Chapter 323 - Daily Life 3

Cecil reluctantly introduced himself as Fatima's little brother and soon class began.

"Well, my assistant will be demonstrating the proper usage of mana for today! Cecil, everyone here is a mage-class student so they can easily materialize mana outside of their bodies. Show them how to properly do it!" Fatima commanded. She already knew how adept this little brother of hers was at using mana. The techniques and skills that he's displayed before were unthinkable ways of using mana to her. So this made Cecil the perfect example for her students on how to effectively wield their mana.

"Okay... what should I demonstrate?"

"Since this is a combat class, why not destroy that target over there?"

"...Alright..."

Cecil side-eyed the farthest target and sent a Mana Bolt at it. Unlike the Mana Bolts that the students and Fatima's seen or used, this Mana Bolt flew out so fast that their eyes couldn't keep up. The target blew up spectacularly before anyone could properly register that Cecil had just sent out his attack.

Cecil looked back at the dumbfounded students and spoke up, "I can see that everyone here is from Earth. I'm sure that everyone knows about the difference between the natives and us, right?"

The students all nodded at his words and the girl from earlier, who Cecil expected to be the class representative, said in response, "Yes sir, unlike us, they can use those elemental spells while we're limited to using only these 'Light Bolts'..."

"Ah, that's a mistake. Those aren't 'Light Bolts'. Light Bolt is a Light elemental magic spell and it's not as destructive as the 'Mana Bolt' that I just fired off earlier."

Fatima raised her brow in question and Cecil continued explaining, "I'm sure you all know that everyone in this world possesses an innate element that lets them use elemental magic spells, right?"

Once he got everyone's nod, Cecil continued, "That isn't the case for us Earthlings. We aren't gifted with an element, but instead, we're element-less. The term the Alternians call us are Non-Elemental. What we control is an Attribute-less Mana, or simply, just mana. This also makes us a little more versatile than elemental mages."

Cecil continued his explanation about the perks of being Non-Elemental before he started demonstrating a few of the techniques he created and the ease at which everyone like him could control and manipulate mana.

"It's true that the Mana Bolt is essentially the only 'Magic Spell' that we can use but if you understand the principles of elemental magic, you can imitate some of their spells using your adept control over mana."

Cecil demonstrated by first creating a Mana Bolt and then enlarging it and firing a volley of mana bolts into the distance.

"That's called a Mana Volley and it imitates the 'Rain' or bombardment-type spells of the elemental system. Then there's this," Cecil created a barrier in front of him and pushed it forward and knocked down a training dummy. "This is called a Barrier, it can naturally block out physical and magical attacks. This imitates the elemental system's barrier-type spells. Since you're all a mage, you can use it to protect yourselves while you dish out attacks from behind it. Just remember, it uses up quite a bit of mana to sustain."

After explaining a few more things about the Non-Elemental attribute, he touched upon Mana Manipulation a little bit before handing the class back over to Fatima. The students were reinvigorated by the new prospects that Cecil had just demonstrated for them.

Cecil could have simply explained to the students that the limits of their Non-Elemental mana lie in their imagination. If they can visualize the form of the spell they wanted to create, then all they needed to do was manipulate their mana and form that spell.

But in this class, Cecil only explained the simplest of techniques that wouldn't harm them in the case that they failed to execute the spell. If they visualized to big and tried something out of their league, it might lead to a very bad outcome for them and everyone around if they recklessly used their mana.

Fatima let everyone in class begin experimenting with their mana. She left the students to their own devices and only monitored them. It was really hard for most of the students because they hadn't learnt about Mana Manipulation yet. Cecil only hoped that once they do, these students would be able to grow stronger.

Seeing how hard everyone was trying, Cecil couldn't help but let out a soft smile. Fatima walked over next to him and kicked his leg.

"W-what was that for Sis?!"

"You kept such an interesting method away from me..."

"Well... you never asked..."

"Shouldn't you have the heart to just inform me about it?"

"Well, I didn't know that big sis still liked to fight..."

"Times have changed little Cel..."

"Yes, yes..."

"Why don't you demonstrate one final technique before you leave, okay? Also, make it flashy so it'll help motivate the students!"

"Sure... anything is okay, right?"

"Just don't go overboard..."

"Okay."

After the students finished experimenting and practicing until they were completely spent of their mana, Fatima gathered everyone around and stated that Cecil would do one last demonstration before he had to go.

"Hmmm... what to do..."

Cecil pulled out his Gunblade and immediately held it in his right hand and began surveying the area around him. The students saw him pull out a unique-looking sword, part of the class became excited, but there were some who couldn't understand why he pulled out a sword.

Hearing the slight commotion caused by the students, Cecil turned back and took in the mixed looks of excitement and confusion that the students were giving him.

"Ah, I forgot to explain. Although I can materialize mana, I'm not a pure 'Mage'. I'm more of a Magic Swordsman."

The students exclaimed in excitement at his explanation.

"Now watch, this technique is called 'Imbuing' and the skill I'm going to use is called Ascending Blade. So, the first thing you do is materialize mana and wrap it around your weapon."

Cecil slowly materialized his mana and wrapped it around his Gunblade. He purposefully did it slowly so that the students could see the process of him wrapping his mana around an object.

