Ophelia averted her gaze from the crowd and told herself, "Learning three kinds of magic in a year is a piece of cake. I'll be able to do it even if I'm not a mage."
True enough, this was the minimum standard. A few ex-apprentices were able to reach the minimum standard, but were expelled regardless. Competition was fierce, so the mages had no choice but to expel them.
The Black Mage continued, "Elements can include anything -- something you can see with your naked eye; something only mages can see, something outside human perception, something phenomenal outside of this world."
"Fire," the Black Mage opened his palm, summoning a tiny pillar of flame from his palm.
"Water," the flames dissipated into an orb of water.
"Ice," the orb of water solidified into an orb of ice.
"Earth. light. darkness..." The Black Mage displayed these elements one by one, and everyone was in awe from the magic being displayed.
"Wind," and when he waved his hand, a light gust of wind whirled past everyone's ears.
"These are elemental phenomena that one can see with the naked eye, and they are therefore referred to as elemental magic."
He continued, "Ancient mages transformed these natural phenomena into magic via observation. This is obviously inefficient, since even if they are able to copy the elements they don't understand the principle behind it. This made teaching magic difficult, since the magics conjured were often unstable and could backfire on the mage themselves."
Everyone listened attentively to the history of magic, since most of them were looking forward to casting elemental magic.
The Black Mage projected a screen in the centre, and he conjured a set of three runes on the screen.
"I'm sure everyone is familiar with the fireball runes."
Everyone nodded, especially the six apprentices. The reason they were able to reach the academy alive was because of this fireball.
"This is the first spell that mages mastered. Human beings were on the brink of extinction, but the fireball brought them back."
Adam smiled. It seems that in any universe, fire is the source of civilization. It is because of fire that men are able to escape from savagery.
"The fireball spell today is safe and stable but back then these spells were incredibly unstable,"
The Black Mage paused, and summoned his staff out of thin air. He took out a strange, ruby stone, and placed it on the crown of the staff.
"The ancient mages relied on these energy stones and staffs to cast spells, but today, bare hands are able to do the job. They relied on incantations to stimulate the energy stored in the stones and cast their spells in this way. Watch."
The Black Mage opened his mouth, muttering a few incantations and waved his staff. The ruby stone shone with brilliance and a sizzling, unstable orb of fire danced around the tip of the staff.
Adam noticed that despite the words being muttered were simple and meaningless, it still triggered the energy within the stone.
The ancient mages did not rely on magic to cast spells, it seems.
The Black Mage unsummoned the staff and grasped the fireball with his hand, "This was probably the original fireball spell, but we can't verify it. Look -- the fireball is extremely unstable and it may burst at any time. The magic may even dissipate before it hits the enemy."
The Black Mage raised a target in front of him, and threw the fireball towards the target. The target barely flinched, and a value of 0.25 was projected over it.
The Black Mage dusted his hands off, "As you can see, the offensive power is incredibly low, unable to kill an ordinary person."
Adam studied the target closely and guessed it was an alchemist's product similar to a crystal ball. He was amazed at how advanced this was, since precise and accurate numerical values would be displayed.
The Black Mage continued, "Now, the improved fireball."
In the blink of an eye, a fireball levitated gently in front of the Black Mage.
"This fireball is no different than the ones all of you have used, now pay attention."
The fireball hit the target, and displayed a value of 1.
"In modern times, the lowest power that can be achieved is 1, which is four times more powerful than ancient magic casted with staffs."
"This is why knowledge is important," the Black Mage concluded.
Most people didn't know what 'knowledge' referred to. It was a term that was constantly repeated by mages -- they didn't understand it, but craved it. Now, they are able to cast magic freely if they obtain this 'knowledge'.
"The principle of a fireball is simple -- combustion, and its main power is drawn from its high temperature. Like fire, it is an exothermic reaction produced with combustibles and burning agents. Similarly, in magic, this combustible is ether, and the burning agent is magic."
Adam could tell that the Black Mage did not fully explain the principles of the fireball. He may be right, but in the mage world, ether replaces combustibles and oxygen.
Rather than saying that power comes from knowledge, isn't it easier to say that power comes from ether?
Adam listened to the Black Mage's lecture closely. The only drastic difference between Earth and the Mage World is magic.
"Magical powers are based on our mental strength, as we know it..."
The Black Mage didn't demonstrate any more magic, and was still teaching the principles behind a fireball. Ether was constantly mentioned, and Adam knew that ether was important.
"I guess that everything in this world is connected to ether," Adam thought. "Using knowledge, mages are able to utilise ether."
Adam's shallow understanding of this world was not enough to determine the nature of this world, and even he didn't know whether or not this question was that important to begin with, but he can be completely sure of one thing:
The value of knowledge obtained is reduced. Because of ether, the Earth and the Mage World are different from each other. Could Earthly knowledge be applied in the Mage World? He was uncertain.
At the end of the class, the Black Mage released three spells, composed of three runes each, namely: the Water Curtain, which is a defensive spell. The Wind Blade, which was what William casted back on the ship. Thorns, which is an offensive spell.
"The elemental knowledge that you learn in the first year will not cover advanced content. Hence, this year, you must learn three of the most basic elemental magic. You can go to the library and pay to learn the runes of other low-levelled magic, but the key is that you must learn at least three spells."
"In the next class, consult me about any problems when constructing runes. Once again, don't waste my time with silly questions, lest you suffer the consequences behind angering a mage."
The enthusiasm of the apprentices roared the moment the Black Mage vanished from the classroom. They could physically see the power of magic, compared to mental tasks like forming magical runes.
Adam thought that elemental magic looked incredibly simple. With a quick analysis, he found a common point among all the runes, including the fireball. They all have a similar rune that guides the magic, presumably to draw out their mental strength to cast the spell.
"As I predicted, ether is the source of magic."
Over the course of the week, the apprentices listened intently in all of their classes. Each tutor had their own requirements, but expulsion was the common theme among them. It was challenging for apprentices who have fallen behind in terms of magic, so it is a huge test for all of them.
Naturally, Adam found the course incredibly easy. These classes were merely introductory classes to gauge which apprentices are qualified enough to adapt the practice of mages.
The competition was fierce, and the apprentices were all tense. Adam once again became an anomaly, since everyone thought that he had given up on studying.
TL Notes:
Mew: I'm... knowledge i don't need... dammit!!!
