A boy was walking through the corridor, a boy with black hair and black eyes. His skin was pale, and unblemished. However, his face was only so-so. He may have been attractive by regular standards, but surrounded by people mostly from high-class families, he didn't stand out too much.
The most interesting thing about the boy was his name, 'Kim Jaehyun'.¹ It was from an old human language before they adopted the global Arkusian language. It meant 'Metal Wisdom'¹ and was associated with the warriors of old.
The boy watched a group of 5 boys as they walked through the corridor. He followed, his vision never leaving them.
'Hm, Elijah, Var, Darren and Blake. That's the group of 4 I wrote about. So who's this Grey dude? He's an unexpected variable. If he doesn't follow the plot, I'll have to remove him.'
He stopped looking at them after a short while, focusing back on heading to class. It was due to this that he missed Grey turning around to look at him.
---
'Hm, if I recall, that's Kim Jaehyun. He scored dead last, but for some reason, I feel wary.'
Grey turned back round and continued chatting with his friends. 'As long as he doesn't get in the way of my goal, or hurt my friends, he's fine.'
"Yo, Grey, can we introduce you to some friends we made?" Var suddenly asked.
"Sure, I don't see why not. Who are they?"
Elijah spoke up at that moment, "Well, there's Aurora Novis, who has been called 'Ice Queen'. It's only been a couple of days, but they've already given her a nickname."
"Then there's Penelope Spring, Hannah Raven, and Natalie Spring. They're all in the top 10, too." Var butted in.
"Hm." Grey's mind scanned his memories at the mention of their names, trying to put faces to names. He went through each of them but wandered back to Aurora.
His face reddened, and he removed that thought from his face. 'How am I so affected by her? Even the emotional control of a demon is no good. Sure, it stops the feeling from lasting long, but it doesn't stop me from having it. It's only failed once before when I was getting tested.'
"We're here!" Blake dragged Grey from his thoughts, drawing his attention from the girl.
They entered the classroom and headed to the back row. After all, cool kids sat at the back.
Var had guided the group to the girls, and Grey sat down in the cornermost chair, not caring who was next to him. He looked to his left, to see who took the best chair, and whipped his head away after.
'Fallen Star! Why is she here? All day, I keep seeing her face!' Var, who was sitting next to Grey, noted his red face, but before he could speak, he was quickly shut up by a glare from Grey.
- Well, it seems like it's your fate to see her. Life is pushing you closer; there's no escape! Accept it, Grey, you and her, together forever! - Fallen Star happily took the chance to tease Grey, Its voice downright sarcastic.
'Damn you, Fallen Star! I'm having a crisis! I can't control my emotions correctly, and my damn demon side isn't doing shit either! Not helping!' Grey ignored Fallen Star from that point onwards, choosing instead to listen to the teacher.
The teacher was short, like a dwarf, but had the ears of an elf. 'A dwelf, huh.'
Dwelfs were the rarest mixed species on Arkusia, simply because dwarfs and elves didn't have the most amicable relationship. There were also mixed vampires, but no one paid attention to them. The racism was cruel, indeed, but the long war with vampires had moulded people to hate vampires, simply for being vampires. It didn't matter if they were defectors or not.
"Hello. My name's Drakell, and I'm yer teacher for Magic. Call me Professor Drakell, please." His voice was deep, and monotone, which Grey found matched his element. The man's hair was golden, but the tips were black as night. Grey had seen varying shades of colour when it came to the tips of people's hair, but according to Fallen Star, it held no bearing.
"Today, we will go over the most basic of basics. The first Spell, as we call it. Every element's first Spell is their name in High Elven, and then 'Flore', which means bloom. Therefore, the first spell is…" He began the lesson with an introduction on the first Spell and pointed to Var.
"Uh, in my case it's 'Ignis Flore', I think?"
"Correct. The Spells are as follows;
- Fire - 'Ignis Flore'
- Water - 'Aqua Flore'
- Earth - 'Terra Flore'
- Wind - 'Ventus Flore'
- Light - 'Lux Flore'
- Dark - 'Tenebris Flore'
Can anyone tell me why, when I spoke the Dark Spell, nothing happened?"
Several hands rose, and he picked one from the front.
"Even though you have an affinity to Dark, since you didn't activate your Mana, nothing happened." The student said.
"Correct… My, you're all rather smart this year."
'What the? His Mana isn't active? Wait, you have to activate your Mana?' Grey was confused. His Mana was always flowing, not including the flow he had that went to his eyes.
- Yes, people with Mana Hearts need to channel Mana actively. Mana always flows, even in the Mana Heart, but they have to move it through their channels on purpose. For you, however, who has no channels unless he moulds the Mana that way, your Mana is always flowing, because it's in the Mana Body, its storage container. - Fallen Star abruptly spoke up.
'I see.'
"Speaking of active Mana, you there, boy at the back, with the grey hair." The teacher spoke, to which Grey pointed at himself.
"Yes, you. May I ask why you are channelling your Mana?"
"Well, I always do this. And I have a small stream of Mana enter my eyes at all times so that I can use Mana breathing constantly, without seeing Mana." He gave a short reply and answered the question he assumed would come next.
