OLD-WORLD EXTRA

Chapter 395: Path Optimization



"Aether Core Purity. Aether Control. Mental Fortitude."

Emir stood near the holo screen, pointing at three terms that were displayed for all students to see.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"These are the makings of a good Spell Weaver and Arcanist."

Their eyes tracked his every move, wanting to extract any and all information that he provided.

This fate did not even spare Quinn and Arthur, his self-proclaimed 'enemies.'

"Some of you might wonder why I'm explaining such a concept to even you, specialists foreign to the intricacies of weaving."

A few actually nodded; they couldn't help it-wasn't their class today about Pathing? But the rest, knowing their professor, already figured this was a necessary setup for the reveal, as the man always enjoyed a proper lead-up.

"Not to worry, you won't dive too deep, only graze the ocean's shallow end."

With those assuring words, he flicked his wrist, changing the holoscreen to the next 'page' and displaying the Pathing for his Aether Blast ability.

The holoscreen depicted a detailed diagram of a human body with bright, pulsing lines showing the flow of Aether.

"Here..."

Emir pointed at the core.

"As you all know, the Aether starts in your core, behind your sternum, next to the heart, it's one of the main reasons we call it our second heart."

His hand moved, trailing the Path of Aether.

"It flows through the central artery, an extension of our core, and what we like to call the Aetherial Vein, up through your chest."

The diagram highlighted the path, a glowing line moving up from the sternum, through the Aetherial Vein, splitting at the shoulders, and continuing down the arms.

"It travels through the subclavian arteries, branching out to the brachial arteries, and finally, it splits into smaller vessels down the forearm."

The students watched as the line split and traveled down the arms, illuminating the radial and ulnar arteries.

"The Aether finally reaches your hands, where it converges at the tips of your fingers."

Emir paused, letting them absorb the information before he continued.

"Pretty simple, no?"

He didn't wait for them to answer and continued:

"Yes, it is. But you can make it even simpler, faster. You can use a technique I like to call Path Optimization."

Emir came up with this name yesterday, there was no such 'technique' before then.

He never considered tweaking the pathing of abilities an issue due to his advanced mind and neural network.

The man just did what he felt was best.

Those students weren't like him, however.

In fact, they were the same as Hiro, desperate to know how he did the things he did.

"I never heard about that technique before!"

"Me neither!"

"Haha! I'll so be bragging about this!"

"Same... but I don't think he'll allow us to share the technique."

"Who cares?! Either way, those dumbasses that didn't join this class will regret it till the day they die."

"They will. Especially the unlucky second years now probably stuck in their home room classes."

"I never heard of a professor sharing a personal technique before, for free at that."

The 'unnamed' were lit abuzz, not a single one of them silent.

And the 'named' weren't any different.

"Are you really not lying?"

Aria pushed the questioning Ava away, and let out a sigh.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I know just as much as you do?! Elijah told me nothing!"

Max, sitting next to Ava, gave her a light smack on the back of the head, purely on a whim.

"Ah!..."

She snapped her head towards him.

"What was that for?!"

"You're disturbing my concentration."

Sofia, who sat in front of the three, wanted to jump in and scream, "That's what I want to say!" but held it in, her gaze stuck on Emir.

None of her many teachers taught her anything close to what the name of this technique implied.

Ability Path tweaking wasn't new-most experienced Seraphims had multiple versions of the Path memorized.

However, none claimed they could 'optimize' the ability itself, only 'tweak' it to better fit their desired results.

Truly, only she and that Reaper deserved such knowledge.

Meanwhile, in the two back corners of the classroom, Quinn and Arthur stayed silent as usual,

but one of them appeared slightly, if not a lot, more agitated than usual.

Her black bob of hair looked uncombed, messy, and her eyes were puffy with dark circles underneath.

It was obvious that she was still reeling from the mental breakdown last night, and had likely cried herself to sleep, emotions resurfacing.

No one around her bothered to ask if she was alright, as if she didn't exist in class, but she

didn't mind that.

Despite being a sniffling mess, all her focus was on the professor; she had no time to entertain

worthless pity.

Just because he was her enemy didn't mean she couldn't learn from him, right?

Arthur used the same rationality to cope with his envy, nearly grinding his teeth in the

process.

But all that stopped when Emir raised his hand, silencing them.

"...It's good that you're excited, but there's a limit to what I can allow. Is that understood?"

They all immediately straightened up as they felt his gaze land on them through the shades, their bodies shaking uncontrollably.

"Yes Sir!"

He nodded.

"Good. Now, to learn the technique, you need to be adept at the earlier concepts I

mentioned."

He stopped talking for a moment, and Elijah, who had been waiting outside since the start of

the class, entered carrying strange equipment.

Junior followed behind, holding even more peculiar contraptions.

"What the hell is that?"

"Dunno."

"They look like torture devices to me."

"I think my older brother used those things while we ran around the field during our entrance

exam."

"So it's only for second years?"

"Maybe, and probably only Spell Weavers."

"Shhhh, shut up."

The students whispered among themselves but didn't dare speak any louder, scared that their

professor might silence them for good.

Gesturing at the three machines, Emir announced:

"This here will test if you are ready to even know of such a technique, so try your best; I'll

have this set as your benchmark."

The first machine, designed for Aether Control, looked like a complex network of transparent tubes connected to a central console with two hand-sized sockets. Each tube had a different diameter, and the console had multiple knobs.

Students would need to manipulate the flow of Aether through the tubes, maintaining a

steady and precise stream despite the varying resistances.

The second machine, for Aether Purity, resembled a large, cylindrical chamber filled with a

shimmering, viscous liquid.

Inside the chamber, there was one large floating crystal in the shape of a ball.

The task, as explained by Emir, was to channel as much of their Aether into the chamber,

causing the crystal to glow without disturbing the liquid.

Any impurities in the Aether would cause turbulence, making the liquid show color, or the crystal itself would dim or react unpredictably.

This, as stated by Emir before the 'field trip' was to see how much they circulated their Aether.

Because the more a Celestial cultivated, the fewer mistakes they would make in the Aether conversion process.

These 'mistakes' referred to the conversion of Neutral Aether into random Aspects that were

of no use to the Celestial.

It was usually a very minor amount of the converted Aether, but that still had an effect when stacked. Resulting in worse ability output and Aether absorption rate.

This was what prompted the Order to name such mistakes 'impurities.' They almost acted like cancer cells, unseen, while generally worsening everything they

touched.

The third machine, testing Mental Fortitude, was a sleek, metallic helmet with numerous electrodes extending from its surface.

When worn, it would directly connect to the student's neural network, injecting false readings

of pain that gradually increased until they reached their limit and had to tap out.

'Hm.'

With the introductions done, Emir stood back, observing the reactions of the students as they stared at the machines with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. "We'll start with the highest-ranked student. Elijah, show them how it's done."