Letting out a final yawn bright and early in the following day, Nick stepped into his Water Elementalism classroom, immediately being greeted by a cool and refreshing atmosphere. This was the first real classroom he got to be in, and it was similar to what he expected and completely different.

Most notably, in the center of the classroom was a large, circular pool of water, clearly intended for the class's demonstrations. The floor was a somewhat cool stone tile that fits the ambiance of the room as chairs and tables were scattered around the classroom, vaguely pointing towards the pool of water in the middle.

The walls were hidden behind bookshelves filled with books and what looked like vials of water hidden behind what seemed to be a locked cabinet. Other parts of the wall showed murals and paintings of various bodies of water and even the moon. The chairs were cushioned which was completely unexpected but very welcome. It felt like a serene yet serious classroom.

"Please have a seat," spoke a woman from behind the most extravagant desk in the room. Nick complied as he took a look at her. Her long and bright blue twin tails reached the top of her thighs. Even more surprising, she wore a black collar around her neck. Yet even more alarmingly, she wore a jacket similar to the student one that did a poor job of covering the corset she was wearing, which only accentuated her average chest. Her lower half was somewhat simpler yet still as shocking. A pair of tight black leggings along with black boots that reached all the way to her knees.

Nick wasn't sure what kind of impression he was getting from the woman who seemed to be his teacher, but it surely wasn't a negative one. She didn't even look all that much older than him. If he had seen her in the school uniform sitting in one of the many identical seats he wouldn't have thought twice. 

Slowly, the room filled with students until all the chairs were occupied. The blue-haired professor stood up and introduced herself.

"Morning everyone. I'll be your professor for this class. Please call me Ms. Azurelith." She stated as she moved towards the pool of water in the center of the class. "While this course is named 'Water Elementalism', you will learn about more than just that here. I will teach every single one of you how to become a proper mage."

Without warning, she started pulling water from the pool before forming it into various animals, even animating them and making them extremely lifelike.

"If anyone thinks they can imitate what I did, please feel free. I'll excuse you from the class for the rest of the semester." It was a bold proclamation, and Nick was tempted to try, but he knew it was some sort of trick. When he saw none of the other students even attempt to do so, he felt relieved he had made the right decision.

"Good. None of you are too arrogant for your own good. It's good to know your limits, but it's even better to try to push past them. Those of you who are more observant will realize I'm not actually casting any spells to do this. This is the beauty of Formless magic." Sensing the confusion on some of the students' faces, she let out a small sigh. "When it comes to casting magic, everything falls under one of two umbrellas. Formless magic, or structured magic. Formless magic is what I'm doing right now- with the water. It's the simple act of directly manipulating the element in question, in our case- water."

Ms. Azurelith then suddenly popped the water animals into dozens of identical droplets of water, hovering in the air and orbiting her. "Formless magic is much more versatile than any spell you will ever find. The only limit is your skill and imagination. It's raw, free, and the most important foundation of regular spells." She explained, making sure that no one looked too lost now. "Spells are structured magic. They are predefined, predictable, and follow set parameters. Remember these 3 Ps. A spell will only do as it is expected to do so. If we were all to cast a simple spell such as 'Aqua bolt' the only difference between me and you would be potency and power."

Taking a second for everyone to absorb the information, she then sent one water droplet to each student, hovering in front of their face. "Take control when you're ready. Your job, for now, will be simply to keep the droplet floating without having it pop." This was amazing information for Nick, and it was put quite simply for him by the professor. She might not look qualified but she clearly had proven him wrong.

With his Hydrokinesis ability in mind, he reached out to the water droplet and took control of it without much issue. If he was understanding things correctly, Hydrokinesis was formless magic and Aqua Arrow was structured magic. Her words made sense to him. Trying to manipulate Aqua Arrow after it had been cast to do something different seemed to be difficult and unintuitive. Where on the other hand it was his Hydrokinesis that made the spell. It was the formless freedom it provided him that allowed him to make such a powerful spell.

"Not too difficult yes? The easier it becomes the better mage you will become. Mastery over Formless magic will make casting spells cheaper and cheaper. You can also do Formless practice with other elements, and for those of you enrolled in other elemental classes, your formless skill will transfer to that as well." To further explain her point, a strong gust of wind blew through the class, causing a few of the students to lose control of the droplet. "My mastery over formless water magic allows me to be quite an impressive air mage as well. Of course, even with the potential to master two elements, it is not common for students to study more than one class. It's not easy, so you keep up and ask if you need help." She told the class with a small smile as she sent out replacement water droplets for those that lost theirs.

It was only the second day at the academy, but this was shaping up to be his favorite class yet. Not only was it something that he was actually already somewhat proficient in, but his professor was amazing. She made everything simple to understand and was clearly very well-skilled. Not to mention the absolutely amazing ass she had hidden under those legg-

"And for those of you who find this so easy as to let your eyes wander, please start spinning the droplet around your finger." Ms. Azurelith told the class, despite looking straight at him with a small smirk. Clearly, he had been too obvious, but at least it showed her that he could focus on more than one thing at once while manipulating the droplet.

The rest of the class passed by peacefully, everyone focused on their droplet and was only interrupted by the professor when she had words of advice for them. She was very polite and the students treated her with the same respect, creating a relatively stress-free class. At least, that's what Nick felt. After she had instructed him to spin the water droplet, he had felt no real increase in difficulty. Sure, it wasn't perfect, the droplet didn't follow the exact path he was picturing, but none of the other students could get their droplets to move at all before they dispersed. He wasn't quite sure why, but he welcomed it. He had expected to be the one who was greatly falling behind in his classes after all.

Skill Level up!
Hydrokinesis has reached level 3!
20% increased damage and cost reduction to water spells.

Not a bad increase at all, Nick was always happy to make good use of his time. Clapping her hands, Ms. Azurelith spoke up. "Well done everyone. That's all for today's class. Make sure to keep practicing the same trick at home alright? Repetition is the mother of learning." As Nick got up to leave the class, a large water bubble appeared in front of him with a note written in it, 'Don't go just yet'. Hopefully, this wasn't about his staring, that would be extremely embarrassing even if he couldn't really blame himself for it.

The class quickly filtered out and left just the two of them in the classroom alone.