"In order to get to Rank 1, you must do two things. Create and feel mana. That's what I said yesterday, and it isn't exactly wrong, but it is incomplete. Be careful to not let this confuse you from your immediate goal: what I'm going to say is for the future you to worry about. Right now, your first and foremost priority has to be producing and detecting virtual mana. Is that clear? Your objective right now is to create and feel virtual mana!"
Everyone nodded.
"Now, to get to Rank 1, the mana you need to create and feel is not virtual mana, but real mana. Once you manage to produce and feel VM particles, you must make them go through the process of materialization, which will allow them to interact with the world around you. Materializing your mana will allow you to cast spells that actually have effects in the world, like pushing someone or levitating something. Once you can confidently cast such spells, you are a Rank 1 Mage."
That sounded tough, but it was only for the first rank? Good lord...
"From there, your mana won't go through a qualitative change to Rank 2, but through a quantitative change. Rank 2 is the rank of a Mana Field, which you will study in depth during your next year. In summary, a Mana Field is an area, a piece of 3-dimensional space, in which you have control of the mana, virtual and/or real. It's extensibly more complicated to master, but once you can materialize mana in great batches, your prowess will reach another level."
The started to materialize objects in mid air. A purse, glasses, a sword, and eventually a luxurious leather chair, in which she sat down.
"You reach Rank 3 through another quantitative change: when you can freely move your mana fields like your own arms."
The bunch of objects started to flow around the class with varying speeds and trajectories.
"As you can imagine, a mage of this caliber can become a terrible threat to the secular world. That is why Official Mages can only be, well, official, and not be a career for every school. If you open your Mage Fundamentals I textbook at page... there it is, page 32, you can read an example of what happens when you teach magic to everyone. It can turn even an honest king into King Jeremy the Wicked..."
"Rank 4 is a qualitative change. As you will learn in Materials, real mana particles aren't known for being particularly sturdy. Rank 4 resolves for that drawback, and creates tons of branches of magic from it. In summary, at this Rank, a mage can transform their mana into any quantum field, or any material, they desire. Iron, gold, diamond, light, electricity, radiation, bosons, the list goes on and on... At this point, a mage is called a Lower High Mage, High Mage, or simply Lower Mage."
As she explained, the objects she fluctuated changed colors. From metallic, to golden, to a crystal's, to translucent light, electric currents, etc.
"At Rank 5, the qualitative change doesn't happen to your magic, but to your very body. Mages have found ways to increase reaction time, perception, physical strength, endurance, all on levels way above a normal human's. Imagine trying to fight a tank while unarmed. That's the difference from Rank 4 to complete Rank 5. You also get an exponential boost to your lifespan. At this level, you are called a Higher High Mage, or Higher Mage."
"To Rank 6 your journey is not nearly as linear. This realm is called True Sight, and can only be achieve when you have found a spark of insight, an interference from the universe itself to allow you to reach higher ranks. I am not the best person to explain it to you, but in summary, you perceive the world differently, as if from another dimension. Imagine a drawing of a stickman trying to fight against a normal human... but you're the stickman. It's not even funny. At this level you are called an Archmage."
Holy cow, that's insane! I can't even fathom that...
"The 7th Rank is a rank of legends. Very few have achieved it, less have passed their legacy on. In theory, it's the realm of those who don't need mana to affect the world, relying only on their will."
"Rank 8 is a theoretical rank. It is already on the realm of a god. There have been many studies on the possible paths to this rank, but nothing has been confirmed so far. Any questions before we move on?"
I glanced behind at my fellow students, and literally all of them had their eyes wide open. Even that Erick fella. Suddenly, he noticed me and gave me a smirk, and I quickly faced away.
"Is there a Rank 9?" Someone asked.
"It has been theorized, but we still have little confidence on our conclusions."
"Has there ever been a Rank 8 mage?" Ray asked.
"Many countries tell tales of legendary warriors capable of destroying entire nations with but a hand. Some of those tales have been shown to you during your Middle School Appraisals, for those who were lucky enough. You can find them in normal video format in the Academy's data lake. But no, it has not been confirmed that a Rank 8 ever existed."
"Does our country have a Rank 7?" A girl asked.
"It had, in the past. Our founding family was led by Queen Hazborath the First, a well-known Rank 7 mage. Nowadays, though, I don't know of any."
Some questions later, Fatima intervened.
"Alright everyone. This is it for today's class. It was a simple introduction and some guidelines, but this is also knowledge you should have before proceeding. Read up the textbook up until Magic Training, and start getting used with your training methods as soon as you can. I'll see you tomorrow."
In exchange for a day full of classes, we didn't get any homework. Well, usually. This one, too, wasn't exactly homework, nor was it mandatory.
We hurried on for the second class of the day, on a completely different building.
"Algebra I, here we go..."