William's second class of the day was Practical Essence Application, which involved mostly hands-on demonstrations and technique refinement. The instructor had them working in pairs on controlled essence output exercises.
William got paired with a third-year student named Derek from House Valoris. The exercise was simple — maintain consistent essence flow through a testing crystal for two minutes without fluctuation.
It should have been challenging. Most students struggled to keep their output steady for even thirty seconds before it started wavering.
William completed it in one attempt with zero fluctuation. The crystal glowed with perfectly consistent light for the full two minutes.
Derek stared at the crystal, then at William. "How did you do that?"
"Just focus on keeping the flow steady," William said, trying to downplay it.
"I am focusing. Mine keeps spiking after twenty seconds."
