Adam's walk back to his dorm was eerily silent. The apprentices who witnessed the scene stared at Adam in horror -- they couldn't imagine that while they were busy learning low-level spells, there was already someone who casted advanced magics with zero effort.
"Is he really an apprentice?"
"What are we?"
Adam's mere presence shattered their confidence.
Adam was incredibly annoyed. Adam was absolutely certain that he could murder every single apprentice within seconds.
He couldn't understand why everyone was looking at him with envy -- with some practice, everyone could cast the spells he casted.
Suddenly, the sound barrier behind them broke, and Elliot quickly whispered, "Don't move. It's the Academy's Law Enforcers."
A team of four puppets, identical to the ones from the cafeteria, surrounded Adam. They scanned the surrounding area, and ordered, "It was detected that the grounds were severely damaged, and several casualties occurred. Prove your identity or die."
Adam flashed his identity token, and the four puppets closed into Adam, surrounding him with a shield. The shield drained the magic from his body, rendering him unable to cast any spells.
"Identity confirmed, Apprentice Adam. The damage caused in this area will be sent to your dorm in the form of a bill -- pay it as soon as possible, or a penalty will be enforced."
This process hardened Adam's heart -- the weak are useless in the eyes of a mage.
Adam stowed his identity token away, and the puppets allowed him to leave. He bid Elliot farewell and returned to his dorm, and continued to optimise the meditation method.
Initially, James wanted to enhance the effects of the mage "armour" -- however, Adam felt that this direction of research was wrong. Mental strength is fuelled by the soul, so instead of trying to introduce special effects to mental strength, wasn't it better to study mental strength itself?
Adam diverted from James' research, and honed in on the connection between mental strength and magic power. No matter how strong one's mental strength is, it cannot be compared to the natural magic power -- ether. A feasible method of meditation needs to exist to replace ether.
So, Adam had to delve deeper.
Adam couldn't answer several questions, since he was unfamiliar to this world. Those questions weren't essential to him yet, though.
Mental strength is invisible, but it has its own qualities. Most apprentices regard mental strength as a carrier of their magic power, but Adam speculates that it can be used in more powerful ways.
Adam recalled his memories from Earth, and this power was called psychic power -- in this world, it would be called mental magic. This made sense to Adam, since psychic powers rely on the brain to function.
Adam couldn't guarantee the power of these psychic powers though. Over hundreds of millions of years, no one bothered to study psychic powers and chose to instead pursue magic. It was no surprise to Adam, since mages cannot fight effectively only by relying on their brain.
For the next three days, Adam holed himself up in his dorm.
After Adam's little kerfuffle, the atmosphere in the academy turned incredibly dark. Sean's companions were considered extremely strong apprentices, but they were wiped out in under a second by Adam.
Overnight, the prideful apprentices became humble and the library became a hotspot for plenty of apprentices.
William kept a low profile and like Adam, was nowhere to be found most of the time.
Ophelia holed herself up in her room after that fateful day and came to the lab at dawn to sign a contract with the Body Refining Tutor. She hasn't been seen since.
Crystal became the dazzling new star that apprentices look up to after Adam -- the Black Mage was specially tutoring her, she no longer had the need to attend her classes.
On the final day, James learnt of Adam's 'record' that had occurred over the last week, but he wasn't surprised, Adam was strong after all, in fact he expected that he might become his next victim. Moreover, Adam was proficient in both combat and research -- Adam became the leader of the lab, while James became his assistant.
"Oh."
James watched an academy puppet seal the entrance to his laboratory and sighed. His path to become a mage was unfortunately cut short, and he can't utilise the magic he learnt outside the Mage Continent either -- the outside world had low levels of ether, and casting spells will cause a heavier burden on his body.
He didn't have friends either -- he was the oldest living apprentice in the academy. The others had qualified to become an official mage or died in the war.
"Adam isn't here..." he mumbled, purposefully walking slowly and looking back to see a glimpse of Adam, but he did not reveal himself. James took one last look at his lab, then turned around.
...
Adam's systems were working overtime.
If someone were to enter his room, they would see millions of runes constantly being constructed and annihilated; after a while, he had nineteen sets of runes formed into the shape of a pyramid.
The bottom of the pyramid was arc-shaped, and the shape itself was incredibly complicated.
Adam smiled and felt happy after a long time -- these sets of runes work consistently, and it not only boosts magic power, it only has its own attributes.
Adam deconstructed the pyramid and formed a sphere with the runes -- in an instant, his mental strength swept across the room, and tiny bugs in his room were splattered in an instant.
"I got the runes and I got the evidence to prove it works."
Adam jumped out of his room's window and floated in the air -- this psychic power supported Adam's flight, and Adam could fly using only his brain.
This is real flight -- his psychic powers cancels gravity, then continuously converts air resistance into power. With a single thought he shot through the sky like an arrow and he was able to freely control his flight.
The apprentices on the ground were dumbfounded.
"Look up in the sky! Look! Look!" An apprentice grabbed his friend's hand and pointed to the sky.
"Let me go! It hurts... what's in the sky anyways-" and his friend was stunned. "My god!"
Flight wasn't unusual to them, since mages do it all the time but to see an apprentice fly...
Pure joy radiated in Adam's heart, and he even pulled several stunts in the air, and swooped down low and shot up in the sky again.
This soon attracted a crowd beneath him, and they could only stare.
"He's flying..."
"Adam..."
The apprentices in the library, cafeteria and dorms looked out upon hearing the commotion and they too stared at Adam.
Elliot accidentally broke a potion full of poison due to the commotion outside -- he cursed and walked out of his lab, and saw Adam flying high in the sky.
He didn't know why his friend had to show off -- it was simple wind magic, so why bother showing off. He shook his head and flew to the sky beside Adam.
"What's all this about? Look -- the crowd you attracted made me break my potion!" he complained to Adam.
Adam lightly said, "Oh, my bad. Do you happen to know where James is?"
