The 5 were left floating in green spheres in the middle of a room that should not have been as big as it was. Books and empty bottles lay in piles strewn about the room. Shelves lined the room and limited their view of the rest of the area.
As they called out for help each had their mouths forced closed.
A groan could be heard from behind a book shelf and out stepped a disheveled man. His grey mages robe wrinkled and covered in various stains. The smell of alcohol, tobacco smoke, and vomit exuded from him. His black hair and short beard a mess. "Stop shouting," he mumbled and rubbed his temples like he was coming down from a hangover. He raised his hand to one side and a green liquid in a glass levitated into it. He drank it down hurriedly and then let out a sigh.
Looking up at the trapped students through half-lided eyes and raised one eyebrow. "So you're Theo's group of troublemakers. I see you've gotten yourselves into quite a mess, especially you," he said eyeing Freed, who curled up in shame.
"Well, let's see what were working with," the man closed his grey eyes and when they opened, a swirl of colours had replaced them as he used a scanning spell to gauge their magic energy and any identifiable spells currently in effect. As his gaze passed over each one, his annoyed expression softened to mild interest. Until he passed over Freed's huddled form, then it took a serious look. "Hold still, this is definitely going to hurt, but it's for our own good." Freed looked up to see energy gathering in the man's hands as they wove intricate symbols in the air. Chanting could be heard from all around them as if from several voices at once, as he continued his spell. Freed's prison moved toward the center of the room and portals opened up around the outside of it. Thin black ribbons snaked their way through the air, like airborne snakes, and toward the floating shell. They pushed trough the shell and neared Freed slowly, causing him to panic. "It'll only hurt more if you struggle." Freed steeled himself as the ribbons reached his skin and seemed to burrow in. Freed stiffened and tried his best to remain still, gritting his teeth through the whole process. The ribbons snaked their way through his skin looking like living tattoos, covering his body in an elaborate design. His rapidly changing hair colours slowed and eventually settled on a pure white coloration. As the ribbons fully entered and stopped moving, settling in on their patter, Freed and the rest were released from their spheres and dropped carelessly onto the floor. Mai crawled over to Freed as he choked and gasped as he tried to catch his breath, the sealing spell removed.
"Are you ok? What the hell was that for!?"
The man grunted and waved his hand dismissively.
"Anyone here that can give me a description of what mana is?"
After a few moments of silence, it was Vesper that answered surprisingly:
"Mana is the term used to refer to the magical energy that resides in all living beings. When a spell is cast mana is expended and replenished over time naturally or through potions for quicker regeneration. All living beings have a small bit of mana within them, but only some can harness it and through training that pool of mana can grow and flourish. Some individuals are born with naturally large pools of mana and become the most successful spellcasters. There are ways to gain the ability to cast spells through rituals, artifacts, deals with other powerful being, but these methods can be dangerous and are usually frowned upon in society." After noticing all his friends staring at him in suprise he added with a shrug, "What? I read."
The man grunted approvingly, "Long winded, but an adequate response. Every person has a small amount of magical energy within them we'll use this as an example," he raised one hand and produced a small orb of light the size of a marble. "After training it will grow to sizes like this," 5 lights of various sizes appeared in front of each student, ranging from Mai's baseball sized one to Freed's miniscule egg sized orb. "This is your representation of how you are listed in your record before your little mishap. And this," the orbs grew to triple their previous sizes and Freed's was now more even with Vesper's at second place, "is what the medical wing staff noted after your experiment." He stopped and let them absorbe that information.
"But what does this have to do with you torturing Freed," asked Eva sternly.
"This is your friend's current level," he waved his hand and Freed's orb expanded quicker than before, reaching sizes that could hold all the other's orbs at once and began to reach 15 feet across when it stopped, "you were instructed to not cast spells until you spoke with me," he looked at Celine, who's orb was now the smallest but not by much next to Eva's, "give me a little spark, just enough that would light some kindling for a fire."
Celine hesitated for a moment and then raised her hand as she had done in her early training many times before and snapped her fingers to produce the spark. Instead of a spark however, a medium sized fireball erupted in her hand, nearly hitting Eva, who was scrambling backwards as Celine was starting to panic slightly until the flame died down.
"What the fuck was that," yelled Eva, "you call that a spark?"
Before Celine could respond, the man spoke up, "it's not her fault. All of you have this problem. Usually, as training progresses, your body naturally limits the amount of mana that is set aside to cast a spell. But with this rapid increase of mana your body has, it can't regulate it. You have to learn to do that yourselves."
Freed looked down at his hands in horror as he realized, "and if I tried that, this whole room would have been engulfed."
"More like this whole tower. It would have poured out like a flood after a dam gave way, feeding the fire exponentially. And it is still growing, slowly now, but still. Every person you came into contact with that triggered a transformation added to your mana pool. The spells I've cast on you do 3 things: one, lock your body in this form so you won't keep changing every time you touch someone. Two, acts as a suppressor on your mana so drawing it out won't result in complete destruction of yourself and the immediate area. And three, it'll keep your body from breaking apart from the magical buildup."
"What?"
"The mana over the years will grow and grow until it would break up your body looking for a way to release the pressure. Those ribbons will siphon off some mana and keep it from getting too far out of hand. Give me a spark."
Freed slowly raised his hand and snapped his fingers and a small ball of fire, less intense than Celine's, but still much more than what he intended.
"Now end the spell and repeat a few times," the man ordered as he dropped his shield spell he had set up just in case. Freed complied for about 15 castings until he saw that the tattoo on his outstretched arm was disappearing like paper set alight and he stopped. After a few moments the tattoo grew back to its former shape and size.
"Hmmm, seems to be working properly. As you cast spells and draw mana, it weakens the binding spell and allows more mana to be drawn out. However, if you aren't careful it could dissipate entirely once the markings are gone and not come back. I'd rather not be on this continent if that happens," he added nonchalantly.
"Now I suppose I had better train you to use restraint."