Chairs scraped softly as students took their seats—first-years and second-years alike, some whispering nervously, others watching him with wary curiosity.
A few held pens above paper, poised like soldiers before a siege.
Clara, silent but purposeful, circled the perimeter, passing out thickly-bound handouts to each row.
Her pace was mechanical, her posture flawless.
Noel didn't raise his voice.
He didn't need to.
"Today's lecture will cover Arcanodynamics and Mana Conduction.
We begin..."
He said, turning slightly to face the rising sea of students.
"...with what you believe you already understand."
He stepped from the podium and paced slowly across the pool-pit's floor.
"Tell me..."
He asked, his voice steady but carrying unmistakable weight.
"...what is the primary power source used by magic users across the continents?"
A student in the third row raised his hand quickly—eager, perhaps too much so.
"Mana, sir!"
He answered.
Noel paused, nodding faintly.
"Correct. Mana is the baseline—ubiquitous, understood, safe."
He returned to the front.
"But now, we go deeper."
Clara handed out the final set of papers as Noel retrieved a chalk from the crystal edge of the podium and turned to the large obsidian board behind him.
With a swift stroke, he wrote a single word:
LAWS.
"Mana is a tool. A medium. A spark for fire, a conduit for healing, a vessel for illusions.
But beneath mana, above mana, and through mana—lie the Laws."
He let the word settle before continuing.
"There are eleven Laws.
Eleven foundational principles upon which reality is constructed.
And through mastery of these Laws, one may acquire Authorities."
He tapped the board.
"Laws are truth. Immutable. Vast.
They are not spells.
They are the rules that make spells possible."
From her satchel, Clara drew a parchment and placed it before the front-row students.
The heading read:
Overview of the Power System: Laws and Authorities
He continued.
"Each Law governs a domain. Light. Darkness. Flame. Frost.
And so on...
Those who attune themselves to a Law gain access to its Authorities—
Manifestations of that Law's will."
A hand rose.
Another student—second-year, by the uniform's tie.
"Are Authorities like advanced spells, Senior Professor Noel?"
He tilted his head, then responded.
"No. Authorities are not spells.
They are reality-altering permissions.
A spell may simulate lightning; an Authority is lightning.
Spells can fail.
Authorities obey."
He turned again to the board, chalking up a descending ladder:
Master
Adept
Novice
"Mastery of a Law determines your access to its Authorities.
A Novice may only manifest flickers of its nature.
An Adept can bend it to their will.
A Master becomes indistinguishable from it."
As he wrote, Clara began handing out categorized tables.
Each table listed the Eleven Laws, complete with core concepts, examples of Authorities, and rare manifestations seen only once or twice per generation.
He gestured toward the papers.
"You will see that each Law has tiers of power.
Take, for example, the First Law—Light."
The chalk scratched again:
First Law: Light
Radiance. Purification. Solar Wrath.
"Common authorities—blinding illumination, holy flames.
But rare ones?"
His eyes swept over the class.
"Divine Sight, which sees through illusion and lies.
Photonic Constructs—solid objects woven from pure light."
Murmurs rippled through the room.
Another hand went up—a first-year this time.
"Professor... does that mean everyone can access a Law if they have mana?"
Noel gave a grim smile.
"Everyone here has authority over mana.
That does not mean you command a Law.
It merely means you hold a wick.
You have not touched the flame."
He paused, then added.
"Some are born with affinities.
Others must claw for every spark.
Some use darker means."
His voice lowered, becoming sharp with implication.
"Let me make this clear.
As a civil servant of the Imperial Security Department—I strongly advise against pursuing mastery through cursed contracts or sacrificial rites.
They will give you power... yes.
But not without a price.
And I promise you, the cost will never be fair."
He let that hang in the air.
Across the hall, a few students shifted uncomfortably.
Others gripped their papers tighter.
He turned back to the board.
Cross-Law Mastery.
"Rare individuals may master more than one Law.
Fire and Storms.
Death and Time.
