AN: Sorry for the delay but the exams kept me from getting any work done. Unfortunately, they will also affect the releases of the rest of the week, I will try my best but there isn’t that much I can do.
The next day I stood on the training field again. The only change to yesterday was that all of us had weapons…more or less.
Whilst some, like my group for example, had actual weapons made of all kinds of materials others only carried frail sticks comparable in quality to the wooden sword I enchanted at the test. Needless to say these fellows sent quite a few jealous glances our way.
When the teacher appeared we had already finished warming up, ready for the grueling training he would put us through.
What he said next surprised us though.
“Now that you did your test and know how to create and enchant we will dedicate a few minutes to an hour to it every day. That way you can also raise the amount of mana available to you, meaning that we can train longer and harder.” He smiled in a way that sent shivers down my spine.
I may be happy about extra mana but I don’t have a good feeling about the extra training…
“You will need the extra time. As you have weapons available now you will have to train with them too. I won’t deduct time from the normal training for that though. From now on the training will take at least one more hour every day! Also don’t forget to meditate every night.” He instructed us.
What have I gotten myself into?
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The sun mercilessly shone down on my now substantially bigger body. Sweat poured out from all of my pores and my muscles ached horribly as I raised my longsword for what seemed to be the millionth time today.
Shakily holding it above my head I took a deep breath to calm myself down.
I swung it down with all the power I could muster, pitiful as it was due to my exhaustion. The wooden longsword hit the dummy with a dull sound in the head and a small dent was left behind. Unfortunately, it quickly repaired itself and it looked as if I hadn’t ever hit it in the first place.
The sword slipped off the dummy’s smooth surface and slammed into the ground. Feeling the exhaustion more than ever I sat down to recover my breath.
Fuck that old man and his inhuman training methods! Why can’t we use mana whilst training with our weapons?
A year had passed and our training regimes were getting longer and longer without an end in sight. It was a disheartening affair, really. Whilst I do have to admit that, according to the headmaster, we improve far faster than any other group in the last century the price we have to pay for that is no free time.
If this continues we will spend most of our youth training. That would be such a waste as youth is something precious, especially the earliest years. I mean if you were to reminisce about your childhood but find out that it was spent training wouldn’t it be depressing?
I don’t know how the people here think about this. Maybe this is just normal for them.
But we can’t really do anything about that anyway. We are warriors, fighting against beasts in order to defend our homes is our destiny and it seems that there is no time for any childish games if the fate of humanity is on the line.
If I see it from this perspective, it does seem reasonable.
In order to recover faster, I meditated for a few minutes. A stream far thicker than the one I had started out with all these months ago emerged from my core and flowed into my body. With every circulation I could feel my breath become easier and the muscle ache quickly vanished.
Thankfully the healing process didn’t revert my body back to the state it had before it was injured, otherwise all the effort would have been for naught.
I enjoyed the feeling a bit longer than necessary, relishing in the comfortable warmth that the mana produced.
If I could I would do this all day long but unfortunately the best effects are brought forth when coupling meditation with manaless training.
Well, at least in the first few years. After that the mana channels normally become strong enough to handle a stream which is more effective enough to surpass the normal training methods.
At that point sleep will also become unnecessary as the mana also nourishes the brain and clears the mind.
I can feel that I am only a few weeks away from that moment but even if I reach that point I will have to continue training in order to accumulate experience in handling my weapons.
The fact that I chose two weapons only worsened the situation and I have to train twice the amount just to keep up with the others. I can’t even abandon one of them as the old bastard doesn’t allow it.
“As a warrior you have to stick to your choices! I won’t tolerate wimps in my groups so forget changing weapons, John. You just have to work twice as hard.” He told me in a strict tone when I asked him.
I can’t help but curse him every time I remember that moment. What does sticking to your choices have to do with being a wimp anyway?
Reluctantly standing up again I resumed striking the dummy with my longsword. As it was made out of a thin layer of metal above straw and I wasn’t empowered by mana the dummy quickly repaired itself no matter what I did.
It seems that in addition to being an excellent fighter our teacher is also renowned for being a master manacrafter, which is the term used for people who excel at both enchanting and creating.
