Oscar had a defective mana core? It would be more precise to say that I was surprised than happy.
The test continued, I almost forgot that I was to partake in the test till my name was called and I walked out to the platform.
The scanner glowed red, indicative of a fire affinity. I placed my hand on the orb and felt something moving within me. The orb glowed white.
It was unbelievable. My talent was announced as high-grade.
Oscar's POV
It's been a boring couple of weeks for me at this research institute. I've not been granted permission to use the lab yet. It's fine though, because I have no idea what I'm learning.
Throughout my life I've never come across stuff this confusing. At high school, what we learnt were basically things related to magic, economics of the society, physical education, geography, commerce, literature and basic vocational studies.
What's all this stuff about molecules and atoms? I get the biology part, in fact that's the only part I found to be related to the things they taught at high school. But what the heck are these weird theories? Are the knolls mad? The difference between velocity and speed... huh? I'm here to find a cure for myself, why do I have to calculate maximum height of a stone thrown? Who cares about these things? Ugh, if I keep doing this for the next few months, I might as well run mad.
Well, staying in the Iyun dukedom isn't half bad but I still miss home. Communicating with my family from time to time using the mana phone and doing my routine workout has kept me in check.
This place feels like school, the only thing I've been doing is reading and taking classes, nothing else. At least I get to back to the Iyun manor, still...
I'm mostly studying biology. I checked out the anatomy and physiology books even though they said I shouldn't do so yet. I found out why they said I shouldn't touch it. The anatomy and physiology was on humans and...knolls, which only led to more confusion.
The instructors have been guiding me through it all. Their lectures have helped me to understand the ideas theoretically. They said practical aspect aspect would aid me in comprehending the courses, and it ought to commence by the end of this month.
*****
It's been almost a month now, a new guy joined the class, some few days back. The instructor introduced him to us as Reinard. He was a tall boy, around our age with curly brown hair and green eyes. He was a low-grade fire mage.
The guy could be considered as eye-candy to the girls. Not that I was jealous though, I'm not here to gain anyone's attention.
Speaking of attention, the first thing Reinard did was to take notice of me. He greeted the girls, then looked at me and said.
"I think I know you."
"..."
"You're..."
"..." I knew what he was going to say, it's not a surprise if someone knows me.
"How do you know him?"
"He's not a mage." The girls both replied while looking at me in ridicule.
"Yes! That's right, you are Oscar! Oscar Lane!"
"..." It was the girls' turn to get puzzled.
"Weren't you guys at the awakening ceremony?"
"Yes, we were."
"This guy was the one noted to be the prodigy of the kingdom. The king even questioned the result!" I noticed some hints of jeering in his tone.
I now understand what his problem is, he is an attention whore with a look-at-me mentality.
The girls already added the boy and sidelined me from their group. Reinard realized this and decided he could use me to incite attention on himself by making himself look better than me.
While they were still talking, an instructor came in to give a lecture. Which stopped them for the time being. After the lecture though.
"So he's that guy?"
"Oh my, I totally forgot about him. You know I've never seen him before." The voice of Bianca was so audible, as if she wanted me to hear.
It doesn't matter, I don't care. After the instructor's lecture, I left. Busying myself with reading at the library was now the usual thing for me. The next day was going to be our first official day at the lab.
We started practical chemistry first. To be honest I kind of liked it, rather than reading the books and not doing anything real, this was better. I believed that this bore some slight similarities to the potioneering class at the academy.
Haa…thinking back, I couldn't help but ask myself, what if I had awakened a high grade talent? Don't think too much about it, I've been through the good times. The rough times too shall pass.
As the instructor kept guiding us through it, the process became easier. I'm speaking for myself though because I had no idea what was going through the heads of the other three. I've been avoiding them for a while now, Reinard has been looking for a way to get under my skin, if only he knew I had a short fuse.
I dislike dealing with too much drama, which is why I mostly resort to violence if anything goes wrong.
Before, my status alone could solve everything, but after all that has happened growing older, I realize there is more to life than trivialities which could fade at any given time. That is why I'm looking for something more.
*****
It's been three months, I'd say the courses are actually not as hard as I thought. The instructors were impressed with me. I could say it's mostly because I didn't require much guidance before knowing what to do, most times I was able to infer the results of an experiment before it was concluded, owing to the fact that I read about it before and followed the procedures to a T.
Today we got to the lab to attempt some experiments.
"You guys are familiar with what we did at we did at the last class right."
"Yes Sir." We all replied.
"Okay, take out your manuals we're conducting experiment five today. Read through it. I will not intervene with the experiment." He said as he took a seat away from us.
"What I would do today is supervise."
"Bianca and Reinard."
"Sir?"
"Don't foil your experiment this time, understood?"
"Yes Sir." They simultaneously replied.
"Jane, keep your hair in place, underneath the hairnet. I don't want what happened the last time to repeat itself."
"I understand Sir."
They paused a bit, thinking about what the supervisor would say to me. Seeing that he made no criticism or complaints left them annoyed.
It's not my fault that they have been making mistakes from the start. Bianca and Reinard in particular. sometimes they didn't even observe the safety guidelines and paid dearly for it. Jane on the other hand was actually smart but very impressionable.
I found out that apart from being an attention seeker, Reinard also had traits of envy, I thought his focus was only on me but when Jane or Bianca did well or better than him, his attitude would make a switch.
We all started the practical concentrating on our work. I was the first to achieve the main objective.
Reinard, however used the wrong reagent. Bianca and Jane got the desired result but he didn't. The fool thought just mixing it up to get the desired outcome would suffice.
We were doing an experiment that involved a chemical solute called sodium at this point. He took a halogenated solvent and tried to dip sodium in it. My eyes widened in shock.
"Hey!" I shouted out but it was too late.
An explosive reaction occured, blackening his face. If not for the instructor casting a defensive spell on the area, reducing the impact of the explosion, it would have been more violent.
Since that day, the girls stayed away from him whenever we were conducting experiments involving chemicals.
While heading to the library I usually run into Quentin and company, they could be considered my seniors because they've been here longer than I have.
I got to know that we were required to study all these things for two years.
Six months were considered a level. Studying for two years made it four levels in total. The guys I met at the lab for the first time were at the second level.
The first level comprised of the troll-trio and I. The third and fourth level students, were located at the higher floors carrying out specialized courses in their given fields.
With the first six months being an introduction to sciences while the courses become more specialized as we move a grade higher. But what mattered wasn't how long you spent learning in your class but how much knowledge you are capable of putting to use. That's why some of them spend two years in a certain level not being able to move forward.