Today’s magic class went on significantly late into the evening.
The intensity of the practice was so high that there was no time for boredom.
Including myself, everyone had experienced mana exhaustion at least once.
As we depleted all the mana we had refined yesterday, our ability to cast spells slowed down and maintaining them became increasingly difficult.
It was an intense practice that pushed our mental strength to its limits!
Amidst this, the sight of Teacher Adelia smiling and encouraging us seemed like the very embodiment of a demon.
Had she yelled or insulted us, that might have given us a reason to endure.
With her excessively kind and gentle words, everyone, despite feeling drained, was forcing out every last bit of their energy.
Snap!
“Alright, that’s it for today. You have homework. When you go back today, gather mana without using it.”
If we only gather for a day, under such training, no one would be able to endure.
Everyone slowly began to leave the classroom, still exhausted.
I joined the others and made my way down to the lobby on the first floor.
Outside, darkness had already blanketed the area.
“Ririan? Do you want to go somewhere with me?”
“Are we going there again?”
“No. We’re going somewhere nearby.”
The underground arena was certainly far by the academy’s standards.
I claimed I was going because there was no way there could be an arena nearby.
Following Max, we arrived at a park located close by.
Upon arriving at the park, Max led me to a dense thicket of trees.
“This is my secret training spot.”
Even though he called it a training spot, it was merely a small, old bench.
It looked like it had been brought from somewhere else rather than being set up here.
“I don’t know much about mana magic, but using the meditation technique here helps gather mana well!”
“Really?”
“Yeah. How about we take a moment to gather mana here?”
It was a decent suggestion.
Mana can be found anywhere, but the quantity varies.
In the forest of nature, there is far denser and richer mana than in the city.
In comparison, this park can be considered a reasonably mana-rich location.
“The technique I’ve learned is called the Revat technique. It’s somewhat related to the priest class.”
“Is it okay to share that?”
“It’s fine. It’s a fairly well-known technique.”
There are hundreds of known techniques for mana refinement.
All of them are methods for purifying mana.
Each method refined and spread it out, and only the most efficient ones survived.
The techniques still in existence today are distilled essences that have filtered out the best points.
Since Max had revealed what his technique was, he seemed to be wanting something from me in return.
“I don’t have a technique. I heard I have a divine body type.”
“What?”
Max looked quite surprised at my words.
“That’s a really rare body type.”
In reality, I didn’t have a divine body type, but it was convenient to use that as an excuse.
After all, there would probably be only one person who had ever seen someone with a divine body type.
Even though I had only learned how to refine mana just yesterday, my body was handling mana refinement without much difficulty.
When about half of the refined mana had built up, Max was swinging his sword beside me.
“Ha! Hup!”
“Have you already gathered that much mana?”
“Yeah. It seems like it’s taking you a bit longer?”
I had to undergo a refining process after gathering mana.
They said that once you become skilled, you can gather and refine at the same time, but I wasn’t at that level yet.
Also, there was a difference of about double in the amount of mana between Max and me.
While refining mana, the mana would manifest on its own at times.
At that moment, when I compared the amount of Max’s mana to mine, I noticed it was about twice as much.
After finishing my mana refinement, I got up and stretched.
“It’s getting late, so let’s head back.”
“Really?”
After parting with Max and heading back to the dormitory, I spotted someone dozing off on a bench in the park.
I wondered why they were sleeping there, but since they probably wouldn’t wake up easily, I sat next to them for a moment.
“Hmm? Hello~”
The Demon King greeted me with a big yawn.
“Why are you sleeping here?”
“Oh, I was playing with the kids.”
“It’s late, so you should head home.”
“Yeah, I should.”
Getting up from the bench, we left the park.
As I approached the vicinity of the dormitory, I felt a presence following me from behind.
I didn’t pay much attention and reached the dormitory door.
“What are you going to do if you follow me all the way here?”
“What’s it to you? Let’s go in.”
I inserted the key into the door, turned it to unlock, and stepped inside.
“Wow, a lot has changed while I was away.”
“I can now refine mana.”
“Oh wow. That’s impressive!”
I sat on the floor and demonstrated how to refine mana.
“The next thing to do is to expand your mana hole.”
“A mana hole?”
“The place where refined mana is stored. It’s not difficult. You’re just increasing the size of the storage area.”
“How do you expand it?”
As the Demon King explained how to expand the mana hole, I recalled today’s class.
The way we were practicing to squeeze out mana seemed almost primitive.
I didn’t expect that expanding the mana hole would be that simple.
“However, there’s still a limit. There’s a maximum capacity that’s predetermined.”
