Chapter 42. Magic Training

Today, we weren’t asked to go to the same classroom.We were asked to meet at a large building with a high ceiling. The inside was mostly empty, with a few chairs placed by the walls, and a handful of weapon racks; not too different from the one they had for the tests. The center had a few small circles that reminded me of training arenas—which was likely what those were there for.

Standing close to me was Victoria, who had already been at the meeting spot when we got here, and right next to her was David. I found out that he was part of this class when he walked in with us as if it was natural. The reason for him not being with us yesterday was simply that he had training with this strange coach of his, the one that he says meets people just like he does.

Stormwind was standing at the front of the group, looking at all the people that had gathered here, which were mostly the same people from yesterday, including Daniel. This man was still dressed in the same white clothes that I had seen him wear since the first time I saw him, which caused him to stand out since everyone else was wearing the uniform. He didn’t seem to be interested in whatever was happening here as he avoided looking at the instructor.

“Okay…” the elf said as he swiped his fingers on a large phone.

At that moment, he started calling out people’s names, who responded by shouting either ‘here!’ or ‘present’.

“Althea… Sanctus Stultus…!” he called out my name eventually.

“Here,” I plainly replied.

However, Stormwind’s eyes lingered on me for a while. I frowned and sustained the look between us, but the elf turned his eyes away from me before I asked if there was a problem with me, moving on to the remaining names to be called.

“Hah!” David scoffed, leaning slightly in my way. “What was that about? The teacher was staring holes into you.”

“I don’t know,” I replied, since I really wasn’t sure.

I could wager a few guesses, like for example the few strange things I said yesterday or the way I spoke; maybe even the way I first glared at him by accident. It could even be just random enmity from the elf, but I wouldn’t really know, and as long as nothing happened, then I wouldn’t cause any issues with him.

“The elf is probably plotting something,” Daniel suddenly said as he approached from behind. “That is the nature of the elves; to plot and create machinations that go against the good words of the Holy Gods; to backstab people and open the way for darkness.”

I frowned and wanted to deny him, but I also knew that something like that had happened to me before, so I didn’t feel like disagreeing with him either, especially after the way this elf was looking at me.

“Again with that nonsense?” David said with his arms crossed as he faced Daniel. “Accusing people of those sorts of things without any proof could get you in trouble.”

Daniel snorted in response. “You’ve always been a fool, so I don’t see the point in arguing with you. Your soul is already lost from the path of the light, but the others aren’t, and they should know the truth”

“Nobody really cares about that,” David snapped back with a glare. “I’d say that you’re the fool who’s unable to judge people’s characters without having some ‘higher power’ doing it for you.”

I expected Daniel to go into a righteous fury like most zealots would, but he simply returned a mocking smile. “We shall see about that.”

“Is that a challenge? Because—”

“Okay, that’s enough over there,” Stormwind interrupted, causing both men to turn away from each other while the other people in the building simply looked at us. “No fighting without permission in class. Are we clear?”

There was a moment of silence between the two men, with David turning a half-smile in Daniel’s direction. “As clear as the Gods’ light.”

Daniel frowned deeply in response, but simply shook his head and refused to say anything further.

Stormwind heavily sighed, pausing for a moment to sweep a look over the whole group, which lingered slightly on me once more before looking at the people standing closer to me and finally everyone else.

“Okay. You all should know what to do here today. There’s not enough fields for everyone, so the first half of the time we have for class, half of the group is going to take a field while the others prepare until it’s their turn. Remember: only one person per field, and do not waste your time, so don’t hesitate to call me if you need help,” he explained before turning away from the group and going to the side. “You may begin now.”

The people in the class didn’t acknowledge or say anything in response to the instructions as a murmur filled the hall. People talked with each other, and after a moment, there were already a few people walking into one of those circular spots.

“New people, please come with me for a moment to give you further explanations,” Stormwind said, beckoning us to his side.

“Welp, I’m going to be preparing in the meantime. Don’t disappoint me when it’s your turn to take a spot,” David said before turning to sit cross legged by a wall.

