Chapter 12: A Class On Classes, Enlightenment On Fire

"Well not that you all know about the Triskele Mages I would expect all of you to take the week and study your stats properly. If you experience unprecedented growth in much the same I just described then you should all make sure to report it to me after you've casted your first spell. If you need more information, the general knowledge area of the academy library is open to you all, the spell repertoire would be available after the week is over and you have proven yourselves capable of mastering a 0 circle spell. If you can't do so once the week is over, you all would be kicked out." Professor Hogrin explained as he took a seat on one of the empty desks, facing the class as his stout dwarf over dangled in the air.

"our next topic for today, which should have actually been the main topic are classes. There are different schools of magic and each element has a different category that they can actually be folded into. There are three main mage classes. We have the combat classes, the auxiliary classes, and the supernatural classes." Hogrin paused to see if there was anyone else paying attention to the lesson, and much to his chagrin only Asd was doing so.

After he had given the information about the rainbow mages it seemed no one else wanted to pay attention. But that was to be expected, Asd was the only commoner in a group of nobles, and many of them already had prior education about magic. The only reason they didn't have private magical tutors before now was that the academy did not accept students who had cast their first spell. Plus the academy had connections to the military, larger noble houses, and the royal family of the empire. There would be tasks, and missions given that would earn merit for any mage, and in so doing they could get noble ranks of their own and land or a seat on the empire's parliament where the lord's were responsible for ruling it, rather than the emperor.

Many of them weren't really here for knowledge of power, they were just here to make connections that would lead them to an easier life and easily gained authority. Hogrin huffed in annoyance as he opened his mouth to continue the lecture, there wasn't much he could do about this situation but teach. They were the same every 7 years.

"Combat classes have the main tree of elemental mages. So there could be fire mages, wind mages and so one and so forth. The auxiliary classes are the healers, enchanters, rune mages, and runs smiths. The supernatural classes have witches, diviners, sorcerers and perhaps druids. Those who's magic tend to be really freaky and not so straight forward.

Now there are no classes more powerful than the other. It's wholly dependent on your preference and the way you choose to utilize them. Though it is advanced to go for classes that matches your elements, or their mutations. You can only have as much classes as your base element, that is the class you were born with. Rainbow mages can have as much, but the thing is that would be unwise. No one can live forever, not even the vampires or elves. So instead pick one or two and at maximum three classes to master. Being a jack of all trades means while you will have an answer for every problem, it would never be strong enough to match the power and knowledge of someone who has mastered his own craft.

Be that as it may, you can start attending lectures for the classes you feel you are attuned to. After the assessment in three months. That's when the school would have properly observed your abilities and put you in classes we feel suits you all. However if you don't like it, you can change to another class after a year. The classes don't settle down until a mage gets to his or her 3rd circle. So you all should study hard and grow stronger, the empire is no longer as safe as you once thought it was." And with that said Hogrin packed up and left the class, leaving everyone else dumfounded about why he would do when there was still at least an hour and a half for the class to be over.

For Asd these were the basics, he had read that the two or rather three topics were what the students would focus on during the first week. It was common knowledge for those who knew nothing about magic. After this week, everything else was advance knowledge and it was dependent on the elements you have. Asd noticed that the rest of the students grouped up and started talking. Be was not one to interrupt their festivities so he instead closed his eyes and focused on completing the spell module for <SPARK>.

He became quickly lost in his own world as he drowned out their voices. The full moon was just a few days away and he was feeling a bit angst. Thankfully it was coming as soon as the week ends so he would be able to leave the academy and roam in his skin and maybe hunt in the forests around it. Before now he was able to easily deal with the full moon turn because the slave brands used on all Weres suppressed the change. But that feeling was uncomfortable, painful even and there were records of Weres dying due to the suppression.

Over the seventeen years of his life, with the little amount of time he had spent with his father before he passed away, the old man had thought a method to bypass the uncomfortable feeling and let his Lion roam free. And that was to drown the entire world out, search within himself and become one with his Lion, and then draw upon the energy of the world to feed it and calm it down.. for while it would not be getting the taste of blood like it wants or feel the softness of earth underneath his paws, and smell life in it's abundance and then run, and run, and run. It could at least feed on the essence of life, of knowledge, to keep on growing, to become more.

