Exactly 1 hour and 47 minutes later, Delta opened his eyes sluggishly, his head ringing with pain as he blinked to adjust his eyes to the light.
He got up slowly, looking around and finding the rest of the students sat with their eyes closed as they had been before.
They were all focusing as much as they could and had gotten closer to fully circulating mana throughout their body without losing control of it and Angus having to reset it.
Angus sat at the front, waving his hands towards a certain student every once in a while when their magic became too chaotic. He almost seemed to be in a trance, and either didn't notice Delta waking up, or didn't care enough to make any visible reaction.
After getting used to the lights again, Delta noticed a small icon in the bottom right of his vision. At first, he tried to press it with his hands, before realising that it didn't really physically exist.
He thought to himself a little, before repeating the process in his mind instead, willing for the button to be pressed.
Rather surprisingly to him, this worked, opening up a screen with a large title reading [User Stats]. There were also additional tabs at the top, reading [Proficiencies], [Quests] and [Techniques] however [Techniques] had a large 'Empty' sign decorating the front.
Delta's stats read the following:
[Stats:]
[Rank: Initiate I]
[Strength: 6]
[Agility: 7]
[Dexterity: 9]
[Vitality: 8]
[Endurance: 7]
[Intelligence: 7]
[Magic: 9]
[System advises User to train all stats to level 9. More information will be given later.]
Delta read this a few times over, trying to figure out how all of his years of training had been boiled down to just a few numbers.
At the very bottom in small print, it read [For more information on each Stat Type, please click and hold the Type in question]
He did this, starting with strength. A pop-up window appeared in front of him, this time reading:
[Rank: Upon reaching the next stat threshold, the User's Rank will be increased and their strength shall ascend to the next level. In doing so, the stat limit will increase, however raising stats beneath the passed threshold becomes harder. The rankings and their thresholds are:
Initiate I - 0 - 9
Initiate II - 10 - 19
Initiate III - 20 - 29
Initiate IV - 30 - 39
Initiate V - 40 - 49
*More ranks will be unlocked later*
*System recommends improving all stats to the level's limit before ranking up]
Looking back at his stats, Delta realised he had reached
[Strength: The natural strength of the muscles in the body without the benefits of magic spells. This can be raised through physical training, like weight lifting and push-ups, being most effective when magic is completely removed from the body. Average humans have a score of 5.]
Delta committed this to memory, before moving on.
[Agility: The natural swiftness of the body without the benefits of magic spells. This can be raised through agility training such as sprinting and gymnastics, being most effective when magic is completely removed from the body. Average humans have a score of 5.]
Delta committed this to memory before he continued the process with the remaining explanations.
[Dexterity: The ability of the body to perform fine movements, can be raised by performing any sort of technique that requires precise movements, such as handicrafts, lock-picking, movement and weapon techniques(sword, dagger) or projectile throwing. Also affects the accuracy of ranged attacks like magic and projectile weapons. Training is most effective when magic is completely removed from the body. Average humans have a score of 5.]
[Endurance: The natural toughness and resilience of the body without the benefits of magic spells. This can be raised through training such as long-distance runs and endurance training. It can also be increased by being damaged with non-lethal attacks. Training is most effective when magic is completely removed from the body. Average humans have a score of 5.]
[Vitality: The measurement of the maximum health of the body, representing its immunities and resistances to curses, diseases and ailments. Vitality can be increased through the taking of nourishing supplements, such as healthy, magic-filled meals, taking good care of the body and nourishing the body with magic energy. This also acts in correlation to life-span. Average humans have a score of 6.]
[Intelligence: The sharpness and aptitude of the mind. This can be raised through spell casting practice, memorising data and solving puzzles. It affects the user's ability to comprehend, memorise and manipulate data and information. Intelligence affects the user's casting speed and also improves the effect of spells cast. Average humans have a score of 5]
[Magic: The strength and quantity of magic power in the user's core, without taking into account the quality or type of magic energy. This can be improved through meditation and circling magic around the body, or casting spells. Average humans have a score of 0, as their magic is unawakened.]
Delta pondered over what he had read, realising that the system stats only accounted for his body's strength, rather than taking into account his skill, understanding and proficiencies.
He mentally scrolled down further, automatically being switched to [Proficiencies] upon reaching the bottom.
[Proficiencies:]
[Mana: Initiate I]
[Arcana: Initiate I]
[Vis: Initiate I]
[Pact: Initiate I]
[Aura: Initiate I]
[Ki: Initiate I]
Seeing this, Delta did the same as he had done before and held the word 'Initiate'.
[Proficiencies: These are representations of your mastery over a certain type of magic. Practising that magic, or completing relevant quests, can increase your proficiency and allow you to perform more complicated spells and procedures with that magic type. The ranks are as follows:
Initiate I
Initiate II
Initiate III
Initiate IV
Initiate V
[*More Ranks will be unlocked later*]
Delta navigated his way to the [Quests] section, only finding a single quest listed.
[Quest - Raise all proficiencies to the Level of Mage]
[Reward - ???]
Looking at this mystery quest, Delta could only guess that it had something to do with preparing for the mentioned attack on the school. Either way, however, it was clear that he would have to work on increasing his stats as much as possible as soon as he could.
The Mana lesson had begun at 12 PM and would finish at 4 PM, but he had until 3 PM before the lesson began properly again.
Looking at the clock now, it was 1:58 PM, and he would have another hour until he was required to work again.
