Chapter 30 : Mid-Morning

“Are you fucking serious!?” snarled Fiona as she held her arms straight down along her sides and balled her hands into fists “I can’t believe how far you’re taking this stupid bullshit!”

Anton had stayed true to his word when it came to his claims of converting a section of the dungeon into a classroom. Three false-walls had been set up to create a stage-like elementary school room. And these walls had then been crudely decorated to resemble a kindergarten setting, complete with an alphabet running along their top edge and a series of posters depicting various animals, maps and anatomical diagrams strewn randomly across two of the three walls. A large blackboard took up the majority of the far left wall and sitting in front of this was a broad wooden desk.

Glancing up from his place behind the large desk, Anton leaned back in his leather desk chair and grinned as he took in the sight of the two scantily clad dark elves standing together at the top of the dungeons landing.

Both Fiona and Kianna had become quite a spectacle after literally squeezing themselves back into their former school uniforms. The white-cotton dress blouse and short plaid skirt ensembles that they currently wore did little more than accentuate their finer features as they barely managed to cover them in any way. The blouses in particular were clearly struggling to simply remain in place after having been stretched to their limits around the fully developed female bodies that they were never meant to adorn. Wide gaps existed between the barely clasped buttons across the front of the blouses and these open spaces gave a clear, tantalizing glimpse of the bra covered bosoms that were somewhat hidden beneath them.

The dark elves midriffs were fully exposed as the blouses ended just beneath their busts, and this left absolutely nothing but smooth skin between the blouses and the comically short skirts that were fitted tightly around their hips. These skirts fluttered playfully about at the very tops of the dark elves thighs and any bending motion, regardless of direction, would immediately expose the thin panties that they currently wore. Knee high white socks and flat dress shoes completed their skimpy attires.

Kianna had taken her school girl look even further by braiding her hair into twin pigtails that were tied off with ribbons.

Each of the dark elves also carried with her a small satchel that held sets of seemingly pointless empty notebooks and other elementary school level supplies.

“Good morning Miss Vale, and Miss Vale. If you would kindly take your seats please.” said Anton as he indicated the two child-sized school room style desks that were set up in front of his much larger desk “Class will be starting in a just a few moments.”

“I hate you!” hissed Fiona as she pointed her finger right at Anton and glowered down at him from her place at the top of the landing “I hate you so fucking much!”

“Yes Miss Vale, I am aware of that.” smiled Anton as he absently arranged a set of papers on his desk “That, however, will not excuse tardiness. So please take your seat so that we may begin today’s lessons.”

With a wide smile on her own face, Kianna snickered as Fiona snarled and began to grind her teeth together.

“Price of power, price of power, price of power!” repeated Fiona as she followed her sister down the stairs and across the main floor of the dungeon to the classroom.

“Thank you ladies.” said Anton as the two dark elves situated themselves at the small desks and sat at attention “Now, welcome to your first day of class! I’ll be your teacher for the rest of the semester. My name is Mr. Antonius Faustus North. But you may refer to me as your Master!”

Fiona groaned in frustration and let her face fall into her open palm as Anton rose from his seat and began to write out his name across the large chalkboard. She groaned again and glared at her sister when she noticed that Kianna had taken a notebook and pencil from her satchel and was diligently taking notes.

Kianna smiled to herself as she wrote out Anton’s full name, followed it with an equal sign and wrote the word “Master” at the end before underlining everything twice. Once finished, she looked back up at attention and blatantly ignored her scowling sister.

Like the dark elves, Anton had taken the opportunity to dress the part of the role he was currently playing. Clad in an off-white dress shirt, red tie and black slacks. He completed the “Professor” look by donning a tan colored tweed jacket with leather pads on the elbows and lens-less wire-rimmed glasses.

“Okay, now that I’ve introduced myself ... Let’s go ahead and take an attendance real quick...” mumbled Anton as he picked up a clipboard from his desk and absently looked over a paper attached to it “Then we can get started...”

“Oh, come on!” grumbled Fiona as she flopped down onto her desk and hid her face against her folded arms “You have got to kidding me!”

“Okay ... Let’s see here ... Kianna Vale?” called Anton as he looked up from the clipboard.

“Present!” cried Kianna.

“Wonderful!” said Anton as he made a mark on the paper “Now then ... Fiona Vale?”

“Die! Just die! Please die!” raged Fiona as she left her face hidden “Or just kill me instead! I don’t even care anymore...”

“Fiona Vale!?” repeated Anton as he acted as though she hadn’t said anything.

