Mr. Wine stood in the front of the classroom while the four students were arranged in desks facing towards him.
*Snap*
With the brushing of Wine's fingers a spark was created and with it a ball of fire levitating above his palm. The students looked on in awe, this was most likely their first time ever seeing magic. Low murmurs of amazement spread across them like a wave following the morning current.
"You brats will be in luck if you'd be able to create a simple incantation such as this in a year." Wine spoke elegantly as he flicked away the fire putting it to rest.
"Now listen carefully because I will not repeat myself twice." Wine declared loudly. The other students immediately withdrew paper and pen from their bags with the intent to take notes, yet Kroft was at ease and kept still knowing full well that his memory was perfect. Wine then went on to explain.
8 hours later. Kroft was making his way back to his dorm after his first class ever. He was pondering over the information that he was just taught in his head. The first step to obtaining a grasp of magic was to train both his body and his mind. His body must be trained through exercise and his mind through the classic troupe of meditation. As explained by Wine in order for you to control magic you have to be physically adept enough to not be destroyed by it. You needed to get tougher as Wine put it. Now this world has an understanding that your body improves through physical work, but as preparing your body can be done through many methods Wine never really specified which way to do so. Kroft already had an idea though, he had the knowledge of the modern world and he wasn't going to let that go to waste. He wasn't exactly the fittest human in his last life, but in his highschool days he got into running, lifting, exercise in general as he wanted to get buff as fuck. Kroft was ready to put his world's past health knowledge to work and achieve a perfect vessel to adapt magic to.
MONTAGE TIME
Well no not really...
Partial Montage?
Uh Yeah Sure!
PARTIAL MONTAGE TIME
A month later. Kroft has dedicated all of his time perfecting his body, he created the perfect plan. He dedicated 8 hours of a day working out in the campus gym. He has a schedule switching the different muscle groups he works on depending on the day of the week. He started a job at the Academy library and is a bookkeeper. He keeps his expenses in check by working 8 hours everyday there. The librarian noticed his exemplary liking of books and offered him a job which he happily accepted. He spends 8 hours of his day working, another 8 working out, and the remaining 8, well technically 7 as he has time in between, sleeping. His schedule is completely full and day by day that is what he followed. Going back a bit though, the day after his lesson with Wine he went to Strike's office and asked if he needed to attend classes with Ms. Ross, but he was disappointed as he was told to not even show up to Azrael's room if he didn't have a basic grasp of his magical abilities. Rejected, Kroft left and that's when he came up with his plan. Today was his dedicated rest day. As decided before he put his plan into action, he would have rest days every two weeks on one of the weekend days. He kept it open to either Saturday of Sunday in order to keep his schedule more flexible in case anything might arise. Today he decided to head outside of the academy campus to the inner city of Praven. Kroft really didn't have a destination in mind, he just wanted to relax and have a stroll through the city on his day off. Normally he would have found the idea of patrolling through the city a waste of time as he would much rather be in the library reading or a more productive activity, but he promised himself that he needed to do non productive activities on his days off in order to make sure that his mental health forms a stable habit. In simple terms, he just wanted to make sure he doesn't overwork himself. Kroft spent his day around Praven, indulging in the different shops, such as Dexter's Dreamy Delight's, where he obtained many delicious desserts. He was very surprised at the advancements that this world has made with culinary work, but understood that a basic necessity for humans everywhere is food and believed that if you need something, you might as well enjoy it. Finally as the afternoon was coming to an end Kroft was taking a shortcut back to the academy when he noticed someone familiar by chance. Leaning against the wall of an alleyway sticking out into the street was the girl from his first class ever. He never learned her name but noticed even why she was wearing a low cut hood that it was her. This mystery girl was leaning there seemingly out of breath. Curious, Kroft made his way closer while trying to proceed as inconspicuously as possible. He arrived at the store front next to the alley she was in and pretended to be browsing the windows content. After looking for a few minutes he concluded that she must not be intending to do anything as she was against the wall breathing deeply. Having come to this understanding Kroft turned towards the academy and walked across the alleyway to go back to the academy. Well, at least that was what he was going to do but that wasn't what happened. When he was crossing the alleyway entrance the girl walked out of the alley at that moment and ran straight into him. The unexpected situation caused her to fall down and for Kroft to look downwards at her with a face out of surprise.
"Are you ok?" Kroft asked hurriedly while putting on a kind voice.
"Yeah I'm fine, do you need something?" The girl replied quickly with a hint of hostility in her voice.
