Chapter 54 - 53: 50 Credits

Chapter 54: Chapter 53: 50 Credits

?"But be warned. The shell of this quartz will shatter the instant your mana fluctuates by even a single percent. Students with aggressive or berserker-type Grimoires usually struggle the most with this exercise because their mana is naturally violent. Whoever weaves the most stable threads today without cracking their orb will earn fifty bonus Academic Credits on the spot."

?Hearing that berserker-type Grimoires were at a huge disadvantage in delicate mana control, Julian’s smirk widened into a triumphant grin.

?"Allow me to go first, Instructor!" Julian said eagerly.

?Without waiting, Julian placed his right index finger atop his quartz orb.

As an heir of House Von Draken with an A-Rank Flame Wyvern Grimoire, he had been trained by royal court tutors since the age of six.

?Hum.

?Fiery orange mana flowed smoothly from his finger into the transparent sphere.

With intense concentration, Julian split the energy inside the glass, weaving one, two, three, and finally four distinct crimson threads that rotated steadily inside the orb without cracking the shell.

?"Four stable threads on your first day," Bella nodded with genuine approval. "Very solid control, Julian."

?Not to be outdone, Prince Larsen placed his finger on his own orb a second later, condensing four golden wind threads of equal precision.

?Up in the back row, Veera gritted his teeth and pressed his scarred hand against his sphere. However, the dark red energy of his Abyssal Grimoire was inherently chaotic and violent.

The moment he tried to split the third thread, a sharp crack echoed from his desk as a spiderweb fracture split the quartz orb down the middle, forcing him to pull his hand back with a dark scowl.

?Then, beside Aegon, Aria gently touched her crystal sphere.

?Silver starlight flowed from her fingertip like liquid silk. Without a single crease on her porcelain brow, six delicate silver threads wove themselves into a spinning six-pointed star inside the glass.

?"Six threads!" a girl in the front row gasped. "As expected of Lady Aria! That level of control is already on par with a Second-Year honor student!"

?After Aria withdrew her hand, Julian turned his head across the aisle and looked squarely at Aegon, his eyes brimming with mockery.

?"Everyone else has finished, First Place," Julian called out loudly. "Why haven’t you touched your orb yet? Don’t tell me that with your savage Blood Berserker Grimoire, you’re afraid the glass will explode the second you touch it?"

?All 29 pairs of eyes in the lecture hall, along with Instructor Bella’s curious gaze, immediately shifted toward the boy sitting by the window.

Everyone knew that Blood-attributed Grimoires carried a frantic, boiling aura that made delicate manipulation nearly impossible for beginners.

?Aegon slowly turned his gaze away from the window and looked down at the fragile quartz sphere sitting on his desk.

?"Fifty Academic Credits for ten seconds of work. I suppose it’s worth the effort." Aegon murmured calmly.

?Reaching out his right hand, Aegon rested the tip of his index finger lightly against the top of the glass.

?He did not summon the Blood Berserker Grimoire. Instead, with his 95 points of pure unattributed mana, 22 points of Nascent Soul Power, and the absolute mental tranquility of the [ Ring of the Focused Mind ], he directed a stream of pure mana into the sphere.

?To someone who had spent the entire night tracing the microscopic structure of High-Grade Mana Crystals with ATUM, weaving simple mana threads was child’s play.

?Hum.

?Inside the transparent quartz orb, a gentle, crystal-clear glow blossomed.

?There was no violent shaking and no sound of straining glass. Within the span of three breaths, one pure white thread split into two, two split into four, and four split into eight.

?Before anyone in the hall could even blink, twelve hair-thin threads of pure mana wove together inside the sphere, forming an intricate, twelve-petaled lotus flower that rotated in complete, silent perfection.

?Not a single fracture marred the paper-thin shell of the quartz.

?Across the aisle, Julian’s mocking grin froze on his face. His jaw dropped slightly as he stared at the glowing lotus resting on Aegon’s desk, and then down at the four simple threads inside his own sphere that he had been so proud of a moment ago.

?Beside Aegon, Aria leaned over the shared desk, her crystal-blue eyes widening in genuine amazement as the light of the twelve mana threads reflected in her pupils.

?"What? Twelve threads woven into a three-dimensional lotus? Even my tutor in the Grand Duchy needed a Fifth-Circle core to demonstrate control that fine. How did you keep your Blood Berserker aura from shattering the glass?"

?"Who said a mage has to inject their Grimoire’s attribute into every exercise? Pure base mana is much quieter."

?Down in the center aisle, Instructor Bella snapped out of her daze. She walked to Aegon’s desk, leaning down, bringing a wave of fragrant night-rose perfume with her.

?"Not a single fluctuation in the shell, and twelve independent threads maintaining a complex geometric form. It seems our 50 bonus Academic Credits have found their owner on the very first try," she said.

?Up in the back row, Veera stared at Aegon’s glowing orb, his hand still resting beside his own cracked, ruined sphere. His teeth ground together so hard his gums bled.

Even in delicate mana control, the one area where he had struggled due to his violent Grimoire, Aegon had casually crushed the entire room without breaking a sweat.

Bang!

?Meanwhile, Julian Von Draken stood up abruptly from his chair, his face flushing red with embarrassment and anger.

?"Instructor Bella, that doesn’t make any sense! At the Pillars of Solomon yesterday, everyone saw him awaken an A-Rank Blood Berserker Grimoire! Blood mana is naturally frantic and violent! How could he possibly weave 12 unattributed threads without his Grimoire interfering?!"

?Bella turned her head and looked at Julian as if she were looking at a foolish child.

?"Sit down, Julian. You are embarrassing House Von Draken. Who taught you that a mage must rely on their Grimoire for basic manipulation? A Grimoire is an amplifier and a vessel for laws, not a replacement for your own mind. Aegon compressed his base mana using sheer mental focus before it ever touched his Grimoire’s circuit. Performing that feat with unattributed mana is twice as difficult as using elemental mana, yet he produced triple the threads you did."

?Julian opened his mouth to argue, but under Bella’s icy 6th-Circle gaze, he swallowed his words and dropped back into his seat.

?Tapping her silver instructor’s wand against Aegon’s Golden Griffin Badge, Bella transferred a glowing stream of numbers into his token.

?Ding!

?[ Academic Credits: 0 -> 50 ]

?"Spend them wisely, Triple Crown," Bella said with a warm wink before walking back down to the obsidian stage.

"That concludes your morning orientation and mana-control assessment. You have two hours for lunch and personal preparation. At two o’clock sharp, all thirty of you will report to the S-Class Combat Arena in the West Wing for your first practical sparring session. Dismissed!"