From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 348: Mana and the Color Wheel

"We're going to have a new professor?" Mavenda cheered, staring at Ivy's cloak that looked like the night sky and stars with fascination.

"Actually, I came to Strixhaven to study." Ivy shook the envelope he had been holding in his hand. The Strixhaven star pattern on it was shining.

"A great wizard came to Strixhaven to study?" Mavenda scratched her head with her four-fingered left paw. "I believe similar things must have happened in Strixhaven's history, but at least in the past hundred years, I haven't heard of it..."

"Let's talk next time, Mavenda. I'm going to take Ivy to meet the school leaders, or the director of the admissions office? I guess there will always be someone in the student center who can help." Kemina didn't want to waste time on small talk, so she took the lead in saying goodbye.

"Ah! Okay! Of course! I guess the dean sitting in the student center is Toulus, the dean of order of Hengjian College. She is quite rigid." Mavenda waved her paw and said goodbye to the two.

"In the past, we would provide orientation for new students at the Holy Oracle Hall at the beginning of the school year, but the timing is not right now..."

As they were talking, the two had already entered the student center through the side door. It was a warm and bright room that also served as a library and study room. There were two rows of tables in the middle of the hall, and tall bookshelves on one side of the tables.

Ivy glanced across the empty hall and asked, "I heard you say before that this semester isn't over yet?"

"That's right." Kemina led Ivy to an open space in the middle of the room, from where they could see the magic railing on the second floor. "In fact, the final exams are over, and most of the first and second grade students have left school, but the third grade students' dance is still being prepared, and some fourth grade students who were invited to be dance partners are still enjoying their last time in the academy... So, this semester is indeed not over yet."

Kemina stepped lightly on the floor twice, and a translucent magic staircase suddenly extended from the second floor. Ivy and Kemina stepped on it together. With the aura spreading like water waves, the magic staircase started to move automatically.

It's more like a rotating conveyor belt or escalator, except everything about it is made of magic.

"Dance." Ivy nodded to show that he understood. He had attended another dance half a year ago.

"And it's a masquerade ball, held once a year at Hengjian College. The two deans of Hengjian College take turns in charge. This year, Professor Toulus is in charge, so the dean currently working at Strijhaven may be the only one left." The magic staircase had already taken the two to their destination. Kemina took Ivy through a corridor and raised her hand to knock on the door of an office.

However, the roar coming from inside the door made her hesitate: "...An inter-faculty meeting? Now that most students are on summer vacation? Ogeta! I've been busy all year! Enjoying the summer vacation is what I should do!"

The sound sounded like an explosion, reflecting the hot temper and rage of the owner of the sound.

"A whole year? Busy creating earthquakes and explosions? I remember that you have received 23 letters of complaint from the school worker golems this year. They even threatened to skin you alive, but I have never seen you restrain yourself even a little bit." It should be the woman called Ogotta who answered, "The Fashion Masquerade is a very important event! It is an important bond for the five major colleges to put aside their differences and establish a united relationship! And we, the deans, must set an example for the students."

Kemina mouthed to Ivy that the "Ogotta" in the story was Dean Toulus whom she and Mavenda had mentioned before.

"Knock, knock, knock." Ivy knocked on the door, and Kemina, who wanted to stop him, froze her hand in mid-air.

"Please come in." said Ogeta Tullus.

The human woman sitting behind the desk was obviously the Dean of Order of Hengjian College. She looked very young for a high-level spellcaster, but Ivy was not sure if she used some kind of magic to maintain her youthful appearance. The robe she wore was still the red and white colors representing Hengjian College, but it was also decorated with complicated gold threads. This wide-sleeved robe was much more gorgeous than the school uniforms of Hengjian students, but it also made her look like she was wearing a long scroll.

The man standing opposite Ogota looked even more eye-catching. He was a fire giant, with orange-red skin burning with flames. Ivy believed that everything that made up his body was pure elemental power, but his control was obviously very good. Because he was wrapped in a very fancy red and blue silk robe, and the white ruffles moved without wind because of the heat he radiated. Being able to make a ball of human-shaped flame wear clothes was enough to show the extraordinaryness of this fire giant.

Ivy could find a familiar feeling in him, because as a giant leader, Ivy's magic power had some similarities with the fire giant in front of him, especially when he was in the state of [Fire Element Summoning].

"Have you made appointments with other professors?" the fire giant asked in an angry voice.

"Please keep quiet, Dean." Ogeta looked up at Kemina and Ivy, the fatigue on her face almost overflowing, "Kemina, this gentleman is..."

"Ivy Doom, a wizard who received an admission letter from Strixhaven, and was sent directly to the gate of Strixhaven by the teleportation magic on it." Ivy did not intend to ask Kemina to help introduce him. He had already seen that this university composed entirely of spellcasters was not like Hogwarts, which was always full of British people deliberately beating around the bush. Therefore, he only needed to maintain basic politeness.

"Is that so? Kemina?" Ogeta looked at Ivy intently for a few seconds and asked the trainee counselor again.

"In fact, the point of the teleportation magic is the Hengjian Gate..." Kemina added quickly, "and Ivy comes from another universe."

The suspicion on Ogota's face did not hide Ivy's intention at all. She said slowly: "As far as I know, Strixhaven's acceptance letter will not come with teleportation magic... let alone a teleportation spell across the universe... Few people can turn this spell into a triggered magic... Can you let me see your acceptance letter?"

