After all the chaos had died down, the classroom slowly returned to a tense but manageable silence. The air wasnât as heavy, though now and then, students glanced over at Razeal and Celestia. Everyone was still expecting something. Surely, Celestia wouldnât just let that kind of disrespect slide, right?
But nothing happened. No outburst. No retaliation. Just silence.
Some felt disappointed. Others felt relieved. But either way, the tension had broken.
Professor Thalia didnât comment on the earlier situation. She simply adjusted her glasses and stepped back to the lecture stand.
"Alright," she said, voice firm but calm. "Letâs move on. Today, weâll talk about mana what it is, how it works, and why it even matters."
Her tone shifted slightly, carrying a hint of seriousness.
"Listen carefully. I know most of you already know how to use mana. Many of you are even better at manipulating it than I am, thanks to your backgrounds and natural talent. But" she raised a finger, "just because you can do something doesnât mean you understand what youâre doing, or why youâre able to do it."
She gave a small, pointed smile. "All of you can sit, stand, run. But how many of you actually know you can do those things? Or how?"
Some students perked up. Most didnât. A few just sighed and slumped deeper into their seats, bored already. But Thalia didnât care. She had something to say, and she was going to say it whether they listened or not.
"So letâs go back to the beginning," Thalia said. "What is mana?"
She paced slowly in front of the board.
"Most of you were told mana is just a force or source of magic. A bridge between you and the world. A tool. A power you can bend to your will. Thatâs true... to a degree. But that answer is shallow."
A few heads tilted. A few eyebrows rose. Others still looked unimpressed.
"And the sad part?" she continued. "Almost no one bothers asking the deeper question. Not commoners, not nobles, not even most scholars. Everyone just accepts it. âItâs just mana.â They use it every day like itâs air. They train with it, they fight with it, they craft with it. But they never stop and ask, âWhy can I even do this? What even is this damn thing Iâm using?â"
She folded her arms and looked out over the class.
"To most people, asking what mana is feels like asking, âWhy is an apple an apple?â Or, âWhy is it red or green?â Useless questions. Waste of time."
But her tone turned serious.
"Theyâre not."
Celestia, Selena, and a few others from the more inquisitive corners of the class leaned in slightly, silent and focused.
Arrogance and strength is one sided but curiousity and hunger for knowledge remins the same. Even if its Sainteess or Princess.
Thalia scanned the room but didnât address anyone directly.
"Letâs start from the foundation," Thalia said, walking slowly across the front of the lecture hall.
"Mana is a type of energy."
She paused.
"Energy is not a thing. Itâs not like a rock you can hold or a tree you can climb. Energy is a property. The ability to cause change. Itâs motion, potential, interaction. Itâs what happens behind the scenes."
She scribbled across the board again:
Energy: A property of things in motion, or something that could, in principle, cause something to move.
She spoke slower now, letting her words sink in.
"Energy is everywhere. Everything you see, everything you do, is a result of energy changing form. Fire, lightning, gravity, movement these are all expressions of energy. Mana is simply one of These types of energy."
"Alongside it, we have thermal energy, chemical, potential, kinetic, electric... You name it. Mana fits in this category. Itâs not separate. Itâs not sacred like most imagine it to be. Itâs just a natural part of the system."
A few students looked genuinely engaged now, their boredom giving way to realization.
"But hereâs the fundamental truth and itâs fascinating. Showing the brilliance of our ancestors, not just to develop, but to even conceive and solve something like this, given the right concepts. Itâs a triumph of human intellect. Truly deserving of appreciation," Thalia said, holding up a hand. "Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Only transformed."
She looked around the room. "Thatâs the law of conservation of energy. So now what does that mean for mana?"
"It means the total amount of mana in the world never changes."
"Never increasing or decreasing."
A few eyebrows rose.
"No matter how much you draw from it through spells, rituals, enchantments it doesnât go away. It simply shifts. You breathe it in, channel it, push it into a spell, and when that spellâs done, the mana doesnât disappear. It disperses. Re enters the world. Dissolves into nature. Rebalances itself."
"Are you all getting the point? Mana use isnât consumption. Itâs transformation."
She tapped the board.
"Ohh also thatâs why, despite generations of magic, we havenât ârun outâ of mana. Because we canât. Itâs everywhere. Itâs everything. Itâs eternal."
Professor Thalia continued.
"So now the next question how do we use the energy? The mana?"
"Your bodies pull mana in naturally. Like how lungs take in air or skin absorbs sunlight. But there are other ways, too. Blessings, elemental cores, contracts, enchanted relics, mana stones, elixirs made from alchemical plants, even exposure to strong mana fields or leyline zones. Every method is just another conduit. Another tap into the cycle."
She paused, letting it sink in.
"You donât create mana. You join the flow."
