Excerpt from the Diary of Jonathan, found 45 years after his death

  Going on adventures, delving, and meeting new friends has always been my dream. My dad used to scold me for always trying to play with the ‘sword’ that was just a wooden stick I found near our home, but I couldn’t help it. For as long as I remembered, I wanted to be a warrior of legends.

  What better goal for a man is there than that?

  And so, when my mana heart showed itself, I immediately left the capital. I never tried to discover whether I had this “third eye” that the mages use to see mana. I lived for the sword, and I always doubted that a mage, no matter how powerful, would be a match for a good swordsman. Truly, I would have left the capital even if I didn’t have the capacity to be a mana-enhanced warrior—so strong was my calling. I would let all of Lavarza sing my name, and I wouldn’t need magic for a thing like that.

  It only took one meeting with this strange young mage, Meriel, to change my views on magic, however.

  "First off, we are not that used to people without weapons taking the exam," the woman said, looking at the stump of his arm. He almost forgot about not having it, since for so long he didn't feel any sensations from the stump. It was second nature to him now, assuming that his hand wasn't there.

  "I assure you, madam, I can cast magic just fine." He met her eyes. The gaze prolonged for a moment, but finally she nodded and looked at the stack of papers in front of her.

  "Okay, then! First off, take in mana into your bla… your mana heart.” She looked him up and down again. “I am sure you might be talented, but are you sure you don’t need a blade?”

  “Certain.” Meriel replied briskly, not waiting for further questions. He took a deep breath and began swooping the mana from the training room. It wasn't that he had to concentrate on siphoning; quite the opposite, actually.

  He did his best to only take in a sliver of what he was capable of, not wanting to repeat the last time he saturated so much. It felt like putting a giant lid in front of a streaming river and trying to only let a small blast of water through. It was harder than he had expected, but not hard enough to stop him. Slowly, ever so slowly, his mana heart filled up more than it had before, and he gave the instructor a self-satisfied smile.

  "Impressive control!" the woman said, nodding and scribbling something onto the paper with controlled, swift moves. “And that’s quite the amount of mana for someone without a blade. You must be the man that the Department head talked about.”

  Finally, she moved her eyes up again and turned to another page in front of her. "Very well then. I have not expected someone to refuse using a sword today. But let's see what you can do. Create a spell of any element you want, but it has to be visible."

  What kind of a task was this even? Meriel thought about it for only a moment and created a small puddle of water in front of him, the incantation rolling off his tongue, and he watched it drop to the ground in a splurge.

  [Create Water - Level 60 - Activated]

  The woman, to Meriel's surprise, seemed to be shocked by the droplet of water.

  "So fast!" She raised her eyebrows and wrote something into her notebook once again.

  So much for keeping a low profile! Meriel thought to himself and fought back the smirk.

  "Great job! Mr. Mev!" Mary said, catching herself before she called him by his true name.

  "This is nothing! He can do way better!" Ziggy muttered. Hopefully not loudly enough for the teacher to hear.

  "That will do. Okay, but the spell-swords need to also know how to move in close combat—that's why they use swords," she said, raising her tone and leaving the hint of surprise behind. "Show me how you can reinforce your body with mana."

  Reinforce body with mana? But that was a fighter technique! Why would a mage need to do something like that? Though Meriel had to admit, if the spell-swords had a sword, they probably ought to use it as well. But he wasn’t one, and working on enhancing the body’s mana circuits was too time consuming for most mages.

  Was this what was going on? Instead of focusing on one part of training, they combined two completely different specializations?

  But why? That made no sense!

  Meriel looked around and realized that the muscular teacher was approaching, nodding to himself as he watched the simple spell Meriel just cast.

  "That is quite the control you have there, young sir. I must say I'm impressed!"

  The man's booming voice reverberated as he stepped closer and tapped Meriel's shoulder. "Tell me, have you been in a different mage academy before? You surely must have. You're also a bit older than our usual sort." The man raised his eyebrows and looked into Meriel's eyes, searching for an answer.

  "I have, in the capital, sir. Just a year, however," Meriel lied, careful not to reveal his lack of knowledge about the general way of things.

  "Do they teach you how to do magic without the swords there? I thought it was standard practice in the Lavarza kingdom." The man sat down, crossing his arms and looking at Meriel up and down as if trying to find a different source of his magic. He wouldn't find any.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Meriel had no idea about whether this spell-sword casting was the usual thing in the kingdom now, but he didn't really have much time to think it through. "They do not, sir. They teach the same things as I believe you’ll teach us here. I have just found the sword to limit me in some ways."

  "But what about the great sword-master's teachings? Surely they must have taught you all of them!”

  The cogs in Meriel’s head stopped for a little while, and he did his best to quickly digest the information, make some sense of it. The sword-master must have been Jonathan, that was sure. Was he responsible for this trend of spell-sword casting then? Why? Meriel was powerful, and helped their party in more ways than one. Surely he couldn’t just think that the mages were useless, to try to change the way they worked.

  And anyway, how did the man get so much sway with the council, for him to make such big changes?

  Realizing that he’d been quiet for a bit longer than comfortable, Meriel hastily began to answer, just to get stopped as the first sound left his mouth.

  “No matter, that. If you’ve been in a mage academy before, surely you must know enough battle magic, your lack of a sword notwithstanding. Let us duel, and that will be your test!” The man grinned and turned to walk away, creating space.

