'This should keep you from any mishaps.' Alex thought and then refocused on his students.
'Most are already done with their void creature. The rest should be getting used to the beatings. It should wake them up soon.'
True to his words, once the students realized their fears were not helping them, they resolved themselves to fight.
Several minutes later, they were done and resting, sharing their experience. The realization that this was what they were signing up for hit them hard.
While some still had their resolutions unchanged, some were wavering. It was only natural. After all, not all graduates turned out to be hunters.
"Okay, students." Alex's voice echoed in the ears of the students, catching their attention once more. "I hope you savoured the experience, because there will be more to come."
A few grumbled at his words, not finding it exciting. Of course, there were those who did.
"This is something that will help you in the long run." Alex continued, ignoring their cries. "Some of you took too long to react to the void creatures. Under any other circumstances, most of you would be dead already."
Gulp
The students knew themselves and knew he was right. They had already realized that their suit protected them from most of the damages the void creatures dealt.
"I will give you guys a few hours more for resource hunting. Following that, our next lesson will begin."
"Next lesson? There is more to come?" Alex could feel the dread in the student's tone.
"Haha… Don't worry, it will be a theoretical lesson." The students sighed in their numbers, grateful for the change. "Alright, rest up and get to work."
....
A few hours later.
Alex split himself into clones and the students into groups of related abilities, ignoring the class barrier.
This forced the students to mingle with others they usually didn't relate to.
Regardless of everything else, they were all fourth-year students.
Aaron was once again split from his new friends, and while he saw a few familiar ones, he saw many more new faces.
"Alright, everyone." Alex appeared before each group, his hands behind his back. "As you may have noticed, this new grouping is for the intention of teaching everyone with similar abilities.
"And in your case, lightning." He brought up his left hand, channeling a bit of mana to generate sparks.
A student raised his hand, prompting Alex to gesture for him to ask his question.
"Do you have all the abilities in the empire? Like all abilities ever recorded?" The awe in his voice was hard to miss.
"Not exactly." Alex smiled. "You guys are aware that the energy I use is void energy, correct?"
The students nodded.
"Good. What most people don't know is that void energy is the master of all magical energies." Most of the students furrowed their brows, not really getting what he meant. "What I mean is…"
Alex conjured a small cup and filled the cup with water. With every action, the students became more and more impressed.
"Take this cup for instance. Mind you, I can make this cup into whatever I want. That is void energy." The students nodded, waiting for him to continue. "That means whatever shape I give this cup…" He moulded the cup into a long tube.
"The water inside will follow." The tube became a twig, then a basin, and finally a blade, hollow on the inside. "This is basically what I do with void energy."
"I see… So with void energy, you can use mana for all sorts of abilities." The students pondered. "But that doesn't answer how you are able to use all abilities. You're moulding mana, not abilities."
"I'm glad you're paying attention." Alex snapped his hands, causing the surroundings to change.
The air suddenly took on many hues of different colours, colours that most hadn't even realised existed before.
"Wow… This is amazing!" The students couldn't hide their amazement, their eyes shining with interest and curiosity.
"What you're seeing right now is magical energy." Alex said, gaining their attention. "Just like light, magical energy has different wavelengths. Each wavelength corresponds to different abilities.
"For lightning…" Alex waved his hand, bringing out a stream of whitish-blue mana from the millions of colours. "This wavelength of mana is what you use. What I just did was pick that energy, and with it…"
Alex snapped his fingers with that particular mana in hand, causing sparks to fly everywhere.
Aaron remained mostly calm, but the wonder he felt didn't go away. Despite spending a lot of time with his brother, he hadn't seen him do this sort of thing before.
'Maybe he was waiting…' Regardless of the reason, he was seeing it now. 'He really sees the world differently.'
A snap of his fingers made the colours disappear. "Does that answer your question?" Alex asked and the student nodded. "Good. Now let's continue… Also, you can sit down."
The students nodded, finding suitables spots on the ground before getting comfortable.
"As lightning users, you guys should know a lot about lightning, right?" The students nodded. "In that case, can someone explain in simple terms what lightning is."
"We lightning users basically have the power to separate particles in our surroundings, creating an imbalance we call charges." A dark-sclera female answered, the others nodding in agreement.
"Excellent." Alex nodded and then added. "While that may be the case, there's more to it."
A wave of his hand conjured a lightning arc before him, frozen in place and unmoving.
The students were once again taken by surprise. While they called themselves lightning users, they couldn't just freeze a lightning tendril, at least not at their current level.
What they didn't know was that it required an understanding of laws to achieve. They could slow it down, call it off, but definitely not freeze it in place.
"From this point to that point, we have our unbalanced charges." Alex began, pointing at both ends of the lightning arc. "What you basically do is this…"
Alex took his time to explain to them the finer details of their abilities they didn't know about, doing the same for all other groups.
He used practical examples to make his explanations easier to grasp, sometimes guiding the students to follow his lead.
Several hours later, Alex brought his various explanations to a close, leaving the students with lights of enlightenment in their eyes.
"So that's why my output sometimes plummets." A student echoed in realization, applying what he just learnt. "Hehehe… this will make the use of my abilities even easier!"
"I'm glad you guys are picking up the tips." Alex said a moment later. "Unfortunately for us, it's time to leave…"
The students were about to grumble their complaints when Alex raised his right hand.
"Don't worry. This is not the end. There is still more to come." With that, Alex returned everyone to their classrooms. "I will see next time."
His clones disappeared, returning to the main body as he appeared in the chair of his office, his gaze turning to the darkening skies through his window.
'Finally, some new information…'