Chapter 93: Mana Class

“Uh… why are you this close?” Koya asked, he was seated at his chair this time except that Renji was no longer there… instead it was Misora.

She had more or less threatened Renji to swap seats with her so she could sit down next to him and everyone in the class was looking at them weirdly as Misora placed her head on his shoulder.

“Should I… be even closer?” She whispered and looked at his face. “I made different kinds of food today… you have to test them out, I was stress cooking too and-”

She paused a bit… Why was she doing all this? Was she really that happy?

The question sat there without a comfortable answer and she didn’t push it any further… she just let it dissolve somewhere behind her ribs.

However at that moment, the bell rang and she sat straight as the other students got into the room.

A few of them did a double take at the new seating arrangement with Renji seated where the Class Rep usually sat down with his arms folded and the Class Rep sitting right next to Koya with her posture perfectly composed as though nothing unusual had occurred but they didn’t think much about it and soon everyone was in class.

“So do you know who’s our new history teacher?” Koya asked, it had been announced on ALI News which was a new app on their ALI phones…

Professor Shusuke had died when Numb had attacked the academy and it had over 100 laugh reactions just to show that 99% of students were happy that the bastard was gone.

“I heard it was a woman… I don’t really know much about her.” Misora replied and then someone stepped into the room, it was Saki and the professor was wearing her standard lab coat with a smile on her face.

“Hehe~ Welcome back to ALI everyone.” She waved at them. “Did you miss me?”

“Yes Professor.” A great deal of students said, she was easily the most popular professor amongst the Class 5 students.

“Good good… now as your homeroom teacher, I want to congratulate several of you… instead of wasting away your 2-week holiday doing nothing like your peers, some of you have managed to ascend into becoming two-liner status and there are even some that went three.” She said while giving an approving nod.

Koya moved his head to check… there were truly changes in the surroundings, some of them were still one-liners but excluding them, there were two-liners amongst them too… like the muscular Merchant’s son who Koya didn’t remember his name, then there was also Renji surprisingly and Ichinose too, as well as a few others.

As for the three liners, there was Misora and Mio naturally.

“It isn’t an easy task and apart from going to the Outer Zone to kill monsters, one can advance themselves by meditating and studying mana breathing techniques.” She pointed out and then smiled. “There’s also some additional news. You will be receiving a new History teacher, she’s a woman and much better than Professor Shusuke but for now, we will be focusing on the most important thing… Your Mid-terms are coming up.”

There were several groans… they had barely done any subjects and there were mid-terms already?

“Yes, two weeks out of the curriculum is a long time so some teachers will naturally be in a rush to conclude the topics they have missed out on before mid-terms.” She spoke with a smile. “That will be including me, let’s head to the new Training Hall and get to work.”

She clapped both of her hands with a smile on her face.

“Oh right… Amagi-san.” She said. “As thanks for challenging Numb while several professors were out of it, ALI has provided you with a lot of IP. Please check your balance later… However for now, let’s gooo~”

With that, all of the students in the class stood up and followed Saki down the hallway and Koya pulled out his ALI phone as he walked, checking the balance.

Alongside the original IP that ALI had distributed to the students as a standard enrollment bonus… he had been gifted an additional 80k Individual Points on top of that, and the number sat on the screen looking almost unreasonable.

He pocketed the phone and it made him smile.

’Good… Mid-terms are coming up too, I think we can finally run the scam.’ He thought and the screen appeared in front of him.

「Operation: Make It Out Of The Hood is a go…」

…

Since the whole Academy had been redone… the Training Hall was a bit bigger than before and not only that but.

“The tracksuits have changed as well.” He looked down at his body, he was wearing a red tracksuit that fit him completely, it was a darker red while the girls wore a dark blue version of it.

“Of course… These new tracksuits contain a material called Manakei. It draws in ambient mana from the surrounding area and defends you automatically to save you from life-endangering attacks which means during spars, you all can go all out as long as you don’t hit outside the tracksuit.” Saki said, she was wearing a pink tracksuit and her hair was now styled in boings as she was tapping the Holo-cane in hand.

It made him wonder how she changed her hairstyle so quickly… but then she had Creation Magic so he could now understand.

“Tee-hee… so for the rest of this week, we’ll be steamrolling through several topics to catch up with our scheme.” She said and tapped the Holo-cane on the ground, causing a small shockwave that caused the students that were chatting with themselves to focus on her. “For that, I’ll require your complete focus. Oh right… I taught you all about Mana Convergence, however Amagi-san wasn’t in school so he wouldn’t know.”

