Academy’s Undercover Professor-Chapter 37

Some students had bewildered faces.

Rudger pointed to one of the students sitting in the front row.

“The student in the front row. Anthony was it?”

“Yes teacher!”

“Which elemental attribute can you use?”

“That, that……Water, ice and plants.”

“Which of them are you most confident about?”

“The ice element.”

“Then, can you show the ice element right here?”

To Rudger’s words, Anthony answered yes and a magical sphere appeared in his right hand. The basic mana emission began, and the properties of mana were included in earnest.

It was a pure white sphere. To be precise, it was close to a ball of snow that had been pressed tightly.

“It’s normal.”

“Thank you.”

“You sound like a no-brainer.”

“……”

Anthony’s face darkened at Rudger’s words.

“Look at what I do.”

In Rudger’s right hand a magical sphere appeared. It was a mass of ice properties like the one made by Anthony, but something was different. No, it was still changing.

“Do you feel it?”

The student did not respond to Rudger’s words. He was just staring at the chunk of ice he had created as if possessed. The sphere Rudger created was much colder and sharper than his, and it felt like the perennial snow sleeping deep underground in the North Continent.

Rudger compressed the sphere even more and turned it into ice crystals. The blue crystals blew a cold chill around, creating the illusion that the classroom itself was covered with ice.

“Can you see the difference?”

The students still stared blankly at the place where the element was. Although it was the same ice element, Rudger’s and Anthony’s manifestations were very different.

Did he use more magic power? No, the efficiency itself was different. And that’s what Rudger was trying to teach them today.

“Is there really something different?”

“How did teacher do it?”

The atmosphere in the classroom gradually heated up. There is no magician who would refuse anything that would make his magic skills better.

“Of today’s two hours of class, 30 minutes will be about basic theories, and in rest you will learn how to increase the manifestation efficiency of your elements.”

The students all focused on Rudger’s words, with their eyes shining brightly.

“Before we get into the principle of manifestation, let’s get into the basics of <elemental attribute >.”

All students glanced at what was written on the handout.

“Elemental attributes are a specialization with a deep history and genealogy that even appeared in the manifestation system right after the release of magic.”

Magic can only be used with magical powers and primordial magic, a very primitive form of magic, is based on the manifestation of this magical power.

That was the first specialization of the manifestation system, named <Magic release>.

From the release of such magical power the <Elemental Attributes>, which contains the elements of nature in the magic, was developed.

“It has now been established as a part of the manifestation system, but in the early primitive forms of magic, elemental attributes were called the basis of all magic.”

Rudger said so and floated 4 magical spheres in the air.

“Currently, it has been established to manifest the power of an element that matches one’s own magical power through natural science, but in the early days of manifesting elemental attributes, we focused on the relationship between nature and humans.”

Each of the magical spheres began to take on one attribute.

Fire, water, earth, and wind.

“These are the first four attributes. Compared to now, when the number of attributes has increased to 10 or more, the number is very small. However, we cannot see this simply as an attribute. These four elements are not just pure elements, because they contain the symbolism people thought of in those days.”

Earth is hard and strong.

Fire is powerful and destructive.

Water is soft and acclimatized.

Wind is freedom.

The students listened to Rudger as if possessed. A theoretical teaching on origins should be boring but no one thought so.

‘I already know this.’

Flora was dissatisfied with the content.

After all, she knew the origins of elemental attributes, having to listen to what she already knew were terribly tedious and laborious. But even knowing this, she was humiliated by the way she was subtly drowning in Rudger’s voice.

“Since then, elemental attributes have been developed and analyzed from a rational point of view rather than a natural symbol. The number of elements that used to be four has increased to ten.”

‘He keeps saying words I already knew.’

“A conflict has arisen between the mystic school, which values ​​tradition, and the natural science school, which seeks to further develop modern science by applying it.”

‘It’s just that you have a pretty face and a good voice.’

“In the end, we have no choice but to adapt to the changes in the world. Not the teachings of the Order, but where to use the magic of nature.”

‘……Still, it’s worth listening to.’

Rudger, who removed the magic that was floating in the air, glanced around the classroom and asked a question.

“Does any student know for what reason elemental magic has developed so dramatically? I’ll give 5 points to the person who answers correctly. An example is the flame element.”

The students immediately raised their hands.

Rudger named them one by one.

“There.”

“It is to light the light and drive out the darkness.”

“Wrong. Next.”

“It is to clear the forest by burning it.”

“Too formal. Next.”

“Uh, um. Is it to get rid of the primal human fear of darkness?”

“You would be more suited to writing poetry.”

Laughter erupted among the students.

Flora Lumos raised her hand proudly.

“Yes. Flora Lumos.”

“To burn something to death.”

Silence lingered in the classroom because Flora’s words were so direct and unconventional.

“Can you tell me exactly what it is?”

“Of course it’s a person.”

The students rolled their eyes in a frozen state. Everyone in this room now had the same thoughts. Rudger is going to rebuke Flora hard but Rudger nodded his head.

