Karl fixes his posture and looks at Ian. Karl ponders for a bit thinking about something. 'Talking slyly doesn't work on him. So should I ask just directly?'
He finally asks "Tell me about this school."
"Sure, anything for my brother in arms." Ian says happily. Karl cringes out on that sentence.
Ian walks towards an empty bench just below a silver lining tree. Karl follows him. Cold wind hits Karl as he sits in the bench.
He looks above to see a gorgeous white tree. It has maple type leaves with a dark brown bark. Karl notices two different cloth tied at the top of the tree not too far from each other. Surprisingly, one is blowing the opposite direction from the other defying the laws of physics from Karl's world.
"Firstly, we are in the Black Pegasus mage academy which specializes in thunder element." Karl snaps out of his thought process and looks at Ian.
Ian continues as he looks at the tree "Every single area in this academy there are various artefacts are placed which emits a particular type of mana. This one emits wind energy. Such areas were built to help students to feel and improve their mana quality and learn magic related to their element. These areas are called as Range. There mainly four tiers of range. Low, intermediate, high and top tier. This is a low tier one. At the center of the academy there is a high tier one, but that one has thunder mana in it and that's it. Anything else?"
Karl thinks for second and asks "Just curious. When do you graduate from the school?"
"Look, there are six years in total where you advance each year by learning one spell related to your element. Now you are in 2nd year that means you have learned one spell and got into 2nd year then to go into 3rd year you have to learn 2 spells. At last, when you learned a total of six spells you can graduate by winning a duel with any of the teacher. So, the answer to your question is if you are talented enough you can graduate at any time."
Karl asks another question "And how do you learn spells?" Ian raises his eyebrow and asks "You don't know how to train?"
"Nope." Karl answers.
"Well, you are asking such questions that I am starting to think that you came from another world." Ian laughs as he jokes about Karl's intelligence. Karl on the other hand, starts to sweat heavily but keeps a poker face and says "Shut up! Its due to my memories." Karl pushes Ian as he grunts.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude allow me to offer you lunch as compensation."
"I already ate." Karl replies.
"Then, tomorrow?" Ian asks.
"Sure." Karl agrees.
"Perfect. Here is my watch ID."
Ian puts his watch on top of Karl's and a vibration was felt on Karl's arm. A notification popped up which read [IAN DESOUZA PHIRSECOT CONTACT ACQUIRED]
"Anyways, spells can be learned through many ways. Such as reading books, studying already written scrolls, taking a mentor to learn his spells or making it themselves. Basic spells could be learned free on the internet."
'You think I didn't search for my own element? The only thing that I found is that it is super rare.'
"I did search for element but didn't find any spells." Karl explains.
"That's weird. What is your element? maybe I can find you a book or something?" Ian says.
"Its space." Karl reveals.
"Woah! It's the forbidden element." Ian exclaims in astonishment.
"What's that?" Karl questions.
"Well, there are these two non-existent elements. Time and Space. These elements have only appeared twice in history during the crescent war. That was 120000 years ago which explains that spells from these elements are rare." Ian elaborates.
"But I learned one spell, right? I am in my second year. But sadly, I don't remember that. Any way to find that?" Karl asks in hope.
"Yeah. That's easy. Just search your past submission in your watch there you should find all the spell you learned." Ian grabs Karl's hand and touches his watch to search through it. He finds a video of Leonard performing his spell.
"Here, is the video of you passing through the first-year examination. This video can be seen in only your watch." Ian stands up and walks away from the Karl as he watches Leonard perform.
In the video Leonard is standing in a huge empty hall. There is sword in his hand. He lifts his hand up and his sword disappears then he puts his hand down and the sword reappears. The video ends.
"It's over, come here." Karl calls Ian over. "Then, did you remember it?" Ian asks to which Karl shakes his head. Ian tries to think a solution. That's when Karl suddenly asks "How can I learn spells on my own?"
Ian sighs and says "Creating any type of spell requires immense amount of knowledge in that element. Most important of all your visualization needs to be perfect as well. Which I doubt that you have."
'If don't learn magic in this world I be just a sheep waiting to be slaughtered.' Karl thinks and tries convince Ian. "Just tell me for the reference."
