His immediate next class was Introduction to Mana Mechanics, taught by Professor Laila.
The woman had a different teaching style from the passionate enthusiasm of Professor Marolen.
Her attire, demeanor, and energy were more reserved.
"Mana," she spoke with a composed tone. "The energy of value, as you have undoubtedly heard from Professor Marolen. And yet, it would be an oversimplification if you thought that was the end of the matter. In reality, understanding that mana is the energy of value is actually the easiest part. The complex part about mana mechanics is understanding how mana functions, what its traits and properties are, as well as the rules governing it."
She waved her wand with a soft incantation as a drop of ink emerged from an ink bottle on the table, swiftly spreading across the board.
[Acquisition of Mana]
"The first question," she began with a calm tone. "How is mana acquired?"
Several hands rose from many eager students.
"You." She picked a student at random.
"Yes, Professor." A boy stood up stiffly. "Mana is acquired through ownership."
"And what does ownership mean?" she asked, having expected the answer. "What does it mean to 'own' something?"
An expression of surprise emerged on his face as his eyes wandered around with uncertainty.
He has clearly never given it any real thought beyond that.
"…Something that is recognized as yours by the government?" he scratched his head with a confused expression.
"There have been bank robbers who have gained a tremendous amount of mana by stealing money from a bank," the middle-aged woman pointed out as she swept aside her green hair. "But the government doesn't recognize the stolen money as theirs, does it?"
The flustered boy was rendered speechless.
"Anybody else?" she walked around the class. "What does it mean to own something? What are the discrete lines beyond which you 'own' something?"
Clearly, nobody had any idea about the details of 'ownership.'
It was understandable.
It was common knowledge that owning more wealth meant having more magical power. But very few had a nuanced understanding of what that exactly meant and where the lines were.
"To this day, nobody has developed an absolute model for what constitutes ownership," she remarked knowingly. "Despite the Awakening of Magic commencing more than a millennium ago, we have yet to gain a precise understanding of what exactly constitutes ownership of magicapita such that the owner gains mana by virtue of ownership. However…"
She shifted her glasses. "We do have good general rules. However, they can be confusing and convoluted. In order to understand them contextually, we will be exploring the history of mana mechanics as a field."
She waved her hand once more.
"It all started nine hundred seventy-eight years ago, shortly after the Awakening of Magic," Professor Laila began with the tone of a storyteller. "Magus Killia Narganen noticed that mages with greater affluence possessed greater magical power than plebeian mages. She noticed that consistently this trend was universal. She noticed that it didn't merely apply to the background but even changed when some mages used their magic to make a killing and become rich at a time when magic was still extremely scarce."
The professor directed a sweeping gaze across all her students. "What might seem obvious to us a millennium later was still amid unknown miracles back then. She maintained a journal of records of her observations before compiling all of them, allowing her to see the truth. And the result?"
She waved her wand with a soft incantation.
[The Law of Mana-Value Equivalence]
"This law states that the amount of mana one owns is directly proportional to their perceived value," she remarked. "And that was the birth of the field of Mana Mechanics. Since then, mages and magical scholars have dove into this field, looking to unlock the mysteries of mana. And while there are mysteries that we have yet to uncover, we have made great progress in this field over the centuries. In this class, we will cover the historical overview of mana mechanics as a field from a broad scope. We will get into detail with each stage of progress in the rest of the course across this semester."
And thus, she set expectations for what was to come, giving them a broader context for what they would be studying. This allowed students to know exactly where they were in the course, like a progress bar across history.
"The next important discovery following Magus Killia's discovery of the Law of Mana-Value was one that was made by…" she continued.
The students listened carefully as she smoothly conveyed a timeline of progress of the understanding of mana.
She didn't energize the atmosphere the way that Professor Marolen did. Instead, she distilled a lot of information into its core insights and essence, allowing students to digest her teaching as easily as drinking water.
While it didn't have the same thrilling fun as Professor Marolan did, she was still a highly effective teacher who taught in a manner that ensured that her students not only understood but also retained it.
"…And thus, the Recognition Hypothesis was disproved, as was the Social Consensus Hypothesis," she explained succinctly. "In other words, one doesn't gain the mana of magicapita just because one's name is on it. Neither does one gain mana just because people agree that one is the owner of a given magicapita. Tests like these have ruled out various hypotheses and have left one dominant theory that currently remains as the scientific consensus as to the parameter of what allows one to gain the mana of magicapita."
She raised a finger.
"Control."
The students stirred at her words, growing more engrossed in the lecture.
Even Cæ leaned forward with interest.
