The students were all busy conversing, getting to know each other, but Finn sat on the first bench bored out of his mind.
"Hey why are you so damn gloomy, Boss?" Donatello who had just come in sat beside him.
"I couldn't sleep yesterday," Finn yawned, "why's the teacher late?"
The doors slammed open, a woman in black attire similar to the students walked in, her bright orange hair blazing against the black, her ruby eyes piercing everyone.
"What pressure," Donatello said from the side.
She dropped a file on the table and looked at everyone, the entire class going silent at her gaze.
"My name is Charla Eunice, and I'll be the professor for your semester," she said, her strong yet elegant voice echoed through the hall.
Charla Eunice, most students feel two things when they see her, fear and awe she has a tendency of liking kids who only catch her interest.
"The test results came back, and some were disappointing, while others were not, I'll read out the list," she took the file and pulled out a paper from it.
"The first seven names I call out, stand up in your place."
Must be for the seven stars, I wonder where I'll be out of the sixty children, maybe somewhere around forty.
"Finn Zen Tenebrion."
"Huh, me?" Finn blinked around in confusion.
"Boss, stand up, fast," Donatello rushed him from the side after feeling the teacher's pressure.
Finn shot up, Why me? I barely answered one questi—! Is that the one everyone got wrong?
Her gaze fell on Finn before going back to reading the list, "Donatello Caliente."
Donatello stood up without much hassle, whispering to Finn, "Well this is awkward, standing beside you feels strange, Boss."
"Estelle Vinn."
"What are you talking about?" Finn whispered back.
A short girl black haired girl with a stern expression stood up at the back of the class. Since the hall was a stepped one, she could be seen if one turned back.
"Did I mention that whenever I stand beside you I feel like an insect, and your voice and your tone, it feels like I'm talking to someone powerful."
"Alan Taiga."
A boy with black hair stands up. He was on the bench beside Donatello's, "Hey guys, the teacher is looking at you two."
"Soo Ann."
A girl with black hair, her face framed by her cheekbones and pale skin stood up. The children around her looked at her in awe.
"Oh, I don't notice, we'll pipe down," Donatello whispered to Alan.
"Silvia Sam and Huo Xióng."
A girl with a brunette along with a brown haired boy stands up, their confidence evident in their posture.
Silvia Sam and Huo Xióng, the crazy twins, although not siblings the two caused many problems in the academy together, mostly mischievous, wait I'm remembering things as I see them.
"System window," Finn muttered, the words went unnoticed by everyone.
Sparks flared before a jade green screen appeared in front of him. He looks at the options and decides to use scan, but the thought had crossed his mind multiple times, Wouldn't it be weird if I pressed on thin air, what do I do?
"The seven of you will be the Seven Stars of the first year."
"Seven stars? What's that?" one of the students asked.
"Seven star is a system that refers to the top seven students of each year. They are given special privileges such as a bigger room, more preference and are allowed to leave the academy for one day a month."
"They can leave the academy for a day?"
"The members aren't fixed, if you do well, you will be promoted to one of the seven while another loses their position, but it's not for the faint of heart."
Finn after much thoughts taps on the scan option inconspicuously.
SCAN ACTIVE
LOOKING AT A TARGET CAN ACTIVATE APPRAISAL
CHOOSE TARGET
"Miss Charla, let's see," Finn looked at the professor who was talking about the seven stars which went unnoticed by Finn.
APPRAISAL IMPOSSIBLE
TARGET IS MORE POWERFUL THAN USER
RETRY
Oh, I can't just use it on anyone? Well there will be some drawbacks to powers like this, let me try Donatello.
APPRAISAL COMPLETE
A set of green ethereal words appeared above his head, Wow, she's beautiful.
"I mean she is beautiful," Finn said, loud enough.
Donatello turned to look at Finn in surprise, "Wow Boss, I didn't know you were like that."
"Like what?"
The older pair of words disappeared, new words replacing it, He also likes the same type of woman I do.
"Ha, your hopeless."
"Sit down, now I'll read out the rest of names," her voice boomed.
...
"Alright that's it, now get up and meet me at the training grounds in five minutes."
"Wow, physical on the first day, let's go," Donatello said.
Alan walked towards the duo, "Hey can I come with you guys, I'm not really familiar with anyone else here."
I hope I can befriend these guys, the thoughts materialised above Alan's head.
"Sure, why not?" Finn invited the boy.
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"Professor, is a wand necessary?"
"A wand is but a medium for spells," Jack explained, his eyes on Nichole, "we must always remember, the wand is not what casts spells but rather us," he tapped on his temples.
