Descending Into A Novel-Chapter 42:Sienna’s Help

"Good afternoon Instructor Sienna."

"Wow, you actually showed up Raymond. After skipping my last two lessons you have the nerve to appear in front of me as if nothing had even happened?"

Raymond mentally pleaded with her, it was only the second week of the academy have mercy please!

"You even asked Thomas to ask me how I felt about you skipping. Should I call you smart or dumb for that?"

"..."

"I understand your reasoning for asking Thomas, such a friendly guy am I right? But you know, you should probably have worded your request a little better."

"...I don’t know what you’re talking about...?"

Raymond felt sweat dripping from his face. His facial muscles were strained just trying to maintain his blank expression.

"He said, ’Madam Sienna, by the request of Raymond. He requested me to gauge you on your reaction to him skipping your personal guidance. May I know how you feel about him skipping so often so that I can relay it back to him?’ "

’Thomas Incane!!!’

Raymond screamed his name mentally. He immediately made a mental note to never ask Thomas for anything like this ever again!

"So please Raymond. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t f-

"I formed my mana core!"

He quickly cut her off before she could continue, nearly shouting it.

He had been planning on revealing it soon anyways and the situation right now urged for it.

If he could save himself now then that was fine enough! Repercussions be damned!

"...sit down."

Raymond didn’t even realize when the surroundings had changed. Upon blinking, it seemed like he had been brought to an entirely different place.

If Raymond was at his peak he might have been able to block it but right now, despite all his knowledge—he was nothing more then shrimp in front of her.

It looked as if she had brought him to her office, he could see from the window that he was definitely in a different part of the academy grounds.

Cautiously sitting down on a wooden chair, he jumped slightly as his chair rotated itself so that he was facing her directly.

"Is it an ice-attuned core?"

"....no."

"Figures. Someone like you wouldn’t have formed such a mundane core. You’ve broken the record by 10 months already. Show me your mana."

Raymond raised his hand, palm facing upwards as he channeled his time-attuned mana. His dimension-attuned mana and core would have to stay a secret for now.

As his golden amber coloured mana flowed out of his palms, she let out a small hum upon seeing it.

"That’s a strange colour, seems like you’ve formed a new type of mana. I shouldn’t be surprised, any ideas on what it is yet?"

Awakened forming new types of mana upon forming their core wasn’t a new thing. It was rather well documented actually, with many famous individuals such as Killian who was the only person known to have formed an emotions-attuned mana.

Even though all individuals who formed a core would technically have different types of mana, most of the time they would end up forming a relatively common type of mana.

Like two people who form a fire-attuned core. Yeah they might be different technically, but when they functioned basically the exact same was there really a difference?

He acted dumb, "Not yet instructor, I was hoping you could tell me actually."

It would be strange for someone who formed a new never before seen type of mana to automatically know what it was and how to use it. Raymond himself would have been oblivious if it weren’t for the system.

She let out another hum, rubbing her chin slightly as she analyzed the golden mana. "From the colour, it seems like an earth type maybe? Gold seems feasible but it doesn’t quite resemble Dominic’s mana, it’s too dark for that...

Raymond quietly let her ponder on his mana, continuously muttering under her breath on the possible outcomes.

"Have you casted any spell using this new mana yet?"

"I have casted a few basic spells but none have been amplified by the mana. The teleport spell felt slightly more efficient but that’s it."

"Were they weakened by the mana?"

The types of mana greatly changed the outcome of a spell, fire-attuned mana would amplify any fire based spells but try and use it for an ice based spell and it would massively weaken it instead.

By a form of trial and error, his mana type could be determined based on this and a lot of deductive capabilities.

"None were weakened."

"So only your teleport spell was boosted from this new mana? Nothing else was?"

He nodded to confirm.

It was called dimension by the system, but Raymond believed the space was a more suitable term. Space and time were fundamentally connected as spacetime after all. Forming two mana cores required both to be of similar or non-clashing types.

"Interesting...start casting off the spells that I list off. Then tell me whether you feel an effect."

"First, show me your teleport spell."

He looked around again, without realizing it. He had been brought back to the special class training hall.

Raymond waved his arm and summoned his staff, its wooden grip materializing itself in his hands.