The stats that hadn't reached the threshold for the next stage were [Strength], [Vitality], [Intelligence], [Endurance] and [Agility], however, he couldn't work on [Strength], [Agility] or [Endurance] inside a classroom, and there was nothing for him to work with to increase his [Intelligence].
Realising this, Delta decided to work on his [Vitality] instead.
The System had told him to work on meditation and cycling his magic, however, he wasn't sure how to do that as he had gone out cold after sitting down in his cross-legged position, with the 10 minutes before that being blurry.
A small ping occurred in his head, drawing his attention to the mental button on the bottom corner.
A '1' in a red circle hovered over the menu button, notifying him of a change that had occurred in the system.
He pressed it, and a panel reading [Techniques] was highlighted for him.
After navigating his way to the [Techniques] tab, Delta saw a series of 'boxes' all empty but 1. The 1 filled box read, [True Magic Circulation], and upon being pressed, Delta found himself in a white void, everything around him empty as far as the eye can see.
He tried to get up and look around, however, he felt plastered to the ground, only able to move his eyes.
Looking down, Delta realised he wasn't actually in full control of his own body, but rather limited to looking around, as if it were a video.
'Delta' began breathing deeply, drawing visible magic energy from the air and into his lungs, before guiding it into the oxygen in his body and allowing it on its way.
Delta could then see the energy being used in the process of respiration, adding itself to the energy created and strengthening the cells it was in, causing them to seem more vibrant and powerful.
The process was repeated several times until Delta had a solid understanding of it, then allowed Delta to give it a shot himself.
At first, his breathing seemed weak and unconfident, however as time went along, it became more secure, powerful, and finally, subconscious.
Sometime later after he felt like he had understood this skill completely a message popped up, reading [Skill has been deemed 'Mastered' and shall be removed from training. For further usage of training, please press the [Tutorial] button under the Skill's Menu.]
After a short pause, it then said [Congratulations on mastering your first magic training technique! Intelligence + 2]
Pleased by this turn of events, Delta patted himself on the shoulder before closing the notification.
After that, Delta found himself back in the classroom.
He looked at the clock, expecting to have overrun considering how long he had spent training, however it only seemed to be about 8 seconds since before, meaning he had done all of that learning near instantaneously.
Using his now mastered skill, Delta began breathing the same way he had before, drawing magic energy from the air and integrating it with his oxygen to strengthen his body.
He reopened his [Stats] menu to see the new changes:
[Stats:]
[Rank: Initiate I]
[Strength: 6]
[Agility: 7]
[Dexterity: 9]
[Vitality: 8]
[Endurance: 7]
[Intelligence: 9]
[Magic: 9]
Seeing as he only had [Strength], [Endurance], [Agility] and [Vitality] left to train, Delta continued training his breathing exercises, making sure to take in as much magic as he could with each breath.
Angus had been intending to ask him about his strange mana cycling method earlier, and seeing Delta doing another similar yet exercise had shocked him further, piquing his interest and drawing his attention away from the other students.
Keeping sure to keep the students safe, he asked, "What is the breathing technique you're doing?"
Between breaths, Delta replied, "I'm not sure, really. I didn't like the method shown, so I decided to experiment with it, and then it sort of... came to me." 'Damn you Galaxy, so this is the 'method' you were talking about, could you not have given it to me sometime later?!' Delta cursed internally, bothered by the unnecessary attention.
Angus didn't really believe what he had been told, but whoever the boy had gotten it from was clearly something he shouldn't aggravate. He already knew the boy was special considering he had been highlighted by the headmistress, however, what he had seen so far had been far too absurd to be as the boy had told him.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and the familiar face of Diana entered the room, seeing Delta quickly since he was the only one awake, and walking over to sit next to him.
Delta quickly looked around to see if there were any other seats she could take, but everything else was full, and she could only sit beside him.
Begrudgingly, he lifted his bags and dropped them under the table, ensuring none of his newly purchased items fell out.
She sat down beside him, placing her bags by his before slumping onto the table, exhausted.
"That was so tiring!" she complained loudly, stretching and yawning as she did so.
"Where were you? And why did it take you so long?"
"So long?! I was faster than everyone else in this whole year group!"
Delta simply raised a single eyebrow.
"Fine. I was second. As for where I was, I was with my Uncle. He was teaching me the family's magic circulation technique. Turns out we have our own one which we hand down through generations or something."
Satisfied, Delta returned to his breathing, ignoring the rest of Diana's attempts at getting his attention and figuring out what he was doing.
He continued his breathing for the rest of the hour, watching as they slowly got up over the second half of the hour, with the final few who ran over being woken up from their trance and being told to stay after class to finish it off.
None of them would have actually been able to hear what was going on around them as they would be fully focused on transferring magic to the rest of their body's, or else Angus would have shut Delta up ages ago.
The now awoken students were all feeling the rush of having awakened their magic and experimenting with their new strength.
None of them had the same power Delta had, each barely reaching a fifth of his new strength, however, this was to be expected as their magic circulation techniques had been far less efficient compared to his.
Diana herself had used a rather high-levelled technique, reaching around a third of the level of power Delta had, however even their Sylvester Family technique couldn't measure up to the level of power he had displayed.
The reason for this was simple. Delta's technique was incredibly risky, with a massive chance of exploding from the inside, and thus techniques like it were heavily avoided by even the most powerful of families.
If not for Galaxy's doing, Delta would have struggled to find anything at that level, with its power being enough to max out his magic from 0 to 9 instantaneously.
Before he could continue this train of thoughts, however, Angus called back for the attention of the awakening students.
