Despite not eating breakfast, Jinto and company didn't have a deficiency in energy; instead, they felt somewhat spirited. They felt like they could be somewhat useful if they interrogated Gent, he was the young master of the Joto's, the highly suspected suspects.
He had lost to Jinto just not long ago, and the poisoning incident just came to be, in their minds it was uncertain to be a coincidence.
The trio arrived at the academy, where the academy gate was presented in their views. Past the academy gates was the Academy building, Arena, Academy training grounds, and other workshops. The academy building and the gate were separated by a courtyard that encompassed all the facilities found behind the gates.
The fifteen-meter-tall wooden gate was opened, signaling for the acceptance of students. Some youths passing by with Jinto and the rest gave weird looks to them, especially to Jinto, who had caused Gent to suffer backlash and utterly humiliate him in front of everybody.
Jinto smiled awkwardly: "I guess they still remember my barrage of insults…" he lowly muttered under his breath.
"You said something?" Paul inquired.
"Must've been the birds." Jinto dismissed him.
Melissa pretended to look at the trees. "Poor bird, it sounded like it was sickly ill."
Jinto snarkily side-eyed her.
They passed through the beautifully yellow-trunked, bird-alluring trees, and the fountain depicting a beautiful woman holding a basin of water atop her head.
Coupled with some youths who kept a slight distance away from the trio, they arrived at the academy building.
With its many intricate patterns found on its surface, pointed arches, stained glass windows filled full with details, ribbed vaults, and spirals, its different style of architecture from the normal houses could be clearly seen; it exuded a different air as compared to the architecture they had seen.
The building itself presented three stories, with spirals protruding out of the slanted roof. Student classes were held on the first floor. The trio and some other students entered the room where Master Hector was already present; with a greeting, they began to take a seat on the escalated rows of seats.
The rows had a unifying table that contained a gap in the middle of the room, to let students pass through. The windows in the room were vertically slanted, the rays of morning shone through them, illuminating the classroom.
The trio found their usual sitting spot, the seats at the back on the left side.
Soon enough, all the students gathered, filling up most of the seats on each row.
In Jinto's right corner, he came across his target, a pale-looking young man who held his hair in a neat ponytail.
It had been two days since he suffered backlash; his family put great care into him and made him recover to his peak state.
"Students, I have great news to give you all." Master Hector started the lesson whilst holding his hands behind his back, as he stared at the pack of youngsters in front of him.
All students turned their attention towards him, he continued: "Before I give you this piece of news, you must first learn of this lesson regarding heart spells, also known as circle spells."
"Firstly, once one awakens a fissure, they'll become a 1st-circle magician, but why do we call it 1st-circle and not anything else? Well, the answer is simple: once you awaken as a magician, you'll be able to form your first circle."
He grabbed at the chalk on the professor's desk and drew a circle on the board as he spoke.
"Forming a fissure circle requires three things: the person's will, mana, and a spell. One must go in a meditative state, entering their inner fissure mana sea to attempt its creation. When completed, an illusionary circular ring will wrap around the fissure, indicating success."
He swept his eyes throughout the classroom and said, "The process is fairly simple, I expect all of you to succeed in one go."
A student seated near the first row raised her hand.
Master Hector signaled to her that she had permission to speak.
"Master, why should we create a circle in our fissures?"
"As you've experienced, the Wind Blade spell has many intricacies; one must channel the right mana flow, have the right intention, and visualization in order for the spell to succeed. In combat, would you really have the time to think about all those aspects as your life's on the line? Of course, it's possible with enough training, but no matter how much one trains, one can only shorten the length it takes to cast."
"All of you have experienced it: once you got more comfortable with the spell, the casting took shorter to cast, but on average, the most optimal cast time for such a spell is three seconds, not to mention that it is just a simple spell."
"As some may know or might've guessed, a fissure circle makes it so that the spell casting takes significantly less time to cast, it being instantaneous!"
