Elius smiled as he saw the students walking off. Some were chatting with their classmates, while others were disappointed with their results. However, he was confident that this disappointment would motivate them to perform better when the real tests arrived.

This was why he always sprung these first two tests immediately on the students, to bring out that competitive spirit in them while also providing ample warning about what they could expect from the dungeon.

He'd seen it far too many times: cocky students who were the top of their peers before joining Regarth, who were then blindsided by how big the world really, truly was. Their magical capabilities, their friends or family had praised as being the best, being blown away by a hidden talent, or worse, succumbing to the first dungeon monster they encountered.

This year is going to be a good one. Elius thought to himself, replaying some of the iconic scenes he'd witnessed in the previous two classes.

The attack spells were relatively calm this year, compared to last. While Lily and Lotte had both done considerable damage to the dummy, they hadn't destroyed it like Rose had done the year prior. That had been one for the school's history books, an achievement only a few first years had ever claimed.

The dodging practice had gone surprisingly well, with some of the students clearly having already seen some form of combat. Whether it was against small monsters from their hometowns or wrestling with their friends, it was good that they weren't entirely green.

As he had predicted, some of the less physically gifted students who had struggled with dodging got their chance to shine when it came to defense. Of course, you wouldn't expect a geomancer to be as swift as an aeromancer, but both should be able to see and react to oncoming threats.

Of course, the red bees had served their purpose, giving the students a warning that their defenses weren't infallible. Well, except for one student, whose performance was burned into his mind.

Lily, the first Lagia with a magical bloodline. Elius hadn't known what to expect from her, as she lacked the iconic characteristics her kind was known for. Her poor attempts at dodging would be labeled a mockery by her ilk, and he wondered if she was going to have to be treated like a glass cannon in lessons.

But the defensive practice had proven otherwise. Her strange "star magic" had produced a cloak that even defended against the final test he was permitted to perform against first years. He'd had students in the past defend against it, but what bruised his ego a little was how nonchalantly she had performed it.

And then there was the red and blue attack test… honestly, I think she could have just hunkered down and would have been fine. I don't know what that cloak is made of, but those red bees couldn't even leave a scratch.

But that wasn't what impressed him; it was the fact that she hadn't hunkered down and instead performed the test brilliantly. Her cloak was almost like a living creature with the way it moved so swiftly.

Unless her bloodline is just that powerful.

Elius had even considered that the spell might have some form of autonomy in it, as that was a rare possibility, but that thought was thrown out of the window upon closer examination. Lily had taken the activity a step further by noticing the bees produced distinctive sounds and was using that to react to their attacks.

This had settled it in his mind that there was no autonomy in her spell, and she was the one in complete control. He could only imagine the countless hours of practice she must have done with the spell to have it at that level of precision already.

It also proves she really is a Lagia. Those twitching ears reacting to sounds of danger are iconic. There's a reason the headmaster recruited Alice to teach dungeoneering.

Speaking of Alice, he decided to pay her a visit. While he genuinely believed there was no foul play, he figured it couldn't hurt to ask just in case.

But if Alice was hiding a magic item of that caliber, she could've sold it and retired. Or gone off and become a five-star adventurer. Or countless other things. No way she would give it to some kid, even if she is a Lagia.

Elius found Alice in the teachers' lounge, noticing she was booking off a section of the dungeon for tomorrow's class. Frankly, it was something he still struggled to come to terms with: how Headmaster Fabrelis had somehow reached an agreement with the dungeon, allowing requests to be made to it.

Of course, it would never give treasure or items for free, but manipulating the layout of the first floor, it seemed perfectly content with. How the headmaster communicated with it, he had no idea, as it was a closely guarded secret.

"Alice, you missed an interesting class today," he said as he approached.

"I swear you say that every year," Alice replied, not even sparing him a glance as she continued writing down the specifications she wanted.

"I mean, last year we did receive a Dragia student."

"True… Rose is quite the troublemaker," she agreed.

"And this year we have a Lagia."

Alice's one ear twitched, indicative that he now had her full attention.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Did Lily do something?" she asked.

"On a first-name basis already? Are you showing favorites?"

"Bah, hardly. Even if I wanted to, she'd refuse. I think she hates me."

"Huh… That's surprising. She seems like a friendly kid to me."

"Let's just say that we have some loose history and leave it at that."

Elius shrugged. "Fair enough. Anyway, I just wanted to check that you didn't give her any magic items; some rowdy students were throwing out some accusations."

Alice turned around, a prominent frown on her face. "I've given her nothing. I offered to get her some starcharts for her Personal Development class, but I haven't even delivered those yet, and even the fuzzball in charge knows about them."

Elius held up his hands as if surrendering. "Easy now. I shut down the rumors, I thought I'd just do my due diligence and confirm with you."

Alice eased up a little. "Well? What happened?"

"The damn little bunny took my molten sphere straight to the face and didn't even flinch."

Alice's ears perked up, a sign she was in a good mood. "Really now?"

"The only one this year. It doesn't always happen, but the ease with which she did it was something else."

He then explained what happened, occasionally noticing twitches in Alice's ears.

