Chapter 8: Darkness
Professor Hund couldn't believe his eyes. He had promised Van-Tyse he would be a teacher at this academy and he had thought it would very boring. But it turned out someone interesting had become a player.
Someone who already had an orange cursor and figured out how to retain her Ki in less than an hour. This game had indeed been created to be 100% realistic; making a girl to have natural talents while others were average at best was very realistic to Professor Hund.
He had no choice but to give the girl the 100 points he had promised. He watched as a tiny 100 shone above Nessa and disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
Nessa couldn't help but feel happy. She needed points to gain access to books and items in the school library and now she had just gotten a hundred for doing nothing.
"Out of curiosity," Professor Hund asked Nessa, "how did you do it?"
Nessa shrugged. "At first it was difficult. After accessing my Ki, I tried retaining it but at least half of it still leaked away."
Professor Hund nodded, urging her to continue.
"So all I did was, limit the amount of Ki I accessed at a given time."
Now there was a glint in Professor Hund's eyes. "I see we have someone with natural talent." then he aised his voice so that everyone could hear. "The secret to perfect Ki retention is simply limiting how much Ki you access. I give you all an extra ten minutes to learn it. After the time elapses, we'll move to the next stage of Ki manipulation."
Professor Hund moved his chair toward him and placed it before sitting down. Nessa noticed that he hadn't visibly used any of the six elements. She assumed that even if it was air, Professor Hund would have needed a large amount and she would have felt the breeze at least.
She decided not to think too much about it. Instead she focused on mastering Ki retention for the next ten minutes. Seven minutes later, Nessa now knew the maximum amount of Ki she could retain at a time. Whenever she tried to access more than that it ended up leaking, but whenever she accessed less she felt like she had better control over the Ki in her body.
Nessa could feel the Ki flowing in her body in a particular rhythm. For some reason, she noticed that the Ki seemed to be flowing from her belly. She tried altering its course, but after her first try, it seemed like she had just run a marathon. Beads of sweat had appeared on her forehead and she needed to double over in her seat to catch her breath.
Moments later Professor Hund spoke "Alright, time's up. So after ten minutes only three more people were able to successfully retain their Ki. What's your name miss?"
Professor Hund pointed to the girl who had asked whether he was an NPC earlier.
"Stephanie," She said.
Nessa noticed the girl had to be her height but her green eyes showed some sense of self confidence. She had blonde hair that was plaited in braids and she wore what seemed to be a brown leather Jacket with a black tee shirt, black pants and combat boots. Nessa admired her style.
"How about you?" Professor Hund pointed to a different person.
"My name's Tristan," Tristan said. It barely lasted a second but Nessa noticed a change in Professor Hund's expression. It seemed like he knew who Tristan was and he slightly terrified him.
Professor Hund nodded. "Here are your hundred points. Now unto the next process, Ki expulsion."
The Professor rose from his seat. "Ki expulsion is typically the most difficult part of Ki manipulation. Once you have gained access to your Ki and you have successfully retained it, you have to be able to expel it out of you in form of one of the six elements."
Professor Hund paused and said. "Which means for every spell cast, a part of your Ki is used and that been said, you should also know that the moment your Ki is totally exhausted, you die."
Professor Hund watched as the students' faces froze in terror before he continued.
"Which is why you should try your possible best not to use up more than 90 percent of your Ki. Anyway, Ki expulsion is just as the name implies, expelling Ki from your body. To make it easier for you students, you are going to be expelling Ki from your palms."
Professor Hund stretched out his right palm then a moment later fire danced across it.
"Do exactly what I just did." He said. "But you could use any element."
A student raised his hand.
"How do we choose which elements to expel?"
"I'm afraid there is no particular way to do that. That is left to every person's discretion. Just like no two people are the same, it's exactly how no two people can expel Ki in the same way. So that been said, you have thirty minutes to successfully expel your Ki—and no there are no points attached. Begin."
Once again Professor Hund had left the students to do something without any tips.
Nessa began the process. When she successfully retained her Ki about a minute later, she wondered what she was supposed to do next. Ki flowed through her, and when she studied the flow, she noticed it was in a specific pattern.
She tried forcing all the Ki in her body to her right palm but it was of no use. Every time she tried, she grew more tired. And the more tired she became, the more she tried, until she finally had a headache.
Professor Hund studied Nessa. It made him comfortable that she seemed to be making exactly the same mistake every beginner mage does.