These hybrids produce chaotic, powerful Authorities—fiery tornadoes, decaying timefields."
He circled the term.
"But beware—Laws conflict.
Light and Darkness.
Life and Death.
Harmony is rare. Most will clash."
From the side, Clara brought forward a diagram showing a triangle of oppositional Laws.
She pinned it to the board as Noel continued.
"There is also progression..."
He said, now pacing again.
"What we call Sequence Ascension.
Novices unlock minor abilities.
Adepts broaden their reach.
Masters... reshape the world."
A hush fell again.
It wasn't silence from obedience—it was reverence now.
Or awe.
Noel stopped, placing his hand on the podium.
"Let me summarize."
His voice dropped a degree.
"Mana is your birthright.
The ability to harness it is a gift.
But mastery of a Law... is a covenant.
A soul-deep bond that will change you."
He raised his eyes.
They glinted with something unreadable—power, warning, maybe both.
"You will not leave this academy as you entered it.
That is a fact.
But whether you leave as a sorcerer... or a hollow husk..."
He tapped the papers.
"...depends on how well you understand what you hold in your hands."
A silence followed.
Even Clara, who had heard him speak dozens of times before, found herself standing still, eyes fixed on the professor like the rest of them.
Finally, Noel exhaled softly.
"Questions?"
Noone asked anything.
'Huff...Hana, how did you memorize all of this knowledge and information...'
Noel thought inwardly breathing out.
"If there are no questions we continue."
***
Noel turned, lifting the chalk.
A clean click echoed as he tapped it twice against the board.
Then, in bold, neat lettering, he wrote.
[Lesson One: Arcanodynamics & Mana Conduction]
He stepped back, chalk dust trailing faintly in the air.
"Let's begin."
His voice rang out, calm but firm, laced with an edge of command honed not just through lectures but survival.
"Magic Engineering is the science of turning mana—the most volatile, metaphysical substance known to mankind—into measurable, mechanical output."
He paused, letting that sink in.
"That's not poetry.
That's the truth.
And unless you understand why mana flows, how it moves, and what it responds to, you're not an engineer.
You're a firestarter with pretty gloves."
A few students chuckled nervously.
Noel turned and drew a long, horizontal line across the board.
"Today, we focus on two core concepts."
He said, writing under the header.
[1. Mana Conduction]
[2. Arcanodynamic Response]
"Mana Conduction..."
He began, circling the phrase.
"...is the process by which mana travels from one point to another—through air, stone, flesh, or crafted conduit.
Unlike electricity, mana doesn't obey strict binary polarity.
It's emotion-reactive.
It resonates with intention.
It resists inconsistency."
He tapped the board.
"Your first misconception to discard..."
"Mana is not passive."
He gestured toward a cart beside the desk.
Clara rolled it forward, revealing several neatly arranged instruments encased in enchanted bronze.
Cylindrical tubes with glowing runes, small copper dials, and transparent glass containers pulsing with faint etheric glow.
Noel picked up a sleek, six-inch tube that thrummed faintly in his hand.
"This..."
He held it high.
"...is an Mana Resonance Tube.
Developed in collaboration between the northern Grand Academies and the Imperial Astral Foundry.
It acts as a mana current visualizer."
He walked between rows, letting students see it.
"Inside, condensed arcane salts react with mana pulses, glowing based on frequency and intensity."
He placed it on the podium, then pointed to three other devices.
"The Arcane Voltmeter—measures mana potential in volts per flare unit."
"The Glass-Encased Mana Capacitor—stores raw mana like a crystal battery."
"And the Conduction Array Prism—which you'll be working with next week."
With that, he returned to the board and drew a simple diagram.
A mana source flowing through a rune-etched conduit into a capacitor.
Beneath it, he added notations.
Input: Mana Source
Medium: Crystal Filament or Conductive Alloy
Output: Spellform / Energy Pulse
Loss: (Heat, Mana Dissipation, Intent Decay)
"Here's what happens when you channel a Tier 2 fire spell into a bronze-core wand with a cracked crystal chamber..."
