Azura was thankful for the work he was buried in now that classes had started. Thanks to his copies he was managing to complete every class he had any interest in each day, but the flip side of that was that he had to spend a couple hours before going to bed on assimilating everything he had learned safely. He had learned a lesson about taking in too much information too quickly when he was younger. That migraine had stuck with him for weeks.
Still it all helped keep his mind off of the absolute failure that was his meeting with his father. At least he had time before his father would be able to get the necessary materials to null his contact with Alaya. 6 months at the absolute minimum, most likely closer to 8. His father had plenty of resources, but even for him some things weren’t so easily obtained. Thankfully it wasn’t the season for nova lilies, and he doubted anyone would be selling them. They had too many uses.
“Condensing mana is an extremely valuable skill to have. The denser you can make your mana the more you can store, and the more powerful spells you can cast.” He was only half listening to the instructor. Nothing had been said that he didn’t already know yet, which wasn’t surprising. They were still in the first week after all. The only reason he had even been paying half attention to these lectures was in case any of his friends asked him about any of the classes they themselves weren’t able to attend.
Not to say he hadn’t learned anything so far. These may be the basic courses, but he by no means had studied everything, so a lot of these courses were great entryways into topics he didn’t know much about. He even went to some of the classes that didn’t really interest him, or rather his copies did. It’s always better to be prepared, and he had recently learned that even when you think you're prepared all it takes is one thing you didn’t think of to be your downfall.
He once more turned his attention to the person teaching the class. The teacher was a kind looking woman with long brown hair with waves in the back, and glasses over her forest green eyes. What was her name again? Ms. Veridian? He should really pay more attention to certain bits. Still she obviously knew a great deal about what she was teaching, because even if only for a moment. When he walked past her into the classroom he had felt an impressive amount of mana from her. She was probably among the top 10 people he had ever met when it came to mana condensing, maybe even the top 5.
“Now I’m sure you all remember the trial where we had you put mana into a bunch of different kinds of crystals to see where you are at. I will be using those results to assign tasks, so I don’t want to hear any complaining about someone else’s task being better than yours. The tasks are assigned based on skill level, so if you want a better 1 that’s all the more reason to practice hard.” He winced at the reminder of the trial that caused him a great deal of pain. Or rather 1 of the trials that did so. Still he had gotten through most of the tests before the incident, so there shouldn’t be any problem placing him.
He watched her hand out packets of papers to each student. The classroom was obviously designed to be a sparring area. The floor was polished wood, that like the walls and ceiling was obviously reinforced, and there weren any desks or chairs leaving everyone with the option to either stand or sit on the floor, since ms. Viridian had said at the beginning not to use any magic unless she ok’d it. It wasn’t too long before she made it to him, and bent over to hand him the papers with a confused look in her eye. Not surprising as he was the only one not in the front row who had decided to sit.
He took his packet without a word and nodded at the teacher before she moved onto the next student. He read through his packet and raised a brow. He had never heard of this exercise before, and that was an unusual occurrence for him. His father had taught him anything that the man thought could make him even a little bit stronger, which led to him already knowing about most training techniques. Then again, this wasn’t exactly something his father would encourage, after all it required a partner. Worse still Roran and Cynthia were the only ones he knew taking this class at this time block, and Roran was way better than him at this, and he was way better than Cynthia so neither of them would be able to be his partner.
He debated dispelling a copy, but he decided it was more important to have them do what they were doing than to use a copy just so he didn’t have to socialize. He stood up and stretched a bit to relieve the tension sitting still for an hour had caused. Reluctantly he started talking to the other students to see who might have the same task he did. At least there were only 13 people here.
***
Luna was ecstatic, today was the first day there had been a physical combat class, and she was more than eager to participate in it. Sure she was already really good at physical combat, and her time might have been better spent in a magic related class, but Azura said that he would help her keep up with the other classes that she needed help with. All though between all that and trying to learn the anti-magic field that Azura was still teaching her she didn’t have a lot of time to relax.
