Ch 53: Lecture
Lucien reached the front of the classroom and clapped his hands once, drawing every student's attention toward him. "Students, stop your practice and focus on me," he instructed.
All the students who were submerged in their practice dismissed it and looked toward Lucien with quiet anticipation.
"I have mostly instructed you to begin practicing from tier 0," Lucien said, letting the words settle across the room. "But some of you were rather braver, or perhaps more reckless, and attempted upper tier spells such as dividing the mana sphere into multiple spheres." His eyes paused on Mark and Judy, making them freeze in their seats, and without lingering on them further, he swept his gaze across the rest of the class.
"Those reckless attempts failed utterly," Lucien scoffed. "But if you believe you can succeed, then by all means go ahead and attempt a tier 2 spell as well. And if you truly are exceptional and somehow manage to pull it off, I will even clap for you."
"But for now, nobody appears to be that exceptional." His eyes settled on Eleena, who had only managed to form a small, golf-sized mana sphere with such instability that he nearly laughed outright. "So hear me."
The students gulped and nodded, most of them at least. Mark clenched his fist against his desk, seemingly infuriated by Lucien's taunt, though Lucien did not pay him much attention.
After all, Lucien was only helping these little brats so that they would not die in the future against the calamities and dangers that supposedly would one day threaten to destroy the world. To prevent that, and for the betterment of the world and himself, Lucien had to make sure he thoroughly pushed the main characters. And what better way to do that than to taunt and mock them so that they felt challenged, so that when they returned to their dormitories they would keep on practicing their mana circulation and clear each hurdle he set before them, only for him to place another in their way.
If the next one was cleared as well, Lucien would add yet another. Like this, he would keep on pushing these main characters so that whatever plot armour they carried to make them strong and powerful would be fully realized before the calamity arrived. Lucien wanted to make them stronger than they were ever originally supposed to be, and he intended to accomplish that at any cost.
Lucien swept his gaze across the students and had to admit that this batch was exceptional. Nearly all of them were at least Elite [Lower] rank, and the main character Mark was supposedly at the Master [Lower] rank threshold, placing him head and shoulders above the rest, except for the prince who had just moments ago revealed a Master rank aura, though that could have been another deception entirely, and the prince could very well be of an even higher rank than Master rank.
Even so, despite Mark standing at the Master [Lower] rank, Lucien had not raised the challenge for him specifically, and had instead only asked him to cast a tier 2 spell, which should have been trivial for Mark given the one month remaining before the test. Then, why did Lucien not give a higher challenge to Mark?
It was simple, very simple because the bastard was also concealing his true power using an artefact, and Mark was not merely hiding his rank. He was hiding his other three affinities as well. The hero possessed four affinities, yet in the official records Mark had only ever revealed one, and his measured power had only ever been shown as Elite [Upper] rank.
Lucien knew this from the story, for it had been explicitly revealed during the conversation between Mark and Baron Evaska, Judy's father, in which Mark had agreed to wear artefacts that would suppress three of his affinities and display only his fire affinity, while a second artefact would suppress his true rank and present him as nothing more than Elite [Upper].
Tsk. How cowardly of him. Lucien felt as though he had tasted something bitter because Mark was hiding his power and affinities out of fear that someone would seize him for research. Throughout history, there had been very few individuals with multiple affinities, and Mark being one such person put him in considerable danger, as well as placing the house of Baron Evaska at risk. As for why he concealed his Master rank prowess, Mark feared he would be claimed by another noble house entirely. To reach Master rank at the age of eighteen was nothing short of extraordinary, as most only barely manage to reach Elite rank in their twenties , and guilds and noble houses were always on the lookout for powerful individuals to bind to their banners. Since Mark was a commoner with only the support of the Baron's house, if a higher noble house were to set its sights on him, Baron Evaska's family would have very little means to resist.
Lucien dismissed his thoughts of the coward Mark. And with a barely perceptible lift at the corners of his lips, turned back to the class. "First and foremost, you must learn that you are nothing. You are dust in this world."
Every pair of eyes in the room flew open wide, staring at Lucien as though he had said something utterly outrageous, which was entirely true.
But Lucien, as always, did not concern himself with their reactions and continued onward. "The problem you are each facing is that most of you have likely never worn a mana restriction bracelet, and even those who have worn one previously only restricted fifty percent of your mana circulation, which is the standard practice. I did not follow that standard. I raised the challenge for everyone." He let the words sink in before pressing forward.
"Those of you who have worn these bracelets before are still facing difficulties because you were already accustomed to using your mana to the full, and even your experience with a fifty percent restriction bracelet only ever meant you were used to half of your mana reserve. That is precisely the problem." Lucien's voice turned cold and deliberate. "When you cast a spell, you concern yourself only with maximising it, with pouring out as much mana as possible to make the spell as powerful as it can be, during which you waste enormous amounts of the mana you have accumulated within your mana core."
Lucien shook his head slowly. "And that will cost you your dear lives, students," he added, and a faint trace of genuine regret coloured his voice. "When you are sent to the borders to fight against miasma beasts, you will not be overpowered by their individual strength. You will be overwhelmed by their sheer numbers, by waves of beasts that at times will appear to have no end." He let that image hang in the air and watched the tension creep across every face in the room.
"And that is when you will find your mana core entirely depleted. You may try to force out even a sliver of mana from the core that remains, but because you were always accustomed to expending large amounts of mana for your spells, that tiny wisp will not be enough to cast even a basic spell. And then the beasts will lunge at you, and they will devour you where you stand." Lucien exhaled and added quietly, "So learn to use as little mana as possible for your spells."
For the first time, the students nodded with fierce and unanimous determination.
"So how does one achieve that?" Lucien asked, and seeing that no one seemed inclined to answer, he answered by himself. "You practice from the most basic spell, tier 0, which is ordinarily learned during the mana-touched stage when you first learn to sense and feel mana at all."
"You begin by attempting to release a small wisp of mana outward in a controlled manner and shape it into a sphere no thicker than a single strand of hair, then work to stabilise it and keep it floating before you for as long as you possibly can, controlling the flow of mana at a steady and even rate." Lucien pressed on with his lecture. "As you do this, search for the places where mana is leaking out and work to seal those leaks one by one."
"Once you successfully stabilize the hair-thin sphere, you gradually increase its size until it reaches the size of your head, and only then do you move forward to tier 1 spells and eventually to tier 2," Lucien explained. "That is the whole of it. You begin by forming the smallest mana sphere you can manage, identifying where mana is leaking, and learning to prevent that leakage while maintaining a steady and consistent release of mana over a prolonged period of time." He let the words settle once more, though he was fully aware it was far more difficult than it sounded.
The very act of stabilising the sphere and sustaining its size for as long as possible was exhausting work. It demanded unwavering focus and an even, unbroken output of mana, for any lapse would either cause the sphere to dissolve or swell uncontrollably in size, and throughout all of it the mana leakage had to be actively suppressed.
It was the sort of thing that was easy enough to say aloud, much like the motivational speakers of his previous world who declared that anyone could achieve anything, a declaration that the naive Evan had once believed wholeheartedly, only to discover that great things demanded far more than will and words alone.
Shaking his thoughts away, he looked out at the students, most of whom were scribbling his points furiously into their notebooks, while the others were watching him with expectant looks as though Lucien would continue his lecture indefinitely, which was not going to happen today as the class was nearing its end.
"That is all for today's lecture," Lucien announced as he glanced at the time and saw that five minutes remained, and he moved on to taking attendance.
***
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