He said, underlining the Loss line.
"Heat builds.
Conduction becomes unstable.
Instead of ignition, you get a backfire and a melted wand."
"Now..."
He said, pivoting sharply.
"How do you calculate for safe conduction?"
From his folder, he pulled a thin booklet and handed it to Clara.
"Pass these down. One per student."
Each contained a table of resistance coefficients, rune stability factors, and conduction equations tied to temperature and ambient mana pressure.
"Let's do the math."
He scribbled on the board:
Qm = (I² × Rt) – (ΔV × P)
Qm: Mana Loss per second (in joule equivalents)
I: Intensity of spell core (flare units)
Rt: Rune Trace Resistance
ΔV: Voltage drop from source to outlet
P: Pulse duration in seconds
"I want you to take the chart I gave you, find the resistance coefficient for a standard three-ring runic lattice with a medium-voltage Tier 1 wind spell, and calculate the Qm."
He paused.
"You have five minutes."
Students bent over their papers, pens scribbling furiously.
Several whispered in confusion.
A few second-years shared answers with first-years.
Noel walked between rows, occasionally stopping to adjust a student's notes or clarify a figure.
"Careful."
He muttered to one boy, tapping his equation.
"You used the wrong lattice factor.
The wind spell's base structure doesn't use spiral tracework—it uses forked glyphs."
The boy nodded, correcting it.
Once time passed, Noel clapped his hands once.
"Answers?"
A girl in the second row with short brown hair and brown eyes raised her hand.
"3.4 joules lost per second."
She said.
"Correct.
Which means?"
She blinked.
"That the spell would fizzle out after... nine seconds of continuous channeling?"
"If the capacitor isn't stabilized, yes."
He nodded.
"And that brings us to the Arcanodynamic Response."
He returned to the board and drew a circular device—a modified ringed apparatus.
"Any spell channeled through a device changes the device."
He said.
"Material fatigue, spiritual residue, resonance memory.
These are all part of arcanodynamic stress.
A poorly designed conduit eventually begins to reject mana altogether."
He flipped a switch on the side of the demonstration desk.
On the far wall, a mana projector flickered to life.
A shimmering diagram appeared mid-air.
An exploded view of a capacitor under stress.
The image pulsed with red lines across its chamber.
"This is a live visualization of stress mapping inside a failed conduit."
He explained.
"See how the mana paths have warped?
That's due to residue from improperly tuned spells over time."
He turned to the students again.
"Your job is not just to make spells work—but to make them repeatable, efficient, and safe."
Then, lifting the Mana Resonance Tube again, he said.
"Who wants to try?"
A few hands went up.
He picked a hesitant first-year girl from the left side.
She approached, nervous, but excited.
"Channel a basic Light spell through this tube.
Don't force it. Just... let it flow."
She did as told, placing her hand over the channel point.
The tube glowed faintly—first purple, then steady white.
"Good."
Noel said.
"Low intensity.
Now watch what happens when I introduce a frequency disruptor."
He touched a small brass rod to the base.
The light inside flickered.
Then split.
The glow turned harsh, humming louder.
"Every spell has a resonance frequency."
He said.
"Match it… and your device sings.
Mismatch it and it screams."
There were a few chuckles.
The girl stepped back, visibly thrilled.
Noel looked back at the full class.
"By the end of this week, you'll build your own capacitor using any of the provided alloys, engrave a lattice pattern, and test it under a simulated arcanodynamic load.
Those of you who pass will proceed to crystal fusion next cycle."
He turned back to the board, wiping it clean slowly.
"This is where magic becomes more than just flare and flair.
This is where it becomes infrastructure. Technology. Civilization."
He paused.
The room was quiet.
"Any fool can cast a spell.
But building something that outlasts you? That… is what Magic Engineering is."
He tossed the chalk into the tray.
"Class dismissed."
"Oh and one more thing...I need a class representative for my class.
If you think you have what it takes or are interested come see me in my office."