Chapter 165: Wasted Mana
Arthur put his phone face down on the desk.
Mira was still at the board, talking about the mana people wasted without noticing it.
"Most of you know how much mana your abilities cost," she said. "Or at least you think you do."
She picked up one of the small training stones from her desk and held it where the room could see.
"The problem is what happens after that. Someone puts up a barrier, gets hit once, and keeps pouring the same amount of mana into it even when nothing else is attacking. Someone reinforces their body for one swing and forgets they’re still feeding mana into it ten seconds later."
Mira set the stone back down.
"More isn’t automatically better. Most of the time, more is just more expensive."
Arthur glanced down at his hands.
Mana Quiver came to mind again.
Once he activated it in a fight, he usually left it running until everything around him stopped trying to kill him. He paid attention to how quickly he could form arrows and how hard they hit. The amount of mana disappearing in between those shots had never bothered him much.
Mira started handing small training stones to the first row.
"Pass them back."
One reached Arthur a moment later. It was smooth and dark, with a simple marking cut across the top.
"Feed mana into it until the mark lights," Mira said. "Then keep it there."
Students around the room started trying.
Arthur pushed mana through his palm, and the marking lit without much effort.
Mira walked between the rows while everyone worked. She stopped beside a student near the front whose stone was shining far brighter than the others.
"Why?"
The student looked up. "What?"
"Why are you putting that much into it?"
He glanced at the stone. "I wanted to make sure it stayed stable."
"Then use what it needs."
The light dimmed as he pulled back his mana.
Mira watched for another second before moving on.
When she reached Arthur, she stopped again.
"Less."
Arthur reduced the flow.
"Again."
He pulled back further.
The light weakened but stayed steady.
Arthur frowned and reduced it one more time.
Still steady.
Mira moved on without saying anything else.
Arthur looked down at the stone.
He was using far less mana than when he’d started.
Cedric sat beside him, his stone holding a steady glow.
Mira walked behind his chair. "Look at the equation on the board," she told him.
Cedric glanced up.
His stone flickered, the light dropping for a fraction of a second before flaring back up.
Mira pointed at the flickering stone and kept walking. Cedric stared at it, jaw tight.
Arthur watched him. "Distracted easily."
Cedric didn’t look away from his stone. "Shut up."
The exercise continued for another ten minutes. Arthur spent the time playing with the output on the stone, wondering how far he could cut Mana Quiver’s drain before the arrows started getting weaker.
"Until next class," Mira said as the hour finally wound down, "I want you to pay attention to one mana-based ability you use regularly. Notice where you keep feeding it power after it no longer needs it. Class dismissed."
Students started packing their bags.
Cedric stretched his shoulders and grabbed his pack. "I already hate her."
"Because she caught you losing control?" Arthur asked.
"Because now I’m going to notice it every time."
They walked out of the academic building together.
"What were you thinking about at the end?" Cedric asked as they headed down the stone steps.
"Mana Quiver," Arthur said. "I might be wasting more mana keeping it running than I thought."
Cedric snorted. "Maybe you’ll finally stop treating mana like an infinite resource."
"I’ve got a lot more mana than you."
"That isn’t the point."
They reached the edge of the training grounds and ran into Emily walking toward them from the opposite direction.
Her hair was messy, her collar was damp with sweat, and she was grinning when she saw them.
Arthur pointed at her. "Thought it was bullshit."
"It was," Emily said, falling into step beside them. "Then the instructor finally let us hit each other."
They headed toward the dining hall for lunch. Emily spent most of the walk complaining about the footwork drills. By the time they reached the dining hall, she’d moved on to telling them who she’d fought and which matches had actually been fun.
Arthur, Emily, and Cedric grabbed their food and found a table. Felix joined them twenty minutes later, dropping his bag onto an empty chair and complaining about his own course assignment.
Emily reached across the table and stole a piece of bread off Arthur’s tray.
Arthur half-listened to Felix while checking the rest of his schedule on his phone.
His afternoon block was Advanced Ranged Combat.
Selene Ashford.
He had seen the name yesterday but hadn’t spent much time thinking about it.
Emily leaned over and looked at his screen. "Finally. Someone can tell you everything you’re doing wrong."
Arthur looked at her. "You use a sword."
"I can still tell when you miss."
Felix changed the subject, complaining that the expedition report he’d picked from the archive was forty pages long.
They finished eating. Felix picked up his bag and headed for the library. Emily checked the time and headed back toward the training grounds, while Cedric left for his next lecture.
Arthur was walking out the main doors when he spotted Elara coming up the steps.
She saw him checking the room number on his phone.
"Ranged Combat?" Elara asked.
Arthur nodded. "Unfortunately."
"It’s on the western side of the campus," she told him.
Arthur fell into step beside her as they headed west. "You actually chose Ranged Combat? I figured they’d let you test out."
"They would have." Elara adjusted the strap of her bag. "That doesn’t mean I have nothing left to learn."
Arthur grinned. "Look at you, being humble."
Elara gave him a flat look and kept walking.
They reached the outdoor ranged complex ten minutes later.
Several students were already gathering around the benches bordering the western range. It wasn’t just archers. Arthur saw heavy crossbows, throwing weapons, and several ranged mages mixed into the class.
Professor Selene Ashford was already at the range, dressed in light leather armor and talking quietly with one of the teaching assistants.
Arthur recognized the name from his schedule.
She turned around when the last few students walked up to the benches. She looked over the class and the weapons already coming out of bags and cases.
"Leave the weapons on the benches for now," she said.
A few hands stopped halfway through unpacking.
"You won’t need them yet."