Astrid sat at the edge of the training grounds, watching the other students practice their spells, while Birk walked around giving feedback. She had just finished her own practice, as her small mana pool only allowed her to cast a few spells before it was completely drained. This was the second time today that she had to stop practicing long before the other students because of it. Annoyance bubbled in her, and she had to remind herself that today was the first time ever that she even used mana. It would grow stronger in no time, and then she could participate in class like the other students.
She briefly considered taking one of the mana potions she had stored in her first aid kit so she could keep casting spells for longer, but quickly disregarded the notion. If she relied on potions to recover her mana, it would never increase in value, so it was best to only use them in an emergency. Even if that meant she could only participate in class for a few minutes at a time.
That last spell had been especially grueling to cast, as low stats always resulted in symptoms ranging from mildly uncomfortable to incredibly painful. In this case, it had been tremors, which didn’t sound as bad as headaches and nausea, but since she was trying to aim, it was the worst possible symptom. Her hand had been shaking so badly that her spell had flown right over the top of the target before fizzling out without hitting anything.
To make matters worse, Ruben, who had been standing beside her, laughed and once again questioned why she was allowed to attend the school. She had done her best to ignore him, but the comments had hurt, and it had taken all her willpower not to club him with her staff.
Ever since she fled her home, she had felt alone, and this school was her chance to change that, and now this boy was trying to ruin everything. Worst was that a part of her believed he was right. She didn’t belong here. As an orphaned farmer’s daughter, a refugee, and a follower of deception, could she ever belong anywhere?
She shook her head, driving the thoughts away before they could drain her spirit again. The last thing she needed now was more low stats to deal with. Focusing on the other students practicing served as a good distraction. Especially the more skilled ones. It was interesting to see the different kinds of blasts they could cast.
Most offensive magic spells at level one seemed to be elemental blasts. Villads cast a fire blast and Brigitta cast a mud blast, both of them hitting the target right in the middle. Astrid hoped that one day she would be as good at these two.
Soon, the class ended again, and Birk gave them another break. Astrid’s mana had recovered about halfway, and she hoped it would manage to recover all the way before the next class, but she doubted it would. Complete regeneration could take a while. She went over to the students, hoping she could have a better interaction with them this time. Luck was not on her side.
“Are you still here?” Ruben said as soon as he saw her approaching. “Don’t you get that we don’t want your kind at our school?”
Astrid gritted her teeth and refused to look at him. She didn’t know what else to do, as she had rarely interacted with other children, and those she had didn’t act like this boy. How was she supposed to handle rude people anyway?
“What are we gonna do next?” Astrid asked Villads.
“We have dueling class.”
“How does that work?” Astrid was uncertain about fighting another student with magic, especially since she could barely cast any spells and all the other students had a lot more experience than her.
“We pair up and practice dueling techniques on each other.”
“I’m gonna crush you so hard you’ll never dare set foot here again.” Ruben said. Astrid doubted that. She had seen him practice, and he was far behind the rest of the students, and even if he wasn't, she was certain she had the speed to dodge most things thrown her way as long as she stayed focused.
“You aren’t allowed to do that.” Brigitta said.
“Maybe not, but accidents happen.”
For some reason, Ruben seemed confident that he would get to duel with Astrid. Part of her wanted to duel with him just so she had an excuse to blast him in the face. Maybe that would shut him up. Besides, if she stood a chance of winning a duel against anyone in the class, it was this guy. Another part was weary that the guy’s intense hatred for her would make him do something stupid that could seriously hurt her. Either way, she would deal with it when the time came. For now, she wanted to spend her break talking to someone who was actually nice to her.
“How long have you guys been studying here?” she asked. She knew most people signed up for classes as soon as they had decided what they wanted to study, so there was no set time of year when classes began and ended. This meant that the experience among people in a class varied a lot. It also allowed students to learn at their own pace, as final exams could be held whenever they were ready.
“I started about five months ago,” Brigitta said.
“And I have attended these classes for two months,” Villads said.
“That’s a big difference, so how come you’re one of the best?
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“Some of us are able to push ourselves harder during the practice despite the discomfort of using all our mana. That helps us build our experience and mana faster than others.”
“It took me a long time before I was able to drain my mana more than halfway. I used to get anxious every time the symptoms began,” the girl said.
Astrid was quite comfortable draining her stats at this point. Sure, the tremors earlier had been annoying, but they were nothing compared to the shear agony of losing most of her health, and in the past few weeks, that had happened more times than she dared to count. However, she didn’t feel like she could tell that to the other people. They would think she was crazy.
She had also gotten a lot of training in dealing with the low stat symptoms of the days when her spirit refused to recover. She couldn’t tell them that either. Now that she thought about it, she was unsure if there was anything she could say about herself that wouldn’t upset herself or others. To deter them from asking about her, she asked more questions about them.
