As I lay on my bunk, my mind expanded out, this time trying to passively feel where the others were with just my mind. It felt… kind of like rubbing my cheek against felt, navigating a fuzzy grey expanse to find the swirling threads of colour that made up the minds around me.

Skill Mind Sense: Learnt

I don’t know why I always expect to suddenly grow better at whatever skill I just learnt whenever that message pops up, it just feels, like it should. I spent the next couple hours trying to expand how much I could feel, luckily it took a good while to start feeling lightheaded with this skill, I supposed it made sense, I’m just feeling around, not really doing anything.

Mind Sense: Lv.1->4

Mental Fortitude: Lv.4->5

Something told me that Mental Fortitude was going to be rather important. Perhaps it was that it seemed to level whenever I started getting lightheaded, although after trying a bit more Telekinesis, It didn’t seem to increase how much I could use it for, it had some effect, but not to such a significant effect. Which did make sense in hindsight, getting a bit tired doesn’t just give you a bunch more mental stamina. Pausing my experimentation, I looked around the room. One boy was doing an impressive amount of push-ups, another was pointing forwards and releasing a couple sparks from his finger. It felt like the second should be able to produce more than that, but he was likely holding back, given the whole flammable tent situation. Relaxing back again, I kept practicing for a while, before continuing my new tradition of knocking myself out.

Telekinesis: Lv.11->12

Mind Sense: Lv.4->5

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I blearily rubbed my eyes with my arm as I woke up to the sounds of a bunch or grumbling teenagers moving around half awake, you could swear their feet were magnetically attracted to the storage chests. Rolling off the bed, and flexing my will a little to prevent myself from face-planting on the floor, I got up and began to file out of the tent with the others, joining the chorus of resonating yawns that seemed to circle around the tent. Walking out, I looked around and found the boys heading off to various areas, some being brought away by instructors as well. As I stood there, Crystal approached me again, “Hey kid, follow me” she commanded, turning on her heel and walking away as I quickly chased after her. Following her, she brought me to a clearing which half extended into the treeline before stopping and turning back to me. “We’re a bit early, they should be here soon” she said, taking a seat over on a nearby log. Following her example I sat down as well and began to wait.

Looking up, I watched as three girls approached the clearing. The lead girl had long, brown hair and held herself in a graceful stride, assured of each step she took. The girl on her left seemed to hold a more confident swagger as she walked, her similarly brown, however short, hair stood out, along with her pronounced muscles. The third trailed a bit back, and to her right, the third woman held a chain-connected strange ornament, a yellow tinted sphere with metal surrounding it, running around it along each plane, extending out into a metal spike in each direction. Looking at the girl herself, she seemed to hunch herself inwards a bit, seemingly a bit shy.

“So you’re the fourth set to join us huh? Are you sure you can keep up with us?” the girl on the left asked, raising an eyebrow and moving to step forward before the girl in the lead held out a hand before her.

“No need to be antagonistic, I’m sure that the esteemed camp head placed him with us for a reason” she rebuked with a mix of an imperious and a light tone, tilting her head as she looked at me.

“Hi, I’m Ecrais” I offered, taking the chance to introduce myself, “I’m not sure, the head said he’d place me with a “gilded brat”, so I assume there's been a mix up” I joked, trying to lighten the mood, getting a small chuckle from the shy girl with long black hair.

“I’m Seris, main scion of house Illumvere” the obviously noble girl announced, quickly followed by her two friends.

“Saph, and I'll hit you if you try anything funny” the fit one replied, glaring at me after my joke, before the final one spoke up.

“Nerissa” she said, not elaborating further than that, managing to keep eye contact at least. Crystal took this opportunity to speak up, “ Now that introductions are out of the way, the four of you will be put in a party together for the two years you all are required to be here, so you’d all better get used to each other” she bellowed out suddenly, “today there won’t be any training, but I expect you here around the same time tomorrow got it?” she finished, to a chorus of “Yes’s" from the four of us. “Good, dismissed” she said as she walked back off, leading to the other three walking off as well. Who knows how my first impression went honestly, I suppose it didn’t matter that much, two years’ll wipe away any bad first impression. I hope.