I pushed the gate inside of the Hall of Elements and made my way towards Toldfir and the rest of the students. The Hall of Elements was another circular room that resembled a lecture room in college. There were wooden benches that surrounded the center of the room. The center of the room had a slightly elevated pedestal with a table and chair on it, where the teacher or the lecturer would teach from. But in the case of now, Toldfir was only lecturing three students excluding me, so the room looked rather empty.
Toldfir looked at me and exclaimed. "Ah, another student, looks like fortune is upon the college today. We were just beginning. Please stay and listen."
I sat on a wooden bench with the rest of the new mages. Besides me, there was a Khajiit, a Nord, and a Dunmer.
As Toldfir started the lecture, the rest of the apprentices were pestering him with teaching something practical. They were saying things about learning magic and the like. As the conversation between Toldfir and the new mages became more intense, Toldfir asked me for my opinion about the matter.
Of course me being excited about learning new magic in a new world, as well as knowing that I would be the first one to learn the ward among all of the new mages, I said, "Practical magic is a must for defending ourselves against our own experiments in the future, safety is a must before progress right?"
Toldfir looked at me with a reluctant face, "Hmm, very well, I will first teach you all a method to protect yourself from other spells. Does anyone here know how to make a ward?"
Everyone in the room shook their head slightly while looking down.
"Okay, everyone pay close attention and I will teach you the basics of making a ward."
Wait, no spell tome? So I have to manually learn this spell? Damn, I thought this was going to be like just reading a spell tome. Ugh.
Toldfir raises his right hand and briefly casts a ward spell. The ward he made looked like a transparent shield of flowing water. Waves of magic are continuously produced from the center of the ward. "The concept of the ward is simply just changing the flow of the magic that hits it."
"Changing the flow?" The Dunmer asked.
"Yes." he replied, "The spell that will hit you is dispersed by the waves that the ward is creating, the principle behind this is simply because magic elements are—"
I quickly cut off Toldfir, as he looked like he was about to return to a lecture discussion.
"So how do you produce the magic waves in the wards?"
Toldflir, clearly unsatisfied being interrupted in his explanation, replied. "You first form a static wall using magicka, then you make it flow outwards while continuously feeding magicka to the wall."
While everyone else started attempting to create a ward, I raised my hand and asked another question.
Toldfir said, "Yes, yes, what is it?"
"How do you use magicka to do that?"
Toldfir: …
Everyone: …
My pride: …
Toldfir narrowed his eyes and looked at me. "You don't know how to manipulate magicka? How the hell did you even enter the college?"
Well I'm sorry!
"Faralda gave me a spell tome, and I successfully summoned a flame atronach."
He knitted his brows and made a sigh. "So you're one of the ones who have the aptitude but never learned magic prior huh? Okay I'll make this quick and easy to understand."
He sat down on the teacher's chair and took a sip from a cup of what looks like coffee. "You said flame atronach right? Well to summon a flame atronach you use your magicka to open a hole through oblivion and link yourself with an atronach."
He put the cup down and looked at me. "You get me when I say it like this right?"
Kind of embarrassed that I was the only one in the room who didn't know this, I nodded.
When Toldfir explained it to me like that I gained something like an enlightenment? Nah, that word is too deep. But basically it's like learning how to multiply first before knowing how addition works. When he explains it like that I more or less understand how to use magicka.
There is magicka around us, and there is also magicka inside us. Sorcerers though, can only use the magicka inside themselves, which overtime depletes itself. Once a sorcerer has used up all of his or her magicka, the magicka outside will slowly seep in to the sorcerer's body. This is basically the world's law, explaining the magicka bar and magicka regen.
How do I know this? Well once Toldfir explained to me the process of summoning a flame atronach, I could understand it more clearly. At first I described the summoning of an atronach like running a few hundred meters non-stop, but it was actually me draining most of my magicka. And on my walk over to the college entrance, energy was quickly filling me up, as if the fatigue I felt was nothing, basically magicka regen.
When I learned of the process, I could suddenly feel a whole lot more than before. I could sense how dense the magicka around me is, and also feel the amount I have in myself. But controlling this energy inside me… can I do it?
Well if I compare it to the process of summoning a flame atronach I might be able to do something at least. When summoning a flame atronach you use your magicka to open a hole into oblivion and link yourself to an atronach. Though the part of making a hole through space is still beyond my comprehension, making a link with an atronach is rather easy. You just send a string of magicka directly into that space, and an atronach will come to it like a moth to a flame.
