Becoming a Magic School Mage

Chapter 5

Magic energy—this power, variously called “mana,” “magic energy,” “qi” by certain tribes in the east, “aether” by pretentious scholars, and “divine power” by stubborn priests, was the root of all magic. And with it, one could change the world.

Since every spell required the caster to draw upon their internal stores of magic energy, it was only natural that untrained and unskilled young mages would suffer from magic deficiency, but here was a student still standing after seven rounds of attempts.

“Your name?”

“Ehan.”

Professor Garcia gave a small smile of appreciation at the fact that he’d only given his own name, rather than his family’s. Rare was the noble, especially among the higher ranks, who would do the same. He was clearly someone who suited the school’s ideal of equality.

“Please come over here.”

“Uh...” Ehan approached the professor nervously.

Should I just have stumbled? It was true that he’d felt a bit doubtful about being the only one still standing when everyone else was swaying from magic exhaustion. He’d started to wonder if he just hadn’t been doing it right.

“Hm. Hmm. I see.”

As Professor Garcia nodded knowingly, one hand on Ehan’s wrist, Guynando whispered to Yonehr behind them, “Hey, shouldn’t we rescue him? What if he gets eaten?”

“Shut up, idiot, the professor can hear you,” Yonehr hissed back, making Guynando jump in surprise.

Professor Garcia let Ehan’s wrist go and said, “Please see me after class.”

“Oh. All right,” he replied

* * *

After that, Introduction to Basic Magic shifted its focus from practical exercises to a stern lecture on the mindset a mage should adopt.

“You need to rest when you’ve used up all your magic energy— No exceptions. Especially if you’re still inexperienced! Don’t fret over not having enough magic energy right now. You’ll build it up with practice, and over time you’ll learn to use it more efficiently. Every year we get overambitious first-years collapsing from practicing magic on the sly. This can lead to serious harm, so don’t let that be you,” Professor Garcia cautioned, then added, “Oh, and for the record, I don’t eat students.”

“I-I’m sorry,” Guynando said, trembling with fear.

“All right, that’s it for today. Elective classes are being held all around the school, so try them all out and think about what you’d like to learn. And if you’re having trouble deciding, I’m always available for guidance.”

The students silently exchanged glances that said, Would you attend a one-on-one counseling session with a professor who’s half-troll? and Are you out of your mind?

“Wardanaz, be careful,” said one student.

“Yeah,” said another. “Trolls are vulnerable to fire and acid.”

“It’s not like there’s any of that here!”

“Watch out, Wardanaz.”

Leaving the supportive words from his peers behind him, Ehan stood in front of Professor Garcia.

“Actually, I’ve already heard of you.”

Ehan paused, taken aback. Huh?

“To clarify, the headmaster was the one who mentioned you.”

Ehan’s expression tensed even more upon hearing that the lunatic lich headmaster had been talking about him.

The professor laughed. “There’s no need to worry. The headmaster might seem like a deranged son of a b*tch sometimes, but he’s a good person at heart.”

Does that even make sense? “I beg your pardon...?” Ehan interjected, only to be completely talked over.

“The headmaster shares his initial impressions of new students with the faculty at the beginning of each year, you see.”

What the students didn’t know was that the lich headmaster was exceptionally perceptive. Each year, the school welcomed a diverse group of students who had just reached adulthood, so it was important to have his level of insight to head off trouble before it started.

“Keep an eye on that dwarf. He looks like he’ll burn his room down at least three times. Ha! We’ve got a half-demon. Professors who use divine magic, take note. Don’t get yourselves hurt. That one’s a pickpocket of the White Crow guild! Watch yourselves, and don’t come crying to me if you lose anything. Anyone who does is getting thrown straight into the dungeons.”

Of course, there were several professors who just ignored his words. After all, the skullmaster might’ve had a discerning eye... But he was also stark raving mad.

“That orc... I have a feeling he’d be good with a spear.”

“But he comes from a long line of renowned swordsmen!”

“Shut up! Tell him to use a spear.”

And so on. As for Ehan, the headmaster had remarked, “That one has the qualities of a great fool.”

The professors had been thrown. Naturally, none of them was dense enough to take his words literally. There was a famous proverb from the eastern region of the empire: “A great fool is a great sage.” Outwardly, foolishness and wisdom could look similar. It was an ancient warning not to make quick judgments based on appearances, but to seek out real wisdom instead.

So the headmaster’s real message was this: “He might not look like much now, but he has the qualities to become great.”

The professors around him had been divided on the matter. Half of them thought, He must be promising if the headmaster is speaking so highly of him, while the others speculated, Did he get wined and dined by House Wardanaz yesterday?

Now, Professor Garcia finally understood what he’d meant. So that’s it.

“Um... What was it that the headmaster said about me?” Ehan asked, feeling slightly uneasy.

There were pros and cons to being favored by a professor. On the upside, it meant good grades and recommendation letters, which was a major advantage. But too much favor would lead to the following exchange:

“Kid, you’ve got too much potential to squander.”

“Thank you!”

“That’s right— You really must go to grad school!”

“What? But I’ve never considered going to—”

“Do you know how competitive the job market is right now? With a master’s degree, you’ll land a job with better terms, and best of all, you can delve deeper into your field of interest. Doesn’t that sound great?”