’Mana Convergence?’ Koya looked up at her, she had mentioned it when Numb and a lot of Order assassins had attacked the Academy but he didn’t know what it was.

“What is Mana Convergence, 10 IP for a person that can answer this question?” She asked and several students including Mio raised up their hand.

“Oh me!”

“Me Professor!”

“Pick me!”

“Ah you there…” She pointed at one of the girls who hadn’t raised up her hand. “Tell us what Mana Convergence is?”

“Uh… M-Mana Convergence is…” The girl… Takahashi Yeu started, gripping the hem of her tracksuit before taking a deep breath. “It’s when multiple mages channel their mana simultaneously into a single target mage… the mana gets directed into the target’s Convergence Point and causes a temporary breakthrough in their mana reserves, allowing them to operate above their normal ceiling for a limited time.”

“Right… Mana Convergence is simply a technique whereby other mages channel mana into the body of a singular mage.” Saki said and tapped on the ground again. “In one’s body… There are several mana points that connect to the circuits which allows a crest user to absorb mana from the surroundings, the phenomenon of Mana Mode occurs when all these mana points are simultaneously conducting mana throughout the body. Though we will learn this in another class. In the very center… right above the heart is the Convergence Point and it exists in the body of every Awakened. For Mana Convergence to take place, you must thread your mana through the other points and into the Convergence Point, by doing that, the body of the target will ascend temporarily and harness all of that mana completely. We’ll be doing practice later.”

’Hm? It doesn’t look like it’ll benefit me that much.’ He thought, it wasn’t like he was planning to supply mana into another person but the concept of mana points was intriguing and he filed it away carefully.

If every Awakened body had these points connected to the circuits, then targeting those points directly during combat could shut down a mage’s ability to cast entirely without destroying the body.

Crippling rather than killing… there was a certain elegance to that.

“Now let’s focus on the main points of our classes today… We have limited time so make sure to practice this when you’re free later, our topics today are Mana Suppression and Mana Threads.” She said and looked at her students before smiling. “This will help you a lot when you’re out in the field facing monsters or even fellow Awakened, after all several parts of the Outer Zones are lawless places. So the first topic of today is Mana Suppression… are you aware that every living thing that has awakened, like monsters irrespective of class, contains mana?”

Several students blinked and one raised up his hand.

“Professor?”

“Yes, Noguchi-san…”

“As a One-liner, I don’t feel any mana within myself which is why we use Mana Breathing to suck mana from the air and into our bodies.” He said and she nodded.

“Of course… but those are two different things.” Saki pointed out. “Any living thing or even non-living like mana crystals and cores have mana, as a One-liner, you have a little speck of mana inside you which is what Awakened can sense to know if you are one of them or not. The reason we use Mana Breathing is to suck mana into our mana reserves to perform enhancement or even spells, when you reach the Four-liner mark, you can have your very own mana reserves.”

The student nodded.

“Good… now continuing with our class, the higher the rank you are, the more you’re prone to being noticed by people around you.” Saki said. “But there’s a technique we can use to suppress our mana… Awakened can never completely suppress the mana in their bodies, however they can reduce it to the point that we’re just like other organisms. For example… you all can feel my mana right?”

As a Blue-liner, she would regularly be noticed anywhere she was… after all her mana snaked out in a certain way that all Blue-liners were however it suddenly vanished, the mana that was coming out of her body… that feeling vanished completely and they blinked as she came down to One-liner level pretty easily.

“Oho. What’s with all these surprise expressions?” She looked around, a lot of them were surprised except her star students, especially Koya.

“Professor…” It was Misora that asked this question. “Can you reduce your mana even lower?”

Saki tapped her Holo-cane on the ground once more.

“Mana Suppression can take your mana lower… experienced users with Mana Suppression can even feel like the mana in the surrounding area and are masters of cloaking; however for me, this is my limit.” She said and then clapped her finger, immediately several scrolls materialized from the air and they all landed in the hands of the students.

Koya blinked as his own fell into his hand.

“These scrolls contain chants that will allow you to use Mana Suppression just like Mana Breathing.” She said. “After this and a few tryouts, I will explain what to do next. For the One-liners, learn this so it’ll be easier later and as for our two, three and four-liners… Let’s see what you can do.”

Koya looked at the scroll…

「Basic Scroll has been scanned」

「Common Skill: Basic Mana Suppression (E)」

「Type: Passive」

「Would you like to add this Skill to your skill tree?」

「Y / N」

’Yes.’ He thought. ’And upgrade it like last time… we can’t have low ranking skills on the tree.’

