CHAPTER 45: SCHOLAR

Chapter 45 : Scholar

The next day dawned bright, though I hardly noticed.

Sleep had been elusive. Every time I closed my eyes, the Freshers’ Ball replayed in my head not the cheerful dancing, not the shimmering chandeliers or the elegant gowns, but the moment when the laughter curdled into screams. The summoning circle. The stench of blood. The look of shock on students’ faces when their world cracked open.

No matter how much I tried to shove the memory aside, it clung to me like a shadow.

And so, when the bell rang for the Mana Studies class, I walked in with my body present but my mind miles away.

---

The Classroom

The Mana Studies classroom was one of the academy’s grand lecture halls it is a join class together for Class A and B , a semicircle of tiered seats descending toward a chalkboard so large it looked like it could double as a castle gate. Floating mana crystals lit the room with soft, ambient light, and faint wisps of magical energy drifted in the air like invisible dust motes.

At the front, Evelyn Whitehound stood in all her glory.

She was as sharp as her name suggested—hair tied neatly back, eyes like polished steel, and posture so straight it seemed like she had swallowed a ruler as a child and never let it out. Today she wore the instructor’s uniform with an elegance that made it look tailored specifically for her, chalk in one hand and a thin wand tucked at her hip.

If Alastor was the kind of teacher who tested your strength with sheer pressure, Evelyn was the one who could dismantle your confidence with a single raised eyebrow.

And she was already writing on the board.

---

Evelyn’s Lecture – What is Mana?

"Class," she began, her voice cutting clean through the chatter of first-years like a blade through silk, "before you swing swords, before you shout incantations, before you dream of glory... you must understand mana. Without mana, you are nothing but flesh and bone waiting to be broken."

The room hushed. Even Leon leaned forward, eager, while Selena tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, eyes bright with curiosity. Elara sat perfectly upright, composed, hands folded, taking mental notes before Evelyn even spoke. Lyra... well, Lyra yawned and tried to balance her pen on her finger like a sword.

Evelyn continued.

"Mana is the fundamental life-force of this world. Every living being has it, from humans to beasts, from the smallest sprout to the mightiest dragon. It flows invisibly, surrounding us, within us, binding the natural laws. Hunters like you do not merely fight monsters—you harvest their mana, condense it, and grow from it."

She turned, drawing two circles on the board. One she labeled Mana Stone, the other Mana Core.

"Mana Stones and Mana Cores. Do not confuse them. A mana stone is formed passively—ambient mana crystallizing in nature, a byproduct of elemental accumulation. Useful, yes, but impure. A mana core, however..." She underlined the word twice, her chalk snapping against the board. "That is the heart of a beast. When a monster lives, fights, and evolves, its mana compresses into a core within its body. When you slay it, that core remains. Pure. Potent. Dangerous."

Students scribbled furiously.

Evelyn’s eyes swept the hall, lingering a moment longer on Leon, as if testing whether the famed "potential protagonist" was keeping up. Leon met her gaze steadily, nodding.

The hum of mana crystals and the scratching of quills filled the lecture hall. Evelyn’s voice flowed like polished steel as she traced diagrams on the board, explaining the flow of mana in beasts.

I, on the other hand, wasn’t nodding.

I wasn’t even listening.

---

Instead, my mind replayed the cafeteria gossip.

The Freshers’ Ball.

How many students would die this time? In the story, Maria Frostheart’s manipulations, combined with the demon’s arrival, turned the ball into a massacre. But now, with all my changes, would the sequence still follow? Or would the demon appear sooner? Later? Bigger?

I thought of Leon, Selena, Elara, even Lyra—all of them sitting here, blissfully attentive to chalk diagrams while death circled just beyond the horizon.

If I did nothing, they’d bleed.

If I acted too soon, I’d expose myself.

If I chose wrong...

No, I have to prepare. Runes. Alastor. And—

Something stirred in my peripheral vision.

A flicker. A streak.

By the time my brain processed it, the object was already airborne, whistling through the mana-thick air at frightening speed.

A piece of chalk.

But not ordinary chalk. Evelyn had infused it with mana—subtle, refined, compressed into a sharp point. The damn thing moved like a bullet, trailing faint sparks, and it was aimed straight at my forehead.

My heart didn’t even have time to beat before instinct roared: danger.

---

[Mental Skill: Quantum Analysis Mind – ACTIVATED.]

The world slowed.

No, it didn’t just slow—it broke apart into probabilities.

The classroom froze mid-motion. Leon’s pen hovered above his notebook, ink caught in mid-drip. Selena’s lips were parted, a word suspended in the air that would never be spoken at normal speed. Even the floating mana lamps dimmed into a stretched-out haze.

And in this stretched reality, my mind accelerated.

I saw the chalk clearly now, 0.47 seconds from impact. Its velocity: 62 meters per second. Trajectory: straight line. Target: center of my forehead. Margin of error: 0.02 cm.

Outcome projections spun around me like holographic threads.

– Take it head-on: 94% chance of mild concussion, 73% chance of public humiliation.

– Raise hand to block: 81% chance of suspicion from Evelyn.

– Catch mid-air: 100% cool points, but 92% chance of looking like I’ve trained in secret for years.

– Dodge slightly: 98% chance of success, 0% suspicion if subtle.

The choice was obvious.

