The Academy's Time Looper-Chapter 53: Colored Mana

To gamble..or to not gamble.

This time...the unknown voice was wrong.

Athen’s rationality had finally caught up and returned to him.

Remaining in the same exact spot as he was before activating his time-stopping ability, Athen examined the frozen teacher and his mana sword.

The sword was frozen in motion...and so easy to grab.

Couldn’t he just grasp the sword at the exact time that his ability ended?

Shaking his head, Athen quickly dismissed the idea.

His purple mana had barely managed to make a hole in the professor’s first layer of mana defense.

And barely any of his mana was concentrated there, as he had the defense all over his massive body.

However, there was an immense amount of mana concentrated in the professor’s light blue sword.

His purple fist would easily fall under the pressure of the professor’s mana sword, and his hand would probably be sliced off.

Athen also couldn’t just step back, dodge the sword, and then punch the teacher.

By then, the professor would have repaired the hole in his first layer of mana defense.

There really were no alternatives.

No cheat codes or advantages for Athen to exploit.

He had to make a decision.

Athen had already gained quite a lot from this battle, so he did not regret it in the slightest.

Not only had he managed to sense mana for the first time, but he had also managed to control mana...though only a small particle of it.

Trust your ego.

That was the one thing Athen would take away from this professor’s exam.

Without it dragging him into this fight with Professor Caldris, it might have taken Athen ages to sense and control mana.

However, he had skipped all of that and basically brute-forced his way into learning how to do it, saving a massive amount of time.

But, his ego was telling him to stay...and gamble.

As if responding to Athen’s worries, the sudden voice sounded in his empty head again.

"No worries, you can just leave now. Just accept defeat. You lost, right? You’re running away, so clearly, you did. That teacher will just go off to lunch, not giving a single shit about you or your existence."

"All good, you got it! Don’t worry; at least you have completed the requirements for the entrance exam! Plenty of fucking wimps get into the academy, you’ll fit right in with them!"

Reaching his fist forward through the hole in the first layer of mana surrounding the teacher’s body, Athen muttered.

"If I do this, will you shut the fuck up, you prick!?"

"..."

Hearing absolute silence, Athen pushed his fist further forward, allowing it to touch the second layer of mana protecting the teacher.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t phase his hand forward and through the second layer of mana, as his hand would then be embedded in the teacher’s physical body.

And...if time returned to normal when his hand was embedded in the teacher’s body, Athen didn’t even know what kind of sorcery would happen.

Crouching down, Athen patiently waited with his fist less than a centimeter away from the second layer of mana.

Then, a second later, the purple hue surrounding the rest of his body, besides his right hand, began to flicker.

After a moment, the sword resumed notation, instantly bursting forward right at where Athen’s head was before he used his ability.

And, as predicted by Athen, the sword suddenly tilted downward, aiming right at the top of Athen’s crouching figure.

At that same time, Athen’s purple mana was engaged in a fierce fight with the professor’s second layer of mana.

Just as the tip of the sword approached Athen’s head, about to pierce his skull, his purple fist suddenly burst into motion.

A decently-sized hole, larger than Athen’s fist, appeared in the second layer of mana, and his purple fist immediately went through.

Time seemed to slow as Athen’s purple fist and Caldris’s mana sword raced towards their respective targets.

Simaltenousty, the longer hand of the clock on Caldris’s expensive watch moved forward, indicating there were now three seconds left in the exam.

Then, at the very moment, Caldris suddenly spotted something as he continued looking forward.

In front of him was the blood-stained wall that had been painted red by Athen’s wound when he had dived right and put his hand on it.

However, that wasn’t what surprised Caldris.

Through the reflection of the crimson-red wall, Caldris saw a feint but unmistakably purple glow.

Though ocean-blue mana is the most widely known and used form of mana, it is not actually the only one.

There are shades of mana other than blue existent in the world; however, each of them is extremely rare, with only double-digit known users of them.

Besides blue, there are seven known different shades of mana: ruby-red, frosted-white, night-black, golden-yellow, emerald-green, lightning-purple, and rainbow.

Each of the shades serves and has the same purpose as regular blue mana, but their color differs for unknown reasons.

But...the main issue is that they can only be inherited.

Only if someone above you in your family tree had lightning-purple mana would you have the chance to obtain it.

That is why it is unknown as to if these different shades of mana provide an advantage over the normal blue.

Each family that is lucky enough to have a different color wielder in their bloodline keeps the secret properties of their mana close to them, never daring to reveal them.

The only known different color mana-wielding family in the world is the royal family, who possesses the golden-yellow mana.

It is speculated that the grand duke families also possess varying colors of mana, but the theory has yet to be confirmed.

In that instant, the professor...suddenly leaned backward out of shock, bringing his body closer to Athen’s racing fist.

*THUD*

As Athen’s fist made contact with the professor’s leaning back, he propelled forward, bringing his sword with him.

The sword, only nearly a millimeter from touching Athen’s head, was yanked forward alongside the professor, narrowly missing Athen.

*BANG*