“That… does sound appealing.”

It wouldn’t be as bad if you got an advisor who was nice, but if you got stuck with an evil maniac? Well, welcome to hell. And the lich headmaster was someone he wanted to keep a healthy distance from at all costs. What Ehan wanted was to take the stable path of graduating with good grades and good connections, not to catch the headmaster’s eye and venture down some dubious magical road with him.

“Oh, sorry. I can’t tell you exactly what he said, but I can tell you something about your aptitude instead. The headmaster’s words were about something similar, you see,” Professor Garcia explained.

Ehan’s eyes widened. His aptitude? Was that... worth discussing?

Nobody had ever particularly commented on that back home. He’d of course gotten confirmation that he did have magical potential, as his father, Lord Wardanaz, had said as much.

“How do you evaluate my talents?” he’d once asked his father.

“Hm. You have a fair talent for magic.”

“Thank you.”

And that was that. So, hearing a professor offer up insight into his aptitude now was a bit of a shock. Is this even going to be something positive? Ehan began to give serious thought to whether he ought to secure funding to start an alchemy workshop with Yonehr after all.

“You have a lot of magic energy,” Professor Garcia remarked.

“Sorry, that’s all?” Ehan asked, nonplussed.

Not “There’s a problem with how you cast magic,” not “Light magic just isn’t for you,” just “You have a lot of magic energy”? It wasn’t anything negative, at least, but it hardly seemed like something worth pointing out. I heard that everyone was born with varying levels of innate magic energy, but deficiencies could be overcome through training and technique. Is it really that noteworthy that I have a lot of it?

“Of course, that’s not all,” the professor continued.

“Oh... Of course,” Ehan said.

“You have a gigantic, tremendous, massive amount.”

Huh??

“I mean a gigantic, tremendous, massive, colossal amount,” Professor Garcia stressed.

“Wow.”

Now he finally understood why he’d been pulled aside so seriously.

* * *

After a more detailed explanation, Ehan thought, Isn’t that a good thing?

Magic required magic energy. If you ran low, you’d have to pull ambient power from the environment, gather it through spell arrays, or draw upon the energy stored in mana stones. But if you had a lot of magic energy to begin with, you wouldn’t have to do any of that. For a mage, it was an incredible—

“Shame,” Professor Garcia remarked, gazing at him with pity and concern.

It was then that Ehan realized something was wrong.

“Isn’t it a good thing to have a lot of magic energy?” he asked.

“Normally, yes, but as I said, you have an astounding enormous tremendous amount. It’s the difference between handling a glass of water and trying to control an ocean.”

Ehan’s expression stiffened as the gravity of the situation hit him. So that meant... The difficulty of spellcasting skyrockets exponentially!

The fact that nobody in his class could even cast a very basic luminescence spell spoke volumes about the difficulty of mastering magic. It required incredible concentration to summon, channel, and hold the energy with one’s will. But Ehan’s overabundance of magic energy would make this already challenging task even more daunting.

“Here. Take these,” Professor Garcia said, placing a crude metal cuff on each of his wrists. “These bracelets absorb magic energy. They’ll help.”

Touched that the school had provided him with an immediate solution to the problem, he exclaimed optimistically, “So as long as I’m wearing these, there won’t be any issue!”

“Pardon? No. It’ll be hellishly tough even with these on. You have such an incredibly astounding amount that it really can’t be helped, but it’s still better than nothing.”

Professor Garcia was a relatively nice and friendly person, but still a mage, and mages never softened the blow when it came to things like this.

“Do you... maybe have any other advice for me?” Ehan asked.

“Hmm... It might help if you cast a truly huge number of spells to use up your magic energy. You have permission to practice on your own. You’ll certainly never run the risk of suffering injury from magical exhaustion.”

“Thank you...”

You could call it a special privilege, but Ehan wasn’t particularly happy about it.

* * *

Ehan exited the room with a lot on his mind. Ugh. Should I take classes that don’t involve magic? Einrogard was a magical academy, but that didn’t mean it only offered magic classes. For example, alchemy was one subject that barely required any spellcasting.

If I don’t set a solid plan and keep my grades high starting my first year, I’ll regret it when I graduate...

Guynando and Yonehr were waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs.

“You’re alive!” Guynando shouted, looking Ehan over as if he’d been genuinely worried for him.

“What are you staring at?” Ehan asked.

“He’s checking to make sure the professor didn’t take a bite out of you,” Yonehr answered.

Ehan gave Guynando an incredulous look. Then again, after what we’ve seen of the headmaster, it’d be weird not to be suspicious of the professors.

“So what was that about?” Yonehr asked curiously.

Ehan just shrugged. “Said I should practice a lot.”

“How dare...!” Guynando fumed as if he’d been the one given the advice. Daring to tell the scion of a great noble house that he needed extra practice? How utterly rude!

If that’s enough to set him off, I hope he never has to retake a failed exam. He’d probably challenge the professor to a duel. Ehan thought, then diverted the conversation. “But enough about that. I want to attend a few electives before the next compulsory course. Do you have any in mind?”

“Alchemy for me, of course,” Yonehr said.

Guynando laughed in her face. “Come on. Alchemy? That’s for servants and slaves!”

Ehan could clearly see Yonehr’s hand clenching into a fist.