The classroom door opened with a soft creak.
A round figure in a loose robe walked in, carrying a stack of thin crystal slates under one arm and a cup of something steaming in the other.
Green slime clung lazily to the hem of her robe and slid along the floor, cleaning the dust as she moved.
"Good morning, new brats," she said. "I am Marla Voss, your instructor of Advanced Mana Applications, and the current head on Magical Application Departement. Some of you have already given me trouble in the forest."
Her gaze swept the room once and stopped very clearly on Oliver.
Oliver's back straightened at once.
Inside the bag at his waist, Ethan muttered, 'We are famous now. Congratulations.'
Marla's eyes curved in mild amusement.
"For those who prefer gossip names," she added, "you can call me the Slime Witch of Asteria. Not to my face, of course. At least not until you pass my class."
Liam Liamson III swallowed loudly.
The polite girl in the corner kept smiling, eyes half-closed.
The other girl with the round glasses pushed them up and started writing something down as if every word was precious.
Marla put the crystal slates on the front desk and clapped her hands once.
"Enough introductions. You came here to study, not to get to know me."
She lifted her cup, took a slow sip, then spoke again.
"Listen carefully. Each of you here does not aim to be a front-line sorcerer.
You are here because you want to become crafters, artificers, or alchemists.
Some of you want all three and will regret it later."
Liam shifted awkwardly.
"But no matter which path you take, the foundation is the same.
You must understand how mana behaves, how it changes, and how it turns into what we call magic.
If you do not understand that, you are just carving pretty lines and praying they work."
She put her cup down.
"So, first question. How does mana turn into magic? Anyone."
Silence fell for a few breaths.
Then Liam raised his hand halfway.
"Prof Voss," he said, "mana becomes magic when we move it through a set formula, like a spell structure or a circle, to produce a specific effect."
The glasses girl raised her hand next.
"By changing the state of mana and matching it to the natural properties of the world," she said. "For example, heating, freezing, or compressing. The formula guides that change."
The polite girl with the dangerous eyes smiled and spoke without raising her hand.
"By imposing will," she said gently. "Mana is neutral. Our will, carried by formula, forces it into shape."
Oliver thought for a moment, then also raised his hand.
"By giving it a path," he said. "Mana likes to flow. Runes and circles force it to flow in a pattern and that pattern decides the result."
Marla listened to each answer and nodded slowly.
"Not bad," she said. "Each of you is not completely wrong. Unfortunately, you are also not completely right.
Half answers will pass you in theory classes, but they will blow up workshops in practice."
Marla lifted her right hand.
"Let us make it simple. Watch closely."
She traced a shape in the air.
Mana gathered at her fingertip, leaving a faint glowing line behind.
In a few breaths, a simple rune hung in front of the class, drawn in pale red light.
"Name it," she said.
Oliver stared. He had seen this one dozens of times in books and use it so many times that he could draw it on his sleep.
"Ember rune," he answered.
"Correct. The basic Ember Rune," Marla said. "When mana is passed through this pattern, it raises the temperature of the air. That is all."
She placed her palm under the rune and pushed a small flow of mana through it.
The air in the classroom warmed at once. It was not scorching, but everyone felt it.
Liam wiped his forehead. The slime on her robe bubbled in contentment.
Marla drew a second rune beside the first.
This one was more complex, a looping pattern that wrapped around itself.
"This one is called the Focal Thread," she said.
"Its job is simple. It gathers heat and stops it from spreading everywhere like an idiot. It takes the effect of Ember and compresses it."
She linked the two runes together with a line.
The moment they connected, the heat in the room faded from the air and gathered above her palm.
A small red glow formed there, trembling slightly.
Then she drew a third rune, a round one formed of linked lines.
"This is the Cohesion Seal," she said. "It takes scattered energy and forces it into a shape."
She connected the third rune to the pattern.
The red glow twisted, pulled together, and became a clean round fireball that floated gently above her hand.
"Basic Fireball," Marla said.
