When he left Theo behind, Gust paused in front of the mission board again. There were four sections, marked by the number of stars at the top, which listed missions of various types. Under the 1-star category, there were mostly herb gathering or courier missions. Anything with actual combat fell under the 2-star category at least, but Gust knew even the most basic tasks could be dangerous.

Merit points, and the spirit wine he would buy with them, would need to keep waiting.

As Gust headed home that night, and to class the next day, he realized he was getting a lot more attention than usual.

He kept meeting random students’ eyes, who would then look away quickly and pretend they weren’t staring. It didn’t take him long to notice how the other students bustling through the school’s paths gave him a wider berth than normal. They avoided crossing his path whenever they could.

His dark eye was always closed, so Gust knew he wasn’t scaring anyone with it, but he had to assume that some students caught him with his eyes open, or scanned his soul and found the strange void in the center, and spread that information around.

Neither his eye, nor that void, were powers anyone understood. Even Saith only knew about the people he fought and killed to create that Void Essence Pill, but none of them had the same mutations as Gust.

A small part of him understood why people feared him, but Gust couldn’t feel at ease with it. He didn’t choose to lose an eye, and he didn’t benefit from it in any way. So why should anyone hold it against him?

When he arrived at class, Gust was both excited and nervous. It was the first day of sparring in which he could participate. Instead of the usual green they cultivated on, the students met in a larger area of packed dirt. It gave everyone more space, but not so much that they wouldn’t need to be careful with their spells.

As the rest of the students quickly found their regular partners, Gust was left wishing Locke was in class with him, but the first level students were split up.

There was only one other student left alone after everyone else paired up. Gust had seen him before, standing guard at one of the gates. That duty was one of the most boring, and so it was usually split up between everyone. Even Theo, with his chore house responsibilities, and Oba, with his constant missions, had to guard one of the gates occasionally.

This boy, however, seemed to do it every day.

His skin was a light brown, his eyes hazel. Gray and green robes did little to hide his long, thin limbs. While he looked down on Gust with a somber expression, it wasn’t the least bit intimidating. If anything, he looked nervous.

The boy saw Gust approaching and desperately hoped the Demon was going to keep walking. He’d been allowed to ‘spar’ alone for so long that he grew anxious at the thought of actually fighting someone, even if it was only practice. He glanced around, trying to search for a reason to leave class for the day, or maybe even pretend he was sick, but then the Demon spoke.

“Hey,” Gust said with a small wave. “Looks like we’re stuck with each other,” he quipped. When the scrawny boy grimaced and looked away, Gust waited awkwardly. He glanced in the direction the boy was looking, but only found a few students heading south. Gust recognized one as the small, black-haired girl he met on his first night, but he couldn’t remember her name.

Gust looked at the other pairs fighting and offered, “I won’t be very good, but don’t you want to get started?” He cycled mana into his hands and opened his mana sense, but it was difficult to control it. Nearly every student in the area had their own mana senses spread out so they could detect their enemies’ spells, as well as cast their own, but it gave rise to a sort of staticky feeling in Gust’s mana sense that made it very hard to focus.

The scrawny mage merely sighed and started walking away. He mumbled something too light for Gust to hear, but Master Ephraim quickly appeared to bar his way. The Master’s dark eyes were compassionate, but firm. “I know you don’t like fighting, Jonas, but we have certain standard every student must meet. You’ve had enough time to practice on your own. It’s time for the real thing.”

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“I understand that,” Jonas replied with a slightly high pitched voice. “But does my first partner need to be him? What if he tries to… devour my soul or something?”

Ephraim chuckled and wrapped an arm around the boy’s shoulders, forcefully turning him around and walking him toward Gust. “You’ll just need to be strong enough to stop him,” he teased.

Jonas didn’t like the joke, however, as his eyes bulged, and his breathing quickened. He cycled mana into his hands, just like Gust, but the cycle was tremorous and the mana gathered slowly as a result.

“And how are you feeling, Augustus?” Ephraim asked, his arm still holding Jonas firm.

“Better than ever,” he replied.

“Perfect. Augustus, Jonas. Jonas, Augustus.” The boys finally met eyes and nodded to one another. “You are two of our newest recruits, with the least experience. Our library has plenty of basic fighting styles which should suit you until your paths develop, but for now, I’d like to see how you improvise.”

