Chương 10: Chapter 9: First Principles

Three days after arriving at Crownspire, Elizabeth attended her first lesson. Her timetable began at eight in the morning and ended at five in the afternoon. Eight classes had been arranged between those hours, separated by brief intervals and a lunch period that appeared too short for anyone expected to cross the academy on foot. Celia had warned her that the introductory timetable was unusually compressed.

"They want you to see every instructor before anyone decides they chose the wrong courses," she had explained.

"From next week, half of these classes will only meet two or three times." Elizabeth arrived at Mana Control and Safety ten minutes early. The classroom resembled a lecture theatre, with curved rows descending towards a reinforced demonstration floor. Nearly sixty first-years occupied the seats by the time the instructor entered. Professor Lorne was a broad woman with greying hair and several burn scars across her hands. She began without introducing herself.

"Your System protects you from most of your own incompetence." The room became quiet.

"It regulates mana intake, prevents incompatible energies from entering your channels and interrupts skills when the result would cause immediate death. This does not make you safe. It means the most common forms of stupidity have already been accounted for." Several students laughed. Professor Lorne did not. She demonstrated by holding a clear training crystal above her palm. A line of blue light moved from the crystal into her wrist, branching beneath the skin before disappearing.

"Mana control is not the creation of magic. Your skills perform the complex work. Control determines how much material you provide, how efficiently you provide it and whether you injure yourself in the process." Elizabeth recorded the phrasing. The class taught students how to sense the activation of their channels, interrupt an accidental mana draw and recognise the symptoms of overuse. Since Elizabeth possessed no active magical skill yet, she could only follow the breathing exercises and observe the others.

Several students claimed to feel mana immediately. Elizabeth felt nothing. Her second lesson, Class Development, took place in a smaller hall lined with portraits of famous class holders. Instructor Hale explained that classes were shaped by experience before awakening and behaviour afterwards. A person did not advance merely by possessing a class. The System rewarded actions consistent with the class's nature. A Warrior developed through combat and physical mastery.

A Healer progressed by treating injuries and preserving life. A Merchant advanced through trade, valuation and the expansion of commercial influence.

"What happens when someone acts against their class?" a student asked.

"Usually, very little," Hale said.

"The System does not punish a Baker for learning swordsmanship. It simply provides less assistance than it would to someone whose class recognises that behaviour." Elizabeth's situation differed. Experimentalist explicitly reduced progression from ordinary repetition unless the activity contributed to research. She suspected the restriction would prove more severe than Hale's general explanation suggested. Combat Foundations followed. The class was held in a wide training hall divided into marked squares.

Students were assessed for balance, reflexes and physical condition before being shown how to fall without striking their heads against the floor. Elizabeth performed adequately. Her body possessed normal strength for its age, but it lacked endurance. She was thrown twice by a smaller girl with a Knightess class and discovered that knowing the mechanics of leverage did not compensate for failing to apply them quickly enough. Instructor Dain marked something on his board.

"You think too long before moving."

"I want to make the correct movement."

"During a fight, a late correct movement is usually worse than an immediate imperfect one." She could not dispute the point. After changing out of the training uniform, Elizabeth crossed the academy to Kingdom History and Law. The classroom had stained-glass windows depicting the founding of the kingdom. At the centre of the largest image, a golden figure descended from the sky and placed one hand upon the head of a kneeling monarch. Professor Aster began the lesson beneath that window.

"Two thousand, four hundred and eleven years ago, mankind possessed no System." He spoke with the rhythm of someone reciting a well-rehearsed account.

"Magic existed, but only a small number of individuals could survive contact with it. Those early practitioners were powerful, unstable and frequently destructive. Kingdoms rose around them and collapsed when they died." The image behind him changed as sunlight passed through the coloured glass.

"Then the Divine Sovereign appeared before Aurelian, first king of our nation. The Sovereign granted him the System and commanded him to distribute its blessing according to duty, lineage and merit." A page appeared in Elizabeth's Research Log. She entered the account without comment. According to Professor Aster, Aurelian used the System to awaken his followers, establish the first recognised classes and defeat the uncontrolled sorcerers who ruled much of the continent.

The highest classes were granted to the king and the houses that served him, while lesser classes spread among soldiers, artisans and labourers. This hierarchy was presented as deliberate.

"The System does not merely grant power," Aster said.

"It identifies purpose. The first monarch understood that a stable kingdom requires every person to fulfil the role for which they are suited." A boy near the front raised his hand.

