《Legionnaire》


 Chapter 1: The Qualifying Examinations

    ¡°It¡¯s today!!!¡± I jolted out of the bed, running to the toilet to prepare myself for the big day.


    I looked into the mirror to try to psych myself up. I was an average-looking 12 year old kid with black hair. I was quite tall for my age and someone who was above-average in terms of studies or athletics. Basically a jack of all trades but master of none. I was not exceedingly stellar in any one aspect but I could do many things.


    After I washed up, I went to the dining room to have breakfast before heading for school. Because it was a very special day, my mother had prepared a huge, scrumptious breakfast for me.


    ¡°I know you¡¯re nervous but it¡¯s okay everyone will be on this day! Mama remembers when it was her turn haha it did not turn out that well but regardless what happens, everyone will be able to do something okay! No one is useless in Zeta!¡± My mother said soothingly as she ruffled my hair and presented me with the best homemade breakfast I have ever seen in my entire life.


    Zeta is the name of the city I belong to. It is one of the biggest cities in Xector which is the name of our world. Zeta is well known for being a resourceful city with people as its main resource. We have a high population and a huge variety of jobs so everyone in Zeta will be able to do something.


    Today is the day of the Qualifying Examinations (QE), which is mainly a test you have to do when you leave your basic primary education. This test determines your future education path by classifying your talent, to see if you have the potential to serve as a prestigious Legionnaire or if you are better off learning other ways of livelihood; academics, carpenting, smithing, cooking and the likes. About 20% of the population passes the QE every year. It¡¯s quite small but at least it¡¯s one fifth. The special thing about this test though is that it measures your latent abilities, your potential, so there is basically very little things you can do to prepare for this test. It is not something you can study or train for. Your talent or potential is sadly something that is mainly gifted at birth.


    However, all my life I¡¯ve wanted to be a Legionnaire. A Legionnaire is basically a warrior, mage, assassin or archer that pledges itself to the League of Peace (LoP). In Xector, there are monsters that lie beyond the city walls, across every single type of terrain. A Legionnaires¡¯ primary job is to exterminate these monsters to ensure peace. Furthermore, Legionnaires are the only people allowed into dungeons, which are made by a special type of monster that are able to rule its own dungeon. Conquering a dungeon will lead to extravagant rewards and maybe you might even find unique and powerful treasures inside. For me, it was the prestige and way of life that was extremely appealing to me. Pledging yourself to a cause to kill monsters to make the world a better and safer place was a noble cause and something I can definitely see myself doing in future.


    After breakfast, I walked to the location of the QE which was separate from the school. On the way there, I met my best friend, Chippy.


    ¡°Sup Legionnaire to be, how¡¯re you feeling?¡± Chippy chirped.


    ¡°Quit teasing me. Everyone knows I want to be a Legionnaire but everyone also knows it¡¯s impossible to prepare for the QE.¡± I replied.


    ¡°Haha that¡¯s why if you don¡¯t have any expectations in life, you¡¯ll never be disappointed!¡± He said.


    Chippy¡¯s philosophy of life can basically be seen from that statement. He was someone who never tried too hard to achieve anything. He basically believes that happiness is the most important thing and if you ever expect too much from yourself, you¡¯ll be disappointed one day. He believes in a happy go lucky life and only expects the bare minimum from himself. It will definitely have its flaws, with regards to his ambition, drive and discipline but Chippy had been quite the achiever in school from his grades so it looks like he was doing just fine even if he did not aim high. Whenever someone asks him how he would do for a test, he would just say I think I¡¯ll probably pass. And then he gets one of the highest if not the highest score in class. What an asshole.


    When both of us reached the examination grounds, we were quite shocked by the number of applicants. There were easily tens of thousands of people which spoke about our population. But on second thought, it wasn¡¯t very surprising. I mean it was after all a test to enable you to have a prestigious job with little to no preparation needed.


    I went in with Chippy and we were already registered by our schools so we had our own registration numbers. My number was 4078 and Chippy was 4332. We saw two separate examination grounds and it was definitely something unique. They were split into magical and physical aspects.


    The physical examination ground involved an obstacle course and a timer. You could only see the entrance of the obstacle course from the outside in order to prevent people from strategizing before the course starts. Your score would depend on the time you take to clear the obstacle course I guess. If you cannot even clear the obstacle course I think your chances would be meek if you are aiming for a warrior or assassin class.


    The magical examination ground involved a weird array of transparent orbs on a stage. There was a panel of judges sitting in front of the stage looking at the individual testee. When people put their hands over the orbs, they change colour and I believe that is the main way how they gauge your magic potential.


    Soon, my number was called by the physical examiner.


    ¡°You need to get out of this obstacle course within 3 minutes. Remember, you have 3 minutes max. If you¡¯re not out by then you¡¯ll be teleported out.¡± He briefed me.


    ¡°Understood.¡± I nodded.


    I began running through the course. All I could see was a straight path with solid brick walls around me. The path was about 3 meters wide. I did not sprint from the start because of the time limit given to me. If I sprinted from the start I think I would be too tired by the first minute. After all, this is a test of potential and not your true physical strength. I¡¯m pretty sure there will be other aspects and not a test of pure speed.


    Sure enough, the first obstacle appeared in front of me after I turned the first corner.


    ¡°Catch the real one.¡± A banner which was placed above a closed red door read. In front of the closed red door was a 10 meter by 10 meter space cordoned off by fences.


    Within the fence, there were about 50 cats strewn about. And yes they were quite cute.


    What in the world? Aren¡¯t they all real? How the heck do I find the real one?!


    I looked at the cats carefully. They were not moving around, all of them had the exact same physical appearance. How was I supposed to find the real cat?? I tried stomping my feet on the ground. Nothing happened. There was no reaction at all from the cats. No reaction? Something was amiss. I was pretty sure if I stomped my feet real hard beside a real cat, the cat would¡¯ve most probably jumped away by instinct. I ran around in the 10 by 10 meter space and stomped around randomly. Sure enough, once I reached a certain portion of the area, all the cats begun to move. At once. Altogether.


    So this is what they did!


    I was pretty sure that they put one real cat in the pen and 49 other illusions which have a mirror property of sorts. To follow exactly what the one original cat did. From this, I could deduce that the cat was near the area I was standing in now. However, it was still hard to ascertain which cat was the real one because all the cats would move in tandem. I tried stomping my feet again. One cat noticeably moved first before all the others and I made a beeline for that cat. Once I touched it, the banner that read ¡°Catch the real one¡± disappeared and the door immediatey opened by itself. I was free to move on.


    I ran forward, realising that I passed the first test quite easily with my quick thinking but I shouldn¡¯t waste this opportunity! I can clear this shit!! When I went through the door, it was another straight path surrounded by brick walls.


    Around the next corner though was an entirely different task.


    ¡°One round against the boxer. It scales according to your current strength level. One round is one minute.¡± The banner on top of another closed door read. In front of the closed door was a boxing ring about 6 by 6 meters. There was a stationary boxer who was standing in one of the corners which was red.


    This banner immediately suggested to me two things. The first is that your current strength level really did not matter here because it will scale according to strength level so it really is not a strength of your speed or strength. However, the second more important one was that there was a hint with the wordings used that it didn¡¯t tell us to LAST one round against the boxer. It just told us to have one round against him. This means that either I could choose to last through the one minute, or go for a K.O to shorten the time.


    I immediately stepped into the ring and into the blue corner. Sure enough, a gong rang after a second. The boxer immediately charged towards me and since I did not see any referee around me, I figured why not give it a try. Just because he was a boxer doesn¡¯t mean I needed to fight on his terms. I threw a roundhouse kick which was basically one of the most illegal things you could do in boxing. It clearly took the boxer by surprise but he managed to block the hit. However, there was no penalty or anything of the like given to me so I assumed I could do whatever I wanted as long as I could take him down.


    I went on the offensive this time. Boxers have a habit of raising their guard so their legs were usually unprotected. Furthermore, they could only ¡°rightfully¡± use their hands to punch in the ring. Using all this to my advantage, I went into a range where only my feet could hit him and his punches couldn¡¯t land and started to use low kicks. I kicked his front foot about 5 times as hard as I could and he was clearly getting irritated. I knew the timing was about to come and sure enough, when I began the slight motion of moving my feet, he thought I was going to kick him again and he stepped in with full force and threw a right straight at my face. However, it was a feint and I sidestepped the punch, following through with a right straight of my own.


    BOOM! Counter. The boxer immediately fell onto the mat and the banner was removed. The red door opened again and I ran through. I couldn¡¯t afford to waste any time. By now, I was already breathing heavily as I was beginning to get tired. It was yet another straight path which turned into a third corner and to my surprise, I saw one last banner.


    ¡°Finishing line¡± With an open door and a silhouette of what I suspected was the examiner waiting at the exit of the door.


    However, there was just one catch. It was placed at roughly one kilometre away.


    How the fuck did they fit a one kilometre straight path into this examination ground?!


    I grit my teeth and ran. However, as I ran and ran, I knew that my usual timing for running one kilometre is about 3 minutes. At best, I would be able to do 3 minutes if I ran like a madman from start to end. Could it be that those with talent could do this entire course within 3 minutes including the previous two segments? I couldn¡¯t take it anymore. At the back of my head, I knew that I wouldn¡¯t be able to do it. However, I just wasn¡¯t willing to accept the fact. I just kept running. I knew that the time limit was 3 minutes for the whole course so I would try my best for the three minutes. The banner clearly said finish line anyway so I decided to try my very best. I forced whatever amount of energy I could muster out of myself and began sprinting towards the finishing line.


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    As I ran and ran, every single second felt like I was overstraining my muscles. My muscles felt like a butthole which just went through 12 hours of explosive diarrhoea. The weird part though was that the finishing line didn¡¯t seem to appear any closer. Even though I was running so hard, the finishing line looked to be running further and further away from me as well! I felt so tired but I just decided to run until my three minutes were up anyway. However, just when I felt like fainting because of over-exertion, I suddenly found myself at a different place.


    I must have been teleported out of the obstacle course already.. Ahh well I tried my best¡­


    ¡°Congratulations!¡± A banner read as I looked behind me. There was also numbers that were floating in mid air. ¡°2:13:51¡±. I was at the entrance of the physical examination. I was indeed teleported.


    The examiner that greeted me in the beginning looked at me and smiled.


    ¡°Congratulations candidate 4078. A panel of judges was monitoring your every move and have decided on your scores. A detailed report card will be available for you once you finish both tests. However, take comfort in knowing that once you have passed this physical examination course, you would have fulfilled the prerequisite of becoming a Legionnaire. You can study to become a warrior for sure. However, your aptitude for magic will help you determine if you are additionally able to become a magician, assassin or archer so do your best in that test too!¡± The examiner said as he casted a healing spell onto my body. I immediately felt less fatigued and thanked him.


    I then proceeded to the magic examination. which was the lone stage with the orb placed on the top of a small pillar. A panel of judges were seated at a stone table facing the orb. There was a basin on the stone table. I wonder what that was for.


    ¡°Candidate 4078 please place your hand on the magic crystal orb in front of you and try to picture your strength, flowing out of your body and into the orb.¡± The examiner said clearly with a pleasant ringing to his voice.


    I listened to his instructions and closed my eyes. I tried to imagine my strength leaving me as I channelled my energy through my body into my hand and into the crystal orb. It felt weird. It was like I was trying to exert force onto an object which I knew nothing should happen to the crystal orb. However, I suddenly felt a very weird feeling, like I had a bank of energy somewhere within my body and I quickly tried to move that energy through my hand into the orb. I could feel it flowing from the middle of my chest to my right shoulder, down my elbow into my palm and finally into the orb.


    I opened my eyes. The orb was glowing purple and it was quite a deep purple. It looked good and I looked at the examiner¡¯s face for confirmation if what I did was supposed to be good. I had no idea because it was the first time I felt like I had an energy bank somewhere inside of me. Now, I could not even sense it anymore.


    ¡°Good job candidate 4078. You have displayed signs of magic which you are able to wield. For those who are successful at wielding magic, we have another test for you to determine your aptitude towards the different elements. Please proceed to the basin on the table in front of the panel of judges.¡± He said.


    I walked to the basin standing alone in front of all the judges and looked inside. It was sponge floating on water. Strangely enough, the sponge was only slightly damp and not soaked.


    ¡°Welcome young one. This test involves you doing the same thing just now. I know it¡¯s harder without the orb to detect your mana pool but its fine. This sponge is highly sensitive to even the tiniest bit of mana so just do the same thing with the orb with your hands around the basin. This is called the basin test. The results from this test will tell you which element you have an affinity with.¡± One of the judges calmly called out to me.


    I nodded and proceeded to do exactly the same thing I did with the crystal orb. I concentrated hard but this time I kept my eyes open. I too was curious to what would be the element I had the most affinity with.


    The basin suddenly showed some changes. The sponge became smaller, the sponge also became slightly odd. Half of it was soakingly wet, the other half was completely dry. It also looked a lot more hard and solid. The water level in the basin dropped and now the water was murky. However, there was a pleasant smell in the air. All the judges in front of the basin stood up.


    ¡°WHAT THE HELL?!¡± One of them shouted.


    ¡°Wha- What did I do wrong????¡± I asked, flabbergasted at their reaction.


    All the judges looked at each other and were totally oblivious to me. They were discussing the results of my test.


    ¡°This test is supposed to show the highest one right? I have two affinities but only one of them will be shown from the basin test.¡± One said.


    ¡°Yes. There is no doubt. I trained three and only my highest one shown as well.¡±


    ¡°Does this mean¡­ He is equally talented in all the elements?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go take a look at the basin. Be careful not to leak any mana or the results of the test will be changed.¡±


    ¡°To hell with that if it changed we can ask him to do it again this is the first time in the entire history of the QE that someone like that has appeared!¡±


    Erm.. What¡¯s going on???


    The judges stood up and crowded around the basin, scrutinizing the sponge and basin. All of them came to a consensus and finally informed me what my affinity was.


    ¡°Young boy. This affinity test is called the basin test. It shows your element you have the highest affinity with. This can be ascertained from the change you can observe in the basin. If you have affinity to fire, the sponge will completely dry up because you heated it up. If you have affinity to water, the sponge will become completely soaked. If you have affinity to wind, the sponge will shrink as you have absorbed the air out of the sponge. If you have affinity to earth, the sponge will turn hard which is the property of earth. If you have affinity to lightning, the water level will reduce because of electrolysis which is the breaking down of water to hydrogen and oxygen. If you have affinity to dark, the water will turn murky and dark because of the properties of darkness. If you have affinity to light, the water will turn sweet smelling because of healing properties of the holy element.¡± He explained.


    ¡°Occasionally, twin elements can be seen in mages which shows that he has 2 elements he is equally affiliated to. The highest record that ever existed was the legendary mage Xantos who had three affinities, light, wind and fire. However, from the result of your test¡­ We can only conclude that you have an equal affinity to all 7 elements. This basically means you can choose any element you would like to learn and your talent for understanding that element will all be the same. However, this is just a test to show your highest element affinity. Each element affinity is deeper classified into levels between 1-10. From this test, you can conclude that all your elements have the same level. However, the exact number from 1-10 will be unable to be told from this test. If you¡¯re lucky maybe all of your elements have levels of 7-10. However, if you¡¯re unlucky they might all be 1-4. For short, you can use all the elements of magic equally well but how well can you use it can only be known at a later date, when you enrol into a magic institute.¡± The judge explained to me.


    I understood what they meant. All the judges were looking at me in awe. However, what if I have a level 1 affinity for all the elements? I frowned.


    One judge seemed to read my mind and he said ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It is highly unlikely that all the elements will be low. Wait for the exact test you will do in the different academies!¡±


    I thanked all the judges and I left for the collection of my examination results. It was available at the collection counter, which was outside of the stadium. The results were being released as they were calculated and once your number was called up, you could go and receive your result slip. After a few minutes of waiting, my number was called out. I quickly went to open up my result slip to have a look.


    ¡®Candidate Name: Jinx


    Candidate Number: 4078


    Physical Examination Results:


    Agility ¨C 7/10 (Accessed throughout the exam)


    Ability to think on feet ¨C 7/10 (Accessed throughout the exam)


    Reaction time ¨C 7/10 (Accessed in the cat stage)


    Fighting ability ¨C 7/10 (Accessed in the boxing stage)


    Perseverance ¨C 7/10 (Accessed in the finishing stage)


    Finishing Time ¨C 7/10 (Final result)


    Total Physical Grade: 42/60


    Last Year Attempted Average: 20/60


    Last Year Cleared Average: 40/60


    Magic Examination Results:


    Mana Comprehension ¨C 7/10


    Time Taken ¨C 7/10


    Quality of Mana ¨C 7/10


    Quantity of Mana ¨C 7/10


    Total Magic Grade: 28/40


    Last Year Attempted Average: 10/40


    Last Year Cleared Average: 24/40


    Highest Elemental Affinitie(s): Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Darkness, Light


    Aggregated Total Grade: 70/100


    Last Year Attempted Average: 30/100


    Last Year Cleared Average: 64/100¡¯


    I looked at my result slip. Sigh. It was something I really couldn¡¯t escape from I guess. I was doomed to be ¡®just above average¡¯ all my life. I did not get a single 8, 9 or 10. I did not get anything average from 4-6. My god and I only see 7¡¯s. But who cares I can finally, finally take pride in taking my first steps to be a Legionnaire!


    I received a brochure from the report stand as well to see what schools I can apply to. There are 3 major schools for Legionnaires in Zeta. All of them can train you to become Legionnaires but like any other schools, there are rankings for them. In first place is Kirin Academy which is known for producing top tier geniuses. However, second placed is Overlord Academy which is well known for producing extremely capable Warriors. If you compare Warriors alone, the Warriors in Overlord Academy is usually on par or maybe even slightly better than those in Kirin Academy. In third place is Merlin Academy. For Merlin Academy, they specialise more in mages. The distinctions between the schools are noticeable but not so much as for one school to completely overshadow the other 2. As long as you are in one of the three academies, you will be treated with respect simply because you are on your way to becoming a noble Legionnaire.


    I was still trying to decide which of the three academies I should apply to when I heard Chippy¡¯s number being called out at the report stand. I saw Chippy going to collect his examination report. I also saw him receive a brochure from the stand which meant that he passed at least one of the examinations. I ran behind him and peeked at his report card.


    ¡°WHAT THE FUCK?!¡± I exclaimed.

 Chapter 2: Choices

    ¡®Candidate Name: Chippy


    Candidate Number: 4332


    Physical Examination Results:


    Agility ¨C 10/10 (Accessed throughout the exam)


    Ability to think on feet ¨C 10/10 (Accessed throughout the exam)


    Reaction time ¨C 10/10 (Accessed in the cat stage)


    Fighting ability ¨C 10/10 (Accessed in the boxing stage)


    Perseverance ¨C 4/10 (Accessed in the finishing stage)


    Finishing Time ¨C10/10 (Final result)


    Total Physical Grade: 54/60


    Last Year Attempted Average: 20/60


    Last Year Cleared Average: 40/60


    Magic Examination Results:


    Mana Comprehension ¨C 9/10


    Time Taken ¨C 9/10


    Quality of Mana ¨C 9/10


    Quantity of Mana ¨C 9/10


    Total Magic Grade: 36/40


    Last Year Attempted Average: 10/40


    Last Year Cleared Average: 24/40


    Highest Elemental Affinitie(s): Darkness


    Aggregated Total Grade: 90/100


    Last Year Attempted Average: 30/100


    Last Year Cleared Average: 64/100¡¯


    ¡°WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!¡± I screamed as I saw the grades over his shoulder.


    ¡°Oh hey Jinx! I passed!¡± Chippy smiled.


    ¡°90/100 is not a fucking pass. You are not an Asian. Holy shit how did you even finish it with 10/10?! What was your timing?¡± I exclaimed.


    ¡°Erm¡­ If I remember correctly it was like 1 min 30 seconds or something like that.¡±


    ¡°WHAT? Did you get the cats stage too? How did you find the cat so fast?¡±


    ¡°I saw find the real cat on the banner so I just immediately grabbed the banned and caught all 50 cats in one go.¡±


    ¡°WHAT?!?!¡±


    ¡°From my grades I¡¯m guessing that it was quite a good answer.¡±


    I could only shake my head at his answer. Indeed Chippy was someone whom I really could not predict, even though he was my best friend.


    ¡°So, what are you going to do with those grades? Will you be going to Kirin Academy??¡± I asked.


    ¡°Well. Truth be told I really couldn¡¯t care less which academy I choose. I just wanted to know if you passed. If you passed as well, anywhere would do as long as we¡¯re still in the same school I guess.¡±


    I don¡¯t know if he¡¯s a wonderful bro or an asshole for being able to consistently get top-tier grades without even trying.


    ¡°Oh well before I choose the school, I want to decide on the class first. Do you have any idea what class you want to be??¡± I asked.


    ¡°Assasin. Partly because it has ¡®Ass¡¯ inside its name but mainly because it¡¯s so goddamn cool!¡±


    Hmm. An assassin class would demand quite a high level of agility and fighting ability in addition to certain magic capabilities. They usually relies on debuffs as well as certain magic spells to cloak their presence when they fight. His affinity with darkness also seems to match the Assasin class to a T.


    I thought about my options and looked at the brochure carefully. There was a description of each class and what sort of person would suit which class more.


    ¡®Warrior ¨C Brave-hearted individuals who would like to face monsters head on and put them to dust through overwhelming strength.  Requirements: Cleared physical examination. Priority given to students with better grades for: Agility, Reaction Time, Fighting Ability, Perseverance, Finishing Time.¡¯


    ¡®Magician ¨C Intellectuals who seek to understand the mystical power of mana and wield that power to vanquish foes.  Requirements: Cleared magical examination. Priority given to students with better grades for: Mana Comprehension, Time Taken, Quality of Mana, Quantity of Mana.¡¯


    ¡®Assasin ¨C Fast, decisive strikers who uses his or her surroundings to maximum utility in order to extinguish the foe in one strike. Requirements: Cleared physical and magical examination. Priority given to students with better grades for: Agility, Ability to think on feet, Reaction time, Fighting ability, Time taken.¡¯


    ¡®Archer ¨C Dexterious, accurate individuals who develop the ability to impact the battlefield from far, using swift and accurate attacks to the vitals. Requirements: Cleared physical and magical examination. Priority given to students with better grades for: Agility, Reaction time, Perseverance, Finishing Time, Quality of Mana.¡¯


    These were the qualities that each of the jobs were looking for. Since I was above average for everything, with no outstanding qualities whatsoever, I could choose any class but there was no one class that suited me too.


    However, as I read the brochure further, I saw a statement which drew my curiosity.


    ¡°Kirin Academy is also opening vacancies for a new class: Spellblade. However, vacancies are extremely limited as this is the first time we plan to offer such a classification. Continuation of this class is also unconfirmed. Enclosed below is a summary and requirement. If you wish to find out more, please proceed to ask the provost of Kirin Academy, Professor Oak for more information.


    ¡®Spellblade ¨C Half-warrior, half-mage. An individual who is able to harness the power of both faculties in order to flexibly change his tactics as and when the situation deems fit. Requirements: Cleared physical and magical examination. Priority given based on: All aspects will be given equal priority. We are looking for a well-balanced individual regarding all aspects for this class.¡¯¡±


    Upon reading that advertisement, I was extremely intrigued by the idea of someone having qualities of both warrior and mage, two opposite ends of the spectrum. My interest for this class grew more and more and my doubts immediately vanished.


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    ¡°Chippy, I think we¡¯re going to Kirin Academy.¡± I said to him as I pointed at the Spellblade column in the brochure.


    He read the portion I pointed to and smiled.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think there will be a more suitable class for someone like you. Wait you know my score but I don¡¯t know yours. Did you get like a 7 for everything??¡± Chippy asked.


    ¡°You can mind read too huh?¡± I said as I looked sheepishly at him.


    ¡°Well, tell me. How does it feel to always score lower than me in tests?¡±


    ¡°Fuck off.¡± And we went home.


    In order to get into an academy, you had to go to the academy during the application period and use your examination report to request for a place in the school. Depending on your grades, they may or may not require an interview with you. If your grades are too low, they will reject you. If it is extremely high, they will just immediately accept you. Especially for my Spellblade class, it was explicitly said that everyone interested has to go for an interview at Kirin Academy.


    -The next day-


    I met Chippy outside my house because we lived quite near to each other and proceeded to Kirin Academy. Our town was so huge that we needed to travel by cart for a good 2 hours before we reached the academy. Upon reaching the academy, the first sight of it blew our minds.


    Standing before us was an enormous gate, where the first thing you can see as you look through is a huge statue of a Kirin, which was a legendary-tier monster which could raze cities to the ground by itself. It looked majestic and behind that statue was the huge compound that was Kirin Academy.


    We made our way to the entrance of the compound and we saw a map. Kirin Academy was divided into five sections. The North Spine which was for assasins, the South Spine which was for archers, the East Spine for the magicians and the West Spine for the warriors. The area in the center is called ¡®Medial¡¯ which housed the cafeteria, library, main hall etc. Basically all the common resources a student at Kirin Academy would need, except class specific resources will be found in the Medial.


    There were four entrances into the school which all lead straight to the Medial. They were placed at the North-East, North-West, South-East and South-West parts of the school and all the entrances were equally grand with a Kirin statue located in front of each gate.


    ¡°My interview is at the North Spine. What about yours?¡± Chippy asked.


    ¡°Mine¡¯s at some faculty office. I think I need to go to the East Spine to find a certain professor Oak.¡±


    ¡°Alright let¡¯s meet back here at the North-east entrance after we¡¯re done then.¡± He said.


    I nodded and we went for our respective admission application.


    Chippy shouldn¡¯t need an interview though with those grades. I better hurry up so he won¡¯t have to wait too long for me.


    I went around East Spine asking people for directions how to find Professor Oak¡¯s office. One kind soul said she was going to the faculty office as well so she just asked me to follow her. The East Spine was a very well-decorated place. There were chandeliers hanging everywhere flickering with candle flames that lit up the entire hallway in a dim, yet soothing lighting. The floors were made of smooth brown marble and the walls were made out of mixtures of cement and wood which were all painted brown as well. The East Spine was an altitudinous place as compared to your normal building. It was a whopping twenty stories tall but in exchange, the land area it occupied was the size of about only two football fields.