“That’s right. Flora Lumos, you receive 5 points.”

The eyes of the students rested on Flora and then turned to Rudger again.

“For what did elemental magic develop? The answer is slaughter.”

After civilization was established and took shape, magic continued to develop. The hierarchy was divided, and the higher the magic hierarchy, the stronger the power and the higher the lethality.

“The first target was a monster. However, even after the monsters were driven out to the continent of shadows, magic grew stronger. Why? Because of the cryptids. But there are very few cryptids so for whom was magic made stronger and sharper?”

Magic was developed to kill humans.

War, colonial rule and violence were the driving force that further strengthened and developed magic. In the current era of peace those words were nothing short of taboo for the students learning magic.

To compare magic history and tradition to something like murder meant that Rudger was just telling everyone here right now that they were pre-murderers but this was undeniably true. It was also a reality that wizards who value tradition deny.

“Fire to burn, water to drown, wind to cut, electricity to support. Magic that developed along with human history grew with the driving force of war and slaughter. It is a truth that can never be denied. Yes. After all, the elemental attribute we learn is the Tower of Babel built on top of countless lives and corpses.”

Rudger took a breath and continued.

“You who learn it are the executioners of the slaughter.”

“Gulp.”

The classroom was enveloped in silence to the extent that the sound of someone swallowing saliva echoed through the classroom. The subject Rudger was talking about was sensitive to all wizards, not just students learning magic.

“But we can change.”

Rudger’s voice gently wrapped around the entire classroom.

“There is no guarantee that this has been the case in the past and that this will be the case in the future. Now that the world has changed, fire is not only used to burn. Look at the back of the handout I gave you.”

Come to think of it, there was a handout handed out right away as soon as he entered the classroom but they were so focused on Rudger’s teaching that they forgot.

The students hurriedly turned over the handout and looked at the contents of the back page. There were crude pictures of various structures printed in ink. However, there was no difficulty in recognizing the picture itself.

“Fire doesn’t just burn, it provides energy with its burning power. In the cold, fire is a symbol of survival, not destruction.”

The flowing water turns the water wheel, and the river that collects the water becomes a passage for countless ships.

The wind drives the windmills to provide wind power, and the electricity itself replenishes energy and emits light.

Water and ice wash away the heat in the blazing desert.

“As we learn, the meaning of an element changes depending on how we behave in the future.”

Rudger’s voice echoed through the classroom.

To make something, not to destroy it. Not to erase the world, but to lead it in a better direction.

“That is the basic mindset you need to learn before learning the elemental attributes.”

No one dared to open their mouths. It felt like a huge wave came crashing down and engulfed their body. However, what they felt was not unpleasantness, but rather a refreshing feeling as if something covered in their heads had been removed.

Even Flora Lumos, with her mouth wide open, stared intently at Rudger.

Rudger showed them a new world.

“Strive for a better world. The teachings of my elemental attribute are a lesson for it.”

Rudger grinned at the students and came down from the pulpit.

“Now, let’s start implementing elements in earnest.”

The students gathered in the classroom started learning the elements in earnest. What element they are specialized in is to be learned fundamentally from the time they first learn magic.

The children, who had been taught magic before entering Theon, used their magical powers without difficulty and covered them with their own elements.

Rudger walked slowly through the classroom, pointing at the elemental spheres the students had made one by one.

“Joseph, concentrate the flow of magic a little more. The element itself is fine, but the release of magic power is inexperienced. Are you really a Theon sophomore? Don’t be distracted.”

“Yes!”

“Irena Caroman, did you make a plant attribute now? The plant attribute should embrace the freshness of nature but yours is like seeing rotting leaves on the ground in late autumn. Keep your mind straight and make a strong image in your mind of a sprout that has just broken through the ground.”

“Yeah……”

Rudger never spoke kindly. Every time he threw a word, the faces of the students fell horribly but what was even more unfortunate was that Rudger’s words were not wrong at all. Beyond that, his advice was far too accurate.

It may sound harsh, but Rudger sees the weaknesses of his students, and at the same time provides a way for them to get better. His words seem to hurt their pride but when they meditate on them the students realize that Rudger is helping them. But even so, Rudger’s Spartan teaching style is scary to young students.

Every time Rudger took a step towards a student, that student was not able to properly manifest his attribute elements because they were concerned about Rudger.

“What are you doing now? Does magic look like a joke? If you can’t stay focused, it’s not even worth taking my class.”

“Sorry!”

“Before you speak, pay more attention to your magic. Close your ears and look only in front of you.”

“Yes!”

Every time Rudger passed by, the students’ voices spread like ripples, forming harmony. Aidan, a commoner boy attending Rudger’s class, broke into a cold sweat as he saw the teacher getting closer and closer.

This was because Aidan had not yet been able to properly manifest his elemental attribute.

Rudger stopped in front of Aidan. His sharp gaze turned to him, who was unable to do anything.