"Professor, why do noble families continue to receive higher-tier classes?"

"Because their ancestors were entrusted with greater responsibility, and because noble children are prepared to inherit that responsibility." No mention was made of expensive tutors, controlled experiences or years of mana exposure. Elizabeth had no evidence that the Divine Sovereign had never existed or that Aurelian had not received the System through divine intervention. She did, however, recognise the political utility of the story.

If the first king had distributed the System according to divine instruction, then the monarchy was not merely a government. It was the authorised administrator of human potential. Questioning the class hierarchy could therefore be treated as questioning God. Elizabeth recorded that too. Mathematics and Natural Philosophy came next. The instructor began with Arithmetic with magical units and conversions.

The mathematics was all familiar, though the examples involved mana moving through crystals rather than electrical charge moving through conductors. The academy defined a mana field as a region in which mana-sensitive matter experienced measurable influence. Directional changes were represented through gradients, while crystal output was described through density, flux and resistance, though the intricacies of this would be explained in detail when she was in 4th year. Elizabeth found the terminology encouraging.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The people of this world were not ignorant. They measured mana, modelled its movement and used mathematical relationships to predict outcomes. Their limitation came from the point at which the System became involved. They could measure what entered a skill and what emerged from it, but the process between those states remained inaccessible. Lunch lasted thirty-five minutes.

Elizabeth ate quickly and reached Spatial Phenomena before most of the other students. Only eleven desks were occupied. Professor Vale entered wearing dark green robes and the satisfied expression of a man whose published work had been included in the required reading list.

"Space," he began, "is not emptiness. It is the structure through which position, distance and direction become meaningful." The opening was better than she had expected. The introductory lecture covered coordinate frames, dimensional storage and the dangers of spatial displacement. Most spatial skills did not move an object through the distance between two points. They altered the relationship between those points, either shortening the route or treating the destination as temporarily adjacent.

The System handled the necessary calculations. Without it, according to Vale, even a minor error could place part of the user inside solid matter. Elizabeth paid close attention. Her Mythic class option had included Fold Step. Experimentalist did not grant it, but Mechanistic Replication might eventually allow her to reproduce the skill if she understood it well enough. That would require considerably more than watching someone disappear and reappear. Mana Biology followed in the medical sciences building.

Professor Sorell began by drawing a simplified cell on the board.

"Mana does not replace metabolism," she said.

"A healing skill can accelerate tissue repair, but the body still requires amino acids, lipids, minerals and energy. If those materials are unavailable, the skill either fails or begins taking them from elsewhere." She described the consequences of excessive healing: muscle wasting, mineral depletion, fever and uncontrolled cell proliferation. Healing skills reduced some of those risks by regulating growth, suppressing infection and directing tissue formation, but they did not eliminate biological limits.

Elizabeth found herself leaning forward. The terminology differed, but much of the underlying biology remained recognisable. Cells possessed membranes, proteins acted as catalysts and hereditary information was stored within complex molecular structures. Mana introduced additional organelles and signalling pathways, but it had not replaced chemistry. Professor Sorell concluded by displaying preserved tissue from a mana-adapted animal. The sample contained threadlike structures that ordinary animals lacked.

"Mana channels are not hollow tubes," she explained.

"They are networks of specialised cells that conduct and regulate mana through the body. Their exact structure varies between species and classes." Elizabeth added three research questions before the specimen was removed. Her final scheduled lesson was Applied Alchemy. The laboratory occupied the circular building Celia had shown her during the tour. Each student received protective gloves, an apron and a workstation fitted with a balance, glassware and a mana-shielded heating surface.

Professor Saye introduced alchemy as the controlled transformation of matter through chemical, thermal and magical processes.

"Magic does not excuse inaccurate measurement," he said.

"If a procedure requires twelve grams, eleven is not close enough simply because you intend the reaction to succeed." The first demonstration involved dissolving powdered moonstone in an acidic solution. The reaction proceeded slowly until the professor introduced a measured flow of water mana, which altered the crystal structure and increased the dissolution rate. Elizabeth recognised the broader principle. The mana had lowered an energetic barrier or changed the reaction pathway.

It functioned similarly to a catalyst, though she did not yet know whether it was consumed. She wanted to repeat the procedure under controlled conditions, varying concentration, temperature and mana input separately. Instead, the class ended with a safety lecture. At five, the academy bells rang and the students began leaving. Elizabeth remained at her bench while Professor Sorell locked the reagent cabinets.