    She took me up to the eigth floor where there was a huge door made of mahogany just as you clear the staircase. A sign above the door read ¡®East Spine Faculty Office¡¯.


    We went in and she told me that the professors were arranged in alphabetical order. She said she was finding another professor so she took her leave. I went around until I found the appropriate section and saw a cubicle and desk which had a name plate stating ¡®Professor Oak¡¯.


    Seated at the table was a white haired professor who looked to be in his fifties. He was cleanly shaven, had a squarish jaw and green eyes. He looked very studious indeed especially since he was wearing a lab coat.


    ¡°Excuse me Professor Oak?? I am a student who would like to apply to Kirin Academy under the Spellblade class.¡± I announced, albeit in quite a meek voice.


    ¡°Oh. Hello! Please take a seat in front of me and let me see your examination report.¡± He answered.


    I thanked him and quickly went to take a seat in front of him and produced the report.


    He opened the report and I scrutinized his facial expressions to see if I could catch any sign of approval or disapproval.


    Come on please. It¡¯s an easy report to read because the only numbers on it are 7 but please please take me in come onnnnnn¡­


    Professor Oak¡¯s eyes widened noticeably.


    ¡°SEVEN?!¡± He shouted.


    ¡°Oh my god is it that bad? To get 7 for everthing? I saw on the brochure that you needed someone who was well-balanced and I thought I would have satisfied that criteria!¡± I squealed, feeling scared that I have accidentally offended him somehow, maybe because 7 was too low a number to be applying for a unique class.


    ¡°My dear boy, no wait. Jinx, (As he looked at the report for my name). You have no idea.¡± He said solemnly.

 Chapter 3: Entrance

    ¡°Tell me Jinx, what do you think will be the strength of a Spellblade?¡± Professor Oak asked.


    ¡°Obviously it will lie in the fact that a Spellblade can use both magic or weapons right? He is both a mage and a warrior so he will be able to utilise the strengths of both simultaneously!¡± I replied.


    ¡°Wrong. If you think a Spellblade can be both a mage and a warrior you are wrong. Just imagine. A warrior is one who walks the path of attaining physical epitome, through gruelling training of both the body and skills, in order to be a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. A mage is the complete opposite, one who does not usually pay much attention to the body, but utmost importance is placed on the mind instead. Comprehending and utilizing mana to their fullest potential. Both these paths are hard to walk are in completely opposite directions. Are you telling me that you are able to walk down these two paths simultaneously? Can¡¯t you see that it is impossible to be both a master mage and a master warrior?¡± He questioned me back.


    I thought further. The argument that Professor Oak made was undoubtedly true. Warriors are spending 16 hours a day training their body and skills to better themselves. Magicians are doing the same thing but concentrating on mana. A Spellblade would then only have 8 hours for body and 8 hours for mind right? Doesn¡¯t this mean¡­.


    ¡°Wait! Does this mean that a Spellblade will never be able to be better than a Warrior or a Magician at the same level??¡± I questioned, after realising the dilemma of this situation.


    ¡°Exactly. If a Spellblade, Magician, Warrior were all equally well trained, the magician would be better at magic than a Spellblade and a Warrior would be better at fighting than a Spellblade as well. Doesn¡¯t this sound like a shitty class then? However I assure you that it is not the case. You will be able to appreciate the future opportunities of this class as long as you are able to pinpoint the greatest strength that this class has.¡± Professor Oak urged me to continue thinking.


    If you can¡¯t be the best in one aspect¡­ Won¡¯t this class literally be a Jack of all trades? Just like the me now? What can possibly be a strength of a Jack of all trades? There is always someone better out there even though I can do a lot more things compared to other people. Hold on a minute. A lot more things? Could it be?


    ¡°Is it.. Versatility?¡±


    ¡°Well done!¡± Professor Oak broke into a smile.


    ¡°Just imagine. It is true that you are unable to compete based on raw strength or magic compared to the other two classes. But the advantage lies with you being able to use not just one but both. Of course a warrior who has passed the magic examination can use some spells if they want but their proficiency in spells is very low. Some magicians also possess quite a good physique but of course they do not specially train in it. Spellblades have both and the most important thing is to keep them in balance.¡± Professor Oak explained.


    ¡°Let me give you certain scenarios. Imagine if a monster has weak physical defence but strong magical defence, a mage will be unable to deal with that monster well. A spellblade on the other hand will not have that problem. If a monster has weak magical defence but strong physical defence, the warriors will have a problem but the spellblades will still not have one. If a monster is balanced in both, if the spellblade is proficient in a type of magic that the monster is weak against, he or she will still be able to get an advantage for example using water magic attacks and even magically incorporated water physical attacks against a fire type monster. This is what it means to be a spellblade. The ability to adapt.¡± Professor Oak elaborated.


    ¡°Why I shouted seven just now was not because your entire report was filled with sevens, which is not a bad thing I would like to add. It is because you have 7 elemental affinities. For short, you are capable of calling any of the 7 elements equally well. Do you have any idea how priceless that is for a Spellblade? As long as you learn at least one spell of every element, which will not be hard for you because of your affinity, you will be able to gain a definite advantage over every type of monster there is. Unless the monster does not have any elemental type which is quite rare but still possible. They are called neutral monsters. Humans are also of the neutral type so in Kirin Academy, you may be more disadvantaged in the inter-school competitions but ultimately, you will be a force to be reckoned with against monsters in Xector. I plan to take no more than 20 people in this pioneer batch of Spellblades because it is an entirely new curriculum that I designed. I need to produce results before the school will allow me to continue this specialisation. As such, I plan to keep the class size small in order to fully concentrate on all of you to mentor and guide you to greater achievements. I can think of no better candidate than you to be a Spellblade. You are unequivocally accepted into the Kirin Academy under the new Spellblade faculty. I expect great things from you.¡± Professor Oak ended his speech with an expectant look.


    ¡°Thank you very much Sir. I will not let you down.¡± I replied, joy obviously showing from my face. In my whole life, I have always been looked upon by teachers as someone who was a good student. Not great, not bad, just good. However, here is a Professor of Kirin Academy telling me he expects great things from me. This feeling was something I experienced for the first time and I knew, this was a feeling I wanted to experience more of no matter what.


    I left the faculty room and made a beeline straight for the North-east exit where Chippy should be waiting for me by now. As I ran down the many flights of stairs, Who the fuck designed this place I bet he/she could fly because it was insanely tiring to climb the stairs, I accidentally collided into a girl while I was cursing the architect of the East Spine.


    ¡°Oh my god I¡¯m so sorry.¡± I quickly said as I bent down to help pick up the book that the girl dropped.


    ¡®Qualifying Examination Report¡¯ was the title of the book.


    Oh she is an applicant too!


    As I recovered to return her the book and to apologise yet again, I looked at her and my mouth fell open.


    She was one of the prettiest girls I have ever seen before in my life. She had long, flowing red hair and an extremely fair complexion. She was quite tall for someone who was my age as well. Her brown eyes were neither big nor small and she had a look of concern on her face.


    ¡°Are you okay? Sorry, I wasn¡¯t looking either!¡± She said with the voice of an angel.


    I could feel myself blushing so I tried not to make eye contact with her.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Oh I¡¯m fine! Here¡¯s your report back! Are you taking the interview for Kirin Academy as well?¡± I said sheepishly, wanting to find out if there was any chance I could see her again.


    ¡°Yes I am! I¡¯m here for the Spellblade interview. By any chance are you also here for an interview?¡± She asked after looking at the report I was holding in my hand as well.


    ¡°YES! I mean yes. I just finished my interview and I got in! I hope you will as well!¡±


    MY GOD! WHY JUST WHY DID I SOUND SO OVER-ENTHUSIASTIC. WHY DID I BRAG ABOUT GETTING IN THE SPELLBLADE FACULTY. WHAT IF SHE FINDS ME SNOBBISH. WHAT IS I HOPE YOU WILL AS WELL?! ARGHHHH JINX


    ¡°That¡¯s great! Okay I shall go in now I think I¡¯m about to be late!¡± She said as she waved and went up the stairs.


    Ask for her name, ask for her name, ask for her name!!!!


    As much as my brain yelled at me to do the obvious thing, some invisible object seemed to have stuck itself into my vocal cords and the only sound that was coming out of me was a sound that seemed to usually come out from suffocating pigs.


    After that embarrassing encounter, I went to the NE(North-east) entrance and met with Chippy.


    ¡°Did you not get in?¡± He asked with a concerned look on his face.


    ¡°No? I got in! Why??¡± I replied.


    ¡°You looked like you just had a depressing encounter.¡±


    I was about to tell Chippy the truth when I decided not to because NO ONE NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT EMBARRAJINX.


    ¡°Oh it¡¯s nothing. I got in!! *Inserts happy face here* And I assume you didn¡¯t even need an interview?¡±


    ¡°Das Right.¡± Chippy winked.


    I punched him in the stomach and we went back home together.


    After we received our acceptance letters which came about a week after the interview, we were informed that the school term would start in a week. Students of Kirin Academy needed to live in the academy itself because the school felt like staying on campus would be the most convenient and appropriate thing to do. The competitive environment filled with bright potential Legionnaires would drive each other to work harder, even after school.


    My parents helped me to pack all my necessities needed and nagged at me to do so many things. Finally, when the day came, I felt a bit sad to move out from my parents, especially at such a young age but yet I also felt excitement, from what was to come as I embarked on my journey to become a Legionnaire.


    Chippy and I went to school in a cart again, this time filled with all our clothes and necessities and we went straight to the Medial where the dorms were located. After arriving in the lobby of the dorms, I was amazed. It looked like a five-star hotel room where everything was intricately and impeccably designed.


    ¡°Are you checking-in?¡± A lady at the registration counter asked us, after looking at our luggage.


    ¡°Yes.¡± We replied simultaneously.


    ¡°Student name and ID¡± She asked.


    ¡°Chippy. 0009¡± He answered.


    ¡°You are residing in Odin hall, floor 3, room number 310. The door is already matched to your magic signature. Touch the door and swipe left to unlock it, touch the door and swipe right to lock it.¡± She said.


    ¡°Roger that~¡± Chippy chirped.


    ¡°Jinx. 1111.¡± I said.


    ¡°Loki hall, floor 5, room number 511. Similarly, the door is already matched to your magic signature.¡± She said.


    ¡°What¡¯s the difference between the different halls?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Well, there are 4 different halls, each with their own culture. All of the amenities are similar but the people in each hall are different. Odin hall usually house the elites, the top 100 candidates from the exam based on total exam scores. Freya hall usually houses the magicians and archers, Magnus hall usually houses the warriors and assasins and Loki hall is usually the hall where the bottom entrants usually reside in.¡± She explained.


    ¡°HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!¡± Chippy roared with laughter as he pointed at me.


    ¡°Bot-Bot-Bottom HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA¡±


    I gave one well aimed kick in between his legs and soon, Chippy was rolling all over the ground from pain instead of laughter.


    ¡°We still share a common lobby so I can still see you around.¡± I said and I proceeded to take my luggage to my room.


    The room was not very spacious, with just a table, wardrobe, bed and shelves which all fit snugly into the design of the room. The walls were all white and clean. Even though it was not spacious, it gave quite a warm and cozy feeling so I liked the room quite a lot from my first impression. I opened the wardrobe and found that my school uniform has already been provided for me. It was a white shirt with one front pocket at the right breast and black long pants which were made from a stretchy and comfortable material. The blazer was also inside which was also black with purple designs on it. There was also a collar pin on my table with a note below.


    ¡°This bade is to be pinned to the left collar of your shirt. It serves as a location tracker in case you go missing, identification tag as each badge is unique to your student ID and a security pass, to let you gain access to certain parts of the school depending on your title, strength, year of schooling etc.¡±


    The design of the badge was of course the head of a majestic Kirin, the emblem of the school. There were 2 sets of jackets, 4 sets of shirts and 4 sets of pants so I did not have to worry about having to do too much laundry.


    School officially starts tomorrow but suddenly, I heard an announcement which came from the clock in my room which also had a Kirin design.


    ¡°Spellblades, this is Professor Oak, the dean of the faculty of Spellblades speaking. Please proceed to the East Spine Grand Lobby for a briefing before the term starts tomorrow.¡± He announced.


    I immediately rushed over to the East Spine because I remembered a particular red-haired girl that caught every single fibre of my attention that day. I was the first one to reach as I recognised Professor Oak sitting down in the lobby but with no one near him. He saw me and waved and I was glad that he remembered me.


    ¡°I said I expect great things from you but you don¡¯t have to run to attend every single briefing or meeting I call for okay?¡± He joked.


    ¡°Yes Sir.¡± I said sheepishly, embarrassed because I had an ulterior motive of coming so fast.


    Soon, more and more people came before Professor Oak and I was patiently waiting for the girl of my dreams, waiting to hear the voice of an angel yet again.


    ¡°Alright that¡¯s everyone!¡± Professor Oak announced.


    NO!!!!!!

 Chapter 4: The First Magic Lesson

    Nononono this can¡¯t be. Where has my goddess went to? She wasn¡¯t accepted?!


    ¡°To all the 20 of you here. I present to you, your peers for the pioneer batch of Spellblades.¡± Professor Oak announced.


    I glanced around and saw 19 other people sizing up one another, each one looking at each other like this was a gathering of 20 different nemesis. However, I really couldn¡¯t bother about how competitive this environment is at this point in time. I still had to get over my disappointment of not seeing that beautiful young girl around.


    ¡°All of you are gathered here because your curriculum is slightly different from the rest of the school. In here, your timetable depends on your classes which is already divided into the different spines. However, because you are spellblades, you do not belong to just one spine but two. Both the East Spine for magicians and West Spine for warriors.¡±


    Everyone looked extremely smug as they heard this, proud to have the privilege of gaining access to two different resources of the school.


    ¡°As such, I am releasing your timetable to you personally here. You will attend basic courses according to this timetable I am giving out and they will either be in the East Spine or West Spine. All of you are not guaranteed to be in the same class because there is simply no need to. Lastly, there are also spellblade specific courses which you have to attend on Saturdays. I know school is usually only from Monday to Friday, but in order to learn how to put both the warrior skills and mage skills you have learnt to good use, you have to take some time out from your Saturdays.¡± Professor Oak said as he passed slips of paper around.


    A collective groan was heard. Everyone was excited to be Spellblades but no one wanted more school. I was still sulking over the pretty girl L


    Professor Oak passed me my timetable and I looked at the neatly arranged time sheet.


    ¡®Monday:


    Morning ¨C Magic Fundamentals


    Lunch


    Afternoon ¨C Magic Theory


    Evening ¨C Spellsparring


    Dinner


    Tuesday:


    Morning ¨C Physical Fundamentals


    Lunch


    Afternoon ¨C Weapon training


    Evening ¨C Gladiator¡¯


    The timetable was from Monday to Friday and Wednesday was a rest day for me. This meant that I had morning, afternoon and evening classes on Mon, Tue, Thurs, Fri and one course called Spellblade basics on Saturday mornings. Seemed like a pretty decent timetable.


    ¡°Alright guys now that you have received your timetables, please take note that I have packed it in such a way that you will only need to be in one spine per day so this will reduce unnecessary and inconvenient travelling time. (Lazy students cheered once more for Professor Oak) And my last advice to you is, do NOT feel privileged.¡± Professor Oak now changed his tone and spoke in a stern voice instead of his normal jovial one.


    ¡°Innovative classes are not something that has been never tried before. Kirin Academy had offered a few of other such classes before. Examples are the rogue class which was a mixture of assassin and archer. There was also a Berserker class for a period of time which concentrated solely on offensive warrior abilities. There is a reason why they are all discontinued now. Although in theory it is good on paper, results on the battlefield are what matters most. Other academies like Overlord Academy and Merlin Academy has tried several other classes before as well but there is a reason why they are not as famous as the legendary warriors, mages, assasins or archers. These 4 classes are the ones that stood through the trial and tribulations of time. The past 100 years, the most famous names you hear will only belong to these 4 classes. So do not take a title like ¡®Spellblade¡¯ like a privilege. Treat it like a boon. Treat it like a prophecy to fail. Overcome that prophecy. Become a class that can pull its own weight. I predict that when the first ever ranking tournament in the school starts, none of you will even be in the top 20% of the cohort but it is fine. Remember that the strength of a Spellblade is in versatility.¡± He announced in a sombre mood.


    All the looks of confidence and smugness disappeared at once from every single students¡¯ face. All of them who taught they were special now actually knew that this place was not a blessing but a curse. And only those who can survive from this curse can try to outshine and excel over their peers. I preferred this environment because I was not a particularly privileged child. I was lucky enough to have two nice parents with a decent roof over my house and all my basic necessities met but I have never once lived a life of luxury. A sense of entitlement was something I never wanted to have. I felt that this class suited me even more.


    Professor Oak dismissed us and we went back to our rooms in preparation for our first day of classes which starts tomorrow. I managed to get over my disappointment in not being able to see the pretty girl but the last speech by Prof Oak really got me fired up. My morale and motivation was at an all time high to try to do the best I can, for the jack of all trades to finally be good at something in particular.


    -The next day-


    ¡°ROARRRRR!¡± The Kirin alarm clock went off as I literally jumped out of my bed in shock.


    JESUS CHRIST! I guess this was the alarm clock I always needed.


    I got up and adorned the new uniform for the first time and looked into the mirror.


    Kirin Academy¡¯s uniform. The most prestigious Legionnaire school in Zeta and I was a student enrolled in it. I have proven my potent-


    ¡°CHILDREN OF THE LOKI DORM YOUR BREAKFAST IS RUNNING OUT! CAN YOU HURRY UP AND GRAB SOME BEFORE YOU HAVE NOTHING TO EAT!!!¡± A voice hollered from downstairs, interrupting my self-psyching speech I planned for myself the night before.


    You don¡¯t have to emphasize Loki¡­. Tsk¡­. Am I really at the bottom of this school?


    I went down for breakfast in the shared lobby and realised more things about how the halls work. The hierarchy of halls were as follows: Odin, Freya, Magnus then Loki. This was the order of how breakfast, lunch, and dinner would be entitled to the students. Of course this order was not determined at random. Every year, the school would host an inter-hall competition between all 4 halls with a series of challenges and events. The halls will be ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th and the results would determine a number of things. Firstly, as mentioned, the order in which students get their meals. Secondly, the winning hall gets the privilege of having pantries and additional facilities like a pool in their hall. We could only use it if a resident of that particular hall brings us in. A student from Loki could not enter Odin¡¯s premises without someone from Odin bringing him around. The Kirin collar badge also registers our halls. Thirdly and frankly I think most importantly, the winning hall gets to host a celebratory party which is sponsored entirely by the school as long as the cost of the party is below 10,000 gold.


    In Xector, 100 bronze is equivalent to 1 silver, 100 silver = 1 gold, 100 gold = 1 platinum. Therefore, 10,000 gold is basically 100 platinums. The school would give 100 platinums to the winning hall to celebrate their victory. The parties and celebrations were usually the epitome of craziness and one year, when Odin hall won, they used a portion of the winnings to build a fountain of ale that they still use regularly in any parties they throw. It literally never runs out of ale and anyone can take a swig from it anytime they wanted as long as they were from Odin.


    This obviously resulted in a lot of hall pride. Members of Odin would commonly be seen having a blue bandana draped around a certain part of their attire, be it their school bags, their wrists, wearing it on their heads, the blue bandana was synonymous to Odin. It was their identity. This was because in the 247 years that Kirin Academy has been founded, Odin won the inter-hall games 150 times, Freya won them 54 times, Magnus won them 42 times and Loki won once. Just once. I have to find out more about the one time we won but for now, Loki hall was the hall that everyone looked down on. And people in Loki didn¡¯t really seem to care.


    This was all I knew about the hall culture so far. As I went down to eat breakfast with Chippy, I saw that he already had a blue bandana attached to his bag.


    ¡°Wow that was fast.¡± I said, pointing to the blue bandana.


    ¡°Yeah it was in my room. There was a note saying ¡®attach this on any part of your school uniform and feel the Odin pride.¡¯ Pretty clich¨¦ but I think I better do it since it¡¯s part of my hall culture.¡± He said.


    I nodded and agreed because the last thing you would want to do in a school environment was to make enemies and appear to be someone who did not care much about the culture or people around you.


    We finished up our breakfast and I headed for my class. I would never have the same class as Chippy because he studies in the North Spine while I needed to alternate between East and West. We said our goodbyes and I went to the East spine with a clear mind, motivated to try my best to realise my dreams. Being just some Legionnaire would be good but not good enough. I wanted to be SOME Legionnaire.


    I reached the East Spine and found my classroom which was thankfully situated on the fifth floor. Imagine if it was on the fifteenth or sixteenth floor. Jesus. The classroom was decorated almost entirely with wooden interior designs and even the large jointed desks and chairs were made up of wood. The layout of the classroom was like that of a small auditorium. Four long rows of desks and chairs, with each row having a higher degree of elevation than the previous one, in order not to block the students sitting in front of the row you are sitting in. I was one of the first few students to reach so when I went in, there were still plenty of seats available for me to choose from.


    I decided to pick a spot in the second row because I did not want to seem to be overeager and pick a spot directly in the front but I did not want to be at the back of the entire class as well. I went to the middle of the second row because the teacher would be standing in the centre in front of the class, I presumed from the location of the teacher¡¯s table and whiteboard.


    I put down my bag and waited for class to start. While waiting, I decided to read up more about the history of the school and what normally happens in each spine, each class and each hall as they were all included in the introductory book that the school put in every student¡¯s room yesterday. As I was reading, someone sat down in the seat beside me and I decided that I should introduce myself. It was after all the first day of school so everyone would like to make new friends I presumed.


    Stolen story; please report.


    I looked up and saw the person seated next to me. And my jaw dropped so hard I swore that I heard a thud when it reached the floor.


    IT¡¯S HER!


    Long red hair, pale face, brown eyes. I could recall everything from that day I accidentally met her and I was damn sure as hell that this was the exact same girl seated beside me.


    ¡°H-H-Hello.¡± I stammered.


    STAMMERED?! FUCK YOU JINX


    ¡°Hello. Oh! It¡¯s you isn¡¯t it? The guy who banged into me on the day of the interviews.¡± She smiled at me.


    Wow I don¡¯t know if she remembering me is good or bad when the first thing that comes to mind is me banging her (No sexual innuendo intended. Just kidding)


    ¡°Yes! Wow we¡¯re in the same class! Small world eh?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yep. My name is Jenny by the way. What¡¯s yours?¡±


    ¡°Jinx.¡±


    ¡°As in unlucky?¡±


    ¡°Yeah it¡¯s my nickname since primary school and it stuck since then but don¡¯t worry! I¡¯m not unlucky its just a go to name my friends address me by so you can call me Jinx too.¡± I replied.


    ¡°Sure Jinx. Haha Jinx. That¡¯s a pretty cool name. So are all your Spellblade friends in this class as well?¡±


    ¡°Nope. Professor Oak said all of us would be taking the same courses but not necessarily in the same class. So maybe there will be one or two more or even none in this exact class. I didn¡¯t see you in the Spellblade briefing yesterday. Were you sick? Or are you a magician now and not a Spellblade? I hope this isn¡¯t too sensitive!¡± I asked


    ¡°No worries. I am a magician now! Professor Oak said my scores were not bad but they were too heavily inclined towards the magician side and my physical abilities were significantly lower than my magic abilities so he did not recommend me to be a Spellblade.¡± Jenny explained.


    ¡°Ohh.. I think Professor Oak knows what he¡¯s doing though so maybe a magician will be a better match for you! And magicians are super cool too.¡± I added.


    ¡°Thanks!¡± Jenny smiled.


    That smile can melt mountains oh lord.


    At that moment, the door opened and it was not a student that walked in. A woman clad in a red dress walked to the teacher¡¯s table to put her items down and everyone knew this would be the teacher in charge of our class.


    She was decked out in red lipstick, red dress, red heels, red accessories and her hair was also red.


    ¡°Good morning class. I am your teacher in charge of Magic Fundamentals, Magic Theory and Spell Sparring. My name is Athena. Yes Athena as in the goddess of war and obviously I love the colour red. My nickname is Scarlet Witch. I love that nickname. I am a fire magister. I have done 20 years of service on the battlefield and finally decided that I would want to pursue my second passion; Teaching and mentoring. I have also personally did a dungeon conquest with a party and cleared it successfully.¡± She announced in a powerful, confident voice.


    Everyone stared at her in awe. Completing a dungeon was one of the highest achievements one could do as a Legionnaire because the degree of danger you face in a monsters¡¯ personal lair is ten times more treacherous than normal monster hunting. Furthermore, a magister is the third highest rank of magicians.


    In every Legionnaire class, there exists rankings. For warriors, the highest rank a warrior can achieve is the War God. For magicians, it is the Grand Magus. For assasins, it is the Dark Lord. For archers, it is the Chief Arcus. Below the Grand Magus is the Archmage and below an Archmage is a magister. The number of magisters in the entire city could be counted with your fingers. There is probably only one or two Archmages in Zeta despite it being one of the biggest cities in Xector already and for the Grand Magus, there were only 2 of them in the history of mankind.


    ¡°Alright enough about me for the self-introductions then. Personally, I have no interest in knowing all your personal lives so I will remember your names based on how well you perform in my class then. I am known to be quite radical in my teaching because I prefer you to learn from experience and trial and error. Not to spoonfeed you a step-by-step way to surely get an answer. So for this first class of mine, I will require all of you to cast your first ever spell already. Get your notes out.¡± She ordered.


    All the students were immediately excited at the prospect of casting our first ever spell so we immediately took out our notebooks to write down how best to do it.


    ¡°From the magical entrance examination, all of you must have been able to feel your mana pool before you could give the orb colour. However, the orb you were touching was acting as a catalyst, a tool which helped you sense your mana pool easier because it has certain properties inside. A mage though would need to be able to draw mana from his or her mana pool without relying on such tools. Of course such tools can be incorporated into your magic weapons but frankly, it is not necessary and a waste of space. A magic weapon should be embedded with gems that help you to increase your quality or quantity of mana. Not some gem that helps you sense your freaking mana pool. Locating your mana pool is the most basic and simplest of steps so let¡¯s start with that.¡± Scarlet Witch explained.