"And yet most people donât understand any of this. They cast spells, swing swords laced with magic, and channel power through their veins... without ever asking where it comes from, or what it is. And as my students it would really be embarrassing if you all didnât either"
"Alright!! let me give you an example or maybe ask you a question," she began, her voice calm but sharp. "How are you all able to run, walk, or move your body at all? Where does your physical energy come from?"
A student in the front raised his hand lazily, arms crossed but listening with interest. "Itâs food, right?"
"Correct," Thalia nodded. "Food. More specifically chemical energy. Food contains chemical potential energy, stored from various sources and made available through natural processes provided by the world around us."
"Like we consume food, and inside it is energy energy thatâs been stored through various means. Plants absorb sunlight, animals eat plants, and the energy is passed down the chain. Thatâs all part of how this world works. You eat it, you break it down, and your body transforms that energy into movement, strength, heat. Life."
She leaned slightly on the podium.
"Now, let me ask you this why are monsters so much stronger than humans? Physically, I mean. Even without training, monsters are naturally more powerful than us. Meanwhile, we rely on mana training, aura control, and years of conditioning just to get close. Why is that?"
The class stirred. Some students looked at each other. A few muttered under their breath.
"We all know beasts naturally possess aura," Thalia continued. "Itâs innate to them. For us, aura is a discipline. We train in it. We refine our bodies to channel it. Mana is tied to magic. Aura to physical strength. Almost everyone here knows that."
She looked at them one by one. "But have any of you really thought about why they are stronger than us? And no, âbecause theyâre monstersâ isnât an answer. There must be a reason, a mechanism. So who wants to try?"
There was silence for a moment. Then the same student who answered earlier spoke again.
"Is it their body structure? Their biology? Or... maybe the monster cores? We still havenât figured out exactly how those work. Maybe thatâs why theyâre strong."
Thalia gave a slight nod. "A good guess. But letâs narrow it down. Iâm not talking about monsters from other dimensions, with elemental alignments or strange powers. Iâm asking about normal monsters. The common ones found in our world. Not rare ones those without elemental affinities or mana sensitivity. Why are they physically superior?"
At that, the class collectively looked stumped.
Thalia smiled. She had expected as much.
"Itâs the food," she said simply. "The food they eat."
That earned a few confused looks.
"As many of you already know, food plants, meat, all living matter contains energy. Energy is constantly being transferred. It changes form. When monsters consume that food, theyâre absorbing that energy into their bodies. It builds their aura. It strengthens them purely physically."
Students looked thoughtful now. Some frowned. Others tilted their heads, not fully convinced.
Is that it? they wondered. Is it really that simple?
Of course, they knew about high-tier monster meat. They knew rare alchemical herbs could boost aura. Theyâd eaten expensive meals designed for physical recovery and enhancement eveb specially created portions. But it never seemed to make that much of a difference.
Seeing their doubt, Thaliaâs smile widened slightly.
"Let me ask you this," she said, her voice dropping to a softer, more curious tone. "Do you know how much food an average human consumes over a hundred years? Letâs say someone who practices aura regularly, maybe even trains for combat."
A few students blinked.
"Maybe... 2 or 3 kilograms of food per day?" someone muttered.
"The actual number," she said, tone flat but deliberate, "is around 200 to 300 tonnes of food. Thatâs what a normal person eats over a century.
"And thatâs not even someone in serious training," she went on, brushing a strand of her hair behind her ear. "Thatâs just your average person going about their normal life. No aura, no combat, no reinforcement conditioning. If youâre a professional adventurer, or someone pushing their aura to higher levels? A thousand tonnes over a lifetime isnât that unusual."
A wave of shock passed through the room.
"Two to three hundred... what?" a student blurted, like his brain had short-circuited.
"Tonnes," Thalia repeated. "Not kilograms. Tonnes."
"Are we really eating that much? Thatâs insane"
"What the hell are we, black holes?!"
Their voices werenât loud, but the disbelief was clear.
Thalia chuckled under her breath.
After some seconds.
"And now," she said, sweeping her gaze across the room, "youâll all probably be surprised to know that a fifth-ranked wild bear monster yes, just your standard forest-type consumes anywhere from 300 to 400 kilograms of food in a single day."
A murmur rippled through the students. Some raised eyebrows. A few snickered quietly. But Thalia pressed on.
"Not a year. Not a month. A day," she emphasized, holding up one finger. "And thatâs just the average. If the bear is slightly stronger than normal say, an elite within its rank it can go through 700 to 800 kilograms a day. Thatâs by hunting anywhere from fifteen to twenty lower-ranked monsters daily."
She paused, letting that sink in.
"And for comparison, a fifth-rank bear weighs easily one to two tonnes sometimes even more. Now imagine one of the worldâs largest sea beasts creatures weâve documented to consume hundreds of millions of tonnes of organic mass daily. The sheer energy they absorb is enough to level a mountain if converted directly to force."
