Sir Ironskin was pleased to see Lone accept his somewhat unreasonable demand and quietly join the other students.

He nodded and then said, "Well, as you are all new to metal magic and none of you are repeating students, today's lesson will be a demonstration of perhaps the simplest metal magic skill in existence, Metal Warping."

Sir Ironskin walked to the side of the massive slab of gold ore behind him and placed his hand on it. "Metal Warping," he invoked, causing the glittering and unrefined chunk of gold to morph and move as if it were alive. After a few moments had passed, the raw gold had become a perfect statue of Sir Ironskin, though the metal's imperfections were still clearly visible.

"Now, out of all of the metals available to us, gold is, by far, the easiest to mould. You will each be given a 1-kilogram chunk of raw gold ore, and your task for the next 30-days will be to successfully warp it. You need not obtain the skill, but if you can, you'll get bonus points towards your grades." Sir Ironskin could immediately see the worried looks on everyone's faces considering how short of a time-frame 30-days was to learn the first step towards performing a skill, so he added, "Don't worry. You don't need to create a detailed statue like I did or anything. All you need to do is alter the gold only slightly. You'll all be given identical chunks of gold ore, so I'll know if you've succeeded or not."

One of the more intuitive students raised his hand. Getting a nod from Sir Ironskin, he asked, "What about cheating? If we're being given a piece of gold ore each, couldn't one of us learn how to warp metal with MP then just offer to warp everyone else's ore for them?"

Sir Ironskin laughed. "No. Your gold ore will be staying with me and you will only have access to it during our lessons, though you are free to purchase some of your own to practice at home."

"Ah, thank you, Sir Ironskin," the boy replied.

"Any more questions? If not, I'll begin creating your ore chunks," Sir Ironskin asked.

Lone raised his hand. "Yeah, I've got a question."

"To preemptively answer it, yes, you have to successfully change the shape of the ore today, not in the next 30-days, Lone," Sir Ironskin said.

"Really? I just have to change its shape?" Lone asked as he tilted his head.

"Of course. Well, you'll also have to have at least a 1% affinity in metal magic by the end of our lesson today." While 1% sounded small, to any normal person, even gaining that much could take years if they were particularly untalented in the subject.

Lone smiled. "I can do that. Do you mind if I get a bit closer and watch you create our chunks?"

'I was asked to give him a hard time, but not to be too harsh with him since he is incredibly powerful and because he's Headmaster Erion's disciple... Okay, I guess it couldn't hurt to let him watch me up close,' Sir Ironskin privately thought. "Sure, just don't make any noise. The rest of you are welcome to come closer as well."

Practically every student thanked Lone mentally for the opportunity. It was uncommon for a teacher or a professor to agree to a student's selfish request, even if it was in the pursuit of knowledge, so this was a rare chance to watch a master at metal magic using one of his skills at a very close range.

Gently resting his large palm on the statue of himself, Sir Ironskin used Metal Warping to turn it into a perfect cube. He then said, "Metal Diffusion."

Less than a second later, a large chunk of gold ore roughly the size of a person's head had been separated from the golden cube. Sir Ironskin handed this chunk of gold ore to the nearest student then repeated that process 15 more times.

The host has developed the active metal magic skill: Metal Diffusion. Congratulations! The host has developed an affinity for Metal Magic.

'It's such a pain that I need to see a skill, like, a dozen times to learn it if it isn't one that can be directly used on me... Then again, I guess I could have asked him to diffuse the iron from my body or something, though I doubt he'd do something that sounds so insane,' Lone commented internally as he played with the chunk of gold he'd been handed.

'Hmm, seems pretty normal... What does Clicker's power have to say about it?... Ah, 65% purity. So, 14-carat, right? I think that's right... Pretty valuable stuff,' Lone thought, though to him, even if it had a purity of 100% it'd still be practically worthless to him in the wake of his Creation Magic.

"Sir Ironskin," Lone said, grabbing the professor and every other students' attention, "It seems I've learned the skill Metal Diffusion and I now have an affinity for metal magic."

"What? That's not possible!"

"Right? Sir Ironskin didn't even explain how that skill worked!"

"He learned it without knowing the theory behind it or without using any assistance chants to practice? There's no way I can believe that."

"How arrogant can you get? Just because you're a potential trideca-mage, that doesn't give you the right to lie to our faces and spit on our hard work."

Many similar voices of complaint rose from the students while Sir Ironskin wore a very unimpressed face. "Is that so? Then prove it. Show me the skill and touch this orb," he said as he reached into his trouser pockets and pulled out a small marble made of a silvery metal.

Lone shrugged. "Sure, I can touch that for you," he said and then reached out his free hand and made contact with the shiny marble via his index finger.

Instantly, a large system notification popped up out of the orb and hovered there in the air for everyone to see.

Freshman Lone Immortus' Affinity For Metal Magic 100%

'Okay, that's cool. So they have the overall ones for the tests, and they also have specific ones for each magic school? That's really cool,' Lone thought as a silent shock overtook the crowd of students.

"Impossible... But... the orbs have never malfunctioned before... How?" Sir Ironskin asked with nothing but frustration covering his face and confusion lacing his every word.

Naturally, the human students were left speechless as well. Lone just grinned. "This always happens. Let's just say that I'm a natural talent, okay? 3-years ago, I didn't have a single affinity for even one type of magic."

