As soon as I exited the room I rolled my eyes and the smile disappeared from my face. I let out a barely audible sigh and made my way towards the grand stairwell. From behind, I could hear someone running towards me. Glancing over my own shoulder confirmed what I had thought, it was Ivory and for some reason Evergreen as well.

"Hey, Altair, wait," Ivory said.

I slowed down only slightly, in the hope that maybe they wouldn't catch up.

They did.

"How come misses Elsa doesn't punish you for acting like that?" Ivory asked.

I raised one eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, from what I've heard she's only going easy on us for the first week, afterwards she's supposed to be as strict as it gets," Ivory said.

Evergreen next to her nodded eagerly. I just shrugged.

"Maybe she's just going easy on me?" I suggested as I continued walking.

Ivory had trouble keeping up with me since my legs were so much longer but Evergreen was pretty tall as well, maybe two metres or so, so she managed to keep up with me, quickly getting in front of Ivory. She looked at me with a slightly tilted head.

"What?" I asked, already annoyed by these two who had apparently both become friends.

Both of them also smelled like sweat and were dressed in more workout friendly clothes.

"Just looking, I mean you're like the only other elf in this entire building as far as I know," Evergreen said.

"That so?" I responded as I quickened my step ever so slightly.

I now reached the stairs and began descending. The two of them stayed behind a little, talking about something I knew I wouldn't care about, so I didn't listen. I didn't even notice how I walked down the stairs until I stood in front of the gate at the end of it. When I pushed it open I was a little blinded by the bright entrance hall, I could see a few robed people that reminded me of monks, some standing behind the altars while others sat on the wooden benches. A few walked around and even greeted me as I walked past them. When I reached the massive gate I was approached by one of them.

"Oh, you should take the doors in the guard roo-" the monk or whatever began saying but before he could finish a slither of light already appeared between the two parts of the massive gate I was currently pushing open.

The man gasped as the gate opened up and I stepped outside, which earned me the looks of everyone who stood outside. A few guards had walked out of the guard room and looked at me with open mouths.

"Doesn't that usually take like ten people to open that easily?" one whispered to the other.

Yeah, go ahead, stroke my ego you pathetic humans.

'Where did that come from?' Ira asked.

'From deep within my hatred for this entire place maybe? What do I know, I have no clue what's going on anymore...' I responded.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

My head twitched ever so slightly as I felt the wind blowing against me, and with the wind also came voices.

"Pathetic..."

"Cockroach..."

"Useless..."

The voices repeated the same lines they had said many, many times before again and again and again, making me even more annoyed.

"How nice of you to come back," I whispered under my breath as I approached the other volunteers I now had sparring lessons with.

Ivory and Evergreen exited the hall after me, looking surprised as well. And then there was the look on instructor Laura's face. She was shocked by the fact that I had opened that gate. I sat down on the ground, a little further away from the group and leaned against a training dummy while our instructor began explaining what we were going to do.

"Today we are going spar again... although I would like it to be fair, so mister Altair-" she stared directly at me "-you're going to fight three people at once," she said.

I shrugged. Most of the volunteers looked at me with narrow eyes, as if they didn't trust me at all.

"Any of you want to go up against him?" she asked.

I chuckled when no one raised their hand.

This is going better than I thought, they're already too afraid to fight me...

I got a few annoyed stares when the others heard my chuckling but no one said anything. My process was destroyed seconds later when Ivory, Evergrann and Servil all raised their hands. Laura nodded.

"You all wait over there," she said to the three while pointing to the training dummy I was leaning against.

She then went on to explain to the others that they may not use magic during the fight but that all kinds of weapons would be allowed. When she was done explaining she turned to us.

"You three may use magic if possible," she said, pointing to Ivory, Evergreen and Servil. "You, you may not," she added, pointing to me. "Don't break anything and show me that you opening that gate wasn't some miracle.

'Is opening that gate some kind of special thing?' I asked Ira.

'Maybe it's just really, really heavy?' Ira suggested.

I let out a short chuckle and stood up and stretched.

"Let's get this over with," I said as I stepped away from the others a little, bringing some distance between us.

Of course, I don't have my daggers... oh, wait, M should be around.

I whistled loudly so that it would echo through the entire area.

"What a shame I don't have my daggers!" I said loudly.

"You'll have to deal with us without any weapons then," Ivory said.

I gave her a deadpan stare with one slightly raised eyebrow.

Does she think I want to use them to have a bigger chance? I just don't train with them enough.

I could hear Ira chuckling.

"You ready?" Servil asked me.

I nodded. At that moment I could feel a good amount of mana from him, making me wonder why he wasn't in the advanced mana course. His magic mark activated, it reminded me of the wind itself but with a slightly silverish hue to it.

'Be careful,' Ira urged.

'Why?' I asked.

'Silver magic,' Ira said.

'Silver magic? What's that?' I asked.

'Silver is the colour of the wind and the colour of storms,' Ira explained.

When Servil readied himself I expected a storm based on Ira's explanation, instead, Servil loudly yelled: "[Silver lining]!"

I scoffed as Servil burst forth quickly, connected to one of his fingers was a silver line that hung in the air. As I approached I could see that the silver line seemed to be made up out of silver wind currents moving at incredible speed. I ducked beneath the silver line and punched him in the stomach. He flew through the air which gave me enough time to turn towards Ivory who was approaching me from the side and kick her from above, hitting her right shoulder and throwing her to the ground. I scoffed again when I saw five Evergreens, all covered in magic marks that had symbols aking to the moon cycle incorporated in them, jumping towards me. A loud croak echoed through the entire area and two objects fell from the sky, towards me. I jumped up and spun around, grabbing my daggers mid-air and throwing both at two of the clones, reducing the overall number of Evergreens to three. The next two that approached me both got caught by my foot as I spun again mid-air. I landed, grabbed my daggers and speeded towards the real Evergreen that had brought some distance between us. Just before I could reach her I was pushed past her by a strong force. As I flew towards the wall I dug my heels into the ground and slowed down gradually, stopping just before I would crash into the large and thick stone wall.

When I turned around I saw Servil surrounded by silver energy. It was swirling around him violently like a storm. I flipped my daggers so that both of them were upside down and sprinted towards him.

"Let's get this over with," I whispered in his ear just seconds later.

Servil stood there, confused by what had just happened, not noticing the slight amount of white and black mana rising up from my body.