# Episode 47. Special Class (1)
After finishing the mandatory history class scheduled for the afternoon, I headed toward the place Professor James had announced.
As I walked, the number of people around visibly decreased, and eventually, the guards even blocked my entry, making me wonder what kind of place this was.
Fortunately, they let me in after showing the pass the professor had given me, though they still looked reluctant. But I couldn’t shake the eerie thought that maybe I was being sold off somewhere.
It was located on the outskirts of the Academy and involved descending into the basement of a building, where facilities far more luxurious than the training ground from earlier were housed.
“What is this place?”
“Oh, you’re here?”
“Ah, Professor.”
Compared to the school uniform he wore during class, Professor James was dressed much more casually.
The warm, neighborly feel, as if the professor had just come back from jogging… Wait, isn’t this atmosphere just too different?
“Ah, you’re talking about this outfit, right? This is my house, so I thought I should dress comfortably.”
“Ah~ So that’s it… Wait, your house?”
“You didn’t know? I live here.”
So the professor invited me to his house for this special lesson.
Had it been a female professor, it might have been a rather thrilling situation…
And why would a war hero have a bunker-like house in the Academy?
“This is a bit unusual, isn’t it? Though, you’ve got everything you need here, right? The facilities are comparable to those of the nobility.”
From what I gathered, the professor, who had been a commoner, achieved remarkable feats and was awarded a grand mansion and fortune. However, this upset some higher-ups.
There were attempts to sabotage the professor’s estate by hiring people, and there were frequent visitors asking to borrow money.
In the end, the professor sold the estate, obtained the Academy’s consent to make his place appear as a modest house on the surface, and remodeled the basement into an extensive underground mansion.
“With nothing visible, those people stopped bothering me. How very foolish…”
Throughout time and across dimensions, there have always been narrow-minded, foolish people who cannot genuinely celebrate others’ success.
“You must have gone through a lot.”
“It’s alright. It’s all in the past now. Plus, isn’t a secret base every man’s dream?”
“That’s true.”
Secret base!
What an incredible notion!
Every man dreams of having his own hidden secret base, one that others can’t discover. Denial is not an option.
“Well, anyway, that’s why I invited you here. Here, we can focus on training without distractions or interference from anyone.”
“Does this training area belong to the professor personally?”
“Haha, it’s my pride! It’s a piece that could only be compared to a royal personal training ground! Nearly 80% of my lifetime savings went into making it.”
“…You’re crazy.”
According to the professor, it’s the pinnacle of the latest technologies gathered from the mage tower.
That’s why the floor and walls don’t even get scratched, even with advanced techniques. It even has an automatic restoration function, so there’s no need for separate cleaning. It’s practically perfect.
Other professors sometimes borrow it when they want to polish their skills without restraint.
“Some of the rare metals from your fief were also used. It took quite a bit of effort to acquire them.”
“Hmm~ So if my share contributed to building this training area, you should teach me even more diligently.”
“Hehe? Alright, kid.”
The professor seemed pleased with my bold response, messing up my hair while chuckling.
Even though it felt like my brain was being shaken from the professor’s hand size roughly the size of my head, it was a pleasant feeling.
“Alright, come on in. Just be ready to die. You know you’re nowhere near even reaching my feet with your current skill, right?”
“…Understood.”
That’s the truth. No matter how much I run and jump, it’s impossible to land an effective blow on the professor.
Even if I use every trick I have, I can only leave a small scratch on him.
I froze moisture in the air and hurled a block of ice, roughly my size, at the professor.
“Good restraint, but too bad…”
In the brief moment the ice obstructed his view, I used the same high-speed movement technique that I had shown during my sparring match with Maiten. I swiftly penetrated the professor’s side and kicked towards his ribcage.
Whack!
“Ugh!!?”
“Good attempt. But keep in mind, aura users have very developed physical senses?”
The professor caught my ankle with incredible strength and tried to throw me onto the ground.
“Guh!!”
With my ankle caught, I had no way to escape. Before I hit the ground, I heated the area around my ankle, making it natural for the professor to release my leg due to the heat.
Sssss!
“Ow! It’s hot!”
“?!?!”
But even as the sound of burning flesh rang out, the professor’s grip tightened rather than loosened, and I was thrown onto the ground.
“This won’t be the end, will it?”
“Grr… Here’s the next one!”
“Haha! It’s been such a long time since I’ve had so much fun loosening up my body!”
“…Monster.”
For several minutes, I pelted the professor with punches, kicks, and all sorts of magic, and still, he barely budged.
Could this person possibly have a hidden origin, being a hybrid of a human and an ogre or something?
“After a rough sparring session, I’ve figured out what your issue is.”
“Huff… What is it?”
“How did it feel when you tried to hit me?”
“How…? It was impossibly solid.”
“Exactly. That’s the key.”
