The class entered a room that Lily immediately recognized as an atelier. It had some cauldrons, workbenches, bookcases stacked with books, glass cabinets with tools, and shelves stocked with a wide variety of ingredients. Yet despite the wonders and thrills of the room, it was a bleak and dreary atmosphere that looked as if it had been abandoned.

Melina clapped her hands, and the room lit up, revealing the absolute state of this poor room. Cobwebs were gathered in every corner, a thick layer of dust was on every surface, and peaking at the interior of the cauldrons were decayed leftovers from previous brewing.

This looks so bad it almost feels intentional.

"Wow, this place is a dump," a boy said bluntly.

"Indeed. I wasn't joking when I said I was going to be teaching you chore magic," Professor Melina replied with a wink. "I have air or earth spells to get rid of dust, water to get rid of stains, and a few others you might find helpful."

The professor opened a pouch at her side, and out flew small booklets that were distributed to each student present. Despite their cheap appearance with a paper cover and string binding, Lily gingerly ran her fingers over it as if it were a precious treasure.

"I can't use any of those elements," a girl replied nervously.

"Not at all or diminished?" Melina asked.

"Not at all," she answered back.

"Yeah, I can barely fill a thimble of water," a boy also spoke up.

"Not to worry," Melina replied with a smile. "I do have a spell that everyone can learn, and for those of you who can but have diminished affinity, we will also work on making the best of what you can do. If you focus on your efficiency and control, you can overcome these hurdles, as even a trickle of water can be used to clean."

"Must we keep these private?" a girl asked, pointing at the book. Her question caused a few of the students to let out an audible groan; predictably, they had hoped to share with their friends.

"No, you're welcome to share them with anyone you wish. These are no ancient secrets or forbidden techniques—merely a few simplified cantrips."

The professor then instructed everyone to turn to the first page, pulling out a booklet of her own. On it was a very small incantation that Lily recognized from her lessons with Instructor Richardus; it was the earth spell that could be used to accumulate dust and debris together. However, Professor Melina's version was even shorter and appeared to be rearranged.

[She's simplified it to its most basic and bare minimum components. Although this reduces the affected area and overall results, casting should be nearly effortless. I can imagine the idea is to eventually get used to the spell enough to upkeep several of them at once, or to be able to silently cast them as she's been doing since our arrival.]

Lily silently agreed with Arakil's assessment and was impressed by the focus on maximizing results with the bare minimum of resources.

Melina would explain each spell once and what chores it could accomplish, cast it herself as a demonstration, and then move on to the next page. This continued until they reached the final page of the book, which lacked a simplified spell.

"Sadly, this one can't be simplified any further," she explained. "Can any of you guess what it does?"

Lily tried reading it, and while she could, she had no idea what sort of effect it would produce. Arakil was silent, clearly not willing to let Lily cheat an answer. None of the students replied, and judging by the smile on Melina's face, she expected this.

"I figured as much. This is a small and often neglected branch of magic, despite the fact that everyone can use it regardless of their affinities or bloodlines. As long as you have Mana, you can use it."

The students seemed perplexed by her declaration, and a few even seemed angry or upset.

"Why wouldn't they teach us this if everyone can do it?" the boy from earlier asked.

"It has minimal practical applications other than chores or convenience. Not to mention the difficulty in initially learning it. Most spellcasters won't consider something worthwhile unless it can defeat their foes, protect their life, or earn them money."

"Is it worth all the effort then? Aren't these other spells enough?" a girl asked, pointing at the booklet.

"Well, unless you are incapable of casting even one of them, I'd agree with you, at least in the practical sense. However, this particular branch of magic is wonderful for practicing efficiency and multitasking. I'm sure some families might hold something more tailored to their bloodline, or perhaps a hidden technique, but I've never come across another spell that can be used so broadly, no matter your background or talent."

That seemed to catch the class's attention, especially Lily, who was still quite committed to her "only astral magic" excuse. Having another type of magic at her disposal publicly could be pretty beneficial.

"What is it?"

"I'm dying to know."

"Please tell us."

Melina smiled and pointed towards the book that was floating out of her hands. "Telekinesis, of course."

"Tele-what?"

"Never heard of it..."

The entire class was confused, having never heard the term before. Lily would be joining them if not for Arakil mentioning it earlier.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"It has a few other colloquial names. Mana hand, lifting magic, Mana manipulation, levitation, and a few others. However, the official name is telekinesis. With it, you can lift objects and even slightly manipulate them from a distance. It can be wonderful to have an extra set of hands."

"Wait, why is it considered useless then?" the same boy asked again. "I can think of dozens of different ways to use it in combat. Couldn't you just lift or throw someone?"

Melina softly chuckled and shook her head. "None of those will work. You cannot use it on living creatures at all, not even plants."

"Didn't you lift Sienna?" a girl asked.

"Sienna is my Familiar, so the rules work a little differently. Also, I used a different spell."

"Couldn't you throw a rock?

"Screw throwing rocks, what about a sword?"

"Yeah!"

Melina gave a knowing smile, as if she'd been through something like this many times before. "You could perform the same with just earth or air magic, and it would be far easier and with far fewer hoops you'd need to jump through."

The students looked like they wanted to continue spitballing wild ideas and uses for the magic, but eventually, Melina clapped her hands and caused them to stop.

"We will be here all day at this rate. The easiest way to understand its limitations is to cast it yourself. We will go through it until each of you has cast it once, even with repeated chanting if need be."

