Leaving the arena, he went to the spellcasting class which was conducted by Professor Neil. The spell casting classroom had three rows of desks, all facing the teacher’s table, behind which sat a large throne-like chair with a high back. Two blackboards flanked the teacher’s table, and behind them was a small shelf with books and other objects, beneath a pair of windows.
The spell casting classroom was smaller than the Alchemy classroom but brighter in lighting and atmosphere. Students were happily chatting with their friends and looking forward to their first spellcasting class.
Considering all the students had to take the spellcasting class, all the alchemy students were present in the class. When Michael entered the class, all their eyes fell on him. The Alchemy house mostly consisted of humans and orcs as well as a few elves. The elves who were sorted into House of Alchemy were deemed inferior by the elves who got sorted into House Warriors or House Runemasters.
Unlike the humans in the Alchemy class, the orcs looked at him with a sense of respect. The orcs who sat on the last bench moved aside to make space for him.
Edith noticed the change in the alchemy students’ faces when Michael entered the classroom. Her train of thought was stopped as Professor Neil suddenly appeared in the middle of the class. Professor Neil was the polar opposite of gloomy Professor Lane. He was wearing a neatly pressed coat suit that was tailored for him by the best tailors in the Akilan realm. He looked charming and lively wearing a bright grin from ear to ear.
Though he had a few strands of gray hair among his raven black short hair, his vigor and liveliness blanketed his true age.
”Welcome to your first spellcasting class dear students. Why so serious?” Professor Neil’s voice softened,
”Say good morning like there’s no tomorrow”
”GOOD MORNING!” the students cheered thunderously.
His Fusion Stage level 8 cultivation earned him instant respect from the students. Professor Neil waved his hand as the blackboards flanking the teacher’s table merged into one longboard.
”All of you have cast spells in your life at least once. You’re familiar with them right?” Professor Neil looked at the classroom as the students nodded their heads,
”So tell me, what is a spell?”
Edith quickly raised her hand,
”Yes Miss 45,”
The whole class including Michael stared at Edith,
”A spell or an incantation, a charm, an enchantment or a bewitchery, is a magical formula intended to trigger a magical effect on a person or objects using energies found in the world. The spell can be spoken, sung, or chanted”
”Wonderful” Professor Neil bowed towards Edith as the whole class chuckled while Edith just bowed back embarrassedly.
”As Miss talented 45 said, a spell can be spoken, sung, or chanted. But what about this?”
Professor Neil swirled his fingers as a mini cloud appeared above their heads. A streak of lightning flashed across the classroom and hit the table on which Edith was sitting behind. Edith almost jumped back in shock. A beautiful blue ross emerged from the place where the lightning hit.
”Look at that, a pretty flower among gorgeous misses” Professor Neil winked at Edith and Victoria. Edith returned his wink with an awkward smile but Victoria outright ignored him.
Anyone with two eyes could see Professor Neil was extremely flirty. With his cultivation stage and handsomeness, it was obvious he had been with more ladies than bees in a hive.
”I didn’t speak, sing, or chant but still I cast a spell”
”It’s a chantless spell” an elven girl raised her hand,
”Another beauty with a knack for knocking down my questions” Professor Neil kissed his palm and blew it as rose petals materialized in the air and flew towards the elven girl.
”There are two kinds of spell casting. The ones we cast by speaking, chanting, or singing have no special name, it’s just called spells. But the ones we cast without doing the above mentioned has a special name, chantless spells or chantless spell casting” Professor Neil wrote the word ‘Chantless spell casting’ on the board in stunning handwriting,
”But you might be tempted to say my Fusion stage cultivation allowed me to cast chantless spells. That’s not true, any one of you could cast chantless spells if you are talented enough which brings me to my next question, what did I mean by talent?” He looked at the classroom for a few moments but none answered,
”All of you are extremely talented, that’s why you’ve been selected to enroll in Mazeroth. But what made you different from those who did not get into Mazeroth? The answer is, your soul and body’s ability to process the energies within you. That’s what made you different from the others, that’s what talent is. Your body and soul take in a higher amount of energy compared to the others. The more energy you take in, the faster you climb the higher stages of cultivation. Yet, one’s soul remains a constant but the body is the variable”
In a few blinks of an eye, Professor Neil drew the anatomy of the human body perfectly on the board.