Daniel, however, didn’t seem to want to wait as he quickly made his way to one of those fields.

As we were walking to the instructor, the open fields were filled by people with one person each. The curiosity about what they were going to do was quickly cleared as a Mana Barrier; no different than the one I was using in the early morning with Nicole; manifested from the edges of each field, completely covering the people inside similarly to how I had done before, the only difference being that these barriers were higher, and didn’t cover the top.

I was amazed to see such artifacts in this Academy, since these Barriers weren’t being raised by a particular mage, but by the field the people were standing on; by something underground. I couldn’t tell exactly what was powering the fields, but I could tell it was a very well crafted artifact, based on how the mana was being spread.

“Okay, so”—the instructor said, causing us to turn his way—“since you’re all new here, I’m going to explain a few things.”

He turned to one of the fields behind him, pointing at the edge of it. It was easy to know what he was going to do, since almost right away, one of those pale blue, transparent barriers raised to cover an empty field.

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“These are training zones. Here you can practice your magic without having to worry about causing injury to other people, just as you can tell with the others right now,” he said and gestured with his hand to the other students.

Most of them were trying to do fire magic, with a handful of them being able to do a small torrent of fire, and one particular blonde man in white clothes creating a large torrent of fire that hit the edge of the barrier. Most barriers didn’t have a reaction, but for Daniel, I could see the barrier slightly tremble under the pressure.

“So cool…” I heard Steven whisper with his eyes glinting.

“You guys are too new to be trying any of those powerful spells, so we’ll begin with something simple,” Stormwind said, looking over at both Steven and Brian. “I want to see what the two of you can do first, so go ahead into the zone and show me what you can do.”

Steven and Brian stood still for a moment, looking at the field. Stormwind, on the other hand, was looking at them, and I could see in the disappointed smile that he was hardly trying to hide that he didn’t have any expectations for the young men.

Stormwind sighed and pointed at Steven. “You, go to the zone.”

“Eh? Oh, right away!” Steven exclaimed and quickly moved over.

The barrier lifted shortly after, and Steven simply stood there without doing anything in particular.

Stormwind sighed once more, shaking his head as he did. “What did I say before?”

“To show you what we can do…” Steven answered, looking at Stormwind without trying to do any magic.

“Well then? What are you waiting for?” replied the instructor, gesturing with his hand a go-ahead.

“Oh, okay. Um…” Steven said with uncertainty as he looked at the barrier.

After a couple of seconds, he lifted his right hand and focused with eyes closed. A bright blue small sphere appeared in the air, no larger than a pebble, that wavered with an unstable shape. It wasn’t anything particularly powerful; a thing that was hardly able to move objects if impacted by it, but when looking at the strained face that Steven was making, one would say that he was doing his best.

The sphere grew slightly larger a few seconds later until it reached the size of a fist. I sensed Steven trying his best to reproduce the fire magic the other people in the place were doing, but he only managed to create a hot orange sphere which was then released. It quickly flew while leaving a dim yellow streak in the air before hitting the barrier, creating a sound as if it had been slapped.

“That’s it,” Steven said with a wry smile.

“That’s it?” Stormwind said with an eyebrow raised. “How do you expect to”—he caught himself in the middle of what he was saying to shake his head—“nevermind. Next.”

The barrier fell down and Steven walked out of it with his head slightly lowered while avoiding everyone’s sight.

Without waiting for the instructor to give an order, Brian quickly walked by Steven and stood in the same spot in the middle of the field. The barrier raised right after and he stood still for a moment.

“Same as the other one, show me what you can do,” Stormwind ordered and looked with what appeared to be a bored expression.

Brian didn’t stand waiting for an instruction, nor think about it as he quickly raised his hands and seriously focused with eyes sharp and looking directly at what he was doing.

Similar to Steven, another sphere appeared, however, this one was larger and growing faster. After a couple of seconds, the sphere went from pure mana to fire as a steady flame floated mid air. He launched the sphere right after with a quick step forward which flew to the edge of the barrier, where it exploded in a small flame.

“That’s it, I take it?” Stormwind asked and the barrier fell down.