The Master stepped away and sat cross legged as he prepared to watch.

Gust pressed his hand against the pouch at his waist. He’d only tried using the bag of holding for the first time that morning, and found it as easy as he’d been told. All he needed to do was press his mana sense into it and he could see its contents.

It was empty, at first. Theo knew Gust couldn’t use it, so he left the wooden sword and robes out. Gust was shocked the first time he tapped that bag and focused his mana sense on his wooden sword, but after the first few times it flew up and into the bag, he stopped worrying that it might accidentally impale him. Now, the sword flew out and into his hand.

But Gust’s timing was off, so the sword landed in the dirt. With an awkward laugh, Gust scooped it up.

Jonas wasn’t entertained. Instead, his fists and teeth were clenched. He turned toward Ephraim and bowed. “Is there no other choice, Master? My specialty is alchemy, not combat. If my hands, or my mind, were seriously injured, I wouldn’t even be able to do that!”

Ephraim sounded tired. “You worry too much, Jonas. You saw that little… demonstration. Gust isn’t so terrifying, is he? I could pair you up with… say, Keziah, if you’d prefer someone else.”

There was a dark tone to his voice that Gust recognized as threatening.

Jonas shut his eyes and nodded. “Very well.” He slapped this bag of holding and his wooden sword flew out, then floated by his side. It bobbed up and down like a boat on unsteady waters.

Gust opened his palm and let his Mage Hand take the sword. He tried to ignore the rest of the students, as well as the irritating influence their mana senses had on his own, but it wasn’t easy.

When Jonas launched his first attack, a simple swipe with his sword, Gust moved his weapon in the way to block it. The two blades collided, and Gust’s spun in the air around the axis that was his Mage Hand. He dove to the dirt as Jonas’s sword passed over his head.

Dust flew into the air and before Gust could rise, a dull point jabbed into his back and forced him back down. Gust’s sword fell to the ground as he lost focus. Pain sprouted where he’d been struck, but Gust knew it would only bruise. As he pushed himself up, Master Ephraim spoke.

“That was a fine first effort, but you will need to increase the size of your Mage Hand. It needn’t literally take the form of a hand, either. Cradle the sword entirely in your mana sense and shape your spell around it. Then what just happened, will not repeat. If the pain bothers you, cycle some mana into the area and it should heal quickly.”

Gust nodded as he did exactly that. It was much like pushing mana into his hands. Gust focused on the pathway closest to the injury and forced some mana to escape and collect around that point. It provided a warm feeling which immediately dulled the pain, but it consumed some of his mana in the process.

This time, when Gust lifted his sword, it was much steadier. Jonas tried the same attack. The tall mage just stood with his arms crossed, frowning while he battered Gust’s newly developed defense.

The Demon felt like he was playing a video game for the first time as he moved his sword back and forth, just fast enough to block Jonas’s attacks. He recalled the overwhelming feeling of an unfamiliar interface, with their numerous rules and controls and overly busy screens, and held his eyes wide. His hands pressed against his knees in a tired, focused stance.

Every time Jonas’s sword hit his own, Gust winced. His body still wanted to dodge, but he slowly learned to rely on his defense. His mana reserves fell with every block and Gust grew tired as he kept cycling and maintaining the Mage Hand. Sweat gathered on his forehead and he wiped it away with a gray sleeve.

Eventually, Ephraim rose and began working with the other students. Gust grew more exhausted over time and soon found that he could only fight for a few minutes before he needed a rest.

He was reminded of his inexperience every time Jonas struck him but by now, Gust was too tired to react. He just added that pain to the rest and stopped even trying to cycle mana into the many bruises.

Gust tried to ignore the other students, but he couldn’t not notice how many grinned whenever he fell to the dirt, either from pain or exhaustion. The image made no one happier than Jonas, however. The boy’s confidence grew as he attacked Gust for hours without being pushed on the defense even once.

When the evening bell rang, and class ended, Gust merely laid in the dirt and watched Jonas leave.

“And that’s the weakest guy in the school?” he thought. “Forget the Patrons, even defeating Isaac is a pipe dream at this point!”