“So, in five days the harvest festival begins,” the Otimranian studies teacher said. “Can anyone tell me which deity this holyday honor?”
Astrid still didn’t know his name, as he had never bothered to introduce himself, and at this point it was too embarrassing to ask.
“The Goddess of Nature,” a student said.
"Good,” the teacher responded. “As you know, these holidays take a lot of work, so I expect all of you to help just like everyone else will be. There is a list on the school notice board where you can sign up for the task you want to do during the festival. Please select based on where you will be most useful. I expect you all to decide no later than the day before the festival.
Current tasks
Partake in Otimranian studies class (ongoing)
5 grade tokens
Pick a task to help with during the harvest festival 0 of 1 (new)
5 grade tokens
Time remaining: 4 d
Astrid didn’t know what she wanted to help with. Hopefully there was an easy task that didn’t take too much of her time and wouldn’t expose her double identity. She could only assume that “her big sister” would also have to help in some way, and she didn’t want to end up in a situation where she was expected to be in two places at once.
“During the festival, regular classes are suspended, but you’ll still be awarded grade tokens if you complete your chosen assignment,” the teacher said, and then went on to talk about the history of the harvest festival.
Astrid had attended the festivities in the village near her home several times growing up, but the last few years she hadn’t gone because the monsters made traveling too dangerous. It would be nice to hear music and play games. It had been a while since she last had a chance to relax and have fun.
After the class, Astrid went with Villads and Brigitta to the combat magician classroom. Teacher Birk arrived moments later and led the class to the training grounds.
Birk had them go through the same warmup exercises as the previous days, and soon it was time for the foot race.
Current tasks
Partake in combat magic class (ongoing)
5 grade tokens
Complete the racetrack 0 of 2(new)
Up to 10 grade tokens depending on performance.
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Astrid found that a bit strange. Normally they had only had to run one lab for the race. Then again, she probably didn’t know what was considered normal after just two days of classes. Maybe this wasn’t something unusual after all.
“So we're running two labs today.” She asked Brigitta, who gave her a confused look.
"No, just one. We always only do one.”
“But my quest says two.”
“Astrid, you have to run the track twice,” Birk informed.
“What? Why?” that didn’t seem fair.
“You are level two in running, and the others are level one. Now get to the starting line.”
It made sense, but still. It would be harder to win the race when she had to run twice as much as everyone else. And a bad performance meant fewer grade tokens, and she still had a long way to go before she had enough to take the exam. However, the teacher had already made up his mind, so there was no helping it. She got in line with the rest of the students and waited for the teacher to give the signal to start.
She began running and quickly pulled ahead of the others. There was little reason for pacing herself in the early phase of the race. That could be done once she caught up with the other students again. She had to hope her stamina could hold out for the entire race. She crossed the finish line for the first time but didn’t slow down at all. She was starting to get winded though, and she was burning through her limited stamina quickly. It was nearing the point where keeping up the pace was difficult. The body naturally tried to prevent the complete depletion of a stat. Normally, when she had punched herself to run longer or faster, she had been chased by monsters or been about to be locked out of the city for the night. Right now she only had grade tokens to motivate her, and that was a poor substitute for life-and-death situations. She didn’t have any interest in running the way she had in learning magic, so she couldn’t use that for motivation either.
She made it up to the other students and began passing them one by one while every part of her body screamed at her to stop. The burning sensation in her kegs and lungs was quickly becoming unbearable. It took all her willpower to keep running, which meant she was beginning to burn through her spirit stat as well as her stamina. That was something she hated.
Her spirit had been almost depleted once, and she had lost the will to do anything. It had been hard to move, as she didn’t see the point in doing anything anymore. That had been just after her farm had been attacked and her family had been… Don’t think about that, she mentally scolded herself and focused on the race again.
They had just made it to the last quarter, and she was about in the middle of the group. She pushed herself to pull ahead again, but the other students were also preparing for the final sprint. She manages to push ahead with a few other students, but she wasn’t able to get ahead of the front runners. She crossed the finish line fourth and had to fight the urge to drop to the ground in exhaustion.
The teacher only gave them a minute to rest before making them line up again for the next part of the class.
“Today we’ll keep practicing our basic shields.” Birk tested everyone’s shield before giving them instructions on what to do. It was much the other days where half of the class was sent off to practice what they wanted, and the other half worked on the basic shield. Astrid was among those still working on the basics. Birk hadn’t even bothered to test her, just telling her that building her mana pool was her primary goal for now. Astrid saw the logic in that but was still disappointed that she didn’t get to learn more magic in this class.
She cast the spell, continuously feeding mana into it until she ran out, ignoring her trembling arms. It still annoyed her that her low mana caused her to shake, as it would make aiming harder when her mana got low, but there was no helping it. Everyone's reaction to low stats was different.
She found a comfortable spot at the edge of the training grounds at a safe distance from the other students and sat down in the soft grass. From here, she had a good view of her classmates. Taking out her combat magician book, she alternated between reading about the shields and trying to identify which ones the students were practicing.
Villads was practicing an electric shield, which sent out small sparks. According to her book, the electric shield was able to absorb the mana from any attack it encountered and use it to maintain itself.
Brigitta was practicing a wind shield that whirled up dust from the dry ground and sent it spiraling in all directions. The teacher stood beside her, giving feedback that Astrid couldn’t hear from her spot on the ground. Astrid read that the wind shield could change the trajectory of incoming attacks. She kept reading about all the shields she observed and committed their incantation and staff movements to memory. That way she might be able to learn them quickly once her mana was higher or if she needed a particular spell in an emergency.
As she looked up from her book, trying to find a new shield to observe, she noticed a large ball of fire heading towards her. There was no time to react, even if she had had the mana to cast a shield. All she could do was watch in horror and brace for the inevitable. The fire blast hit her right in the chest, knocking her flat on the ground.