“What is your maximum mana?” she asked.
"100,” Villads said. “That’s the highest it can get until I reach level two in a magic skill and get my bonus.”
That was quite an impressive feat for someone who had only practiced for two months.
"91,” the girl said. “A few more days, and I won’t have to continuously drain my mana anymore. At least not until I level up.
Astrid realized just how far she had to go if she wanted to reach maximum mana before reaching the next level.
Birk returned, calling an end to the break. Astrid followed the students back in line, and Birk began explaining how the dueling was going to proceed.
“You can fight using any of the offensive and defensive spells you have learned in class.” Birk said. “Whoever hits the opponent with an attack first wins but remember to never charge them with more than three mana at a time.
She guessed the one-hit rule was for safety, but she wondered how they improved their health points if they never pushed them a little. Maybe they did, and it just wasn’t part of today’s lesson. That had to be it.
“Villads, Brigitta, you two are up first.”
The two of them walked into the large circle that made up the dueling ground and took their positions in the periphery on opposite sides. Then they bowed to each other and raised their staff.
“On the count of three,” Birk said. “One, two, three.”
The two students wasted no time starting. Immediately, they fired a basic blast, only for them to collide in the air between them. It caused a minor explosion, but that didn’t bother anyone, and the duel continued.
Villads quickly followed with another attack. This time it was the fire blast Astrid had seen him use earlier. Brigitta only just managed to cast a shield to block the incoming attack, but Villads didn’t give her time to recover as he bombarded her with spell after spell. Most of them were fire blasts, but he also thew a few water blasts and mud blasts.
Astrid was impressed with his ability to endlessly conjure more spells.
Somehow Brigitta managed to block or dodge all of them, but Astrid could tell from her labored breath that it was taking a toll on her. Since a shield needed to be fed mana continuously to stay in place, it seemed like a good way to rapidly drain yourself.
Brigitta managed to cast a mud blast while jumping to the side, forcing Villads to stop the barrage and cast a shield of his own. If she had been able to follow up her attack with another, she might have had a chance, but her movement had put her off balance. She was unable to raise another shield or dodge in time to avoid the next attack. Villads fired a basic blast that hit her square in the chest, knocking her to the ground.
“The duel is over,” Birk announced. “Villads wins.”
The two students bowed to each other again before returning to the others.
Birk gave them a few words of feedback that Astrid couldn’t hear before sending the next pair out to duel.
Astrid was glad she had more time to regain her own mana, but the wait was making her nervous. It became more and more likely that she would end up dueling with Ruben.
“How much damage do the attack spells do?” she whispered to Villads, who had sat down beside her.
“That depends on a lot of things, like the level of your weapon and what armor your opponent is wearing. The training staffs we have here multiplies your mana input with one, and the basic spells we have learned so far can do up to ten damage when fully charged, but during duels we aren’t allowed to use more than three mana per attack spell.”
It took Astrid a moment to understand what Villads meant.
“So, if I put one mana into the attack, it will do one damage?”
“Well, you have to put at least three mana into the attack for it to work, but that attack would do three damage if you hit a person without armor or another item that offers protection.”
“Don’t let this guy bore you with too much theory. He has a tendency to talk like a textbook whenever he gets the chance,” Brigitta said.
“I don’t mind,” Astrid answered.”
“I don’t get why we waste this much time sitting around instead of dueling.” Ruben complained.
“There is a lot to be learned from watching how other people do it.” Villads said
“We’d learn more if we dueled more than once a day. This school is deliberately trying to sabotage my career.”
Astrid decided to take the top student’s advice and focus on the duel going on in front of her. The two students—Lina and Filip—still stood in their starting position with staff raised and aimed at each other. One would cast a basic blast, and the other would cast a basic shield just in time to block. Then they would switch roles, with neither getting the upper hand at any point.
It didn’t look like much of a duel, and Astrid wondered what she was supposed to learn from this. If it were her dueling, she would move more as moving targets were harder to hit, though she wasn’t sure she could coordinate casting and walking at the same time. She couldn’t afford to miss her target or cast shields with her current mana pool.
The duel ended when one of them ran out of mana and couldn’t block the incoming attack.
“Lina wins this duel,” Birk announced before giving feedback.
The next duel was between Axel and Sofie. It played out much like the previous duel had and ended when Sofie ran out of mana and couldn’t block the incoming blast. Again, the teacher gave feedback. Astrid knew she would be up next and quickly checked her stats to see what she had to work with.
Health: 24/24
Stamina: 28/28
Mana: 14/14
Focus: 12/12
Spirit: 16/16
“Next up are Ruben and Astrid.”
Astrid saw the update to her occupation tasks, but she already knew what it said, so there was no need to read it.
She got up and went to the starting position. At least her mana had fully recovered, but it still wasn’t much to work with. However, it would have to do. Her first duel was about to start.