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For me it’s best to imagine it as an analog to physical energy. Our bodies have energy stored, and we move by spending it through various mechanisms. But we can’t concentrate that energy outside of our bodies. Mana isn’t too different from that, at least as a rudimentary explanation. The underlying theory is probably very different.

Unlike physical energy, mana can be manifested outside the body as long as there’s a proper path, and all of us experience that regularly through magic.

“I actually believe everyone here uses mana without activating spells in our daily lives, do you know how?”

I ask the class, and Christina timidly raises her hand.

“Is it…magic devices?”
“Yes.”

Most magic devices require some mana as input from the user, and even containers filled with mana need to be recharged beforehand to work. But we don’t need to activate a spell to produce that mana, anyone can use magic devices as long as they know how to properly control their mana.

“I believe magic devices are a good intermediate step to free control of mana. That’s how I learned to do it as well.”

The students and even Damuel don’t look convinced hearing that, so I decide to tell them the experience that made me discover how to control mana. I obviously left out the part where I got in a fight in the guild.

“For example, the moment I take away a magic device from my hand as I use it, I continue letting out mana into the air. Learning to control this mana is key to mana materialization.”

Even explaining that wasn’t enough, so I decided to perform a proper demonstration.

“Do you mind helping me with this, Mr. Damuel?”
“Sure, I don’t mind. What should I do?”
“Please show me your palm.”

I place one of Black Hawk’s magazines on his outstretched hand.

“Close your eyes and slowly imbue this magic device with mana.”
“Alright.”

I watch for a few seconds as Damuel starts filling the magazine with mana. I carefully remove the magazine, making sure to not touch him, and his palm soon starts to glow a little.

I could tell the students were impressed.

“Alright, that’s enough. You can open your eyes.”

Damuel opens his eyes and looks at his palms, nodding impressed.

“I see. The mana I was channeling into the magic device suddenly lost its destination, so it just stayed there.”
“Precisely. You just need to get used to this, and then shaping it won’t be too different from how you create spells.”

Damuel quickly put it to practice, the mana on top of his hand changing forms into a triangle and then a square. His aptitude as the teacher of classroom A shows.

“And that’s about it. Does anyone have any questions?”

I ask the students, but no one raises their hand or says anything. I can almost see a question mark floating above Olivia’s head but…yeah, Christina can take care of her later.

“If there’s no questions, I’d like everyone to give it a try as well. Is that alright?”
“You can do that, I feel like we don’t have enough magic devices here though. I’m afraid it might take too long.”
“Don’t worry about that.”

I open my magic storage and place a number of magazines on the teacher’s desk. The magazines are essentially just a chunk of Mana Crystal encased in metal, so even I can make them. I built quite a large number of them during vacations too.

“I’ll give each…is something wrong?”
“No, I’m just wondering where you had all of those magic devices.”

Everyone is looking strange at me so I ask that, and Damuel tells me that with a slight frown.

“Where I had them? You mean my magic storage?”

Okay at this point I know something’s going on. There’s definitely something weird about my magic storage’s capacity.

It’s easy to practice opening and closing the magic storage, but expanding it is actually difficult and the average magician only gets to fit around a backpack of stuff at maximum. Apparently an experienced sorcerer can get up to a closet’s compartment of space, but that’s if they dedicate the majority of their time to it, and at the expense of a lot of mana.

I’ve already surpassed both by a lot in the year I’ve been practicing, and it just keeps growing. On top of that, I barely need any mana to access it, making it a really strange case.

Ophelia had mentioned I might have a good aptitude for it, back when she was still alive. Regardless of that, I’m supposed to be teaching mana materialization here. I’ll talk about my magic storage another time.

“Once you all have a magic device, form pairs and do the same thing I did with Mr. Damuel, one holding the magic device and the other removing it. Please make sure to close your eyes if you’re holding the magic device, and if you’re taking it away be careful to make sure it’s unnoticeable.”

Half of the students hold a magazine and close their eyes, while the other half takes the magazine away.

They are struggling quite a bit, only a handful are able to produce some mana. But there’s no rush, practice is built up across many days of training. As long as they understood the underlying theory, they would eventually get it.

“Miss Natalia, my magic device is full now, what should I do?”

I watch them try for some time, and then one raises his hand. It’s Mathias.

He called me ‘Miss’. That makes me a little happy.

“Just bring it here and I’ll exchange it for an empty one.”
“Okay.”

If they brought me the full magazines, I would return them to my magic storage and give them an empty one.

“I have a question, is there a reason why we’re in pairs, and one has to close his eyes?”

Mathias asks me after I take his full magazine. I knew the most serious students would ask that.

The reason for the pairs is that the magic device needs to be removed without being noticed. I could’ve let them do it alone, but then they would know when the magazine was gone, subconsciously affecting their flow of mana. The trick was to get used to the phenomenon in an accidental way, and then try to recreate that feeling consciously. There’s another reason why a second person should be watching though.

This couldn’t be taught with theory alone, there are things that can be understood better by watching it happen.

This is essentially the opposite method to the one I use in my books, using a more direct approach than simply explaining theory. Both ways of teaching are valid.

Once I explain that, Mathias looks satisfied and returns to his seat.

Some time later more students come to exchange magazines. By the time everyone can produce some glow on their palms, it’s almost time to end the lesson.

“Alright, please gather all the magic devices and bring them to the front.”

I instruct the students and open my magic storage to stash the magazines.

At first I had been anxious whether I could teach such a large number of students, but I guess it went pretty well. I take a deep breath and relax my shoulders.

BAM!

A dry explosive sound rings in the classroom. I instinctively look that way and see a male student with blood on his arm.