「Common Skill: Basic Mana Suppression (E) has been added to Skill Tree」

「2000 F.P has been deducted and your skill is being upgraded…」

Unlike last time, it happened instantly though it was much of a lower cost than the last price that the System charged.

「Skill Upgrade has been completed」

「Common Skill: Basic Mana Suppression (E) → Unique Skill: Presence Nullification (B)」

「This is the highest level this skill can go so naturally the price of upgrading went down. Skill upgrades can only be performed on low rank skills learned through scrolls.」

He now had new knowledge… he could use Mana Suppression freely and he cracked open the scroll, looking at the chant.

’I guess I’ll show it to the girls during the weekend.’ He thought as he activated Suppression, he felt his perception of his own mana gradually dropping as the skill suppressed his mana.

It was at One-liner status and was about to go even lower but he cut it off there, maintaining his one-liner mana.

There were chances that other nobles had already planted spies here amongst these students and they would sell out his abilities so he had to catch them off guard.

“Wonderful.” Saki clapped as she looked at Koya who pocketed the scroll. “Learning Mana Suppression and managing to suppress it down to One-liner status like me is very impressive… sometimes I just want to give you an advanced spell and watch you master it instantly.”

Several of the other students looked at him with jealousy and then they tried with Saki looking around and watching as they chanted.

“Since you’re the only one that’s finished, I’ll be teaching you something el-” Someone else succeeded and that person was Misora who stood opposite Koya along the girl’s line, she had suppressed her mana to One-liner like Koya and Saki grinned.

“I feel it…” Renji suddenly said as he continued chanting inwardly, his face twisted in concentration like a man trying to lift something very heavy with his mind alone. “I feel it coming down… Haaaaaaa…”

The entire class went quiet and watched him.

Even Saki tilted her head with what appeared to be genuine academic curiosity… The silence stretched for two full seconds before the only thing that came out was a fart… it was loud and absolutely devastating in a room that had gone completely still.

The silence that followed it was a different kind of silence entirely, then someone near the back made a sound that was half laugh and half choke and then immediately suppressed it.

Koya skidded several steps away from him with the urgency.

“I don’t know this dude…” He muttered while whistling as Renji covered his face in shame, pressing both palms flat against his cheeks like he was trying to push his entire skull inward.

The class continued after that.

…

“Mana Threads is a pretty good skill.” Misora muttered under her breath as she stretched both of her hands apart, there were thin joints of threads in them made of mana. “What do you think, Koya-kun?”

“I think it fits someone who’s leaning more towards being an assassin.” Koya said. “But it’ll help in retrieving a lost weapon in battle for sure.”

“I was actually thinking that…” She stopped herself, the rest of the sentence dissolving before it could take shape.

When exactly had she started imagining things like that?

She pressed her lips together and focused very hard on the threads between her fingers, watching the mana weave in clean lines, which was a significantly more appropriate use of her mental energy.

They were all back in the classroom with Renji burying his face into the table, the man wanted to die and as if that wasn’t bad enough… his so-called best friend was acting like they didn’t know each other.

’Backstabber.’ He cursed under his breath, however all that hate was forgotten as the next teacher stepped into class.

She was a blonde-haired woman with a very curvaceous figure, she looked nerdy with reading glasses on however her beauty was unmatched.

She was clearly more attractive than even Professor Saki… and everyone in class knew it the moment she walked through the door.

She was clutching a big history textbook to her chest but that didn’t hide the fact that she had amazing breasts, and the reading glasses perched on her nose somehow made her look even more beautiful.

She dropped her textbook on the desk with a thud and let out a deep sigh like someone who had been dreading this moment and had finally arrived at it.

“Hello everyone in Class 5… I’m Yomogida Sakura and I’ll be your new History Professor. I hope we get along.” She then bowed awkwardly and several students cheered for her, however her focus was on one person in particular… Amagi Koya.

’So that’s Boss’s husband…?’ She thought, and the lewd smile she was hiding required genuine effort to contain, which was a new experience for her.

She had been assigned a mission by the Boss, who had tested her and all other Top Ten sisters across multiple compatibility assessments… out of all of them, she had the best compatible DNA to produce a child that would inherit a lot of Koya’s traits as well as her own, so she had been personally selected and given the mission.

’From Mondays to Fridays… I must breed with Amagi Koya.’ She thought.

Her Boss was too busy so she was the one that had to carry out this very important mission. ’For the future of the Order… I will willingly become a concubine of my Master’s Husband.’

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