“Everyone, take out the Mana Boards from your drawers.”
Professor Pythagoras thought the [Knowledge Judgment for Magic Writing] lecture was boring.
“In this world, there’s a term called ‘magic users’. These are the ones who can’t gather mana, ripping scrolls and throwing potion vials to use magical effects. The Mana Board users are not much different from them. However, in terms of efficiency, Mana Board users have the worst cost-effectiveness. First three to answer, why.”
Maybe saving time to avoid a haircut, a disheveled second-year student raised their hand.
“Unlike real magic, using magic that relies on equipment is difficult to control.”
The professor’s eyes twisted fiercely as if to scold them for offering such a pathetic answer.
Seeing the chance slipping away, two other second-years quickly raised their hands and spoke.
“You can’t shorten the activation time!”
“Targeting magic is impossible!”
“None of you are correct.”
With a flick of the professor’s hand, the second-years who had raised their hands awkwardly began to rise into the air while sneaking glances at one another, quickly lowering their heads to avoid eye contact.
“Uh-oh?”
“My, my body!”
“Stop whining. Inferior students learn knowledge with their bodies, not their heads. Experience your ignorance with your bodies until the lecture ends.”
The three wrong-answer students flailed about in mid-air before coming to a halt at the ceiling of the classroom.
Frightened at the height, where even a single wrong move could mean a broken bone.
They weren’t even fit to be second-years. Just a bunch of fools who deserved to be held back at once.
‘Most of the poor students who have to use magic by Knowledge Judgment are like this.’
Even Professor Pythagoras couldn’t use magic through normal means, after all. But it was a different case with students lacking both passion and talent.
“When you use a Mana Board, control is poor. Activation time cannot be shortened. Targeting magic is impossible. Who made up such nonsense?”
A brilliant light leaked from the Mana Board the professor held.
The second-years hanging from the ceiling of the classroom fell toward the floor with a shriek.
“If your control was poor, you would have crashed into the ground and broken a bone.”
As the professor placed his hand on the Mana Board, the second-years floated back up into the air.
“Twice as fast.”
“I’m sorry, professor!!”
“I won’t answer incorrectly again!!”
“Save meee!!”
The second-years’ cries grew louder.
Even though it was precarious now, if they went down any faster, they would genuinely crash into the ground this time.
Ignoring their pleas, the professor raised them into the air without a hint of mercy or hesitation.
And then he released his power.
Screaming was impossible as the seniors plummeted.
Even the other second-years watching turned pale and trembled at the deadly fall.
Just before the students, with their eyes tightly closed, crashed, the Mana Board’s magic narrowly stopped them in mid-air.
“If you can’t shorten the activation time, you would have become half-disabled from a fall accelerated by magic.”
Of course, injuries sustained during class would allow them to receive free treatment at the infirmary as educational compensation.
However, the professor’s consolation did little to ease their worries.
It sounded more like a threat, implying he could make them truly half-disabled if things went wrong!
“Sniff. I hate this now.”
“Please forgive me… sob.”
“Why am I in this lecture…”
Once again, the three were lifted back into the air.
Realizing the entire process was an educational tool to correct their wrong answers with their bodies, the students held their breaths in tension.
Thorns began to densely form below them with the magic.
“A shield will be deployed.”
In an instant, as if a mistake was made, the three students fell in different directions.
Due to the nature of the shield deployment, the wider the area, the longer the casting time.
Moreover, it wasn’t even centered on themselves; they had to cast three shields on falling subjects simultaneously.
The students’ eyes filled with horror.
“No!”
“Oh my god.”
“I can’t watch this!”
Students screamed or turned their heads away, anticipating a horrific accident.
The sound of something piercing thorns echoed through the classroom.
“Open your eyes.”
Surrounded by protective shields, the three wrong-answer students fell in different directions onto a bed of thorns.
“If you couldn’t designate targets for targeting magic, you wouldn’t have saved all three of them at once. Understand?”
The second-years nodded their heads frantically, tears in their eyes.
Sobbing could be heard even among the other students watching from their seats.
The lesson learned in fear would never be forgotten.
At least in the wrong-answer students’ minds, the potential of the Mana Board must have been firmly engraved.
Of course, if they couldn’t overcome the fear of this moment, that memory could become a trauma, causing hesitation every time they tried to cast magic in the future.
They might become even slower, more timid and pathetic than they were now.
Professor Pythagoras thought that was fine.
For students that could fall apart this easily, it would be better for them to give up a little sooner.
In a world of magic where only talent mattered, those lacking will wouldn’t survive anyway.
“Oknodie. It’s scary here…”
“The professor is kind and good, but why? If you don’t know, learn with your body.”
The reactions of the rookies were indeed extreme.
Sheep and wolves.
Some were first-year-like, while others were not.
Professor Pythagoras felt curious about the potential of that audacious first-year.
“Freshmen, guess the reason.”
“Is that okay?”
Not ‘please save me’ or ‘I don’t know’, but rather ‘is that okay?’.
He even liked the audacity.
“Of course.”
