Chapter 89 - A Normal Day

Name:Otherworld Adventure Author:xxAlter
It was the next day and Cecil and his group were attending class normally this time.

After yesterday's stint, the rest of Cecil's classmates would constantly send him weird glances. Cecil of course didn't care, but it couldn't be said the same for the girl sitting next to him though.

Lucia was happy that Cecil got to befriend such a famous character and even thought it was such a good opportunity for him, but Cecil didn't want what actually happened behind the closed doors of the library's core area to be spread, so he asked his friends to keep mum about it.

So when the other classmates came to inquire about what happened yesterday at the library, they brushed it off as just a misunderstanding and nothing really happened. As proof, they just said to look at Cecil, he wasn't harmed or anything and he even got his hands on a training manual when he was the one personally dragged away by the Sage.

Since Cecil was fine, they explained that there were obviously no problems at all and the Sage only asked their group to clean up the core area as punishment for barging in without permission.

Most of the class accepted this as the truth and only some were skeptical, but the ones who were most skeptical were the leaders of the factions who had received a report about what happened and the instructors present at the scene.

If this was all concluded as a 'misunderstanding' then wouldn't it mean that the Sage had only mistakenly apprehended Cecil and he was the one at fault, not Cecil? These people wouldn't believe that of course. There was no way that the Sage made a 'mistake' since there were many witnesses that heard the Sage say that Cecil had done something to blaspheme the books in the library which then angered him.

So, to chalk it all up to a misunderstanding and saying that it was a mistake on the Sage's part even after this? Not likely. There was definitely something more to this incident than what Cecil's group had let on, but the group was tight lipped about it and only brushed it off when their classmates and instructors asked about it.

It was only after 3 days had passed had the commotion towards this incident died down. Since Cecil and his group were attending class normally so they could only conclude that it was just a misunderstanding after all.

Back in class S, the teacher was currently teaching the fundamental principles of mana and magic to the class.

It was class S so most, if not all, of the students here had already had the basic and fundamental knowledge taught to them before even enrolling into the academy.

Of course, the academy wouldn't do something so pointless like re-teaching the students these basics that were borderline common sense to them. Instead the fundamentals they taught were the academy's results of intensive research and study towards the basics and underlying principles of mana and magic.

Just this alone caused many in class to seriously listen in attention... except for 2 individuals however. These 2 were a certain foxkin duo. One had his full attention to the book he was reading while the other was scribbling incomprehensible magic arrays, crests, and formations on a magic scroll.

These two were Cecil and Lucia. Although the lesson that was being taught was really intriguing to the point where even Ainz, Eli, and Fina were listening in rapt attention, it couldn't be said the same for the duo.

Why? This was because in their eyes, the lesson being taught was too rudimentary and simple. The theories, facts, and principles being taught were basic knowledge for these two.

At first, Lucia and Cecil were very much looking forward to these classes just like everyone else, but soon their interest died since oddly, the materials being taught were very similar, if not the same, as the results of Lucia's mother, Mrs. Anna's, preliminary research into the Principles of Mana.

The materials being taught were literally only scratching the surface of Mrs. Anna's entire research results which she had finished only recently.

She was at a bottleneck in her research, but after Cecil shared his knowledge regarding atoms, the building blocks of all matter and life, she then made a large breakthrough in her research.

After Cecil and Lucia left on their journey, it took another 3 months of research and testing for Lucia's mother to finish her research which she called the 'Principles of Mana'.

In the current age, Mages only attributed to the fact that Mana existed in the world in an all-encompassing incorporeal state. It was there because it was there. Although many magic researchers wanted to find the actual reason to why and how mana existed and in what form, they didn't have the necessary tools to aid them in their research.

Mrs. Anna was the same. She didn't have any tools to help her research move forward, however, she had Cecil. When Cecil read through her research he had involuntarily explained that back on Earth they also did research on something similar. This explanation lead towards him explaining the theory behind atoms and particles as well as the tools used to prove their existence.

Of course, Cecil couldn't explain things in detail since he only had basic knowledge about the topic, maybe if he had his brother, Gabriel's, brain then he could have contributed more to Mrs. Anna's research, but just the basic knowledge he imparted to Mrs. Anna had given her the necessary outlook and direction of where to proceed with her research.

So, after Cecil and Lucia left, Mrs. Anna gave her all and together with her husband, had successfully created a magic tool that helped her determine the 'color' of mana. The tool was similar to a microscope, but instead of amplifying vision, all it did was detect the mana in the air and give it a visible appearance through the magic tool.

The tool was complex and Cecil didn't understand at all on how it worked. All he knew was that the magic tool worked similar to one of his Mana Eye's abilities. For now, Cecil had determined that Mana Eyes had 2 functions.