"So she showed off that cloak of hers already. I only got a brief demonstration out of her, but my instinct told me it'd possibly be a game changer."

"Well, your instincts are spot on. She got a perfect score on the defensive drill as well."

Alice's eyes went wide. "Please tell me you've not erased the recollection yet."

"I have not," he replied, pulling out the control sphere of the magical arrangement.

Activating it, it transformed from its lifeless appearance to show a replay of the events from earlier within the sphere. He manipulated it with his Mana and focused it on Lily and her performance.

Alice stared at it intently, like a cat stalking its prey. Occasionally, she'd let out a gasp in surprise, while other times she just silently smiled at what she was seeing.

"Notice her ears twitching? She figured out the bees have sounds," Elius pointed out.

Alice snorted. "Of course, I noticed her ears twitching. It was the first thing I checked."

When the replay finished, Alice let out a whistle. "Well. That's actually beyond my expectations. I had no idea her instincts were so good already."

"Neither did I, especially after her dodging performance."

Alice tilted her head to the side curiously, as if not understanding him. "Do you still have that recording?"

Elius silently cursed his mistake. "I do… but I worry about how you might react to it."

Alice paused. "It can't be that bad, surely?"

"I'll only show you if you swear not to mention it to her."

"Fine, I swear."

Elius regretted his decision to allow it, and the storm of endless curses that would make a sailor blush made him worry what Alice might do to Lily. He hoped she would keep her word and not mention it to the poor girl.

"Let me show you some of the other promising students so far. I think this year really has an all-star lineup. I'm also hopeful that some of them might be some diamonds in the rough with the right knowledge and direction."

And so Elius began to review the students this year with Alice. It was essential to share this information with her so she knew where their weak points in the dungeon might be. He also wanted to distract her, hoping she would forget the horrendous dodging she had just witnessed.

***

When Lily was finally alone in her room, the first thing she did was talk to Arakil about what had transpired in class. She was baffled that she'd experienced none of the hardships that the other students had against the bees, regardless of their color.

[You already know that your cloak is magic-resistant, so those projections held no threat to you. However, the reason the other students found their spells faltering and their defenses broken is that each "attack" was laced with a varying amount of anti-magic.]

"Anti-magic?" Lily repeated.

[Manaburn, Spellbane, Weavebreaker, Magekiller, Spelleater, it has many names.]

"Sorry, but I've not heard any of those terms before. I can take an educated guess at what those do based on the names, but even then, I've not heard of something that does that, so it's not a case of it being renamed from your times."

[Hopefully one of your classes or the library will answer that question. I do hope they haven't come up with some other frivolous new name. If they've mistakenly called it Countermagic or Counterspell, I'll have a migraine.]

"I'll keep my fingers crossed they've used a sensible name."

[Regardless, anti-magic, as you've probably guessed, destroys or eats into spells. Rather than countering a spell, its premise is to attack the Mana that created it. This phenomenon not only can be used to break spells, but it also can burn through the mage's Mana.]

"That sounds horrible!"

[Most definitely. However, it's a very… simple form of attack and can only be used against opponents who are actually susceptible to battles of attrition. While you aren't utterly impervious to it yet, you've been trained from the ground up to avoid such conditions. That, combined with the fact that the magical array did not have the strength to break your solid foundation, meant you had no issue, unlike your peers.]

"So… Because I'm always regenerating Mana, it didn't affect me as badly?"

[That and combined with our focus on efficiency meant you could withstand everything that magical array could throw at you. The other kids who had vast Mana reserves had an easier time until the end, and the ones who had practiced their spells more could also last longer. Your friend Lotte, having not practiced her spell, had a predictably awful time; she wasted so much Mana due to a lack of efficiency, only to have it broken by the anti-magic projectile.]

Lily felt terrible for her friend. She had no idea Lotte had suffered like that; no wonder she had looked so haggard.

"But, how come my Nebula Veil didn't break or degrade like the other kids' defenses did?"

[Two reasons. Anti-magic is one hundred percent insubstantial, which is what your defense specializes in. If you'd used a shield talisman, you would have found that barrier shattered quite easily since it focused on physical protection.]

I'm really glad I didn't then. That would have been a total waste!

[The second reason is the nature of your spell. The cloak is meant to be as "endless as the starry sky," according to its original creator. In layman's terms, the veil is highly regenerative and was repairing itself from the very minor damage it sustained. Combine that with your efficiency, and persistent Mana gathering led to you not even noticing a difference.]

"I see… Thank you, Arakil. I had no idea what was going on while I was in the moment."

[However, having said all that, I must applaud the usage of anti-magic combined with illusory projections to simulate combat. I'm glad you took the test seriously and treated it like actual combat. I had no idea you were already so combat-trained.]

"I'm not really…" Lily admitted. "I had asked to do some training like that, but Instructor Richardus said it was too dangerous, and Theo refused to do it against his back."

[Natural Lagia instincts? I know you've said you lack the usual demi physique, but I noticed your ears were twitching wildly during the encounter.]

Lily grabbed her ears and pulled them down over her eyes, feeling a little embarrassed.

"I had no idea they were twitching…"

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