Daimon was surprised feeling the intense gaze Aliya was directing at him, “My intention was to outstand to get the support of the alchemist association… but it seems I might have overdone it”.
“Still being in good books with the teacher that will be in charge of your class, isn’t a bad idea”, said Evangeline.
Daimon nodded, unlike the results of the other students, Aliya kept the elixir refined by him in her storage ring before she continued with her lesson.
“The classes have changed, magic theory will be left aside for the time being, and we will only focus in spell basics, potion brewing and… combat theory”.
Aliya sat down and continued.
“Can any of you tell me in your own words a definition of what is a spell?”.
Aisha smiled as she answered.
“A spell is created when we combine the use of imagination and ancient language, to give “instructions” to the mana we store in our magic cores”.
Aliya nodded.
“That’s a perfect answer, many people would ignore the fact that “imagination”, also contributes in both the creation and casting of a spell, and that’s why many mages have problems when they want to use non chant casting”.
She drew an example of many elements, fire, wind, water, earth, metal, lightning, etc.
“I witnessed you all using non chant spells in the combat training of yesterday, but according to my observations, everyone of you still needed about five to ten seconds to use a one-star spell… which is a decent standard, but it’s not good enough for you all to be considered elite”.
“That’s why I will teach you all how to reduce that to three or four seconds at most”.
This time even Daimon was in awe, he could use non chant spells but doing a fast calculation his casting time was between five to six seconds, and that was quite outstanding, of course the skills from the system activated instantly, but he couldn’t only rely on that, that’s why he trained but he advanced way more in the knight’s path than the mage one, so he had a loot of room for improvement.
Aliya smiled.
“Judging by your reaction, you are all thinking that I’m asking for too much, considering you are first years, and normally it would be true since reaching such a high mastery of non-chant casting… would mean you are ready to graduate, but like when taught you my original healing potion recipe, I will give you another “tool” for you to have an advantage over your peers”.
Daimon agreed with Aliya, he still hasn’t decided if he will go to the magic ruin or not, but in any case, having advantages over other mages, it’s not something bad, specially since all the “official” fights in the academy, must be between people in the same realm or at least not so far from it.
Calvin didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry, mana control was one of his weakest points so non chanting was hard to master for him.
“Teacher… the old man might kick my ass for saying this, but how do you expect us to reach third years level in non-chanting, while we are at most one or two star ranked mages?”.
Aliya smiled.
“Well one wouldn’t expect a one-star mage to beat a four-star knight, and still according to all the academy, something like that happened yesterday, isn’t it?”.
Calvin sighed.
“Not everyone is a monster like Daimon…whatever forget I asked, I came to the academy to relax and meet cuties, and instead seems like fate is playing with me to become what my father wanted to”.
Daimon shrugged.
“Who told you to enter the elite class, I bet you wanted to impress one of the female teachers that were in charge of the admission tests”.
Calvin almost fell from his chair, Daimon was right, back in the tests he saw a veiled woman and his “beauty detecting senses” tingled, so of course he as the young master of Ghrish family couldn’t help but brag, unfortunately the woman didn’t look impressed, instead he was sent to the next test which he approved.
“Ahem, that’s not exactly true, I just wanted to see that arrogant vice principal from the Jolbaris family put on an annoyed expression”, he said with an upright expression on his face.
Michael snorted.
“Yeah right, and the elegant girl from the snow leopard tribe of course didn’t make you show off, just enough to get the tenth position of the elite class”.
Yvonne shook her head.
“Calvin if we lose against Alexander’s group of lackeys, just because you are a lazy ass, I will tell your aunt to dress you up as a girl and make you work in the happy wanderer for a week as a punishment”.
Listening to Yvonne’s threat Calvin felt his body shiver, “That brute woman will actually make me do it… God damn it, now I can’t relax even in the classroom”, he thought.
With Calvin’s worries “settled”, the class continued, Aliya drew various symbols in the chalkboard, fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, darkness, metal and so on.
“Those who come from big families tend to put more attention in advancing fast, or rather in getting a bigger reserve of mana, which is not a bad thing, but what does a huge mana pool amounts for, if you can’t follow your opponent’s rhythm”.
Aliya put on a nostalgic expression as she pointed at the symbols she drew and continued.
“I used to be a mere commoner… and not only that but a mixed blood, that’s why I don’t have any beast characteristics, so I lacked potions and magic herbs to become “outstanding” in the same field as other students from the academy, then I looked for another way to not just be another mage of the heap”.
She extended her hand and a little wisp of flame light up, fire normally has a red/yellow tone, but the flames in Aliya’s hand were of a bright orange color, one would normally think it’s just a mere trick, but as a member of the fire crane clan, Leslie couldn’t stop her admiration.
“No way!!! that color of flames is the same as the peak Archmage elders of my family… miss Aliya, are you perhaps related to me?”.
Aliya had a weird smile on her face as she explained.
“Leslie, I just said I’m a commoner, the fire crane clan has a high affinity with the fire element, so I’m not surprised that their Archmages had reached this… level”.
The flames in Aliya’s hands dispelled and she immediately drank from the potion she had hanging in her waist, after taking a deep breath she continued with her explanation.
“What is fire, why does it burn, what does make it stronger, what does extinguish it? I dedicated all my free time to investigate fire and all its properties, until one day I finally understood my own “concept” of fire, and since that moment any flame I created with my mana became like that”.
Aisha smiled, “this woman is truly a theorist, fire is not a rare element, but without any lineage, she still managed to understand something only those old monsters from races with high fire affinity, learn after thousands of years… not bad”, she thought.
Aliya was proud seeing the surprised expression in her student’s faces, and their reactions were understandable, not even the Greenwich Sage knew about what Aliya just talked about, some people’s magic changes after becoming Archmages, but everyone only took it as a side effect of getting a domain.
And yet, Aliya discovered that wasn’t the case, against all predictions and all the records in the history of the Wonder Myriad stellar chart, she reached the same level in comprehension of her element as those talented experienced elders.
Daimon frowned his eyebrows; something was bothering him so he asked what was on his mind.
“Why are you teaching us something like this? such a valuable “knowledge” which is yet to be published could have been bought by any big family at an incredibly high price… but here you are speaking of it so freely, it doesn’t make sense”.
Aliya nodded.
“You are still the only one in the elite class which is completely aware of his surrounds, that’s right I thought of never revealing this to anyone, I’m from the last generation that fought in an all-out war… so the last thing I wanted was to stir up another one”.
She stopped for a moment and then smiled.
“But now, there is a possibility of another war starting, for resources as always, yesterday I witnessed people who were total strangers not too long ago, fighting side by side and decided to make a bet, all of you are part of a big force or family, and yet I can see that you aren’t rotten… like others, so I decided to make a bet”.
“I will teach you how to be better than others, because I want to see if my students can maintain the peace with our White Fang galaxy, in case we don’t get a share of whatever might be in that magic ruin, there will be a way out for us”.
Aliya gazed at Daimon.
“Besides, I won’t accept asceticism from someone which castrated the son of a peak Archmage, just because “he looked at my sister”, was it?”.
Daimon froze for a moment, he looked at the rest of the members of the elite class before he smiled.
“I guess I’m not the only crazy one here… whatever, leaving Calvin aside everyone here is trust worthy”.
Calvin shook his head.
“You are always so scary, and when you suddenly decide to joke… why am I the target?”, he thought.