”The soul cannot be polluted, unlike the body. If you don’t take care of your body, your ability to absorb energies from the world will be hindered. This is the reason why most of the cultivators avoid eating meats, drinking booze, and bed run of the mill strumpets” some of the male students chuckled winking at some girls
”The more talented you are, the higher the chances for you to cast chantless spells. Make no mistake, you can cast any spell without chanting if you mastered the chantless spell-casting except” Professor Neil paused as his voice turned into a whisper. He moved his hand to write two words on the board ‘Elemental Manipulation’
”Until recently the concept of Elemental manipulation was kept hidden from the outside world due to various safety reasons. I don’t know what changed but I was asked to give an introduction to elemental manipulation though even I know only a little about it”
Michael’s interest in the class just got piqued by Neil’s words. Every time he controlled the darkness, he wondered what kind of power it was. He hoped the system would give him an explanation but the only explanation he received was how he should focus on upgrading the system to the next version.
”Elemental manipulation is just as the name suggests, the ability to control one of the five elements, water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, and light” Michael frowned as Professor Neil did not mention the element of Darkness.
”Professor?” Edith raised her hand,
”What about darkness? Isn’t that also an element?”
Michael appreciated the girl’s question. He noticed an acute change in Neil’s face,
”Darkness is not an element Miss 45. Where there is no light, there is darkness. Darkness cannot exist without light and unlike light, there is no source for darkness. In simple words, darkness is just the void of light”
Michael wasn’t very convinced by his explanation. It sounded like Professor Neil was reciting the answer he got from someone else. However, it was neither his place nor the time to prove that Darkness is indeed an explanation and he was the source of it.
”The scholars in Skyhall believe that when you learn and focus on spells of a particular element, for example, fire spells, you might, the keyword is might. You might grasp the concept of elemental manipulation. However, it’s just a theory and it will remain as one until we find someone who could manipulate an element”
Michael was sure that Noah would be able to manipulate light and something told him that the girl who killed the mountain troll might be able to manipulate an element, namely water.
”Now let’s move on to the categorization of spells. Who can tell me how we can categorize the spells?”
Yet again Edith raised her hand,
”Yes Miss 45″
”Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic and Legendary”
”Right again. Miss 45, are you gunning for my job?” Neil laughed, making Edith blush,
”Now most of you might think that Legendary spells are the top dogs. But it’s not always true. Let me give you an example, think of a perfectly healthy baby and a weak old man. No matter how hard the baby tries, the baby won’t win a battle against the old man even though he’s weak. What’s the connection you ask” Neil asked the class,
”In this scenario, the baby is a starting stage cultivator with a Legendary spell and the weak old man is a later stage cultivator with a common spell. The power of the spell depends on the cultivator and the cultivation stage. Many rich people go crazy for Legendary spells and pay millions but they don’t understand that they should invest that money to climb the higher stages of cultivation. Without a strong cultivation base, even if you have several Legendary spells in your arsenal, a cultivator with a strong base could defeat you with a simple common spell. By strong cultivation, I meant you must be at least at the Soul Refining stage to unleash the full potential of a Legendary Spell”
Professor Neil then went on and on explaining each category of the spells to a great extent. Michael almost felt sleepy. After forty minutes, except for Edith and a few girls, almost the entire class was droopy.
”With this, we will wind up our class. In the next class, I’d try not to make you all sleepy. Now run along before Professor Steinmeyer starts to look for you. Trust me that won’t end well” Professor Neil chuckled before waving his hand. The next moment, he disappeared from the classroom.
Michael had a feeling that Neil got a taste of Gaya’s attitude. He was the first to leave the class and on his way to the combat class, he contacted Gaya to do him a favor.