Lucas was still pinned to the floor, his energy was slowly gathering in his core. Just a bit more and he would start to experiment with what was possible. Since he couldn't move his muscles, he started to pay attention to his surroundings. The initial pain from the pressure had partially evaporated because he got used to it. Though the pain lessened, this did not mean he gained control in the slightest.
He could only look around and listen to the small noises he could pick up from the surrounding halls. Students that were walking and talking with each other, teachers who were critiquing someone, and the occasional movements from Elam were the only things to entertain him.
'I think we can start now, what should we first try?'
'The magic shield, it's simple enough.'
'Says you, we can barely move our energy in the right direction.'
Lucas had thought of multiple spells to use in order to free him from his chains. The first was the spell he stole from Venion. Venion used a strong magical barrier during their fight. At first, Lucas didn't know what to think of it, but after breaking it, he knew how simple it actually was. The barrier was just the magicules without any element bundled together to create a cocoon so to speak. He already knew how to use it with his darkness spell, so changing it a bit to suit the non-elemental type wasn't that difficult.
Even if the spell wasn't complex, Lucas wasn't capable of a whole lot when it came to magic right now. With his new teacher, he learned to move his magic inside his body with some accuracy, he just had to bring it to the outside to succeed. Once the magic got outside and activated, he would be the same as any other mage, it just didn't matter where the magic exited his body. Depending on the amount of magic, he would need to push harder for it to reach the outside.
Lucas couldn't chant the spell, let alone move his mouth. So he could only use his willpower to make his core receive the intended runes in order to create the spell. With the core releasing the ready to be used spell, Lucas started to make the energy flow towards the closest exit. On its way there, he almost screwed up by splitting the ball of energy. This was another downside of his pathless body, the energy didn't keep its shape, easily drifting apart.
A final push made sure the energy escaped his body, the magicules quickly surrounded him and created an almost invisible shield of mana. It could withstand a few hits, but as Lucas found out himself, it was quite easy to destroy. As long as it could withstand a single hit, it was enough to escape some risky encounters.
'...'
'Nothing changed.'
'No shit.'
Lucas was hoping it would provide some kind of protection from the pressure, but nothing seemed to change.
"Hmm? Hahaha, did you put up a magic shield against pressure? C'mon boy, you're smarter than that."
Lucas wanted to respond, but he could only move his tongue a tiny bit before it was pushed down again.
'Of course, now he has to be awake.'
'Ignore him, there's no use in getting agitated now.'
While he couldn't do much physically, Lucas tried to come up with multiple ways of getting out of his current predicament.
'Next up, muscle strengthening.'
'Let's see how bad this will go.'
'Have some faith, will you?'
Using muscle magic was a lot more complex than the magic shield. It required him to let the magic flow perfectly with his muscles. Such fine control is impossible for Lucas at this point in time, he still needed a ton of practice to use it effectively, especially during combat.
Luckily, in order for him to test if it would work or not, he simply needed to strengthen a single muscle, so as long as the magic is pushed in the right area, there should be some reaction. Lucas mustered some magic and pushed it to his fingers, where he could make fewer mistakes. Even if he screwed up, he would only lose a finger or two. This time it was a smaller lump of energy, so guiding it wasn't as hard.
His fingers gained immense strength, but the best he could do was slightly flex them. Seeing his tiny success, Lucas grew happy, or at least a part of him.
'It works!'
'...'
'What? Want to ruin the party again? Go ahead, what insightful commentary do you have this time?'
'Calm down, will ya? I'm not always negative.'
'...'
'Okay, I get it. Damn, didn't think giving a death stare was possible in thoughts. Fine, considering the energy consumption, we would only move a few meters before having drained all of our energy, there!'
'Isn't that better than simply doing nothing?'
'I guess, but we'll have to improve our technique a fuck ton if we want to actually use it.'
While Lucas was continuing his research on how to move under pressure, Elam started to take interest in his experiments. Elam didn't want to explain anything, as that would ruin the potential growth Lucas could receive. Discovering the solution yourself is always more beneficial than getting it taught to you.
"What is it this time? Muscle strengthening or enhancing? Are you still using magic to figure out ways to withstand my aura? Hahaha, good luck, you only have a few more hours before I'm going back home."
Lucas stopped for a moment, there was no reason for Elam to chastise him, Lucas already had someone who had that as a full time job.
'He's pretty bad at being subtle, isn't he?'
'Hah, I'm grateful that he bothered to say anything in the first place. Now we don't have to be laying here for a lot longer.'
With Elam's hint, Lucas started to think differently. Using his physical strength didn't do much, and magic only helped him out a tiny bit. Elam's phrasing was clearly focussed on the fact that he was using magic as a crutch to escape the pressure. Meaning that there were other ways of pushing this constant force away, he just had to figure out what.