"Once you wrap your mana around an object, you could simply swing it or throw it to eject the mana you've imbued or—"

The mana around his sword was currently flaring out uncontrollably and he slowly compressed it until only flashes of golden light were wrapping around his blade.

"—you can go even further by compressing the mana to increase its power, like what I've just done," Cecil said as he pointed at his sword. "After this, all you need to do is aim and swing."

In the next moment, Cecil turned towards the sky and swung his sword out. The Ascending Blade flew out and cut apart the air. It continued to fly forward in the air before it exploded in the sky.

"That's so cool!"

"Wow!"

"We can actually do that?!"

"Only if we train hard, don't delude yourself!"

"I know that, but still!"

Seeing the hype the students were in, Cecil stored away his Gunblade and bade farewell to the class. This time, he didn't just use Blink to move away, he instead used Mana Burst and jumped into the air and flew out of the academy.

Lucia, as well as most of the people in the school, was looking out the window just now when she heard the explosion and saw Cecil flying away. The sight of a human flying through the air naturally caused a commotion, but all Lucia thought was what her husband was still doing in school? He stayed back for a while after she left for her classes so Lucia couldn't help but wonder why. She was going to ask him later after she got back home.

Cecil only used Blink once he was a short distance away from the Academy to quickly arrive back home. Charles informed him that his father was waiting for him in the study and Cecil quickly made his way over.

"Something you need, dad?"

"Mhm. I wanted to ask when you will finish the gate."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. It'll take me and Ren about a month or two at most before we finish. On the other hand, it'll take foster mother around a month to finish on her end."

"1 month... okay, that'll give us plenty of time then."

"Something wrong, dad?"

"No, there's nothing wrong, but it's decided that we'll be moving against Merkruz next week. The Kingdom's Council has decided that we'll go to war. We need to teach those fools about the consequences of attacking us. We held no hostilities for them but they came knocking on our door for no reason and we lost a lot of good men and women!"

"Heh, finally, it's about time. I was beginning to grow impatient! Here, dad, Quinn used his information network to get me a few things on Merkruz, you can use it to prepare our battle strategy. I'll just follow your orders," Cecil said as he pulled out a few doc.u.ments from his spatial ring and handed them over to his father.

"...Just who is that butler of yours?"

"He's a former assassin, currently working as my family's butler."

"Assassin, huh... since he's under you, I'm guessing that he's trustworthy and loyal?"

"He's pledged his loyalty to me so you can trust him. His family's ways disallow him from betraying his liege so you don't need to worry about him, dad."

"Is it possible for my men to utilize his information network?"

"Quinn?" Cecil light called out.

"I'll immediately give access to the Patriarch, Master," Quinn said as he suddenly materialized next to Cecil.

Cecil looked back at his father and nodded. Kaiser took the doc.u.ments and began stroking his chin while looking at the two people in front of him. He was proud and happy that his son had a very capable person under him. Moreover, this person was very loyal to him.

"You can go now, son. By the way, you should tell your mother about the time limit you've set on yourself. If they continue decorating the main hall, we won't be able to use it for the family meetings."

Cecil only nodded and walked out of the room. He then went to inform his mother about his arrangements with Lucia's mother and Anastasia could only begrudgingly put a stop to all of the decorating.

She also urged Cecil to be quick about his preparations and crafting for the teleportation gate because in a month or two, Serilla's stomach would already have a visible bulge and it'll be hard for her to enjoy the celebratory banquet. Cecil could only give her his word that he'll try to speed things up.

He quickly went to his workshop and began planning out a few different blueprints. He was going to upgrade the Silvaria Kingdom's cannons with his mana batteries so that next time when they were going to fire the weapons, they wouldn't need to use an external source of mana since they'd have a built in mana battery that'll power the weapon.

As for the M-Jammer, Cecil already found a pretty simple solution for it. Inside his kingdom's mines, he had found a unique ore that could isolate all forms of mana. If they were able to create a casing out of this ore then it would be able to prevent the M-Jammer's interference on their weapons.

The Empire's Cannons that they were able to salvage from the aftermath of the war were created using this exact same ore. Before, the Silvaria Kingdom only dumped this ore as a waste by-product from their mining because they didn't understand its function and it interfered with their mana usage on their equipment so they naturally threw it away.

The M-Jammer's power ironically still needed mana at the base of its functionality because the disruption was caused by a magic array built into the device which radiated mana that'll be used to disrupt the usage of mana. Cecil had felt it during his fight against the Merkruz Army so he thought that the principle was pretty ingenious and began trying to create a technique that could act as his version of an M-Jammer.

The mana disruption of the M-Jammer was invoked using a magic array. He didn't know who it was that created the Mana Disruption Array, but he had to applaud them. Cecil didn't want to feel overly conscious of himself but he felt like the Empire had specially created this device just for him.

'Heh, did I spook the Emperor too much last time? But to think they'd be experimenting with their weapons on my family's kingdom... Hmph, I might just take away Ren for myself! I could use the extra help and he'd be a great asset for my family...it'd be better than to just give him away to the Empire after I've nurtured him for so long.'

Cecil found a good way to payback the Empire for them indirectly sabotaging his family. It's not like a simple piece of paper could stop him from reneging his promise. It was unprincipled, but they were the ones who wronged him first. As for whether they did it intentionally or not did not matter to Cecil.

"Okay, let's finish this before the army sets out."