"Wha- What on earth did you write?" Eve was shocked beyond her wits.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Alphonse opened his eyes, "Wait, did I do that?"
What he saw was beyond anything he had expected. About thirty feet away from him, roughly the point at which he aimed, lay a crater about ten meters wide.
Since Alphonse had his eyes closed, he wasn't able to see what was actually going on. He had been too focused on the mental image.
*DING-DONG* *DING-DONG* *DING-DONG*
"Oh no, it seems like it's time for me to leave," Eve rushed, "We'll talk about this more tomorrow!"
She then promptly vanished. And along with her, the world faded to black before Alphonse's eyes.
*DING-DONG* *DING-DONG* *DING-DONG*
Alphonse was abruptly awakened by the campus clock tower.
'Well, that was an eventful night…"
Alphonse packed his bags and quickly got dressed, only to realize that he still had some time left before he needed to go to class. He ordered a light breakfast from the Health Monitor Tablet before sitting down at his desk to review what he had accomplished overnight.
Once again, he drew out some mana from within his heart and formed a ball in his hand.
Then, he flattened the ball and folded it the same way he did last night with Eve, but this time with his eyes open.
Once, twice, thrice, and many more times, he folded the mana in threes.
Each time he folded and compressed the mana, he could see some particles of mana falling from his project onto the desk, only to slowly fade away.
When he finally reached the end product, he repeated the process to recreate the mana pen that he had created. He then wrote the same magic circle that he had created last night.
He created two more mana cores with different magic circles. One for a lightning ball, and one for a wind ball.
He quietly stored the mana cores in the pockets of his robes before getting ready to receive his breakfast.
This time, if he or his friends got harassed, he could adequately defend himself. This time, he wouldn't end up in the infirmary.
---
"F*ck, I can't believe we got detention on the first day." Lars Halstien complained, "If you didn't take so long beating that kid up, we would have gotten away with it!"
"Well if you weren't so loud while talking to that cutie, then he wouldn't have found us in the first place!" Otto Halstien replied.
"Hopefully big sis doesn't hear about this or we'll get an earful." Lars said, "What class do we have first today?"
"We have Mana Theory with Professor Veronica."
"Isn't she the nurse?" Lars wondered.
"Yeah, but she's also one of the best healers in all of Aaro," Otto replied.
"Alright then, let's go ahead."
Lars opened the door of the common room of the Goldline Merchants' dorm. Because their parents were nobility, they had plenty of accommodations at the Goldline Merchants' dorm. They had access to Health Potions and a decent communal bath, so they were naturally well-rested in spite of their detention from the previous day.
They made their way through the crowded halls to their first class, which was Mana Theory. Every first-year was required to take the same classes, just not at the same time.
About a fifth of the first years started their day with mana theory, while the rest were evenly split into Elemental Magic, Incantations and Magic Circles, Intro to Combat Magic, Kingdom History, and Arithmetic.
The students didn't always stay in the same groups. Their schedules varied based on students, but both the Halstien brothers had almost identical schedules. The only variance between the two was their Arithmetic and Intro to Combat Magic classes.
"Hey Otto, look over there," Lars whispered, pointing at a student that was sitting at the table across the room from them.
"Hm? Where?"
"Over there by the window, 2nd row of seats, third from the left."
"Huh? Isn't that-" Otto realized.
"Yeah, it's that twerp we pummelled yesterday." Lars sneered, getting ready to get out of his seat.
"He's looking really smug, just sitting there, huh."
"Yeah, he must think he owns the world or something."
"How dare he just sit there without greeting us first. Doesn't he know that our Father is a Noble? He really ought to show some respect." Otto spat with disgust.
"Let's go teach him a lesson."
But before they could start any trouble, the door swung open.
"Alrighty now, children, take a seat." Professor Veronica practically skipped into the room. "Welcome to all my lovely new students. This is Mana Theory for the first-year students. If you do not have Mana Theory for your first class, please exit the classroom and hurry along, you don't want to be late on your first day~!"
And right on cue, a couple of students quickly shuffled out of the classroom.
"Alrighty then. Let's begin," Professor Veronica happily announced, "Now, since you are all here, of course all of you know what mana is, correct?"
"Since you all had to complete the assessment prior to being admitted to this school, you've all undergone the crystal ball test. Surprisingly, we've had a couple of extremely talented individuals that were even able to inject more mana than the ball could handle~!" Professor Veronica's voice contained pride and optimism as her eyes met with a couple of students, "With such young and talented individuals, we might be able to win the Winter Duels without a problem!"
"Psst!" Otto whispered, "Did she just say that a couple of students were able to crack the crystal ball?"
"I'm surprised too! Didn't dad say that you would need to inject at least a hundred mana units just to have the smallest hairline crack?"
"Who are these students…" Otto wondered.
"Well, Kaya is one of them for sure. Her mother is one of the Generals of the Royal Mages, and her father is a Royal Knight." Lars responded, "And Kaya's friends should be the same as well. Nobility would surely be one step above the rest."
"Now, now, I know that you're all excited to develop your mana cores today, so let's get right on ahead." Professor Veronica explained, "What you're going to do is draw out some mana, and compress it as much as you can. Everyone achieves compression slightly differently, so don't be too discouraged if you're having trouble."
Professor Veronica clapped her hands twice, and on cue, an assistant wheeled in a cart carrying a stack of lockets.
"Today, as long as you develop your magic core, we will be housing your very own magic core in these lockets." She continued, "Don't be discouraged if you can't develop a mana core today. You'll be able to take a locket home to practice as well! Is everyone ready? Any Questions?"
No one budged, the room was tense and filled with excitement.
"Very well, let's begin!"
For the next thirty minutes, sounds of groaning could be heard as students failed over and over. A few students had already exhausted their latent mana pool and would have to wait to recover before they could try again.
But on the other hand, there were quite a few students who had also accomplished the creation of their mana core. Among them, of course, was Alphonse Harvard. Professor Veronica was extremely pleased with his three-layer mana core and proceeded to have Alphonse assist the classmates around him.
Unfortunately for the Halstien twins, they had exhausted most of their mana pool yet they had not even come close to compressing their mana into a mana core.
"Hey there sweeties, are you having trouble?" Professor Veronica was making her rounds to check on the student's progress.
"Oh, just a little," Lars answered.
"Not to worry though, we'll get it in no time!" Otto chimed in optimistically.
"Well alright. I'll have another student sit in with you guys for now just in case you need help. Alphonse, come take a seat here and keep an eye on these two. They might need some help."
"Wha-" Lars looked at Otto.
"Alphonse?" Otto mouthed at Lars.
They couldn't believe it. This professor was sending this peasant to them and even demanding of them to receive instruction from a peasant. They were nobility! This didn't sit right with the twins.
"Hey there, it's nice to meet you two, my name is Alphonse, Alphonse Harvard. If you need any help, I'll be right here, so don't hesi-"
*SLAP*
The glove that was thrown by Lars had hit Alphonse square in the face.
"It seems that one beating wasn't enough for you, you f*cking peasant. How dare you insinuate that we would need help from such scum like yourself." Lars spat, "You are seeking death!"