    ¡°Deep within your core, try to remember the feeling you had when you sensed your mana pool for the very first time. Once you can feel it, you will feel a type of surging power, like a torrent inside you waiting to gush out the water in any particular direction. When you are able to feel that torrent of power inside, that is your access to what we mages call mana. Mana can then be channelled through any part of your body to emerge from your skin and using that power, you can then elementally and spatially compress your mana to give it shape or certain elemental power. These are the basics of utilising mana. Let me teach you the most basic spell, Mana arrow.¡± She said.


    ¡°I will now draw out my mana towards my hand, and picture the mana seeping out of my hand to be in the form of an arrow. The incantation to cast this spell is ¡®Mana come forth as my arrow!¡¯¡± And in that moment, a clear arrow, about the length of 15cm appeared in her hands.


    ¡°You can of course spatially recompose your mana to make the arrow into different lengths, shapes or sizes. There is also chantless casting that requires no incantation to cast spells but it generally happens only after you become very familiar with the spell. However, all these are more advanced and of a higher difficulty. It is just for your additional knowledge. For today, I would like everyone to try making their own mana arrow.¡± She announced.


    I immediately closed my eyes and pictured the scene of the magic examination. I tried to remember the feeling of the magical torrent within me and I visualised a space inside of me, beside my heart, filled with raging torrents of mana. It took me a few more seconds but I was able to sense where it was. I immediately tried to draw out some of its power and channelled it through my right arm. I tried to compress my mana into the shape of an arrow and chanted ¡°Mana come forth as my arrow!¡± I opened my eyes.


    Sure enough, there was an arrow that was about 10cm long, a pale blue colour because that is the original colour of mana.


    I looked beside me. Jenny had already made an arrow as well but hers was twice as long as mine and bigger as well. I was impressed. I looked around the room and found out that many students were still trying to look for their mana pool. Less than 5 of us in this classroom of twenty have already done it. As a jack of all trades, one advantage that I had over others was that I pick up things extremely quickly, thus my ability to learn many things fast. Even though the amount of talent I have for that thing is never extremely high.


    Suddenly deep down within me, I heard voices near where I was channeling my mana from.


    My mana pool can talk??!


    ¡°Let me play, let me play!¡± A childish voice sounded out from my soul.


    I tried to dwelve and sense deeper into my mana pool. I tried to locate the source of the voice that I heard and I finally found it. It was a pegasus which was seated within a very queer room beside my mana pool! This room of space situated within me actually had sofas, tables, chairs, beds, television, pool table, dining table, kitchen and everything!!! It had six other creatures. I curiously looked at all of them. There were 7 small figures which all looked cute cute. They were a red phoenix, a blue dragon, a black tortoise, a white tiger, a silver roc, a golden pegasus and a black devil. All of them were snoozing around sleeping and only the pegasus was talking to me now.


    ¡°Oh wow! You can hear me already! Let me play!!!!!¡± the pegasus started jumping up and down.


    ¡°How do I let you out to play?¡± I asked, wanting to grant this cute little pegasus her wish.


    ¡°Just picture sending me into your arrow as well! Don¡¯t worry I won¡¯t literally leave the room and go into the arrow. My powers will be able to be channelled through you and into the arrow so I can feel what it¡¯s like in the outside world as well!!¡± The pegasus said with a voice so cute it could please any soul.


    ¡°I¡¯ll try.¡± I said as I pictured sending the Pegasus from that room into the arrow as well.


    My arrow suddenly changed. Previously, it was pale blue in colour which was the colour of mana. Now, it was pale blue with a layer of bright golden light around it. It didn¡¯t take an observant person to notice it because the golden layer of light was shining quite brightly.


    ¡°STUDENT! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!¡± Scarlet Witch screamed at me immediately as the whole class looked at me.


    Oh lord what did I do now why do teachers like to scream at me?????!

 Chapter 5: Passing An Assignment

    ¡°I¡­ I just heard a voice within me asking me to help release it through my mana. Did I do something wrong?¡± I asked.


    ¡°You heard a voice?! Do you know who or what did you talk to????¡± Scarlet Witch questioned me further


    .


    ¡°Yes¡­ A golden Pegasus somewhere within my mana pool. He was in a weird room that existed within my mana pool.¡± I answered.


    ¡°PEGASUS?! Ohhhhhh boy I can¡¯t wait to see what more will you manage to do. I¡¯m glad I chose this class to teach.¡± Athena smiled and announced. ¡°What¡¯s your name kid?¡±


    ¡°Jinx.¡± I said, still clueless to whatever I just did.


    ¡°Jinx.. I¡¯ll remember that. Let me explain to you what you did. From your puzzled face it seems like you have no idea what you just did. Remember I mentioned that you can spatially and elementally recompose your mana to cast your spells? What you just subconsciously did was to elementally recompose your mana arrow to a light-element mana arrow. As for the process of elemental recomposition, usually it involves linking up with the elemental spirit within your consciousness to draw out the powers of that element. Everyone will have 7 different elemental spirits within one¡¯s consciousness. However, they are usually very different in terms of strength.¡± She explained.


    ¡°When you all did your magical examination, all of you would have found out which element you all are most proficient in right? The stronger the elemental spirit within your consciousness, the higher your affinity to that particular element. Also, the stronger your affinity to elements, the easier it is to draw out elemental power. The Pegasus that you have, is a top tier elemental spirit. It is without a doubt one of the best elemental spirits for light one can hope for. I assume your strongest elemental affinity is that of light then?¡± She asked.


    Should I tell her the truth? That I have all seven affinities of the same strength? But if my Pegasus is an extremely good light elemental spirit, doesn¡¯t mean that my other 6 spirits are also equally good? What should I do?? I¡¯m pretty sure this is the first time I have shown a talent for something. I don¡¯t want the whole class to know as well. I think I will just lie to her and agree, but find her privately after class in order to ask inform her personally and seek her guidance. I don¡¯t want to make too many enemies on my first day in class when I accidentally showed off already.


    ¡°Yes Professor Athena. My strongest affinity is for the light element.¡± I replied.


    ¡°Good good. The light element is very useful. It is low on the offensive side but it has the highest healing capabilities, support capabilities and high defensive capabilities. It is extremely useful and many people love having a light mage by their side.¡± She said.


    Everyone in class was now giving me different kind of stares. Some were looks of amazement, which thankfully Jenny was giving me. Some were looks of contempt. I think they hated me for showing off. But it was accidental. I was just following whatever the Pegasus within me wanted! Then there were people who just gave me curious looks. I just decided to stop displaying my light mana arrow and cut off the mana supply to my arm. The arrow instantly vanished.


    By the end of the three hour lesson, everyone could conjour a mana arrow. It was time for lunch. There was only an hour for lunch so Chippy and I already decided that we were not going to eat lunch together everyday because it took too much time to walk from the different spines to eat at a common location. I naturally did not mind eating alone but I thought of something I¡¯d rather very much be doing and I gathered my courage.


    ¡°Jenny, do you want to eat lunch together??¡± I asked.


    ¡°Sure!¡± It was music to my ears.


    We went to the cafeteria located within the East spine. It was quite a normal cafeteria. You just had to take a tray and join the queue towards the food counter. There, you would be able to scoop how much and what food you wanted.


    Jenny and I quickly took our food and went to a table to enjoy our meal. It was delicious. Looks like Kirin Academy did not scrimp on providing its students with good food.


    We sat down and began to eat and talk at the same time. I wanted to find out more about her and it seemed like the feeling was mutual. I was dying to get to know her better. In that one hour, I learned that she was someone who was from a well-to-do family. Thankfully she was not from a noble family or it would¡¯ve been even more complicated. She was in the choir when she was in primary school and she had always wanted to cast magic since she was young. She also liked to read and watch movies.


    She also asked about me and I told her a great deal of things about myself. She now also knew about my slightly above-average family background, my great ambition to be a successful Legionnaire, my hobbies which included sports, playing games, reading and learning more about the vast world. I was someone who was genuinely interested in learning more about the world we live in. I hated studying though because I felt like it was mindless memorising and applying basic things we learn into every single scenario which just didn¡¯t make sense to me.


    We also talked a bit about our Qualifying Examinations because that was the only common experience we shared so far. It seemed like we had the same total score, but her score for magic was a lot higher than mine. She barely passed the physical examination but she did very well for the magical one. I told her my QE report card just had one number, 7 for all ten categories and she immediately laughed at me, saying I must have done it on purpose to get a nice report card. I liked hearing her laugh.


    Her elemental affinity was for fire and she said she was extremely impressed by my elemental magic ¡°showcase¡± I did today. I quickly explained to her what I felt was going on when I tapped into my light magic because I did not want her to misunderstand that I was someone who liked to show off. She listened carefully because she also wanted to know how to tap into her elemental powers.


    Lastly, we also talked about our halls. It seemed like she was in Freya hall because her magical examination grades were good. When I said I was from Loki hall, she merely shrugged and said ¡°They must be blind. This is the student which managed to use elemental magic from his first day of school.¡±


    I felt a lot better about myself and was glad to be able to have this one hour of lunch time all alone with a pretty girl like Jenny. However, all good things must come to an end and soon, it was time for our afternoon class, Magic Theory.


    We headed back to class and soon, Athena was back in the classroom and gave her first theory lesson for us.


    In that lesson, I paid close attention to learn about magic because this was something that was absolutely essential to me if I wished to utilise my talent of elemental affinity because only magic could take on the different elemental forms. Physical attacks did not possess any capacity to be elementally recomposed.


    In the 2 hour lesson that was conducted, Scarlet Witch talked about the most basic theories we had to know.


    Firstly, she covered about our mana pool. The mana pool that all of us managed to sense earlier was an infinite space that always took up the same area. This meant that if we were to attach numerical values to mana, our capacity to store mana would be able to be trained and increased. However, the area that our mana pool takes up in our body would remain constant. It would always be about the size of half a lung that should be located somewhere beside our heart. Training the quantity of mana was one of the fundamental training techniques in order to become a better mage.


    Then, she touched upon the quality of mana which all of us had. Quantity of mana was important but quality was also without a doubt important. For example, let us use numerical values for mana because that was the easiest way to quantify it. A mana arrow made up of 500 mana is not necessarily better and more destructive than one made up of 200. The quality of mana is important. Quality of mana meant how pure the mana you channel is. This also depended on one¡¯s understanding of mana. The better you understand it, the more you¡¯ll be able to compress your mana into high density, purer forms of mana which in turn yield higher magic capabilities. Think of it this way. If someone had extremely high quality mana, this will result in extremely pure, highly packed mana that was extremely solid. Someone with lower quality mana will have mana that was less well-packed so it would be less solid. The more condensed and pure the mana is, the better it is for casting spells. Training to condense your mana into a purer form is also one of the fundamentals in order to become a better mage.


    Then, there comes elemental and spatial recomposition. Spatial recomposition depends on visualisation technique and strength of mind. The more firmly you are able to picture your mana, the exact shape and dimension you want the spell to be, the better your spatial recomposition. Elemental recomposition depended on elemental affinity. The higher your elemental affinity, the better one could draw out powers of that element. It is possible to train both spatial and elemental recomposition, by training strength of mind and the strength of your elemental spirits within you. However, elemental spirits are fixed since birth and each spirit has different capacities for training. Spirits that are slightly poorer will be unable to be trained much and their elemental powers that you can tap into will not be great. A good elemental spirit will have a high capacity to be trained. You can train elemental spirits in many different ways. Some examples are ingesting elemental stones, mental sparring with your spirit beast and gathering of items of your spirit beast which will increase its innate strength.


    These were the main 3 ways a mage would be able to increase his basic strength. It was what made up the core of trainings for every mage. Of course, learning of spells, strategy, formations, are all important theories which we will also cover throughout our tutelage here at Kirin Academy but Athena made it clear to us that a mage¡¯s basic strength is still the best indicator of how powerful a mage is. Even if someone learns an extremely high-level or forbidden spell, if his basic strength is lacking, he will not be able to draw out the power of that spell to its fullest potential and thus the spell is wasted on him. I immediately understood and shared that opinion.


    A good carpenter never blames his tools. Only himself.


    We also learnt the basics of mana sensing, using your mana to envelop an object in order to detect something from it.


    After learning all the magic theory, we had a 30 minute break before our last lesson. Spell Sparring.


    ¡°Since this is just your first spell sparring class and all of you only knows one spell, I will change today¡¯s class a bit. You will not be fighting against other students directly. None of you know any defensive spells anyway and it¡¯s plain stupid to see flying arrows flying at each other because the damage potential of mana arrow is below average at best anyway. I have a more fun way of letting you all compete and understand your spells for today.¡±


    With a wave of her hand, 20 cups appeared on the teachers table in a neat row. Athena instructed us to stand at the very back of the class.


    ¡°Your assignment is this. Each cup is unique to one person and because I have all your magic signatures, only you will be able to break your own cup with a basic mana arrow. All of you will have to break your cup in order to pass this round. Only those that pass this round will be able to advance to the next round. It seems easy but trust me, there is quite a high possibility that none of you will be able to even pass this round.¡± She said.


    After she gave us the assignment, everyone immediately conjoured their magic arrows and let them loose at the cups on the table with our names on it. One would expect 20 neat arrows flying straight at the cups in front of us but reality always hurts. When everyone fired for the first time, some arrows went up to the ceiling. Some went towards the floor. Majority of them hit the table but not the cups on the table and no one came even remotely close to hitting their own cup. Everyone tried again and again.


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.For me, my cup was the rightmost cup in the row of 20 cups but I just could not get my arrow anywhere near it. I tried everything. Aiming with my eye, aiming with my gut feel, using different stances which felt more stable. Nothing worked. I stopped trying and started thinking. What was going on? Spells are usually extremely accurate but here, arrows were flying everywhere but the direction they were supposed to go. What good is a spell if you can¡¯t even hit your target?!


    I tried to spatially recompose my arrow but it was only my first time trying to spatially recompose something. I could not make my arrow any much more different. I sat down and tried to think. I looked at Scarlet Witch and she was just standing beside the twenty of us, smiling.


    ¡°Son, look carefully at the cups. They are not normal.¡± My inner conscience spoke to me again. This time, it was a much deeper voice compared to when the Pegasus talked to me. I checked inside to see who it was. The Silver Roc was the one communicating with me now.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± I ask.


    ¡°Try to use mana sense that you just learnt on the cups located on that table.¡± He instructed.


    I tried exactly as he recommended. It was quite hard, to exert and stretch the mana I had within me about 10 meters in front to touch my cup. However, once I succeeded, I immediately knew what was going on. Scarlet Witch looked at me, nodding her head in approval.


    ¡°A distortion enchantment?¡± I said, not really sure of my answer.


    ¡°That¡¯s right son. The moment your mana touched your cup, you could feel it couldn¡¯t you? Your mana instantly gets resisted by some force that triels to repel your mana.¡± The Roc told me.


    ¡°How then should I counter this?¡± I asked.


    ¡°At your level, there is not much you can do. Maybe you can try to use a more powerful spell but you don¡¯t know a more powerful spell right? As long as the raw power of your spell is greater than that of the distortion enchantment, your spell will be able to hit the cup.¡± He said.


    ¡°I may not have a more powerful spell¡­ But I can enhance the spell that I already have.¡± I said.


    I casted my mana arrow again but this time, I drew power from my inner Pegasus who excitedly and willingly gave me a lot of power.


    This arrow flew directly towards my cup and this time, it¡¯s aim was true. My gleaming, golden arrow shattered my cup.


    Jenny, who was beside me, asked me how I did it and I explained to her that the only way to break a cup was to increase the power output of the mana arrow.


    She nodded and suddenly, her already huge arrow became even bigger and she shot that arrow at the cup as well. This arrow also managed to shatter the cup.


    Wow. Spatial recompsotion. Look¡¯s like shes a genius in this aspect. I couldn¡¯t even get my arrow to change that much but just one conscious effort and her arrow became 10cm longer and 2cm wider in diameter. Formidable.


    After one hour, only three students managed to break their cups and they were Jenny, me, and another male student who was even taller and bigger than me.


    ¡°Stop! Okay the three of you pass. May I have your names? Other than Jinx, I don¡¯t know the other 2 of you.¡± She asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m Jenny.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Mortred.¡±


    ¡°Okay. Well met. Mortred, Jenny and Jinx, you shall be the only 3 to attempt the next task. The next task is something that measures the exact amount of magic damage your mana arrow does. Just do the same thing you just did to the cup, but this time, onto this magic orb on the table.¡± Scarlet Witch said with a wave of her hand and the cups disappeared. In place of it was three gleaming silver orbs about 15cm diameter in size.


    We stood side by side with each other and fired our arrows at the same time, at the magic orbs in front of us.


    Numbers started to appear on the orbs in front of us.


    The number on Jenny¡¯s orb read 120.


    The number on my orb read 111.


    The number on Mortred¡¯s orb was 130.


    ¡°Well well, as expected.¡± Athena said.


    ¡°Can anyone tell me what was the key to passing the first stage?¡± She asked.


    ¡°The key was to use mana sense that we just learnt on our cups, in order to find out that there was an enchantment on the cups that were causing all our efforts to miss the cups. Then, we must cast a spell more powerful than the enchantment such that it will be unable to redirect our magical attacks onto the cup.¡± Mortred answered.


    ¡°Well explained. I put an enchantment on each of the 20 cups and it is called a distortion enchantment. It is a low-level, very commonly used enchantment to redirect mana of a certain threshold away from the enchanted object. I used a distortion enchantment of 100 so any magic damage lower than 100 which is directed to the cups will be redirected. Magic attacks are generally accurate because you are using mana to direct your attacks. You don¡¯t even need a clear line of sight. As long as you control the mana within your arrow well, you should not be missing at all. Therefore, the first portion of the assignment required you to practice what you learnt first. To detect that there was something wrong with the cups and not your aim.¡± Athena elaborated.


    ¡°However, the key lies in the second part, the ability to fire a magic arrow that does more than 100 magic damage. It is easy to see what Jinx has done. He repeated what he had shown us in class earlier. Elementally recomposing an attack will lead to an increase in magic attack. However, it is not easily done and it is my first time seeing a first year immediately do it and that is why I was shocked. However, look at his score. He is the lowest among the three. Let me explain to you why.¡° She directed the last sentence to me.


    ¡°Magic attacks can be strengthened through 4 ways. Quality of mana used, quantity of mana used and elemental or spatial recomposition. The rest of the 17 of you, if you had discovered that the trick was to aim a very powerful arrow instead of trying to fix your aim, there was a way for all of you to pass this assignment. Use all your mana at once to let loose a mana arrow at your cup. However, no one here did that except Mortred. Furthermore, Mortred has quite a good innate quality of mana so he did the most damage. 130. Well done. However, you have reached your theoretical maximum damage for a mana arrow. Jinx and Jenny however, have not.¡± Athena said.


    Mortred looked happy and smug in the beginning but now he looked surprised. Looks like he thought that we used our full strength as well.


    ¡°Jenny relied entirely on spatial recomposition, not increasing her mana but changing the shape of her arrow, to make it longer and bigger to cause it to have more momentum and more damage. This type of talent in spatial recomposition is very rare. It is hard to be able to visualise so accurately what you want your mana to do. If you used all your mana in addition to spatial recompsition¡­ Why don¡¯t you try again?¡± Athena requested.


    Jenny took her advice and shot a new arrow, this one even bigger and even more fearsome. However, when she shot it out, her facial expression changed and her face became slightly red and she started panting.


    ¡°Anyone recognise these symptoms?¡± Athena asked.


    ¡°Overexertion of mana.¡± The class replied. We covered this earlier in the theory lesson as well.


    ¡°Good.¡± Athena said.


    A new number appeared on the orb. 138.


    ¡°Impressive. The highest score I¡¯ve ever seen on the orb on my first day in class is 150 so you already did not bad.¡± Athena announced.


    ¡°Jinx. I saw you try to spatially recompose your arrow first but there were not much changes to it. Don¡¯t worry this is normal. You just need to learn a better visualising technique first. However, how your arrow managed to reach above 100 despite having just a slightly above average quality and quantity of mana lies in elemental recomposition. Try using all your mana on a light arrow and see what happens.¡± Athena requested.


    I did as per instructed. I tried to force out all my remaining mana in my mana pool and willed the Pegasus to go within my arrow as well. A gleaming arrow which was even brighter than before appeared in my hand and I fired it towards the orb. The moment the arrow left me though, I felt extremely tired and fatigued and I could feel the blood rushing from my head to my heart.


    So this is what over-exertion of mana feels like..


    A number appeared on the orb. 133.


    ¡°Hmm. It was a good arrow. However 133 is weak for an elementally recomposed spell. Can anyone tell me why?¡± She asked.


    ¡°Is it because the light element has low offensive capabilities?¡± I asked immediately.


    Athena looked at me and smiled.


    ¡°Yes. I¡¯m glad you listened to me explain the properties of your light element. The advantage to an elementally recomposed attack is that the mana gains certain properties. It does not just do additional damage. Light attacks will do more damage on dark monsters. If this arrow has 133 potential damage, if you cast it on a dark monster, it will usually do anywhere from 1.5 to 2 times the damage depending on the monster¡¯s affinity to darkness. The more pure the dark monster is, the more susceptible it is to light damage. This is one of the advantages to elementally recomposed attacks. The next advantage is properties of the element. If your element was fire for example, which has extremely powerful innate offensive abilities, it is not surprising to see the number go up much higher. For example 140+. The purity of your spirit also matters here. For example, if your spirit beast was an ordinary fire lizard, compared to something like a high-class firefox, the damage dealt will be different. If it was a legendary-tier beast like a phoenix or dragon, the fire damage will be even more significant. Don¡¯t worry Jinx, the Pegasus is a very, very good legendary light beast already. It is just not suited for offense.¡± She concluded.


    Legendary-tier phoenix?


    I looked into the elemental room within my consciousness. The red creature who was still sleeping on the couch was undoubtedly a phoenix. Not a parrot, not an eagle¡­ A phoenix.


    ¡°Alright I believe all of you learnt a lot today and it is only your first day of school! Continue to work hard and soak in the teachings of Kirin Academy for the next 4 years of your life. I am sure that all of you will gain a lot out of it.¡± Scarlet Witch announced the end of formal class for today.


    Everyone began to stream out of class. I turned to Jenny and said ¡°I would love to walk you back to the Medial but I have something I need to ask Professor Athena first. Would you wait for me? I don¡¯t know how long it will take though. Of course you can go back first!¡± I said.


    ¡°Jinx I really want to talk more with you and walk back together but my hall has a welcome party for all the new year 1¡¯s soon so I have to go back and be briefed on the details of the party. Let¡¯s walk back together next time!¡± She explained.


    ¡°Okay!¡±


    At least she said there was a next time.


    By now, all the students have left the classroom and just as Professor Athena was preparing to leave, I ran to the front of the class and stopped her.


    ¡°Yes Jinx?¡± She said, surprised.


    ¡°Professor. I have something to tell you. I don¡¯t know how best to train because I am¡­ Quite peculiar.¡±


    ¡°Elaborate?¡± She said with her eyebrows raised.


    ¡°In my QE report, my highest elemental affinity is not just light. I lied just now.¡± I took out my report and showed it to her.


    Her eyes went from one eyebrow raised to curiously interested into finally, the two huge gaping circles that were staring with a look that defined disbelief at my report.


    ¡°How?.. Could it be?.... You are¡­ The child of the prophecy.¡± She gasped and whispered the words out at me.

 Chapter 6: Elemental Recomposition

    ¡°Child of prophecy???! What??¡±


    ¡°Jinx, I cannot say for sure, but in Xector, there is a clairvoyant named Claire who is extremely accurate. All her predictions have came true. She doesn¡¯t make them often but when she does, it is always a big event because it is 100% accurate. Two years ago, Claire made a particular prophecy and announced it to the world. I have a copy here with me. Take a look.¡± Athena waved her hand again and a piece of parchment appeared on her hand.


    ¡®The Child of Prophecy will arrive in the coming years,


    A hero who stands a chance to break the curse.


    The hope for humanity to wipe out monsters,


    A young lad who will be able to conquer.


    The legendary dungeon of King Lucifer,


    And bring to an end his literal moniker.


    He will arrive with many sevens,


    To embark on his journey to ascend the heavens.


    But the greatest seven of all,


    Lies in his elemental awes¡¯


    This was written on the piece of parchment that with a signature of a ¡®Claire¡¯ at the bottom of the parchment. I could somewhat sense a deep, glowing power from within the parchment as I covered it with mana.


    ¡°This¡­.¡± I read it and tried to objectively think if it was me.


    ¡°Tell me the creatures in your elemental room now.¡± Athena looked at me with unblinking, serious eyes.


    ¡°A red phoenix, blue dragon, black tortoise, white tiger, silver roc, golden pegasus and black devil.¡± I said immediately.


    Athena¡¯s face instantly became ashen.


    ¡°YOU HAVE THE SHISHIN?!¡± She shouted at my face.


    ¡°What in the world is a she-sheen?¡± I tried hard to pronounce the word.


    ¡°It¡¯s a name for the four sacred beasts that rule over the cardinal directions of the constellations. The red phoenix, blue gragon, black tortoise and white tiger. Everyone knows that they are extremely famous, legendary tier creatures. Elemental creatures are not unique. Many people may have fire lizard as an elemental creature. However, these four are extremely special and can only exist in one person at any given time. As for your Roc, pegasus and devil, they are all legendary tier monsters that rank at the top of their respective elements.¡± She explained.


    ¡°The four sacred beasts are extremely precious and everyone who owned any one of them were blessed with immense luck and power. For you to have all four of them exist within one body, this is undoubtedly a sign from the heavens that you are the child of prophecy. Look at you. ¡°A young lad¡± is mentioned in the parchment and you fit that description. ¡°End his literal moniker.¡± Your moniker is Jinx no? Your nickname means unlucky but if you were to quell all monsters in the world, who would call you unlucky?! ¡°Many sevens¡± I think that part is obvious. You literally only have sevens for you examination report and the most defining factor ¡°Greatest seven, elemental awe¡± refers to your elemental room. No one, no one has 7 elemental affinities before and that alone would make me think the child of prophecy is you. But for you to have 7 of the most powerful elemental spirits within you¡­ How is it they are all not fighting inside your elemental room?! You mean they can co-exist within you in peace?!¡± She asked.


