Chapter 294: Back To The Basics

Ellynn looked up at him with what might have been a frown. "You really don't have much need for that—you've been doing well."

"Oh, thank you." Han scratched the back of his head. "But, that was a joke—the copying, not the offer to sit down beside me. You're free to do as you wish."

Sometimes, the Half-Elf wished she didn't know about him doing well. Wished she hadn't paid attention for the past weeks, he barely gave her any much thought. But it was obvious that he had been working hard in ways that it almost felt like she didn't actually know him as much as she thought.

"So uh, I guess that's a no? I'll see myself out—er, head back to here." Han took back his seat down the last row opposites of her. Sometimes he wished he could understand women better—wasn't men who had female siblings supposed to get along with women better than single male child counterparts like Timothy or all-male ones?

Now he was just by himself, now that Timothy was gone. He didn't think it bothered him; he had more free space for his butt to move around. He could squeeze in to the left and then to the right—

Ellynn plopped down beside him. She placed her books beside on the table and then gave him a look. "You didn't bring yours today."

"They weren't mine. They were Timothy's, and well—"

Both of them had been in the library, so there wasn't any need for them to discuss it any further than necessary. Instead the two of them sat in their seats, a bit silent until Han asked what topic they were on, because he was sure as hell not really remembering all the words and pages his Soul Waves crammed inside of him.

While his Soul Waves had taken advantage of the fact that he could increase his levels by pushing himself to the limits of his body—he felt faster, stronger, and better in general.

Spell-casting was still something both of them sucked on.

The Soul Waves hadn't done anything to use his Inspect—Han blinked and stared down at the words on Ellynn's pages. She had scribbled notes in the margins of the book, a great contrast to Timothy's books and in turn, Han's doodles in the back of the schedule he received some time ago.

He had no clue where he had that paper now, actually, must have lost it.

Either way, the scribbles on the margin of the pages were a lot more helpful than the textbook itself. This had a summary and all of those little arrows and keywords given, and even a graph. The Half Elf was pretty studious, and he said it. "Woah, this is pretty detailed."

Ellynn nodded, perhaps unsure of what to say to that.

An acknowledgement of yes, denying it and saying no or other variants of answers crossed her mind at this moment, but she simply said yes. It must have looked hard to him, but then again, he was the guy who answered well in Professor Liddell's class. "Er, thank you."

She was definitely a significant contrast to her father. That was all that Han Jing had in the back of his mind. Not that it was probably appropriate to say that—"How did you know him?"

"What—who?" Was she capable of reading minds, or was she talking about someone else?!

The Half Elf hesitated for a second, a flicker in her expression before she steeled herself and asked again. "How did you know my father?" She had already had that question in the back of her mind for quite some time now, ever since the Wyvern incident and the time her father visited her.

She only asked about it now.

'Oh, we're both Players and you're kind of like an artificially made daughter'—it was wrong obviously. Han Jing had already accepted the idea that this was another world, but what else was he supposed to say to that?

Wait, he had a good excuse. A perfect alibi.

Han grinned sheepishly. "Well, in my village, Rockfall, there's a forest where a lot of enchanted creatures are living in—larger-than-life insects, plants and trees and an Elf. It was him. I mean, most Elves live in nature, right?"

"No." Ellynn's reply was curt.

"Right, I forgot about the other ones."

"You sound like you've met and interacted with more than one."

"Well, I did meet your father's friends—not sure if you had been awake by then. Since you know what." He'd rather not dwell on it. The memory of electricity jumping from the Wyvern's mouth and striking him made him wince.

Han probably lost a couple of brain cells by that time or something.

Ellynn nodded, deciding that was at least acceptable for now. While she was content to talk to herself without anybody paying any attention, the same couldn't be said for Han. She could already see one of the young men in the third row looking now and then.

As if Russel could ever be discreet.

But it had been either him or they had to ask Penelope and Elliot who were in the front row. Penelope clearly had no interest in the guy, and more so her younger brother. Elliot was a lot more cheerful this time around and couldn't be bothered with anything else.

Who cared about revelations, about Timothy being a Crowel or any of that?

Certainly, he didn't care. And neither did the young man—boy, really—care about sulking Han unless this person could top him in ranks. While he understood that some of the other people in their group of friends had grown some interest, he was more content to keep to himself.

So that left, Russel. Good ol' Russel who was at least more interested in something other than himself. The guy who took one look at the Human and Half Elf and his head already filled with the idea of controversial romance—like a book he once read.

He wasn't really sure if this would be helpful information.

Whatever the case, he still jotted it down and wished he had some kind of Spell or Skill that allowed him to hear their conversation. Something like, [ Keen Hearing ] maybe, surely someone like Theresa would have had it.

The man was more than happy to extrapolate on it, though.

'He's acting like his old self again. The Half Elf, er, Ellynn is sitting beside him now. Probably because they're sharing a book together.'

Russel closed his book at the moment that the old High Mage stepped into the classroom for their lessons. It was thankfully something easy enough for both him and Han.

Han must have gotten something helping with his concentration, or it was out of habit now that he paid attention to High Mage Ylena Pierce and even took down some notes. The urge to cross-check it with some other books filled his mind, and now that was a little too much for him.

However, maybe the High Mage was finally talking about something interesting for once. They were already way past the theoretical beginnings of magic and theorems that made his head hurt and had finally focused on something a little more within his comprehension.

"—the foundation of all things are mana, ever present in you, me and everything in the world. But it is through the act of learning Spells, we can gain control of the flow of the world and shape it according to our will as we see fit."

It reminded him of the time he learned Spells through staring at them and getting to the very core of it—intricate threads of magic, matrices, a symbol of magic in the air that contained the very essence of command that shaped mana to magic.

Codes to the world in his eyes. Han glanced briefly to his side, watching Ellynn jot down something in her book, and he seized his attention and wrenched it back to the soft-spoken elderly Mage.

"—is monumental to every Mage, or those aiming to be Mages. Our ancestors, scholars, mages of old had studied the world and our surroundings before they created Spells, maps to how to form the surrounding mana."

He was hoping, hoping for it to be mentioned like in the pages—

"Now that is not to say that the creation of Spells is no longer existent in our world. There are many Mages, Wizards and Scholars who spend their time being creative… although most often or not, they simply end up making up another name for a Spell or something close to an existing one. A Human might call a [ Fire Arrows ], tiny plumes of fire that one shoots out to an enemy as similar to Beastfolks, or Beastkin's [ Fiery Birds ]."

Was that all?

"And that is because the mana used to weave and fuel the Spell only has minute differences between them. The shape is a little off, but the idea is the same, fire shaped to a pointed tip or beak and hurtled towards enemies." the old Mage pushed up her glasses. "Maybe the [ Fiery Birds ] uses a bit more in terms of mana consumptions, but at the center of the Spell is the same thread that asks the mana to burst into flames."

The lesson for today made Han think, especially when he had read it earlier. He had already learned a Spell by studying its code—but what if he could learn other Spells by simply choosing the easiest one and then simply readjusting it?

Maybe it would be harder for more specific spells, but something like fire, water and elements were easier, right?

"However, if one is negligent or too eager—the Spell may backfire so it is still advised to memorize Spells by heart. Caution is advised to those who simply wish to study the basics of magic and not do anything else… albeit, there have been notable individuals who have done it."

The High Mage smiled for a moment, a fond look on her face. 

"The Hero Lucem had once learned the [ Light ] Spell because he was afraid of the dark—but after a couple of years, most of his attacks had been based on the Spell he learned."

Han blinked, and lifted a brow. She was talking about Old Man Joe, right?