Alexander woke up early and fed Ocean before going to his first practical class. Since his new house had a walled, private area in the back, Ocean could relax comfortably in the sun.

  When he arrived in front of his class's room, Lucas was already waiting for him and handed him a black spear with a very bitter expression on his face. "Your prize."

  Alexander was enchanted with the spear as soon as he saw it, because it was perfect for what he wanted at that moment. It even had the image of a silver dragon coiling up its shaft, like a work of art made for the battlefield.

  "The academy really is very influential," Alexander noted while analyzing the weapon. "It's much better than I expected and was made in just 1 day."

  "The blacksmith who made it is very skilled," he analyzed. "He not only corrected the conceptual errors in my drawing, but also widened the blade and left the spear in perfect balance… He even adjusted the parrying hooks to be better and in a crescent shape, which increased the resistance and the cutting and penetration capacity."

  "Admire your new weapon later," said Lucas, who had a bitter smile, interrupting his train of thought. "Get inside the classroom immediately. I want to finish today's class as soon as possible."

  Noticing that Lucas seemed a bit irritated, Alexander stored the spear and went to sit down for class, but not before using |Appraise| on his new spear.

  [Ascending Dragon Spear (Unique): A spear at the peak of the (Unique) grade that is made of black iron and enchanted platinum. It has high resistance to poison abrasion and the like; and high conductivity for energy and mana.]

  *+35% damage on piercing strikes. (This effect is only valid when using the spear tip).*

  *+15% damage on slashing strikes. (This effect is only valid when using the blade edge).*

  *+3.75% power when casting Tier III spells. (The effect is doubled for each tier below).*

  Skill: |Magical Staff|

  [|Magical Staff|: Enables this item to be used as a magical staff.]

  After some time, when most students were already seated, Lucas began his class: "Since today is the first day, I'll start with the basics of any combat, the energy systems."

  "This might be even more promising than I thought," Alexander admitted inwardly. "I came here to learn how to fight, but it seems there's much more to learn here… Better start taking notes."

  "Everything that exists has its own energy. As you already know, it's lineage, innate talent, and luck that define the capacity to control and/or store one's energy systems," explained Lucas. "That's why the stronger the parents, the greater the chances the children will have great potential and a good foundation/starting point."

  "That explains why most of the population isn't proficient in controlling energy or mana," Alexander conjectured while assimilating the new information. "The nobility must also absorb anyone who stands out to produce stronger offspring. And the few who aren't absorbed likely become adventurers and form families with other adventurers."

  "Returning to the subject, despite the similarities, mana and a being's body energy function in opposite ways," Lucas resumed. "If on one hand body energy is generated individually by each being, on the other hand, mana is the energy generated by the world itself."

  Making this point, Lucas made a short pause so everyone could minimally absorb this information and he could continue.

  "I'm not saying the world is necessarily a living organism like us, although that possibility exists," Lucas admitted. "What I'm saying is that it encompasses everything in a very connected way. A great perfect and harmonious unit."

  Seeing that everyone understood the general idea of what he was saying, Lucas continued: "That's why it's much harder to become a mage, which requires refined mana control, than a fighter, who uses their own energy."

  "So how can we use mana?" asked a simpler student.

  "We are a part of the world, so its energy also permeates us and counts as ours," replied Lucas. "That's why we can use mana."

  "Think of it this way: if a part of your body gained consciousness and started producing its own energy, would it stop being a part of your body?" Lucas instigated.

  "I guess not?" replied the student, still not understanding the point.

  "If it's still a part of you, what would stop it from using both its energy and yours?" Lucas pointed out. "That's more or less our relationship with the world. The difference is that in our case the size/proportion of the difference is 'infinitely' greater."

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Thank you, professor," said the student. "I understand better now."

  Satisfied with this feedback, Lucas returned to the exposition: "It's also for this reason that all beings, normally, are born with body energy and magical affinity(ies), but without mana. The mana passively acquired throughout the gestation of each being is nothing more than the World filling a new part of itself with energy."

  "That's why the main difference between using body energy and mana is their functional flow," he explained. "While internal energy follows a simple flow being released from inside the body to the surrounding environment, the proper use of mana requires its flow to synchronize internal mana with the surrounding environment before performing anything. Which makes mana control much harder than controlling internal energy."

  Finishing this part of his explanation, Lucas extended his hand and released mana so dense it was visible even without the use of |Mana Control|.

  Gradually the mana in Lucas's hand began to crackle and attract more mana from his body. When his mana began to synchronize with the external environment, his hand lit up with the formation of several small lightning bolts. "This is how the mana flow works to form anything magical. Be it enchanting an item or casting an offensive spell."