Thalia smiled as some students began furiously scribbling notes, while others looked increasingly interegued.
"Think about that for a second. Just try to comprehend how much energy that is how much fuel its body converts, constantly. Is it any wonder creatures like that possess strength beyond comprehension?"
She gestured slightly.
"As Iâve already said energy transforms. It flows from one form to another. Food becomes strength. Strength becomes aura. Aura becomes dominance."
A few students twitched their lips, struggling to take it seriously. It sounded absurd. Ridiculous even.
But then again maybe it wasnât.
They had been fed high-rank monster meat by their families. Theyâd consumed elixirs made from rare beasts. But the quantities were always small, carefully controlled, hard to digest. Most of the time, special potions had to be prepared just to make it consumable.
And they were expensive.
Even if the theory was true if strength really did come from energy intake then it still didnât matter much. Humans simply couldnât match the consumption levels of massive beasts.
But none of them could come close to devouring 300 kilograms of flesh in a single day.
One student raised a hesitant hand. "Professor... even if thatâs true, isnât it kind of impossible? I mean, we physically canât eat that much food. Those monsters have huge jaws massive bodies."
Thalia nodded. "Correct. Your body isnât built for that kind of intake. Thatâs why specialized energy-synthesizing potions exist though those, as you all know, are absurdly expensive."
She turned, writing something briefly on the board. "Still, even if we canât replicate their intake... we can atleast learn something from it."
"Next time you encounter a monster in the wild, I want you to imagine something. Picture this every day of that creatureâs life was a battle. It ranked up by consuming others. It survived by hunting."
Her gaze moved across the room.
"That means at least one fight a day. Likely more. So if that monster has lived ten years... thatâs 3,650 battles. And it survived all of them. Either by winning, or by escaping."
A stunned silence overtook the class.
"And most of you," she added with a small smirk, "havenât even fought a hundred live battles outside simulations."
Most students looked away. But some just sneered.
"Thatâs the reality of this world," Thalia said softly. "Itâs a good thing most monsters lack true intelligence and act on instinct alone. Because if they did possess human-level intellect...? Our chances of survival would plummet."
Then, she clapped her hands together once. "Anyway. Back to the main point. Let me ask you a question: Why is it that we canât simply absorb mana forcefully?"
A few students looked at one another. Thalia smiled patiently.
"Iâm not talking about regular absorption. I mean why canât you just force a sixth-rank mana crystal into a third-rank body? Or have a powerful mage seal their energy inside you and boost your strength artificially?"
A boy in the middle row raised his hand and spoke without waiting to be called. "Because the personâs body would explode, Professor."
Thalia raised an eyebrow. "And why would it explode?"
The student hesitated this time. "Um... because the body canât handle that much energy?"
"Yes, but why? There has to be a mechanism behind it."
He blinked, then fell silent.
Thalia stepped forward.
"Letâs use an example," she said. "Anyone know how old cannons used to work?"
No one answered, so she continued.
"Iron cannonball, iron tube. And inside? An explosive powder called explodium. The cannon fires only when that powder ignites, releasing massive energy to shoot the iron ball forward."
She drew a quick diagram in the air with mana-light. "Now imagine if someone used too much powder. Or fired the cannon repeatedly without rest. It overheats. The pressure builds. And boom the cannon explodes."
She looked around. "Thatâs what happens when you try to force energy into a body unprepared to manage it. Mana doesnât explode on its own itâs the use of mana that generates heat and pressure. That stress, when too high, rips you apart."
Another student raised their hand slowly. "So... itâs not about having mana, itâs about not being able to circulate and manage it?"
"Exactly." Thalia pointed at her approvingly. "Itâs not just about storage itâs about movement. Flow. Conversion. A narrow pipe cracks if you try to run a river through it."
The room grew more focused.
"Now for the bigger question," she said. "Why can some people hold more mana than others? Why can some cultivate vast reserves while others canât hold more than a bucketâs worth?"
Whispers and guesses flitted around. One girl finally spoke: "Bloodline?"
"Yes, Itâs all tied to talent. More specifically, bloodline."
She began to pace slowly.
"The purer, rarer, or more unique the bloodline, the more mana the body can tolerate. Itâs in the genes. A body designed by nature to hold more power. But thatâs not the only factor."
She paused.
"Thereâs also healing capability. See, your body wonât explode the moment it takes in too much mana. What happens is damage small tears, strain, breakdowns over time. Especially when that mana is used."
"But if someone has extraordinary healing potential if their body can recover from damage faster than it accumulates then they can push much further than the average person."
Thalia looked over the classroom one more time.
"So yes mana capacity can be influenced. But itâs not just about having a large vessel. Itâs about whether that vessel can survive the pressure. Whether it can heal from the strain. Thatâs what makes the difference between talent... and tragedy."
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