Maybe I should've prepared a heat barrier?

Well, too late now. Little to no warning was given as she activated her powers, akin to a animal breaking out of its cage. Luckily the flames came out of her back, around her tailbone to be precise.

It started out wispy but quickly grew into a large and thick tail, flowing around like its alive. It was easily taller than her, floating a couple inches off the ground. It scratched the floor a couple times, showing the reason why there were scorch marks around. The pure coloum of flame coming out of the girl was quite the spectacle, her tense face showing she was quite numb to that and was more cautious than anything.

This was quite unexpected though, I was planning for just testing her pyrokinesis level but this changes it quite a bit. I decide to grab a vein from below, bringing it up behind her unexpectedly. I turned it into a psuedo training dummy, a cylinder of metal would be more accurate.

"Attack it."

The plan is simple, all I have to do is assess her limits and then break those limits until she's powerful enough. Eventually, and hopefully, she decides to take a journey on her own with the boy and doesn't bring her protagonist stuff to me. It is pretty exciting seeing a pretty unique power, it being cooler then my standard control. Obviously she doesn't have much control over her powers so she definitely isn't making the tail subconsciously, which means that her way of manipulating fire is through this. In some ways it's better than just element control, her not having to focus on holding the tail together makes it easier to focus on fighting. Obviously I win with sheer power, basic flames can only do so much against a house sized cube of metal. My power seems to be static, I suppose I haven't tested its limits though. Things for later, right now the girl is doing rather poorly.

She seems to have little to no control over the tail, I couldn't see her face but she seemed rather upset if her grunts had anything to say. She even stomped at it once, a promising burst of flame came out of the top when she did that but nothing else follows. I gave her a minute, nothing happens in that time frame.

"You can stop now, we'll have to start at lower level if this is the case."

A fume of smoke came out of the end once more, wonder why.

She turns to me, diverted eyes and crossed arms greeting me. Honestly I guess I shouldn't be surprised, she was probably waiting for this academy thing to start training with it. I suppose for now we should start a bit less physical, opening up a dialogue on this might be better.

"I suppose you've almost never practiced with it?"

"You couldn't tell?"

Alright, I tried doing this the nice way. Now it's time to do this the protagonist way, through physical combat.

I wipe my pants off and get up, holding my hand out to the metal post. Using a invisible cutter I form a simple rod of metal, a beating stick if you will. I decide to stick with one for now, she should be plenty occupied with this much. I give it a twirl before letting it float infront of me, the rod hovering menacingly

"I've concluded that a different method will be required for this. Your goal is simple, you must reach me. That is all, you may begin when you're ready."

She gives me a blink, looking at the floating metal.

"That's it?"

"I assure you, that is all."

She thinks about it for a minute, before making a mad dash towards me. Her speed was a bit faster than I expected but the end result will be the same, the rod zooms forward at my command and gives her a tap on the head. She crumples to the floor immediately, causing my fear to start doing backflips. I gave a internal sigh of relief when she let out a groan, rising to her feet just as quick as she hit the floor. A visible bruise on her forehead now, her eyes giving me death stares. Her tail still out and now becoming a bit more erratic in it's movements, as I suspected her tail is linked to her emotional state. Like most fire powers it seems to be pretty instinctual, less technical and more hands on stuff.

Another running Ember soon comes at me, this time her eyes tracking the obstacle that is the beating stick. I go for another simple head tap, this one a with a little less force. Thankfully she's learning, she dodged the rod on the first swing. Missed the second to the back of her head though, sending her to the floor again. At this rate the tail will become a factor in global warming with the amount of smoke it's producing, reflecting the anger on her face. She says nothing, getting back up again and this time not immediately attacking me. I decide to take a seat on the floor, crossing my legs and getting into a comfortable postition. About as comfortable one can be on hard rock, I'll have to get some kind of pillow or blanket for this later.

Eventually Ember starts doing something with her tail, using her hands to mimic it's movements in the wind. Ahh, she's copying my style of controlling my powers. I probably should've said something about that before, oh well she learned it now. I can just chalk it up to wanting her to learn it the hard way if she asks, I might get sideye for it but I should be fine. The hand movements seem to be doing somewhat of a job, the tail actually starting to copy the hands a little bit when she doesn't mirror it perfectly. She realizes this as well, she then stops and closes her eyes.

