A year and a half later…
After the legendary beating he had received from his father months ago, Vicente had spent quite some time without getting into trouble.
At the same time, he had spent more than a whole year having no free time for fun with his friends and colleagues. He accompanied his father whenever he was not studying at home or at the academy.
Because of this, he learned a lot about his old man’s profession, gained some negotiation skills, and understood a little more about the economy of this society.
There were three types of coins in Polaris Realm, gold, silver, and bronze, which were normally used daily in all kinds of business.
One gold coin was worth 100 silver, which in turn was worth 10,000 bronze.
One would find these minerals in Polaris Realm in this ratio, hence their values.
However, other items could be used as coins but were less common given their rarity.
Among them were gemstones, high-value-added resources, and, most important of all, magic stones.
The latter was a special kind of natural resource that magicians could use as support items in their activities or in battle.
Anyway, this last option was definitely the most valuable of all, and people usually didn’t trade them unless the business values were very high.
Vice had not yet seen one of these but had heard about it when he witnessed a deal between his old man and a nobleman from outside this province.
In this period, Vice had traveled outside Martell Village with his family for the first time, having noticed the magical and marvelous world in which he lived beyond his small village.
Amid these responsibilities, he, Rory, and Ian had returned to walking in groups. In contrast, Darek’s team had stopped bothering them after the street fight that day.
That day two of Darek’s friends had broken bones and needed medical attention outside the village to fully recover.
Because of their need to stay out of the village for a while, Darek’s group had been temporarily reduced, forcing the two who stayed behind to keep their mouths shut.
By the time the two injured by Vice and Rory returned, the group of those two with Ian had reunited, and the three of them could be considered as strong or stronger than those four.
Finally, a few months ago, Vice and Rory’s group advanced to class 5, while Darek’s group had graduated from the academy. Because of this, they have not seen each other since and, for the time being, had left the previous matter behind.
Ian still didn’t know the truth about Rory’s mother but wasn’t looking for answers either. He had accepted Vice’s made-up excuse and returned to his friendship with Rory.
…
It was a sunny day in Martell Village, with the birds singing and the residents going about their business.
Some were fixing things in their small stores. Others went out to buy or trade resources, something typical in small human communities.
Meanwhile, some of the village children were at the academy, while others were at home, waiting for the day when they would reach the minimum to study there.
Amidst this, in one of the most prominent rooms of the Academy of Stars building, class 5 was taking a lesson from the strictest teacher of that institution.
Professor Julian!
After years of studying here, once again, the group of Vicente, Rory, and Ian had fallen under the responsibility of this teacher.
However, unlike their first day of class with this man, everyone in the class already knew him and did not fear him as they did back then.
But this man had earned the respect of these students and no longer needed to be so hard on them.
So he was starting another class, talking about something essential.
“Today, we will finally begin studying Magic Gems and Magic Pentagrams.” He said right after saying good morning to his students and without difficulty getting the room’s silence.
He looked at his best student and asked. “Vicente, can you tell me what Magic Gems are?”
Vicente rose from his seat and said aloud. “Magic Gems are fantastic items that connect to magical bodies once they reach maturity.
Animals, humans, and other magical beings can connect to Magic Gems upon reaching maturity through the awakening ceremony.
The Magic Gem that connects to a given being is the one most compatible with its characteristics, so each gem is expected to have different properties and different effects on each magician.
Their magical abilities are greatly enhanced after a magical being connects to a Magic Gem. From this point on, they can cast spells or use their innate characteristics at a level far in advance to their own natural magical abilities.
From awakening, we can store our experiences in them and use them to form new spells that can automatically etch themselves into them.
From then on, they can assist us in spell activation, development, and more.
If I were to summarize how important Magic Gems are to magicians, I would say that they are as essential as brains in mortals unable to use magic.”
Brains were also important to magicians, but Magic Gems served in a similar way to help them as brains did with normal humans.
Simply put, it was as if, just as without a good brain, a creature might be unable to develop its intelligence, without a Magic Gem, a magical being could not use magical ‘language’.
A magical being without a gem was like a human on Earth without the ability to read, speak, write, or use any of the things associated with that. It was okay to live like this, but such a person would naturally be marginalized and their lineage erased over time.
The professor nodded affirmatively and said. “What Vicente said is correct. Magic Gems are mechanisms that allow us to understand the magic language more easily and, through that, better use our characteristics and affinities.
What about Magic Pentagrams?” He looked around the room until he saw his second-best student, Tessa Asper.
“Tessa, can you tell me what Magic Pentagrams are?”
“Hmm…” She looked away, embarrassed, as she didn’t know what that was all about. “We haven’t learned it yet, professor.”
“But haven’t you ever wondered about that? I bet you’ve seen the Magic Pentagrams on your parents and relatives.” He insisted, knowing that these students should have a good idea of what it was all about.
Ian raised one of his hands and soon after was permitted to speak. “Magic Pentagrams are special marks that we gain, or rather, that we need to have in order to advance magical realms. They can give us an ability that is compatible with our characteristics.”
“Ian is not wrong. But that’s not all.” Professor Julian said, walking around the room as he spoke, and pictures appeared on the blackboard. “While the Magic Gem gives the mage the ability to use the different elements that exist to form spells of many different kinds, the Magic Pentagram gives an innate ability and stability to a magician’s mana.
As we grow stronger, the mana in our bodies becomes more voluminous and alters both body and soul.
This is so drastic that we are naturally unable to get far in the ranks of magic without using secondary instruments. .
Without a pentagram to stabilize our mana, we would explode due to the density of mana in our own bodies upon reaching a certain point!”
Gulp!
“That…”
“But that’s terrible!”
The children commented on the surroundings.
“And indeed it is. That’s why in the past, most magical beings were low-level and took a long time to figure out how to solve the problem.” He said, excited to talk about this bit of magic he could talk with his students.
“But lucky for us, our ancestors already solved this tens of thousands of years ago.
So we know that we need to absorb Magic Pentagrams every time we advance magical realms to stabilize our mana.
Before that, it’s risky to keep increasing our amount of natural mana, so not absorbing a Magic Pentagram is the same as being in a bottleneck…”
He continued the lesson, explaining the classifications of Pentagrams, their origins, how one could absorb one, and some basic details.