The first was Mana Control. Cecil was given full control of his Mana after he gained Mana Eyes. The second was Mana Vision, it was the ability that let Cecil see mana through his eyes.

The magic tool took Cecil's second ability and let the user 'see' mana. The mana in the air after looking through this magic tool showed that the mana had a multitude of colors, but it was dominated mostly by a golden color, exactly like what Cecil saw through his Mana Eyes.

So if they abided by the current knowledge's theory of mana being incorporeal then that would mean that there was no way it could have a color if it was viewed through the magic tool that Mrs. Anna developed.

But since there was color, then that meant that mana existed in a corporeal state. You could touch it, physically manipulate it, etc. Just this knowledge was groundbreaking. If Mrs. Anna could somehow create a magic tool that could physically manipulate mana, then by using this magic tool, a person would then gain access to Cecil's ability, Mana Control.

Mrs. Anna was able to doc.u.ment more knowledge, facts and raise more theories and hypotheses on Mana, it was to the point where one question beget another. It was an endless loop so she could only send Cecil her current, up-to-date, version of her new research.

She wrote in her book that Mana existed in the air not in a formless incorporeal state, but instead it was present everywhere in the form of particles. On Earth, there were 3 types of particles, electrons, neutrons and protons which formed an atom.

Mrs. Anna however changed 'atom' to 'mana' instead. Though this was still only a hypothesis, Cecil wanted to believe this to be a fact since if mana was the equivalent of atoms then it was safe to say that Mana was the building block of all matter and life on Alterna.

With this theory, it could be hypothesized that every living organism and object on Alterna was created by mana. This could then explain the reason why every living creature had mana inside their bodies and when they grew more mature this mana would take on an attribute which then explained the colorful silhouettes in Cecil's Mana Eyes.

This was the same for the color of the objects he saw through his Mana Vision. The rocks, dirt, and terrain were a mix of gold and brown with brown being the dominant color. The same went for the air and water. For air, it was a dominant shade of green with gold mixed here and there. As for water it was different shades of blue with gold dotting it.

The world in Cecil's eyes when he activated Mana Vision was full of color and it was always fascinating for him to observe the world this way. The color of each elemental attribute of Mana, every shade of red for the fire element, blue for water element and so on. However, a golden color was present everywhere.

This golden color most likely represented the non-elemental or the attributeless type of mana. When Cecil observed his body through Mana Vision, he would see his body being gold in color. Lucia was a mix of red, blue and violet. Fina was teal in color, Eli was green and red while Ainz... well, he was a chaotic mix of red, blue, green, and yellow that kept swirling in a circle which would cause Cecil a headache every time he looked at his friend.

Anyway, Cecil and Lucia decided to just do their own thing during this lesson since they've already read Mrs. Anna's new research results tens of times over the moment they were delivered to them by the adventurers Mrs. Anna had commissioned and this was a month ago when they were still at the Magic City.

Since the materials of the lesson was only the downgraded version of Lucia's mother's research, the two decided to just forgo listening to the lesson and go about doing their own things in the meantime.

Cecil was reading a mana cultivation manual called Breath of Mana. It was a cultivation manual that helped with the circulation of mana. There were other better breathing type cultivation manuals, but this manual was special since it didn't have any preferred element. In fact, mages and fighters could use this manual regardless of their element and since Cecil was non-elemental, the manual was perfect to serve as reference for him.

Beside him, Lucia was creating quick-casts for her new original spells. The formations and arrays were much more complex than before. If someone who was inexperienced with quick-casts was to take a look at what she was drawing, they would most likely pass out from confusion.

Even Cecil had a headache after taking a small glimpse at Lucia's parchment. The complexity of the finished scrolls looked like it was a mini-large scale magic array than a simple quick-cast scroll.

It was a good thing that they looked like they were seriously taking notes and not doing anything else so the teacher didn't call out to them for not listening to the lesson. So they were able to 'peacefully' not listen to the lecture.

However, this 'peace' couldn't last... not after the teacher started walking around the class while continuing with the lecture.

When he got to Cecil and Lucia's desk and saw how busy they were taking notes he was inwardly admiring the two, but then he saw what they were actually doing and his impression of the two immediately took a nose dive.

The instructor was a young female elf, Gal'ania Sunchaser. She was a member of the famed Sunchaser clan, the wood elf clan that tended to the branches and leaves of the world tree, Urrugdrasil.

When she stomped her way to the podium in front of the class her face was smiling, but at the same time everyone in class could since the air of irritation she was emitting.

They were all puzzled since only a moment ago the teacher was happily giving her lecture. Just what could be the cause of her sudden irritation?

While everyone was looking at each other and discussing in small voices, the two who were the cause of the teacher's change was obliviously continuing their activities.

Seeing this, Gal'ania clicked her tongue in annoyance.