Chapter 4: The First Lesson
Ethan stood there like an idiot, his hands hovering in front of him, palms up. His mouth felt dry, and his heartbeat was slamming against his chest like a caged beast trying to break free.
All around him, students were already summoning flames. Small, flickering orbs of fire danced above their palms, some wobbling and sputtering while others blazed with steady brilliance.
Even Amara, who looked like she was on the verge of passing out, managed to produce a tiny, trembling flame that hovered over her palm like the world's most fragile ember.
And Ethan?
His hands were as empty as his brain.
"Come on, Ethan. Just... do it," he muttered to himself, his eyes fixed on his own useless hands. "Visualize the flame. Channel your mana. Release it."
He tried to remember what Professor Ignatius had said earlier, about feeling the mana, guiding it, and molding it into something real. The instructions had sounded simple enough, but trying to actually do it was like trying to juggle knives with his eyes closed.
And that was when his mind clicked onto something.
A memory. One of those scenes he'd written for Lucien Ashford back when he was crafting the novel's training arc. The moment when Lucien had been struggling to get his mana to flow properly, unable to form the flame he wanted.
And the solution? A technique called "Mana Threading."
It had been a simple trick. Instead of just forcing mana to gather all at once, the character had learned to guide it slowly, weaving it through his body like threads being drawn together into a single, cohesive point.