Ardere and Kenji sat the front for their Magical Studies class and as the class began Kenji, true to his word kept his head up, but it seemed he didn't really pay attention.
Kenji let his hand hold his head up as the teacher began speaking.
"Today we will learn about the cost of spells and how you can cut that cost with mana manipulation."
For the first time Kenji stopped looking past the teacher and actually focused on her. This didn't slip past Ardere and she wondered why he seemed so interested all of a sudden.
"As you all know spells have a cost and in order to cast a spell you need to use your mana as a fuel of sorts."
"Mana has more than one property and can be influenced to take on whatever you want it to as long as you have the creativity and knowledge to make it work."
"For example when we create a stone using mana we aren't creating actual earth we are just changing the property of the mana to harden it and in turn it takes on a familiar form."
Ardere glanced at Kenji out of the corner of her eye. Kenji had put his hand back on the table and was sitting up straight listening carefully.
"The same can be said with water magic; mana takes on a fluid property, but no matter how much you drink this water it will just turn back into mana and will not quench your thirst."
"The more powerful the spell the more mana it consumes. Our body's are unable to form raw mana into spells. at the very least simple demonkind are unable to."
"It was said that the Demon king could manipulate the mana in the surrounding area to a great degree and use it to amplify his spells, but since his demise that power has been lost."
Ardere knew of pulling in raw mana to help someone who was deprived and refill their pool, or to help search for internal damage by detecting the flow of mana, but never had she seen anyone actually use raw mana to strengthen their spells.
"Now does anyone know the process of absorbing mana and the cost of spells?"
The professor scanned the room and landed on a random male student and pointed at him.
"When your mana pool is full then your body stops absorbing raw mana and refining it, but when you start to empty your pool your body begins refining the raw mana and filling your pool again, but the absorption of mana is slow and you can empty your mana pool faster then you can refill it." The boy answered.
"Very good now what of the cost?"
Everyone looked to the student and the boy was dumbfounded as he thought he had already answered. The professor noticed he was unable to answer and answered instead.
"The cost is simple, when you use a spell you use mana from your pool, but that isn't the true cost, the true cost is your stamina and mental power. when you use a spell you must concentrate in order to move your mana from your pool inside your body to the outside of your body and give it the form you wish."
"This concentration takes mental concentration and will drain you of your stamina in turn, which is why even if you have fully recovered your mana it is important to recover your stamina as well."
Kenji was listening with great interest and Ardere was more then surprised as Kenji didnt have any mana of his own so something like this she felt wouldn't be practical for him.
"Now in order to cut that cost of stamina and mental power pulling the mana from your pool needs to become second hand nature especially for much larger amounts of mana and you can do this with mana manipulation."
Many students began writing down notes as the professor opened her book.
"Mana manipulation is the skill of drawing out your mana and sustaining it without wasting any stamina."
The professor lifted her hand and conjured a bit of water. The water hovered above her hand in a ball as she spoke.
"Mana manipulation is not only about drawing out the mana from your body it is also about controlling the spell beyond just simply releasing it in a specific direction."
Then the ball started flowing around her arm in a serpent like pattern almost like it was alive and when she shot it out she changed the shape of it and it formed into a spear.
the spell hit the wall piercing it and digging into the wall leaving cracks leading out from the center where a deep fissure remained.
"This is true mana manipulation, as you can see the mana i used was very minimal yet the effects were massive. This is what mana manipulation is and though it takes mental concentration, it does not drain yor stamina as long as your skill is great enough."
Most students were somewhat familiar with mana manipulation, but also knew that being able to control mana to that extent would require a lot of mental strength.
"To better explain the effects of mana manipulation i will begin by using the same amount of mana to form a very basic spell."
A ball of water appeared in the teachers hand once again and instead of forming it into any specific form she just shot it out at the wall again.
On impact the wall cracked more and the spell left a small dent in the wall.
"Now once more with very minimal mana manipulation."
Once again a ball of water appeared and instead of shooting it out right away she wound her hand back and made a sweeping motion and as she did the water farmed into a half moon and when it hit the wall it dug in leaving a deep scratch on the wall.
"mana manipulation comes in several different forms and its all very reliant on ones own imagination."
"Now can anyone come and attempt mana manipulation."
There were a few students who held their hands up, confident they could do the very basics of mana manipulation including Ardere. The teacher scanned the room and landed her eyes on someone and pointed in Arderes direction, except it wasn't Ardere she was pointing at, it was next to her.
Looking beside her Ardere could see Kenji with his hand up. she looked back to the teacher as he began to walk toward the front of the room.
"I'm glad to see I finally caught your interest young man. Now what exactly can you attempt for us today."
Kenji got close and whispered into the teachers ear and her brow shot up in curiosity.
The teacher thought for a moment, leaving the room in silence for a moment before speaking again.
"Hmmm... Very well, since you seem confident I'll allow it"
She then conjured up some water, extending it out and adding in pieces of earth in the middle, giving it a stone handle and adding a little stone on the tip of it.
She handed it to Kenji and it held its form as it followed his movements.
Kenji walked up towards the wall and swung the handle and the water followed and just as it hit the wall.
CRACK!!!
An audible crack was heard and it bounced all around the room making some kids cover their ears and the ones who didn't only heard ringing.
once the dust settled and the other students ears stopped ringing everyone looked and could see a deep hole in the wall with large cracks surrounding it.