    ¡°Erm.. I don¡¯t know how an elemental room looks like but mine is pretty cozy so they usually just lie around and sleep? I only talked to the Roc and Pegasus before.¡± I sheepishly answered.


    ¡°Cozy? Explain????¡± Athena asked, puzzled.


    ¡°I have many sofas around in them and even a TV, fooseball table, a kitchen and even a bar??¡± I said.


    ¡°You¡­ are a weird kid. An elemental room is just a term we use. Usually there is nothing inside the room at all. It is just an empty space where your spirits co-exist. Usually, the dominant spirit which is the strongest will be the boss of the room. However, for yours¡­ All your creatures are legendary-tier so I¡¯m surprised they are not fighting. I guess the heavens must have gave you this literal comfortable elemental room to help keep your spirits comfortable and in a better mood. Oh well not important. Come here! Quick! Eat this mana pill to recover some mana and channel your white tiger and cast a mana arrow at the orb again!!¡± She said.


    ¡°White tiger? Why him?¡± I asked, wanting to wake up the fire phoenix instead because it seemed like a more approachable creature and because I thought fire was the strongest element for offensive power.


    ¡°Fire is strong offensively yes, but the fire phoenix has unique properties. It¡¯s most powerful ability is the strong life force that a phoenix possesses. This means that the flames are extremely hard to put out and are extremely strong but it also has healing, regenerative powers. It is undoubtedly strong for offense with healing properties as a bonus. However, the white tiger is famed for its white tiger claw. A skill that possesses unparalleled offensive power among the four legendary beasts. It has no other purpose other than sole destruction so I want to see what happens when you use its offensive power. The lightning element is comparable to fire element for offensive power anyway.¡± She explained.


    ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll go wake him up now then..¡±


    Please don¡¯t bite. Please don¡¯t bite.


    ¡°White tiger. Please lend me your strength.¡± I channelled my thoughts to my elemental room.


    The white tiger, who was lazing about on a huge round beanbag stirred. His fur was as white as snow and he was majestic. He slowly opened his huge, yellow eyes and let out a yawn. White, razor sharp teeth which looked like gleaming daggers could immediately be seen.


    ¡°So¡­ Human. You decided to wake me up and want to borrow my powers? Why should I give it to you?¡± He said with a voice full of confidence, power and contempt.


    ¡°Because¡­ I gave you a comfortable room to sleep in the first place and I really want to be able to be friends with you?¡± I meekly asked.


    ¡°FRIENDS?! WITH A HUMAN?! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!¡± He roared.


    HOLY SHEEEET HE¡¯S PISSED


    ¡°SORRY SORRY WHITE TIGER. I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. YOU CAN GO BACK TO SLEEP!¡± I quickly shouted back and retracted my consciousness.


    ¡°HAHAHAHA Relax master. I was just kidding with you.¡± The white tiger suddenly smiled and got up from the sofa, an aura of grandeur seeping out from it continuously, giving the tiger a sort of white glow as he talked to me.


    ¡°I just wanted to see what sort of person my new master is. I have no right to go against you when I¡¯m in your elemental room. You can even force me to give you my powers. However, I assume you didn¡¯t know this because you clearly are too young. At least you know who I am though. That¡¯s good. I just wanted to make sure that you were someone worth serving. I don¡¯t bite. Okay I do but I don¡¯t plan on biting you. Yet.¡± He said as he raised his eyebrow at me, showing that he indeed possessed no ill intentions and was actually capable of joking as well.


    ¡°Call me Byakko. It¡¯s my name since I existed and I prefer hearing my god-given name than some nickname that the whole world calls me because of my power. What do you want me to call you? Master?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Since you want to be called by name, I want you to call me by my name as well. Jinx. I like having someone I can talk to so even when I¡¯m alone I can just talk to all of you in my room.¡± I said.


    ¡°Alright Jinx. Let me tell you something first. Although I am extremely powerful and so are all the other spirits in your room, you are currently unable to use us to the best of our abilities. This is because your understanding and knowledge of the elements are lacking. We are profound creatures with a deep understanding of our own element. However, you who are controlling us, borrowing our power, will not be able to draw out the best of our abilities unless you can understand more about our elements. Let me give you a tip. For my lightning element, the emphasis is not on power. The emphasis is on speed. Rough, ferocious speed. We are different from the wind. The wind is gentle, soothing, graceful. We are rough, jagged and ferocious. When you channel elemental power, you have to understand what you are channelling and visualise the elemental powers in their truest form. This is how you make elemental attacks even stronger. You can try now.¡± Byakko said.


    I took Byakko¡¯s words very seriously. I thought about what I knew about lightning. I did not know much about it at all except for electric shocks. He was right. It would take a long time to understand something as abstract and powerful as the element of lightning. However, I still tried my best. I conjoured a mana arrow using all the mana I recovered from the pill and borrowed Byakko¡¯s power. Instead of just putting him into the arrow as I did the past few times with Pegasus, I imagined channelling Byakko not as a normal entity, but something that was like an electric shock. An electric shock of power that was the white tiger. Intermittent, rough, jagged.


    Suddenly, the arrow was no longer just a mana arrow that glowed with the yellow aura of electricity. It was like I was holding an electric shock in my hand that took the form of an arrow instead. The arrow was crackling, with not a fixed shape but many electric shocks that was controlled to take form of an arrow.


    ¡°Elemental recomposition level 2!¡± Athena gasped to herself.


    I flung the arrow at the orb.


    270!


    My jaw dropped.


    Did my power just increase two times just by using Byakko¡¯s power?!


    ¡°Atta boy. That was a good first attempt at trying to use my power. Let me tell you first. You are far, far away from comprehending the true essence of lightning but you need to keep trying. Only when you are able to utilise me properly will my true power show. Just now, I can¡¯t even give you a percentage of power you drew out of me. Maybe 0.0000000001% or something. But you must understand. You are your worst enemy. The limit to your maximum power is yourself. Continue improving yourself Jinx.¡± Byakko telepathically said to me as he retreated from my mana pool back into the elemental room and went to watch TV. Game of Thrones was currently showing and he didn¡¯t want to miss it.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ¡°Jinx! How did you learn to elementally recompose your arrow to the next level?!¡± Athena asked me.


    ¡°What? What do you mean?¡± I asked.


    ¡°I planned to teach this to the class only somewhere in the second half of the year because this is an advanced level magic already. Elemental recomposition has 5 different levels. The first level is to channel your spirit beast to embed your mana with the power of a certain element. That was what you did first in class just now. However, level 2 is when you manage to embed the properties of the element directly into your spell. For example, you saw your first ever light mana arrow right? It was just a mana arrow that gleamed with golden light. However, if you reach level 2 and cast mana arrow, it would no longer be a light blue mana arrow that gleamed with golden light surrounding it. Rather, it would be a mana arrow that was made entirely of golden light. You would not be able to see any traces of original mana within it. To reach level 2 requires you to understand somewhat the properties of the element you are using and channel it into your mana using that property. Let me show you an example.¡±


    Athena conjoured a mana arrow in her hand that was gleaming with red light. ¡°This is level 1.¡±


    Suddenly, the arrow changed entirely. It was like there was fire in her hand that took the shape of an arrow. ¡°This is level 2.¡±


    Suddenly, the flaming arrow that seemed to burn chaotically changed colour, from red to orange. A very light orange. The change was extremely noticeable. ¡°This is level 3.¡±


    Finally, the orange flaming arrow suddenly emitted a horrible aura. An aura that felt like I was going to be burnt to a crisp immediately by just standing near it. I leaped away and literally ran as fast as possible and as far as possible from Athena as I could. ¡°This is level 4.¡±


    ¡°I have not reached level 5. It is an insane level to reach. They say that once you reach complete mastery of an element, you will be able to summon not just the elements itself but draw strength from that particular element from nature and use forbidden-techniques.¡± She said as she finally withdrew her arrow.


    I gasped for air as she withdrew her arrow. It was still the same mana arrow, about 15cm in length but the strength of the arrow obviously differed like crazy depending on the level of elemental recomposition she used.


    ¡°This, is how powerful elemental recomposition is. Without a doubt, it is the method that can increase the efficacy of your magic the most. However, in exchange, it is also the hardest one to level up. Spatial recomposition only has 3 levels and they are relatively simpler to level up. Most mages will eventually reach the last level. However, it will still usually take about anywhere between 5-10 years to reach that level. Quality and quantity of mana is the easiest to train. However, there will eventually be a bottleneck on each individual depending on talent so one cannot really train in specific levels of quality and quantity of mana. But elemental recomposition¡­ Reaching level 4 will guarantee you to be one of the most famous mages around. Famous assasins and archers also have this same degree of elemental recomposition. Reaching level 5¡­ The legendary mage Redwood managed to burn down an entire island. The island itself was fully combusted, leaving behind nothing. Just an empty space which is now part of the ocean. This is what mages who have reached level 5 will be able to achieve.¡± She explained.


    I imagined the scene. One mage bringing an entire island to complete and utter destruction alone. How can an individual who is this powerful still be unable to bring an end to the monster bosses? Just how powerful are these monsters?


    ¡°You already reached level 2 from the lightning arrow you just made. However, every level from 2 to 5 is insanely difficult to reach. Most mages will be stuck at level 2 or 3. Level 3 means you are able to understand and incorporate your feelings and will into the element itself, thus the change in colour of the default elemental colours because your personal shade of mana is now completely part of the element itself. Level 4 means that you have understood the element enough to allow the element to manifest itself in the purest way possible. As such, the consciousness of the element itself will be able to manifest itself in your spell. You felt it right when I reached level 4, the insane desire for the arrow to burn and consume anything it touches. Level 5 is the utmost peak of elemental recomposition where you fully comprehend the entire element itself. Thus, you are able to execute 100% of the power of that element. This means that forbidden techniques such as eternal combustion which Redwood used to incinerate an entirely island will now be at your disposal.¡±


    ¡°Let me conclude. In short:


    Level 1 ¨C Ability to incorporate elemental affinity into your mana.


    Level 2 ¨C Ample understanding to channel elemental power in a desired form for the element to manifest itself into your mana, changing your mana into the element itself.


    Level 3 ¨C Deep understanding to combine both your personal mana and elemental power itself into one entity, combining the powers of both to make your mana carry both your will and the power of the element.


    Level 4 ¨C Almost perfect understanding which allows the will of the element to be incorporated into your mana. Turns your mana into something that possesses unimpeded will of nature and your own will.


    Level 5 ¨C Complete understanding that allows you to become one with the very element.¡± Athena ended off.


    ¡°It takes an immense amount of talent in order to reach even level 3 because understanding both yourself and the element to a large degree is needed. If you know enough about the element but not about yourself and the true nature of your own mana, you will be unable to reach level 3. This is why it is so hard. An element itself is already very complex to grasp. But yourself? Someone that is ever changing with a conscience of your own? When can someone say you truly understand who you are?? This is why it is so hard.¡±


    I nodded and agreed. Even though I know what I like, what I want to do in future. I definitely did not understand myself enough to the degree where I can say I truly understand myself. Everyone does things some times which they think they would never do after all right???


    Athena told me to keep this a secret because if this gets loose, it might entice a commotion which is extremely inconvenient for me. All the top geniuses of this school will try to bring him down in order to establish themselves even more. I was just someone who just attended the first day of school. I couldn¡¯t even cast any defensive spells and just one mana arrow. The worst case scenario is if the monsters heard about the ¡°Child of Prophecy¡± that existed here. Athena said that the monsters already knew of the prophecy of Claire. They knew that there would be a ¡°child of prophecy¡± arriving on the side of the humans soon so I can be sure that if they found out that it was me, they would stop at nothing and might even send their entire demon force to raze this school to the ground and kill me. She praised me for having the foresight to lie and say that I only had one elemental affinity because it was very believable. She then instructed me to go to the library and borrow books on elemental affinity of every element and try to reach level 2 in every element because it was very useful.


    I thanked her and left the class. I proceeded immediately to the library to borrow some books on the remaining elements other than lightning in order to deepen my level of insights on the different elements. It was a long day so I did not read the books just yet but went to find Chippy for dinner. We shared about our day and it seemed like where I made a scene by conjouring a light mana arrow which was now known by about half the mage cohort, Chippy made an even bigger scene because he beat his entire class in one of the assassin class initiations.


    Every year, the freshman who enrolled in the assassin class had to go through a trial. That was to fight one against your entire class in a hand-to-hand close combat fight with no weapons. The teacher each year would demonstrate how to do it but obviously one against twenty was unrealistic for everyone who had no background. However, Chippy managed to beat everyone in his class, one against nineteen. Everyone usually gets beaten up by the class for about 10 seconds before the teacher stops the initiation but this time, Chippy actually managed to pass it.


    ¡°Why did you do that?! Everyone will be unhappy that only you didn¡¯t get beat up!¡± I said to him during dinner.


    ¡°Erm.. Because I did not want to get beaten up??¡± He replied while munching down on his bacon bits, obviously not giving half a shit about what he¡¯s just done.


    I could only shake my head and smile. Well, Chippy¡¯s a genius I guess so let¡¯s just let him show off his antics and talent.


    After dinner, I felt extremely tired because I exhausted my entire mana pool not once but twice today. I went to lie on my bed because I wanted to take a rest but I ended up sleeping for the whole day.


    The next day, the Kirin alarm clock rang loudly again and I went to the West spine this time for my first ever warrior class. I strolled into the classroom and saw that there were obvious differences. The warrior classroom was not like the magicians where there were organised tables and chairs. It was just a huge empty space with a small podium at the front of the class. There were a lot more males than females in this class of 20. They were also generally of a much bigger build. No surprises there.


    Suddenly, the door opened and a huge, burly man walked into the room.


    ¡°Good Morning class. My name is Whitebeard. I hope all of you here are passionate and determined warriors to be. I have no room for leniency in class and what I hate most are cowards. Welcome to your first ever warrior lesson.¡±

 Chapter 7: The First Warrior Lesson

    ¡°The physical fundamentals course covers the strengthening of your core which is essential for every warrior. The strength of every warrior will always be directly proportionate to the training and mastery of his inner strength. We call this strength, Ki.¡± He began.


    ¡°Ki is the power of a warrior¡¯s body that is present in everyone. Everyone has Ki. Even toddlers, elderly, mages. Everyone. However, the ability to draw out and manifest this Ki is only available through strengthening of one¡¯s mind and body. Neither can be lacking. This is why mages usually are unable to wield enough Ki to use in battle. Their bodies are far too undertrained compared to their minds. If either one is too weak, the Ki will be imbalanced and unable to be properly utilised. Let me show you an example of an attack without Ki and an attack embedded with Ki.¡±


    He waved his hand and two stacks of bricks was conjoured. Each stack consisted of 10 bricks.


    ¡°First, pure physical strength.¡± And he slammed his fist onto the first stack of bricks as hard as he could. The first five bricks instantly broke into a few pieces.


    Pure physical strength?! What a monster. I bet a mana arrow can only break through 2 or 3 of those at most.


    ¡°Now. Embedded with Ki.¡± And the second stack of bricks instantly evaporated into dust.


    ¡°WHAT?!¡± The whole class went.


    We definitely expected the whole stack to break but not just breaking the bricks but disintegrating them into dust with one punch?


    WHAT?!


    ¡°As you can see, Ki attacks are obviously on a whole other level. Once you learn to harness this power of Ki, your attacks will become a lot more devastating. So I¡¯ll go through the basics now.¡±


    He began discussing the origin of Ki, which is a force you channel through your soul. Something like channelling mana but this time, it wasn¡¯t from your mana pool but from every fibre of strength of your body. It¡¯s like every single muscle cell in your body has the capacity to store a little Ki. Channelling all these Ki within every fibre of your body is the first step to collecting Ki. You need to channel your energy to the correct part of your body where you wish to execute the attack. Finally, you use the Ki energy you stored in that body part to unleash a Ki attack. It was all very basic but we needed to thoroughly understand how to channel our Ki in order to start practicing as warriors proper.


    He said that the first few times we use Ki, the effects are not as astonishing as what he just did because our bodies are simply too undertrained. Our mind also needs sharpening. Finally, we lack the skills needed to execute a fluent attack that does not waste any energy.


    For the first 2 hours of the lesson, he made us channel Ki throughout our body and focus it to our legs. Once we manage to explosively jump using Ki to a height which is impossible for our human body to do so on it¡¯s own, we would have thoroughly understood how to harness the power of Ki.


    I spent the next 2 hours trying as hard as I could but unlike the mage training where I unexpectedly had a strong talent for elemental affinity, it seems like I was just back to an above average student in the warrior class. Someone who managed to channel his Ki but only after 1 hour. The average time taken for students to learn this step was 1 and a half hours. By the end of the lesson, everyone could already properly channel their Ki, even though it was a negligible amount.


    Then, it was lunch time and I went to the West Spine canteen to quickly get my meal. I was alone for today but it didn¡¯t matter much to me. I decided to find an empty corner of the canteen and gulped down my food, feeling a lot hungrier than usual. This was because utilizing Ki tired out the muscle cells which leads to every single muscle cell itching for nutrition and nourishment after exerting them heavily. As I was wolfing down my food, someone came down and sat opposite me. I recognised him as someone from my class. I only recognised him because he was the first person to manage to successfully channelled his inner Ki. His name was Draco I believe. He had blonde hair, a well-built figure worthy of warrior even at the age of 13. He was about 165cm and had a certain intimidating aura around him


    ¡°Hello. Draco right??¡± I asked apprehensively.


    ¡°Yes. I did not have anyone to eat so I hope you don¡¯t mind me sitting here to eat with you.¡±


    ¡°Not at all.¡± I replied.


    ¡°Thanks! What¡¯s your name?¡±


    And just like that, me and Draco started to know each other better. It was kind of like Jenny and I yesterday but this time, I was obviously a lot less enthusiastic but still genuinely interested in knowing a new person for sure.


    Turns out that Draco was someone who was extremely nice, even though he gave off quite an unapproachable vibe. He had failed the magic qualifying examination but for the physical one, he got close to full marks for every single aspect. This is really someone who was wholly suited to becoming a warrior. His body was obviously a lot more well-trained than mine which was probably why he finished gathering Ki much faster than the rest of us in class could.


    We wanted to talk more, to get to know each other better by sharing our experiences and hobbies. But alas, time waits for no man and soon, we had to head back to the classrooms in order to start the second part of the lessons: weapon training.


    ¡°Alright students, welcome back. I hope you ate a lot for lunch. Now, the weapon training will finally commence. But first, before we proceed on with anything, I need to pass this slip of paper to each of you. When you hold onto this piece of paper, just channel your Ki to the hand holding this slip of paper.¡± He instructed.


    When he came along and passed me the paper, I did as he asked and to my surprise, the slip of paper suddenly became cut neatly into half. I looked around the class at the people who have gotten their paper. Some of their papers had also been cut in half. Some had a hole in the centre of the paper and some even had their papers crumpled.


    ¡°Okay. Now, let me explain what you are seeing. These slips of paper are specially manufactured. They are specially designed to be super sensitive to Ki. It can sense the most appropriate nature of your Ki. Basically, there are many different types of Ki. They all share the same benefits such as increased vitality, strength, health etc but they also differ based on the weapon most suited to your Ki.¡± He started.


    ¡°Sword Ki will cut the paper into half, because swords are useful for cutting things neatly into half. Spear Ki will drill a hole into the middle of the paper. A blunt weapon Ki would result in the paper being crumpled. There are also Ki¡¯s such as dagger Ki¡¯s and Axe Ki¡¯.¡± He explained.


    ¡°The type of Ki you possess will naturally become the weapon which you will be trained in for your freshman year here at Kirin Academy. I shall now split you up into groups based on Ki-nature. Each group will be taken by a specialist in your field in order to be given good fundamental weaponry skills.¡±


    I looked at my piece of paper which was cut into half. I had sword Ki so I went towards the sword Ki group. It seems like Sword Ki is a type of Ki an average amount of people will have. In the class of 20, 6 of us belonged in swords, 5 of them belong in spears, 3 of them for axe and 1 each for the other 6 categories which include shield, sabre, zweihander, hammer, twin swords and gauntlet.


    Each type of Ki had specific properties like shield has the absolute best defensive Ki and the sabre has unparalleled offensive power.


    The sword master who was going to teach us for the next 2 hours was someone who introduced himself as the name: ¡°Byakuya.¡±


    First, he said that sword Ki is one of the most balanced types of Ki for offense and defense. It is very versatile and can be useful in almost situation.


    Works well with me I guess. A spellblade is meant to be versatile after all.


    He spent the next hour teaching us a set of basic sword strokes. Seven of them to be exact. Stab, slash, hack, parry, block, swipe, lunge. We had to practice the form of each move and Byakuya was a very strict teacher. Any slight deviation and he had a wooden stick in his hand that could find your head instantly. When he hit you, it would be extremely painful but there would be no exterior wounds to show for it. This shows how accurate and immaculate his swordplay was.


    After practicing the 7 basic forms for an hour, Byakuya then taught us how to make a series of moves flow using those 7 forms. It could be something simple, from block-lunge to block-slash-slash-parry-swipe-block. The possibilities are also endless and we will need to experience combat itself first to figure out what move to best use in different scenarios.


    We were then asked to do some light sparring with each other. I looked at the 5 peers around me and they looked excited. They were itching to fight. Draco was not around to be my sparring partner because his Ki specialisation was that of the Zweihander, a huge two-handed sword.


    There were two pairs that quickly formed so I was paired up with the leftover. He was someone called Doug. Byakuya handed us each a normal sized, wooden, two handed sword. He warned us not to use full strength but concentrate on techniques instead. A person with better sword skills will always be able to overwhelm the other party not by using sheer strength but with skill. It is stupid to just rely on brute raw strength to fight against the other party. The goal of this spar was to increase our efficiency with using the sword forms in real combat.


    I looked at Doug and he gave me a small nod. I returned it. We immediately stepped-in and engaged the other party. I threw a huge slash at him and he parried it easily. He retaliated immediately with a quick lunge. I tried to block but my huge swing backfired and my sword took too long to finish following through. He hit me on my collarbone but it did not hurt that much. He must¡¯ve pulled back his strength the moment he knew I could not block the strike.


    He reset his stance and I did too.


    If this was a real fight I would¡¯ve died immediately after one exchange. Shame on me.


    I went about the second exchange more cautiously. I crept closer and closer to Doug and he was the one to take action first now. He stabbed at me and I dodged it by jumping to the side. He quickly turned and swiped the sword towards me but it was easily blocked as there was only one direction he could strike me from. After blocking, I slashed at him and he quickly repositioned his sword to block. However, it was a weak block and it was flung aside once it made contact. I tried to quickly lunge and return the earlier blow. However, Doug seemed to have better instincts than me and quickly dropped his body towards the ground, causing me to miss my stroke. In the process, he twisted his body around such that he could use one hand and bring the wooden sword onto my head. I could make out where the sword was coming from so I parried the blow, allowing his sword to graze the side of mine and Doug fell to the floor from attempting that counter which was unsuccessful. I quickly stepped over him and pointed my sword at his throat. One exchange won each.


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The spar continued like this until both of us were quite familiar with each other. Because we were complete novices in the sword, our techniques were on about the same level. If it was raw strength though, I am sure Doug would have outclassed me easily.


    The sparring practice soon came to an end and the very last thing Byakuya taught us was how to embed Ki within your sword. It was quite similar to that of mana. Just that in this case, you view your sword as an extension of your body and channel the Ki to your hands and through your hands into the sword you are holding. Because I have experience channelling mana, I felt like channelling Ki was quite a similar phenomenon so I picked it up quite fast. Sword Ki which was compatible with swords would show greater power than the Sword Ki we embed into our physical body because it was more suited to be housed in a vessel that could apply the properties of Sword Ki well.


    With a wave of his hand, Byakuya made 6 scarecrows appear from the ground in an instant and on top of each scarecrow was a display panel of numbers. He asked us each to use full power to slash at the scarecrow.


    *WHAM* The number 105 appeared on top of my scarecrow. It was not a high number as compared to my peers. I was the one with the third lowest number and the highest one actually got a 135.


    Byakuya then asked us to embed our sword with our Ki and strike at the scarecrow again.


    *WHAM* The number became 140. Similarly, the numbers of my peers all went up. The highest was now 170! However, I was now in third place instead of fourth. I must¡¯ve been able to channel a bit more Ki than the person who was ranked in front of me. However, that still did not change the fact that I was still average at best regarding this exercise.


    Suddenly, I thought of something.


    Can¡¯t I channel both Ki and mana together? Will they become something new??


    I gathered my Ki within my sword and this time, I also channelled mana into it. Surprisingly, when Ku and mana both interacted within the sword, they did not amplify or resonate or affect each other at all. They were like water and oil. The Ki was still the essence of my sword but mana was now floating on top of the Ki, coating the sword with a light blue glow. I then proceeded to whack the scarecrow with this strike. The number changed from 140 to 150. I was now second place instead of third. However, it seemed that even though I channelled a decent amount of mana, the strike only went up by 10 points. Seems like mana is not very efficient at enhancing normal physical attacks.


    Byakuya saw what I did and came over to speak to me.


    ¡°You are one of the new spellblades yes?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Yes I am.¡±


    ¡°You are very lucky to possess sword Ki. It is very compatible for a spellblade because of it¡¯s versatility. However, I saw you embed mana into that strike along with Ki. It is something that many people tried before. The conclusion everyone came to is this: mana is inefficient at raising the power of physical attacks. You must¡¯ve experienced it yourself already. It is much more efficient and effective to raise the quantity and quality of Ki within your body through physical and mental training instead. This is why warriors all walk the path of Ki. Mana is just not useful for physical attacks.¡±


    What if the mana was elementally recomposed?


    I gathered my Ki and mana again and this time, I utilised Pegasus for the light element. The sword was enveloped with Ki and level one light mana for a strike.


    *WHAM* 155.


    ¡°Oh. One day in school and you can elementally recompose your mana as well? Not bad. Not bad at all. However, like I said, even elementally recomposed mana is not very efficient by the nature of the incompatibility between mana and physical attacks. Magical attacks use mana. Physical attacks use Ki. This is law. Everyone who has researched on this agreed with this finding. I¡¯m surprised though that you are able to elementally recompose mana so soon. Let me share with you something interesting. Why did it not occur to you to elementally recompose your Ki instead??¡± Byakuya asked while smiling.


