Facing Professor Gideon's question, Cecilia, standing before the desk, fell silent.
Her lively eyes lowered slightly, and her fingers unconsciously twisted the lace hem of her skirt.
A long time passed.
She finally shook her head gently.
Gideon looked at the girl before him, delicate as a porcelain doll, and sighed inwardly.
Of course, he understood why she was so conflicted.
The root of it all lay in the Talent she possessed—one that was enough to drive countless mages mad with envy, yet had become incredibly awkward because of her bloodline.
It was a conclusion reached only after several professors from the academy's Department of Truth had jointly conducted dozens of mana regression assessments.
[Mana Tree (Sapling): Transcendent Tier Talent] [Description: The mana circuits within your body are as extraordinarily stable as the roots of the World Tree.] [Effect: Whenever you cast any spell, you can output an additional 20% mana beyond that spell's limit and convert it into a pure increase in power. At the same time, you possess 30% resistance to mana backlash caused by failed spellcasting.] [Status: Growing]
This was why Cecilia was known as the "Violet Pearl."
In the world of magic, every spell model had a limit to what it could bear.
It was like pouring water into a balloon. Once it exceeded the critical point, not only would the power fail to increase, but the model itself would collapse.
The most terrifying outcome was a mana explosion, with the caster being blown to pieces on the spot by violent elements.
But Cecilia was different.
Her Talent was like a voltage stabilizer, allowing her to gain an extra twenty percent in power out of thin air.
And this increase applied to every school of magic.
The higher-tier and more destructive the spell, the more terrifying that additional twenty percent became.
More frightening still, this was only a sapling that was still "growing."
Those old scholars speculated that the endpoint of this Talent was Legendary.
At that point, it would evolve a new trait called "Absolute Spellcasting Authority," meaning that her spells could never be interrupted by outside forces.
She was a turret born for magic.
Thus, the moment Cecilia entered the academy, she was assigned directly under Gideon for focused training.
However.
Success was also the source of failure.
That astonishing Talent had now become the greatest obstacle in her choice of Class.
The crux of the problem lay in her bloodline.
She was the child of a human and an elf—a half-elf.
In a Class system with rigid demands for bloodline purity, those of mixed heritage often pleased neither side.
"Are you still hesitating over the Mana Bombardier Class?"
Gideon tapped his fingers against the desk and hit the heart of the issue.
Cecilia bit her lip without refuting him.
Mana Bombardier.
Among the Class systems recorded by Violet Academy, it was the starting Class most suited to her Talent.
This Class had first appeared during the era of the third generation of Heroes. It had been the Class of the chief mage in the Hero's party at the time.
It could make the fullest use of mana output and push a caster's destructive power to its limit.
Unfortunately.
It was a "human-exclusive" Class.
Its requirements for taking the Class imposed strict standards on the purity of one's human bloodline.
Meanwhile, the high-tier Classes suitable for her on the elves' side likewise required one to be a pure-blooded elf.
This left Cecilia, despite possessing top-tier Talent, in the awkward position of having no Class she could take.
Gideon rose to his feet, walked to the bookshelf behind him, pulled out a hardcover book, and placed it before Cecilia.
"Treatise on the Origins of Classes."
"What is the true nature of a Class? There is still no definitive answer to that question in academic circles."
"But two points are widely recognized."
"The first is great deeds. The second is the development of the times."
Gideon turned to a certain page, pointed at the faded illustrations upon it, and explained earnestly.
"In that savage era when the first Hero appeared, there was no concept of Classes at all."
"Those earliest powerful individuals merely tempered themselves without end. When their abilities reached a certain threshold, they naturally sensed an opportunity for transcendence."
"They recorded that process, and thus became the earliest Class holders."
"The choices back then were simple."
"When you became strong enough, the laws of the world would give you a response. You could choose to take a Class, or refuse and continue refining yourself in search of a path better suited to you."
Gideon's voice echoed through the quiet office.
"Later, as the number of records grew, those who came after began following in their predecessors' footsteps and developed all manner of Class systems."
"For example, there were originally only mages. Then, after learning a great deal of knowledge about evocation spells, one day they suddenly found they could take the Class of Evocation Mage."
"That was a new Class born in response to the development of knowledge in its era."
At that point, Gideon paused.
"In this world, Class holders have clearly defined ranks."
"From level one to level twenty, there are four tiers in total."
"Levels one through five are Normal Tier, levels six through ten are Exceptional Tier, levels eleven through fifteen are Transcendent Tier, and levels sixteen through twenty are Legendary."
"Classes are not irreversible, nor is there any absolute distinction between superior and inferior."
"Even the most basic common Classes can undergo a second Class change upon continuously leveling up and reaching Exceptional Tier or even Transcendent Tier."
Gideon looked at Cecilia and gave his final advice.
"Many rare Classes do provide special bonuses, but that does not mean common Classes are necessarily weak."
"Like those first Class holders—you should have read about them in books. Later scholars unanimously believed that they were no weaker than the Class holders who came after them."
"And the Classes they took were the most common ones in our lives today: Swordsmen, mages, thieves, archers..."
"What determines a Class holder's strength is never the name of their Class."
"It is your own Talent, your bloodline, the sweat you have shed, and the skills you have mastered."
"Even if you only take the most ordinary Mage Class."
"With your Talent, you will still be the sharpest sword in Violet Academy."
"Do you understand, Cecilia?"
Faced with Professor Gideon's painstaking advice, a bitter expression appeared on Cecilia's delicate face.
She gently shook her head, and the gesture of refusal caught Gideon somewhat off guard.
"Professor, my father has only one child."
Cecilia's voice was soft, but her words carried a heavy weight.
Hearing this, Gideon froze for a moment, then suddenly slapped his forehead.
"Ah, look at my memory."
The old man sighed in frustration.
"I'm sorry, child. When you get old, it becomes easy to forget things."
Cecilia's full name was Cecilia Rosenthal.
Her father was the current head of the Rosenthal family, which wielded immense influence in White River Province.
As the only daughter, she was destined to take over the entire vast family in the future.
And the Rosenthal family had an ironclad rule passed down for hundreds of years.
Before each generation's head formally succeeded to the position, they had to take an exceedingly special Class.
Within the knowledge system of Class holders, that kind of Class was hundreds, even thousands of times more special than ordinary rare Classes.
Academia called it: a Great Deed Class.