Arc 1 Summary

Summary of Chapter 1-4

Zorian Kazinski is abruptly woken by his little sister, Kirielle, jumping on him. After heading downstairs, he has a brief discussion with his mother. She'll be heading with his father to Koth to visit his eldest brother, a famous and powerful wizard named Daimen, and wants to leave having Zorian take care of Kirielle at his magical school in Cyoria. Zorian refuses. They are interrupted by the arrival of Ilsa, a teacher from his school. Zorian receives his housing plan, chooses his electives, and is assigned to Xvim Chao as a one-on-one mentor. He takes the train to Cyoria, where he explains the basics of magic to some new students. Once he arrives, he tries to head to the fountain at the central plaza. Interrupted by a horde of rats on the way, he takes the long way around, running into a crying little girl and using magic to get her bike out of a muddy river. Finally he arrives at the academy, noticing the improved wards and fresh coat of paint on the buildings, before heading to his room to rest.

The next day, Zorian catches up with his friend Benisek, an incorrigible gossip who tells him about an upcoming planetary alignment occurring during the summer festival. He returns to his room to study, where he is interrupted by his friend Taiven, a recent graduate of the academy working as a teaching assistant, who invites him on a mission into the local dungeon sewers. She needs a fourth party member to accept the quest, but Zorian refuses. Two days later, he heads to his first class early in the morning, speaking with Briam, who owns a fire drake familiar, Zach Noveda, who's been acting unusual, and the class representative Akoja. Ilsa arrives and begins a review session. His other classes that day proceed in a similar fashion, with the history professor Zenomir assigning 200 pages of reading. The next day in his combat magic class with Kyron, Zorian quickly grasps the magic missile spell, but gets tired out fairly quickly. He makes note of Zach's excellence in the class and his unusually large mana reserves. After his spell formula class with Nora, he proceeds through the rest of his classes that week with ease. Zorian then has his first lesson with Xvim, where he needs to demonstrate his ability to quickly levitate a pen, even when distracted by being pelted with marbles.

Zorian struggles with his warding class, which Zach and his friends like Neolu seem to breeze through. He, Akoja, and Benisek commiserate over Zach's performance after that class and during their potion-making class, where Zach similarly excels. Ilsa tells the class about an upcoming school dance held during the summer festival, has Akoja and Zorian help teach the class dancing, and offers Zorian a position as her mentee after the summer festival due to a student dropping out by then. He plans to skip the dance, but the info leaks back to Ilsa, who confronts him and forces him to attend. His older brother Fortov finds him and begs him to create a salve for a rash, due to pushing a girl into creeper vines. While making it, he encounters the genius alchemist morlock Kael, a recent addition to his class.

On the day of the dance, Akoja finds Zorian to force him to attend. During it, he hurts her feelings and she runs off. He chases after her into the city, when suddenly artillery magic and monsters begin an invasion. Zach, who has been tearing through the enemies, appears and teleports Akoja to safety. Zorian stays behind with him to confront a lich. Zach taunts the lich, alluding to his own supposed immortality, and the lich attacks the two of them with soul magic that causes him to black out.

Zorian Kazinski is abruptly woken by his little sister, Kirielle, jumping on him.