Typically, the maximum mana for demon kin is about two to three times their body size.
For humans, it could be considered nearly infinite.
In the past, demon kin had a tendency to use mana too recklessly.
They couldn’t endure when they used so much mana without care.
Teaching them efficiently is what the modern academy aims for.
Thanks to that, some individuals have begun to emerge with skills comparable to human magic swordsmen.
“By the way, are you still in this city?”
“Yeah.”
After some thought, I made a suggestion to the Demon King.
“Really? Is that okay?”
“Sure. I won’t be using it for a while anyway.”
The Demon King granted permission to use my room since they would be staying in this city for a while.
Anyway, since I would be leaving this city with Aila for Latnia on the weekend, my room would be empty for a while.
Sleeping in a proper bed in my room would be better than on a bench in the park.
Of course, the Demon King could return to their castle in an instant if they wanted to.
Rather than a castle deep in the forest, the dormitory, where someone familiar was, would be less lonely.
“Well then, thanks in advance for a while.”
“Wait? Starting today?”
“Yeah.”
The Demon King lay down on the bed and patted a spot next to them with their palm.
As they lay down, the Demon King reached out to my chest.
“Good night~”
“Aren’t you going to sleep?”
“I slept a lot earlier.”
The Demon King gently stroked my hair until I fell asleep.
When morning came, the Demon King was still asleep.
They probably stayed awake until before sunrise, falling asleep when the sun came up.
I quietly prepared, taking care not to wake the Demon King, and left the dormitory for the academy.
There was still a lot of time left before the class started.
I entered the vacant classroom, took my seat, and began refining mana.
As more time passed, one by one, students came into the classroom, seeming busy preparing for their classes.
Students learning weapons gathered in the classroom because of the sparring class today before heading down to the underground training area.
The classroom was much larger than usual.
There were about five to six students taking magic classes, including me.
When Teacher Adelia walked in, the same content from yesterday was taught again today.
“It’s really boring to do this two days in a row.”
One student lightly complained to another during the class.
“All of this is training that helps you all. And if you concentrate, it won’t be boring.”
Hearing that mix of encouragement, consideration, and a bit of warning, the student straightened their posture.
Today, instead of water, we would be maintaining shapes with fire.
It seemed like Teacher Adelia slightly changed the element used based on the student’s complaint about boredom.
A moment later, all the students attending the class quietly grumbled about that student.
Water was much easier to maintain its shape.
Students who could only use one spell at a time initially thought about what shape to create as they made the fire.
The flames created disappeared after floating in the air for a few minutes.
Not only did they have to keep the shape, but they also had to focus on maintaining the spell, making it several times more difficult than water.
Moreover, with the side effects of fire magic following, mental strength soon reached its limits.
During the class that progressed while sweating profusely, no one dared to chatter.
If they had the energy to talk, they poured it all into shaping the flames and maintaining the spell.
“Alright, that’s enough for now. Take a break.”
At Teacher Adelia’s words, everyone canceled their spells and began to refill their depleted mana.
Even though I still had some leeway, I also refilled my mana just in case, like the other students.
After observing our condition for a while, Teacher Adelia stood before us with a satisfied expression.
“If we keep sitting still, it’ll get boring, so let’s try something a bit more active.”
Teacher Adelia demonstrated a spell before us.
White chunks of ice accumulated one by one to form a tall tower.
“Now you try.”
“Um, Teacher? We can’t double cast yet, you know?”
A student raised their hand and spoke.
“You can just make one at a time.”
Hearing that, the students began to create an ice chunk in front of them one by one.
“As you work, listen carefully. They can’t be square shapes, they need to be at least a palm’s width, and you must stack at least five to ‘pass’.”
“Pass?”
“Yeah. If you don’t pass, you won’t be able to go home today.”
The normally gentle Teacher Adelia seemed quite harsh in today’s class.
I realized quickly why she specified the shape of the ice.
It was no simple task to stack more than five circular shapes rather than square ones.
Once you pile up three or more, they would easily topple over due to imbalance.
If it took too long, parts of the ice would melt and cause a collapse.
Since we had been maintaining fire magic just a moment ago, the temperature in the classroom had risen considerably.
To pass this test, I needed to make ice that wouldn’t melt at the classroom temperature.
Moreover, it also required the concentration necessary to stack it without toppling.
Just as I managed to stack four, the moment I added the fifth, it happened.
“Ririan. Completed.”
Whoosh!
Teacher Adelia smiled as she melted down my stack of ice with fire.
The students who witnessed that scene were left speechless.
Simply completing it wasn’t enough to pass.
This class would continue until Teacher Adelia was satisfied.
