09.20 cycle seven, Ca’thir, of calendar Moonrachia

  Someone actually raised their hand after I gave them a little taunt to demonstrate a second-layered magic chain with 2 opposite elements?

  Wielding magic itself is already difficult, even in this world, not everyone is capable of doing that

  First, you must precisely draw a magic circle using your own mana

  Second, you must maintain control over the circle without overpouring mana so it doesn’t go berserk or allowing it to collapse from insufficiency

  Third, you must alter the core of the circle to activate it

  Let me ask you, could you draw the same { } on your paper exactly as it shows on this screen? See? Even with your own hand and finger, you still couldn’t draw it perfectly

  Now, without any physical aid, just imagination alone, could you manifest { } as a stable visual image? Like a status screen in a Fiction Comic? Without being slightly too long or shorter?

  The second step alone is already this difficult

  Now imagine maintaining { } and [ ] simultaneously as a second-layered chain

  In short, that is how magic circles function

  Wait... who am I even explaining this to?

  Scratching the back of my head in confusion

  Through my enchanted vision, I could see her badge, Eiryn

  No family name

  And in class A?

  I see. It seems I've found my successor

  “Alright, you there, who’s raising your hand, Eiryn”

  “Come to the front podium.”

  Gently gesturing for her to come with my finger

  “Anyone, please keep your mouth shut, otherwise, I’m going to call you to the front too.”

  With the entire classroom looking at her, it seems she feels kind of overwhelmed?

  Eiryn, glancing around the classroom, before slowly rising from her seat and walking toward the podium

  She has slightly curly long hair, with a light purple color, and glasses

  I could see her looking down rather than looking at my eyes

  Was she nervous? Or just not confident?

  When she’s finally standing beside me, she’s just glancing a few times at my face while her face is still slightly looking down at the floor

  The classroom was dead silent, but you could feel the pressure through them

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Alright then, Eiryn, you may demonstrate it.” While slowly taking a few steps away from her

  She glanced at me once, then nodded, whispering a quiet, 'Okay.'

  Wasn't the main focus right now Eiryn’s demonstration? Why did I feel a lot of people staring at my back?

  It feels a bit itchy

  When I look behind me, the stare disappears, then when I turn my gaze to look at Eiryn, it appears again…

  Are you guys trying to take revenge on me? My brows are twitching a few times

  Then Eiryn, shyly raised both of her hands around her chest level

  As she opened her palms, I could sense mana gathering from the air

  Slowly, a basic fire magic circle, a fireball manifested on the left of her hand, and shortly, a blue magic circle manifested on her right hand, a basic magic, a water bullet

  Through that short manifestation of a magic circle, you could see a flower petal manifest, slowly fall, and fade away

  There are 5 hierarchies of the power of mages and knights

  Petals I > Sigil marks II > Vein III > Horn IV > Halo V

  And each individual has their own unique manifestation of each hierarchy

  A sign will appear, once they’re using their power, such as when Noah uses his magic, you could see a halo manifested above his head

  It’s a sign of which hierarchy they’re at the moment

  There’s no explanation for how that thing happened, and that’s as normal as how people gain muscle when working out

  But when you look from the outside perspective of this world, it's kind of strange

  Well, it's not the main focus for today

  Chain magic is not like casting two different magic circles at the same time, but rather, linking two of them into one circle

  Sounds the same, but entirely different

  For combined magic, it's like throwing 2 rocks at the same time, while chain magic is like linking 2 rocks to give a bigger impact

  Eiryn has already failed 2 times already

  It's pretty much expected that combining 2 different elements that are opposite to each other is pretty hard

  Eiryn looked like a frightened kitten after her failed demonstration

  I slowly walked back to the podium, then look at the student, “Let's give Eiryn an applause for trying.”

  When I start clapping my hands, slowly, the entire class follows after me

  “That was a good attempt, Eiryn.”

  “Combining 2 different elements is not a simple task, at least you're brave enough to come to the podium and try, don’t be discouraged.”

