One obvious truth in life was that not everyone enjoyed attending their classes. That was the case even if one attended one of the premier learning institutes for future adventurers and soldiers of the [ King ].
And nobody had yet to mention the nightmare [ Professors ] in Kraelonia Academy.
Han may have found that the lecture series of [ Introduction to Magical Theory ] a little boring—as if a [ Sleeping Spell ] had been cast in the entire classroom as the [ Professor ] droned in class, but he would listen to her lecture if it meant that he didn't have to dread the next one.
Perhaps Han was overreacting, he had attended the class of Howard Carnus by just one time. And the guy didn't seem racist to Ellynn, maybe he wasn't so bad—
"If the two of you are still incapable of even performing a single [ Spell ] then why are the two of you still here?" The [ Battle Mage ] gave Han and Timothy a dismissive look. "Get out of my class."
Even Han didn't get the chance to use his words to point out the reason why they were here in the first place was to learn them—and yet both him and his companion had been thrown out of the courtyard and back into the corridors of the Academy.
"Who does he think he is?!" Han glared at the shut door. If there had been some kind of Ministry of Education here in this world, that kind of Professor would have already been kicked out.
Timothy rubbed his face tiredly, "He's the [ Professor ] so he can make the rules. Let's just find this as an opportunity to learn magic on our own, we need to catch up." It seemed like the lack of food had made him less volatile.
Or maybe the guy was tired.
He didn't look like someone who had gotten enough sleep and yet the guy wanted to learn on their own? Han scratched the back of his head, "You do have a point, but what do you want us to do? Get a magical book and then when we magically place our hands on it—voila! You have learned the spells in this book, go absorb another book?"
Was he sounding like some kind of System now?
"...What are you going on about, idiot?" Timothy grumbled and gave him a look, "Even if I'm sleepy, even I can tell that you're just spouting some gibberish again."
Han Jing would have preferred if that actually had been a feature given by [ Races: Online ] then all he had to do was collect books. Instead, it seemed like he had to learn through the old fashioned way, well, he did gain [ Skills ] every now and then but that was it.
"Hey, but I still had a point."
"Yeah I know, you said book. We should find a library." Timothy ran his fingers through his hair, "I tried finding a library last time but to no avail."
Han scratched his head, "And I assume that you're not doing well with befriending Ellynn either huh?"
"...I don't do well with making friends."
"I can see that."
"Bastard. But even if we convince Ellynn or Penelope to teach us, I'm not sure if they can actually do it well." Timothy sighed and crossed his arms, "Maybe I can ask [ Professor ] Lavelda later. She wanted to help me find a [ Class ] that would suit me."
Han raised a brow, "You mean the [ Professor ] with the large rod and white orb on top of it?"
"Is that all you remember from her?"
"Maybe? Man, I wish I could touch that rod of hers, she's got a large orb." Han cracked a grin and tried to keep himself from laughing aloud. When he said it that way…
Timothy didn't actually look amused at his words.
He took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "Seriously though, didn't she use it to measure your mana levels? What were the results?"
Timothy for once looked a little awkward as he rubbed his neck, "She said I had high mana levels but I don't even know how to tap into it."
High mana levels?
Han couldn't distinctively notice it… but then again, his [ Mana Sensing ] skill was still subpar. "I mean, do you know how other people do it? Aren't we actually discussing this in magical theory class?"
"We are tackling it and I have notes to read, but I can't sense it at all—sure, yesterday we saw the other throw out their [ Mana Shields ] and [ Battle Mage ] Carnus with his [ Ice Spears ] piercing them… but trying to do something like that? I don't know where to start."
Surprisingly, Timothy was a lot more cerebral than him. Or maybe it wasn't actually a shock.
Han Jing may have been able to grow up in a modern educated society but this guy didn't seem to have anything concrete like that. Still, maybe they had to put away with all the theories and try it out for themselves?
Han motioned vaguely around them, "You know what they say about mana, it's all around us from the trees, plants and even this Academy."
"We call that ambient mana produced by the world," Timothy told him in a more precise tone.
Han now felt a little bad about thinking that [ High Mage ] Pierce was a boring teacher when he couldn't even teach at all. But still he pressed forward, "Right, now when there's an abundance of ambient mana, it's a lot easier to cast [ Spells ]."
"Yes, that's true. We both know that, so why are you even mentioning it?" Timothy gave him a frown, "Do you want to study theories or something? I didn't expect you were eager to ace written tests."
Alright, Han was losing his only audience now. "Alright forget that and instead try imagining a ball in your hands."
"A ball?"
"Yeah, a ball of energy," Han held his hands close together as if… holding a ball. He was lacking better descriptors. "Try to imagine an orb of energy in your hand and that energy… that energy is fueled by the mana within and the ambient mana around you."
Okay, that orb sounded better.
Han Jing tried to visualize the energy swirling into his hands, he didn't precisely know his mana levels but he could somewhat sense the mana around him. As he had noticed earlier, they were running in the walls and floors but now they were also drawing closer to his hands. "Actually, maybe you can think of it as trapping the energy—"
[ Mana Sense Lvl 3! ]
Han whipped his head to the disturbance in the air and then saw Timothy's eyes were shut and the very visible ball of mana in his hands that was steadily increasing. "Hey that's good! Yeah keep going—actually Tim, stop! That's a little too much!"
If the mana that were in the walls and floors were like a river streaming neatly, the mana that was condensing in Timothy's hands were like a whirlpool that was building up and sucking everything in. "Dude open your eyes!"
The guy's eyes snapped open and the ball of mana in front of him didn't even fit his hands anymore and even the word ball didn't fit it—it was like a miniature liquid sun! Timothy was stunned but that seemed to do the trick as he lost his concentration and the mana began to disperse around him.
"Phew, we could have caused an explosion or something." Han wiped the imaginary sweat from his brows. How the heck did this guy even not know how to do it from the start? They seemed to be a freaking natural.
Timothy frowned at him, "That was just me forming mana, and it doesn't exactly have any properties yet to actually do something like explode. I think."
"I guess this is why that [ Professor ] had been overjoyed when you touched her rod. That was pretty cool."
"Thanks, that thing you told me about fueling mana into my hands did the trick." Timothy glanced at his hands once more, "We should practice this some more, but it's still a far call from actually doing [ Spells ]."
"Yeah," Han looked down at his hands. Due to his friend scaring him with that mana ball, he had momentarily forgotten that he had been trying to do the same. And now he lifted his head and inwardly sighed, he shouldn't be such a downer about it. "Man, does it mean that [ Professor ] Carnus will keep kicking us out from our class if we can't even form a singular spell?"
"I think that might be the case, I don't even know why we had to enroll in this semester when it's already ongoing." Timothy's brows furrowed, he crossed his arms over his chest."I mean, we could have enrolled in the next one. What had exactly gone through yours and that geezer's mind?"
The scenario of Gargoyles descending from the heavens flashed through Han's mind. And Han Jing knew who the perpetrator of that attack had been, it was the [ Demon Lord ] and though the demon had blocked him in the [ Universal Chat ]—it didn't mean that they would stop hunting him down.
Han couldn't expect anything from someone who hunted him down because they thought of him as some lower and inferior life form.
"I mean, don't you think it's better than just staying back at the village and doing whatever?" Han scratched the back of his head, "All I've been doing was harvesting crops and milking cows."
Old Man Joe Light had been afraid of another attack in the village. They had been extremely lucky to survive that time, but there was only so much that luck could take him.
Timothy's gaze flickered, "I wouldn't have minded it. A peaceful life that is."