"Why are your even in our class?" I asked Meran.

He smiled and said, "I failed really hard last year." 

Yeah it's not hard to see why.. I laughed.

William was as quiet as usual, as we walked through the overly glamorous hallways of the academy building. 

"What's the next class?" I asked William, trying to make conversation.

"Chemistry." He continued with his absurdly short responses. 

"What the heck do we need Chemistry for in the military?" I tried to make sense on why we'd ever need to do chemistry while fighting for our lives.

"Chemical weapons are becoming increasingly popular. Have you been living under a rock?" he responded, making fun of me.

Well, sort of.. chemical weapons though, huh? Sounds horrifying to be on the receiving end..

Meran waved us off, going to his own class, which he said was Magical Combat.

I cannot wait to be in that class. I am going to be publicly humiliated.. 

We found our classroom on the left side of the corridor. Students were flooding into the massive room, which resembled a lecture hall from more advanced universities. Desks were placed in a crecent shape, with the instructor being centered in the middle. I assumed this was the norm for all of the classrooms, as our previous history lesson had been the same shape.

I fell asleep. Dang it. I thought as I awoke to the sound of the ringing bell. The lesson was so unfathomably boring that I could not possibly keep my attention for an hour. William was already getting ready to leave, so I stretched up and caught up to him.

"What's the next lesson?" I asked him, unaware of our schedule. 

"Why do you keep asking if you're just going to fall asleep during them?" he retorted.

Ouch! He's not wrong though.. I swear I'll be up if it's an interesting class!

William sighed and answered my question. "It's martial arts." 

My eyes started to practically shine at his response. "Finally, something I'm good at!" 

"Wow, you're good at something? I'm so impressed.." William said satirically. 

"I will have you know I was the best among my age in my town!" I said, half joking.

"Not the best in chemistry, apparently." he shut me down with a single response.

We arrived in the martial arts classroom and entered. We found a spot near the walkway between the crescent shaped room, allowing us easy access to leave and enter our seats. After a bit of waiting, a man dressed in a tophat and very formal suit walked into the room. With a single glance, it was obvious he was the most important man in the room. 

"That has got to be the instructor." I said to the William next to me. He simply nodded in response.

The man walked down the aisle and went to the instructor spot in the center. He did an exaggerated bow and greeted us,

"Hello my dear fledglings, and welcome to Martial Arts! I will be your Instructor for this semester. You may refer to me as Instructor Arthur." 

Normally, nobles loved to flaunt their titles and surnames in front of others. If the Instructor refused to share it during the first greeting.. Is he not a noble, or perhaps he is from a weaker family?

"Before we begin our lesson, I would like to start with some warmups. Please join me on the stage." 

Suddenly, the stage shifted from plain oak to a large ring, enough for around a hundred people to fit in. The shift was so abrupt that it nearly felt that it had been there all along, coated just in front of our eyes.

"Illusion magic." said William, who was observing the situation closely. 

"Illusion magic?" I asked, not aware of this specific magic type.

William nodded and explained, "It is a rare deviation, and often forbidden due to it's sinister nature. Unless they are at least a grade five..."

In order to officially be recognised as a grade five mage, you had to be in the military and have the rank of a Sergeant or higher. If this Instructor was able to flaunt his illusion skills this obviously, he was likely at least a grade five.

The students all went down together to the arena, with me and William following closely behind. We stood in a shoulder-to-shoulder position next to each other, facing the instructor. 

"Spread out. I would prefer if you didn't punch each other while doing stretches. That comes later." The instructor said, grinning as he said the last sentence. 

After we did basic stretches, we were instructed to rise and get back into formation. The instructor spoke again,

"Who is up first?"

A boy with brown hair who had clearly trained his body to the maximum, raised his hand. "I shall accept your challenge."

"Unnecessary, but alright. Everyone else, please back off to outside the ring." the Instructor ordered.

"What is your name?" he asked the boy.

"Johnathan." replied the boy. 

"Alright Johnny, begin your attacks. Your goal is to get me off-balance." Instructor Arthur gave his order, making fun of Johnathan's name in order to agitate him. And it worked.

Johnathan madly dashed and swung at the Instructor, which he dodged by simply moving slightly to the left. Johnathan was pushed off balance by his own speed and tried to get himself back into position before his next attack. The Instructor was still facing away from Johnathan, who was now rushing towards his back.

Just as his fist was about to collide, the Instructor moved to the right and held out his left foot. This prompted Jonathan to trip, leading him to faceplant on the floor. 

"A decent attempt. Not good enough." the Instructor judged. "You were blinded by my taunts and ignored rationality during the first half. During the second half, you did not notice how easily I had avoided you the first time and foolishly believed that I would not do the same thing once more. I give it a three out of ten." 

Johnathan, defeated and humiliated, got off the stage while being laughed at. "Next!" yelled the Instructor.

Enthusiastically, I raised my hand and waited to be picked. The Instructor looked at me, and ordered me to get on the stage. 

"What's your name, boy?" he asked me.

"Daniel." I responded, as flat as possible.

"Alright danny boy, have at me!" he yelled. 

He's confident.. which is something I can exploit. Perhaps..

I began a mad dash towards the instructor, not different from Johnathan. Predicting my move, he moved left in a similar fashion. However, he had not calculated that I may move in a different manner in the last second. I planted my feet into the floor, and changed my attack from a punch to a kick in a rapid fashion. The momentum from my fist had switched to my foot.

The Instructor, caught off-guard, quickly blocked my kick with his arm and moved back. "Not bad." he smiled.

This time, I picked a more professional stance, with my right foot in front of me. I was aware he would not attack me first, as such I had to quickly think of a game plan. I had lost my opportunity to surprise him, which meant he was now aware I was more competent than I looked. 