"From what we can tell, control appears to be most fundamental criteria for inheriting mana," she replied. "Not legal ownership. Not social ownership. Not physical contact. But control. As long as you are in control of magicapita, you will gain its mana. That is why if someone steals your belongings and takes it for themselves, they gain the mana instead, as opposed to the person who is still the legal owner."
Many students were surprised by this revelation.
They had assumed that legal ownership was the criterion because of how intuitive it seemed to be, but the professor had concisely conveyed the insights of various experiments, and that painted a picture that very clearly supported her answer and refuted all alternatives.
"Of course," she continued with a knowing tone. "'Control' in and of itself is a very ambiguous concept, and, as I mentioned, nobody has been able to find a clear line beyond which one loses mana. However, control is almost certainly the overarching theory. You need to have control over things, vaguely speaking, to inherit its mana. And this is the dominant scientific theory at the very center of mana acquisition. Across this course, we will go into greater detail about these experiments that have helped us rule out other hypotheses besides control. However…"
She adjusted her spectacles once more. "There is more to mana mechanics than merely mana acquisition."
She waved her wand with a faint of incantation.
[Mana Origin]
[Mana Dynamics]
[Mana Training]
"Where does mana come from?" she asked. "Why do things of value bestow, upon those who control it, mana? What are the laws governing mana after they have been acquired and can be deployed by mages to imbue their eidos with physicality? What is the mana-motive force within your mind that drives mana, and how do you train it?"
She paused for a moment, allowing those questions to linger.
"Those questions will be explored quite well across this course," she explained. "The purpose of this first lecture was to introduce you to these topics while gently giving an overview of what will be covered later in depth. This will allow you to have context for everything that comes after, so please pay attention to everything I say and save your doubts for the end of the class."
Her explanations continued smoothly like a gentle stream of clear water, smoothly imparting understanding to her students.
Among the many things that Cæ had learned, it all boiled down to one recurring feeling and intuition.
'Mana is truly mystical and unlike any other energy or force in the world.'
It was truly the energy of desire itself.
When people deeply desired something, it was as thought this desire itself would manifest as an immaterial and metaphysical trait within it that could be inherited by people. Unsurprisingly, the Psychometric-Meta schism also occurred in this particular avenue of mana mechanics.
Was mana truly metaphysical, or was it an energy that humans possessed innately, which affected the mind, which was affected by what people viewed as valuable? What was especially shocking was that, in this particular field as well, there was evidence against the Psychometric Model that the Psychometrists fought back against heavily.
"The war between the Psychometrists and the Metaists has spread across different fields of magical science," Professor Laila remarked. "Be prepared, for this is a theme that you will see again. This is especially true for those of you who are aiming to become magic scholars. The tussle between the Psychometrists and the Metaists has exploded into an enormous conflict of ideas that it takes specialists in their fields to fully understand where the debate is."
She quickly moved on from such high-minded topics, which was another place where she differed from Professor Marolen, who was extremely indulgent, perhaps a bit too much.
"And now, to the topic that is most relevant to most of you here," she continued. "Mana manipulation and the mana-motive force."
Cæ grew immersed as she continued with her explanations.
This was definitely more relevant to his goal of mastery of magic.
"The mana-motive force is the term given to the psychological phenomenon that drives mana to converge with eidos to form magic," she explained. "Colloquially, you may know it as willpower, or drive, or determination, or perseverance. Mana-motive force is an umbrella term that is meant to strip those words of their colloquial context and frame them scientifically. And it is this psychological force that you must hone and empower."
She waved her hand as a magical circle appeared before it, and several diagrams appeared on the board.
"The greater your mana-motive force, the greater the magical power of your spells," she explained smoothly. "It doesn't matter how much magicapita you own if your mana-motive force is weak. The power of mana-motive force is one of the two prime measures of mage's power and is tied to the ranking system of mages introduced by the International Mage Association. Thus, if you are aiming to become powerful masters or archmages in the future, you must empower your mana-motive force, and that is among your mandatory courses in the apprentice program."
And thus, Professor Laila imparted immense understanding to her students as the lecture progressed.
Even though her lecture was less enjoyable than Professor Marolen's lecture, the students had to admit that they did indeed walk away with more understanding and information.
As for which professor was better, that was hard to say.
Regardless, they displayed what it was that got them to be hired at the prestigious Elendir Institute of Magic. Their competence as mages and teachers was probably far above and beyond what one would get from professors of similar courses at lesser magicademies across the entire nation.
It validated Cæ's decision to join this magicademy for the second time in one day. All the hostility from the wealthy students was entirely worth it for such a high quality of education.
And thus, Cæ made his way about his first day, already substantially more learned than he was the day prior.