  "A dual-layer process," concluded Alexander. "The initial part is from inside out, but after establishing its external 'base', the mana flow makes another pass through the body to receive more directives and/or more mana."

  "However, this is only the general rule," Lucas cautioned. "There are beings that can naturally do this in a much simpler and more direct way, like elves and magical beasts."

  "What I intend to teach you are ways to 'circumvent' these limitations a bit," he explained. "That way you'll be able to control and increase your mana more easily."

  Finishing his introduction about mana, Lucas began the introduction about body energy, but it was less mystical: "Internal energy is a bit vague to explain, as it's largely based on sensations and the control each person has over their own body. But the most consistent thing I can say about all cases is that the more you improve, the harder it gets to keep improving, because at some points you might end up lost and not knowing how to improve."

  "This usually happens due to the redundancy that internal energy causes in the body, because the more vigorous your body is, the more abundant your internal energy. And the stronger and more abundant your energy is, the more vigorous your body becomes," he pointed out.

  "At a certain point, especially when you already have very high energy, these two points end up getting confused, which can create a bottleneck in the individual's growth," he completed.

  "Good thing I can see my basic information in a quantified way and have a much more direct, although harder, way to keep improving," thought Alexander.

  With the introduction to the theme established, the class continued until the end of the morning.

  The more Alexander listened, the more he felt he made the right choice by joining the academy. Besides all the theoretical and practical combat knowledge the academy had to offer, it would also provide him the theoretical part to improve in using internal energy, mana, spells, and the like.

  When the class ended, Alexander ran to buy a supply of meals that could sustain both him and Ocean, and spent the rest of the day at home trying to apply what he learned.

  Despite the significant number of hours he spent training, Alexander was immensely happy with the results achieved that day.

  "It really is like that proverb says," he thought while analyzing the difference between the results he got before and after just one class. "The most important thing isn't the tool you use, but the person who uses it and the technique applied in its handling."

  Even though his practice was full of errors, setbacks, and doubts, he still improved significantly better than when he practiced alone.

  Exhausted from spending the day training, Alexander went to sleep early to recover in time for the practical combat class the next day…

  Upon arriving at his class's arena the next morning, as Lucas instructed everyone to do, Alexander found a completely restored and ready-to-use arena.

  Lucas and the other students who were still absent didn't take long to arrive, and with everyone gathered, Lucas began to explain the basics for combat.

  After giving some tips about martial, magical, and hybrid combat, Lucas told the students to take their weapons and start practicing, so he could see their movements and correct them.

  Alexander then took his spear and tried to wield it, but soon discovered that although he had good theoretical knowledge, coming from what he learned on Earth, the practice was quite different.

  Surprised to see his difficulty with the spear, since his movements were only at a beginner level, and remembering the money he spent on this weapon, Lucas became completely indignant at the possibility of it being wasted and spent the entire morning alternating between helping the other students and teaching him how to use the spear.

  As he wasn't a spear user, Lucas couldn't teach him anything very advanced. But as a skilled and experienced fighter, his knowledge covered from the basics of fist fighting to the basics of most weapons.

  Lucas's motivation obviously wasn't exclusively financial, because the cost of the weapon and the arena repair didn't even come close to unbalancing his savings, after all, he was a powerhouse and received an adequate amount for his services. What mattered to him was the principle, because it was money he worked "hard" to get.

  Although the amount wasn't very significant for him, it wasn't irrelevant either.

  After an intense morning of training, Alexander managed to learn the most basic way to use and behave with a spear.

  This explosive learning speed didn't happen because he was a genius or born destined to use a spear, but because his cognitive capacity, vision, bodily control, and other aspects of his body had become superhuman with his 1st evolution… And he was already in his 2nd evolution.

  Lucas was quite surprised to see that Alexander had learned the basics before the end of class. But it also wasn't as if this were a feat that turned heaven and earth in this world. Alexander was just faster than the "average" students, who took from a few weeks to a month.

  With the end of class, Alexander ran to his house to get Ocean, because he was dying to go to a dungeon to test what he had learned, and Ocean couldn't stand being at home any longer.

  While walking towards the gate, he began to think they should eat something before entering a dungeon and ended up getting distracted thinking about where they should go.

  Alexander only came to his senses when Ocean bumped into a Demi, who was walking with her head slightly lowered, at the corner of one of the buildings near the academy gate.

  "Pl-, please, don't eat me," the Demi pleaded to Ocean, almost crying.