"Teleport."

With a brief blink, Raymond found himself standing ten meters ahead of where he was standing previously. Turning back, he could see his instructor staring at his staff.

"Where did you get that?"

Right. He had forgotten but soulbound items weren’t exactly common in this dimension, or whatever the term for it was called.

It was a bit confusing for Raymond sometimes when different places used different words for the same thing.

Like the Von Mez fighting style would probably be called the Von Mez Arts instead. Soulbound items probably had some other name here.

"It’s a gift from the Grace Family."

"I see...", she quickly lost interest in it. "Cast a teleport on this ice cube now."

And so Raymond repeated that same process over and over and over again. Continuously casting whatever new spell she thought of, sometimes forcing him to cast the same spell over and over again.

Fortunately, his race bonus and his newly reactivated cores also increased his mana reserves. Otherwise he would definitely have suffered some form of mana sickness!

’No, at this rate I might really get mana burn!’

"Cast the basic summon element for the four elements."

He groaned before doing as she said, summoning a basic ball or air, water, fire and earth. "No difference instructor."

Ignoring his groans, she continued. "Cast the improved float spell."

Improved Float spell was a second circle spell, while Raymond hadn’t even ’formed’ his first circle yet.

She had essentially asked Raymond to cast spells that were out of his reach normally.

Well, Raymond could cast them. But still, asking someone who bad just formed their core to cast spells like that!

Heck, seeing some of the spells that she wanted Raymond to cast made his own blood pressure rise.

For an Archmage like him, it was frustrating seeing all of the mistakes and inefficient parts of each spell.

"No effect."

She noted it down on a notepad, her pen furiously scrubbing away.

"Cast a...

’Save me Ellen!’

He pleaded in his mind but it was no use. They were all in separate training halls so they never met during the personal guidance class unless requested.

Raymond was pretty sure the bell had already rung. But instructor Sienna kept him back anyways!

He sighed, casting it again.

" Cast a heal spell on yourself."

’Ellen please!’

Finally after he had ran out of mana. Something he hadn’t experienced in a long long time. She had stopped.

Raymond figured this was her form of revenge for skipping her classes. But forcing students to stay back after class was just too much!

Raymond collapsed onto the ground, he could already feel the mana burn coming in. Similar to a heartburn, his overusage of mana had caused him mana burn.

With the slight dizziness and nausea along with the uncomfortable burning in the area around his cores. Fighting the urge to throw up was all he could do.

"Instructor Sienna... have you figured out what my mana type is yet?", he asked from the floor.

"... not yet. Come back here tomorrow and we’ll repeat this until we can get a better idea on it."

He sighed as loud as he could, making sure that she could hear it.

While he could understand from her point of view, it would be pretty hard to find out his mana type. He couldn’t help but blame her a little bit.

They didn’t even have personal guidance class tomorrow so she was just telling him to come after all their classes ended.

Raymond would have loved to skip tomorrow, but he wanted to at least attend the other special class only lessons at least once.

Struggling to get up, he put his hands on his knees as he fought the mana burn.

"And by the way Raymond. I’ll forgive you this time, but I want to see you here each time we have personal guidance. Do. You. Under. Stand? "

He could only nod meekly, after all of that then only she had forgiven him?

What kind of sick teacher would cause their student to suffer from mana burn?! At least mana burn wasn’t dangerous, just a pain to go through.

At least she was better then his old teachers...

He quickly shook his head, erasing that train of thought from existence.

After he had mustered up enough energy, he quickly hobbled his way out of the training halls.

Taking a deep breath of the fresh air. Raymond nearly shed a tear at the sight if the sun which had nearly set.

The regular school day was supposed to end at four, but seeing the sun nearly below the horizon. He could tell how late it was.

"haah, I wanna go sleep already."

But he had already promised Ellen he would help her form her core, they hadn’t yet received their first mission as special class students but time was of the essence. Ellen would need that strength for their plans soon.

Resigned, rather then taking the path back to the dorms. He started walking to the training hall he reserved.

As for why he didn’t just teleport there. Well, as a plus to the dizziness, nausea and burning feeling—mana burn also made using mana uncomfortable as hell.

Besides, walking wasn’t such a bad thing to do every once in a while.