10 Chapter 10. Sunrise and fall

Having entered the barrier, Hanuel stands in the middle of the room. Behind him are all three hundred students watching him to see his practical test, and in front of him are the examiners and teachers who will be scoring him based on his performance.

Getting rid of unnecessary distractions, Hanuel shuts of his hearing, smell, taste and even his touch, leaving only his sight through his mana, which he had decreased the range of to only see until the start of the barrier.

Now only him and his mana were left. He starts to gather his mana in front of him. Trying to form something out of his mana, he concentrates it in a ball in front of him. Getting denser and denser as he increases the amount of mana that he outputs, it becomes brighter like a miniature blue sun in front of him. But he knows he is the only one who can see this bright blue sun and that this wouldn't get any points for the practical test, because he is the only one who can visually see the mana in the air.

Hanuel desperately tries to form something from the mana in front of him, like the other students and Sook Baek, who transformed their mana into something tangible and natural.

But nothing happened.

No matter how hard he tried and no matter how well he pictured something in his head.

Nothing was happening.

Now getting frustrated, he increases his output, making the blue sun even denser and brighter. "ugh" Hanuel was getting exhausted and had almost no mana left.

Focussing only on the blue sun in front of him, he forgot that he was surrounded by mana in the air. Not only the blue mana that he uses, but every type of mana imaginable was in the air from all the students, teachers and examiners in the room. He now notices that there was dense mana in the air all around him. Reminding him of the first time he saw the blue mana the air, which soon started to increase to a night sky filled with mana.

Now he could see the same sight once again. With the dense blue sun in the epicentre, surrounded by every colour of mana imaginable. And just like he did the first time, Hanuel tried to reach out to the stars. But now not with an image of his hand grabbing the mana in mind, but the image of a gravitational force created by the blue sun, pulling every star towards it.

The blue sun, which was now being covered by all the mana in the room began showing a reaction. Like solar flares trying to burst out from the sun.

Hanuel gathered even more mana and compacted the blue sun becoming increasingly dense, creating even more flares. 'Yes something is happening' Feeling motivated, Hanuel kept compacting the blue sun even more, because that was getting a reaction, something forming.

The blue sun, which was once the size of a football had become the size of a tennis ball.

Now with continuous solar flares all over his blue sun, it began to go out of control. A small mana burst shot out from the blue moon, grazing Hanuel, which left a small cut on his check. This same mana outburst that grazed Hanuel's face, hit the barrier, instantly piercing it.

In this very same moment, the blue sun got covered by an ominous looking black box. And in a split second, that black box disappeared alongside the blue sun, which was going out of control. Like nothing ever happened.

The students started to chatter and mumble amongst each other. "Haha, he can't even use his mana", "What use is it having good mana control if you can't even form anything", "How did someone like him even get allowed in this academy" All with a smirk on their faces, laughing at Hanuel.

In the middle of the chatter, Tae Choi stepped into the gymnasium. "SILENCE YOU IGNORANT FOOLS!!!" He screamed angrily, immediately silencing the crowd. "Hanuel Jin will be in class one!"

*BOOOOMMM*

A distant explosion could be heard. "ahhh", "What was that" the crowd of students became noisy again for a few seconds because of the unexpected explosion before going silent again.

That silence was followed by a huge tremor making the whole gymnasium shake and a dust cloud appeared, came over the whole gymnasium, making them unable to see out of the gymnasium.

Tae Choi started to walk towards, what looked like the direction of the teachers. While walking in that direction, Hanuel locked eyes with Tae Choi. Hanuel looked at Tae Choi, which had a dense amount of black mana surrounding him, which couldn't be missed and could even be felt by most student.

The feeling of that mana was the exact same as the black box that surrounded the blue sun for a second before making it disappear, was what went through Hanuel's head. Now standing face to face with the president of the academy. "We need to talk, come with me"

Everyone, including me, was dumbfounded that the president of the academy spoke directly to me. "Are you coming or not" Said the president walking towards the exit of the gymnasium. "Yes sir" I said before catching up to him.

Having left the building, he spread out his pitch black mana, surrounding both himself and me, making me unable to see anything as my mana was being suppressed.

A second after he spread his mana, it suddenly disappeared. It felt like nothing happened, but when I spread out my mana to see again, I was in an office room….?

"What, never teleported before?" Tae Choi said in a casual tone. "I suppose I haven't tried it yet" is what I replied, not knowing how to respond to something so unexpected, which made Tae Choi laugh out loud. "Haha, just relax. It's not like I am going to expel you or something"

I nervously laughed along with him. It was pretty intense being alone in a room with the president of the academy, who had an intense aura surrounding him despite having controlled his mana completely.

"So, why do you think I want to talk to you" Asked the president, breaking the awkward atmosphere.

I had an idea as to why he wanted to talk to me one on one. His black mana, which could let him teleport and looked and felt identical to the black box that appeared and made my out of control mana vanish, accompanied by a distant explosion. Putting one and one together, I think I know what happened, but just to make sure let's gauge his reaction. "Did you want to talk to me because I couldn't form anything from my mana?"

"HAHA!" The president laughed unnecessarily loud, before suddenly switching back ta a serious face. "You know why I called you here, so let's get to the chase. If I arrived even a second later, there wouldn't have been much left of the gymnasium"

Not being able to accept the reality that I, who has never been able to form anything from my mana, had created something that could destroyed a whole building, was just hard to believe. I tried my luck once again and said, looking down at the floor because I was afraid to look the president in the eyes. "But sir, I can't even form something from my mana. I am just a failure"

There was no response, so I looked up at the president. He had a neutral expression, but behind that expression was something else, something intimidating me. He spread out his pitch black mana once again, suppressing my mana once again making me unable to see.

"If you don't want to believe the truth, just see for yourself" The mana of the president disappeared and I could once again spread out my mana. We were standing in, what looked like, just a normal grass field.

Once I started spreading my mana even further, I could see the beginning of a crater.

This crater in the middle of the grass field was massive, with a diameter of over forty meters and a few meters deep. Just like the impact crater of a meteorite. "Did I do this?"

"Your mana sure did. Luckily I could teleport it away just in time, otherwise it would have been bad" said the president.

I didn't know how to feel and had mixed emotions.

Devastated, knowing that I could have hurt a lot of people.

Happy that my mana had made something tangible, meaning that I really am a mana user.

Sad that I couldn't control my mana and that creating something was so hard for me, while others could do it without a problem just like walking.

The only thing that seemed appropriate at that time was. "I'm sorry sir, I will withdraw from the academy" Thinking about not wanting to put Sook Baek and the other students in danger.

"What nonsense are you spouting? Did you already forget that I said that you would be in class one in front of all students? What more do you want?" Said the president with a confident tone.

"But if I try to use mana again, the same thing might happen, putting the students in danger" Said Hanuel in a downhearted manner.

"Oh, did I not mention that I would personally be your teacher for practical mana usage? Every student in class one gets the privilege of personally being taught by a teacher, one on one. And I have decided that I will teach you." Said the president.

"WHATT?!" Me being dumbfounded by what he just casually said, that was the only thing that came out of my mouth. After a few seconds, I collected my thoughts. "So I will be in class one and the president of the academy will be my private teacher for practical mana usage?"

"Yes that's right, but only for practical mana usage. The other classes will be group classes" Said the president.

And that is how my first ever week of school ended.