'He always channels Mana? That shouldn't be possible. And Mana breathing, constantly, without seeing Mana. It's been tested, but it's not plausible. Fascinating!… No, later. I'll teach the class later.' Drakell looked slightly oddly at Grey, and his gaze caused Grey to curl his toes a bit.
'I feel like he'll peel my secrets wide open.'
Drakell, aware of the face and gaze he was making, quickly shifted the topic back. "Yes, as the first student said, my Mana was not active, so I wouldn't be able to cast a spell. Now, I want everyone to start circulating Mana." His voice was now full of emotion, and Grey had a good grasp on why.
Each student started to circulate their Mana, something they were all capable of doing innately, and Drakell went around, measuring their Capacity.
---
From the age of 10–20, the Mana Heart saw little to no improvement, so Drakell assumed they might have 30 Mana at most, enough for 1 or 2 first Spells. He was pleasantly surprised by the left most of the class, as they all averaged around 60 Mana. It was only when he got to the corner where the grey-haired boy sat that he was shocked.
The orange-haired boy had roughly 80 Mana, and so did the redhead and the black-haired boy. The pink-haired girls also had about that much, but it was the blonde one that shocked him. She had 100 Mana.
'Ho-ho, we might win the war in this generation. Truly astounding!'
The next person he measured was a black-haired, orange-eyed girl, and she had even more Mana, at about 120! The blue-haired boy measured at an astounding 480, causing the professor to take a couple of steps back, out of pure shock.
"Kheum, well, you're quite talented, young man!" He kept his composure but was inwardly losing it. '480 Mana at 17! That's the Mana that an untalented 23-year-old would have. Bloody impressive.'
In Arkusia, people had no Mana Heart from 0-10, and from 10-20, the Mana Heart saw almost no growth, before increasing explosively for the next decade. Then it rose at a steady rate. Since there was no way to measure talent, it was measured in the amount of Mana one had, and how fast they grew in their 20s. So for the blue-haired boy to have 480 was a once in a millennia level of talent!
It was then that Drakell turned to the mysterious grey-haired boy who could constantly channel Mana and use Mana breathing without seeing Mana.
---
Kim Jaehyun watched on as Drakell went around the class, measuring their Mana capacity. He had scored an average of 30 Mana, and, as expected, the main cast made Drakell shocked. When he got to Elijah, however...
'As expected. Elijah's system makes him extremely strong for his age.' He watched as Drakell took a couple of steps back, just as he had written in his novel. 'Now, let's see you, mystery boy!'
Drakell pointed the machine at Grey, and waited patiently as the machine whirred, as it always did. Once it beeped for the 50th time, however, the reaction was something no one was expecting. Drakell fell on his ass, landing with a rather loud sound.
THUD!
"Impossible!" Kim Jaehyun, heard him say. 'Oh? I wonder, how much Mana he has for him to say that?!'
The professor got off the floor, ignoring the stares of the students, and once he stood in front of them, he spoke.
"Well, since you're all so curious, I'll tell you. Here are the top 10… sorry, top 11, Mana Capacities!"
The projector at the front suddenly turned on, just as it had happened in his novel. Reading from the bottom up, he read the Mana capacities that he knew by heart as the author.
'10th, is Var with 63. Then Natalie with 66. Then some extras, before we go to 5th with Hannah, at 85, then Penelope at 91. Aurora has, as expected, 124, and Darren was just above 136. Elijah, as I wrote, is at a flat 480 Mana.' He scanned the screen, moving to the highest spot on the hologram.
'Grey Heart, 12,496... WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK! ELIJAH ONLY GETS THAT MUCH WHEN HE'S 25! AND HE HAS A FUCKING SYSTEM!' Kim Jaehyun was so confused.
First, someone he didn't make showed up, and then he easily beat Elijah at everything. Why even have a protagonist, if Grey was here?
'I swear to whoever brought me here, you better pray that you stay on our side, Grey!' Kim Jaehyun was not sure if he could ever beat Grey, or even if Elijah could, but he knew that he could make the boy regret switching sides if he chose to.
---
Aurora gawked as she stared at the screen.
She was gifted, she knew. Looks, intelligence, skill, and talent. She was second to none, except Darren Black. That gloomy boy always got in her way, but she was more popular, so it didn't matter.
After enrolling at The Island, expecting to be 2nd, she was surprised to see that they had both been overtaken by a dark horse. Elijah Dawn. From her parent's research, done at her behest, his parents died at a young age due to vampires, and then he vanished for 12 years, before reappearing at The Island.
'I can surpass him.' She thought for he wasn't too far ahead. Even after seeing his Mana capacity, she was sure that she could.
Yet, on day 1, she had met a boy far more mysterious, and far better at everything. He had easily captured her attention, almost breaking the Ice Queen image that she had been building in school over the past couple of days. Then, he beat her at an intelligence test, or so she assumed because the score hadn't come out yet. Not only that, he was also talented at multiple weapons, and he was stronger than the Rank 1.
And now, she was told to believe that he had a Mana capacity surpassing even the most talented people when they were in their 20s - their most explosive growth years - whilst he was still in his slow years.
She turned to look at him. 'Just who are you, really?'