"Oh no, I just didn't see you there and was wanting to make sure you're ok."
"Well you're sure now right?" the girl answered while already back on her feet.
"Yeah, wait you go to Doof Academy right? Didn't you take the same starting class with me?" Kroft intended to use this opportunity to his advantage and learn what he could about this girl.
"You... you, you're that one boy who came last. Wow, look at you wasting your time wandering around the city. Why are you even in Doof if you're just going to squander precious resources and time and not be serious?" the girl sneered at Kroft in a tone of superiority.
"You're in the city too aren't you? What are you doing here anyways? If being here means that I'm squandering away precious resources then you being here makes it the same for you." Kroft replied, already getting tired of her tone. "What's your name anyways, getting into Doof means you have to have a high level of nobility and money, what did you come to town asking your Daddy for your monthly allowance?" Kroft mockfully questioned.
"How dare you! My father doesn't even live in Praven, he's the mayor of a town North from here which you won't even be allowed the honor of knowing about. I didn't grow up sheltered from hard work unlike you other nobles who sat on your behinds your entire life eating powdered donuts. I can make my own money." she basically screamed at Kroft.
"Wow, good for you. What's your name?" Krofts tone of kindness was completely gone now and was now replaced with a phrasing that was being penetrated by boredom. Instead of answering Kroft though the girl marched away face full of anger not wanting to make a bigger scene then there already was. Unbeknownst to Kroft a crowd of people were semi forming behind him due to the screaming of the girl beforehand.
"Alrighty then..." Kroft muttered to himself as he wandered off back to the academy.
6 months later. Today was the day. Kroft had finally gotten his body to a condition which he was confident that he would be able to withstand magic with. He had worked out a formula which calculated the amount of magic that can be transported through his body without him imploding. He rechecked it dozens of times with and without his ability just to make sure. Along with analyzing he confirmed that his ability also has an inhuman calculability aspect to it. When he put it to the test it solved equations that would have taken Kroft hours to do in mere minutes. Kroft was sure of himself. He was ready. He left for the campus training facility that has private testing rooms and rented one out for the day. He was sure nothing would go wrong, but magic was a resource that he had not tested with yet. He had researched magic to the fullest with the books that he could have access to in the library, but this was his first real world test of it.
"Ok let's do this." Kroft whispered to himself.
He kneeled down to his knees and closed his eyes.
Magic is not created, it's not destroyed, it has the same concept of matter. Instead of making fire appear out of thin air and breaking the laws of physics, magicians instead had to channel energy from around them. This world that he is in, there are what can only be explained as particles in every crevice and crack. These particles are what are used to form the magic that magicians utilize. There are no places where these particles are more and no places where these particles are less in this world. Kroft has read about it, he has studied it, and he has even attempted at analyzing the particles on a molecular scale with a microscope which he created from his past world. He was very confused when he couldn't discover the particles, if they really exist then why couldn't they be found out on the most basic of building blocks. Although confused, Kroft had decided he would need to investigate it further and so had that as one of his main priorities when he finally had a control over magic.
With his eyes closed and his mind clear he contemplated all of this. He thought about all that he studied and how he had so much more to learn. He squeezed his eyes, told his mind to be free, he focused and finally, well nothing happened. He tried again and again yet no great awakening occurred, he didn't summon a fireball to his fist and blow a hole through the wall.
"Fuck!" After hours of trying to do something, anything, Kroft slammed his fist against the floor while yelling. "This is some fucking bullshit! I put in 7 months of painstaking work and when I'm finally ready I can't do it!"
Kroft kept slamming the floor with his first until blood dripped from the skin of his knuckles. Kroft realized something in his disappointment though, he realized that he wasn't some character in some novel that was going to magically awaken and excel in everything he did, but he was just like everyone else in this shitty world. He blamed hope. No, he hated hope, he was brought to a new world, given a new life, a second chance to achieve his wants, and a false hope tried to drive him. How dare hope creep into his mind and try to infect his thoughts.
"Hope, that's just another way of saying greed. What's the difference between hope and greed? At least with greed you won't become disappointed from failure because you can just take what you want. People call it greed and give it a negative connotation, but greed is just a superior form of hope." Kroft spoke to himself with trembling fists and twitching eyes.
"I'll fucking destroy hope with my greed. I'll take all I want, I'll know all I want. I'll get stronger and do what ever the fuck I want. I'm so tired of disappointment, so I'll just get rid of it." Kroft exclaimed as he rose from his knees. A laughter started to ring out from that lone training room with a single student within and with that a surge of materialized magic power.