Villainess and the Stalker - Chapter 20 - Sorcery Training

Chapter 20 : Sorcery Training

「… O Prime Demon, Heed My Words, Turn Into a Block of Ice… Zero」

A small lump of ice appeared on top of my palm as soon as I recited the spell’s aria.
It kept floating like that for a few seconds before vanishing quietly.

「Yup, that’s enough. Your skill is just according to the report that I received. Did you train your sorcery under a tutor back in your house?」

I nodded to his question as I couldn’t help thinking that Norb Marc’ appearance, the teacher in charge of sorcery training’s lesson, wasn’t that far from the image of delinquent youth.

「Yes. My grandfather invited his sorcerer acquaintance to teach me the basics of sorcery back home. I’ve a good grasp on the general 1st rank spell.」

「Ooh, that’s quite an achievement! When it comes to that… The first year sorcery training’s lessons might be tad too boring for you. I mean, the lessons for the 1st year are mainly 1st rank spells. Though we’re going to teach a little bit about 2nd rank spells in the second semester, the lessons will basically revolve around the 1st rank spell… Well, I have no doubt that you’re already learning a bit about 2nd rank spells, but I guess it’s still on the level of self-study. If it’s okay with you, it’d save me a lot of trouble if you could assist me in teaching the classmates who are still behind in the lesson but…」

「If that’s the case, please allow me to take this chance. Conrad has already been asking me to teach him sorcery, thus I’d be truly grateful if I could do so under the supervision of a teacher. It’d be safer this way. Naturally, that goes for the other classmates aside from Conrad.」

「Woah, you’re really a wonderful student. I’d be dancing in joy if every student could be like you, but that also means that I might lose my teaching job. Anyway, it’s a pleasure to work with you. So, please do tell if you encountered any sort of trouble. I’ll support you right away.」

After saying his piece, Professor Mac went to attend to other students.
Then, Conrad came asking for some guidance,

「… I went well huh.」

He said.
I tilted my head in confusion.

「Pardon?」

Conrad laughed when I asked him that question.

「I’m talking about the sorcery you showed just now. You’re holding back, right? Though Mac-sensei told you to pour as much mana as possible, you ended it after the amount of mana injected reached an average level.」

As expected of Conrad, he might have realized that I was cutting corners as much as possible after seeing me using ice lance yesterday.
At least, he understood my reason for doing so, since I’d be in a whole lot of trouble if I had put more than the average amount of mana.

「Coz I will be troubled if I become the center of attention. I’ll do my best not to enter Special Class.」
「Yeah. As if being serious will only end up with you entering that special class. That’s why make sure that you’re also holding back when teaching me and the other students.」

「Of course. I won’t make any mistake in controlling 1st rank spells.」

I mean, this way will help me minimize the risk of accidentally pouring too much mana into my spells.
Though the risk of me losing control over my own spells gets higher with their rank, I think it’d be safe for me to say that I have perfect control of my spells up to 3rd rank. [TL : Remember, PERFECT CONTROL, it means he mastered spells ranked higher than 3rd rank.]

「As expected of you, well then, please teach me the way to control spells.」

Since Conrad asked for it, from that point on, it was a private lesson between me and him.
Since the target of this Sorcery Training Class was to master five 1st rank spells by the end of the first year, we basically had more leeway to do what we wanted as long as we mastered five 1st rank spells.
Though some had already learnt five spells before enrolling in the academy, asking them to learn another one or two more spells wouldn’t be such a big deal for them..
Since self-learning at home was just one’s own verbal statement, anyone who’d said they learnt, let’s say seven spells, in their first year in this academy; their statement could be regarded as a lie.

Although it wasn’t like there was no way to uncover the deception I had hidden in my sorcery, the one who had enough skill to blow my cover would, at least, be a 6th rank sorcerer or above. He would be using some high tier sorcery on top of that. Thus, it was theoretically impossible for a mere student to blow my cover.
That’s why I was quite confident in the safety of my secret.
Anyway, having 1st year students learn more than five 1st rank spells by the end of the year was far more important for the academy than the learning process itself.
As for the reason, they believed it would make it easier for the freshman to learn the 2nd rank spells in their sophomore year. That’s why students had to do their best to learn the targeted five 1st tier spell.
Furthermore, the minimum requirement for someone to learn 2nd rank spells was to master at least five 1st tier spells.
Though that requirement wasn’t absolute, doing so enabled the students to be more prepared to learn the higher tier spells. Therefore, mastering five 1st tier spells became a must.
It happened before that some genius could suddenly use a 2nd tier spell without learning the 1st tier spells first but they’re on the rare side. They might have already been half a step away from 3rd tier spells.
Anyhow, it was important to steadily increase one’s power bit-by-bit by strengthening your basics.
Therefore, I asked Conrad.

「Come to think of it, you told me earlier that you weren’t that good at sorcery, can you tell me which part you’re not good at?」

He didn’t show me his sorcery when I showed him mine the other day.
Reason being we were only permitted to use that training room for 30 minutes.
There was nothing we could do about it since it was currently the busy season. Both yesterday and today, we couldn’t borrow the training room for a long time
That’s why I wanted to see Conrad’s mastery over sorcery.
After hearing that, Conrad was…

「The spell you used just now was Zero, right? Element’s materialization.」

「Yup. The basic of the basic of sorcery.」

Aside from ice, there were still others such as Darkness, lightning, light, rock, wind, earth, fire.
So many others existed, even with the current technology, this topic would never end given the massive amount of materials in this world
So, all of them together was called Element’s Materialization.
For example, the ice element Zero spell or Zero was its element’s materialization.

「To be honest, I…. Can’t use any of them.」

「… EH?」