Master Hector emphasized his words at the end to get the meaning across.
Most students had a general knowledge of magic, but there were still some who weren't privy to this information, causing their faces to show slight shock.
The student who raised her hand immediately understood and thanked Master Hector.
"You must use the spell you plan to implant into the circle, requiring some of your mana per the demand of the spell, coupled with your will that contains intent and visualization. Like I said, the process is fairly easy; everybody here will be able to complete it. Think of it as a storage of a specific spell that you can summon at any time."
"That said, let me warn you: getting rid of an established circle erratically will result in backlash, in the worst case scenario ending up crippled. Circles are like pillars that support the fissure once established; if not removed adequately, it'll result in dire consequences. One must be in peak condition physically and mentally in order for the process to go smoothly; the procedure is very slow, so as one progresses with each realm, gaining more fissure circles, they must take a careful approach in choosing."
"If you choose to eliminate an established circle, you will have to eliminate the will inside of it. It may sound simple, but it takes a great amount of time and mana to do so. You must be very careful, since it deals with inner workings of the fissure, any missteps and injuries to your fissure may result in you being cripple. The difficulty is proportional to the higher quality of the spell."
With his explanation done Master Hector approached his teacher's desk where a stack of papers was.
"This comes back to the news I was referring to: today I'll give you two new spells."
The students looked at each other in joy. They had just been in the academy for about a week and were already getting access to more spells.
"What! Jinto, you heard this? I wonder if they'll be more powerful than the Wind Blade spell." Paul looked at him with excitement.
Jinto shrugged: "Who knows, I wonder if we'll have another proficiency test too."
The students excitedly chatted with their peers; soon enough, the wave of excitement died down.
Master Hector picked a student sitting in the front row.
"You, pass these sheets to all the students present."
The student was surprised for a second before straightening his back and responding stiffly: "Yes!"
He was given half the stack, and another student was responsible for the opposite rows of seats.
The student who got picked was none other than the insignificant side character, the unlucky fellow who was paired up with Gent and Jinto in the proficiency test.
"Man… who would've thought that what I was missing was a deeper visualization and correct intent…" The scenes of the test were still on his mind; if he had the correct formula, perhaps he wouldn't have been overshadowed so much by those two.
It was just yesterday that Master Hector informed the class that he had given them the wrong formula to a spell. This was an initiation test at the beginning of every year, to see who were those who thought outside of the box.
The unlucky fellow sighed as he gave the sheets to the students.
Vitus felt a little embarrassed; he, someone with the highest grade of a fissure, lagged behind the Fang trio, Olsen, and Gent. He also felt remorseful of the mana stones going towards somebody else's hand.
It wasn't only until Master Hector told everyone about the discrepancies he had given on purpose. He was fine losing to Olsen—he was a direct family member of an elder—but the Fang's displayed strength in relation to him; he was in awe that they had cracked the secret and even beaten him and Gent, ultimately the prize going to one of the Fang's.
"As an Amethyst fissure, I need to do better! Yes, better!" He believed with his advantage and as long as he didn't blindly follow and thought critically, he would come out on top.
The seated students stared at the paper in front of them with anticipation; it contained the two new spells!
Wind Wall and Breeze Steps.
It also contained all the information needed to cast the spell, such as the correct mana flow, visualization, and intent.
Once he saw that the majority of the students had the sheet containing the two spells, Master Hector called out to one of the students.
"Melissa, cast a Wind Blade with the intent to chop my head off."
The students focused their attention on Master Hector and Aldering, who at the moment her face conveyed a confused expression.
Melissa, sensing all the gazes and the instructions from Master Hector, didn't know how to respond.
"Uhh, okay?"
With slight resistance, she got up slowly and pointed her right arm at her teacher, fulfilling his wish.
Swoosh
Wind reverberated throughout the classroom; some sheets that the students held flew forwards, one of them hitting the back of the head of the unlucky fellow who sat at the front.
