[I must say the blink spell is ingenious! In my time, warping during fights was impossible for those who didn't awaken the space element, giving us a huge edge above them.
Its only downside is that it needs the mark to be placed before the user will be able to blink, meaning if you get into an unexpected fight against an opponent it won't be of much use, but if it comes down to a prepared and planned fight the spell will go a long way.]
'He must be a genius to develop such a spell, he reminds me of Mack Hoffenheim the array genius of this era... Wait!' Blake was shocked when he just realized something.
Ever since he saw prince Bryon use his dimensional space, Blake had been reading a lot of books on dimensional magic, but the name of an author kept on reoccurring and that was Mack Hoffenheim.
"Professor Mack are you Mack Hoffenheim the author of Mysteries of array?!" Blake blurted out.
His question quickly made the eyes of everyone in the class glitter when they heard the name.
Mack Hoffenheim was a genius known all around the realm for his vast knowledge in arrays. He was the one that 'perfected' the theories behind warp gates and arrays being used all around the realm.
(AN: The All-Father was the one that designed the castles and of course warp gates and arrays were included, the problem was that they ran on high energy sources which are very scarce in this era (Infinite realm's cycle mentioned in chapter 57.), but professor Hoffenheim perfected the arrays (downgraded) and made them consume less energy.)
He was well known but only a few people had the privilege to see him in person because he was very busy, with his research and rarely attended social events.
"You know me?! Didn't know I had a fan in my class." He too was surprised.
The reason he had declined teaching in the magic school at the capital was to avoid people who knew him from pestering him, that was the reason he had decided to go with his first name which was common and less suspicious.
(AN: The students at the capital's magic school are more learned than those at the other magic schools, meaning there was a higher chance of his cover getting blown.)
'Seems my little act of showing off my new spell had blown my cover, but hopefully my research wouldn't be disturbed.' Professor Mack was sweating on the inside.
'All I just wanted was the extra resources the royal family promised if I became a professor.' He sighed.
He had been recruited by Prince Bryon because of his unparalleled knowledge in arrays and had been promised more resources to further his research.
"Alright, today we will be looking at the basics of arrays." He said to the class, but he was soon interrupted by Blake's hand which was up in the air.
'This was what I prayed against, why are the heavens always against me!' Professor Mack cursed. "Yes?"
"Is it possible to make a larger array containing many blink marks at different points to enable the user to blink in a short-range in a fight?" Blake asked with a hopeful expression.
'This kid is amazing! Although I just recently perfected the spell, I was only thinking about upgrading it, but didn't think of such an application!' It took some time to ponder before the professor could reply to his question.
"Hmm… That is a very nice question, but you see I just completed the blink spell recently and haven't thought of it from that angle. From my quick calculations, it is possible and for that, I will be awarding you 1000 points for the ingenious idea."
The words of the professor made a lot of the students in the class gasp.
"1000 points!" Blake and the other students blurted out in unison.
"I know it might be too little, but If I award more points, there will be a lot of questions to answer (From the school and the readers. XD). As I research this idea of yours, you will be awarded more points depending on how much it yields." Professor said apologetically, thinking the reason for their sudden was that the points awarded were too low.
'Are you kidding me I will still receive more points!' Blake couldn't help but smile.
Seeing Blake's smile Professor mark began the class meant for the day.
"Before I was interrupted, I was talking about the basics of arrays. An array is a combination of symbols which arouse the energy of the mother-stream, and different symbols brings about different reactions, just like this." Professor Mack drew a series of symbols in a perfect circle at equally spaced intervals on his desk, before connecting them at the center.
Immediately he was done with the array, the students felt the mana in the room moving towards the array.
"This an array normally enchanted on magic conducting stones like delwart to form a type runic stone which can help the user to easily gather mana towards himself/herself." The professor explained to the class.
'Seems he isn't aware of the incident that happened in the preschool.' The professor's words brought back memories.
"Apart from knowing the symbols that can arouse energy from the mother-stream, a good array master must know the perfect materials that can handle the power of such arrays. That is why the forging specialization is recommended. Yes?" He permitted a girl to ask her questions.
"Professor Mack, the table you drew the array on isn't a good mana conductor, so how is the array able to work?" She asked.
'Only if all these students were like Blake Wilson, I wouldn't have to answer silly questions.' Professor Mack didn't like questions, all he wanted was to end the class and begin his new topic of research.
"The reason a good mana conductor is recommended during an enchantment is that the effects of the arrays are boosted because the mana flows through it easily. But that doesn't mean an array wouldn't work if it was enchanted on a bad mana conductor, it just means that its effect will be lessened." He quickly went back to his explanation.
"There are two types of arrays; sustained and intermittent arrays. Sustained arrays are arrays that require a constant supply of energy to function, examples are the mana gathering I used on the table, the warp gates and warp arrays in the castle and if their mana supplies are cut off, they would stop working.
Most arrays known to man are sustained arrays, but a few of them do not need constant mana supply, they are called the intermittent or popularly known as forbidden arrays.
Forbidden arrays are forbidden because when they have been trigger they would continue to work non-stop, but the problem is that all of the known forbidden arrays are evil and cause a lot of destruction." He said while looking at the fascinated look on the student's faces.
"Class dismissed!" His announcement came with grumbles, but he couldn't care less because after reporting to the principal it would be research time!
In the principal's office.
"Professor Hoffenheim, how was your first day as a professor?" Principal Lovren asked with a warm smile.
"It was better than I expected. Did you know that kid Blake Wilson is amazing, he proposed a great idea about my new spell blink, so I award him with a thousand points…" Hoffenheim was immediately interrupted by the principal.
"A thousand points?!" Principal Lovren blurted as he felt his headache.
Professor Hoffenheim had been recently employed as a professor in the magic school that was why he was tasked to report to the principal after the class and since he was the best at what he did, he was assigned to the experimental year.
But Principal Lovren never imagined that he would award a thousand points on his first day.
Seeing the principal's shocked expression, he quickly explained everything that happened in the class.
'He should have started with that, he almost gave me a heart attack.' Principal Lovren sighed as he made a mental note of professor Hoffenheim's poor social skills.
"The credit points were well awarded and he should be given more, but like you said as the research goes on."
…
Back in the classroom.
'Wow, a thousand points.' Blake was shocked by what had happened.
'Guess I will soon make a trip to the exchange point.' Blake thought after realizing how many points he had.