Asd wasn't sure if that method had worked all these years, but it did succeed in calming him down and teaching him to block the rest of the world out. With the full moon coming closer it was just about time for him to use the meditation method again. So he closed his eyes, in the darkness he could see a lion. His golden coat seemed to shimmer in the dark as his breathes were steady. With his eyes closed he seemed to be asleep, his mane and the tuft of hair on his tail was white, which was weird.

Also the lion himself was just an adolescent, not fully grown as the mane on covered the middle of his head like some Mohawk. Asd left him alone as looked up to notice the incomplete module for the <SPARK> spell. He sat down cross-legged and began to drag on that energy, and he mixed it along with his mana as they closed a lot more easier than he expected in two directions.

One streak closed into the sleeping Lion, making his body shimmer and glow, while the other closed into the spell module. And much to Asd's deep surprise the module started completing itself. He knew every stroke to make or complete before his mana and the essence touched upon it. All of a sudden the essence changed from a transparent color to a blazing golden red with small hints of bluish white encased in it. It was hot! Very hot! And the temperature kept increasing by the second as the module reached 60% completion.

Asd was no longer in control as more and more energy seemed to pour into his body like a cascading river and the module jumped to 75% complete. The moment it did that Asd gained knowledge, it wasn't something big, but it was like placing your hands on the door to something so large and expansive you could never be able to calculate it's beginning or end. There was a word for what he was currently feeling…..

''I think they call it enlightenment." Asd whispered to himself as the module reached 87% and even more of that feeling of knowledge and understanding seemed to fall into him.

It was hot! But not hot like fire, fire can never be enough. This was hot like the stars, hot! Like the sun! The heat of a billion gases, burning so hard that they could scorch the universe. A light in the darkness of space that could be seen billions of miles away, this was a fire like no other. This heat is the most supreme and natural achievement of fire, than nothing else In existence can compare to.

99% the door opened and all he could see and hear were flames. He was drowning in it, but at the same time he swam freely. He was at he with the heat, a son of the sun, a son of the stars. For that's what the sun is…. A star. The center of the universe, for all to see and none to challenge. 100% he has fire, this was his fire….. Sun-no! This was Star-Fire. And in that moment when the module was complete and Asd had come into contact and contract with the most primal of the universes forces, his Lion woke up with a Roar, his mane and paws ablaze with a bluish white flame. He turned to Asd and Roared.

"ENOUGH!"

But those were his words, spoken out as he released a wave of fiery mana that blasted the only female in his class backwards and away from him. Her Mana interface In the shape of a sword still stuck deeply in Asd's chest. Her clothes caught on fire as Professor Hogrin came into the class, quickly reciting a spell that doused her of the golden red flames that had in an instant burnt her clothes and skin down to the bone. She was still alive, but barely.

"You all must be incredibly stupid to attack a mage that was in the middle of an enlightenment. Are you all mad!? You deserve to be killed! All of you and in more worse ways than what she has just experienced. Let this be a lesson to you all! Now go get a healer from the infirmary before I BREAK ALL YOUR LEGS!" the other students can out, their hands bloodied just as well as their clothes.

And that was when Asd felt it, the wounds, the cuts, broken fingers. He must have been meditating for longer than he had thought for them to have been able to do all this to him and he didn't known. It shook him to his core because he never expected that his meditation would be so deep that he was completely cut off from the world. The only one who could feel it was his Lion, and the beast had been patient, it waited for him. Or else he would have probably slaughter them all in a blind rage that only a lion could muster. Asd shuddered in fear, what would have happened then.

"You should removed the sword from your chest Asd. I know your kind has a healing factor that can only be matched by vampires so I expect that you will be fine. However take the day off and rest, I'll come find you later today for a quick chat. It seems you have completed the fire element spell <SPARK> module. And got enlightenment on the fire element in the process…..we should have a talk about your future and the next spells you will now have to master. Now go on, and congratulations; in the entire history of the academy and perhaps the empire, you're the fist person to learn a 0 circle spell in two days. Now all eyes are on you."