Speaking of Azura, she was really jealous of that copy ability. He was currently sparring with another student who was half a foot taller than him. The guy was bulky, and clearly knew how to use his size to his advantage. Azura was doing fairly well though, he was never in the same place long enough for the guy to get ahold of him, and his reflexes were clearly well honed. It just wasn’t fair that he got to be here and 4 other places all at once. Still at least the rest of them got to benefit from his power as well, she couldn’t imagine how hard time management would be for everyone else.
She winced as Azura flipped his opponent. Being flipped like that would hurt anyone, but a guy that big would definitely be feeling that in the morning. She wondered why he used his copies so rarely in combat, they were as tough as the real thing. Maybe it would limit the mana he had for spellcasting a little, but that seemed like a fair trade to her. Then again she was a little biased, since she was a close combat specialist.
She watched Azura help his opponent up before he walked over to her. “That was a good match, you played to your advantages really well.” She was hoping to get a chance to spar against him, she would win, they both knew it, but it would be good practice for both of them. He smiled and pulled back his shoulders to stretch his back.
“I try. Still he was pretty good, if magic enhancement was allowed I definitely would have lost.” She rolled her eyes. He only would have lost because he didn’t leave this copy with much magic since he wouldn’t be using it anyway. He wasn’t wrong though, his opponent was fairly skilled, and with enhancement his physical strength was probably pretty monstrous.
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“Yeah, I’ve actually been a little surprised by how good everyone in this class is.” Though it made sense, there were only 8 people, and everyone in this class was someone who chose to do the most physically draining class first thing in the morning. Aside from Azura who wouldn’t get his copies exhaustion, everyone else here would have to deal with sore muscles the rest of the day.
“It’s to be expected, after all the people that chose this over any of the more magically oriented classes for their morning class are going to be dedicated to this kind of combat.” She chuckled softly. Azura probably knew that she had already come to that conclusion, but he couldn’t resist explaining things, he was a teacher through and through. “Best physical combatants or not, you’re definitely the best out of the 8 of us. I’m a little wary of sparring with you to be honest.”
She flushed. She had been part of the first sparring match, and the fight had been a little one sided. Still she’d say her opponent was weaker than Azura’s opponent, but stronger than the other 2 that fought. Although she kind of got the impression that most of them were missing a big piece of their fighting style. All of them fought as if there was something else they would normally do, and they were restraining their instincts. Her fighting style was physical through and through, so she had no such impulses to fight. “Oh please, no magic or limiting it to enhancement only is the only way I’d be able to beat you.”
“Yeah, no magic happens to be the rule of this class. Just don’t expect me to go down easily.” She smiled softly, she didn’t think Azura was capable of going down easily, if he did she’d be worried he had some crazy scheme up his sleeve.
“Of course not, what would be the fun in that? Don’t expect me to go easy on you either.” Her friends had really helped her awaken her competitive spirit, and this kind of combat was the one thing she wouldn’t lose at to anyone.
***
Azura slightly regretted taking the illusion class as one of the ones he was doing in the first time block. He knew objectively he was just a copy, but that didn’t make the experiences any less terrifying. Of course he was partnered with Katy who had taken to shadow magic, and more recently with the help of her new familiar illusions. She was much better than he had expected her to be for someone who had only recently learned this type of magic, but he supposed shadow magic was a pretty good entryway into the field.
He heard the sound of a person running up behind him, but his other senses told him that was a fake out. He stayed on guard as the sound closed in followed by the sound of a blade cutting through air. However, as expected, nothing actually happened to him. He then jumped to the side as the real attack came from above. Katy only briefly occupied the space he had been in before she once again disappeared into the shadows. He took this class less to learn how to use illusions himself, and more to learn about countering them.
“Surely this isn’t all you can do? You better not be taking it easy on me.” He rolled his eyes. He definitely wasn’t going easy. He wasn’t going all out per se, but his all out involved burning limited resources, so he wouldn’t be going all out regardless of his opponent if it was just a low stakes spar.