“ ... Argh!” growled Fiona as she lifted her head “Present!”

“Excellent!” said Anton as he made another mark and then set the clipboard back down on the desk “Well. Looks like we have a full attendance today. Wonderful! Just wonderful!”

“This is the stupidest shit ever!” exclaimed Fiona as she laid hunched over her desk and glared up at Anton “Is this really how you’re going to teach us how to use magic!? Seriously!? You seriously expect us to take any of this shit seriously!? Look at us! Look at you!”

Anton maintained an expression of calmness as he merely gazed back at her.

“How the Hell do you-!” started Fiona before a blinding light suddenly filled the room.

Both Fiona and Kianna froze in their seats as Anton’s aura once again shifted into existence and set his entire being ablaze with a dazzling inferno of living fire.

“Mana.” stated Anton as he stared down at the dark elves “Easily the most versatile form of energy in all of existence. It is the source of power behind all magic. And with it, nearly anything is possible.”

Her eyes wide and unblinking, Fiona rose back up to a sitting position and sat at attention as actual non-aura based flames began to form across Anton’s shoulders. These flames began to travel down his arms as he continued to speak.

“It’s difficult to say exactly how mana is formed, since no one has ever witnessed it actually coming into existence. As far as we can tell, it’s either produced as a form of radiation during the destruction of different types of matter, or is a byproduct of certain kinds of heat transfers. We believe this because we know it’s generated by the sun, the spinning core at the center of the planet and within the bodies of all living things.” explained Anton as he raised his arms and held his hands, palms upwards, out in front of himself “Although we don’t know how mana is created. We do know quite a bit about how it works once it exists. And, what it can do!”

Their mouths hanging agape in awe, both Fiona and Kianna stared transfixed as the flames traveling down Anton’s arms reached his palms and began to rise upwards as they formed into swirling pillars of fire. These flames then continued to spin faster and faster until they became two miniature tornadoes.

“As a form of energy, mana is unique in many ways. In its rawest form it’s essentially inert, but stimulate it in any way, and its potential is limitless.” explained Anton as he bobbed his hands upwards and caused the two flaming tornadoes to double in size “It can be influenced by living things through either mental prowess, or through physical triggers. And due to the fact that its own make up is so simple and rudimentary, its base structure can be easily altered to take on the properties of other forms of energy. An example of this would of course ... be fire!”

For emphasis, Anton closed his fists and caused the tornadoes to swell until they both burst and exploded into balls of impressive but harmless flames.

“This shift in dynamics goes down to the atomic level. And in this way mana can not only become a synthetic version of other energies, but can also be coaxed into forming a molecular structure and taking on an actual physical form. This is not an easy thing to get it to do, but it can be done. And this is how mana can be used to create things such as water.” explained Anton to the nodding dark elves “With a similar process, mana can also be used to alter the molecular structure of already existing elements and compounds. These changes will again take place at the atomic level, but will normally only last for as long as whatever was changed remains infused with the mana that changed it. And it will revert back to its original state once the mana is spent. There are ways to make these changes permanent, but these processes are usually very complicated. This is how we can turn one thing into another though. Lead into gold, sand into steel, milk into honey and so on and so forth. Amazingly, mana can also alter the molecular structure, and even the DNA, of a living organism. In this way it can be used to heal wounds, destroy living tissue or even allow a living thing to completely change itself by shifting its entire cellular structure from one form to another.”

The dark elves remained silent as they watched Anton’s aura fade back into its invisible state. Once his aura was gone completely, he turned around and began to erase his name from the chalkboard.

“These processes and many more are the base elements of what we call, magic.” explained Anton as he wrote out the word in big letters along the top of the chalkboard “Magic, is the collective term we use for any and all processes that utilize mana in any way shape or form. And as such, any person who utilizes mana in any way or for any reason at all, is preforming what we call, an act of magic.”

The dark elves remained silent as they watched Anton continue to feverishly write on the chalkboard.

“The dynamics of magical acts and practices can be broken down into many different categories.” he explained as he stayed focused on what he was writing “Today we’re going to focus only on those that pertain directly to dark elves.”

Stepping away from the chalkboard, Anton formed a long, glowing orange pointer in his hand and began to tap on the first words at the top of a list he had wrote down along the side of the chalkboard.