Before the spell got close to two meters in front of him, it suddenly stopped in its tracks and hit an illusionary wall of wind that obstructed its path.
"Good job, Melissa. I defended against her spell using Wind Wall, a defensive type spell used for blocking any attacks. Its use is very straightforward, and if used strategically, it could serve as an offensive type spell.
"The other spell is a movement type spell; it lets your steps become as swift as a breeze and move distances in a short amount of time."
Master Hector, who was located at the front of the classroom, moved so quickly his figure became a blur, appearing at the end of the classroom.
He walked back to the front of the classroom leisurely, as students turned around in awe.
"Out of the three spells that you know, you may choose whichever one to be in your mana circle. Afterwards, we will have a sparring match to get you used to the combination of spells, and also implement some combat experience for you all."
Master Hector had arrived at the front of the classroom at this point.
He explained in detail the intricacies of the two spells and how to cast them correctly. Throughout the process, he answered questions regarding the spells and the creation of mana circles. Although he explained in detail on the casting, he still advised the youths to study the spells further, to get a clear understanding of them, especially the spell that they would use to create their fissure circle.
After everything was settled, he dismissed the class for the day.
…
It had been three hours of lecturing by Master Hector; Jinto and company felt their backs sore from the time spent sitting.
Despite the time, they had not forgotten about their motive for today: investigating Gent.
They had exited the building, along with their peers. They were now free to do what they wanted; most students eagerly made their way towards the arena to practice the new spells they had been given, others decided to go towards the wooden gate to form their fissure circle at their homes.
Through the chatter of the classmates, the trio followed behind a certain youth. They had not let him off their sights this entire time, following closely behind.
The Fangs accelerated towards him.
Melissa said with a slight grin, "Paul, remember to look more intimidating than usual, slightly frown or something."
"Okay." Paul full-fledged frown, then looked at the two.
"Yup, that's good." Jinto gave his thumbs up.
When they were one step away from Gent, Paul placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Hm?!"
Gent turned around to see a youth who was taller than normal wear a furious gaze, saying that he was ready to fight at any moment.
Gent's heart skipped a beat for a second; what business did Paul want with him now? It was just recent that he had lost to his cousin.
"Greetings, brother Gent, we have something private to tell you, please come with us." Jinto wore an amicable smile.
Gent looked to the side: "Tch, why can't you just tell it to me here?"
Paul's grip on his shoulder tightened.
"Think twice, or do you want the three of us to beat you into a pile of mush?" Melissa threatened with a serious expression.
Gent's expression tightened. A little while ago, he had been humiliated against Jinto; now they were daring to go even further if he didn't comply.
He cursed inawardly: "Pair of bastards."
He took a glance at Jinto before frowning in a displeased tone.
"You lowly pests, fine, you cowards, make it quick."
Melissa smiled: "Who knew brother Gent was so smart!"
Gent felt like throwing insults, but remembered Paul's tight grip on his shoulder.
The onlookers saw this strange scene in amusement.
"It hasn't been a week and Gent and the rest are at odds again? Haha, how comical."
"Isn't Jinto too overbearing? Going for Gent again."
"Haha, serves that bastard right; his personality resembles that of diarrhea!"
Vitus watched the scene with slight curiosity; even though Jinto and the rest had low-ranked fissures, the trio seemed a bit formidable. Jinto used his wit to cause Gent backlash; Melissa had won the proficiency and bested Olsen one on one, and although Paul seemed unassuming, his constitution was excellent. He made the decision to keep his eye on the trio.
As for Gent, he didn't think of him too much; he was a person of foul nature, despite his Diamond fissure, he appeared inadequate for such a gift.
"Now which of these spells should be my heart spell?" Vitus sank into his thoughts, ignoring the scene.
Standing near the gates, a girl with a petite build, short black hair, black eyes, and freckles that adorned her mid face sighed as she watched the scene of Gent and the Fang trio around him.
"Shall I contact father?"