As Elysia drew everyone''s attention with her exnations, Julius couldn''t help but feel his expectations crumble.
After all, no matter how interesting sses were, he was no mage.
As the minutes passed, boredom slowly settled in his mind. Then, his eyelids became heavier until he silently fell asleep, finally resting after his eventful night.
Amidst the chaos and excitement of their first ss, no one noticed his sleeping figure for a good chunk of the lesson.
However, Elysia''s gazended on him after an hour. She narrowed her eyes before extending her right index finger towards him.
Bam
A heavy mass of pure mana crashed against his desk, forcing him awake.
Scared and panicked by the sudden sound, Julius jumped to his feet, reached for his belt, searching for his dius and taking a battle stance, ready to protect himself.
His eyes darted left and right in search of the enemy under his ssmates''ughter.
After hearing the mockingughs and seeing Adam''s disapproving gaze, he realised he was in ss, and his dius was safely kept in his room. Theck of sleep made him overreact, leading to this shameful scene.
He blushed in shame as Adam facepalmed. They already drew enough attention to them.
Between Morgane, Shephard and Elysia, who already knew about their secrets, he really wanted toy low and focus on learning.
"What do we have here?" Elysia''s voice menacingly cut through the noisy room, calming the ambient chaos.
The air became heavy as she questioned Julius. "Is my ss uninteresting, young man?"
Julius lowered his head, unable to answer as he knew he was at fault for disturbing her lesson. "I''m sorry, Miss Elysia." He apologised, trying to defuse the situation while sitting back down.
However, Elysia wasn''t done with him. "What about a little demonstration to show your ssmates how good you are? I can forgive you if you manage to seed in my exercise." She dered yfully, eager to see what HE could do.
"Well done, boy. We are now the focus of the ss." Adam scolded with a deep frown. Unsure if he should help Julius with their teacher''s challenge.
Following Elysia''s instructions, Julius joined her in front of the ss.
"Alright, everyone. Now that we defined why mana control is of utmost importance foralchemists; let Julius show you how to train it." Her eyes glowed with impatience as she ended her sentence.
To train mana control, mages usually went through various exercises, such as meditation to focus their mind, visualisation techniques to manipte the mana within their bodies, and practicing small-scale spells or enchantments.
However, as a cultivator, Julius found himself clueless about what actions to take. He gazed at Elyisia pitifully before turning to Adam, hoping to get help from his big brother.
Unfortunately, Adam wasn''t nning to help. After all, Julius was supposed to be a weak Novice, and it wouldn''t be too strange for him to fail. On the contrary, if he showed great mastery, he would look suspicious instead.
As the seconds passed but Julius stood frozen on his spot, the ss slowly descended back into chaos.
"How can he be so weak?"
"How did he dare sleep during ss? Serves his right."
"Humph, Is he really a noble? His behavior looks totally different from ours.
The mocking chatter of the kids reached Julius, making him want to hide under a rock because of the shame. His face was redder than a tomato, and his mind was buzzing in distress.
On the other hand, Adam''s lips quivered in displeasure. Who were those brats to mock them?
"See if I don''t put you all in your ce today!" Adam extended his index finger before Elysia, pumping mana out of his body. Then, he controlled it to take the shape of the Eiffel Tower and solidified it in front of the astonished gaze of the ss.
Upon seeing the intricate mana construct, Julius sighed, relieved to be saved from being further embarrassed. However, Elysia''s sentiment was totally different.
She gazed in Adam''s direction as if feeling something after he used his mana, her eyes glowing with unconcealed excitement. Between the tower''s strange design but intricate architecture, she knew the mana control required to materialise something with so much detail yet so solid should be around the third tier.
She also understood that he didn''t usemon training techniques to reach such a level. Instead, he must have boringly built mana constructs every day, again and again.
Little did she know that Adam''s approach was even more astonishing, dposing spells to use them with mana control only.
Like the others, it was the first time she ever heard of a Novice with tier-three mana control.
"Stay after ss, Julius. We need to discuss something." Elysia said, shocking the silent room further.
There were only two reasons for a teacher to ask a student to wait after ss. The first was to bring him to the punishment room after his misconduct, which was obviously not the case for Julius.
The second reason was to take the student as an apprentice, giving him ess to more knowledge, resources and invaluable tailor-made private lessons.
While his group of friends smiled, happy for this great news, most of his ssmates threw burning gazes, filled with jealousy at him. How did the second-weakest of their batch get such a golden opportunity on their first day?
"He? I''ll wait, Miss Elysia." Unaware of all of this, Julius sat back on his desk and patiently awaited for the lesson to end, curious to discover why Elysia wanted to speak with him in private.
As the lesson came to an end, Julius felt his anticipation reaching new heights. With a meaningful look exchanged between them, the other students left, leaving Julius and Elysia alone in the quiet room.
Elysia''s expression softened as light danced in her green eyes. "Julius," she began, her voice carrying a weighty seriousness, "There''s something crucial we need to discuss." Her words hung in the air, heavy with unspoken implications, as Julius prepared himself for the uing discussion.