As I tilted my head in confusion, panting, the professor chuckled.
“As you know, aura and magic share the same foundation but have different effects. For example, water can transform into steam, a gas, or ice, a solid.”
While aura focuses on “enhancement,” magic leans more toward “manifestation.”
While their fundamental source is the same, their manifestations vary depending on the direction the user wants to channel their power.
“It wouldn’t make sense for me to suddenly tell you to switch from magic to aura now. Unless you started when you were very young, your body has already grown accustomed to using magic. I’ve heard you have a talent for magic?”
“It’s just that I have a lot of innate mana.”
“That’s precisely the important point.”
“What?”
The professor paused briefly before changing the subject.
“You called me solid earlier, right? That’s because I’ve enhanced the components of my body using aura.”
“…And?”
“Then the solution is clear. Instead of using aura, you should use magic to ‘enhance’ your body.”
“That’s not easy, is it? Since the activation principles of the two powers are different…”
“More accurately, it’s about ‘manifesting’ aura within you through magic.”
“…?”
Seeing the confused expression on my face, the professor chuckled and continued explaining.
“The principle of aura is simple. It’s about coating the muscles, bones, blood vessels, and skin within our body with mana, replacing them with something more solid and resilient. Naturally, if the body becomes tougher and more durable, speed and power in attacks will vastly improve.”
“That’s right.”
“So, what if you apply magic in a similar way, coating your internal body with solid magic?”
“…”
Indeed. It’s an ingenious yet simple idea that is precisely why it is rarely considered.
“Actually, this was mentioned once at the mage tower. Though, it was quickly forgotten.”
“Why?”
“Think about it. Would magicians who boast of their magic really bother to use mana to strengthen every bone and muscle in their body? They could develop two powerful magic spells capable of wiping out hundreds of people in that time. Plus, do magicians even have the physical strength to swing their fists around all day?”
“It’s inefficient.”
“Exactly. Even if they meticulously coat every corner of their body with mana and expend high levels of concentration and huge amounts of mana, there’s no tangible benefit.”
“…So that’s why you emphasized the importance of my abundant mana.”
“That’s correct. I don’t know who your teacher is, but they must have advised you to train your body to easily handle large quantities of mana. You seem to have plenty of fuel, and your vessel is nearly complete. The only thing left is your skill.”
I was once again amazed by the wisdom of my teacher’s simple advice and silently expressed my gratitude.
“By the way, who taught you magic? While I don’t know much about this field, I do know a lot of names.”
“Ah, my teacher’s name was… ‘Rahel,’ I believe.”
“Could it be Rahel Privius?”
“Ah, yes! That’s right!”
“Thought I hadn’t heard from her in a while. She’s been working as a governess for the Netorie family? What is she doing now?”
“She’s probably still in our fief. In exchange for gifting her a personal laboratory, my father extended her contract…”
“Guess she got a taste of money after fleeing the mage tower and living on the brink of poverty. Let her know to come by here sometime. But don’t say I want to see her.”
“Ah… Understood.”
Are the professor and my teacher acquaintances?
Now that I think about it, she did graduate from the Academy, so they must have met at some point.
“Alright, let’s start your customized training.”
The professor took out a balloon from somewhere and blew it up.
With his vast lung capacity, the balloon quickly grew to the size of his face.
Pop!
“Ouch! Why did you hit me?”
“You seemed to be thinking something unpleasant.”
Dammit, how did he know?
“Alright, the first task is to coat this balloon with mana and make it solid. When I poke it with this needle, it shouldn’t burst. It must remain safe from any direction. Plus, the texture of the balloon must stay the same.”
“…”
“By the way, for every popped balloon, you owe one push-up while carrying me on your back.”
The professor nonchalantly gave his terrifying instruction as I began to channel mana to make the balloon solid.
As the mana I emitted gradually surrounded and solidified the balloon from the inside and out, I felt it strengthening…
Booom!
“Hmph. Channeling mana so roughly will make it burst. A delicate thing like a balloon doesn’t need to be scratched with mana as if it were sandpaper.”
Furious from his critique, I concentrated this time and succeeded in coating the balloon with mana.
“Look! I succeeded on the second try!”
“Hmm…”
The professor took the balloon and dropped it on the floor.
Thud – Roll.
The balloon, after roughly colliding with the floor, didn’t bounce but rolled away.
“You’ve made it too thick. I said make it tough and solid; when did I say to make it only solid? You’ve injected too much mana, making it unnecessarily heavy. If your muscles become like this, they would harden into stone, making any martial arts impossible.”
After several more attempts, I managed to keep the balloon intact while maintaining its texture by the time I reached about 100 balloons.
Of course, I did 100 push-ups carrying the professor on my back before heading back to the dorm, where I dreamed of a giant gorilla pouncing and piggybacking on me.