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Self-repairing items are pretty hard to produce due to the enchantment being mana consuming as hell. The next problem is that the repairs also consume a ton of mana during the repairing process, which has to be supplied by the owner since they are usually branded to their mana signature.
Once an item is branded only the one it was branded to can use mana to enhance the weapons abilities and store it inside their core space.
I don’t know how exactly this is accomplished as I have never done so myself. All I know that it is required to absorb it into your core space and feel it’s resonance, whatever that means.
Sometimes I wonder just how much mana that old monster has. To be able to sustain the regeneration of hundreds of dummies at the same time and still have enough left to heal the occasional unconscious student requires mana at a scale I can’t even begin to imagine.
I wonder if I will be even more powerful when I become as old as he is now.
Shaking my head at the pointless thought I noticed that I had unconsciously stopped striking while pondering. Switching from overhead strikes to horizontal ones I resumed the training.
Although the life expectancy of warriors is potentially very high many die young. Very few reach an age that high. Especially not as a frontline fighter.
Maybe when I remember my time in the Academy in the distant future I will think of it as something akin to the good old times.
HA! As if I will ever remember this hellish training as anything even remotely close to nice!
The rest of the day went by in a blur and I found myself meditating before sleeping.
I had already been at it for a few hours, the meditation substantially reducing the time I had to sleep. I suddenly saw everything in front of me beginning to glow even though my eyes were closed.
For a second I thought I had unconsciously entered my core space as the sight was quite similar with myself being completely surrounded by a gaseous white substance.
It seemed to emanate from everywhere -some white specs even appeared out of thin air- and when I looked around I saw two glowing human shaped beings in the beds around me.
I opened my eyes to test whether I could see normally again once I did so but it didn’t change anything.
It didn’t matter where I looked, everything was a shade of grey. Looking out of what I think was a window I saw blindingly white walls encircling me in every direction.
When I looked away from them I saw that the outer walls of our dormitory were glowing even brighter, making me unconsciously close my eyes. Of course this didn’t do anything so after a brief time of confusion I turned around.
“Owen, Frank! Wake the fuck up, we have a problem!” I shouted at my glowing friends.
They didn’t move from their spots so I slapped them lightly on their faces. They quickly woke up and grumpily asked me what was going on.
I explained my situation to them and at first they thought I was pranking them. I don’t know how it is possible but I could clearly see their facial expressions even though their whole bodies glowed at approximately the same brightness.
They quickly realized that I was serious when I accidentally called Frank Owen.
“Let’s go to the teacher, maybe he knows what is going on.” Frank said. Owen was silent but I could clearly see the worry on his radiant face.
I nodded and after we clothed ourselves we went on our way to the teacher’s part of the male dormitory.
We quickly reached his room and proceeded to knock furiously at his door. Fortunately, we didn’t we have to wait long for his frowning face to greet us.
Unfortunately, I stumbled back the moment he appeared. He was just too bright, glowing just as intense as the outer walls but far closer.
GOD DAMMIT WHY IS EVERYONE SO BRIGHT! I moved my head to look away but it didn’t do anything. I saw his radiance spreading out into every direction.
“What do you want?” He grumbled, probably ignoring my odd behavior.
When Owen explained my situation to him his frown vanished at lightning speed and he ushered us into his apartment.
It was far more spacious than ours with at least five rooms I could see on our way. First was a well equipped kitchen and a spacious room with an extremely bright interior. From the mats which covered the ground to the hard tiles on the walls everything was shining nearly as bright as the walls surrounding the Academy grounds, causing me to nearly fall on the ground.
Before I could get a closer look at the other rooms however the teacher had already pushed me into another homely looking room.
A soft carpet silenced our footsteps as we made or way to a beige couch big enough to easily fit at least 7 people sitting on it. A long wooden table was in front of it and bookshelves hid the walls.
“Sit down.” He told us.
We did as he told us and were surprised when we practically sank into the soft couch, his smile when he saw that we were struggling to properly sit up irking me tremendously.
“John, what you are experiencing right now is your ‘Second Awakening’ as it is called. In short all the white stuff you are seeing is composed of mana or mana fluctuations. I don’t really know right now so you will have to provide some more information to me.” He explained to me.
What the hell? Wasn’t I supposed to feel them in the far future? And didn’t he say that I would only be able to see mana fluctuations at that time? Just what is going on?