“All living things are capable of influencing mana and most will utilize it in one way or another. The mana that forms within living beings collects in what we call a “mana pool” and this is where the vast majority of any creatures magical power is going to come from.” he explained as he looked from one dark elf to the other and again tapped on the words “mana pool” on the chalkboard “There are some species who can harness the ambient mana from the environment around them, but most will just use the mana from their mana pools as it’s easier to utilize and far more potent. The larger the mana pool a creature has, the more powerful they will be. As not only will they have more mana at their disposal but larger concentrations of mana will become more potent, and will thus generate more powerful effects whenever used. This is why certain species will always seem to be naturally more powerful than others.”

Turning to fully face the dark elves, Anton dropped the pointer and let it melt away as he raised both of his hands and held them palms up.

“For an example of this. A dwarf and a sphinx could both preform the exact same spell, and use the exact same amount of mana to create a ball of fire. The fireball created by the sphinx will always be far greater than the dwarf’s, simply because of the way the sphinx’s mana is concentrated. On top of this, the sphinx will be considered the more powerful of the two since it will not only have the more potent mana but far more of it as well. A dwarf may have enough mana to create an inferno big enough to burn down a house. But a sphinx, in contrast, could incinerate an entire city with the mana it has available to it. Now this example isn’t meant to be derogative towards the dwarves, they’re far from harmless after all. It’s only meant to illustrate that magically speaking, there’s just no comparison between some species and others.” said Anton as for emphasis he created a small fireball in one hand and a much larger one in the other “Now in regards to the elves, they’re collectively considered an upper tier race when it comes to magical prowess. The high elves in particular are the most powerful of the original 3 species, and that’s why they’re seen as the ruling class of the elves. These days this distinction is pretty subjective though, as the dark elves are easily on par with them in raw power. And any new attempt by the High Elven Empire to establish itself as a force of ruling power in the world is guaranteed to end with the dark elves reminding them just who the actual ruling class of the elves truly is.”

Smiling wickedly, Fiona snickered as she nodded in agreement.

Shaking out his wrists, Anton dispelled the two fireballs as Kianna raised her hand to signal that she had a question.

“Yes?” said Anton as he pointed to her.

“How powerful are humans though?” she asked “Are they more powerful than elves, dwarves and sphinxes?”

“Yes to dwarves, technically. But no to elves and sphinxes.” answered Anton “Humans are actually at the exact center of the mid tier range when it comes to magical prowess. In fact there are many scholars that will often refer to humans as the “neutral zero” in regards to magical power.”

“ ... Neutral zero?” questioned Kianna “What does that mean?”

“It’s just a term that’s applied to humans when they’re used as a point of measurement.” explained Anton “On a graph showcasing the basic magical prowess of multiple species, humans will naturally fall at the very center. And other species will often be measured against them using a plus or minus method. Since humans are used as the starting point in these measurements, they’re considered 0. Now off the top of my head, I don’t remember any of the exact numbers, but I believe that when it came to dwarves, elves and sphinxes it would be something like minus 4 for dwarves. Meaning that it would take 4 dwarves to equal a single human. And it was something like plus 5 for wood elves and rock elves and plus 7 or 8 for high elves and dark elves. Now I’m not at all sure where sphinxes would be on the scale but I would imagine that they would have to be something ridiculous. Probably plus a few dozen humans or more. They are a very powerful species after all.”

“Wait! Wait, hold on a second!” cried Fiona as her smile became devilish “So you’re saying that dark elves are actually way stronger than humans!? Like, there wouldn’t even be a competition!?”

“ ... Magically speaking, yes. The average dark elf is quite a bit more powerful than the average human.” said Anton as he gave her a knowing smirk “That’s only when you’re measuring from the baseline set by the average though. And even with that being the case, you should never forget! There are plenty of ways for someone to improve themselves. And not everyone is going to be average.”

“ ... Still though!” drawled Fiona as she playfully drummed her fingers on her desk and continued to smile “That’s interesting to know that a dark elf is so much more powerful than a human!”

“That is interesting, isn’t it...” said Anton as he let a broad smile spread across his face “It’s so interesting to think that for a human, a dark elf would make such an amazingly useful familiar...”

Fiona’s smile vanished the instant she registered what had just been said.

“I mean as the most powerful of the elves, a dark elf really would be the perfect choice.” continued Anton “In fact, it’s hard to imagine anything that would even be better.”

Fiona’s face hardened as she merely stared back at him.

“Really makes you think...” drawled Anton as he narrowed his eyes at the stoic dark elf “Doesn’t it?”

Fiona let her eyes fall to her desk as she began to scowl silently.