  “Brugus, you can’t just duel our ent—” The woman teacher said in protest, but the tall man only waved her away.

  “It’s fine! I’ll go easy on him, not to worry!” he said, still walking away, and after a while, he stopped and took out his sword from his sheath.

  It was a good artifact. Better sword than any Meriel had seen, actually, for it seemed to not only hungrily devour mana for itself, but also help with siphoning mana for the user’s mana heart. The man wouldn’t be an easy opponent for many.

  Meriel could, most likely, finish with him under five seconds, were the circumstances different. He quickly considered which spells were okay to use, and which ones weren’t, yet he had little time. In the end, he whispered an incantation of a defensive spell he always used before a battle, did his best to ignore the cheers of Mary and Ziggy, and focused ahead.

  **Brugus**

  The entrance ceremony and the tests after were Brugus's favorite activity of the year. Not only did he get to watch so many aspiring talents walk into the hallowed halls of the academy for the first time in their life—or probably the second, since they had to actually do paperwork—but he also got to inspect them as they tried their spells. He got to see the talents of each year start leaping ahead of the others. There was nothing quite like it.

  As was usual, he finished his own estimations of his line first. It wasn't that he hurried through them, not truly, but he always knew how to support the students the best, to get them to show more. One of the biggest problems of spell-swords was the fact that they relied on their weapons a bit too much. It was, of course, an extension of the caster themself, yet many treated it as if it was the source of all their magic, while that wasn't the case. It was against the teachings of the Great Sword-Master, though, so he didn’t share his discoveries with the other teachers.

  As was usual, he also stayed in the hall after the students disappeared, and gave some pointers to students who struggled a little bit in the other lines. It wasn't that they would help them that much or would get them into a better group, but there was no harm in it, and maybe they could learn a thing or two.

  That was when something strange happened.

  It wasn't any single thing in particular that drew Brugus to this man standing in front of Lydia. He seemed to be a bit older than the average student, but that wasn't uncommon practice. But there was some strange energy in this man, something that told Brugus that he knew how to use magic more than the others, and when he finally saw that the man also had no sword at his hip at all, his suspicions grew even deeper.

  He walked closer, inspecting the two children behind him. While he was older than the usual, these two were quite a bit younger. It was an unusual thing for children under 14 years to show magic potential, but once again, not unheard of, especially not in the noble families.

  The red-haired child definitely seemed to be from one, although probably a poorer sort. But seeing the elf child immediately made him shiver. Elves were dangerous; that much everyone knew. They had some strange connection with mana that nobody in the Lavarza kingdom could explain, and Brugus already looked towards this year more than any others. These kids… they didn't seem to emanate the same amount energy that the man standing in front of them did.

  He wanted to try this man out, see what he can do. These three were 100% the most interesting students he'd seen in a decade, and he wouldn't let this chance pass him.

  The man wouldn’t have any strange level of mana manipulation if he were using a sword. But Brugus had to admit that without the weapon, his technique must have been almost at the level of a beginner teacher. He didn't take that much mana in, of course—anything more than a trickle would truly be strange. The sword was a tool, but a powerful one.

  But he saw the cocky smile placed onto the man's lips. He would have to bring him down a peg or he would become a problem. Careful guiding of this man would be the key.

  He quickly made an excuse to test the man out in a duel, though it wasn't that much of a lie. Most of Lydia's tests would be useless on this man either way—It was really easy to see that he would be easily placed in the best group of the bunch. Seeing the two runts behind him, it was probably the case for them as well. Though the red-haired kid seemed to take in a little bit less mana than the other two, she was still above the average if she didn’t carry a blade.

  Brugus took out his sword and began casting the spell as the duel started. It wasn't a dangerous one, just meant to test the waters out. He enhanced his own body with mana, of course, and tried to see whether the man would do as well. But if he did, Brugus couldn't see it, and something like that wasn't easy to hide. Either he was even more skilled than Brugus expected, or he seriously didn't fight the usual spell-sword way.

  How cocky.

  Yes, the mages of old did fight without using mana on their own body, preferring to attack from range, but that era was long gone. The Sword-Master Jonathan taught everyone how to properly utilize magic after the great mage master Meriel died.

  Carefully, he finally finished the spell and kicked out with his leg.

  [Rock Shot, Level 21 - Activated]

  The text, as always, flashed through his eyes and he quickly blinked away. He never tried to understand the reason for it’s existence, but it was nice to know that there was some strength behind each of his spells, that he had some tangible way of knowing the progress. The spell, of course, grew in power as Brugus surpassed level 20, a fairly uncommon thing.

  At the end of his leg, several rocks, pointy and dangerous, coalesced into air within a second and shot forward, aimed at the man's abdomen. He fully expected the man to fall over in pain, but it wouldn't cause any serious damage. But what happened was something completely different.

  The rocks connected, and Brugus was about to step forward to check on the man's injuries, but then the dust settled, and the man stood there, unharmed. He didn't even take a step back. And in that very moment, Brugus saw mana flying into the caster in front of him, almost like a dog on command. Immediately a gust of wind swayed over his leg, the other one extended, and he fell onto his back.

  Just like that, a complete novice beat him in a duel. Brugus, who hadn’t lost a duel to his peers in a decade. Beaten.

  He struggled to understand what had just happened and considered getting up, but in the end he only laughed. This year would be interesting indeed.