“Y-yes,” Brian replied with an embarrassed smile.

“Well… not impressive, but still good. You can come back now,” Stormwind replied with a nonplussed expression as he turned to look at Victoria. “Graciani, you’re up.”

“Y-yes,” the young girl said, moving over to the field with uncertain steps.

The barrier raised just as always, and without waiting for Stormwind to give her any commands, she raised her hand forward. Unexpectedly, a torrent of fire immediately appeared, hitting the barrier in a constant stream that lasted for a few seconds before her spell finally faded.

I didn’t find it particularly special, but among the people that were trying that fire torrent, she was on the higher firepower, even if it wasn't quite as powerful as what Daniel did. The other people, however, were looking at her with raised eyebrows, with some of the other more experienced students stopping for a moment to look at her—including David, who looked at her with one eye shut.

“Very impressive, Miss Graciani. However… It looked to me like you weren’t really thinking about what you did. Can you explain to me how you did it?” Stormwind asked with the large phone in his hands as he swiped his finger on it and the barrier fell down.

“Y-yes! I um…” Victoria lagged for a moment in her response as she thought about it. “I just thought about the skill that I wanted to use, and it just happened without me thinking about it.”

“Ah, I see. So you just learned it from a Skill Book, I take it?” Stormwind asked, swiping his finger on the phone one last time before looking up at Victoria.

“Y-yes…” she answered with a hushed voice.

Stormwind hummed for a moment as he looked at the girl. “It’s going to be difficult to teach you anything if you’ve already learned it from a book without actually knowing how to do it…”

Victoria looked somewhat saddened as she looked down. “Sorry…”

“Oh, no, no, it’s nothing to be sorry about. It just makes things difficult for me alone, and it’s my issue, not yours, so don’t worry about it,” Stormwind quickly said before placing a hand on his chin as she considered Victoria for a moment. “How about we try to do something that’s not on the Skill list?”

“Yes! What should I do?” Victoria eagerly asked.

“Here,” Stormwind said as he approached the girl, “Try to reproduce this skill.”

Victoria looked down at the book-like phone on Stormwind’s hand for a moment. I couldn’t see from my point of view what he was showing her, but judging by the furrowed eyebrows on the girl, it seemed to be something strange.

“Okay… I’ll try…” the girl said, turning to the field once more as the barrier raised.

I carefully looked at what she was asked to do, focusing all my attention on her movements and the shifting of the mana. The girl raised her hands in front and closed her eyes. After a moment, a large ball of blue mana formed, floating in the air before turning into a ball of fire.

There were sweat drops forming on the side of Victoria’s face as she struggled with whatever it was that she was trying to do. For a few seconds, the fireball hardly changed, and I wondered if the task was simply to make a large fireball and sustain it, but after a moment, a pair of thin legs popped from the bottom, followed by a couple of large wings, a long tail, and a sharp beak.

“Is that…?” I whispered.

It looked like she was trying to form a phoenix, however… It didn’t have the same strong shape that the bird should have as it was thinner with a sharper shape overall, and it wouldn’t land on the floor as it slowly flapped its wings.

“Ohhh!” Steven exclaimed, looking with bright eyes at the summoned bird. “It’s a phoenix!”

It wasn’t, but I could appreciate the effort that Victoria placed while trying to create one.

Victoria, however, still didn’t open her eyes as she struggled with the spell for a moment longer, after which, it glowed in a strong orange light before suddenly flying at full speed towards the barrier, exploding in a fiery mess that threatened to reach Victoria.

The girl screamed and took a few steps back, but once the fire cleared, she was standing just as unharmed as she had been when she first stood on the field.

The barrier came down and Stormwind clapped a couple of times. “Very well done. It wasn’t quite the phoenix I wanted you to make, and it lacked the will that the bird needed—which is what caused it to just fly off like any other fireball—but for you to get that far in the skill construction in one try shows that you’ve got outstanding talent.”

Victoria didn’t move from her spot nor reacted to what Stormwind said.

Stormwind approached the shaken girl. “Miss Graciani?”