Sir Ironskin was initially shocked, but he instead chose to deny this seemingly impossible statement. "There is no need to lie. Regardless, you have proven yourself to possess an affinity for metal magic. Now, warp the gold ore before the class ends. You have 3-hours. There's no need to show me Metal Diffusion as it's impossible for you to have learned it so quickly."

Lone nodded. He hardly cared if anyone believed him in regards to his insanely quick learning speed. Even amongst former summoned heroes, not a single one had possessed a skill like Growth Accelerator as far as Lone was aware, so their mistrust was understandable.

"So, I just have to change its shape? Even only slightly?" Lone asked to confirm.

Sir Ironskin smiled. "That's right."

Lone shrugged. "Okay." He then squeezed the chunk of gold with his hand. Using nothing but his raw strength, the gold ore gained a massive imprint on it. "There, done."

"Haha, very funny," Sir Ironskin chuckled with an unamused voice. "Use the skill, Metal Warping, not your raw strength. I'm perfectly aware of how strong you are. There's no need to rush. You have 3-hours to practice, after all," he said with an annoyed and sarcastic tone of voice.

Lone frowned. "You said all I had to do was change its shape."

Sir Ironskin wore a stern and unimpressed expression on his chiselled face. "Indeed, but I believe that I original told you that you won't be allowed to remain in this class unless you can show me that you are able to use a metal magic skill."

"Yeah, and I confirmed with you not once, but twice that you only wanted me to change the metal's shape. Don't be a salty cunt just 'cause you weren't thorough with your ridiculous demand," Lone said with some slight hints of anger in his tone.

The students wore horrified expressions. Insulting a teacher or a professor never ended well for the offending students. In a worst-case scenario, Lone could even be expelled.

Brushing over Lone's offensive language, Sir Ironskin asked, "Are you saying that you are not capable of using Metal Warping? If so, then leave right now. I have no desire to teach you."

"What if I said that I can't use my MP until this evening?" Lone replied.

"Well, that's certainly a shame. The class ends in 3-hours, as I've already said. Get out," Sir Ironskin demanded.

Lone frowned, but he kept his rage under wraps. Fuelling Void wouldn't be wise, and this certainly wasn't a serious enough of a situation to justify it, so instead of letting his anger get the better of him, he chose to just speak his mind and clear his thoughts.

"You know what, fine. Fuck my grades and fuck you too. I came here to learn magic, not be bullied by a weak-assed bitch who doesn't even have the heart to teach those with the desire to learn. You're a failure of a teacher, you know that, right?" Lone walked right up to Sir Ironskin and glared at him.

"Any one of the students here would be a better teacher than you, you pathetic excuse of a man. If bullying your students is common practice here, then thank fuck you kicked me out, because sooner or later, I'd have killed you for being such a cocksucker," Lone said viciously.

Sir Ironskin was speechless. 'What?... I... I'm only doing what I was told to do... I-I'm not in the wrong here...'

Lone scoffed in his face then turned around and walked away after dropping his chunk of gold. "I bet I can learn metal magic far faster on my own instead of under an incompetent man that doesn't even treat his students fairly. Goodbye, and I hope that I never see your fucking face ever again."

"Wait!" Sir Ironskin yelled. "I-I was just being hard on you to prove a point. You don't need to leave!"

'He's very rude, but he's right... What was I thinking following Professor Fredley's orders? Student Lone certainly didn't have an affinity for metal magic before today, but now he has an affinity of 100%... It'd be the regret of a lifetime to not teach him everything that I know...' Sir Ironskin thought regretfully.

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Persuasion] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 8.

'What? I was just voicing out my feelings, not trying to convince him of anything. Damn. I guess my inner-teacher kicked the shit out of his inner-teacher, huh?' Lone thought in jest as he turned around.

Still with a stern expression on his face, Lone said, "You've already messed up your first chance. I only ever give people two chances, so don't balls up the second one, okay? I genuinely don't give a fuck about my grades. I came here to learn magic, not graduate with flying colours, so never threaten me with them again. I will walk out of the door the moment you do."

Sir Ironskin smiled awkwardly. "I'm sorry. You're right. That was immature of me to do as a teacher. So, please, if you could find it in yourself to show me some respect, I will be more than willing to teach you properly, I swear on my name as a professor of The Academy."

Lone smiled and nodded. "Sure, I can do that. Sorry for getting angry."

Seeing the two men make up, all 15 of the human students were on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Never before had they heard of a student so crudely berate their teacher and then somehow convince them to rescind kicking them out of the class.

Hell, it was rare for a student to get dismissed for poor behaviour in the first place, but for that student to so blatantly say that they didn't care about their grades in the slightest and simply wanted to learn magic without being pressured or bullied? Well, that made the students feel almost embarrassed for caring about their grades so much.

The young girl who had called Lone out on his arrogance, Sasha, felt her face heating up in embarrassment. 'To think that I'd forgotten why I'd even come here in the first place... I want to be a powerful mage, not a perfect student... Damn it... How could I have let myself get influenced by my friends into taking this place so lightly? I'm an idiot.'

Unbeknownst to Lone, he had accidentally lit a fire in his fellow beginner metal magic students' hearts. Their desire to learn magic had been rekindled all over again and Lone's raw and pure desire to learn had inspired them all to do better and to try their best.