Nichole nodded back, "Is it possible to cast spells without a wand with the exact proficiency?"
"Yes, but the casting time would increase quite a bit, but we are not mages are we?"
"So it's not something I have to worry about for sometime, right?"
"Exactly, for now we just need to focus on the important stuff, and are you sure about Architecture? There are other classes."
"Yes sir, I prefer to stay on it."
"Ah, I almost forgot, we got the time table," Jack gives her a piece of paper.
The day was divided into two parts. The first period from nine to eleven, and a two hour break, and the second period from two to four.
"Today we have the core and the second elective," Jack explained, and today's core is geography and history, but we'll take that on a later day, today let's learn, the Path of Manakai."
"Is that alright?" Nichole asked, unsure of it.
"I think so, only if you're alright with it, since I have to prioritise the students choice."
"I'm okay with it professor."
"A build, have you made a build yet?"
"Sir Laurent had helped me make one."
"Have you made it your own?"
"No, but the flow of mana within me has become natural, it's almost like breathing."
"That's good. Your talent is Pure Intent, right?"
"Yes, and my elemental affinity aligns with Pyro, but there haven't been any signs of a sub affinity."
"It's alright, getting an elemental affinity alone is amazing, but Pure Intent..." Jack placed his hands on the chin, recalling memories, "Nichole, you haven't been able to activate it, have you?"
"Um... Yes, even after I unlocked my elemental affinity, I couldn't find out what my talent was."
"It was the same for the other person who had that talent. His talent too only activated after his second awakening, but don't worry a talent isn't everything."
"What's your talent, professor?" Nichole asked.
"It's an F-Rank talent called Vigilantia and I'm the first of it."
"Vigilantia?"
"I can learn anything as long as I can understand it."
"It's increased your aptitude for any field?"
"Exactly, that is how I was able to learn everything, I also had the special constitution Dvaya."
Certain people are born with anomalies, some good, some bad. These anomalies were called constitutions.
Dvaya was one such constitution, where an individual would have the ability to utilise both hemispheres of the brain.
"What were the side effects of Dvaya?"
"Just nosebleeds at uncertain times and my brain falls into overdrive faster than a usual person, well enough about that let's get to it, shall we?"
"Practical or theory?"
"Practical, maybe?"
"Let's do it, but before that can I check your build?" Jack asked.
"Oh, yes," she extended her hand forward, palm open upwards.
Jack placed his own hand atop hers, letting some of his mana flow into her.
Nichole could see a faint amount of grey energy gather around him, and the energy flowing into her.
It's cold, the mana feels cold unlike his warmth, Nichole winced at the slight cold energy making contact with her skin, and it's grey, which means it's lower quality, I wonder how he got this far with his limited talent.
"Forgive me, my mana is a bit cold," Jack spoke with a smile. He closed his eyes focusing on her, the mana entering her increased.
This feeling, it's not an abrupt cold, but rather a slow and gentle cool feeling, it's calming, Nichole thought as she got used to the feeling, the cold energy was comforting in its own way.
"Hm, the build is perfect for your body and mana flow has become smooth enough, maybe we can get to the first stage of spellcasting; source code creation."
"Isn't that way too ahead for me, I only know some of the basics."
"I'm not getting straight into it, we'll do it step by step. Let's begin with a little history shall we. A thousand years ago before the energies we now know as mana and eonweave infiltrated Murim, cultivation techniques were different."
"Yes, I've heard the only energy available was qi, and it was a time Martial artists ruled."
"Martial Arts reigned supreme, but when mana came around the cultivation had to change, because older methods mainly focused around a single core formation, developing the body and increasing the amount of internal energy."
Nichole nodded, taking in all the information. This was not new knowledge but hearing from someone experienced helped her understand it better.
"But when mana entered, cultivation had a drastic change. You see, when qi was used alone the cultivation process was fast, but when mana was used alongside qi a new energy formed, but the progress slowed down as a result."
"The progress was slow?"
"Yes, so a new method was formed and that was the star system, the one we use currently."
"Oh, so before that, the energies were just left open, and there were no specific methods to it?"
"The primary focus back then revolved around the opening of the meridians, increasing the amount of internal energy, but when the star system was introduced, they felt old and unnecessary."
"Because..." Nichole asked curiously.
Jack took in a deep breath before explaining, "Because with the star system the paths opened up more naturally, and the capacity increased on its own."
"So the current method is stronger?"
"Yes, but in my techniques I've tried my best to discard the old methods and replace them with new ones."
"And was it successful?"
"That's what I'm going to teach you today."
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