Dorin and Johan sat in the middle of a room, surrounded by other students who seem to be watching them closely.
"Isn't that Dorin Silvius? The one they said blew up the dorm kitchen?" said one whispered voice.
"And that bald red-head is Johan, he melted the Magic Proficiency Examination room and fried the judges when they threatened to seal his power!"
Johan turned around to face the hushed voices with a frown.
"Who the hell said I fried them?!" he snapped at the students at the back.
Dorin simply laughed by his side.
"You're really famous, Johan!" he told his companion.
"As if you aren't?" Johan frowned at him. "You're the one who called that lightning bolt that caused the power shortage that day!"
"That's right!" the other students mumbled amongst themselves. "He can control lightning – a second-level element!"
"I can't, actually, that's why I need my charms, see?" said Dorin who faced the area where he heard the comment. He then pulled his uniform up, along with his undershirt for them to see the complicated magic symbols on his chest.
The girls who where seated to his right all turned red as they stared at his well-toned body.
"Hey, what are you doing, showing off your body like that?" Johan pulled his uniform down. "Stop harassing the women!"
"I'm not harassing them!" Dorin looked insulted.
"W-we don't mind!" the girls chirped in.
"See, they don't mind!"
"Wow, you sure have a great body!" said one of their male classmates. "Do you work out as well?"
"Yeah, students here in the Magic Department are usually on the skinny side," another said shyly.
"Oh, you should see Johan with his shirt off!" Dorin said happily. "He's more fit than I am. He came from the mines, after all!"
"Really, which mines?"
"Can we see your body too?" asked the girls.
"Can you call that lightning bolt again?" the rest asked Dorin.
The lecture hall grew noisier as the two got surrounded, but this time, their classmates were no longer intimidated by the tall fire mage nor the confident looking wind mage. Dorin's friendly personality had melted all the awkwardness away, and soon they were all laughing inside the lecture room. Even the scowling Johan was no match for his friend Dorin who kept trying to pull his shirt up.
"Students, please settle down." They were surprised to hear Prof. Dupont knocking on the open classroom door. "We are about to begin our lessons for Basic Elements 101," he said with a smile. "Please go back to your seats."
He made his way behind a long table on the platform in front of the room and clumsily bumped a pile of textbooks as he placed his satchel down. It fell on the platform, making some of the students laugh a bit.
"Man, Prof. Dupont really is such a klutz..." Johan snickered.
Before he could finish his sentence, Dorin was already off his seat and walking towards the kneeling professor.
"Let me help."
Seeing him, some students from the front row also came to give the professor a hand.
"Thank you, and since you are already holding the textbooks, can you please hand the rest out to the class?" said Prof. Dupont.
He then went to the front and wrote his name on the whiteboard.
"My name is Prof. Jacob Dupont," he said as he faced the class. "I am the head of the Alchemy department, and will be your professor for Basic Elements 101. As the title implies, we will be studying the elements one by one to have a better understanding of their characteristics, their uses, and their effect in our daily lives..."
His attention was called by a student's raised hand. He looked to be in his mid twenties and wore the modern looking uniform of the Science and Technology department with its moss green vest and gray coat.
"Yes?"
"Sir, isn't this just a regular Chemistry class?" he asked. "Why do I still need to take this as a prerequisite to Alchemy, when I already took chemistry classes in the Science and Technology Department?"
"Why indeed?" the professor asked with a smile. "May I ask what your name is?"
"Mort Cohen, sir," the student replied.
"Well, you see, Mr. Cohen, here in the magic department, we use magic." Dupont took two vials from his open satchel on the table. "We do not merely rely on modern methods and devices to study the elements." Upon saying this, he flipped the cover of both vials with his thumb, and slowly, the powdery substance inside floated out into thin air.
"Can anyone tell me how we usually identify substances?" he asked his class.
"We can check the physical appearance," a student answered.
"Good, but what if the two substances look physically the same?"
"We could taste them?" someone suggested."
"And what if the substance was poisonous?" Dupont asked with a small laugh.
"We mix it with other substances and record their reactions like solubility, changes in color, and the likes..." said Mort Cohen.
"Correct. All of your answers are acceptable, but what if we don't have the equipment? You see, back in the past, ancient alchemists know their elements by heart due to seasoned experience and of course, by magic."
Dupont looked at the white powdery solution over his left hand.
"This is sodium chloride..."
"That's salt," the students mumbled.
"Exactly, and what do you think this other substance is?"
Some of the students came closer to look at the white powder floating over the professor's right hand. It looked like finely ground table salt as well.
"I can detect a slight almond scent..." said a girl about Dorin's age. "Is it cyanide?"
"Correct! Sodium cyanide, to be exact," the professor answered. "You see, once you are familiar with compounds and elements, you can easily tell them apart, and that is exactly what we will learn in 'Basic Elements 101'. We shall go through all the elements in the periodic table to familiarize ourselves with each and every one of the..."
"But what's so magical about that?" Cohen asked impatiently, interrupting the professor.
"Because, Mr. Cohen, in my class, you won't be using any devices to tell these elements apart," he replied. "You will be taught to simply use your mind. That is, if you have the capacity to learn the spell."
"Oh, is that how you separated the different grains of salt to create baking soda for Mrs. Cooper?" Dorin piped in. "You said you could magnify the bits in you mind!"
"We could actually do that?" a student asked.
"Well, it would be difficult for some, but with the right spells, you could easily differentiate the elements at an atomic level. But in able to do that, you must first be familiar with the elements and its properties and physical characteristics." The professor took out a textbook. "Please open your books to Chapter 1."
The students did as they where told. The first page in the chapter showed a 3D hologram of a hydrogen atom under a quantum microscope. It slowly rotated over the opened book. Detailed information about the element and its uses were written on the page.
"Wow, how did they do this without magic?!" asked Dorin who rotated the book upon his desk.
"There's a microchip at the back cover that projects a different image according to the opened page," Prof. Dupont explained. Dorin looked up and saw the tall professor smiling down at him. "I want all of you to familiarize yourself with the element in your textbook," he addressed the class. "You are to draw the first 20 elements and compile them in a folder, which you shall pass to me when we meet next week."
"What about the magic spells you mentioned earlier?" Cohen asked.
"I will teach you the spells when you have memorized all 94 naturally occurring elements." A low groan filled the classroom. "For now you may leave early unless you have any questions regarding my subject. You can take your textbooks with you. We shall study the first 20 elements in more detail on our next meeting."
"I have a question, professor," said Cohen who came to the professor's table. "If I could pass all 92 elements next week, can you teach me the spells ahead of the rest of the class? I really want to move to your alchemy class to learn about actual spells, but since this is a prerequisite subject, I had no choice but to take it."
"If you could name all the elements by sight, then I guess it would be okay," Dupont said, nodding his head.
"Good, I really look forward to your alchemy classes."
"Then I will look forward to you joining them as well," Dupont said with a smile.