"Lady White." She looked up.

"The laboratory is closed."

"I was reviewing the equipment."

"You can review it tomorrow." Elizabeth gathered her books and left with the others. She returned to North House, ate an early dinner and spent an hour in her room waiting for the laboratory complex to empty. At seven, she changed into a plain academy uniform and placed the depleted crystal fragment inside her pocket. Her thermometer, timing device and notebook followed. The first-year laboratory doors were locked. The side entrance used by assistants was not.

Elizabeth had watched two technicians enter through it during the afternoon, each pressing a metal badge against the plate beside the door. The plate remained illuminated for several seconds after activation. She waited behind a stone column until a technician left, then caught the door before the mechanism finished closing. The corridor beyond was empty. She entered and allowed the door to shut behind her. The laboratory looked different without students.

The heating surfaces were dark, the glassware had been returned to its racks and faint blue safety lights illuminated the aisles. Elizabeth selected a workstation farthest from the windows. She did not open the reagent cabinets. That would leave evidence and potentially trigger an alarm. Everything she needed for the first experiment was already available: water, glass vessels, a balance, metal sheets and a mana-density meter. She placed the crystal fragment on the bench. Her System responded.

Working Hypothesis may be registered. Elizabeth opened the skill. Hypothesis: The measurable influence produced by the mana crystal decreases as material thickness increases, and different materials attenuate the influence at different rates. Confirm registration? She confirmed. The words moved into her Research Log. Elizabeth filled two identical glass vessels with equal masses of water and allowed them to settle until both reached the same temperature. One served as the experimental sample.

The other remained several metres away as a control. She measured the crystal's output with the mana-density meter, then placed a thin sheet of glass between the crystal and the instrument. The reading fell slightly. She repeated the measurement with two sheets, then three, maintaining the same distance and orientation. Each additional layer reduced the reading, but not by a constant amount. She performed the sequence again with iron. The attenuation was much greater. Copper produced a different result.

The reading behind the sheet fell, but the instrument registered a higher value near the sheet's edges. The material might not be absorbing the mana. It could be redirecting it. Elizabeth repeated the copper measurement from several angles. The effect persisted. Variable Analysis quietly added a list beside her notes. Known uncontrolled variables: Ambient mana concentration Crystal orientation Instrument calibration drift Material purity Temperature variation Useful, but none were discoveries.

They were factors she already understood well enough to recognise. Elizabeth calibrated the meter against the laboratory's fixed reference crystal, then repeated the entire procedure. The result remained. She moved to the water samples. One vessel was positioned beside the crystal while the control remained isolated. She recorded both temperatures every minute. After ten minutes, the experimental vessel had warmed by less than half a degree. The control had not changed beyond the thermometer's uncertainty.

The energy involved was small but measurable. No matter had crossed into the sealed vessel, and the crystal had remained outside the glass. Mana could therefore transfer energy through a barrier without direct contact. That did not identify its nature. Radiation, fields and pressure waves could all produce effects across distance. Even particles might pass through glass if sufficiently weakly interacting. She checked the mana meter again. The needle did not remain perfectly still.

It rose and fell around the average reading in a repeated pattern. Elizabeth watched it for several cycles. The oscillation might have come from the instrument. It might have been caused by the crystal, the academy's ambient field or a nearby piece of equipment. She resisted the urge to decide too early. Instead, she started the timing device. Peak. Decline. Lowest point. Rise. Peak again. The interval remained close to four seconds. Elizabeth repeated the measurement after rotating the crystal.

The interval changed. Her pulse quickened. A single instrument and a damaged crystal were not enough. She needed several mana types, better sampling equipment and a way to separate spatial variation from temporal variation. Still, the behaviour was not random. The System updated. Working Hypothesis partially supported. New observation recorded: Mana output may vary periodically under fixed macroscopic conditions. Experimentalist progression increased. Elizabeth looked at the crystal fragment.

In her previous world, waves had been defined by oscillation and the transfer of energy without the permanent transfer of matter. Light, sound and electromagnetic radiation differed enormously, yet each could be described through frequency, wavelength, amplitude and phase. It was far too early to claim mana behaved the same way. But for the first time, she had a direction. Footsteps sounded in the corridor.

Elizabeth extinguished the bench light, returned the instruments to their positions and slipped the crystal into her pocket. The laboratory door opened. She crouched beneath the workstation as light spread across the floor. Sneaking into the academy laboratory on her first day had been premature. The data, however, had been worth it.