    OMG WHY DIDN¡¯T I THINK OF THAT?!


    ¡°You mean it¡¯s possible?!¡± I asked quickly.


    ¡°Why not?? Warriors also have an elemental room. It is just the ability to sense mana pool that is unique to mages that most warriors are unable to do. An elemental room is still present in everyone, regardless of your class. Just like mana, Ki is also able to be elementally recomposed. This is why there are physical strikes that carry the power of the elements along with it. For example, my strongest physical strike lies in utilising both my Sword Ki and the element of water which I am most proficient in. Like a drop of water, it will be able to flow through any obstacles and strike true on it¡¯s target. Infusing elements into your swordplay is something everyone dreams of doing. It makes your sword a lot more profound, hard to deal with and powerful.¡±


    I immediately tried to do it. I gathered my Ki and used Pegasus again but this time I did not channel Pegasus through my mana but through my Ki. I could instantly feel the power of Ki being revitalised, energized by the power of light and I swung my sword down onto the scarecrow.


    *WHAM* 170.


    It is indeed a lot more efficient to just rely on Ki for my physical attacks!


    ¡°Well done. I could sense the power of light being embedded in that strike indeed. Since you are at this level, let me give you a few tips. Elementally recomposing your Ki gives your physical attack an elemental attribute. This means that the weakness and strengths of each element will come into play. For example, if a fire attributed warrior meets a water attributed one, the one infusing water mana into his strikes will have an advantage over the one using fire. However, light is special so you no need to worry about it. Light is super effective against dark but similarly, dark is super effective against light. So both your attacks will become stronger and one is not really weaker than the other. This is the concept of Yin and Yang.¡±


    ¡°Secondly, just elementally recomposing your Ki is just a first stage of using it. In order to truly draw out it¡¯s strength, you need to embed your sword techniques with properties of your element. A true sword of water can only be one when it is a gentle, flowing sword which like water, can eventually pierce through rocks by causing erosion and flow around any obstacles. Your swordplay must also reach this level before the element can truly manifest its power within the sword. Therefore, I advise you to not just gain insights into the elements which is extremely important for both mages and warriors alike but also to try to develop your sword technique according to your element which in your case is light. The library has many books of different sword techniques that specialise in a certain element. You should go and borrow one regarding the light element for a head start!¡± He said.


    My attack power was now tied with the one who was strongest within those who possess sword ki. However, raw strength like Byakuya said was something not incredibly powerful in a fight. It was still about technique and skills to determine the true winner in a sword fight. Furthermore, Draco actually reached a strength level of 200.


    However, I now know the direction I had to take as a spellblade. It seems like understanding and developing affinity with the elements will be my utmost priority, seeing that both my magical and physical attacks will need to rely on this to become stronger. Furthermore, I would need to learn a vast variety of sword techniques in order to be able to learn how to harness the power of my sword not just for one but all seven elements. I would also have to learn more spells. Lastly, I need to also increase the quality and quantity of both my Ki and mana because those are the foundations of being a good mage and warrior. Even if I have a good understanding of the elements and techniques to utilise it well, it is useless if I don¡¯t have the required amount of mana or Ki to sustain myself in a fight.


    My priority will be elemental insights, various techniques and quantity and quality of Ki and mana. I should not neglect any one of them. However, because time is limited, I think that my priority will be elemental insights followed by quantity and quality of Ki and mana. It¡¯s okay if I have a small pool of techniques in the start I guess. As long as my techniques are of a fundamentally higher level, I will still be able to excel regardless of how little techniques I know because every one of them will possess insane amounts of power.


    ¡°Alright class! That is the end of your weapon training. Now for the last segment of them all which is always the favourite part of the new students. GLADIATOR!¡± Whitebeard announced.


    ¡°The rules are simple. This is going to be exactly like the Colosseum in ancient rome and all of you are the gladiators. One of you will fight, one at a time, with everyone in class and consecutively. This means that every one of you will fight once per day, except for one unlucky bastard who has to fight potentially 19 times until he loses. If he loses in the first round, he is immediately out. This type of battle system encourages you to be strong. If you are weak, you won¡¯t last even one round. Even if you are strong, continuously battling opponent after opponent is a very mentally draining and physically strenuous task. At the end of every cycle, I will give a prize to the student with the most consecutive wins. These are the rules. Simple enough yes? Let¡¯s start the gladiator match today. You can see how much your peers improve as the days go by. Each gladiator session only lasts 2 hours so we¡¯ll obviously not be able to finish one cycle per session so it¡¯ll go by time. Once two hours are up, the last person will just continue until he eventually wins everyone or loses and the day ends there. This rule is so that it is fair. You will not get to stop there for the day to get some rest and continue the next time. THIS IS WARRRRR BOYS.¡± Whitebeard shouted, obviously excited for this segment of class. His enthusiasm was also rubbing off onto the class and everyone seemed more and more eager to fight with each other.


    ¡°For today, let¡¯s see¡­. Who¡¯s face do I want to see get beaten up on the first day of warrior class. Hmm¡­ Just joking of course but I CHOOSE YOU!¡± Whitebeard said as he pointed his index finger directly at the poor soul.


    And the poor soul was me.

 Chapter 8: Gladiator

    ¡°WHAT?!¡± I shouted.


    ¡°Yes. Definitely you.¡± Whitebeard said after he heard my exclamation.


    ¡°Come down here. To the centre of the class. Listen carefully everyone I will announce the rules and how this gladiator will be conducted. You are to use only the wooden weapons that were distributed just now. The fight has no time limit. You either knock out the opponent or force him to submit. I¡¯m guessing no one will have the raw power to kill someone but in the event that my judgement thinks that someone is going to die, I might interfere. Of course, the person who is executing that sort of attack will then lose by default. The rules does not allow you to kill the opponent. Like I said before, technique is key here.¡± Whitebeard explained.


    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± Whitebeard asked.


    ¡°Jinx.¡± I said.


    ¡°HAHAHAHA okay Jinx. Unlucky indeed. Get ready.¡± He said.


    Whitebeard went to point towards a random person in class and my first opponent was a girl. She walked towards me, holding a huge axe and stood facing me, about 3 meters away. We exchanged casual greetings and took out our weapons.


    ¡°BEGIN!¡± Whitebeard hollered.


    I immediately went on the offensive. I wanted to dictate the pace of the match. However, I did not use my Ki because I did not want to exhaust my supply of Ki so fast. The big burly axe was not as nimble as a sword so its defensive capabilities were lacking. Under my relentless attacks, she seemed to have problems defending. Suddenly, I felt some sort of aura coming out from her.


    Oh no.


    She let loose a wild axe swing filled with Ki power. I was choosing whether to parry or block in my head when I realised that it wasn¡¯t going to work. An axe has huge offensive power, coupled with ki, even if I put my wooden sword in the way, it was probably going to break. Thus, I tried to dodge it. I jumped as high as I could and the axe passed from beneath my feet, grazing me in the process. That slight graze already made me almost want to shout in pain. This was how much power that freaking axe possessed.


    What do I do now? I need to preserve my strength but all my opponents won¡¯t need to. They will just come at me with full power. I don¡¯t have the strength to win casually while holding back¡­ AHHHH FUCK IT


    I too immediately took my Ki and channelled it towards my sword.


    ¡°Pegasus, I¡¯m going to let you have some more fun today.¡± I said to my elemental room.


    ¡°WOOOYEAH. Bring it on master.¡± She said and manifested herself in my sword aura.


    Unlike mana, Ki cannot be visually seen by the naked eye. However, elementally recomposed Ki is different. They will possess a slight tinge of colour of the respective element. Red for fire, blue for water, green for wind, yellow for lightning, brown for earth, golden for light and black for dark. Once I channelled my Ki to my sword, my sword begun to glow slightly with a golden aura.


    ¡°Hooooo¡­¡­¡± Whitebeard raised an eyebrow and smiled at me.


    I immediately rushed towards the girl who was noticeably shaken upon looking at my sword and I hacked ferociously towards her axe. I did not want to hurt her. However I needed her to give up immediately because I did not have the luxury of wasting my Ki. She propped her axe up to block the attack but after she did that, both her and the axe flew a good 3 meters away from me. She was also disarmed as she flew backwards from the impact. I ran over, grabbed the axe and threatened to break it.


    ¡°I admit defeat.¡± She said.


    I sighed in relief, and looked at the faces of the people around me in class. Whitebeard was obviously entertained as he picked the second person in class. All the others either had a look of puzzlement or contempt on their faces. Seemed like the people in this school were all very competitive.


    I went along with the gladiator game and my priority was always to end it as fast as possible. I did not have time to waste. Because everyone¡¯s proficiency in weapons was almost the same, difference in raw power really made an impact. We were not at the level where we are able to kill someone even with full strength so I just went full strength for every blow. But of course, I made sure that it was a killing blow that I set up only after an exchange of strokes.


    I ended up finding a favourite pattern of mine that usually worked against the sea of fellow students. Parrying was a skill that needed nimble dexterity, to transfer the force behind the weapon in a different direction. It was different from blocking which was easier and more direct, to bring the weapon into the path of the opposing one, impeding further movement of the opponent¡¯s stroke. However, parrying relied in intricate control and technique which altered the direction of the opponent¡¯s attack which requires less strength and more control. The advantage for parrying is that it requires less strength as no direct competition between both parties are present. Furthermore, the attack of the opponent will be changed towards a direction of your choosing, setting you up for your attack. When you block, both parties have no advantage. Everything resets. Both parties are just in the ¡®weapons locked¡¯ position. However, of course the risk of parrying is higher. The moment you make a mistake, the weapon will not be redirected and you will be left defenceless against the strike. However, in this scenario, I had no time to waste Ki blocking so I usually went all out on the offensive, and when the opponent attacks back in a hurry, realising that they cannot just only defend, that¡¯s when I executed my parry-slash combo.


    I was doing quite well, finishing up till the 8th opponent when finally, my 9th opponent was called. It was the other fellow swordsman who got the highest score in terms of raw power. He was called Elisha.


    Both of us looked at each other and when I wanted to nod out of courtesy and respect, he immediately lunged at me. I had to step back as fast as I could and swing my sword upwards to deflect that lunge. He clearly was fast on his feet as well. Our duel lasted for quite some time. Since both of us was quite evenly matched in terms of both raw power and technique, I figured something else would determine the outcome of this battle. However, I had been fighting for 9 rounds already and it was only his first. Logically speaking, he would have a much higher chance to win than me because I was already starting to feel the fatigue kicking in, despite moving through the first 8 opponents rather quickly.


    Suddenly, I thought of my favourite move in fighting, the one I used on the boxer in the QE.


    Can I counter in battle with weapons? I don¡¯t see why not so YOLO


    A counter is an extremely risky move because it relies on prediction and fearless execution. When your opponent steps in to strike at you, you will also have to step in almost simultaneously and either swing faster than him or dodge his strike and hit him in the process. The logic behind a counter is that because both parties are using their full strength colliding against each other, the impact will double because both parties are moving in the same direction.


    To give an analogy, when you are driving a car and you hit a stationary car, you receive quite some damage. However, imagine hitting a car who is driving in the complete opposite direction as you are. The damage will be increased drastically. This is the same in fighting.


    I have used my parry-slash combo quite a few times in my fight with Elisha but he always dealt with it the same way. After the parry, he would rely on raw strength to block the incoming attack. When both of us were in the ¡®weapons locked¡¯ position, he would then begin his next attack to sieze the next initiative. I decided to use this pattern to decide it. Everything went as per expected. He slashed, I parried. I slashed, he blocked. He took one step in and begun swinging his sword vertically downwards. I stepped in while he was swinging his sword vertically and lunged at his body. Because he was in the middle of an attack, he could not stop his momentum and I could not as well. This would not stop until one of us hit the other. I saw his sword coming down fast on me and I braced myself for possible impact. However, there was none.


    My sword was faster and it hit him squarely in the ribs first. I could immediately hear a crunch and the power level of his sword dropped drastically. He could not follow through with strength anymore and all I received was a light thud on the back of my head as the sword seemed to drop on me instead of being brought down on me.


    Elisha fell to the ground, screaming in pain and Whitebeard immediately carried him off to one side, with no sympathy given. However, almost immediately, the door burst open and an elderly woman was standing at the doorway.


    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    ¡°Again?! Whitebeard why do you always conduct your classes this way. Won¡¯t your students become scared of fighting??!¡± She scolded him.


    ¡°I believe that my students are not that weak. They are not cowards.¡± He said as he pointed at none other than Draco.


    The elderly woman sighed and bent down. Gleaming golden light seemed to pour from her hands onto Elisha. Suddenly, the ribs which were obviously broken all went back to their original places and Elisha also stopped squirming in pain. He just looked up at the elderly woman and said thanks.


    Healing magic! So fast and efficient!


    ¡°Oh well broken bones are nothing. It is painful but it is usually a good lesson. I guess even though I find it troublesome, it is quite a good way for them to learn the pains a warrior must go through in battle¡­¡± She muttered to herself as she walked out of the door.


    Elisha looked at me and nodded, signalling that he admitted that it was a good exchange and there was no grudges. I nodded back. It was the closest I¡¯ve come to losing. If I was just a bit slower... Our positions would¡¯ve been directly reversed. I did not want to think about it.


    Draco came to the centre of the class and we faced each other. Both of us nodded and we got ready.


    I immediately struck first as usual. However, when I struck at him with my sword, I felt it being parried by that huge zweihander and suddenly, the zweihander changed direction and immediately came at me.


    Shocked by the speed of the sword, I could only take two steps back before the huge sword crashed directly into my body. Thankfully, I managed to barely put my sword in between me and the zweihander. However, there was still damage. I could feel my bones ringing and pain radiating from the place where my sword buried itself in my body because of the force of the strike. I immediately backed away from Draco and tried to think of a proper way to deal with that huge but nimble sword. However, Draco did not give me any time to think.


    He advanced rapidly, swinging his broadsword so freaking fast that it felt like that huge chunk of wood was faster than my slender sword. If it was faster than me, I knew that any attempts to parry it would be even riskier. I could block it but it would just deplete my Ki. I could feel myself at my limit already. Especially after that blow from Draco just now. I felt my wounded, tired body weighing down on me and I knew that I had a maximum of a few minutes left in me. However, I could not do anything! I did not have any more tricks I can think of to pull over on him! Alas, a desperate measure was chosen.


    Counter!


    I saw Draco swinging continuously at me so I tried to find a pattern. There was! Vertically downwards, horizontally across, followed by diagonally upwards. I felt most comfortable countering the one horizontally across so I waited for it to come. After Draco finished his vertically downwards stroke and was preparing to move, I stepped in with as much strength I could muster and begun a horizontal slash of my own from the opposite direction. However, Draco¡¯s horizontal stroke did not come. I think he saw me move in front and the moment I did, he managed to stop himself from swinging further. Now, I was just an idiot who was in the middle of swinging the sword as quickly and heavily as I could. Draco ducked underneath my sword and swung his huge sword upwards from the bottom. An uppercut from a massize sword. And I could not do anything because of my momentum from the huge swing.


    ¡°I GIV-¡° I tried giving up. But no. All I saw was a huge fat block of wood coming closer and closer to my face.


    Oh fuck.


    All black.


    When I woke up, I saw the face of an elderly woman looking down on me.


    ¡°You feeling ok?¡± She asked.


    ¡°Yeah¡­ A bit groggy that¡¯s all.¡± I replied as I slowly sat up. I was in the corner of the classroom and the gladiator fights were still going on.


    Whitebeard was watching as he stood beside me.


    ¡°Jinx, did you know why you lost?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Because Draco was faster than me?¡± I replied.


    ¡°No. Because Draco has better technique than you. That is all. He limited his power against you. He never use a strike that was more powerful than yours. He was training even when he was in that sort of situation. You possess a good counter. It is nothing to be ashamed of. However, Draco simply trained in the physical arts from a young age. He will know quite a bit more than you in terms of feints, footwork, tactics, real-life sparring that you won¡¯t. You see? Technique will always triumph over raw strength. You have potential. Don¡¯t waste it. Hone your technique.¡± He said to me before he walked over to the now finished gladiator fight. The gladiator lost.


    ¡°Alright guys. That¡¯s all for today. So currently, 5 people have tried it and Jinx is still currently the highest, with 9 consecutive wins.¡± Whitebeard announced and dismissed the class.


    Draco came over to me where I was seated down along the wall of the classroom.


    ¡°Hey Jinx you ok? Sorry, I had to hit you pretty hard there.¡± He apologised.


    ¡°Nothing to apologise for. You did what you had to do. You were clearly the better warrior.¡± I smiled and said.


    ¡°I had training since I was young. For someone who barely started, you are already considered very strong.¡± Draco replied.


    He isn¡¯t too conceited over his win against me. He also took the initiative to apologise to me. He shouldn¡¯t be a bad person.


    We went back towards Medial together. It seemed like Draco also belonged to Odin hall. I asked him if he wanted to join me and Chippy for dinner together and Chippy was someone from Odin as well. He appreciated the gesture because he does not have any close friends yet and accepted it. Thus, the three of us had dinner in the hall canteen. Chippy and Draco took more food for me because they had priority to take food as students from Odin. When I was taking drinks though, I saw Jenny queueing up as well, seemingly with her other female friends.


    ¡°Hey Jenny.¡± I greeted.


    ¡°Jinx! How come you didn¡¯t go to class today??¡± she asked.


    ¡°Oh. We have alternating days of warrior and magician training.¡± I answered


    ¡°Ahhh. I see. Do you have any lessons tomorrow?¡± She appeared hesitant before asking.


    ¡°Nop. Wednesday¡¯s my free day. Why?¡± I explained, trying to be as casual as I could.


    Keep your cool Jinx, keep your cool. She is not asking you out. She is not asking you out.


    ¡°Well.. Tomorrow is Freya Hall¡¯s welcome party. Everyone from Freya is allowed to bring one guest so I was thinking if you would like to come? You are the only friend I have who is not from Freya so I was just wondering you know.¡± She shyly said.


    HOMG HOMG KEEP YO FKIN COOL


    ¡°Sure what time is it?¡±


    ¡°It starts in the evening, just come to Freya for dinner! No need to come eat at this canteen.¡±


    ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll be there! Meet you here at 6?¡±


    ¡°Okay!¡±


    I took my drinks and started to head back to the table with Draco and Chippy, doing imaginary celebrations within my mind.


    ¡°You look happy. What happened?¡± Chippy asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡±


    ¡°Liar. Is it a girl?¡± He smirked.


    ¡°No? You¡¯re thinking too much.¡±


    ¡°You never say I¡¯m thinking too much unless you¡¯re trying to cover something up idiot. HAHAHA JINX HAS A GIRL? SO FAST?¡± He semi-shouted.


    I quickly moved my hand to stuff my spoon full of food into his mouth as deep as I could.


    ¡°Okay okay shut up already. It was just an invitation to some welcome party tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Mmfghbleeeeeee¡±


    ¡°Shut up okay?¡± I said before retracting my spoon out of that troublesome mouth of his.


    Draco just watched on and ate his food, smiling to himself, seemingly entertained by our antics.


    After eating, all of us went back to our rooms and I decided that it was still early. It was around 8+ and I wasn¡¯t too tired. Even after getting the shit beat out of me by Draco. It must¡¯ve been the healing spell that the granny used. It was quite effective. I decided that it was time for me to start on my training proper. The training that was going to make me the type of Legionnaire I wanted to be.


    I took out one of the books I borrowed from the library and starting reading it on my study table.


    ¡°The Properties of Light.¡± ¨C Thomoose Edison

 Chapter 9: Heaven And Earth

    I had always been a fast reader so I finished the first book about properties of light in about half an hour. It was only about 70 pages long. It was also easy to digest as it was just an introductory book to let people find out a bit more about the property of light.


    I read through all the other books at the same pace, thirsty to increase my knowledge for elemental affinity as fast as possible because I could sense that this would be the fastest way for me to become more powerful. I spent the entire morning reading all 7 books on the introduction to the different elemental affinities. After that, I had a chat with Pegasus within my elemental room to give me a deeper understanding of the light element on top of what I have already found out.


    I then went for lunch with Chippy and Draco again. Draco was from Magnus hall and it was also his day off from school today. Somehow, all the people I met so far have Wednesdays as their free day which was good because we could all eat together. We just talked a bit about school life before I rushed back into my room to work on my training programme for the afternoon portion of the day. I had to quickly increase the quantity and quality of my mana and Ki.


    Just as I was back in my room, preparing to do the first exercise within a basic book for strengthening my mana, someone interrupted me.


    ¡°STOP!¡± A deep, coarse voice rasped from my elemental room. It was definitely what I felt was the most majestic creature within my elemental room and also the biggest one. The blue dragon.


    ¡°Yes Blue Dragon?¡± I answered.


    ¡°Master, call me Seiryu. I am here to tell you that there is a special way to increase both your Ki and mana at the same time. It is something that we mythological beasts are very used to doing. That explains our proficiency in both magic and physical attacks.¡± Seiryu initiated.


    ¡°Oh?? Of course I¡¯ll take your advice Seiryu. And please, call me Jinx. No need for such formalities I feel quite uncomfortable with those sort of things.¡± I said.


    ¡°Very well. Listen carefully Jinx. Ki is the force and power hidden within each and every cell of your body. Mana is produced and channelled from your mana pool which you already know where it is. There is a very good way to train both aspects at the same time, including your concentration. However, I have to warn you that it is not an easy task.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care just tell me the method because this is a training method that I deeply desire.¡± I said. I have read through many books but they always talk about training for mana and ki separately. Even though classes like archers and assasins need to rely on both, there has not been a way described in the books I borrowed that shows how to train both mana and ki at the same time. If this was legit, I would be able to reduce my training time by half!


    ¡°This training method involves channelling your Ki to your right hand, and channelling your mana to your left hand. In your right hand, you need to practice shaping your Ki into an aura that fits your nature, which in your case is the sword. It just has to be a small sword. In the left hand, once you gather the mana into your left hand, you will need to spatially manipulate the mana to the exact same shape as your Ki on your right. Just doing this alone will almost be impossible for people doing it the first time. After completing this step, you must put both your left hand and right hand together in the meditation position and have both Ki and Mana clash with each other. If one is stronger than the other, you need to immediately channel more strength to back up the one lacking. This improves your balance between Ki and Mana. If one is significantly stronger than the other, this exercise will concentrate on the one you are weaker on. When they clash, it will result in a drainage of both mana and ki as their powers collide. Your duty is to make sure this collision process lasts as long as possible. This will simulate real life combat also so if you cannot hold your mana and ki for at least 30 minutes, you can dream on about fighting even the weakest of monsters. From my current analysis, I feel that your mana and ki are on similar power levels so they should be able to cancel each other out quite effectively. A good balance between Ki and Mana is extremely desirable so this training will help you to enhance your quality and quantity of both mana and ki without compromising on balance.¡± Seiryu explained.


    ¡°When both Ki and Mana are clashing, you should also meditate and if when you reach the concentration level required, you can then elementally recompose the mana into two different elements and clash them together, looking at how they interact with one another to deepen your understanding of the elements even further, this time by yourself and not with help of basic textbooks which are only able to tell you so much.¡±¡± He concluded.


    ¡°Thank you very much Seiryu. Please give me your guidance as I train.¡± I said.


    ¡°Are you kidding me? I already gave you a legendary training technique that now only you know but at the same time only you are able to do it so just try to learn and do it all by yourself already. I¡¯m not your mother I¡¯m not going to spoon feed you.¡± He said and went back to sleep on the circular shaped couch.


    Why do all my celestial beasts like to sleep so much??


    I shook my head and just proceeded to follow Seiryu¡¯s instructions.


    I sat down cross legged on my bed and tried to channel my Ki towards my right hand first. Alright that was easy. Then I tried to shape the Ki aura into the shape of a sword. I tried to sense the aura coming out from my right hand and I could see a translucent aura which was roughly in the shape of a weird stick.


    Nonononono what the fuck? I need it to be in the shape of a sword.


    I kept trying to use my senses to tweak the shape of the aura bit by bit. It was quite hard I realised to even manipulate the shape of my Ki to become a sword. Finally, after tweaking it for a good 10-15 minutes, I managed to shape it into the shape of a sword. However, it was still abit wavy and curvy in small areas but I decided to just let it be. While holding that position, I had to channel my mana to my left hand. It was usually so easy to just channel mana or ki to the correct place but I realised it was only because it was always to the same place. When I did sword training, I just had to direct all the Ki and mana towards the same direction. However, now I had to make sure my Ki went into my right hand but my mana should go to my left.


    It was extremely confusing. Like writing a poem with my right hand and drawing a picture with my left. It was extremely taxing on my concentration. I failed a great number of times. Before I knew it, an additional hour had passed before I managed to successfully channel my mana to the left and ki to the right. Whenever I failed, the sword shaped aura on my right hand would also instantly dissipate. So by now, I was able to conjour an aura in the shape of a sword quite easily. It was also quite straight now. However, there was still one final step before I can even begin the exercise proper. I also had to shape my mana into the shape of a sword similar to that of the right. However, I realised that I did not take as long for this step than the previous ones because it seemed like spatial recomposition for both mana and ki were quite similar. I just had to rely on my intuition and senses to just reproduce what I did with my right hand to the left hand. Soon, I managed to produce the starting stance of the training exercise. I have to admit it was quite a cool looking one.


    In my right hand was a translucent aura that radiated a faint sense of power while in my left hand was a blue aura that was shimmering slightly. Both of them were unmistakably miniature swords that were about 7cm in length and 3cm in width. Both of them were pointed upwards from my palm.


