You Can't Say It Wasn't a Parallel Circuit

Lein had to admit that people were different.

A mere mortal like him felt like he was teaching a student who was a combination of Edison, Tesla, and Newton.

He felt more like some tutor at a shady foreign university, tossing out a random topic and letting the student figure everything out on his own. Then all he had to do was sign his illustrious name as the student's "tutor," and he was done.

Well, it was a shady university. The students paid their tuition, but whether they learned anything—or whether their qualifications would be recognized in the future—was anyone's guess.

Maybe this was what they called "learning" in name only.

Did you learn anything?

I did... I guess!?

When he taught Downs Sliding Friction, the guy came up with a 4-ring Conjuration magic called Sticky Orb. It summoned a blob of sticky goo like snot that could pin down slow-reacting enemies and leave them unable to move.

When he taught him Thermodynamics and the like, Downs came up with a bunch of fire spells.

If those at least had some connection to the lessons, and Lein could imagine more or less what Downs might come up with, then the latest pinnacle of absurdity came from teaching him Atmospheric Pressure.

"Generally speaking, if you don't take factors like motion into account, the higher the temperature, the faster the air heats up, expands, and rises, and the lower the air pressure..."

Lein taught the lesson, but whatever Downs came up with afterward was like opening a blind box.

A few minutes later, Lein could almost see a phantom light bulb glowing above Downs's head.

"Master, I've got it!"

"You've got it again?"

"That's right! Pressure is low at high altitudes, right? So can I put pressure on myself, make my own pressure high, and then stand firm anywhere?"

Downs's description was so abstract that Lein couldn't keep up with his disciple's train of thought.

It didn't matter if Lein didn't get it. As long as the system did. "Give it a try."

Anyway, if anyone died trying, it wouldn't be the master!

Downs immediately climbed onto a tree trunk, walking straight toward the treetop with his body perfectly parallel to the ground, at a 90-degree angle to the earth.

[Congratulations, Host. Your disciple, Downs, has comprehended the Level 4 Transformation School magic (Fictional Gravity). The caster can walk on any solid surface and can also "fall" in a designated direction according to their "will."]

Seeing this, Lein bared his teeth in a grin. What a sweet cheat. Keep it up. This is fun.

For a while, Lein thought his freakishly talented disciple would keep cheating his way all the way to becoming a Legendary Mage.

That was until the day Lein taught him series and parallel circuits.

Lein wrote the most basic principles on the blackboard:

Series:

(1) There is only one path for the current.

(2) The current is the same at every point in a series circuit.

(3) The total voltage in a series circuit equals the sum of the voltages across each component.

(4) The equivalent resistance of resistors in series equals the sum of their resistances.

Parallel:

(1) A circuit has several paths.

(2) In a parallel circuit, the voltage is the same at every point;

After finishing, Lein set down the chalk, clapped the dust from his hands, and went fishing.

Who knew how ten minutes went by.

Then twenty.

Then thirty...

An hour.

This time, Lein never got to hear the words, "Master, I've got it!" Instead, he saw a face full of dejection and confusion, with a hint of a mental breakdown.

"Master, I, I, I really can't think of anything. Am I too stupid?"

Lein froze for a moment. The words, "You're the worst class I've ever taught," were on the tip of his tongue, but he changed them to, "You're a little stupid, but don't worry. At least you're not the sort of idiot who's beyond saving."

Young people always had plenty of drive, but what if one day they suddenly got tired, felt burned out, and couldn't push forward anymore?

If Lein had still been in the same mindset as when they first met—that his disciple was going to get himself killed sooner or later and needed to be replaced as soon as possible—he probably would have felt relieved and sold him off without hesitation.

But before he knew it, the two of them had been together for three months.

People weren't made of grass or trees.

Even an ordinary cat or dog could grow on you after three months. How could he not grow attached to a living, breathing person?

"Master, am I, am I still salvageable?"

Lein reached out and flicked Downs on the forehead.

"Ow! That hurt!"

"You can be saved. It just depends on whether you'll really listen and get your mindset straight."

"I'll definitely listen!" Downs immediately settled into a kneeling position, sitting back on his heels in the distinctive posture of this world. He couldn't have been more proper. The word "obedient" practically radiated from every inch of him.

"Learning is like this. A lot of the time, things progress quickly and smoothly at first. Every day, you learn something new and make some new gains. But then, one day, you suddenly find you can't reach the next level."

"Ah!" Downs let out a soft cry.

Lein raised the glass bottle of knockoff cola he'd made himself. "This is a bottleneck!"

"A bottleneck?" Downs's voice was almost a whisper.

Seeing his disciple struggling, Lein suddenly felt like a real teacher. In the past, he'd teach a law of physics, and this guy would come up with some completely different magic. As a teacher, Lein had never felt the slightest sense of accomplishment.

After a while, he'd gone numb.

If it weren't for the insanely good bonus his damn disciple provided, Lein would have been shouting, "I'm tired. Just destroy the world already."

Now, at last, he felt like he was guiding a lost lamb to the right path—or, uh, guiding a student toward the right path.

"That's right! A bottleneck. When you feel like you're stuck, you need to find a genuinely good book, study it carefully, and build up your knowledge until you can make a breakthrough. Of course, you shouldn't read just anything. In my world, there's One-click generate essay, which can produce a hundred-thousand-word document in one second. There's also Quantum Reading, which can finish a book in eight seconds. And then there are awful readers who tell authors of novels, 'You write slower than I can read'..."

As Lein spoke, Downs's eyes widened, and his mouth opened so far he could have fit an apple inside.

In Downs's worldview, these ridiculous things were the very definition of the Arabian Nights.

Lein added, "But things like those are soulless. You need to read books in the same genre. No, even the occasional book about music or art can help you make connections across subjects..."

Lein had meant to say that web novels churned out by automatic writing programs were unreadable. Then he'd launched into a long, kindly lecture. But when Downs heard the word "soul," he filtered out everything Lein said afterward, and his thoughts suddenly sprang to life.

"Soul!?"

"That's right! A soul." The moment Lein saw his good disciple's eyes light up, he felt that ominous premonition again.

The master was getting a little scared. The soul I mean—is it really the same thing you're thinking of?

A soul. Literally.

Downs shouted, "Master! I've got it again!"

No, wait, that's impossible. You've got it again?

Lein stared with his Kryptonite Dog Eyes as his good disciple suddenly reached out with his left hand and grabbed at the air. A streak of Wind Element seemed to shriek in surprise at being abruptly yanked out of the void, then let out an angry roar.

Downs ignored it and spread both arms wide, as if opening a massive dictionary or stretching out a huge net.

At a glance, it looked like the Level 3 Evocation Magic Lightning Bolt.

Lein immediately realized something was wrong. This "bolt" of lightning was far too wide. And there wasn't just one bolt, but three—no, five in total.

Lein stared in astonishment. Five winding, twisting bolts of lightning, arranged side by side and hovering in midair—wasn't this just like...

Downs proudly puffed out his chest. "Thank you for your guidance, Master! So the key to making a 'parallel circuit' is to inject a Wind Element 'soul' into each circuit!"

As the master's mind took an absurd beating, the system notification arrived:

[Congratulations! Your disciple has comprehended the Metamagic Feat (Metamagic Feat), which can increase the area of effect of burst, emanation, line, or spread spells. All spell values are doubled. This Metamagic Feat is permanently shared with the master...]

The master: Damn it!

You can't say it wasn't a parallel circuit.