers, especially the fire affinity students’ interest peaking with the man’s title. She managed to gather herself after a while and the noblewoman sat up with her back straight, looking at the professor instead of the numerous stares pointed at her. She’s handling the attention much better than me… I’ll have to ask for tips from her later.

  “Now now, get your gazes back to me instead of staring at a young lady,” The professor admonished the class. She stared pointedly at some students with less than flattering gazes, the students trying to play it off when they got noticed. Brynn seemed to pick out the worst cases, pointing right at them with her thin finger. “Those who I pointed at, come to me after class. We will have a discussion on manners…”

  “Where was I at… Physical fighters! Thinking that you have the upper hand on a martial combatant is one of the fastest ways to die in this whole wide world, and that's a promise. Also, keep in mind that every single person’s bodies improve when they ascend to higher ranks. That’s why even mages of higher ranks are physically enhanced—the enhancement is just way lesser compared to an actual warrior.”

  “Why are we even here if we could be getting just as powerful with no magic?” A shout came from somewhere in the hall.

  “Please raise your hand before shouting or I will have to remove you from the lesson. It was an excellent question though, so I will let it slip for this time. Regarding your choice on becoming mages, that’s easy. The main benefits of being a mage are versatility and convenience. Versatility because you can learn countless spells for different situations, convenience because those spells may help you outside of combat just as much as on the battlefield. There was one thing that was wrong with your question though. Could anyone tell me what it was?”

  A hand rose up from the crowd, a thin girl of maybe sixteen years of age rising from the crowd when she got permission. “The… The question assumed that becoming a physical fighter was somehow easier than magic.”

  The girl practically slammed back down on her seat, a female friend of hers hugging her from the side and whispering something in her ear. The professor was beaming. “Excellent job, daughter. Indeed, the initial question relied on the assumption that training to be a physical fighter was somehow easier than being a mage. Trust me, it’s much more difficult than you could ever believe. The bad mages and fighters get filtered out at iron and bronze rank. Every single silver rank fighter you see has trained for countless hours, perfecting their style of combat to its limits. Never underestimate them, as that will undoubtedly lead to your untimely end.”

  The professor continued for a while about the differences between physical and magical combatants, answering anyone’s questions readily and with enthusiasm. The initial explanation had been quite enough for Valar, as he had actually seen someone like Rodrick or Arthur fight. That level of skill was something that required serious work.

  Eventually the questions died down and the professor switched topics. “Since this is an introductory lecture, we will not continue for much longer. Next time we meet here, we will learn about basic connecting runes, since they play a part in all of your spells. They work for all affinities, so teaching them to everyone at once is the most logical thing to do. Your own affinities though… Those lessons will be held after lunch. Every teacher will come back on stage soon. Go ask them where your class is held, then go and have lunch. Class dismissed!”

  Valar had to admit to himself that he had enjoyed the class immensely. Brynn was a good teacher, holding the entire class’s attention and asking questions from the students themselves. Valar had had several of his lingering questions answered, able to ask new ones from himself instead. The wind magic students are lucky to have her… Did she call the one girl her daughter?

  The other primary teachers had entered the stage while Valar ruminated on the lesson and the other students were already questioning them about the next classes.

  “Zeke, which lesson are you going to? I assume there’s no abstract magic class?”

  The young man shrugged. “I guess I’ll go to the fire magic classes first. It’s an easy starting point for my affinity, and I’m guessing they’ll gladly have me. As for abstract magic classes… Getting a teacher for one student every five to ten years sounds kind of unreasonable, so I’m a rotating student instead!”

  “Five to ten years? That’s how rarely one appears?”

  “The rate of appearance for abstract mages is really erratic if I’m remembering right,” Zeke mused. “Keep in mind that most discovered abstract mages come straight to the royal academy, as this is apparently the best place to teach us. I think the last iron rank student joined about 5 years ago, but I could be wrong. Not really an expert, you see…

  As most of the students had already left the hall at that point, Valar and Zeke tried to grab the chance to leave the back row without much fuss. That failed spectacularly, most of the remaining students turning their heads in the pair’s direction immediately when they left the illusory room. That was only twenty or so gazes though. Valar could deal with that… Maybe.

  Brynn had set up a bubble of wind that seemed to muffle sound to the side of the hall. Valar couldn’t hear anything, but judging from the expressions of both the professor and the troublemaker students, Brynn’s ‘lesson on manners’ was one even the most raucous students needed to learn only once.

  Valar walked to Elaine as she was his primary teacher. “Good morning, professor! Where’s the lesson on life magic after lunch?”

  “Good morning to you too,” Elaine didn’t show him any more recognition than the others. “The lesson is held in the water tower’s 20th floor, right where the highest skybridge takes you. You cannot miss it!”

  Valar thanked the professor and left the class with Zeke. He had checked out the other students that had the life affinity when he had the chance. Just looking at them didn’t give him a lot to go on though. There were 5 women and 4 men, although he couldn’t be sure if some hadn’t already left for lunch. They all looked like they were 17 or 18 at the most. Compared to the hundreds of elemental students, being part of the ten life magic students really drove down the point that healers were in high demand. It was a rare affinity and people got hurt all the time. It seemed like most would have to be satisfied with alchemical concoctions and mundane means.

  Valar and Zeke headed down back to the cafeteria and had lunch after the class. The half hour wasn’t spent in total silence, but most of the talking was just smalltalk. Both men were too immersed in their own thoughts, leaving no room for actual discussion. After lunch, they split up, Zeke heading to the fire tower while Valar took off towards the water one. Zeke seemed fun… I think we’ll be meeting a lot, so that’s good.

  That would have to wait though, as now it was time for life magic!