    ¡°Ohhhh? Only 2 hours have passed and you have already reached a level where you can start the exercise? Impressive. However, from your starting position alone I can see all the flaws you have. One, the sword you produced from Ki is not radiating sword intent. It goes to show that you do not understand the sword at all. Your swords just look like swords but they are not. I cannot feel any sense of sharpness within them. Second, the quality of your mana and ki is lacking. High quality mana is supposed to possess a uniform glow to it. It isn¡¯t supposed to shimmer intermittently like what is happening to yours. High quality ki is completely transparent and can only be sensed using aura. Yours is still quite translucent. You will need to compress your mana more, to make sure the sword is condensed. The more packed your sword is regardless of Ki or mana, the higher the quality of it. Since your understanding of the sword cannot be improved using this exercise, I cannot help you with that now. However, to enhance the efficacy of the training, you must consciously try to condense your mana and ki to a greater extent. Try it now. I won¡¯t allow you to proceed with the exercise until I am satisfied with the quality of mana and ki you are producing.¡± Seiryu commented. Looks like even though he said he wouldn''t spoon feed me, he was still paying attention to my progress.


    I sighed and had no choice but to work on increasing the quality and quantity of mana I had by compressing more mana and ki into the swords I¡¯ve produced. This strained by concentration even more as I had to channel even more mana and ki than I was used to. If I was trying to write a poem and draw a picture just now, the level now has increased to the point where I had to use calligraphy to write the poem, and not just draw but also to colour the painting all at the same time. It took another 2 hours before I reached a level that Seiryu was satisfied with.


    ¡°As long as you continue doing this exercise, eventually, the quality and quantity of your mana and ki will keep improving to a great extent. However, you must consciously put strain on yourself to keep condensing your mana and trying to last longer every time you do this exercise okay? I shall now tell you the name of this training method. It is called ¡®Heaven and Earth¡¯. This exercise defines heaven and earth because everything about this exercise is about opposites. Left and Right. Mana and Ki. Even elemental recomposition when you eventually reach the level you are able to do it. You can do it with fire and water, light and darkness and every other elemental composition you want to experiment with. Now, go ahead. Start on your very first Heaven and Earth experience. I will help you time your first attempt.¡± Seiryu said.


    I immediately went into the starting pose. I then slowly began to close my palms together. Then, it happened. The tip of my Ki sword came into contact with the tip of my Mana sword. I instantly felt it. My mana within the sword was being depleted. Same for the ki within the other sword. It felt like both of them wear instantaneously devouring the other party. I had to channel more mana from my mana pool to supply my left hand with mana. I had to also channel more ki from my body to supply my right hand with more ki. I could feel myself straining to maintain the shapes of both swords. The moment either of the swords could not keep their shape, this exercise would¡¯ve ended. I could feel my brows furrow as strength was continually being depleted from both my mana pool and ki. However, both swords were still touching, and their shapes were still stable. However, after a certain amount of time, I could feel myself running almost close to empty and that was it. Both swords instantly disappeared as I was covered in sweat. I dreaded the after-effects of this exercise as I felt completely drained of both mana and ki. However, even though I was extremely fatigued in terms of concentration, I could suddenly sense my empty mana pool being refilled instantly with mana and my ki levels increasing rapidly as well.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    ¡°The real beauty of the Heaven and Earth training method is that it also refills both your ki and mana back to the maximum after you are finished. It is extremely taxing and tiring for your mind but your body will still be fine after the training. This is because by the nature of this exercise, whatever ki your mana has absorbed and whatever mana your ki has absorbed will be returned to you when the swords finally lose their shape. This happens only when it is your own ki and mana interacting with each other. Normally, when ki or mana depletes each other, the energy cancels out. However, because of something called our ¡®Will¡¯, when ki and mana of a similar nature interact with each other, they will not be cancelled out but merely absorbed. Therefore when something is absorbed, it can be returned. It is a very convenient aspect of ¡®Will¡¯ that Heaven and Earth leverages on to make it such an efficient training technique. For now, I recommend that you try it once a day, until you are used to the mental strain before you start increasing the number of times you do it per day. This mental strain also improves your coordination and concentration abilities. Such a good technique right?¡± Seiryu said.


    ¡°Yes it is. I feel very tired, but it seems to be by concentrating too much. My body does indeed feel fine.¡± I wondered in amazement who thought of such an efficient training technique.


    ¡°Well, that is the good news. The bad news is that you lasted for 3 minutes and 20 seconds for your first attempt.¡± Seiryu laughed and said.


    ¡°WHAT?! THAT¡¯S 200 SECONDS! IT FELT LIKE AT LEAST HALF AN HOUR!¡± I shouted.


    ¡°Haven¡¯t you heard of the theory of relativity? When you spend half an hour with a pretty girl on a date, it feels like 3 minutes of doing strenuous exercise no? Don¡¯t worry. It wasn¡¯t a bad timing for a first attempt. It just shows the vast potential for improvement that you have. Just do Heaven and Earth daily and soon, you will be able to do it for 30 minutes. I can vouch for the efficiency of this training technique. Oh and don¡¯t you have that date at 6pm? You should check the clock now.¡± Seiryu ended his telepathy to me as he now went to play pool with Byakko.


    I looked at the clock. 5.50pm.


    FUCK!


    I ran to the shower like a passenger who was being called for final boarding at the airport and ravaged myself with water. I did whatever I could to make myself as presentable as possible and rushed down to the lobby at 5.58pm.


    -6pm-


    ¡°Hi Jinx! I hope you weren¡¯t waiting long!¡± Jenny said as she came into the lobby, donning a flowy white dress.


    Angel indeed.


    ¡°Oh no problem at all. I didn¡¯t wait long.¡± I said. This was true. I merely waited 10 seconds. I hope she won¡¯t notice something funny about my appearance.


    ¡°Follow me!!¡± Jenny said as she brought me into Freya hall.


    I looked around the halls of Freya. It was indeed different. Loki hall had hallways which were moderately lit, with simple designs which were minimalistic. However, Freya hall had elaborate decorations. The walls had a complicated pattern to them but was soothed with pristine, white walls that were as white as snow. The floors were also carpeted with a red carpet that made you feel important.


    Jenny led me into the main function hall of Freya and once she opened the two, gigantic oak doors, all I could see were a sea of people partying, having fun with wine and a vast assortment of food.


    ¡°Let¡¯s feast!!¡± Jenny shouted, clearly excited and happy as she led me to the table for us to grab our food and celebrate.


    I took a healthy portion of food because I did not want to seem rude but once my teeth sank into the tender meat prepared by Freya hall, all notions of courtesy were replaced with intense desire for the scrumptious food. Jenny and I ate like pigs and talked more about ourselves, enjoying the extravagant and enjoyable atmosphere that we were in.


    Suddenly, someone came up to us. Someone who was rather good looking and had long brown hair.


    ¡°Jenny! I asked you if you wanted to come to the party with me and you humbly declined. So who is this date you have brought with you instead? I did not see him around Freya before! Which hall are you from brother?¡± He asked and directed a half-smiling, half-threatening look at me.


    ¡°Oh. Hello. I¡¯m Jinx from Loki hall.¡± I casually replied.


    ¡°HAHAHAHAH! Jenny, you rejected me to bring a loser from Loki hall over to our party?? Oh well I guess Loki doesn¡¯t even have much money or reputation to host parties anyway. I don¡¯t blame you for being nice Jenny but please. Him over me? HAHAHAHA! You have bad taste.¡± He laughed boisterously and began to walk away.


    That struck a nerve. It doesn¡¯t matter if he directed insults at me. But he insulted my hall. And most importantly, he insulted Jenny.


    ¡°Come back.¡± I said, with determination, disgust and fury in my steady voice.


    ¡°Ohhh?¡± He said as he turned back around and faced me.


    ¡°A loser from Loki dares to command me? This is my hall. You dare to make a scene here?¡± He threatened.


    ¡°Jinx just ignore him. Please. It¡¯s my fault that I got you into this. Let¡¯s just go and have fun somewhere else.¡± Jenny whispered to me and tried to pull me away.


    ¡°No Jenny. He insulted my hall and he insulted you. Yes. This ¡°loser¡± from Loki dares to command you because you claim you have reputation and money but you can¡¯t even give proper respect to one of your guests. Is Freya solely yours? Are you free to do whatever you want to other people¡¯s guests?¡± I said straightforwardly into his face, not too loudly, not too softly, but with a strong tone in my voice.


    Everyone around us immediately turned to look at this commotion.


    ¡°Very well. Let us settle this the Freya way then. Since you are our guest. I will treat you like one of us. Do you possess any mana?¡± He snickered at me.


    ¡°I do.¡± I replied.


    ¡°Freya settles disputes by strength. You see the silver discs lined up high along the walls of this hall? They are magic power readers. When someone casts a spell at them, they will display a numerical number representative of the power level of your spell. We¡¯ll cast a spell at the discs together and the one with a higher number wins. The winner can then demand one thing from the loser. Are these terms okay with you?¡± He challenged me.


    ¡°Yes.¡± I replied.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, since Jenny invited you I assume you are a year 1. I am a year 1 just like you. We only learnt mana arrow so far right since this is only the first week of school. I can already cast fireball but for your sake I will just compete with you using a mana arrow.¡±


    He conjoured his mana arrow. He was clearly someone talented. The mana he emitted was quite high quality since it glowed strongly but it was still rather intermittent so I wasn¡¯t too worried about that. The shape of the arrow however was something. His arrow was about 30cm long and he flung it at one of the silver discs.


    ¡®150!¡¯


    All the freshman gasped. The entire party now was watching this spectacle. It was a very high number for a freshman indeed. Even Scarlet Witch said that time the highest she saw was a 150 throughout her years of teaching.


    ¡°Jinx, don¡¯t do this. Malcolm is better than me at magic you can still pull out now and we¡¯ll just leave!¡± Jenny whispered into my ear, sounding even more anxious now.


    I looked straight into her eyes and said just two words.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡±


    I turned around and faced the wall of the hall and looked at the silver disc beside Malcolm¡¯s 150. I immediately decided that I needed to destroy this little son of a bitch as badly as I could.


    ¡°Pegasus. I¡¯m pissed. Lend me your strength.¡±


    ¡°No problem master. I¡¯m pissed too. Let¡¯s piss on him.¡± She replied.


    I began to channel my mana into my hand and put into practice what I learnt from today.


    Compress it, compress it, compress it


    The mana arrow in my hand was about 15cm long. Malcolm laughed when he saw this. It also did not shine as brightly as his but it had a homogenous glow to it. This was the type of mana that Qinglong approved of when I did heaven and earth. It need not glow radiantly but the first step to ensuring high quality mana was uniform compression. There should not be any intermittent flashes to good mana. Lastly, I began to channel Pegasus but not just like what I did previously. I learnt that light element mana prides itself on being fast, all encompassing, radiant and soothing. I pictured Pegasus as light coming out of my elemental room, in a flash, all at once, my mana channels suddenly filled with light and I tried to do this in a calm, relaxed and soothing disposition.


    Instantly, the blue mana arrow in my hand changed. It became completely golden, with strong, solid lines of an unmistakable arrow that looked like a real arrow made up entirely of light.


    ¡°Level 2 elemental recomposition!!¡± Someone behind me gasped. To know this, she must¡¯ve been a senior. The look on Malcolm¡¯s face immediately changed. He clearly did not know what happened. I flung that arrow straight into the disc beside Malcolm¡¯s disc.


    ¡®300!¡±


    ¡°THREE HUNDRED?!¡± Malcolm shouted. His face was ashen, astonished and he fell to his knees.


    Everyone in the room immediately looked at me. The room was gravely silent. No one even muttered or whispered. Everyone¡¯s eyes at that time was on me. Jenny who was beside me also looked at me, disbelief in her eyes. I was just a freshman. Who attended 3 days of school. And managed to break the record of the strongest mana arrow by two times.


    ¡°Just another loser from Loki huh? Who¡¯s the loser now? What should I do with you¡­.¡± I wondered out loud, making sure that Malcolm could hear my every word.

 Chapter 10: Spellspar

    Everyone around me was looking at me with disbelief in their eyes. There was no doubt that the opinion of students in Loki hall were all low. Just because they think your hall speaks of your calibre. I wouldn¡¯t blame them though because it was a common stereotype. But for someone to say it out loud and actively look down on them, when even Draco and Chippy who were elites in their own right did not even once judge me for being in Loki, this was too much.


    ¡°You said the winner could ask the loser to do any one thing right? For trying to embarrass me, chasing me out of the party and insulting Jenny, I will just do the same thing to you. I already embarrassed you because obviously you just got your ass owned to me in what you felt so proud in. I hope you can wake the fuck up after this. Now, I will ask you to leave the party as well. As for insulting Jenny, apologise.¡± I said, with a very stern tone. I wanted to ask this guy to take off his pants and run 10 times around the room before allowing him to leave but I did not want to seem petty in front of Jenny. This was also not my own hall as well so I exercised some constraint.


    Malcolm was still looking at the disc in disbelief. Then, he narrowed his eyes.


    ¡°You must have cheated!¡± He yelled at me.


    ¡°ENOUGH! How much more do you want to disgrace Freya hall?! Do you want to be miserable for the rest of your days here?!¡± Someone behind me shouted angrily.


    I turned and looked at the person who shouted. He was someone who was even taller than me, which was quite uncommon, especially for mages who are typically of a smaller build. He had a sort of aura that was quite peculiar. One that emitted deep, endless strength but it didn¡¯t feel overbearing.


    When Malcolm realised who exactly shouted, he immediately went to Jenny to apologise and left the room as fast as he could.


    The guy who scolded Malcolm came up to us.


    ¡°Pardon this scene during a welcome party. Not everyone in Freya is like him. He is just an arrogant and stuck up first year because he had rather good grades for his QEs. That¡¯s all. I¡¯m the president of Freya hall, Tom. Welcome to Freya hall. I see that you are quite talented in elemental recomposition. No one I knew ever reached level 2 within the first month of school let alone first two days. You really are talented. Do you want to join Freya hall? As president, I can put in a good word for you to the school and ask them to transfer you here.¡± He immediately offered.


    My eyes shined as I now had the opportunity to be in the same hall as Jenny. However, I slowly reconsidered. Yes it was true that this president seemed nice. However, when Malcolm was aggressively taunting me just now, no one among this entire sea of people helped to step up. Some of them also sniggered at me, simply because I was someone from Loki. Are these people really nice then? The people I¡¯ve met in Loki so far are people who really have no regards for your grades at all. They just want to have a good time in school. Tom might also just be eyeing my potential worth, thus wanting to grab me into Freya instead of being genuinely nice. I weighed the pros and cons quickly.


    It might be a pity, but I still will be able to see Jenny in school during classes and I can still meet up with her. But over my dead body will I associate myself with prideful individuals who just look down on people based on their hall. They are not even the strongest hall that¡¯s the worst part. I wonder if Odin is like that too.


    ¡°Sorry Tom, but I have to decline. I already have made good friends in Loki and I¡¯m pretty comfortable there.¡± I said, direct and to the point.


    ¡°Very well then.¡± He sighed. ¡°Please do continue to enjoy the rest of the party. And thanks for not going overboard with what you requested of Malcolm. It was greatly handled on your part.¡± He said and left.


    My impression of him became slightly better.


    Thus, the festivities continued and the party went on. Jenny was actually part of a performance on stage and she was the singer of a small orchestra. I was very surprised because she did not mention this at all to me. However, once she got up there and sung, I forgot about everything else in the world and in that moment, I could only look at her, listen to that angelic voice, and be completely mesmerised.


    We talked a lot during the party about ourselves and I got to know even more about Jenny. I knew where she lived now which was not near but not very far from me. Maybe about a 20 minute walk away. She also had a sibling in this school who was two years older. He was a mage. Then, I heard more about her dreams and reasons for being a Legionnaire.


    Jenny wanted to become a Legionnaire mainly because of her family. Her family were all Legionnaires so she did not want to disappoint them and became one as well. From what she told me, her whole family were mages and they were quite successful as well. It seems like subconsciously, after being raised in that sort of environment, she felt an obligation to become a mage as well to continue the family tradition. Even though her family did not force her to become a mage.


    I also talked more about myself, and even brought Chippy and Draco to the conversation because they were the ones I would hang out the most with in school excluding her. Jenny also had a friend, called Puggy that she always hung out with in hall.


    As the party was ending, Jenny managed to find Puggy and introduced me to her. Puggy was an archer who was also in her first year. She was a petite, short girl who had a slightly tan complexion and short hair which was cut in the shape of a bob. She was someone who looked very cute. She had blonde hair and was mainly preoccupied with stuffing herself with the food throughout the party. I could not blame her, the food was godsend.


    She kinda looks like a pug. Maybe it¡¯s just the name making me think so though¡­ I better not tell her that.


    I left the party at around 10pm because I was feeling too fatigued from the training earlier, even though seeing Jenny made me feel like I was rejuvenated, my mind eventually still couldn¡¯t resist begging me for rest. I took my leave and let Jenny enjoy the party with Puggy.


    I went straight to my room and crashed onto the bed, mentally exhausted from the events from today and needing some much needed rest before class tomorrow.


    -The next day-


    The morning went as per usual and I had breakfast in the lobby with Draco and Chippy. When we were eating, I managed to spot Jenny and Puggy and I beckoned them over, signalling that I wanted them to join us. And they did.


    It was a very hearty breakfast with the 5 of us introducing ourselves, still in the stage of making good friends during the first few days of school. Everyone here was quite open, nice and honestly quite a joke at times except Draco who always seemed to be calm and classy.


    We then left for our respective spines and classes. Everyone present was of a different class so everyone split up except for Jenny and I since we were both under Scarlet Witch together.


    We proceeded to our usual classroom and just enjoyed each other¡¯s company.


    -In class-


    ¡°Alright class listen up! Last week you all learnt the first spell of magic fundamentals. Mana arrow, which is the offensive spell. Today, you will learn a defensive spell. It is called mana shield. It is simple but do not underestimate it. It is still a core defence for many advanced mages. Even I still use it quite frequently so learn this well!¡± Athena commanded.


    Mana shield was literally as its name described. You form a round shield of mana at the area you want to protect. You can cast it on your arm and use it as an actual shield or you could envelop your entire body with the mana shield. However, of course it is not just as simple as that.


    ¡°Remember! The strength of your shield comes from the quality of mana. The more you pack your mana into the shield, the stronger it¡¯ll become. This is why mana shields that have a smaller surface area are usually stronger. You can pack a shitload of mana into a small shield around your hand. But if you want to have a shield that envelops your entire body, it will be hard to make sure that the whole shield around your body is densely packed with mana. You would need a much larger quantity of mana as well as ability to increase the quality of something that large. This is why it is more practical to flexibly use the mana shield as the situation calls for it. If you are experiencing weak attacks that come from many different directions, it will be good to use a normal shield to envelope your entire body. However, if it is a strong attack coming from one direction, it is better to raise the quality of the shield and place it in that direction instead because enveloping other parts of your body will just be a waste of mana.¡± Athena explained.


    And so, our lesson for the rest of the day concentrated more on defensive spells. The theory portion covered the different types of defences available to a mage and soon, everyone in class was also able to make a mana shield.


    Changing the shape of the mana shield was also an important skill that relied on spatial recomposition. Jenny was really talented in that aspect because she could easily change the shape of her shield to her beck and call. However, I still had to consciously adjust the circumference of the shield and the shape of it consciously. It was not as fluid as I want it to be. However, I know that with more practice on my Heaven and Earth technique, which trains every single possible aspect of mana and ki, I will be able to reach that level sooner or later.


    Finally, it was the last portion of the class already which was always the most interesting.


    ¡°Okay so for the spellsparring segment today, I will actually be explaining to you standard rules of a spellspar. These are rules that have been standardised across the whole of Xector so please listen. Do not shame our academy by not even knowing something as standard as sparring rules.¡± Athena warned.


    ¡°1. Both parties are NOT allowed to kill each other. Releasing of fatal spells is not allowed unless explicitly agreed upon by both parties.


    2. Both parties are to wear the standard issued mana vest at all times during the spar.


    3. When either party forfeits, the match is immediately stopped.


    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    4. To forfeit, you can either do it verbally or by gathering mana towards the special button in the vest (so that you can still surrender when you are physically impaired or incapacitated by spells.)


    5. When the middle signal indicator of the vest turns red, the wearer loses.


    This should cover the basic rules. Of course, any type of magic is allowed except those with the intent to kill. I will show you all the vest. One vest is very costly to make so please take special care with it.¡± Athena said.


    She passed one vest around and explained to us the properties of the vest. Especially the centre button and the surrender button which was somewhere located on the inside of the vest instead of the outside. This was to make sure only our own mana could reach it and call for a surrender in case someone else¡¯s attack actually hit the surrender button.


    ¡°This vest is specially designed for spellspars. It is magically protected with an enchantment of it¡¯s own. You see the indicator on the front and centre of the vest? This is your health indicator. It starts off green, then will change to orange before it turns red. Red means you lose okay. This health levels are sensed by the vest and depicts your actual vitality levels. Which means to say that this vest detects your maximum vitality level. It will then carry that amount of protection. When a spell hits you in a spellspar, you will feel pain but the magic enchantment will protect you from some of the damage and inflict it upon the vest itself.¡± She explained. However, everyone still looked puzzled.


    ¡°Let me give you an analogy. Numbers are always easier. Let¡¯s say that you have 1000hp. This amount changes according to every person. Inner mana gives additional magic defence. Inner ki gives additional weapon defence. This is why mages are innately weak to physical attacks and warriors are weak to magical attacks. Total hp can be trained but we will touch on that next time. This vest will sense that you have 1000hp and will take about 700hp as a gauge. This means that this vest¡¯s durability is about 70% of your total vitality. The moment spells hit the vest, let¡¯s say a 150 damage mana arrow hits. You will be left with 700-150=550 hp left in the vest. It will also turn orange in colour to indicate that you have received some damage. Once the hp of the vest reaches 0, or goes below that, you lose. This vest also has defensive properties so any spell you take in a spar will still result in pain, but minimised damage to your actual body. It is quite effective, about a 90% damage reduction rate. This is why spellspars are usually not dangerous at all. Imagine. If your vest blocks out 90% of the damage, if you have 1000hp, an attack will need to cause 10,000 damage for you to die.¡± She explained.


    Everyone nodded this time instead because it really was easier to picture with numbers. For short, it is safe and when the vest turns from green to red, we lose because we have taken substantial damage.


    ¡°Alright so let¡¯s begin. Your assignment is to use the two spells you have learnt so far, mana arrow and mana shield to spar. Jinx get your ass down here. Mortred you too.¡± She said.


    Both of us went down to adorn the vest.


    ¡°Jinx, use level 1 elemental recomposition only. I heard about your feat in Freya hall. I was also from Freya hall by the way. Good job but don¡¯t use level 2 here. It is supposed to be a spar on equal grounds. If you rely on brute strength every single time, when you meet an opponent with the same level of strength as you, your fighting ability will be unpolished and insufficient.¡± Athena whispered to me.


    I nodded.


    ¡°Alright this will be a spellspar with a maximum of 3 minutes. Begin.¡± Athena announced.


    Mortred immediately started casting a mana arrow and threw it at my direction. I immediately conjoured a small, condensed mana shield to block the attack. I looked at my vest. Still completely green. I must have blocked out every single ounce of damage from that arrow. Mana shield is quite a strong defensive spell. Its drawback is not in the strength but in the flexibility of the spell. The more you needed to spread out the shield, the weaker it gets. Mana shield was like a perfect counter to mana arrow because mana arrow is only a single point attack. As long as the mana shield was decently casted, it would almost always be able to block the spell, unless there was a vast difference in strength like quality and quantity of mana.


    I threw a level 1 elementally recomposed arrow at Mortred. He also conjoured a small shield that blocked out my arrow. Whenever Mortred threw an arrow, I made a shield. Whenever I threw an arrow, he made a shield. Since both were blocking each other perfectly, there was literally no damage done yet. It was a complete standstill. I decided that this has gone on long enough.


    When Mortred was throwing yet another arrow, I too threw one of my own. However, the difference was that while throwing my arrow, I also conjoured a mana shield on my other hand to block the incoming arrow of Mortred. Both of us threw the arrow at the same time but mine hit Mortred whereas his hit my shield. His centre display immediately turned amber.


    Everyone gasped when they saw what happened. Apparently, it didn¡¯t cross their minds that you could cast both mana arrow and mana shield at the same time. This time, I conjoured two mana arrows, one in my left hand, one in my right hand and threw them both at Mortred. His eyes widened. He placed his palms out on both sides, one for each arrow and tried conjouring two shields at the same time. For a brief moment, I thought it would work but somehow, the shields did not come out and both arrows hit Mortred. Centre display: Red. I won!


    ¡°Jinx¡­ You again¡­.¡± Athena looked at me with a confused look.


    ¡°What did I do now???¡± I asked.


    [/i]I only used level 1 elemental recomposition! I only used mana arrows and mana shield! I was never better than him at all in terms of brute force we were quite even![/i]


    ¡°When did you learn simultaneous casting?¡± She asked.


    ¡°What? What¡¯s that??¡± I said.


    ¡°Casting two spells at once. You even managed to cast two DIFFERENT spells at once that is insane!!¡± She replied.


    It turns out that simultaneous casting was the process whereby your channel your mana to different parts of your body and not the same part in order to produce two spells at the same time. For example, channeling your mana to two different directions, left and right to conjour two mana arrows on the left and right hand. This was easy for me after learning the Heaven and Earth technique. However, it was even harder if you had to spatially recompose your mana differently. Like for mana shield, I had to make my mana into a round shape and for my mana arrow, make my mana into the arrow shape. It was literally drawing an arrow with your right hand and drawing a circle with your left hand simultaneously. It was hard to do it well.


    The Heaven and Earth technique must be a lot harder than this. I basically did what I just did by feeling just a tiny bit of mental strain. Channeling two different types of energy, mana and ki, to different parts of the body must be a super advanced level of channeling. As for spatial recomposition, a plain circle and arrow shouldn''t be comparable to the two swords I made, even though they were of the same shape. Furthermore the quality of mana I have to embed in those swords are ridiculous. I did not do that for my spar¡­


    I told Scarlet Witch that I just had prior experience multitasking like this and she just shook her head.


    ¡°Class. What Jinx did was simultaneous casting. You all can try it now but I bet none of you would be able to do it. It is something that requires you to have extremely high concentration to be able to independently cast two spells at the same time. It is easier if you cast the same spell though so if you all want to try, either cast two mana shields or two mana arrows and you will be able to understand what Mortred tried to do and why he failed.¡± Athena announced.


    Everyone in the class immediately tried to conjour two spells, each in different hands. Ten minutes have passed but there was still nothing.


