Unknowing of the poor trolls suffering abuse, Milo stared at a piece of paper in front of him, looked left, looked right and seeing that everyone was approaching this test with confidence, deemed that the questions he had just read weren't traps.
Perhaps he was just traumatised by Helena's shrewd and inhumane idea of what a test was supposed to be, but the questions were rather straightforward, fitting of their teacher, who always approached every subject like doors that needed to be kicked open.
The first few questions were about mana crystallisation and cores, though that was the name the lesson was called, it also covered other things in relation to them as well.
In this case, crystallisation referred to that of a mage's own mana, rather than the crystals that could be found in the wild, it could occur naturally or by the will of the mana user, the first question pertained to the difference between the two.
'As long as the mage is skilled enough, both are equally harmless and useful, however, if the person crystallises their energy in a wrong place, it can lead to health issues, or even damaging one, or multiple organs...' the natural crystallisation was nearly alway exact, of course, it was possible for it to go wrong nonetheless but it was surprisingly rare, still, Milo made sure to mention the eventuality anyways.
The second question was about cores, those were basically an advanced application of the same principle as crystallisation, but certain much more potent, although, having a core damaged and having a crystal broken was completely different, one was nothing but a mass of mana for one to use as an extra reserve when necessary, it wouldn't blow up if damaged, cores on the other hand...
They had many benefits, such as speeding one's mana circulation, granting an extra oomph to spells in many departments and even allowing to inscribe at least one spell to allow for extra quick casting.
But were much more costly to have, they were like an extra organ and were incredibly pain sensitive, so much so that the pain of having a core damaged was said to be able to make a grizzled and emotionless murderer cry like a little baby.
Most importantly however, they had a tendency to blow up when hurt, the explosion was rather strong and would send shards everywhere like shrapnel, considering the bomb was inside of you, and generally close the heart in particular, such commodities where only sought after by poorly talented mages in need of a boost and long distance casters that didn't risk getting struck at all.
"Feeling like it?" she asked him, a playful smile on her face.
"Always" came the reply, not an inkling of hesitation.
Another student sent a confused glare, the same student that had been humiliated by Rosemary during the first exercise lesson.
"Damn, already? The year barely begun" he muttered to himself, honestly impressed, but he couldn't allow himself to be jealous, his parents had already arranged a marriage for him, he had to stay pure until then.
The two lovebirds moved away, in a completely different direction to where the rooms the students resided in were situated, prompting an eyebrow to raise from the young man, now he was just confused.
'Hold on a second, weren't they going to...?' he stood in place for a few moments, looking to the sides to see if anyone else had witnessed this scene and would be willing to assist him in trying to understand the deep meaning in all of this, but no one else had been paying attention.
'Oh, I am too curious now' he took rapid strides and followed the direction the two lovebirds had left in, arriving before an open room he was rather familiar with.
"Whoa, you exploded your previous record Milo!"
"Looking big!" she praised him, as he lifted weights, they were working out together, and somehow, this made the young man infinitely more envious than anything else he could have possibly seen.