Ivy took out his envelope and placed it on the desk in front of Ogeta. "An unexpected visitor!" The fire giant, whom Ogeta called "Dean Dean", no longer had the previous anger, but laughed enthusiastically, "And he is a powerful spellcaster! I guess Ogeta will not agree to let you enroll, but I am willing to offer you a job! But first you have to tell me, what type of magic are you good at?"

Ogotta examined the envelope in front of her, looked up at the fire giant, but did not stop his plan.

"Dean?" Ivy raised an eyebrow at him. "I think I came to Strixhaven to study, not to look for a job."

"Call me Nasari. 'Dean' is my father's name." The fire giant scratched the beard made entirely of flames on his chin with his fingers. "Believe me, there is not much difference between the two. There are five colleges in Strixhaven, and people always have to find their own home here. Magic is the best way to distinguish this - so, come and demonstrate it for us! Use the magic you are best at."

Ivy looked around the office belonging to Ogeta, and the Dean of Order, who was sitting behind the desk, nodded in agreement.

So Ivy stopped refusing and said, "I have dabbled in many kinds of magic, but if I were to say what I am best at, it would probably be elemental magic."

Yes, Ivy is now a level 20 [Supreme Warlock], only one step away from becoming a legend.

"Which element?" The smile on the Fire Giant's face burned like a flame. "Unruly wind or exploding flame?"

Ivy did not answer immediately, but showed a thoughtful look: "The magical power of this time and space is very abundant and active. Different magic powers are both interdependent and contradictory... I think I can do more here..."

He stretched out his finger, and a bright flame began to burn at his fingertips. The heat emitted by the flame immediately caused the temperature in the entire office to rise.

Ivy glanced at the fire giant standing not far away. Since a creature that was itself fire could restrain its power under its skin, there was no reason why Ivy couldn't do it.

He began to try to control the heat emitted by the flames on his fingertips, making them more concentrated and restrained.

In a breath, the dancing flame on Ivy's fingertips turned into a continuously rotating fireball, but apart from a little orange light, it did not emit any heat.

"The magic power you mentioned is called mana by us. It has five colors: white, blue, black, red, and green, which together form a color wheel with five vertices." Nasari stared at the fireball on Ivy's fingertips with interest, and his lava-like tongue licked his teeth. "It is said that the Akaivivo space-time was created by the collision of two worlds, so there are two suns hanging high in the sky. Mana of different origins blends with each other and opposes each other here, forming a very contradictory magic structure, which people call the magic vortex. In the Holy Oracle Hall of Strijhaven, there is a magic vortex belonging to Strijhaven. It is a gift left to this school by the five founding dragons, and Strijhaven also named five colleges after them as a memorial."

"In the mana color wheel, each color of mana has two opposing colors and two adjacent colors. The colors on the left and right are the adjacent colors, and the two non-adjacent colors are the opposing colors. The five major colleges of Strijhaven each choose two opposing colors as symbols, which together form an opposing yet unified magic philosophy." Ogotta stared into Ivy's eyes and supplemented Nasari's words, "The Hengjian College that I represent respects red and white mana, and the two opposing philosophies are chaos and order; Nasari's Pure Beauty College respects red and blue, and the philosophical concepts it studies are improvement and manifestation; the Quantitative Analysis College that Kemina once studied in respects blue and green, and the philosophical concepts it studies are the theory represented by blue and the matter represented by green; in addition, there is the Yinhao College, which uses the glowing white and the shadowy black as symbols, and the Mihua College, which respects the green of growth and the black of extinction."

"These are the first lessons that all freshmen will learn in the Holy Oracle Hall. If you want to cast spells in Aquavivo, the mana color wheel and the magic philosophy behind it are topics that everyone can never avoid." Nasari raised his mustache and said expectantly, "Let's see how far you can go... As a wizard casting a spell in Aquavivo for the first time, your experience has helped you avoid the embarrassment of losing control of the spell, but now, it's time to throw away the old experience and embrace new knowledge."

In fact, long before Ivy obtained the profession of "Splendid Warlock", he had already acquired some knowledge about the five major academies from Strixhaven's textbooks.

But the mana color wheel that Ogotta and Nasari had just talked about was the first time he had heard of it.

This is a completely different spellcasting theory from the eight major spell factions of DND. For this reason alone, Ivy's visit to Strixhaven is worth the price of admission.

Ivy's previous spell casting mode can certainly play a 100% effect here, but in Akaivivo, there is a more efficient spell casting mode. Just like when I was in Hogwarts, Ivy always tended to use wizard magic, and local spells had bonuses.

Now that he was in Strixhaven, it was only natural for Ivy to try out the color wheel mana here. As a [Supreme Warlock] inspired by the teaching materials of the Treasure Academy, Ivy could certainly trace the magical power of the four elements to its origin and transform it into purer single-color mana.

The fireball floating on Ivy's fingertips gradually became brighter, and then began to transform under Ivy's manipulation. The orange-yellow light turned into pure red, and even the external manifestation was no longer jumping like a flame, but turned into a ball of chaotic and unrestrained mana.

"Genius!" Nasaree led the cheers, and all the spellcasters in the office smiled.

But Ivy believed that his abilities were far more than that. He released the red mana ball in his hand and let it move in a circle around his shoulder.

If red represents chaos, freedom, and passionate expression, then blue corresponds to knowledge, insight, and calm introspection.

Ivy no longer relied on elemental magic to transform mana, but instead used the opposing yet coexisting mana connection of Akaivivo's space-time, using the red mana ball hovering around her, which echoed with the starlight in the Ravenclaw crown above her head, thereby summoning another blue mana ball in opposition to it.

(End of this chapter)