NOVEL NEXT Chapter 97: Different star hex arts
"Good morning, Instructor."
Instructor Luna nodded at them, placed a thick stack of papers on the podium, and asked, "I hope everyone has read about different core hex arts."
Many heads nodded at the front.
She scanned the room. Xane saw her gaze linger on him a bit longer, but then she asked again, "How many of you still haven't learned any hex art?"
Xane raised his eyebrow, but almost half of the class at the back raised their hands. This relaxed him a bit as he followed them.
The instructor nodded and announced, "Don't worry, after today's class, all of you will learn at least one hex art."
This made those at the back attentive.
But she continued, "Today, I will teach the basics of how hex art works, how to advance a hex art, and finally, the path to becoming a Level 1 Hexborn."
The moment she said the last part, even those from the big families sat in an upright position.
The instructor smiled at their reaction and asked, "First, who is going to tell me what a hex art is?"
Xane was shocked to see around a dozen hands instantly rise. It was so different from the first class.
Zayn also added in his head. [Now this looks more like a proper class.]
The instructor pointed randomly at a dwarf.
The dwarf stood up. "Instructor, a hex art is a method to utilize hex energy in different ways."
Instructor Luna squinted a bit. "Too vague. Anybody else?"
A couple of hands dropped. This time, the instructor pointed to Jake.
Just like the dwarf, Jake stood up and said, "Instructor, hex arts are the molds that let you use hex energy in different ways."
The instructor shook her head. "Still not right."
At that moment, Xane also raised his hand.
Zayn panicked a bit, but then he understood that after the last action, there was no point in hiding.
He asked Xane curiously, [Do you even have the answer?]
Xane just shrugged his shoulders and clicked his tongue. <Nah.>
[I thought so.]
Just then, the instructor pointed to the back. "You there?"
Xane looked around and saw he was the only one in that area with his hand raised. He cursed his luck and stood up.
At this, Zayn said, [Anything that uses hex energy is a hex art.]
Xane casually repeated Zayn's answer. "Instructor, any action you perform that uses hex energy is a hex art."
He waited for her to wave him down, but to his surprise, she smiled at him. "Great answer."
Xane saw multiple eyes turn to him, but the next moment, his ID started flashing in blue.
It was the same as the first class.
He took out his ID and saw his reward points suddenly increase by 10, reaching 14 points.
He could sense envious gazes lingering on him for a moment, but they soon turned back to Luna. Now he understood where this extra enthusiasm for answering the question came from.
Luna waved to him and continued, "That is the correct definition of hex art. You need to understand that the hex energy we Hex Masters have is not natural. So even a little thing like checking your hex core status. Since it uses a minuscule amount of hex energy, it still counts as hex art. Let me give you all some examples."
Just as Xane sat down, the instructor started moving her hand up and down in the air. "Look at my hand. Now, this is a simple action. All of you can do it, right?"
Everyone nodded. A few even moved their hands like her.
"Now, focus on my hand."
There was no change in the hand movement, but it started glowing blue.
She looked at them and asked, "Can you do this?"
A few nodded while most shook their heads.
"Or this." The hand stopped glowing, but now, whenever it reached the highest point, a blue flame moved up into the air from the back of her hand.
At the lowest point, the flame moved down from her palm.
This time, everyone shook their heads.
Luna stopped her hand and asked, "So, what did I do just now?"
One girl from the left said, "Instructor, you used two hex arts. One to make flames fly out of your hand, and the second to make your hand glow."
The instructor nodded and said, "Both of my actions consumed hex energy. It's just that, unlike you guys, I did not use any type of chant or method. It was just pure manipulation of hex energy."
One guy from the middle asked what was on everyone's mind. "Instructor, what star mana arts are those?"
She smiled. "You can call it zero stars."
The guy tilted his head. "Ah, but I thought 1-star mana art is the lowest hex art."
She didn't refuse. "We call this way of directly using hex energy the Destabilized Hex Art. It is the most rudimentary and dangerous way to use hex energy. It is an inefficient and unstable method that may injure me if I were at your level. So, what I showed you is a defective hex art."
The moment she said that, all who were trying to mimic her froze with pale faces. They instantly stopped.
The instructor smiled at them. "Well, congratulations, you guys just learned a new type of hex art."
Everyone just stared at her with pale faces, not sure how to respond.
She shook her head and continued, "Now imagine I do the same thing, but this time I add proper rules and restrictions to the hex art."
"Instead of blindly manipulating hex energy, I find an efficient way so the hex art does not fail and gives the desired result. That is our balanced hex art. The one-star hex arts are the lowest possible balanced hex arts."
Xane rubbed his chin as he understood that these so-called zero-star could not be considered a lower version of hex art but rather a version that did not follow the rules of the current system.
As for this entire using-the-rules-and-restriction stuff, it kind of fits with how Hex Master Xenor explained to him the method of IPE.
Instructor Luna clapped her hands. "Now, as Level 0 Hex Masters, you guys can learn 1-star, 2-star, and 3-star hex arts."
A dwarf boy asked, "Hex Master, what is the number of stars in hex art?"
"In simple terms, the number of stars represents the complexity. The one-star mana arts are the simplest, and they only have one of the core arts in them."
One guy even asked, "Instructor, are there 11 one-star mana arts?"
This earned him the looks, as it was clear that he had not read about the core hex arts at all.
The instructor did not seem to mind it, as she said. "Nope, think clearly. Take the art of weapons, for example. There are thousands of weapons in the world, and we can use each of those weapons in thousands of ways. The art of weapons is the collection of all of them. Within the Academy library, there are around 1 million 1-star mana arts present."
"What! That many?" It was an unreal number and hard to believe. Many had the same reaction as him. While a few sneered at them for reacting like that.
Instructor Luna smiled at their reaction and said, "While the two-star mana arts have 2 different core art components, thus increasing the complexity and the number of things these arts can do."
Many scratched their heads at this.
She gave them an example. "Take a sword art where every time a person slashes, the speed of their next slash will increase. Now, this art starts with a basic one-star art where a person quickly slashes at his opponent, but then we combine it with the body arts that will strengthen his hand after each slash. This will result in a 2-star mana art."
Many were still not sure about the difference between 1-star and 2-star art.
One of them asked, "Instructor, what if we use two one-star hex arts at the same time? One for sword slash and another for increasing hand power. Will that count as a 2-star hex art?"
Instructor Luna paused for a few seconds and said, "Well, let me show you guys."
She moved toward the left end of the classroom and turned sideways with her face toward the right end.
She mumbled something, snapped her fingers, and a wooden board floated in the middle. "OK, look at me."
She then flicked her hand toward the board.
This produced a visible wind slash that flew toward the board. She focused on the wind arc as it moved toward the wooden board, and then, the moment it collided, it disappeared.
She turned to them. "This is a one-star illusion art from the Core Hex Art of Somniomancy."
Students nodded their heads.
She once again flicked her hand, and this time that flick produced two wind slashes, one after another, with an inch gap between them.
The first wind arc again disappeared after the collision, but the second one slashed the wooden board. She asked them, "So what is this?"
Many said, "2-star mana art."
She shook her head in denial. "No, it is still a one-star mana art. Here, I just used two one-star art pieces one after another."
The guy who had asked mumbled, "Oh."
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Guys, so there is this high chapter release event that started on WN. I will mass release from tomorrow.
I just hope those of you who have read the novel from the beginning please leave a review. It will be a great help to the book. See you tomorrow.