“Well the original didn’t expect us to go straight into spars when he made me for this class.” It was a little odd referring to himself as he, he even had the memory of making himself, the only difference between the original and him was a sense of permanence that he lacked. He had more mana stored in him than the copy in the physical combat class, but a lot less than the copy in the mana manipulation class.
“That’s unlike you, normally you're prepared for anything.” He winced, his failure to properly prepare for his father was still fresh. Katy finally made her move lunging at him, only to be surprised when she went straight through. He pointed his sword at her neck from his actual location a couple feet away.
“I’m nowhere near as skilled with illusions as you are, but copies, well I do have a bit of a natural affinity for that.” Natural affinity and lots of practice that is. Making an illusion of himself was actually a little more difficult than making a full copy, but it took way less mana, and he could maintain a lot more than 4 at once.
She raised her hands up. “Allright, you got me this time, but that trick will only work once.” Of course he knew she’d never fall for the same thing twice, but coming up with new strategies was his strong suit, and he already had a couple other surprises ready for Katy when they sparred again. She definitely had the upper hand, but all it takes is one mistake to turn a fight on its head. As she now knew since she lost a spar she had spent the first 3 minutes of freaking him out and keeping him disoriented. She had been 1 step ahead the whole time, until the very end.
The shadow faded revealing the room, and the other students. The teacher for this was a tall man with his black hair slicked back. Before he had the students spar to get a grasp of their abilities he had shown them the pinnacle of illusion magic, and to say Azura was impressed would be a massive understatement. It was an illusion that fooled all the senses, to the point it might as well have been real. Certainly a useful skill, but he’d guess that it wasn’t cheap to maintain an illusion of that caliber.
“Well done, both of you. Katy your illusion magic was quite impressive, but take the lesson at the end there to heart. With illusions always remember less is more. The bigger the illusion the more likely an opponent is to realize it’s an illusion, the key is to make them question what’s real and what isn’t, if you overdo it, it’s easy to tell the illusion from reality. Azura, while it’s clear you don’t have the same skill in illusion magic as Katy. It’s also clear you have a better grasp on how best to use it. An illusion is best used when they least expect it, well done.
Professor Kaiden was probably his favorite of the teachers he had met so far. He had taken a few classes from the man, and he always gave very helpful criticism. Most people called the man harsh but fair. Kaiden never hesitated to point out flaws or honestly evaluate the abilities of the students. Some students complained, but he rather appreciated it. The honest feedback was rough to hear sometimes, but it would help a lot more than empty platitudes.
In this case he was sure Katy would benefit from his comments a great deal. “Thank you professor.” Katy was sulking after having lost a fight based around a skill she was far superior to him in, but he could tell by the twitch of her ears that she had heard, and by the slight narrowing of her eyes that she had taken the advice to heart. He had to say, he hadn’t quite expected the boost to his senses from the spirit contract to be quite so extreme, it was like night and day.
It definitely explained how Katy always managed to find him first. She no doubt heard him coming long before she came into his sensory range. According to the books he had read, a spirit contract with a dragon would have a more prominent boost to his strength and speed, and it would increase the power of his magic a good deal, but the sensory boost would be much less. Even then that’s assuming it was a standard wolf spirit, but he got the feeling Alaya wasn’t just your average wolf spirit.
He would protect this contract from his father. He didn’t know how yet, but he was determined. Step 1 was going to be finding a way to protect his sister, that was ultimately more important, and he couldn’t protect his contract while she was still at risk. He wasn’t sure Lilian would be willing to protect her, and even if she was it would start a war. His father wouldn’t just let something like that go, and all of the smaller nobles would pick a side hoping for political favors. He shook his head, class wasn’t the time to be thinking about this, he’d think about it more later. He couldn’t afford to rush this, he had learned the consequences for that first hand.