  “You may return to your seat now.”

  I could not help but notice Eiryn folding her hands together in front of her waist, trying to hide their trembling hand

  She gave me a small bow before walking back to her seat, her bangs lowered to conceal her face

  While I was looking at her back, she felt unconfident, huh?

  Tapping the table a few times to make a loud enough sound to get all of the students' attention

  “Now, does anyone know why Eiryn's attempt failed?”

  There are only glances and whispers around the classroom, when I think no one is going to answer, Bastian actually raises his hand

  “Mr. Haelm already explained them in the last class. To chain 2 different elements, rather than combine them fully into one, you need to maintain both of the magic circles simultaneously so they can be linked together.”

  “But I failed to understand why Eiryn's attempt failed.”

  I see, so he’s not just looks and bloodline, but actually slightly smart, huh?

  Though I still wonder why he couldn’t do this, perhaps he didn’t have a private teacher because he was the last son of the king?

  Seems the king favors the heir of the kingdom, huh

  “Alright, listen and watch carefully, because I don’t want to explain it again later.”

  I raised my hand to chest level and extended my arm fully

  Then, when I open my palm, I instantly cast the same magic as Eiryn used before, which is fireball and water bullet

  “As Bastian explained, no, rather as how Mr. Haelm explained before, chain magic is NOT combining 2 or more magic, but rather linking them together.”

  “Also, the reason you failed linking 2 different magics with the opposite elements was that even a slight imbalance in mana will cause one to overpower the other and dispel it entirely.”

  “But it's entirely possible if you're capable of doing complex calculations to give each of the magic the same amount of mana, then combining them would be absolutely possible.”

  That is the basis of counter-elements

  The more mana you pour into an element, the stronger it becomes. More mana means a greater mass of water, or a higher temperature of fire

  It all depends on how you manipulate it

  “This is how the 1:1 ratio would look.” A strange sigil appears on my arms, like a Mandelbrot-style magic circle that spirals into infinitesimal detail

  By forcefully combining both elements and compressing them instantly, neither can dominate or dispel the other one, instead, the two forces collide and collapse simultaneously

  Both elements cancel each other out, leaving behind a large volume of boiling steam

  “Chain magic is not the art of combining magic, rather, it gives them a chain reaction.”

  “To put it simply, combining magic is one singular magic circle that has already been constructed with other magic circles.”

  “This is the combined magic, an intermediate magic.” A slightly larger magic circle was manifested on the side of my body, letting out a fire spear that was covered with lightning

  “This is combined magic, a Fire lance (lightning attribute).”

  While maintaining the Fire lance

  I gather another mana with the same hand that I was used to demonstrating fire and water magic before, to construct another 2 different magic circles

  This time, it's a fireball and a wind barrier, then I linked both of the magic together, and it gives a firestorm

  “This is chain magic, you linked a magic circle with another magic circle, in simple terms, it's a chain reaction, with linking fireball and wind barrier, it gives us a firestorm, not exactly like the real firestorm, the intermediate fire magic.”

  Then dispel both of the magic simultaneously

  I was so focused on demonstrating that I didn’t realize the class was deathly quiet

  Was it really that hard to understand?

  Well, I didn’t teach them in the same way as the usual explanation, some of my explanations were based on the fiction I’d read back on Earth

  When I look at the student, Bastian, looking at me with a surprised face, while Eiryn looks at me with wide eyes

  And some were taking notes in a hurry

  “Does anyone have a question?”

  The moment my heart beat once, my eyes were stinging, as if someone had poked me in the eyes

  The world was instantly turned into black and white

  But the visual was distorted like a cracked mirror

  With another heartbeat

  A red string covered each of the students, while someone like Bastian and Eiryn was almost drowned in that string

  And with another heartbeat, everything comes back normal

  I was shivering from head to toes, with a few sweat drops forming on my back

  What was just happening…?

  ---END---