“What will you give me if I do?”
“I’ll give you extra points. But if you fail, you’ll learn with your body like the second-years experienced.”
“I’ll do it!”
A girl with a cute ribbon headband answered confidently.
Oknodie proudly stated.
“The reason why the Mana Board’s cost-effectiveness is poor is that the knowledge required is overwhelmingly greater in quantity and depth compared to regular magicians! You need to understand all the principles and study a lot, or the efficiency is terrible!”
The professor asked.
“Do you think that’s correct?”
“Yes!”
“That’s correct. I’ll give you extra points.”
Titosso, who sat next to her, sighed with relief as he placed a hand on his chest, much more than Oknodie.
“Hey, are you crazy? Next time just say you don’t know. The professor doesn’t punish those who admit they don’t know.”
“But it was a question I knew!”
The whispers between Bixton and Oknodie naturally reached the professor’s ears.
“That’s correct. Bixton. The reason ignorance is forgiven while wrong answers are not?”
“I-I don’t know.”
“You keep your words well. The three wrong-answer students from earlier, come forward and grab the Mana Boards.”
The three wrong-answer students walked out shakily with trembling legs.
“Do you know the 3rd place magic [Strength]?”
The three promptly replied that they didn’t know.
The professor returned a response that pierced their hearts like a knife.
“Then I’ll teach you. Use the Mana Boards to cast Strength. To explain for the fools who don’t even know the essence of magic, this spell enhances physical strength.”
A buffing type magic that alters the physical state.
Strength.
The 3rd place magic unfolded through the three students’ Mana Boards.
While not a high-tier magic, it was definitely not a low-tier as well, making it a tricky spell.
One student’s Mana Board shone but showed no change.
The magical structure itself was a mess, showing no signs of implementation.
He was rather fortunate.
The curly-haired female student who accidentally cast the spell turned pale as her complexion quickly drained.
The incantation barely took shape, but due to the damaged structure leaking mana, the required mana amount surged dramatically.
The female student, who managed to finish casting the magic, collapsed, breathless.
The last one formed a bizarre shape based on incorrect knowledge, but it structurally formed a completed shape.
Strength definitely activated.
Instead of increasing her overall strength, the magic concentrated solely on one of her arms, causing it to balloon with muscle and experience excruciating pain as she held her arm, rolling on the floor screaming.
“Magic implementation failed. Increased mana consumption. Improper manifestation. This is the
In the cold world of magic users, attempts to brute-force or muddle through with talent held no weight.
“Memorize this. Today, you will learn the theory, structure, and required changes of the magic you will use.”
About 30 pages of printed material landed on each student’s desk at the professor’s gesture.
The professor didn’t do it himself; it was the assistant who, like an appendage, used the Mana Board to summon the sheets.
The second-years desperately read the printouts while Titosso, looking like he had just received a death sentence, flipped through the pages with a gloomy face, muttering, “I got tricked again.”
Amidst the noise of flipping pages, one student caught Professor Pythagoras’s attention.
“Do you have a leisure?”
Instead of turning the page, Oknodie was folding paper airplanes with the printouts and playing around.
Even in the face of theories and knowledge capable of making talented magicians turn pale, Oknodie showed no sign of fear or irritation at all.
“I know it all!”
3rd place magic, Strength.
Oknodie’s audacity in expressing confidence about the very magic that just sunk three second-years felt extremely peculiar.
A magician who hasn’t physically trained would have low efficiency if they used Strength.
There’s a vast chasm in adding a 1.2x multiplier to 10 strength versus adding it to 30 strength.
That’s why most magicians, including magic users themselves, tend to shy away from Strength magic.
The possibility to accumulate knowledge is scarce with such magic.
However, using augmentation magic that assists allies with quick calculations and flawless theories in practice is far more beneficial than attempting an attack spell.
Everyone hated to learn it, but if they learned it, they wouldn’t lose anything.
How could one not find interest in this rookie, who seemed to barely top 130 cm?
“Do it. If you succeed, you can go back for the day. We’ll measure using the punch machine’s score change.”
“If I hit softly at first and then hard, I won’t even need to cast the magic, right?”
“If you can deceive me, give it a try. If you fail, you’ll experience worse than what your seniors went through.”
Feeling uneasy under the professor’s threat, Oknodie cautiously observed Professor Pythagoras as if weighing something.
“Umm… No way! I’ll do it honestly.”
Oknodie swung at the punch machine.
The embedded mana barrier shattered 47 upon impact.
It was a staggering figure, making last year’s second-year average of 22 seem laughable.
“…Strength was definitely released though.”
“It was just a normal hit without magic though?”
After the Mana Board glowed again, Oknodie struck the machine once more.
It shattered 58 upon impact.
“Excellent. You may leave now.”
“Can I stay and watch Titosso do it?”
“By all means.”
Encouraged by Oknodie, the second-year seniors lined up in front of the punch machine.
“By the way, those who want to end class early must break the record set earlier.”
All second-years, including Titosso and Bixton, looked at Oknodie with faces that screamed despair at this thunderous news.
