The five students gathered outdoors on campus, seated around a table. They took out their student cards and carefully read the information, beginning their introductions:
"My name is Antony Windsor, second son of the Windsor family, one of the royal families of the Three Great Kingdoms of the Grand Empire," he tried to stand out, but was pleased to see that no one cared. "My energy is mana, my attribute is metal, and my special ability is the 'perfect body.'"
"My name is Aryna Sabbac, from the Grand Empire. My energy is mana, my attribute is water, and I have an unlimited energy reserve as my special ability."
"I'm Ivan, from Snegriya. I have mana-type energy, my attribute is ice, and my special ability allows me to withstand extreme temperatures, both low and high."
"Rebecca, also from the Grand Empire. My energy is psychoenergy, my ability is creating psychic barriers, and my special ability is the capacity to absorb attacks."
"My name is Theo Augustus of Lawrence, and I come from Romerian. My energy is Ether, and my special ability is known as 'genium.'"
"Which state of Romerian are you from?" Aryna asked.
"Nethuns."
"Cool! The State of the Water God..."
"I've heard the beaches there are tropical and beautiful," Aryna commented.
Antony approached Ivan, climbing onto the wooden table and resting his feet on the bench.
"What's Snegriya like? Is everything really frozen? Are people there really more reserved?"
"Yes," Ivan cut him off. "The temperature reaches -18°C daily; that's the closest thing to warmth. And yes, people are more reserved. You live in Nethuns, right? Have you ever visited the Forest of Nymphs?" he asked Theo, completely ignoring Antony.
"Yes, the forest surrounds my house and the nearby cities, so I basically grew up there."
"What's it like? Is it really that dangerous?" Rebecca asked.
"Yes. I only took one step into the mist, but I regretted it so much that I only wished to die."
Rebecca swallowed hard while looking around. Ivan remained interested.
"What did you see?" Aryna asked. At that same moment, Antony poked Theo's bicep, realizing it was a sensitive subject for him.
"Death," he replied, and a tense silence immediately settled over the group. Theo maintained a vacant stare after answering. "Rebecca, how powerful are your barriers?"
"It depends entirely on my absorption capacity. Any damage my barrier suffers, I absorb, reducing it by 50%."
"Wait, you create a barrier to protect yourself and still take damage? How does that work?" Antony joked.
"Basically. I don't feel pain, but I still suffer the damage. I usually consider it a curse."
"It's more useful than a girl who only shoots water," Aryna retorted, drawing attention away from Rebecca.
"Actually, no," Theo argued. "Water, scientifically speaking, can be one of the most destructive things. For example, a high-pressure water jet can cut through a diamond as if it were paper. Come to think of it... if one of those jets were large enough, it could split a mountain..."
"Are you speaking our language?" Aryna asked.
"As Paul said: you think too much. But maybe that's your advantage," Ivan commented, sitting down on one of the benches. "You seem experienced with wind. Who trained you?"
"My father. He's a hybrid-class fighter, so he made sure I learned how to manipulate wind. My mindset helps sometimes."
"Is he military?"
"A lieutenant."
Ivan nodded, impressed.
"Who is this Amiah?" Aryna looked at her student card.
"Amiah... that name sounds familiar," Theo murmured.
"Hmm... what are you all going to do now?" Antony asked, looking at the sky. "I'm thinking about attending a class on magic. I don't know anything about the system. Anyone else coming?"
"I'm out," Ivan replied, arms crossed and eyes closed. "In Snegriya, children are required to learn the scientific system as soon as they learn how to read, so that'll be the last subject I'd attend."
"Even peasants can read in Snegriya?" Antony was surprised. On the Genesis Continent, peasants barely knew the meaning of formal words.
"Yes."
"I'm out too. Becca and I are going to attend a class on spell enhancement," Aryna said. All four looked sideways at Theo, who understood the message and quickly replied:
"Okay, I'll go. I need to understand Ether a little better too, so it'll be useful."
"Thanks, man!" Antony thanked him, raising his hand.
Theo looked at Antony's hand, extended and open, waiting only for a response. As he stood up from the bench, Theo slapped Antony's hand and waved goodbye to the others.
☽✪☾
Classes at Wispells are not mandatory. Each student understands their own learning needs and must seek out what they require. Teachers will always be in their designated classrooms during scheduled hours; if there are students to teach, they will do so. Otherwise, they remain there waiting. This rarely happens, since Wispells has more than five thousand students.
Theo and Antony were among the first to arrive at the class on the magic system, taught by Professor Beatrice. They sat in the seats closest to the platform. Around a hundred students arrived over the next twenty minutes.
Beatrice swallowed hard, being a novice teacher. In the past, she had never taught more than twenty students; now, she stood before a hundred teenagers. She appeared nervous from the moment she entered the room, checking who was present and cracking her fingers.
