The atmosphere in the Imperial Academy had shifted from buzzing excitement to a suffocating, heavy dread.
It was Mid-Term Assessment Week.
The library was packed twenty-four hours a day. Students walked the corridors with dark circles under their eyes, clutching textbooks like holy scriptures, muttering formulas for mana conversion under their breath. Even the rowdy combat-focused cadets were silent, terrified of the History of Magic paper.
I sat in the cafeteria, which had been converted into a makeshift study hall.
"Explain the Third Law of Elemental Resonance again?" Mariella whimpered, her head on the table. "I don't get how Fire interacts with Water without creating steam explosions."
"It's about the mana density, not the physical state," I replied without looking up from my notes. "If the Fire mana is condensed into a plasma state, it bypasses the vaporization phase. It's on page 342."
"You're a walking encyclopedia, I swear," Elisha sighed, spinning a quill.