"One Ember, one Focal Thread, one Cohesion Seal. This is the most common combat spell in the kingdom.
Most of you will rely on it for the next few years when you accidentally set something on fire and need to blame a beginner spell."
The class watched the floating fireball.
Even Ethan fell quiet for a moment.
Marla closed her fist. The fireball winked out.
"Now," she said, brushing the glowing runes aside.
"The real question. Why do these runes behave like this?
Why does this pattern, with these specific lines and angles, turn mana into heat, then flame, then a ball?"
She looked around the room.
"Why not another pattern? Why does Ember heat instead of freeze? Why does Cohesion form a ball instead of a blade?"
Liam hesitated, then give his answer.
"Because… the rune shapes were discovered by ancient sorcerers and recorded," he said. "So the world… remembers them?"
The glasses girl frowned.
"Because the shapes match some hidden law of nature," she said. "Like symbols that resonate with elements."
The polite girl kept smiling.
"Because everyone believes they work that way," she said softly. "So mana follows habit and expectation."
Oliver scratched his cheek.
"Because that is how they were taught," he said. "The first person who succeeded copied it and everyone else kept using the same pattern. It worked, so nobody changed it."
Inside the bag, Ethan thought, 'So basically no one know how it really work.'
Marla listened without interrupting. When they finished, she nodded once.
"Again, not completely wrong," she said. "Also not enough."
She walked to the side wall and tapped it with her knuckles.
A square of the wall shimmered and turned into a dark slate.
Slime crawled up the surface, cleaning a smooth writing space.
"Mana turning into magic has three pillars," she said. "Structure, concept, and authority. What you all spoke of just now only touches one or two."
She drew the Ember Rune again.
"Ember is structure. It is the road. Without a path, mana wanders and you get a mess."
She circled it once.
"But if you only have the road and no destination, mana just moves and does nothing useful. So there is concept.
The idea of heat, of rising energy, of transformation.
This comes from the understanding of the person who first created or modifies the rune. Your minds are carved into your magic more than you think."
She tapped the air above the rune lightly.
"Lastly, authority," she said. "The world is not kind. It does not allow everyone to rewrite its rules casually.
Why does this pattern of lines heat instead of freeze?
Because the first sorcerers who carved it fought the world until it accepted this meaning.
Because millions of people have used it since then in the same way.
Habit becomes law. Repetition becomes weight. The world recognizes it."
She turned back to the class.
"Mana is like a stubborn beast. Once it learns that a sound or a pattern means something, it responds to that more easily next time.
When enough people use the same pattern for the same purpose, that reaction gets faster and easier."
Inside the bag, Ethan thought, 'This feel like my psychic class, but far more Terrifying and useful.'
Marla spread her hands.
"So when you say 'mana passes through a formula and becomes magic,' you are only describing the surface. The deeper part is this.
Every rune you use is a deal with the world, built on the work of everyone who came before you."
She smiled slightly.
"But as a creator your job is to push your skill to the limit. You cannot just cheat using existing one.
If that's all you do, than you're nothing more than copy machine."
Several students straightened unconsciously.
Oliver's eyes lit up. Ethan's spirit perked up in agreement.
Marla pointed at Oliver.
"Oliver," she said. "Come here."
Oliver froze.
"Me?" he asked.
"Do you see anyone else named Oliver Reed?" she replied.
Liam looked sympathetic. The polite girl's smile grew a little wider. The glasses girl stopped writing and stared.
Oliver walked to the front, feeling many eyes on his back.
Inside the bag, Ethan sighed. "Relax."
Marla picked up a piece of chalk and placed it in Oliver's hand.
"Draw the Ember Rune," she said.
"Then draw one small change. Any change. Add a line, bend an angle, change a loop."
She stepped back.
"In this class," Marla added, "you will not only learn how to use runes. You will learn how to break them carefully."
The other students leaned forward a little.
Ethan focused fully.
Oliver took a breath, raised the chalk, and began to draw.