---

At 0.17 seconds to impact, I tilted my head just a fraction. Not too much—just enough.

The chalk whooshed past, grazing my hair.

Time snapped back into place.

---

Tock!

The chalk embedded itself into the wall behind me with a sharp crack, leaving a faint trail of smoke.

The class jolted. Heads whipped around. Pencils clattered against desks. A couple of students yelped as if the sound were an explosion.

For a heartbeat, there was silence. Then:

"Eh—?!" Leon’s jaw dropped.

"Did she just—?" Selena gasped softly.

"Damn, that could kill a guy..." muttered Aiden from the back.

Lyra, ever the commentator, leaned forward with a grin. "Whoa. Headshot attempt, narrowly missed. Is this Mana Studies or Execution 101?"

I sat frozen, my posture calm, my eyes locked on Evelyn.

She, in turn, stood at the front of the room with arms crossed, face carved from marble, gaze sharp as a blade

---

"Mr. Michael," she said, her voice as smooth as ice, "your reflexes are rather impressive. One might think you were expecting the attack."

The class collectively sucked in a breath.

I said nothing. My silence was deliberate, a wall to hide behind.

"Mr. Rank One," she said smoothly, her voice carrying across the hall, "Tell me... is my class so dull that you find yourself daydreaming,. Perhaps you know everything already?"

Dozens of pairs of eyes pinned me.

Leon’s worried. Selena’s soft. Lyra’s amused. Elara’s analytical. Maria—well, Maria was probably plotting how to use this against me later.

Some students exchanged pitying looks, others smirked, waiting for me to get torn apart.

Trap, my brain supplied instantly.

If I argued, I’d come off arrogant. If I apologized, she’d press harder. The safest path was silence.

So I kept my mouth shut.

Evelyn’s lips curved faintly. "Silent, are we? ,Since you seem so confident"

"Then let’s test you. "she said, voice ringing with steel,

"Tell me—what is Mana Synchronization?"

"why don’t you explain this to the class?"

She turned, scrawling the words on the board in sharp, confident strokes.

And just like that, all the pressure of the chalk hurtling at my head was replaced by something worse.

My blood ran cold.

Dozens of gazes. Whispers. Expectation.

Damn it.

---

Mana Synchronization?

’I almost laughed. Not because I didn’t know, but because it was such a ridiculous, basic concept for a trap question. Every gamer who had played the story knew it—it was one of the earliest tutorials for advanced mana control!’

Still, this was dangerous. If I answered poorly, I’d look like a fool. If I answered too well...

I exhaled slowly. Fine. Scholar mode it is.

---

"Mana Synchronization," I said evenly, letting my voice carry, "is the process of making two different streams of mana compatible. Properly synchronized, they connect and interact without conflict, allowing the caster to wield them together as if they were one."

Murmurs ran through the class. Evelyn raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

I continued.

"It is not merely a trick or technique. Mana Synchronization is a discipline—philosophical and practical. It does not force mana into submission, nor does it mix them into something new. Instead, it allows each stream to remain pure, while guiding their interactions into harmony. Symbiosis, not domination."

Now the room was dead silent. Pens hovered, forgotten.

I pressed on, heat in my words despite myself.

"The process rests on four core principles. Resonance finding the natural frequency where the manas hum together. Compatibility choosing elements that will not annihilate each other on contact. Weaving—threading the streams with precision so they overlap instead of collide. And Sustain—maintaining that delicate balance over time, preventing collapse."

I leaned back. "That... is Mana Synchronization."

--

The room erupted in stunned silence.

Mouths hung open. Leon blinked like he’d just seen me sprout wings. Selena’s lips parted in awe, her eyes shining. Lyra whistled low, muttering,

"Well, damn."

Elara’s pen stopped mid-stroke, frozen. Even Maria’s calculating mask cracked for a second, before she smirked thinly as if to hide it.

Evelyn’s eyes, however, told the real story.

Disbelief. Shock. Calculation.

In her head, she was screaming.

’This knowledge, this is third/ fouth-year material. No , it should be Advanced study or ..... No first-year should even know the terminology, let alone articulate it with such clarity. Just who are you, Michael?’

But aloud, she only said,

"Impressive."

Her tone was cool, but her grip on the chalk was a little too tight.

Great. Just great.

I had gone and done it again I revealed knowledge far beyond my supposed level. Now every instructor who heard about this would start watching me. Alastor, Evelyn, Harry the Rune Maniac... one by one, I was stacking flags like a pyromaniac piling tinder.

But at least I’d dodged the trap.

For now.

-----

Evelyn Office – Later That Day

Evelyn sat alone at her desk, fingers steepled.

"Michael Willson..." she murmured.

The student registry shimmered in front of her, displaying his placement exam scores. Rank 1. Also a background history of him before the Academy! Commoner, A small guild, Parents B rank hunter !. Nothing exceptional.

Yet that answer...

"That question was part of a draft list for faculty-level research discussion. Not even third-years have exposure to it yet."

She leaned back slightly, thoughtful.

"He reasoned it out. On the spot. No hesitation, no memorized formula. He understood the instability."

Yet he clam as he knows everything

Her eyes narrowed.

"No prodigy slips through this academy’s records unnoticed. And yet..."

This guy will make all old guys in the Mage Tower to crazy’ towards him.

She allowed herself a small smile.

"How very... interesting."