    ¡°As expected.. No one can d-¡° Athena was talking when suddenly she saw something.


    Jenny was holding two mana arrows on each of her hands, both clearly larger than average and shining brightly.


    ¡°It took me awhile but I think I got it!¡± She said.


    ¡°This class is interesting indeed. Two people capable of simultaneous casting. Furthermore Jinx is already at level 2 with regards to that. Jenny you can try casting one mana shield and one mana arrow now.¡± Athena said.


    Jenny tried, but she was unable to do it. It was a much higher difficulty. Channelling your mana to two different parts of your body was already something people are not used to and is hard to do but to spatially recompose them differently, it was even harder. What they didn¡¯t know and what I did not know myself was that channelling both ki and mana at the same time to different places was already level 3 of simultaneous casting because they came from different sources. The fourth level would be when I needed to spatially recompose ki and mana into two different shapes.


    I was just happy that Jenny was showing so much talent and she was on the way to becoming a great mage herself.


    The rest of the spars went on but majority ended up in ties since most of them could only cast shield or arrow independently and not simultaneously. One interesting thing happened though. A mage actually ran up to the other mage and tried casting mana arrow in close range. He did not throw it but tried to physically stab the arrow into the other mage to avoid the mana shield. He won and this drew praise from Athena. A mage needed to be flexible and he dealt with the weakness of the mana shield brilliantly. She thought this was the only way to win this spar. Until I came along and messed it up. Oops.


    Class ended and just before I got up to leave with Jenny, Athena came over to me.


    ¡°Jinx, I need you to follow me after class.¡± She said.


    ¡°Why??¡± I groaned.


    ¡°I need to bring you to see the headmaster.¡± She whispered to me.


    What nowwww¡­

 Chapter 11: Gladiator

    I followed Athena up the flight of stairs all the way to the highest level of the East Spine.


    Which genius in the bloody name of god designed this place? Was he high? Who wants to climb forty flight of stairs to reach the bloody headmaster¡¯s office?!


    After what seemed like eternity, we finally reached.


    ¡°It seems like your mana and ki levels are quite decent. Usually first years are panting by the time they reach the top of the East Tower.¡± Athena said.


    Stamina and vitality were things that would improve as your ki and mana levels rise. Since I was ranked as a 7 for both ki and mana, it was sufficient. Usually the mages are unable to climb because their mana might be at 7,8 or 9 but they had weak physical bodies, thus unable to produce even a 4 or 5 for ki. Also, ki was also noticeably stronger than mana in enhancing physical stamina and vitality.


    *Knock knock*


    ¡°Come in.¡± A gentle voice came from inside the room.


    Athena opened the door and I went in with her.


    Kirin Academy has 4 headmasters. One for each class. Obviously the one I was looking at was the mage headmaster. He was old, had white, long hair and a beard as well. He looked to be about 70 but his skin was still glowing and he had a very good complexion. His name was Headmaster Dumblemore.


    ¡°Good Evening, Athena, Jinx. Please take a seat.¡± He signalled for us to take a seat. We went towards the huge red couch opposite his long and grand study table.


    ¡°Jinx, the reason why I had Athena to bring you here today is because I want to let you know exactly what it means to be someone who is likely to be the child of the prophecy. I heard Athena has already showed you the prophecy. You should realise why it is highly likely that the child of prophecy is you. The thing is, Claire¡¯s predictions are 100% right. This means that there will be a saviour of the human race and you are very likely to be that saviour. Of course this applies to the whole of Xector so someone out there might also match the prophecy. However, this is a huge burden as the role of a protector and saviour of the entire human race is not something that can come without many trials and tribulations. I need you to understand that despite you being so young.¡± Headmaster Dumblemore said.


    I nodded, understanding what he was trying to get at.


    ¡°The reason I called you here is to aid in your growth. I understand that you are currently walking down the path of being a spellblade. I got feedback from the teachers from your first 2 days of school. It seems like you are good at both mana and ki. However, of course you are only above average to good. They only labelled your ability to sense and use the elements as genius. Thus I¡¯m here to give you some.. Resources, to make your training more efficient.¡± Dumblemore started.


    ¡°The fastest way for you to improve both your magical and physical fighting prowess is to heighten your elemental understanding even more. This is because both ki and mana can be elementally recomposed. I trust that you have realised that yourself. Thus, I am giving you permission as a first year to enter one of the elemental rooms situated just below this floor, once a week. The elemental rooms were designed and left behind by Xantos, an alumni of our school, one of the most influential and respected mages in the whole history of mankind. Usually, we only give students who are year 3 and above access to it because the rooms are extremely profound and hard to understand. Furthermore, we have to charge it with a huge amount of mana before it can work. Each session lasts for an hour as well. So I¡¯m making an exception just for you. Once you enter the room, you¡¯ll know why I say it will be able to help in your understanding.¡± He finished.


    I slowly realised what a privilege he has given me and I immediately gave my thanks.


    ¡°Of course, I also have another request of you. That¡¯s why I called you here. Jinx, you need to fight in the ranking tournaments our school hosts biannually at the end of June. Everyone knows that. However, you need to get first. You MUST get first. As the way you are now, I can confidently tell you that it is not going to happen. Our school has the top geniuses from Zeta gathering here every year and within this batch itself, the quality of students are insane. I heard about that little feat you did in Freya the other day. It was good but trust me. It is extremely hard to advance from level 2 to level 3 of elemental recomposition. By half a year, the other students would easily catch up to you already. I have prepared a first prize which is extremely useful for you. But you need to come in first, if not I cannot give it to you. This is because it is something that can only be attained by using the school¡¯s budget so in order to be fair, we need to give it to the winner of the ranking battles. Don¡¯t worry you will only fight against other first years. But yes, as you are now, you have an advantage over a lot of them but once 6 months is over, it is highly unlikely that you are able to reach level 3 elemental recomposition. Even if you do, if your raw power is a lot higher but your fighting skills are not polished, you will still not be able to win.¡± Dumblemore concluded.


    I know that whatever Dumblemore was doing was just for me, showing me how important he really valued me but it wasn¡¯t going to be worth shit unless I prove myself.


    ¡°Alright headmaster. I understand.¡±


    ¡°Good. That¡¯s all I¡¯m going to say today. Go to the elemental room then, you already came all this way. Why not just enter a room for an hour and you¡¯ll get what I mean.¡± He suggested.


    I took on the offer.


    As Athena and I left the room, Dumblemore looked over to a picture on his long study table. It was a picture of him and his granddaughter.


    ¡°You need to get stronger¡­¡± He muttered.


    I went down a flight of stairs. I reached a portion of the building where there were 7 doors, each door emitting a strong aura, each with a different colour.


    ¡°So.. Which element would you like to try?¡± Athena asked.


    Since I was only allowed to use light element skills in school because I wanted to keep my other affinities hidden, the logical way was to increase my light element skills. However, light element specialised in healing in particular and was good at defence. It was horrible at offence. And I did not want to heavily rely on sheer power so I decided that I needed to increase my understanding for an offense-related element. This meant that my choices were narrowed down to wind, fire and lightning.


    I tried recomposing my mana arrow into level 2 mana arrows for wind and fire. Even after reading the books, I was only able to elementally recompose my light mana arrow, wind mana arrow and lightning mana arrow and water mana arrow to level 2. I was unable to make the fire, darkness or earth arrows appear as their respective elements. This meant that my understanding was too shallow.


    ¡°The fire room.¡± I chose.


    I went into the first door on the left which was glowing red. When I entered, I was immediately shocked. It was not a big room. It was about the size of a normal toilet you see in school. However, the interior of the room was entirely covered in flames. There was fire everywhere. It felt like I was in hell. Suddenly, someone spoke to me.


    ¡°Jinx! Don¡¯t be scared!! Go to the centre of the room and sit down!¡± The red phoenix within my elemental room suddenly spoke to me.


    ¡°Oh. Hi! It¡¯s my first time talking to you.¡±


    ¡°Yes. My name is Suzaku. Quick! Sit down in the centre! I know how to make good use of this room for you. Time is precious!¡± She squealed.


    I immediately went to the centre of the room and sat down.


    ¡°Okay Master, this room is not just a room randomly set on fire. It was carefully designed to guide people to develop insights to the fire element. For your level now, you must understand how fire works. Embrace the flames. Do not be afraid of them. Slowly use some fire mana and merge them with one of the flames on any wall.¡± Suzaku guided me.


    I did as she instructed. I elementally recomposed some mana into fire mana and pushed it through to one of the flames. As soon as I made contact, the fire rushed into my mana channels, into my body. I was shocked. However, the flames did not damage me in any way. I also did not feel super hot anymore. On the contrary, I felt like the intense, blazing room became something warm. Something that actually felt comfortable. It wasn¡¯t like a sauna. It was more of like a fireplace which gives you warmth on a cold winter¡¯s night.


    I sat there and meditated about the properties of fire which I have read. Fire is an intense blaze, a force that grinds and chars everything before it to nothing. It is explosive, hot and powerful. I remembered the feeling I got when my mana channels were suddenly flooded with the fire mana that rushed into me when I touched the flames using my mana. It felt like my mana channels were ignited, like a spark lit from somewhere outside of me and fire just rushed out from the source, blazing a trail right into my mana room. I tried doing the opposite. I tried igniting a spark inside my mana room using elemental recomposition and blazed my mana out from my channels into my hand. A huge fireball emerged from my very hand in the shape of a ball. Not only did I successfully manage to elementally recompose my fire mana to level 2, the flames I¡¯ve witnessed in this room led me to unknowingly spatially recompose my mana to a suitable shape that allowed a fireball to appear in my own hand. I basically just learnt a new spell directly from insight and not through any guidance. It was crazy. I spent the remaining time in the room absorbing more and more flames from the walls, concentrating on them entirely before all of the flames suddenly went off at the same time.


    Time must be up.


    I went out of the room. Athena wasn¡¯t there anymore. Figures. Who would wait one hour just for a student to train?


    I went back to hall. I arrived just in time for dinner because dinner with Chippy and Draco. Puggy and Jenny was already there before I arrived. It seemed like the five of us were now a regular dining group who would always eat together. I was over the moon.


    I get to see Jenny every day without fail like this!


    I did not tell them about my additional privilege now and the ranking battles because I figured that they did not need to know about this.


    After dinner, I went straight up to my room and did my Heaven and Earth training. This time, I went into starting position quickly and before I could start on my second attempt, Seiryu interrupted me.


    ¡°Jinx. Today, you managed to gain many insights to the element of fire. However, insights can never ever reach a maximum level. Now, you should use the full Heaven and Earth technique to train. You should elementally recompose your two swords of ki and mana to different elements. Since you are able to go to the starting position without any difficulty now, you should add this step in to not only increase the difficulty level but also to strengthen your insights.¡± Seiryu suggested before going back to sleep.


    Alright then. Fire shall be one and¡­ Wind shall be the other.


    I elementally recomposed my ki sword on the right to be like the wind. My ki sword suddenly became a sword made up of wind instead. My mana sword on the left suddenly disappeared.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    WHAT?!


    ¡°Don¡¯t rush. Did you think it would be easy? Elementally recomposing two different elements onto your different hands at the same time. This requires even more concentration than any step in the heaven and earth technique you tried before! Don¡¯t just jump straight to level 2 as well! Try level 1 first. Then the moment you can do level 1 with both hands, try level 2. If you can¡¯t do level 2 by tonight, just stick to level 1.¡± Seiryu said.


    I immediately changed my elemental recomposition to level 1 and tried again. It was definitely easier but still hard. When I tried level 1 elemental recomposition, I managed to imbued both my swords with different elements but once I did that, the shape of the sword was distorted. One looked like a fat toothpick and the other one looked like a round-ish sword. I had to grit my teeth and slowly try to picture two upright, gleaming swords while channelling the appropriate element to the two different swords. My wind roc was being emitted through my room towards the right and the red phoenix towards the left. My sword being sharp, solid and upright. I also had to condense the mana and ki tightly into the sword to make sure the quality was not compromised. After about 1 hour, I finally got it.


    ¡°Level 2.¡± Seiryu said.


    The moment I tried to ignite the spark within my elemental room to channel my mana in an explosive blaze, this process that I tried to concentrate on immediately resulted in chaos. It was too much for me to handle. My left mana sword instantly became level 2 but my sword on the right instantly lost its shape and wind nature. I tried for another hour but it was just an insane amount of difficulty. It was already 11pm so I decided to stop here. I just went with level 1 for both swords and brought them together.


    This time, the sensation was different and I could clearly feel it. The wind sword on my right was not really draining the fire sword on my left. However, the fire sword on my left was rapidly sucking out power from the wind sword on my right and was becoming more and more powerful. I could feel the left sword increasing in power, with the fire mana suddenly gleaming brighter and brighter while the wind ki was being sucked out. I realised what was happening. It was exactly what would happen if you fan a fire. Wind helps to make a blaze bigger. My fire sword was becoming stronger at the expense of my wind sword. If this keeps up, the fire sword will totally absorb the wind sword and the technique would end!


    I quickly redistributed my ki to concentrate on channelling more ki towards the fire sword, making sure that it stays compact and solid. I did not have to channel that much mana towards the fire sword because it was already leveraging on wind ki to become even stronger and it needed less mana for it to sustain itself. I understood a bit more about how fire and wind interacted with each other as I did this. Suddenly, I felt my limit and I had no choice but to end off the technique as I had no more ki to sustain the wind sword. I felt my strength slowly return back to me but I was extremely worn out. The amount of multi-tasking I had to do, to independently channel two different types of energies, and recompose both elementally and spatially the two different energies to two different types of elements took too much out of me. I crashed onto the bed.


    -The next day-


    Fuck my life fuck my life fuck my life


    I thought to myself as I ran out of my room straight to West spine for lessons. I woke up late because I was too tired and I literally flew straight to class. I had to miss breakfast with the 4 of them today because I woke up late. I wouldn¡¯t be seeing Jenny until dinner time I guess.


    Whitebeard was already in class when I reached but thankfully he was in a good mood and I was only five minutes late so he just gave me a stern warning. Today, warrior class was about footwork. Not weapon techniques. The whole class had to learn footwork together. This was an extremely important aspect of fighting. If your footwork was significantly better than your opponent¡¯s, you would always be able to get yourself in range for an attack and then dart out to avoid any potential attacks. You would also be able to link up your attacks together more efficiently and draw out the full potential of your offensive and defensive capabilities.


    The footwork stances had to be learnt and there were many different steps needed. A wide step, side step, lunge, criss crosses and many variations. There were also different footwork techniques that existed in the world of martial arts. As a warrior, we needed to find one that we had affinity to and train our proficiency in that one technique. Therefore, our homework for the weekend, (Today is Friday TGIFFFFFF) was to find a footwork technique to practice on from the library.


    However, the basic steps like the side step, lunge, back step and criss crosses were usually present in every type of footwork technique.


    Suddenly, the Wind Roc within my elemental room spoke to me.


    ¡°Master, my name is Garuda. I have a technique that has been passed to many generations of my kind and it is a footwork technique. It allows you to become as graceful as a Roc during flight and allow you to move almost instantaneously throughout any battlefield. It is called Graceful Flight.¡± Garuda said.


    Thus, during the warrior lesson, while everyone was learning basic moves, I conversed with Garuda to learn the basic steps for Graceful Flight and the secret of the technique lies in the Ki you had to channel to specific parts of your legs during the technique. Wind Ki was one of the fastest types of Ki. With the help of the technique, sometimes you need to focus it onto your toes, sometimes your heel and maybe even your thighs when you need to jump. It requires skilful channelling of ki to specific parts of the body coupled with the depth and insight of the footwork technique.


    Whitebeard was supervising the students who were trying out footwork techniques and he saw that what I was doing was clearly different from what he taught. However, he watched me for a short while and told me to continue doing what I was doing. He seemed to have realised that I already have a technique. Draco obviously had his own technique as well. He was not practicing the basics and his footwork was on a whole different level. I could not even describe it. It was smooth flowing instead of fast and it seemed to flow like water instead.


    After several hours, I had finally reached the level where I could dodge, move quickly to attack and defend using the basics of Graceful Flight. However, Garuda told me that when mastered, this ability would enable me to walk through an entire crowd of 100 monsters trying to attack me without them being able to even land a scratch on me. It was a very high level technique that I would be unable to find through normal means. I was very grateful.


    It was then time for gladiator fights again. This time, Draco was up and in a flash, he had already beat 8 people. I was number 9. I was still currently the top scorer so I had to stop Draco here, if not, I would¡¯ve lost my ranking and Draco would be able to overtake me.


    ¡°Begin!¡± Whitebeard shouted.


    I immediately wasted no time. I enveloped my feet with wind ki. Whitebeard already saw this previously and said nothing. Even though it was wind ki, it was hard to detect because wind is transparent by nature and so is high quality ki. You could not see anything amiss beside me and I went to envelope my sword with light element ki. Ki in nature is always transparent and can only be sensed. However, because my quality of ki was lacking, you could see a faint golden glow emitted from my wooden sword. However, it was just a faint glow and everyone already knew I had an affinity to light. The affinity to wind is what I had to disguise. I thought of whether I should use Graceful Flight but because light and wind elements have similar properties and they are both fast, I figured that they would just assume it was light ki I was using anyway.


    I dashed straight towards Draco and took a huge swipe at him. His graceful broadsword skilfully parried my attack but by the time he did, I was already behind him using a technique from Graceful Flight. Whitebeard whistled. I thrust my sword out at Draco¡¯s back. Suddenly, as if eyes appeared at the back of his head, draco turned sideways, bent his back to dodge the sword as mine flew past where his torse had once been and swung his huge broadsword from horizontally. It crashed directly into my ribcage. It was a counter which I could not even imagine was possible let alone forsee it coming. I flew across the room into the wall and felt the now familiar pain of broken ribs. I could not even grasp my sword with strength anymore. In yet another single exchange, Draco took me down. It seemed like I still had a lot to work on. I sighed.


    ¡°I yield.¡± I said as the granny rushed over again to heal me.


    ¡°Jinx, that was some good stuff. It¡¯s a pity that Draco¡¯s mastery of footwork has by far surpassed that of a year 1. His steps are extremely profound. I guess even you can tell the nature of his ki that he was using just by the steps alone.¡± Whitebeard came over to help me up.


    ¡°Water?¡± I asked. Draco seemed to flow around with ease. Especially from that counter he did against me. He merely took one sidestep, arched his body and swung his sword, flowing around my attempted attack which was already from an ideal position.


    ¡°Indeed.¡± Whitebeard nodded. ¡°You must strive to be like him in terms of understanding your sword and your footwork. The more you can incorporate the properties of elements into your techniques, the faster you¡¯ll become strong. Look at Draco. You can clearly see him flowing around any obstruction like water. From your step just now, you seemed to have moved quickly to his back through the means of a crazy, high speed side step which I believe is consistent with your light element ki. However, it could also have been a wind element movement because of the amount of gracefulness you did it with¡­ ¡° Whitebeard said it like he meant it more like a question than a statement.


    I sheepishly looked down and admitted that I used wind element ki but to keep it a secret from the other students.


    ¡°The other students definitely will be unable to tell. I think they would not even understand what Draco is doing is actually a water based technique even though it is so obvious. Warriors just want to be strong. Elemental understanding is one way but it is much rarer for warriors to do it than mages who value intelligence more highly. However¡­ Draco might have realised. You 2 are friends anyway right so there should be no issue!¡± Whitebeard told me as he left to take care of yet another injured student knocked down by Draco.


    Soon, gladiator concluded and we had a new record. Draco, who beat 19 other people and suffered no losses. It was crazy.


    Class ended after Draco¡¯s attempt and it was finally the end of the day. As Draco and I were walking back to hall, he suddenly turned around and asked me: ¡°Jinx, isn¡¯t your elemental affinity light? How come you used wind based footwork against me?¡±


    SHIT HE REALISED!

 Chapter 12: Meet Gears

    ¡°Draco.. How did you know that was a wind element footwork??¡± I asked.


    ¡°Because I felt the grace and smoothness of the wind that typically light based techniques won¡¯t emit.¡± He replied.


    ¡°You are a first year just like me. How come your experiences with all the elements and your warrior techniques are of such a high level?!¡± I asked.


    ¡°Because¡­ I am someone from the Maximillion family.¡± Draco admitted with a sheepish look on his face.


    WHAT??!


    The Maximillion family was a very influential family in Zeta. Their family consists of only elites. Most of them were also Legionnaires. The ones who weren¡¯t serving in the LoP was because they chose not to. They passed the QE but chose to take up a ministerial position to govern the country towards a better future.


    ¡°No wonder! You had training since you were a kid?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Ever since I could remember. The first thing I remembered was learning martial arts¡­¡± He said, with a forlorn look in his eyes.


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ Kinda sad.¡± I muttered as I looked at him.


    He looked at me and nodded.


    ¡°I did not enjoy being forced to train everyday even though I knew it was for my own good.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how that feels but I¡¯m sure it must not have been easy.. Very well. Since you told me such a big secret about yourself, I¡¯ll tell you one of my secrets too. Currently, only Chippy knows this but I¡¯m willing to trust you. Please keep it to yourself.¡± I said in advanced.


    Draco just looked at me and nodded unblinkingly.


    It¡¯s okay. I¡¯ve watched him for five days already. He is a very serious, upright, and dependable person. He even told me his background. I can trust him.


    ¡°I have seven elemental affinities. All 7 of them.¡±


    Draco¡¯s mouth opened. As wide as it could. And the eyes, by some type of magic widened themselves into the same shape as the mouth as well. It was a priceless expression because Draco was usually so composed.


    ¡°You.. WHAT?!¡± He said.


    ¡°Shhhh quiet. Don¡¯t let anyone hear us. Yes I have 7 elemental affinities. It isn¡¯t something I had a choice in you know!¡± I said.


    He slowly regained his composure.


    ¡°It might be a lot of work to gain insights into all 7 elements but if you have the talent and determination to do it.. You will become very strong in future Jinx.¡± He said to me seriously.


    ¡°I just want to make sure I get my foundations right first. You are my role model in terms of that. Look at how you just took on 19 people in a row today!¡± I said.


    ¡°Well, look at Chippy. He took all 19 in one go. Not even one by one. Even I¡¯m not sure I could do that.¡± He replied humbly.


    I looked at him and imagined what would happen if Draco took on all 19 of us at once.


    He would still probably win who the hell am I kidding. And so, we went back to hall in Medial and had dinner. The five of us, reunited again.


    -During dinner-


    ¡°Hey guys! I heard there¡¯s a nice place to hang out just outside of school, about a 15 minute walk. Want to go over there and have a look after dinner?¡± Chippy chirped.


    ¡°I would love to, but I have class early in the morning tomorrow.¡± I groaned.


    ¡°How about we go tomorrow then? We¡¯ll all be in school anyway!¡± Jenny suggested.


    Angellllllll~


    The five of us agreed that tomorrow after my lessons, we would go to what everyone called The Marketplace to have dinner and walk around. I have never been there but even I have heard of the largest and most happening marketplace in Zeta before even coming to this school.


    I finished dinner and immediately went back to my room to train again. Today, I had more time on my plate so I tried to reach elemental recomposition level 2 for both my ki and mana sword. After trying yet for another 3 gruelling hours, I did not manage to do it. I could feel myself getting closer and closer to be able to reach it though so I did not despair. I just did what I did yesterday but today, I used a ki sword of lightning and a mana sword of earth.


    Once the two swords touched, it was an entirely different feeling from when I used fire and wind the other day. This time, lightning was literally attacking the earth sword rapidly. The electric aura around the ki sword was becoming stronger and the earth aura around the mana sword was becoming weaker. It was the opposite of what happened the other day. Now, I had to quickly channel my mana to the earth sword in order to keep up with the lightning¡¯s fervent attack.


    I could sense the ability of lightning, to penetrate through the earth aura¡¯s solid aura. In terms of defense capabilities, earth aura was definitely the top of it¡¯s class with water in second place. However, lightning was able to easily pierce through the earth aura. This made me think though.


    Why is this so?


    We all learnt in magic theory class about the relationship between the elements. Fire is strong against wind, wind is strong against lightning, lightning is strong against earth, earth is strong against water, water is strong against fire. It was a cyclical relationship. However, why was lightning strong against earth?? When there is a storm, and lightning strikes the ground, it doesn¡¯t pierce through the ground but merely gets dispersed around the area of the ground the lightning strike hit. Why then should lightning be strong against earth? Shouldn¡¯t it be strong against water since water conducts electricity??


    I sat there, brows furrowed in concentration as I had to maintain the heaven and earth technique. I tried sensing more into what was actually happening between the two swords. To my amazement, I managed to find what I think was a glimpse of an answer.


    When the lightning aura strikes against the earth aura, it does not just strike it once. The moment there is contact, the lightning aura sends shockwaves into the earth aura, causing the surrounding aura to be shaken and less solid. This makes it easier for the lightning aura to penetrate through. It is not just a one time thrust into the earth¡¯s solid defences, it was a strike which also resonates through the defences, shaking it¡¯s stability around the attacked area. I could only tell because my mana was being steadily replenished towards not just the area of contact between the two swords but also other areas of the mana sword in close proximity to the lightning aura.


    After holding it for about 3 minutes and 20 seconds now, I had expended all my energy. Mentally exhausted, I could only for the fifth time in a row, crash onto my bed, my brain begging me for rest.


    -The next day-


    I had to eat breakfast alone and rush to East Spine because our first ever spellblade lesson was here! This made me extremely excited because I am after all a spellblade. Not a warrior or mage. The rest were sleeping in so I would only see them later tonight.


    I reached the magic training grounds and saw Professor Oak waiting there with about 10 other students already.


    ¡°Good Morning Prof Oak.¡± I greeted.


    ¡°Good Morning Jinx.¡± He reciprocated.


    We waited for everyone to arrive which only took another 5 minutes and sure enough, Professor Oak would be the one conducting our first spellblade lesson personally.


    ¡°Alright everyone. I¡¯m sure you all need no introduction to who I am already. I am just going to start class formally because time in this class is precious. In the past week, all of you here have taken 2 sessions of warrior trainings and 2 sessions of magician trainings. All of you here are quite balanced in terms of ki and mana so you should¡¯ve been able to understand and cope with what is going on in class. However, learning about both of them separately will not help you become a better spellblade. Learning how to utilise both of them together, simultaneously in order to benefit the most from any given situation. This is the core of being a spellblade.¡± He began.