Okay, let me try something.
I focused myself on gathering my internal magicka. If I only do the second part of the spell, then I should be able to manipulate mana freely. So I used my magicka to make a string of magicka.
In a few seconds, something in the air changed. Within the dense magicka of the college, there was a thin but long string of magicka swimming inside it. Like a worm inside a body of water, it kept swimming around until after a few seconds it faded away.
Happy with the result, I quietly said to myself. "I did it!"
Earlier Toldfir was not happy that I didn't know how to use magicka, but after seeing me being able to manipulate magicka, albeit poorly, he let out a small smile and returned to drinking his coffee while waiting for us. For about an hour, we all continuously practiced making the ward. Everyone else is more or less now able to make a ward, while I on the other hand was stuck at creating a static wall step.
Looking at his watch Toldfir said, "Looks like class time is about to end, let me demonstrate the ward in action before I dismiss you."
He stood up from his seat and put down his fourth cup of coffee. He stepped down from the pedestal and walked towards us. He said while scanning us, "Okay, I would like a volunteer. Who of you are confident enough that their ward will protect them with my fireball."
As he said that, he showed off by making a ball of flame floating above his palm.
He signaled me the Khajiit to come near him. "What was your name again?"
"I am J'zargo, I believe that my ward is the best among my peers." I answered.
The dark elf sneered and whispered to herself. "Looks like someone will be fried today."
J'zargo then said, "I will pretend to not have heard that just to protect your Dunmer pride when I show you my ward."
Wow, this development wasn't in the game. I guess Toldfir didn't pick me since he knew that I would fail horribly, but who knew these two would clash together.
Toldfir interrupted the escalating conversation. "Now, now, J'zargo if you will, create a ward for a few seconds. If you think the ward will fail just jump out of the way."
"That is unneeded." He said. J'zargo then created a ward that covered his upper body. The ward was like a blue translucent circular shield, with his palm as the center. J'zargo was effortlessly producing the ward, something that even I couldn't do.
"Okay J'zargo, try to maintain the ward for as long as possible and I'll cast a spell towards you. Don't worry, the ward will protect you, and I won't cast a spell beyond your capabilities."
As J'zargo was maintaining his ward, Toldfir also prepared his fireball spell. It was actually a really weak spell, but it might be enough to overthrow a weak ward. Toldfir finished his spell and a fireball flew towards him. No matter how hard I practiced for today, it was only an hour. If it was me that was making that ward I would have flinched and probably burn myself.
J'zargo on the other hand was calm and unmoving. He waited for the fireball to strike while steadily maintaining the ward. He didn't make any unnecessary movements. When the fireball hit his ward, it was cancelled out. He didn't flinch, and it even looked like he was expecting it.
Toldfir put his hand down and deactivated his spell. "That was splendid. Here class is a good example of a ward. Of course if you ever meet even stronger enemy mages, the ward would be destroyed by it's spell, but nevertheless, the damage would be reduced."
He took his coffee cup and started drinking from it again. "Now if your content with this practical lecture, I in turn, would like to make a field trip."
"A field trip?" asked the nord
"Yes, a field trip to the Saarthal excavation. It would be good experience for the three of you." Toldfir replied.
A Saarthal excavation? It's following the same path as the main quest line as the game. It might be dangerous if I let the eye of Magnus be discovered, though it's actually the only 100% sure way to make me Arch-Mage. I could forcibly make the whatever mysterious mages take the eye in the first place to make sure it won't cause any trouble, but I would have to become Arch-Mage the hard way. Choosing between risk my life to become Arch-Mage, or grind my way up, I think it's obvious what my decision is.
Toldfir clasped his hands and told us. "Okay for any of you that has questions, please come to me at my quarters, you can find me there studying, or here in the Hall of Elements teaching other young mages about magic. The trip to Saarthal will be in two days from now, "
He dismissed us four and left the hall. After that though, there were several other classes, mainly about the schools of magic. Every other class was about each and every school of magic, and it let us gain more knowledge about spells and incantations. After our class, more and more students joined in to listen to the lecturers speak. It seemed as if the mages can join any lecture they want, and they can skip classes as well. After I learned this I went straight to the Arcanaeum.
The Arcanaeum, was a huge library with all sorts of magical research and books. I still had time before the trip to Saarthal, so enriching my knowledge would be beneficial to me, a person who is basically a baby when it comes to magical knowledge.