'Okay...' she encouraged herself mentally, inhaling and exhaling.
"What are the types of energy?" Theo asked before she could say anything, trying to encourage Beatrice and make her forget her nervousness.
Having known the woman who taught him for more than ten years, he knew exactly what she was feeling at that moment.
"Excellent. Can anyone tell me the five types of energy a core can have?" Beatrice asked the students.
"Mana!" one of them answered, followed by others.
"Ether."
"Ki."
"Psychoenergy."
"Quantum Energy!"
"Not counting their stages, called energy cycles, or Chakra," Beatrice added. "Cores are nothing more than organs formed near the solar plexus. For Deviants, they are simply the ability to manipulate these energies with ease. For us, they are our source of life. Does anyone know why?"
"Because the more energy stored in a core, the longer we live."
"Partially. If we spend too much energy from our core, we die. But if we allow too much to accumulate, the core collapses and we also die. What is the solution?"
"Spend a reasonable amount of energy through spells," Theo replied after the students exchanged confused looks.
"Exactly. To perform spells, we carry out a sort of 'equivalent exchange' with our core: we apply the amount of energy we want to release, and it returns it in the form of an element. Examples of such cores are Mana and Ether. Unlike Ki, for example, which even ordinary humans can use. However, Deviants have an advantage. Martial artists generally use this energy."
Beatrice turned toward the blackboard and wrote "Psychoenergy."
"Psychoenergy is used by those who utilize magical beasts. This psychic energy can manipulate the emotions and thought processes of living beings. Beast tamers generally use this energy to keep their creatures under control."
Writing the names "Mana, Ether and Quantum," she continued:
"Mana is the natural energy particle and the most abundant in our world. Ether and Quantum, however, are taboos... we don't know exactly what they are. We only know that Ether comes from space, while Quantum is a particle that comes from within atomic nuclei."
"Isn't something missing?" Antony whispered to Theo.
"The energy disks," Theo replied.
"And what are energy disks?" Antony asked.
"Well, they're like small cores scattered throughout the body. They serve as secondary energy reservoirs. Some Deviants can't use the energy in their cores, so they become limited to Chakra. Since one of the Chakra disks can enhance vision, the mind, and processing capacity. We generally call these people scientists or alchemists. And also..." he sighed nervously. "Some disks carry elemental codes. In other words, that's where our attributes are located. Compressed energy used to manipulate elements."
Beatrice wrote on the board, drawing an addition symbol followed by a subtraction sign and ending with a perfect circle.
"Positive, negative, and neutral. Our cores respond to these three particles regardless of what energy they are formed from. We use a color chart to symbolize a core's energy, where the farther from green it is, the more energy it possesses. Proton-charged cores have three shades: yellow, orange, and red."
Beatrice walked across the small platform after explaining the shades, listing them from least energy to most energy respectively.
"Electron-charged cores have the shades blue, lilac, and purple. Finally, a core charged only by neutrons has only the color green. These are the rarest cores and, at the same time, the strongest. Although called a 'neutron core,' they give the impression of having no energy, but the opposite is true. Green cores are neutral because they can control both electrons and protons in harmony, maintaining balance."
"In the end, it's just like an atom," a student whispered, laughing.
"Correct," Beatrice replied, leaving the student slightly embarrassed.
He had made the comparison to belittle neutral Deviants, comparing them to the size of an atom. For many with red or purple cores, those who possessed green cores were aberrations trying to imitate them without coming close to their power.
"Neutral Deviants are like an atom. The core in the solar plexus, while the Chakra disks can be considered the electron cloud. That's why we should thank them. Thanks to these Deviants, ninety-five percent of energy manipulation techniques exist. Thanks to the people who fought for their own right to live. So be grateful, because just like an atom, it's thanks to them that you still have energy in your core and remain alive."
'Moron,' Theo thought with a faint smile.
The sound of a trumpet echoed throughout the campus.
"It ended right when I was getting excited... anyway!" she exclaimed, catching the attention of those already leaving. "Remember: Deviants are humans who did not bind themselves to the primitive and savage violence of our nature, which is why we are superior. And because we are superior, we must protect those who have not evolved."
"A great philosophy... But it's time to head back to the dorms. See you tomorrow, then?" Antony asked Theo, but the latter was lost in thought.
'If Ether comes from space, then how could I obtain a considerable reserve of that energy?' he reflected to himself. 'Will any of the techniques Beatrice mentioned be enough?'
"Theo?" Antony called again.
"Of course, see you tomorrow." Theo bid farewell to Antony.
"See you!"
Theo stood up from his chair, looking at the sunlight entering the room through the glass window. He drew in a huge breath of air, closed his eyes, and reflected a little more. In moments like these, he missed the ease he had enjoyed in his previous life. The ease of not needing to learn, only to execute. Now, in this life and in this body, studying and executing were the only way forward.