    ¡°Today, all of you will be learning how to use ki and mana simultaneously. This is the basics to becoming a better spellblade. You must be able to channel either energy freely within your own body before you are able to flexibly dictate what kind of attacks and defences you will be utilising. Now, I want all of you to try to channel some mana to your left hand and some ki to your right leg.¡± Professor Oak instructed.


    I was used to channeling my two energies to two different parts of my body since I was familiar with the heaven and earth technique already so this step was rather simple for me. Even though it was not the two hands but one hand and one leg, it was still quite similar. I finished it instantly.


    Professor Oak clearly looked at me in surprise and smiled. As expected, the other 19 students were having difficulty channeling their energy flows in completely different directions. Ki and mana were not compatible as well so you had to try to not merge them at all in order for high quality ki and mana to form in the respective body parts.


    ¡°Jinx, I think they¡¯ll take awhile so I will give you the second step of the training first.¡± He said.


    ¡°Try to shape your ki into a circle in your right hand and shape your mana into a square on your left.¡± He said, smiling because he knew how difficult it was.


    Since I had the heaven and earth technique, and I had already demonstrated my ability to cast 2 different spells at once in my magic class, I just did it again. Instantly.


    Professor Oak¡¯s jaw dropped. It was the exact same expression Draco had.


    ¡°The rest of you! Don¡¯t slack off and continue practicing! I need to take Jinx somewhere.¡± Professor Oak said.


    I could see jealous eyes staring at me, wondering how did I make it look so easy when it was probably insanely difficult for them.


    ¡°How can you do this so easily?¡± Professor Oak asked me.


    Seiryu, can I tell Professor Oak about the training technique you taught me?


    ¡°Jinx, I think it¡¯s better not to let him know. You cannot trust him 100% yet. This training technique is very rare and he might take down the notes needed to practice this technique and sell it which will be bad. I don¡¯t want this legendary training technique to be widely practiced.¡± He said.


    Understood.


    ¡°I tried multitasking and casting different spells and I was able to do it in magic class. As for channelling Ki and Mana, I experimented with it for a bit during my past 5 days because I thought it would be effective if I could use both physical and magical attacks at the same time.¡± I lied.


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Good insight. Good insight.¡± Professor Oak praised.


    ¡°Alright. I will now bring you to the lab I created just for spellblades to train. The prerequisite to entering this room is to complete the two steps I have just tasked the spellblades to do so you have earned your right. I will now take you to the room.¡±


    Professor Oak led me through the familiar halls of the East spine and we went up to the 11th floor. On the 11th floor, there was a door that read ¡°Spellblades only.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re here.¡± He said.


    We entered the room together and I saw quite a normal classroom. However, it was something like the warrior¡¯s classroom instead of a magician¡¯s. It was just a circular room with no desks and chairs. There was a lone robot, sitting in the middle of the room.


    ¡°Jinx, meet Gears. Gears, meet Jinx.¡±


    ¡°Hello Jinx. My name is Gears. I am the guardian and tutor of this room.¡± Gears spoke to me in the most robotic voice you could ever imagine.


    ¡°Hello Gears, nice to meet you.¡± I said while smiling. I had a thing for robots and Gears looked like a very advanced one. He was about 1.5 meters tall which was quite short for human height but he had a very cubic head and body which made him look kinda cute. He also had squarish legs which had wheels embedded at the bottom of it.


    ¡°What training would you like to do today??¡± Gears asked.


    ¡°Give him ¡®Assorted dishes¡¯.¡± Professor Oak commanded.


    ¡°Yes sir.¡± Gears replied.


    He immediately wheeled himself to a corner of the room with a hole in it and stuck his arm into the hole.


    ¡°Jinx, please stand in the centre of the room.¡±


    I followed his instructions.


    ¡°Assorted Dishes is a training course which may result in injury. Please be careful. The objective of this training is to defend yourself. This magic room will shoot at you disc shaped plates which are either made up of ki or made up of mana. You need to discern which is it and protect yourself accordingly. The power behind each disc is put at an average level of 100. Dodging is not allowed for the purposes of this training. The rationale is for you to be able to put up either a ki-enhanced body or mana shield to protect yourself instantly, to enhance your battle reflexes and ability to shift ki and mana smoothly around.¡± He explained.


    I nodded my head, slowly understanding what was expected of me.


    ¡°Please shout ¡®Stop!¡¯ whenever you wish to stop with the training. This training will automatically stop when you have blocked 100 dishes. We will begin in 3, 2,¡­¡±


    WAIT WHAT WE¡¯RE STARTING ALREADY?


    I kept my eyes on high alert and immediately got ready to channel my ki and mana.


    ¡°1.¡± Gears finished.


    5 dishes suddenly shot from different areas of the room straight towards me. They were either blue in colour or utterly transparent. I did not realise the ki dishes were utterly transparent until they hit me. Out of the 5 discs shot at me, I could only block two because I only saw two mana discs rushing towards me. I was hurt. One struck me on my leg, the other at my torso and I had one hit my shoulder blade.


    ¡°STOP STOP STOP!¡± I shouted.


    Professor Oak just laughed.


    Gears immediately wheeled himself to me.


    ¡°Commencing first aid.¡± He said in his ever-so-robotic voice.


    Light mana was gathering on his hand and he immediately touched the places where my wounds were. I could feel myself recovering fast.


    ¡°Alright Jinx, you are to clear this training first before coming to me for more. I don¡¯t expect you to clear this by today don¡¯t worry. But here¡¯s a small tip. You can¡¯t rely on your eyes in a real battle. Find me at the training grounds where the rest are if you finish by today. If not, you can leave the room at 12pm because that is where lessons end.¡± He told me before he left the room.


    I looked back at what just happened. Ki is something usually transparent so it had to be sensed. I was a moron for not turning on my ki aura to sense any incoming attacks. I realised that this room was 360 degrees as well so I was bound to have blind spots. In order to clear this challenge, I needed to be able to do two things.


    1.      Be able to sense where the attacks are coming from.


    2.      Cast the appropriate defences at the appropriate places instantly.


    Okay, I think I know what to do.


    First, I experimented with my sensory aura. Remember from the first day of magician training, I learnt how to sense using my mana my surroundings. It could sense any presence of mana within the boundary. I cast a ki sword in my right hand and tried to use mana in my left hand to sense the presence of the ki sword. When the mana touched ki, it definitely sensed something. Furthermore, I was able to immediately discern the nature of the energy. Mana has a very distinct feeling to it that is very different from Ki because they are completely different energies.


    This meant that mana can sense the presence of both ki and mana. I tried directing my ki outwards, as a ki aura as well. Not surprisingly, ki was also able to detect both the presence of ki and mana. I visualised what I needed to do. I needed to cover my body with an aura that should spread out ideally 3 meters away from me to sense attacks incoming from every direction. Once I managed to sense the attack and what type it is, I would then be able to react.


    This meant that the key aspect of this exercise was not to conjour the protective spells instantly. That was the easy part. The challenge was to maintain a ¡°battle aura¡± that surrounds your body and expands outwards. This should require quite a substantial amount of mana. I was not sure if I was able to do it but the only way to know is to try.


    I used a mixture of ki and mana to envelop my body. Using only one type of energy would deplete that quantity of energy more quickly and in battle, running out of one type of energy is extremely devastating. If I ran out of mana, I could not use magic attacks anymore. If I ran out of ki, I would not be able to use physical attacks anymore. Thus, I came to the conclusion to make my battle aura a mixture of both ki and mana.


    I tried pushing it outwards from my body. It was quite easy for the first meter, still manageable for the second meter but once I reached the three meter mark, I was mentally and physically drained and I needed to exert myself quite a lot. I tried conjouring mana shields and ki reinforcing certain parts of my body on top of this. It was quite draining but I still could conjour the necessary shields and move more energy around my body. It seems like being able to move your ki and mana freely was one of the most fundamental aspects of fighting.


    ¡°Gears. Start again.¡± I commanded.


    ¡°Yes Jinx.¡±


    Discs started flying out at me again but this time, I was ready for them. I could sense 4 discs which were all made of ki flying straight at me. I moved ki towards the parts of my body that were about to be hit to reinforce that area. The discs struck me but none of them left any damage. It was like a sort of ki armour. We learnt this during the first day of warrior class as well. The discs hit me but left no damage at all. They just vanished the moment they struck my ki armour. Then, more discs started to shoot out. Mana and ki, there was a huge mix of them and they flew around at random timings from random directions. I grit my teeth and tried to sense them all. Because of the mental exercise heaven and earth technique gave me everyday, I was quite good at multitasking and manipulating my energies around. The mental strain it gave me at first was no longer there. Furthermore, I just had to use either mana shield or ki reinforcement. There was no elaborate spatial or elemental recomposition I had to do on top of this. As a result, I managed to complete 100 discs from this attempt. However, my mana and ki were almost entirely drained. It took an insane amount of ki and mana to be able to maintain battle aura. I realised that this was another weakness I had to fix.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Jinx. As you practice the heaven and earth technique, it will also result in increased quantity of ki and mana so your timing that you can prolong for battle aura will also increase.¡± Seiryu said as he sensed my worry.


    ¡°Thanks my little blue dragon.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not little. But you¡¯re welcome.¡±


    The entire training lasted about 3 minutes which was about how long I could hold the heaven and earth technique for. I logically concluded that the quantity of mana I had to constantly exert for heaven and earth aura was similar to this exercise. In this exercise, quality of mana and ki was not needed but I needed to spread it out over a large area. For heaven and earth, it was the complete opposite. I needed to condense as much mana and ki as I could into the swords for the training to be effective and helpful. So both trainings amounted to the same amount of mana and ki constantly being depleted. I took the gains from this training and decided to go back to Professor Oak since it was only 10am.


    Still some time before 12 noon hehe


    As I went to the training ground, most of the students were already at the second stage of the task which was to conjour mana and ki as two separate shapes in two different body parts.


    ¡°Professor, are there any more training methods that Gear can help with?¡± I asked him as I approached him from the back.


    ¡°WHAT?!¡± Professor Oak jumped up into the air as I sneaked up on him from behind.


    ¡°You¡¯ve finished??!¡± He asked, disbelief in his eyes.


    ¡°Yep.¡± I said, thankful in every sense of the word for the heaven and earth technique, a legendary technique indeed, to be able to help me do so many things while training me. A technique worthy of its name. You don¡¯t know how rare it is for a training to be able to help you in so many aspects and to even simulate real-life combat.


    ¡°Well.. Let¡¯s go back to Gears then. I will brief you on all the functions it has. Trust me I have spent months of effort on him and he¡¯ll become your best friend for training.¡± Professor Oak took me back to Gears.

 Chapter 13: Are You Hungry?

    ¡°Gears has a total of 4 different types of training modes. Each one targeted at enhancing a very important aspect of your spellblade abilities. All of them have different difficulty levels as well. From level 1 to level 5. What you just completed was Assorted Dishes level 1. Let me explain the different training modes to you one by one.¡± Professor Oak began.


    ¡°Assorted dishes, as you have already experienced, is a training to enhance your battle aura. You need to be able to sustain the battle aura for a substantial period of time, coupled with the task of conjouring mana and ki shields on top of that. The main goal of this training is to increase the quantity of both mana and ki, as well as to familiarise yourself on how to channel your energies fluently and accurately. I did not expect you to clear this so quickly. Clearly you show great talent in moving your energies around. However, are your mana and ki levels still sufficient for another round?¡± He curiously asked.


    ¡°Nope. They are almost fully depleted. Maybe I have about 10-20% of mana and ki left.¡± I said.


    ¡°Mm. This is why quantity of mana and ki is so important. However, moving your energies around is arguable even more important because the difference between someone who is efficient and accurate with his energy distributions and another who is not is like heaven and earth. One will immediately be able to tell who is stronger based on this alone.¡± Professor Oak lectured.


    ¡°Alright. On to the second training mode. This training mode is called ¡®Controlling the fire¡¯. Basically, Gears will turn into a portable stove and how big the fire of the portable stove becomes depends on the quality of mana or ki you are channelling. This exercise requires you to match exactly how large the fire must be to what Gears is demanding. For example, if he asks for 250 degrees Celsius of fire, you need to compress your mana or ki to that appropriate quality before he will pass you. There is an allowance rate of +-10 degree  at level 1. It means that if you get anywhere between 260 to 240, you¡¯ll pass. This is also extremely hard. Proper mana and ki quality control is necessary as well. In a fight, you do not just make every compress high quality mana into every spell you cast. You will run out of mana faster this way. Similarly, you do not use full amounts of ki in every attack or footwork. There must be attacks that are weaker in order to set up your main offense or to make the difference between your secondary and primary attacks even more formidable. If someone is used to taking mana arrows of 100 dmg, he will subconsciously lower his defence to that level. If you suddenly cast an arrow similar in size but containing 300 dmg, his defence will be penetrated you see. The same logic applies for physical ki attacks.¡± Professor Oak explained.


    I immediately got the point of the training exercise. All along, I have been trying to control my quality of mana but I still could not attach a numerical value onto it. I also could not vary my control of quality of mana extremely well. I either make it extremely concentrated like what I do for the heaven and earth technique, or not pay much attention to it at all when I¡¯m casting normal spells such as mana arrow and mana shield. Same for my sword strikes and footwork technique.


    ¡°The third training mode is called ¡®Washing the dishes¡¯. In this exercise, you will have to use pure spatial recomposition in order to literally ¡®wash¡¯ dishes. This training has two distinct parts. In the first level, Gears will conjour a sphere of mana or ki in the shape of a dish and you will have to devour that energy dish, by using your own mana or ki, enhanced with spatial recomposition. You swirl your mana or ki and continuously brush off the sphere bit by bit. Pure spatial recomposition can increase the power of your energies and this is what we are doing. This will increase your spatial recomposition to level 2. A technique that relies on this is called spinning mana arrow. By making your mana arrow spin continuously, you increase the damage potential of the arrow exponentially. The same logic applies for a cockscrew blow in boxing. The more rotational strength that punch has, the stronger the penetrating power. However, this would obviously require a high degree of spatial recomposition. However, as your power of the spatial recomposition increases (The amount of rotations you can add to your spinning mana arrow, how fast it spins), it is also harder to maintain the original shape of that spell. Therefore, the second part of training will lie in maintaining the shape of the spell while you add power using spatial recomposition.¡±


    ¡°You need to be able to hold the shape of the spell well, so during the second part of the training, Gears will ask you to spin your mana or ki continuously but give you different shapes to conjour WHILE you are spinning your mana. This means that you are continuously shaping your spinning mana into different shapes. From a spinning mana sphere, to a spinning mana arrow, to a spinning mana sword, to a spinning whatever endless amounts of shapes there are in the world, without dispersing your mana even once. It is not like cast a spinning mana sphere, release the mana and cast another spinning mana arrow. No. The mana must be maintained at all times so you won¡¯t be wasting any more mana. However, you have to concentrate extremely hard to keep shaping that powerful mana into many different shapes. You need to practice both in terms of mana and ki.¡± He explained.


    This was also a very interesting training technique. It increases a student¡¯s ability for spatial recomposition quite holistically. I was quite amazed by the different type of training Gears could provide me with already.


    ¡°Alright. The fourth training mode is of course with regards to elemental recomposition. It is called ¡®Taste Buds¡¯. The concept behind this training is extremely simple but yet it is the hardest thing to do for most people. However, for you, I believe that this training will be the easiest for you. In a fight, you¡¯ll need to be able to sense what type of elemental attacks your opponent is throwing at you. However, he will obviously not tell you and sometimes, you might not be able to see the attack. Especially if it is elementally enhanced ki or wind based mana techniques which are usually quite hard to see with the naked eye. This training, as its name suggests, will incorporate ¡®taste buds¡¯ into your battle aura. To develop your battle aura to the second stage, where it is able to not only sense ki or mana but also the type of elemental power incorporated into it. Gears will keep randomly generating a certain type of mana into an opaque box and you are to use only your battle aura to try to sense the element behind it. He will start off strong first, so it is easier to sense the element and slowly get weaker and weaker until your ¡®taste buds¡¯ reach a sufficiently strong level.¡± Professor Oak said.


    ¡°Before I finish, I have actually added a small little feature to Gears which is actually targeted specially at you. I have no idea how it is like to have 7 elemental affinities. I train in 2 different elements so I know that it is not that hard to channel two different types of elemental affinities. It is exactly like channelling ki and mana. However, to channel 7 different elemental affinities¡­ I believe that is an exponentially different ball game. Thus, I have come up with a training to help you with regards to that. The condition is that you finish ¡®Assorted dishes¡¯ and ¡®Taste buds¡¯ to level 3. Then you will be able to embark on this special practice.¡± He explained.


    ¡°You need to tell Gears that you want to do the ¡®Colourful plating¡¯ exercise. What will happen is that a combination of assorted dishes and taste buds will occur. Many different dishes, either made of ki or mana and all of different elements, will be shooting out at you. Your job, is to use the appropriate defences, either ki reinforcement or mana shield, to block the attacks but this time, you will also need to sense the type of element the attacks are made of and use the opposing element to counter it. For example, if a wind mana dish is sent at you, you must use an electric mana shield. If a fire ki dish is sent at you, you must reinforce yourself with water ki to block that physical fire ki attack. It will be extremely fast as well so you literally have to react instantly. This is to train you for real life battle scenarios.¡±


    ¡°You might also have to channel many different elemental energies simultaneously which will be very, very hard. Level 5 of this ¡®Colourful plating¡¯ exercise might even need you to cover 7 different body parts with 7 different elements of either ki or mana protection. Once you can do that¡­.. I think it¡¯s safe to say that no one will be able to give you an attack more demanding in terms of energy distribution. However, whether that is even possible or not is a whole different matter entirely. This is a training exercise I¡¯ve designed based on theory alone. Sometimes, theories can be wrong so I¡¯m waiting to see. Please prove me wrong Jinx.¡± Professor Oak said.


    ¡°Professor can I ask you something?¡± I said.


    ¡°Sure.¡± He replied.


    ¡°When you were coming up with the names of the exercises¡­ Were you.. Hungry?¡±


    I HAVE TO KNOW WHY HE NAMED THE EXERCISES LIKE THIS


    ¡°Hmm.. Now that I think about it.. Maybe. But aren¡¯t the names so apt??¡± He said with a beaming smile on his face.


    ¡°Yes they are!¡± I lied with the best possible smile I could return.


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Professor Oak left, instructing me to do whatever I want with Gears. I had permission to use this room any time of the day, any day.


    I decided that since I was going to be free till evening, for today, I shall devote myself to experiencing every single training method that Gears could offer me because it was such a well-designed training machine.


    I tried level one of ¡®Controlling the fire¡¯, only to find out that my quality control was terrible. When Gears asked for a fire of 200 degrees Celsius, I actually made mine 250. If not, it would be 150. I was of a +-50 deviation so let¡¯s not talk about a +-10 deviation anytime in the near future.


    I then tried level one of ¡®Washing the dishes¡¯. I had to consciously try to spin a mana sphere with my ability in spatial recomposition and it was actually quite possible to do it. My mana sphere was spinning and shaving off the other mana sphere steadily. However, it took too long. The goal of this exercise was to ¡®wash the dish¡¯ within 30 seconds. I needed about 45. This meant that the power of my spatial recomposition was just not enough.


    By the time I finished training a bit for these 2 exercises, it was already lunch time so I went to grab a quick lunch and came back to train even further. I managed to reduce my timing to about 40 seconds to ¡®wash a dish¡¯ and I decided to stop for the day. I had not much mana remaining so I wanted to ration it and try the last exercise.


    For ¡®Taste Buds¡¯, like Professor Oak suggested, I was easily able to clear level 1, where Gears put different element energies in a box and I sensed it using battle aura. Both ki and mana sensed elements in the same way, I think because they were channelled in the same way, using elemental spirits from an elemental room. It only makes sense that the element component of these 2 energies are consistent. It was a very peculiar feeling. It was literally as if my battle aura developed a brain and sensory abilities of it¡¯s own. When it touches fire, it will relay information of heat emitting from that object. When it touches water, it will relay information of cooling down emitting from that object. When it¡¯s wind, I can feel it like a breeze. To sum up the experience, whenever my battle aura detects an element, it will now be able to tell me exactly what element it is. However, it was still unable to tell me the degree to which the elements are present. I think as I go up the levels, from level 1 to level 5 of taste buds, it will eventually develop that aspect of both a quantitative and qualitative battle aura detection abilities.


    After experiencing everything and training the full 10 hours from 8am to 6pm, I was now able to clear level 2 of ¡®Taste Buds¡¯ and level 1 of ¡®Assorted dishes¡¯. I was at about 35 seconds now for my time taken to ¡®Wash the dish¡¯ so I was close to achieving level 1. However, I was still quite hopeless at +-20 for controlling the fire. I could not imagine what it¡¯s like to reach level 5 which was a +-1 deviation control.


    I went back to hall to wash up and get ready. I met the 4 of them at the lobby of our halls at 7pm sharp.


    ¡°Alright that¡¯s everybody! Shall we go??¡± Chippy said excitedly when he saw me.


    ¡°Sorry I¡¯m the last guys.¡± I said.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay! Let¡¯s just quickly grab some food!!¡± Puggy said.


    As we walked out of school through the south-west entrance, we could already start to see what the hype about The Marketplace was all about. Although we were still about 500 meters away, we could already start to hear the bustling noises of bartering and see a huge ocean of people before our very eyes.


    When we actually reached The Marketplace, it was a huge square, filled with tons of booths set up as far as your eyes could see. It was a square surrounded by buildings built with red bricks and these buildings themselves were also shops. There were set-up stalls selling food, equipment, magic tools, clothes, books and a whole assortment of products. There were signboards on the buildings around the place which also advertised for what they were selling.


    The 5 of us walked together, within the sea of people, advancing forward slowly, absorbing everything we see. We decided to grab some food first at one of the buildings which had a huge advertisement that said: ¡®Don¡¯t Chicken out! Chicken Inn!¡¯ Turns out that it was an inn famous for serving good chicken and we ate our fill. The name of the inn was obviously called The Chicken Inn and the interior was decorated in a very quirky but modern way. There were colourful chairs and tables everywhere and the waitresses were all wearing chicken costumes. There was also a giant chicken statue at the front door of the establishment. It was a bit expensive though. A meal my hometown was about 10 coppers. However, a meal here cost about 25 coppers to 40 coppers depending on how much you wanted to eat. My weekly allowance was 1 silver so I decided that to celebrate my first week of school, this splurge would be worth it. And indeed, it was some of the best chicken I¡¯ve ate in years.


    All of us also joked merrily at Chicken Inn for a good two hours. We all shared even more stories about ourselves to each other.


    It turns out that Puggy was someone who was like the epitome of laziness. She literally was too lazy to go for the QE. Her mother who was a Legionnaire had to use magic to shift the bed she was sleeping on all the way to the QE stadium and force her to take the test. However, she scored quite well despite her laziness. Then, her mother lied to her and said that ¡°If you become a Legionnaire, you will get to eat good food in school every day for free!¡± However, only the free part was true. The food wasn¡¯t that good honestly. HAHA what a smart mother. Turns out Puggy was really someone who cared a lot about food.


    Maybe she would like to meet Gears. I chuckled to myself.


    Chippy was being a retard as usual, saying stupid comments which made everybody laugh, especially when the waitress was serving us.


    ¡°Would you like to order some chicken?¡± The waitress asked.


    ¡°If your name is chicken, then yes I¡¯d like to order 10 of you.¡± He replied.


    The waitress blushed deep red and I smacked Chippy¡¯s head as hard as I could.


    ¡°Can I take your order?¡± She said.


    ¡°No. But you can take me home!¡±


    She did not even know what to say anymore so I just wrote down our orders for her.


    These were part and parcel of Chippy¡¯s daily comments. He always had quirky, partially intelligent partially retarded things to say but that¡¯s also what made him the life of a party. I already knew him for 6 years so it was really just another normal day for me. However, Draco, Jenny and Puggy seemed to really love his antics. Who could blame them? He¡¯s a nice funny retard.


    Draco also seemed to be enjoying himself with us. His demeanor when I first met him was that of a cold, powerful person. However, he seemed to be slowly warming up to us more and more, and that stone face of his was breaking into a smile on a more regular basis. However, only I knew the secret that he was a Vermillion I guess. I planned to keep that secret.


    Jenny was being herself as well, laughing merrily but not talking too much. She was quite a quiet person. However, she would always politely talk to anyone that she wishes to talk to or someone who talks to her first. I realised that I did not know much about her so I made it a point to meet up with her sometime soon, in order to get to know the girl that I had a crush on better.


    After eating a sumptuous dinner filled with the presence of lovely company, we decided to go shopping at the set-up stalls in The Marketplace. I did not plan on buying anything of course but the rest may want to get certain items to help them in their school life. Just as we left the Chicken Inn, as we were about to rejoin the sea of people in the Marketplace square, someone who was dressed in a cloak walked across us. Suddenly, he was behind Draco, one arm over his mouth and the other arm clutching on to one of his thighs. He lifted him up and ran away.


    Draco was being kidnapped!


    The moment it happened, I was obviously shocked but I quickly regained my mind. I immediately channelled wind ki to my feet and used Graceful Flight to give chase. Chippy was also running extremely fast and slowly disappearing from my sight despite him being directly beside me. Puggy was to my left, displaying shocking speed for someone who was so petite and Jenny was the only one lagging behind since mages have not learnt any movement spells yet. All of us were giving chase towards the cloaked figure carrying Draco.


    ¡°STOP!¡± I shouted as I cast a mana arrow in my hand while I was running. This was starting to create a commotion amongst the many people present.


    ¡°Jinx don¡¯t! We¡¯re not allowed to use offensive spells outside of school compound! It¡¯s against the rules! Look at the amount of people here!¡± Jenny shouted at me from the back.


    ¡°My friend is being kidnapped in front of me and you tell me not to disobey school rules?! FUCK THAT!¡± I said as I even elementally composed it to a level 2 light mana arrow. I tried to spin it as well, adding as much power as I could to it in order to destroy that asshole kidnapping my friend.


    I threw the arrow towards the feet of the kidnapper.