Tsk, I clicked my tongue. He is more troublesome than I imagined.. Not to mention I cannot augment my body with mana.

I rushed in a steadier pace than before, and ducked before getting to him. I attempted to predict a punch that would come to my face, but I had guessed wrong and he had not targetted my very open head. Instead, he swiftly moved behind my back with unimaginable speed and gave a firm kick to my back.

I almost lost my balance and tripped over, but I quickly regained my composure and attempted to understand my next move. He had augmented his body with mana, as was expected of a regular soldier, which is how he was able to move so fast. However, I lacked said ability and was unable to gain the upper hand. He was still toying with me. 

This time, I attempted a feint by leaving my stomach in the open. If he saw through this trick, I would consider myself as defeated. I was gambling it all on this one move. He fell for my trick, and attempted to give a firm kick to my stomach. However, I hugged his leg with all my strength and threw him across the ring. And then he fell... on his feet. 

"Haha! I was not expecting that one!" he laughed. In the next instant, he appeared behind me and gave a downward kick to me which lead me to faceplanting on the ground. I had lost.

"Interesting match! You are able to do so much with so little!" he smiled. He had clearly not been this entertained in a long time. Students began to laugh, just like they had done after Jonathan's match. However, unlike last time, the Instructor raised his hand to silence the students.

"This boy did all that without using any magic. Is there any one of you who can accomplish this feat while augmenting their bodies?"

The room went silent. I realised my lack of magic had been seen through. As is expected of a Grade Five..

"So, explain yourself. Why have you not augmented yourself? Do you not know how?" the Instructor asked in a serious manner.

I chuckled and scratched behind my head. "Actually, I am magically inept. I cannot use mana."

The Instructor, puzzled, responded. "That is odd. Are you being honest? I have never heard of such a case before."

I nodded. "Neither have I. I simply lack the capability." 

"Even those born with crippled organs, or born half-dead are able to utilise magic to some extent.. And someone as capable as you cannot use any of it?" he asked.

I nodded. To this, he simply said. "Meet me after class. I need to understand your situation."

I got off the stage and went back to William, who was still standing around the ring. 

"That explains a lot." said William. "You did good for a cripple."

"Thanks.. I guess?" not understanding if that was a compliment or an insult.

"I had thought you were just unskilled... to think you were unable to cast any magic." William added on to his insult.

Call me unskilled one more time, I dare you! I yelled on the inside.

It was not long until class wrapped up. I met up with the Instructor in his office, as ordered.

His office was a relatively small area. It had photographs of famous mages and martial artists on the wall, alongside a sword hung next to the door. The room was gloomy, as he had drawn the curtains on the massive windows. The Instructor sat behind a desk, with his feet planted on top of the dask. 

"Ah, Daniel. Come, take a seat." he pointed to a sofa in front of his desk. I did as he said. 

Instructor Arthur got up from his seat and bent down under his desk. After a while, he pulled out a spherical object that appered to be made out of glass, which seemed to rotate freely in his hand. It glowed a brilliant green. He began to explain it's purpose.

"This here is called the Orb of Magnificence. It is able to detect the magical ability of one's being, and change colors accordingly. The grading goes from Red, to Green, to Blue and then finally white. It is similar to a color pallette. If you are between red and green, it shows a yellow. Similarly, if you are between green and blue, it becomes a teal color. Darker color means weaker, while brighter colors mean stronger. As you can see, I am currently high green tier which roughly equals Grade Six." 

Grade six? To think he is of even higher strength than previously thought.. 

"Give it a try," he said and passed the object to me. I grabbed the orb which rotated in my hand, and I watched it intently. I waited, but it was still stuck on the previous bright green. It refused to change and adapt to my tier. 

I sighed. At least my ineptitude was confirmed.

Then suddenly, the orb began to shatter. Cracks began forming around the orb, and Instructor Arthur panicked. He grabbed the orb, and created a forcefield around it. The orb exploded soon after it shattered, which was so powerful he felt the entire building shake. No damage was done, luckily, due to the Instructor's quick thinking. 

Instructor Arthur looked extremely distressed. "This has never happened before.. Nothing like this was written in the instruction manual!"

If it's completely unpowered, does it break down? But if that was the case, it wouldn't be able to be stored safely...

The Instructor coughed, brushing away his sweat with his coat. Soon after, I heard the door knock. A man entered, seemingly not interested in hearing the Instructor's permission to enter.

"Headmaster!" said the Instructor, surprised at the sudden appearance. 

"What in christ's good name was that massive dispersion of energy?" the Headmaster questioned Arthur. "I felt it all the way from my office!"

The Instructor explained the situation in a panicked manner. The Headmaster's eyes widened, seemingly flabbergasted at what he was hearing. "An Orb exploded? How is this even possible?" 

"There have been two instances of an explosion before.. one was the manual destruction of an orb, which lead to a hundred casualties, and the other was an orb being unable to process information. Assuming you did not manually destroy the orb and lie to me, that means.."

The Headmaster looked straight at me. "Boy, there are only a few cases of the orb being unable to trace mana signatures. For example, with animals, it simply does not respond to them. With magical beasts, it leads to an explosion. Are you a magical beast in disguise, or something?" 

"I am pretty positive I am a human sir. I have human parents." I made a slight chuckle. 

The Headmaster pondered for a bit. "I do not know how you cannot use mana, but your power certainly isn't being unable to use magic - you have something else entirely."

Something else..?

Note: Hey everyone! I'm back here with another episode. Whew, two weeks of no episode, but was able to publish this massive section with 13 thousand words! Hope you had a good read!