The bright red-haired girl, Adriana, entered the class with a cold expression on her face and surveyed everyone with an emotionless demeanour.
As everyone witnessed Adriana's expressionless face, their hearts seemed to skip a beat, and silence engulfed the entire classroom.
"Let's go to the compound," Adriana declared, rubbing her temples in annoyance.
"She's in a bad mood today," Aur observed, a glint flashing in his eyes as he followed the students into the compound.
Upon entering, they encountered a setup resembling an arena. Old men sat on the side, their wrinkled faces carrying a serious gaze. In the centre stood a youth dressed casually, exuding an uncaring gaze.
Aur frowned as he glanced at the people. Although they didn't release any pressure and appeared like ordinary old men, there was an invisible pressure of authority surrounding them naturally.
"They are stronger than the academy teachers," Aur thought with a frown.
This realisation solidified as he recognized the familiar figure of Noah, the leader of the village, among the elders. Aur became even more certain that they were all elders.
Williams' eyes lit up when he saw Noah, and he bowed towards him.
Noah smiled and nodded in response, acknowledging Williams' bow.
Williams held a favourable impression of Noah because he had protected him from assassins sent by his family multiple times.
Reflecting on his family, William was consumed by rage as he tightened his fist.
"Control yourself, William. I need to gather enough strength before I can have a chance to take revenge on them. If I seek justice now, I won't be strong enough, so I'll hone my blade of revenge until then," William consoled himself while managing his anger.
William had endured numerous injustices at the hands of the Steele family, starting from his childhood and continuing into the present.
His mother had been killed by his own father, and he, along with his sister, was treated like a slave in the household. Considering the circumstances, he could be considered fortunate to have survived until now.
"I hope they never find my sister," William thought, narrowing his golden eyes. After killing Lucas, the only son of the patriarch of the Steele family, he knew that they would likely come after him.
For this reason, he immediately returned to his city to conceal his sister from their enemies until he became strong enough to protect them.
Ever since his mother's death, his sister had been his only emotional and mental support. With gritted teeth and upon the suggestion of Asmodeus, he went through his own awakening.
Unexpectedly, fate took a turn, and he obtained a higher talent than the village leader himself, earning him the protection of Noah, the strongest wizard in the village.
To his astonishment, it had gone from eighty steps to eighty-six whopping steps.
"Am I dreaming?" William thought as he pinched himself, disbelief written on his face.
Ouch!
"This isn't a dream," he said in a loud voice in the real world.
Everyone gazed at William with confusion on their faces.
William rubbed his head when he sensed the gaze that was looking at him, sporting an embarrassed smile.
"Is it time for you to be daydreaming?" Adriana looked at William with a deadpan expression.
"Shit," William internally cursed as he smiled, "it's nothing, teacher. I was just day-dreaming, and in the dream, I thought it was reality."
Adriana just shook her head. If it were any other kid, she might have done something; however, since he was the disciple of the leader himself, there wasn't much she could do about the kid. Anyway, why bother trying?
William heaved a sigh of relief as he looked at his mental space again with glee.
Although the increase from eighty to eighty-six steps might not seem to make much of a difference, it did for him.
William could already feel that he could absorb mana from outside much faster, at a higher rate.
Besides that, the chances of him breaking through to a tier one wizard have also increased to the point that he felt like he couldn't fail even if he tried his best. Besides that, his attunement for mana seemed to have increased.
Before, he could thinly sense the mana in the surroundings; however, with the increase in his mental space, the mana in the surroundings has become more attuned to him.
This wasn't only helpful in increasing his mana absorption speed; it also increased the power of his spells, since his attunement for mana was higher.
This was the advantage of having a bigger mental space and why it correlates to having more talent.
For example, if a person with lower talent uses the exact same spell as William, the power it could generate would always be a step weaker due to the attunement from the mana.
The only disadvantage of the mental space with a larger space was that it took more mana to fill the space up meaning it increased his time in progression; however, the increase in his speed of absorbing mana already balanced this.
"I wonder how terrifying supreme-grade mental spaces are." Just thinking about this made William feel a chill down his spine.