'I guess our own willpower could be used?'
'How would we do that, though?'
Lucas had a lot of willpower, whether that came from his split mind or constant training he didn't know. But he had only used willpower when it came to spell making, using it to withstand pressure was something entirely different.
'When we consume our willpower to influence the outside world, it creates pressure, we know that.'
'But we haven't once used it intentionally, it only happens when we're furious.'
'Could that be the source of it, then? Willpower mixed with our emotions?'
'Are you going to make yourself emotional and keep up that state of distress for long enough to escape? Doesn't seem very feasible to me. By the time we move an inch, we would focus on our progress and lose our state.'
'That's it!'
'Wait what?'
'Don't you get it? Yes, artificially making ourselves emotional isn't such an easy thing to achieve, but didn't we just get a lesson about that?'
'Nope, still don't know what you're on about.'
'Alright, like you said, we need a strong emotion mixed with our willpower to make it have an effect on the outside world, right?'
'Yes.'
'And we can't always just suddenly summon this strong emotion.'
'... Yes, and?'
'How did the first mages use spells? They didn't have runes, they only had the feeling from the magic and needed to inscribe it in their mind spheres in order to use it!'
'So you're saying we need to gather strong emotions and force them inside our mind sphere?'
'Yes!'
'Wouldn't that just make us constantly emotional unstable?'
'...I didn't think of that, but I'm sure we'll figure out something.'
A big part of the problem wasn't just the unforeseen consequences, but also how he would achieve his goal. How could he put emotion in his mind sphere, when emotions weren't something you could even see? The next few hours, he started to experiment with his willpower and trying to influence it with his emotions.
Suddenly the pressure started to disappear, "That's enough for today, good job with the training. Are you can come back with me or do you have any other plans?"
Lucas could finally stand up, but he put too much strength in his arms, making fall on his back instead. Being under the constant pressure made him lose touch on how much force was required for basic actions. Knowing the following days would contain the same training already created headaches.
"It's fine, I'll get there on my own, I need to train my magic control anyway."
Parting ways with Elam, Lucas started to move towards Gilbert's classroom, he still hadn't thanked him for playing along. After having to find his classroom so many times, Lucas easily navigated towards it. Due to his new body, he needed to get a lot better when it came to perceiving magic, making his navigation even smoother. He could just have gotten a map to guide him, but Lucas found it to be an interesting way of training his senses.
Reaching the classroom, he entered without knocking. The room was empty as always, or so it should've been. A girl not much older than him was cleaning the desks with a smile on her face.
'Is she?'
'I think so.'
The resemblance was there, though only slightly, but he recognized a familiar face.
"Hello there student, there aren't any classes now, so please come back when teacher Gilbert is present."
"Are you saying that sir Gilbert is outside right now? Doesn't seem very believable to me."
"That's not a very respectful way of talking you -"
"Ah, you're finally back."
From the back came a pale, thin man with tired eyes but a surprisingly confident smile. Making his way towards Lucas, the girl bowed and made room for him. He recognized the voice from afar and went out to check his suspicions.
"It's good to see you again, teacher.", Lucas was polite, not only in his speech but also his movements. While he was ruthless in his mind, that didn't deter him from being respectful, even if it was all an act.
"Hahaha, I should be saying that, you little brat. To think you planned ahead for everything, I have to say I'm impressed."
"From what I've heard, you've outdone yourself, I do have to thank you. But it seems there were things I didn't account for.", Lucas said while looking at the girl who kept herself in the background.
"Outdone myself? Oh please, that little party trick is easy as shit, I'll teach you tomorrow if you're that interested. What do you think of my new assistant, by the way? Recognize her?"
"By your way of phrasing, it sounds like I should know her, but I have no idea what you're talking about.", Lucas said while a slight smile flashed on his face. Gilbert turned around to look at her and beckoned to come closer and introduce herself.
"I am Sharon, sir Gilbert's assistant.", she said while slightly bowing. From their conversation, she knew that the boy that came into her class apparently knew her. But she hadn't ever seen him, from what she could remember.
"Hmm? Don't you recognize him? Did you not show yourself at that time?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, sir."
"Hahaha, fine, I get it, let's leave it at that. Why have you come here?"
"Oh, I was wondering if you've seen or talked to Eleven lately?", Gilbert placed his hand on his chin before closing his eyes. Whether he was thinking about if he had actually seen Eleven, or if he even knew someone with that name or forgotten it, no one would ever know.
Seeing Gilbert not answer in a while, Sharon took her chance.
"Your fellow pupil has visited once not too long ago, but after knowing there weren't any lessons, he went back."
"Did he really pass by? Why didn't you say so?"
"... I did, sir, but you said that you didn't want to be disturbed."
"Ah, I did say something like that, didn't I? Oh well, there you have it."