Moments later, fire appeared among the students. Someone had successfully expelled their Ki in the fire element. The entire class turned to face the source of the fire and they saw that it was Stephanie. The only other girl in the class who had successfully retained her Ki.
'Wow, she figured it out in fifteen minutes.' Professor Hund thought.
"How did you do it?" Professor Hund asked Stephanie after she put out the flame.
"I don't know," Stephanie said. "I just did. I," she paused briefly then continued. "I noticed that after retaining my Ki, it flows in a particular pattern so I tried forcing the Ki to my palms but each try proved impossible. Then I had a different idea, I studied my Ki's pattern of flow and timed when it flowed through my hands. When I was sure of the timing, I just forced it out and...fire."
Professor Hund nodded. "Congratulations on figuring it out on your own."
"But Professor I have a question," Stephanie interrupted him.
'If you ask me if I'm an NPC again, I'd kill you.' Professor Hund said within himself as he nodded, urging Stephanie to continue.
"Why had I expelled fire?" She asked. "Why not any other of the six elements?"
Professor Hund had expected this question. "I'd answer that when the thirty minutes is over." He glanced at his watch. "Ten minutes more."
Nessa felt like a complete idiot. She slowly remembered the words of Einsten about repeated actions, result and insanity.
She clearly was insane for thinking that trying the same thing multiple times would yield a different result. The only different result she had gotten was serious headache.
Nessa shook her head. It was no use cursing herself. Plus she didn't have the time for that. She needed to learn magic as soon as possible.
She calmed down and followed what Stephanie had just said. This time, it took her fifty five seconds to successfully retain her Ki and then she spent five minutes studying her Ki pattern. She noted that Ki flowed through her right hand about thrice every two seconds.
If she wanted to successfully expel Ki, she needed to have perfect timing. Time passed without Nessa realizing. She meditated for at least three minutes, oblivious of the fact Professor Hund was staring at her.
Moments later, Professor Hund yelped and he made sure this time he didn't kick his chair away. Once again Nessa had surprised him.
Dancing across her palm was the very last element he had expected anyone to be strongest at. It was infact his weakest element. Professor Hund's eyes glistened as he stared at the black mass of energy dancing across Nessa's palms.
Nessa would have been as surprised as Professor Hund if she knew the implication of expelling darkness magic at first try.
"Time's up." Professor Hund announced moments later. "Turns out only two people were successfully able to use magic after this class. Honestly that is two more than I expected. However, I promised to answer a question after the thirty minutes expire."
There was a brief pause.
"The reason why you naturally displayed fire without intending to is simple. It only means fire is the element you're strongest with, or in better terms, the element that best defines you." Then Professor Hund turned to face Nessa. "If that is the case however, then Nessa--that's your name right--that means you are strongest with Darkness magic."
Nessa stared at Professor Hund until she understood the implication of what he had just said.
"Then that means..." She spluttered but Professor Hund interrupted her.
"Then that means that for some reason darkness magic best defines you."
Nessa didn't know why but the look on Professor Hund's face told her it wasn't good for darkness to define someone.
She sighed and then inwardly screamed. 'I don't get it.'
Moments later, Professor Hund announced "With that, I'd say that today's class is over. See you all tomorrow." and then he rushed out of the class room like he had someone to meet.
_______
Minutes after the class, Professor Hund was in Professor Avery's office and he was talking alot faster than she could follow.
"Calm down." Avery said. "Start from the top."
Professor Hund took deep breaths. "What's the name of the girl you put our lives on?"
Professor Avery arched a brow. "Why do you want to know?"
"Because there was a student today who can already use magic. She even used Darkness first."
A glint in Avery's eyes. "What was this girl's name?"
Professor Hund was tempted to say--Why do you want to know?--but he thought against it.
"Her name is Nessa." He finally said.
Professor Avery rested her back on her leather seat.
"She's the one right?" Professor Hund asked. "She's the one you chose."
"Keep your voice down down," Professor Avery breathed "Yes she is but it doesn't matter for now. Until she's powerful enough."
'I'm sorry friend, I cannot tell you I'm planning to train her.' Professor Avery thought to herself. 'Not yet.'
Professor Hund nodded to what Professor Avery had said. "You're right," A glint in his eye "I can't believe Van-Tyse made us do this. Someone even asked me whether I was an NPC."
Professor Avery stifled a laugh. "I'm sorry."
The two Professors discussed personal matters until they heard a knock on the office door.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone