Day ~62~Part Three~

Rea had been taken inside of the workshop nearby.  Felicity started by asking Rea if she had ever been trained to wield anything bigger than a knife.  Rea knew that she didn't mean M60s or sniper rifles so she replied with a solid, "No."  Felicity then went on to explain that most larger weapons can be more difficult to master, not that a knife or a shortsword is easy to master, just that some weapons require a little more finesse to be wielded properly.  When Rea interrupted her by asking what sort of weapons, Felicity said any that have a large grip is meant to be used with versatility in mind.

At that point she stood up and took spear in hand, Felicity started by explaining that Rea had been using her spear solely as an extension.  Dunwalt had been able to deal with her thrusts easily because they all came at him in a direct manner.  A skilled spearman however, when dealing with higher level opponents, will often alter the angle of their strike by repositioning their grip.  Felicity demonstrated a few times and showed Rea that instead of just being an extension it was more like there was another joint at the end of her forward hand.  When Rea pointed out that it would reduce the attack's power and reach, Felicity only said that this was for facing difficult opponents head on, obviously with a big target you should strike in the manner that hurts the most.  Rea also realized that with a wide grip at the spears base she was moving the direction her point faced in very quickly.  Felicity noted that it was wise to use a wide grip when facing multiple opponents at close range.

Basically the lesson was that Rea should try out different grips and get used to utilizing them.  She also made a passing mention that grip should be kept in mind for any other large weapon, longswords and up, she intends to use.  Rea took it all in, she had only ever been taught to use a small grip one-handed knife in two separate ways.

Before Felicity could ask her to give it a try Rea implored the instructor to continue demonstrating for a while, Rea wanted to take advantage of [Apt Pupil].  When Felicity mentioned that she couldn't actually show Rea a proper stance at the moment...  Well Rea apologized for being the reason why.  After a few awkward moments of silence, and one turned down proposition, Rea did something that baffled Felicity.  Watching the woman use her spear had reminded Rea of a class that she'd read about in the hero books.  A class that almost nobody chose because of how difficult it was to master, how weak it was compared to other insane hero classes.  How easy it was to attain compared to the others, almost no prerequisites.  Mages would steer clear of it, melee fighters didn't want to gimp their combat strength.  Felicity watched as Rea began to use hydro hands while holding her spear...  all Rea managed to do was get the spear wet and earn a few chuckles.

"What are you doing?"

Rea gave the woman a flat look, "You wouldn't happen to know how to turn water to ice?"

She returned the look, "Do I look like a mage?"

"Dumb question... there's something I want to work on while I train as a spearman, I have to go see one of the mage instructors.  I'm not sure how long this will take."

Felicity said that Rea should make sure she can do more than make her weapon slip out of her hands before she comes back.  Just as Rea was exiting Felicity added, "Try to focus... for everyone's sake, please focus."

Rea spun around and gave her a one armed salute before marching off.  The instructor was a bit annoyed when her students peered inside the open door to make sure Rea hadn't knocked their teacher out too.  That cost them dearly.

As Rea walked back towards the center path that cut right down the middle of this school, she read through her guidebook about the mage trainers.  Five out of seven of them were women, when she saw that Rea decided it would be better to ask one of the male teachers her questions.  It seemed that they all used one field in common, but there were five separate fields that they used depending on the sort of training.  A field covered in waterworks and aqueducts wasn't very hard to spot when she'd made her way to the mage instructor fields.  Rea also noted that one of the men specialized in water magic, so she was pretty sure that was where Selene would be right now.

What Rea saw really didn't please her.  There were about a dozen students, three she assumed were new ones since the two were sitting near Selene.  As Selene struggled to manifest any sort of response the other two had already started to exhibit basic conjure water.  Rea wasn't upset that Selene was having trouble, she was upset by the pompous arse instructor.  He was obviously Gilleus Hail, the water specialization mage.  Barely as tall as Rea, wearing a light blue, gold embroidered robe, and holding a twisting coral staff.  First of all Rea didn't care for mustaches, second of all she absolutely hated pirate mustaches... this man had one, and a bald head.  There he stood raining praise on two talented new pupils while mocking Selene as an incompetent failure who should hurry off elsewhere.  Rea wasn't sure how easy it was supposed to be to manifest mana as a mage, but that was really pissing her off.  With [Psychometry], if she choose to, she could see that pulsing glow that indicated someones mana pool.  Rea knew that she herself had been gifted with a rather incredible mana pool, but Selene was a once in a lifetime rarity whose threshold was nearly five times as large as her own.  Rea could tell intuitively with [Psychometry] that she'd be able to use a lot of spells before hitting her limit and becoming exhausted.  She'd known about Selene's talent since the day they met in the library.

Another teacher, a woman with long fiery red hair who wasn't using a robe looked about ready to knock the instructor out, so Rea saved her the trouble.  Walking up behind the man she effortlessly toppled him face first into the ground and began to walk towards a gaping Selene.  Her friend let out a slight giggle when Rea snapped her fingers and the instructor gained his own personal raincloud.  "Having trouble Selene?"

The girl sighed with relief, seeing Rea had calmed her nerves, "They said it would come naturally, but I just can't get it."

Rea grinned while sitting down in front of her, "You're a smart girl Selene, you tend to over think things."

"But you've already figured it out, and I'm guessing you did it alone.  I should be able to do this... maybe I really wasn't meant to be a mage," her face was showing a pained expression as she slowly examined her trembling hands.

As the instructor got up and dispelled her parlor trick Rea conjured a ball of water, the man gaped as it fell and left him thoroughly soaked.  The fiery looking red head was trying not to laugh, students were completely and utterly confused by this turn of events.  The man was now slightly... very angry, seething, "Selene has no talent for my gift!  I have no use for failures, both of you are to leave at once!"

Rea scoffed at the bald man as a vein popped out of his forehead, "You are blind Gilleus Hail, a disappointment as a man, a mage, and instructor.  Magic is not your gift, it is our gift."  As Gilleus continued to fume Rea tuned him out and took hold of Selene's hands while gazing into her eyes, "I read about something in a book once, I was half dead at the time," Rea motioned to her left arm, Selene got the picture and took off her glasses, "It mentioned a technique that people used to utilize for training, and combat."  Selene smiled at Rea, she'd already read about forming a line, "It requires trust apparently, do you trust me?"

"You're a novice Rea, that's a really advanced technique... but you did learn several languages in one day," Selene closed her eyes and leaned back, letting Rea feel her weight, "I trust you, probably more than I should, you are insane after all."

Rea laughed off that last remark, "I'm not really sure how to do this... can I get a kiss?"

By now they had gathered a crowd, the instructors knew what Rea was about to try and were genuinely intrigued...  nearly everybody averted their gaze when Selene leaned in to kiss Rea, before she realized they were in public.  Selene made a bashful pout and glared at Rea, "Not here."

Rea's gaze intensified, her eyes became sharper, and her grip firmer.  She attempted to recreate the sensation of her first time manifesting mana, without giving it purpose.  Rea felt the reaction almost immediately, but it wasn't just Selene.  Rea could literally feel herself reaching towards everybody who had gathered around and quickly realized exactly how dangerous this was about to become.  She reeled herself in and spoke, "Mind getting away from us?  I think I almost bonded everybody here, nearly scared the life out of me."

As everyone backed off Rea took note that despite his shortcomings Gilleus seemed genuinely intrigued, Maybe today will be a good lesson for the petty fool...

Rea returned her attention to Selene... the girl had become far too tense for Rea's liking, "If you don't calm down I'm gonna grope you in front of everybody."

Selene sighed and dropped her shoulders, she knew Rea was dead serious.  Surprisingly Rea's attitude had calmed her right back down, "I'm ready."

Rea nodded and repeated the process, she'd felt that there was a hint in the fact that this would combine their effective mana pools.  So Rea just used her raw mana, mana without purpose, to feel Selene's mana pool.  They both gasped at the odd sensation when she did it.

Ability [Mana Bonding] learned.

Ability [Line Mastery Lv. 1] learned.

It had worked, Rea smiled happily as Selene tried to get a grasp on what had just happened.  Rea had been expecting the sensation, Selene had not.  Being hit by Rea's mana would've knocked her off her feet if she'd been standing.  It was at that moment that Selene realized she could see Rea's name, blacksmith level, and all sorts of other information.  The girl began to panic and when Rea asked why she quickly realized that somehow Selene was unintentionally using her [Psychometry].  When Rea knew that she also realized that Selene may have access to her other abilities while they were bonded and quickly instructed Selene on how to repress the [Psychometry].  She knew from experience having learned herself as a young child how to control the odd ability.  Once that was done Rea knew she'd have some explaining to do later, but first she had to shut the spectators up, "Yes we've formed a line, now be quiet and let us get this done."

Half the instructors looked ready to pounce Rea's ass, unfortunately they ended up answering a barrage of questions from the students.  As Rea closed her eyes and attempted to cast a normal sized cloudburst, not directly over head, she was interrupted by gasps.  Rea and Selene could feel more than half of their collective mana pool instantly vanish...  Everybody looked up as a rain cloud formed out of thin air over the entire academia.  They only sat there gaping at the cloud getting soaked in rain for about a minute.  From the direction of the central tower, which Rea would soon find out was the headmaster's office, a beam of light hit the cloudburst and dispelled it. Rea looked at Selene, "Oops."

"No kidding, I got internal mana control, mana operation, and cloudburst.  I should be able to do it now."

Rea let go of her hands and severed the bond, "Can you still use [Psychometry]?"

After a moment of focus Selene replied, "No."

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Rea let off a relieved sigh, "Let's see it then, conjure some water."

As Selene started conjuring pools of water Gilleus approached Rea, "I'm sorry miss..."

Rea was still a bit peeved at the man and gave him a curt reply, "Rea Ainsworth, and I'm not the one you should apologize to right now."

Gilleus looked like a whipped dog as he approached Selene to apologize.  Rea however was now staring right into the fiery red head's fiery red eyes... Uh oh

"I was wondering if you might show me how to use that ancient technique to bond mana pools?"  the woman was happily chatting Rea up.

Rea gave her a very serious gaze, "It requires intimate knowledge of your partner's body, shall we continue in my dorm room?"

The woman didn't have a chance to reply as Rea was brained with a sphere of water and knocked unconscious...  In hindsight she shouldn't have hit on someone in front of Selene, she also probably shouldn't have revealed to everybody that her and Selene had intimate knowledge of one another.

Rea wasn't sure how much time had passed but she woke up on a rather familiar seat of fluffy ultimate fluffy super effective fluffy goodness.  When Rea rolled over to give the dear friend a hug she noticed Selene sitting on a bunk bed playing with a sphere of water.  "I take it I'm in your room?"  Rea grinned when the sphere turned to ice in Selene's hand, "I don't suppose you'd care to teach me how you did that?"

Selene gave her a rather angry glare... that turned apologetic, "Sorry I nailed you earlier."

"No hard feelings, If you didn't nail me I would've tried to nail that teacher," Rea brushed it off nonchalantly... then realized she'd just said something really stupid again.  Selene got up and the water unfroze, as it began to take a familiar form Rea burrowed backwards into the fluffy friend, "Oh god, wait Selene I didn't really mean that you know... ok I did mean it, but I promise I won't do it again until after we're done with the academia."

Selene mouthed the words ~until after~ while the form floating above her hand became more clear.  Rea nodded apologetically, Selene gave in, "I know that's just how you are Rea, please don't do it where I can see it again.  Okay?"

"I won't... so can you put that down now?" Selene gave Rea one of her own impish grins, Rea wholeheartedly regretted corrupting this young woman. "You've got a really good memory, don't you?"

Selene crouched down in front of Rea, the object had fully formed.  "It's a little hard to forget the first dragon I ever saw..."

Rea laughed nervously, "You know they're usually not that big?"

Selene shrugged, "I figured... you know my parents would kill me if they knew that this is one of the first things I'm using my magic to do."

*shimmy shimmy* "Which is why you shouldn't do it."

The girl's vacant expression at that moment said leaps and bounds about Rea, "You'd be a lot more convincing if you hadn't already taken off your pants."

Rea laid back and looked at the ceiling, "What can I say, I follow my impulses and I've sworn off men.  You just made something that I really thought I wouldn't get to play with for the better part of a hundred years.  Can you blame me?"

Selene wasn't exactly sure how this goes but she had the general idea, "I can blame you, you're a bad friend Rea and I do trust you a lot more than I should." Rea was about to fire off a snappy comeback when Selene buried the dragon full speed.

*Oooooow!*  Rea looked down at a grinning Selene, "Uhhhhh, normally there's this thing called forepla... ahhhhh! Wait, wait, wai...!" *UNIVEEERSE!*

Selene didn't pay attention to Rea's complaints for the first two or three minutes, when Rea started to grind her hips Selene knew she was enjoying herself...

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About an hour later Selene's roommate, a green haired girl, walked in and dropped her books on the floor before staggering into the door slamming it shut.  Rea was arched backwards over the fluffy seat her new roommate had brought with her, half naked and delirious.  Her new roommate Selene hadn't noticed the girl walk in. Selene was Really focused on the task at hand and it wasn't until Rea bit her lip and began to convulse while wrapping her legs around Selene's waist that the girl was noticed by them.  Rea literally passed out as Selene looked up, "Welcome back Nel..."

"... I'm back... should I wait outside?"

Selene started to get Rea more decent, "I doubt she would mind."

"Done?"

Selene nodded as she slapped the delirious Rea awake.

Rea shot up and hugged Selene, "Marry me!" Looking over Selene's shoulder she remembered the girl, "I'm not a jealous wife, feel free to ask Selene for anything."  Rea's eyes went wide as she said anything.  The girl blushed profusely and Selene started to smack Rea, "I do not promote domestic violence!"

"I'm not marrying you, my parents would kill me."

Rea pursed her lips and cocked her head, "First concubine?"

*Splash!*

Selene and her roommate chuckled at the woman who now looked like a drowned cat, "That reminds me, teach me how to turn water to ice and freely manipulate it like you were doing." She got a very skeptical look from both of them, "Spellsword."

As soon as Rea said that with a serious look on her face Selene understood and sat down in front of Rea.  This time without holding hands Rea formed a line.  She closely paid attention as Selene demonstrated multiple times what she'd done.

Ability [Freezing Lv. 1] learned.

Ability [Mana Operation Rank Up].

Ability [Line Mastery Rank Up].

When they were done Rea thanked Selene honestly, as the bookworm explained that conjure water isn't as powerful as the other spells but it allows the use of any free form.  Spells like frozen arrow would always hit harder than an arrow formed by conjure water and freezing.  Conjuring was seen by most water mages as a way to create and learn new spells.  When Rea raised both hands and formed two minor dragons at the same time while offering to thank them both she got kicked out.  Selene felt a little bad about what she'd done as she was cutting a section of the fluffy seat off to replace it... she really hadn't expected Rea to be a virgin.

Rea was walking super bow legged as she staggered up the stairs to her own dorm room.  She sat outside and quietly hoped that Sereda wouldn't decide to take advantage of her current state and make her break a few more limbs.  Before she got up Rea silently swore to never piss Selene off again, the girl had just gotten a powerful weapon after all.  When Rea did stagger through the door she burst out laughing.  There was Sereda, sitting obediently in the middle of a room that looked like a kid had tried to hastily put back together.

"I wasn't really mad about the room Sereda."

The bronze skinned woman wasn't sure what to make of Rea, she'd seemed unshakable before, but now she was obviously shaken... "I owe you a better apology, I had to beg for years to get here.  My father wanted me to be a blacksmith... marry a blacksmith, and I wanted to be an adventurer.  When I first arrived this room reminded me of the way he used to decorate my room."

Rea laughed as she tore down the seriously messed up drapes, wrapped them around herself, then laid down with her head in Sereda's lap. "So you tried to break my hand?"

Sereda pursed her lips at the odd ophidian, "I don't handle my anger very well... I'll try to be better from now on."

"So I take it you want to be a warrior of some sort?"

Rea admired her bronze skin and burrowed a head deeper as she listened, "I... realized I don't like pain, so I'll be an earth mage."

"... can I give you some advice?" Rea stopped taking advantage and gazed up into Sereda's unique eyes.  The woman nodded to her, "Don't become a mage, I've only seen a handful of people with such a small mana pool, and if I'm right the starting mana pool also has something to do with potential."

Sereda frowned sadly, "I really didn't like getting hurt though."

"Well you said earth mage right?"

"I've the divine protection of a demigod, it's the reason for my skin color."

Rea smiled at the girl, "How about you try something more agile, a [Job] where you aren't expected to fight up close.  I know you want to take advantage of your affinity for earth, but I'd hate for you to miss out on the potential there is inside of you."  Sereda's eyes widened as she looked down at Rea with a slight nudge, urging her to go on, "Well you're damn strong for not having done any training... you haven't trained yet right?" Sereda shook her head, her father had planned to marry her off after all, "Then it's simple, get something that will take advantage of your strength..." Rea's eyes shined, "... you could start with chucking spears, wanna come train with me?"

Sereda's lips raised, almost forming a smile, "Yes."

As Rea started to get up she winced in pain and quickly collapsed on Sereda's lap, "Can you carry me to bed?"

As the bronze giant picked her up she asked Rea, "What happened?"

Rea rolled her eyes, "I forgot that being reborn means popping your cherry again... I really would've asked for something smaller if I'd remembered, at least I enjoyed it this time..."  Rea's mood soured as she thought back to her warped past.

Sereda gave her a puzzled look while setting Rea down on the lower bunk, she wasn't quite tall enough to put her up top. "I, uh, don't like being so far off the ground..."

Rea didn't like sleeping alone so this was actually pretty lucky, "I don't mind sharing a bunk," Rea flipped up a sheet, "get in."

Sereda didn't hesitate and Rea did her damn best not to take advantage of the pure woman... the pain was reminding her of what happened the last time she pursued a pure maiden.  The ophidian wasn't sure if she could handle two women with a warped personality, so she only burrowed in and started to fall asleep.  Suffice to say it had been one long day.  That fact that she'd snuggled up to this woman covered in supple muscle and pleasant smelling, alluring bronze skin wasn't helping her fall asleep.  When Rea thought that perhaps with a little creativity [Thermoregulation] and [Conjure Water] may become an incredible combination she really, really had a hard time falling asleep.

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