Everyone looked on in awe as Kenji walked back to his seat, handing the item back to the teacher before sitting down.
The teacher looked at the wall in awe as she examined the damage.
'Though the spell costed a bit more with the mixture of the two elements, but the damage is terrifying and it didn't disappear upon impact.'
The teacher looked back at Kenji as he sat down.
What Kenji had just made was an improvised whip. Using the fluidity of the water and the weight of the stones with a rock solid tip small enough not to impede the movement needed, but also strong enough to cause more damage than normal.
The results spoke for themselves as the teacher examined the item in her hands. unfamiliar with such a weapon.
'He's smarter then he looks.' she thought as she turned the item back into mana.
"Right that was very impressive though you should get into the habit of making your own spells, you have the imagination for it all you need is the practice." She said trying to regain her composure.
"Is there anyone else confident in their ability to manipulate mana?" she said as she walked up and placed her hand on the wall and it began to repair itself.
For the last half of the class, one by one students came to the front and tried their best to manipulate mana and each time the teacher would repair the wall they were damaging.
When it came for Ardere to go up she stood facing the wall and summoned her fire. she tried making the arch slash that the teacher had demonstrated but the moment it hit the wall the spell only left a scorch mark with no other visible damage.
"Right class this is an example of what its like to manipulate mana in different ways." The teacher spoke up seeing the results of Ardere's spell.
Up till now everyone besides Kenji tried recreating the water spell demonstrated in the begining, but Ardere was the first to use her own element.
"Fire is one of the most difficult elements to manipulate as it holds no physical aspect such as the other elements. since this is the issue you can only manipulate fire spells by condensing them when doing so it will release that energy with explosive power, but doing so also consumes more mana."
"It is not an element recommended for Demons with low mana pools." The teacher said looking at Ardere with a sideways glance.
Soon the bells tolled and the students began grabbing their items and getting up.
"Alright make sure you all get the very basics of mana manipulation down by next week i will have an assignment ready for you by then." The teacher said as everyone left.
Ardere and Kenji moved on from class to class and Ardere was silent for most of them, only speaking up when necessary.
At the end of the day the two of them went to the training room and waited for Melodi at their usual spot, on the bench near the dolls.
The silence between the two was seemingly deafening and eventually Kenji spoke up.
"You won't have to give up your element."
Ardere wasn't surprised Kenji knew what was bothering her since it was pretty easy to put together considering she started acting this way after she was told she shouldn't be using the fire element.
"You heard what she said Kenji, I need more mana. No matter what happens it all still comes down to how much mana I have. I cant get past it and its only going to get harder and harder to do things the way I am."
Ardere tried her best to hold in her emotions. she wanted to cry, but she's been doing that too much recently and she needed to be strong.
"That's why you have me, so before you start giving up, try asking if i have any ideas first."
Ardere looked up to Kenji, not entirely sure what the magic impaired human could do to convince her she could actually continue to use fire magic.
"Kenji I know you're smart, but until a couple of weeks ago you hadn't known magic existed. What exactly can you do to help?"
Kenji smiled as he stood up and motioned for ardere to do the same.
"First things first I want you to spend today controlling your mana and moving it the same way the teacher did in class. Also, you will need to exhaust your mana as much as possible and when you feel like your completely out you need to continue to try and conjure your spells."
Arderes face twisted into one of confusion, she had been exhausting her mana day in and day out yet it was basically impossible to continue to try and form a spell without any mana in your pool, not without drawing from your Magic Beast or drawing from the natural mana, and the last person who could use spells with only natural mana was the Demon King.
"I see your confusion, but for now just do as I say and don't worry about any physical training for today." Kenji said
Ardere didn't feel very motivated to try such an exercise, she not only felt it would be a waste of time, but the strain in and of itself would be tremendous on her mana pool and her own physical body.
If she went through with it then the mana exhaustion wouldn't just extend to today, but could even leave her bedridden for a time.
"Kenji this doesn't sound like a good idea, Mana exhaustion on that level could result in a lot of progress loss just from the recovery alone."
Kenji looked past Ardere and when she turned she could see Melodi coming their way.
"I understand your need to want to train everyday to try and improve, but obviously you don't know how to train when your born weak."
"Let me give you a piece of advice. A novice has the most room to grow compared to someone who was born with natural talent. So long as I don't push you too hard you will see results."
Ardere couldn't understand what Kenji was talking about, but in the end she decided to trust what he was saying and began trying to move the fire she controlled the same way she had seem earlier that day in her Magical Studies Class.
"Hey you two!" Melodi said in her ever constant cheery voice as she appeared with Luna on her shoulder.
"Melodi, it will just be me and you today. No doll and no Ardere, you can use your Ferr....Van- Thing. Im not gonna lie i can't remember what its called, but anyways, you two will be fighting me."
***AUTHORS NOTES***
Hi, its been a while since i last uploaded and I plan on getting back on a somewhat regular schedule. I had some personal things come up and I decided to take a break. I also wanted to take this time to better my writing and grammar. Though you shouldn't expect it to be anything professional as i don't make any money from this and this is just a hobby. To all who have been waiting I'm proud to announce that "HOW TO SUMMON A HUMAN" is officially BACK!!
Thank you for your patience.