Ian makes a troubled expression but when he looks at Karl's genuine expression, he couldn't help but sigh. Ian gets up from his seat and walks little bit away. Karl also gets up and follows him.
"Listen, one's spell are very precious to that individual. Very few people in the world allows their spell to be copied let alone see them made. This what makes the sentinels families more powerful than any normal warrior. My spell is still a prototype so it won't work perfectly. But look how I make the magic circle."
Ian stops at the border of the range where a wall is blocking one side and large bushes covering us. Ian puts his hand up in a striking position making a punch.
Ian closes his eyes and white floating circle starts to appear on his hand. The circle looks very complex. It starts from the border and slowly closes in to the center. After few seconds the circle is completed and a vacuum forms just ahead of the circle.
It suddenly launches at the wall but the size of the vacuum was too small. Therefore, it dissipates before doing any significant damage to the wall.
'This looks familiar to the game which I used to play in the highschool days. But isn't the circle supposed to start from the center to reduce the casting time as the complex part is done first? Also, Ian should have opened his palm to stretch, it gives the circle more room to be drawn and open your damn eyes! how are you going to aim?' Karl eats all of his queries as Ian opens his eyes.
"You saw that? That's my family's spell Air Bullet. Though it is not perfect yet." Ian smiles proudly as he says that. Karl notices that Ian looks a lot paler now, as if he is starving. "Then, you got any motivation?" Ian asks.
"It's the opposite you demotivated me instead." Karl admits. "You don't have to know both circle and visualization if one thing is strong enough the other thing happens eventually. Just try to do it like the video" Ian tries to encourage Karl.
Karl nods. He walks little bit away and picks up a rock from the ground. Then, he lifts his hand up like Leonard and thinks of putting this away. Away. Away. Away. Away. Few minutes passes.
Ian watching from the side thinks 'Opening eyes from the start is a bad choice. Hand and posture are very bad. I don't sense any mana from him at all. Should I take him home and ask father to teach him?' Then it appears. A small but strong sense of mana flows towards Karl's hand.
Ian smiles but just as he is about to say anything Karl puts his hand down. Karl looks disappointed and starts walking away.
'It failed. Fuck. There has to be other profession other than magic which I can learn to protect myself.' Karl's mind is searching for other solutions when suddenly it registers a touch.
Karl looks at his arm which being pulled by Ian. "What are you doing? It worked there, Leo. It worked. I sensed it. Try again, don't give up." Ian pleads to Karl. This gives hope to Karl.
He goes into same spot and lifts his hand. This time he holds it for whole 10 minutes. For Karl nothing changes much. But Ian on the other hand, feels the mana flow more precisely. Karl practices for quite a long time. But nothing changes for him, he slowly starts to doubt Ian.
Ian on the other hand searching for training method for Karl on his watch. Seeing Karl stop Ian asks "Tired?" Karl shakes his head and replies "Its just. Why I can't feel my own mana?" Ian thinks for a second and asks "You don't feel or see anything?" Karl refuses which made Ian's mind a little clearer.
"Perhaps you lost your sense of mana?" Before Karl questions Ian. He continues his explanation "The sense of mana is not something that could be passed on. It needs to be acquired by the soul of that person when they discover their element at the aging ceremony."
"And how do you acquire that?" Karl questions.
"No. You already have it. You just need to rediscover it."
'Same shit' Karl thinks.
Ian steps towards Karl and puts hand on his back. "I will put raw mana into you. Try to perform the spell." Karl stands in front while Ian in the back.
Ian puts his hand on Karl's back. Visible white light flows from Ian's hand towards Karl's back. When it enters Karl's body its color changes from white to purple. In Karl's mind he sees something.
Something which is endless, which is infinite, which is equal to all. The abyss. Karl sees a puncture in the space. It's the only thing he can see. Karl steps forward.
Ian sees that he has taken a step. Karl wants to be with abyss. He wants to look at the abyss. Karl lifts his hand and takes another step forward.
"LEO! PERFORM THE SPELL. DON'T BE CONSUMED BY THE MANA!" Ian's faint scream snaps Karl out of his delusion. Karl takes a deep breath and thinks 'Away'.
Karl's vision returns. He opens his hand to see an empty hand with a purple circle formed on his palm. Karl smiles and turns back to see Ian fainted on the ground.