19:

  Peering through the window, Lucan directed his gaze to where the sea of golden wheat gave way to healthy grass on an open plain, the land having been cleared in every direction of where Thesali, the Academy City lay.

  The first thing that Lucan noticed was how low the defensive perimeter of the city was, the circular wall a work of unblemished white stone that ensconced the city, yet was no taller than a two-storey building. It was definitely odd, considering that even towns had earth mages raise much taller, imposing walls, but Lucan supposed that if anything was going to take on a city full of thousands of mages and aura knights, a measly wall wasn’t going to stop them in the first place.

  This allowed Lucan to get a clear, comprehensive look of Thesali for himself and his gaze immediately zeroed in on one structure in particular—- for there was no doubting what it was or what purpose it served.

  The Imperial Academy of the Combat Arts or as it was known to the attending students as simply the “Academy”, was something Lucan identified on sight. It was hard not to, considering that four towers that were arranged in a crescent formation in the middle of the city, towering over the surrounding land and being visible from a few dozen leagues in any direction, with each tower— outside of having its own visual distinctions— was also three fourths the size of the tower preceding them.

  The first tower, easily being the single tallest building Lucan had witnessed in his life, had to be some twenty-stories tall and crafted entirely out of a glossy metal that was unfamiliar to Lucan, its surface painted in a brilliant azure that shimmered under the energetic gaze of the sun with veins of molten silver running across its length in complex patterns and unfamiliar script and stained crystal windows dotted across its length and breadth. He made the mistake of activating Mana Sight, a simple process that he could do reflexively by drawing a sliver of mana from his Mana Core and directing it to float upwards, through his bloodstream, before concentrating it in his eyes. It was an ability that was considered incomplete until a Mage formed his Mana Heart, so all Lucan was really doing was exposing his eyes to regular Mana so they would become more sensitive to it’s presence.

  His eyes went wide, before beginning to water as the blinding brilliance of white light that every inch of the tower was practically buzzing with, overwhelmed the senses of a particularly out of touch apprentice mage. The density of ambient mana was simply insane within that tower and Lucan would not be surprised if he could recharge his Mana Core in an hour instead of the twelve that he usually required after being tapped out of his reservoir. So merely being within the tower was akin to having a mana tether digging into his veins, which was simply an extravagant use of mana stones.

  If the first tower wasn’t the magic one, Lucan would order the carriage to turn back and go straight to his room, because clearly, he wasn’t cut out for it.

  Only after expelling the mana that he was holding concentrated near his eyes did his mana sight dissipate. Lucan could control what he considered to be his mana as long as it was remained within the confines of his body, though that control was strongest in the mana core itself and plummeted drastically the moment he willed it to leave his body, at least without a medium.

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  His sight restored, Lucan tried not to let his shock show as he studied the second tower, that was positioned on the curve of the crescent formation. Despite being one part out of four smaller than the mage tower, it was clearly the most imposing structure of the four, it’s entire exterior seemingly hewn from a mountain-sized chunk of obsidian, its surface rough and its design unpolished and overly militaristic, with battlements visible on the fifteenth-storey height even though there could be no use of from such an absurd height while there were noticeably few windows to offer those inside a view and a massive flag was being flown at full mast that depicted not a noble family or even the King’s glory, but the map of the Kingdom of Nostura itself.

  It was not lost on Lucan that for a person born with a Mana Core to become an Aura Knight, they had to train with an obsidian sword, a material that, ironically enough, had one of the lowest mana conductivity possible. Placing a tower of obsidian next to one that was all but formed of liquid mana itself, well now that was certainly a statement.

  The third tower, that was now approaching a reasonable height, to the point where it could be considered a particularly large tenement, if it were not for the fact it was shaped like a melting candle, with a large incandescent flame blazing on its bowl shaped ceiling while the gray stone the tower was formed out of melted and caused globs of molten bronzed metal to slowly, very slowly, drip down its surface. In fact, Lucan wasn’t sure if the molten globs were even moving at all, but if his intuition was correct then the top of the tower was a blasted forge, the largest he had ever seen in his life.

  He couldn’t help but wonder what face Garrett Ashfall, the man who Lucan had bought his longblade from, would make at witnessing such a sight. Compared to it, even the so called hereditary forging techniques of the Ashfall family seemed like a bit of a farce, because whatever Lucan was seeing, it was the real fuckin’ deal.

  The fourth tower was peculiar, if only in its ordinariness. It was five stories tall, painted in a matte black and all the visible windows had their curtains drawn, not a single one missed.

  “The Tower of Foundation,” Janis’ calm tone cut through Lucan’s tone. “Where you will be heading. It’s quite the sight, isn’t it?"

  “It is,” Lucan dumbly responded, doing all he could to keep his jaw from dropping open like a country bumpkin even as his instincts wanted to gush to Mira about the sheer magnificence and grandeur and mystery of the sight that was unfolding before them.

  “Every apprentice mage has that reaction when they first see it. The second tower is the Tower of Solitude,” Janis continued. “Where I studied.”

  Lucan had figured as much.

  “The tower that’s currently in the middle of burning down is the Tower of Research,” He said. “It’s where you’ll find the mages that wield the pen better than the wand, but don’t let that fool you— they can kill you in a dozen ways before a Knight can think of more than one and they don’t have a code of honor like us.”

  Lucan was almost snapped out of the state of awe by the fact that the stone-faced, mister professional Janis Caravine had made what resembled something close to a joke.

  Almost.

  “As for the last tower,” Janis’ tone turned somber, his expression darkening a little before returning to it’s mask of composure. “It’s best if you stay away from those students.”

  “Why?” Lucan couldn’t help but ask.

  “It’s because that’s the only Tower where those born without a Mana core can seek admission,” Janis explained. “Where those who only have one thing to fight with can hone their ability to new heights.”

  “What’s the one thing?” Lucan asked, too distracted to think Janis’ words through.

  “Their minds,” Janis answered. “For that is the Tower of War.”

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