“ ... Anyways.” smiled Anton as he turned away from her “Back to the lesson. Now, as I’ve explained to you two before, there are many ways that a mana pool functions like a sort of muscle. The more use, or exercise that it receives, the larger it will grow. And as it grows in size the more concentrated and potent the mana stored within it will be. So again, like a muscle, it can become stronger through effort and training. Unlike an actual muscle however, there is no limit to this. And although the process of expanding beyond a species’ normal standard is an extremely slow one. A mana pool can, technically, grow indefinitely.”

Joining her sister at attention, Fiona looked back up at Anton as she took in this information.

“This is exactly why you should never assume that someone is going to be weak magically. No matter what they are.” explained Anton as he folded his arms over his chest “People may be born at one point or another on the scale of power. But with enough effort, it is entirely possible for anyone to become extremely powerful ... and possibly even reach the level of a God...”

The dark elves had both become transfixed as they listened to what was being explained to them.

“This is still incredibly difficult to do of course. And realistically it’s not even something that’s worth trying to accomplish, since it could take many lifetimes to even get close to that point. But even as hard as it would be to achieve, it is still technically possible.” stated Anton “You two in particular are going to need to play a bit of catch up since your own mana pools haven’t been given much of a chance to grow yet. There’s no reason for you two to worry about this though, as luckily a mana pool will grow fairly quickly until it reaches its species’ standard size. So with this being the case, it shouldn’t take too long for you to reach what’s normal for your ages.”

The dark elves nodded slowly as Anton turned back to the chalkboard and reformed the long pointer.

“Moving on, we next have abilities.” said Anton as he tapped on the chalkboard “An ability is a magical act that can be preformed naturally by a given species. Most species will have at least a handful of abilities but some species can have several dozen. Since most abilities come naturally, they generally don’t need to be taught. And those that do are still learned fairly easily. In the case of dark elves, a binding ring and an aura field would both be examples of abilities that-.”

“Wait! What’s a “binding ring” supposed to be!?” interrupted Fiona.

“ ... This,” said Anton as an expression of annoyance spread across his face “is a binding ring.”

Fiona’s ears pointed themselves straight upwards as a glowing ring of orange light suddenly appeared around her.

“Oh shit! No! Not this crap again!” she cried as thin chains shot out from the ring and immediately began to wrap themselves around her torso “Dammit! Stop it!”

“Now, as I was saying. Before someone forgot to raise their hand ... The majority of abilities don’t necessarily need to be taught as they often come naturally.” explained Anton as he casually watched Fiona struggle against the assaulting chains “When it comes to dark elves in particular, the use of many of their abilities is first dependent on them mastering control of their auras. And as we have seen first hand, neglected dark elves who aren’t nurtured correctly don’t develop this control and are magically stunted as a result.”

Kianna’s expression became sorrowful while beside her Fiona cried out in frustration as she lost her battle against the chains and ended up completely ensnared by them.

“This type of scenario isn’t unique to only dark elves, as there are other species who also require nurturing to fully develop their abilities.” continued Anton as cradled his chin in his hand and let his eyes fall to the floor “I am somewhat starting to think that this might explain why dark elves only have one child at a time though...”

“Huh?” questioned Kianna “What do you mean?”

“Well, think about it for a moment.” said Anton as he looked back up at her “If a dark elf isn’t given the attention it needs while younger then it will grow up to be essentially helpless, at least magically speaking. So to make sure that this doesn’t happen, dark elf parents will only have one child at a time. This way they can focus on that child and be sure that it will develop correctly.”

“ ... Oh. Yeah, that does make sense!” exclaimed Kianna as she nodded her head in agreement “So I guess that’s why it seems like such a bad idea to have more than one baby at a time then?”

“ ... That’s right.” said Anton as he tilted his head in thought while staring at her “You did think that was a bad idea. Right away even ... Hm, I wonder if this is something instinctual to dark elves then? Something you do, without even realizing it, or questioning it? ... It might very well be something you just do without even understanding why you do it at all? ... That’s, an interesting theory...”

“ ... Hey. Wait a second?” questioned Kianna as she lowered her ears in embarrassment “ ... Are, are you studying me right now!?”

Blinking in realization, Anton ducked his head and chuckled.

“Maybe, just a little bit!” he smiled before turning back to the chalkboard “Anyways, back to-.”

“Oh, come on!” cried Fiona as the chains wrapped around her torso tightened enough that her bust, which was barely being held back as it was, suddenly burst free of her now overly stretched blouse and exposed her bra covered bosom whilst sending buttons flying in multiple directions “Motherfucking-!”

“Miss Vale! Would you please stop disrupting my class with your indecent antics!” chastised Anton as Kianna covered her mouth to stifle her laughter “Honestly! Have you no sense of modesty!?”