Melina then went through slowly pronouncing the words while also showing some accompanying gestures. The gestures could substitute the words if need be, or together they could help with the first casting. Of course, the ultimate goal would be to shape the Mana yourself, but that wasn't something so easily accomplished.

Lily glanced at Arakil while Melina was occupied, hoping he understood her plight.

[You can certainly cast such a spell, and I don't see any reason it would interfere with your cover story. As your professor pointed out, anyone can accomplish this, provided they are not devoid of Mana.]

Lily gave a nod before listening intently to the professor, trying to get as much understanding of the enunciations as she could. Then the professor asked everyone to try levitating their booklets while she gave some more hands-on assistance to those who needed it the most.

If not for Lily trying her hardest to cast the spell without repeatedly chanting the incantation, she might have been the first in the class to successfully cast it. However, Arakil's teachings were ingrained in her bones at this point, and she refused to allow such an outcome.

Lily still managed to successfully cast the spell, landing herself within the top ten to do so. However, when Lily noticed Melina smiling at her, she couldn't help but wonder if the professor had realized the restriction she'd given herself.

When enough of the students had finally levitated their booklets, Melina grabbed everyone's attention with a clap of her hands.

"Let me give you all a brief demonstration of the biggest drawback of this spell."

The professor then walked over to the first boy to cast the spell and lifted her hand. The class watched eagerly, wondering what she was going to do. Melina then gently poked down on the book, causing it to fall instantly, and the boy let out a surprised yell.

"Once the spell is cast, the weight is set. Any changes will cause the spell to fail," Melina explained and walked over to the girl who came second.

This time, Melina dropped a pebble on the book, and despite its diminutive size, it also caused the booklet to tumble to the ground. Melina then walked to the next student and looked at the book, which suddenly fell as well.

"Someone else's Mana can also easily disrupt it," she explained for those who had no idea what she had done.

She grabbed the next kid's book, which also immediately broke his control over the object. She held it out loosely in her hand and instructed him to cast the spell again to try to take it away from her.

He cast the spell again as instructed, and despite needing to repeat the chant a few times, he was successful. However, the book did not budge at all from her grasp, and shortly after, he said his spell was broken.

"It will also fail if the object is even slightly attended," Melina explained. "So it can't be used to disarm someone. I hope this has informed you why so many consider this not worth the time and effort."

"But didn't you place your teacup on the floating saucer?" a girl asked.

"I did. That requires a new instance of the spell, ready to grab it before the first one fails. Think of it like passing on the baton. Do any of you have any experience holding a spell at the ready?"

Lily and a few others raised their hands, and Melina ended up selecting her. She approached her and held out another pebble in her hand.

"Let me know when you're ready," she said.

Lily nodded and cast a second version of the spell, taking three tries to cast it successfully without a repeated incantation. However, instead of letting the spell immediately activate, she held it in standby.

"Ready," Lily replied.

Melina nodded and placed the pebble on the booklet. Lily instantly felt her first spell fail and, in response, let her second spell go off. The book dropped not even an inch before it, and the pebble on its cover remained motionless.

"Good work," she chirped. "Do note that this doesn't work if the object is living. That also means you can't stand on a plank and lift yourself, by the way."

A few kids muttered curses at that response.

"Also, this," Melina said and removed the pebble from Lily's booklet.

Rather than the spell failing like those before it, the booklet instead began to rise all by itself. Lily had to actively push down on it with her spell, expending Mana where otherwise the spell had hardly any upkeep.

"Does that mean you were casting four spells every time you took a sip of tea?" Lily asked curiously.

"Four?"

"Wouldn't it be two?"

"No, three, I think?"

"Four is the correct number," Melina said with a smile before pointing at Lily. "Explain to the class where you got four from."

Lily nodded. "First to lift both. Second and third to lift the teacup and keep the saucer in place. Fourth, when you return the cup to the saucer."

"Four just to sip tea? Isn't that crazy…" a boy muttered, shaking his head.

"Yes, it is a bit much, but it is a wonderful tool in learning to live a magical lifestyle. Hence why I truly believe this spell is wonderful for learning to multitask and refine your efficiency like no other."

"Isn't the fourth one a bit redundant?" one of the girls asked. "You could have kept the saucer in place with some Mana expenditure like she's doing with her book after the pebble was removed."

"I could have, but even after returning the cup, I'd still need to expend excess Mana."

The girl frowned. "Why, you returned the cup?"

"With less tea," Melina said with a cheeky wink.

That caused a few chuckles from the class, causing the girl to slightly blush with embarrassment.

"No, no. It was an excellent question," Melina replied. "You need to think on your feet, whether it's better to spend a little extra or quickly recast the spell. As an example, if you were using it on a wet sponge, it would gradually lighten as it lost water. You could easily need to recast the spell ten or more times; hence, it would be far better to simply maintain the burden until you drop it back into the bucket."

In a remarkably short time, the professor had successfully proven why so many dismissed the spell, and yet reassured the class that she wasn't just blowing smoke. Casting so many spells in rapid succession or maintaining multiple at once was something almost everyone struggled with, and this was a way every mage could practice it.

"Now, for the rest of the class, you are to help clean this room. You are only permitted to use spells in this booklet, and if possible, I'd like each and every one of you to cast each spell once. If you absolutely cannot use one of the elemental spells, then substitute it with extra telekinesis duty."

Melina then clapped her hands, and buckets, mops, dustpans, and brooms came flying in through the open door, landing on the floor with a clang.

Some students groaned, not happy about literally being forced to do chores, while others looked quite excited to put their magic to the test. Lily herself was delighted to take the first steps into the magical lifestyle.

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