"Here he comes! Here he comes!"
In the spacious practice courtyard, a burst of excited voices suddenly rang out.
The students turned their heads and saw two figures slowly walking over under Teacher Evelyn’s lead.
The man walking behind Evelyn drew countless gazes almost instantly.
There was an indescribable special Charm about him.
His looks were already flawless to begin with, but it was that aura of his that truly grabbed the eye.
"Is that him?"
"Yes, that’s Professor Gauss."
"So weird, he’s not even as old as I am."
"And the person beside him is?"
"Probably a teammate?"
"Damn it."
"..."
Curiosity is human nature. Whether it was traveling merchants or these young Mages born with silver spoons in their mouths, none of them could escape this rule.
There were more people here than Gauss had expected.
He admitted that part of the reason he came this time was for the money. After all, dropping by to teach a class in his spare time earned him a hundred Gold Coins.
The process wasn’t tiring either, and who would ever turn down money?
But seeing this group of students who had come on their own, and the worship shining in their eyes, he suddenly felt that even without the money, coming over from time to time to give a lecture seemed pretty nice.
Of course, that said, he was still going to take the money. It was the academy’s payment, after all.
"Hello everyone, I’m Gauss. I’m here today to give you a practical class."
That previous speech of his had been mere talk on paper. Magic as a field of study ultimately had to be brought into actual practice.
"Let’s start with Magic Missile."
Gauss picked a Spell that was extremely widespread among Professional Mages.
Among Casters, nine out of ten would learn this Spell.
The reason was simple: Magic Missile wasn’t difficult to learn. As a 1st-level Spell, once you advanced into the Profession you basically could master it. It was stable, reliable, and highly practical—worthy of being called a "national-level Spell."
Even if someone didn’t learn it as their very first Spell at level 1, they would usually make it up later.
Some students who hadn’t heard his previous speech were puzzled. They felt that there wasn’t much to say about this Spell. Almost everyone present could use it, some even to a very high level of skill.
However, despite their doubts, no one interrupted.
"Those of you who have mastered Magic Missile, raise your hand."
The moment Gauss finished speaking, almost all the students in front raised their hands.
Just as expected...
"Then in this class, I’m going to teach you how to reduce Magic Power consumption when Casting Magic Missile."
Gauss had actually mentioned this in his last speech, but due to time constraints he had only briefly outlined some ideas without going into depth.
"Reducing the cost? We can do that too?"
Some students were half convinced, half doubtful.
They didn’t doubt that Gauss could do it. After all, he was so much stronger than they were, and his understanding of Magic Power was far deeper.
Reducing Magic Power consumption would indeed cut down the damage, but it still had good practical value—especially for level 1 or 2 Casters whose bodies didn’t yet hold that much Magic Power.
They needed an offensive option that fell between a 0th Ring Trick and a 1st-level Spell.
But not every Caster dared to tinker with and improve a mature model.
"Of course. Back when I was still a Magic apprentice, I managed to pull it off on my own."
To give confidence to those skeptical faces, Gauss spoke words of encouragement.
Back then he had still been very weak. Besides Mage’s Hand, the only Spell he knew was Magic Missile, and he was far from having the big pile of Professional feats, Racial Talents, and equipment bonuses he had now.
"Huh?"
The students below all exchanged looks.
The amount of information in that one sentence from Gauss was a bit much; they needed a moment to digest it.
First, this meant that when he was still an apprentice, he had already mastered a 1st-level Spell. On that basis, he had even tried to improve it—and had actually succeeded on his own?
Should one call that extraordinary talent, or incredible boldness?
If anything had gone wrong, Gauss might well have blown himself up on the spot.
"Relax, it’s very simple."
"I need a volunteer to come up and do a demonstration."
"Me!"
"My name is Dale."
"Teacher, I’ll assist you."
In the front row, a tall, lanky girl had quite a bit of nerve and stepped forward of her own accord.
"Thank you, Dale."
Gauss thanked her, then focused the power of his Dragon bloodline into his eyes. Very quickly, that pair of jade-green pupils turned into a pressure-inducing molten-gold color.
The others also noticed the change in him and took a few extra looks.
Rumor had it that the Dragon bloodline in Professor Gauss’s body was extremely pure. From the looks of it now, the rumor was no lie.
"Cast a Magic Missile for me to see."
With this kind of vision, Gauss’s Perception of Magic Power flow became even clearer.
The girl swung her Magic Wand. Although she felt a bit nervous under Gauss’s stare, she still skillfully Cast a bright blue Magic Missile.
Judging from her proficiency, Magic Missile as a 1st-level Spell was probably her main offensive Spell.
After leaving the Magic Wand, the Magic Missile hit the target ten meters away with perfect Precision.
"Boom!"
Blue light burst out, and the target absorbed the Magic Effect of the Missile.
The girl turned her head, looking at Gauss with both tension and anticipation, waiting for his evaluation.
Even before Gauss had come to this academy, she had already heard his name and held great admiration for this peer of her own age.
"Very good."
Gauss nodded and praised her.
Even though his gaze was fixed on Dale and he didn’t look back at the target, he could already judge her level of proficiency from the trajectory of Magic Power flow in her body.