Minutes later she appears to have semi-control over it, moving it awkwardly but moving it where she wants too nontheless. She seems to be using her whole body instead of just her hands, moving the position of her feat to direct where she wants it to point for example. I give a nod at this, about to give her some advice that she was on the right track.

"I see you've learned of my control using my ha-"

"ARHHHHH"

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What the hell, she just started yelling and charging at me. Rude, the beating stick agrees with me and decide to take action. Unfortunately, I suppose fortunately if I was her, she actually stopped mid charge and started moving her tail to intercept it. I decide not to move my path, sure that my stick will stri-

*FWOosh*

It deflected it, the tail deflected it. More then that it actually repelled it, like it was solid and could actually do that. I've severely underestimated protagonist training, she's already surpassed my beating stick. I get a sinister grin at the deflection, Ember resuming her charge with her tail front and center.

I knew she would learn quick but after 3 tries? I wipe the disbelief off my face, starting to move the iron rod again. Ember sees this, stopping again to confront the metal.

-Timeskip-

Thankfully my lack of sword skills was made up for by the maneuverability I have when I can just fly them around, able to attack from any angle in the air. This allowed me to keep up with Ember's fast growth, for the most part.

Ember has improved her control over the tail by leaps and bounds, the only thing she has yet to learn is how to run and control it at the same time. My guess is that she can't just learn how to control a extra limb fully in just a day, I'd give her a week at most though.

The day was coming too a close, the sun setting signifying the end of the training. Ember agreed with me as she layed down on the floor, taking deep breaths. She had physical and mental exhaustion, this tail was gone as she was too tired to keep it activated. Something I noticed as well was that she only had burn marks on her clothing when the tail got to close to her, showing that she had some level of resistance to fire.

I also learned something else, her deflecting was more physics abiding then I thought. After observing parry numerous times I noticed that it was actually a strong burst of fire concentrating at that one point and then bursting out of the tail at once, I chalk up how it's even possible for it to deflect me to magic. I imagine it to be something like dynamite, it's quick and powerful. Unfortunately in that way it's exactly like dynamite, it wouldn't do well against prolonged attacks like and energy beam or something. Possibly even enough quick attacks could tire her out, the fact that she can be is clear enough.

Interesting enough I don't have any fatigue from this prolonged battle, keeping my cool teacher vibe going. Thankfully this training sesssion has given me a couple ideas on what to teach her next, well more like just saying a half baked idea and letting the protagonist fill in the rest.

But now it's time to be the bearer of bad news.

"Our session will end here, the day has ended and you are sufficiently exhausted."

I got a sigh of relief from Ember, I internally agree and decide to call it a night.

Accomplishment Detected Reward: E-Rank Coupon

Oh?

This was a surprise, a welcome surprise. I take a seat back on the rocky ground, pondering about this. Well it wasn't too hard to figure out why this happened, I did a accomplishment. The System seems to be going for the more broad route, it rewards me based on a task or action that it deems noteworthy.

This provides me with two things, the first being how to actually gather the Store Coupons. I didn't receive any when I completed the quest, it does occur to me now that I didn't complete the job though so that might be why. The second confirming that at least Ember was special, giving her a couple hours worth of beat down being good in the Systems eye.

I was only a little bit serious in my thinking that these two were protagonists but now the System has confirmed it, this causes a dilemma. Now that I know a safe way to farm Coupons I could stay here and train them for a long period of time, the Rank of the Coupons could increase if they had breakthroughs in power. Or I could go with my original plan of becoming a ore locator and travel the world while uncovering veins of rare ore, that would also most likely get me Accomplishments.

Saying this in my head leads me to lean towards the ore locator path, the only downside is that I would be in more danger than if I stayed here. Although if this is the protagonists village then this might also be a dangerous place, when they inevitably upset the kingdoms the nobles might take petty vengeance on this place.

But that's for later, right now I'm thinking I just train them until I can set off on my journey. I can just keep collecting Coupons and doing quests when I need to until I can set off, I do need to find the taste of a rare ore to be able to find it so I'll have to look around for some. Most likely a blacksmith or store will have it, that will have to wait until the town is defrosted though.

Well, it all comes down to waiting in the end. Well I should just take one step at a time, for now I'll have to just find a soft patch of grass nearby.

Sigh, still waiting on that slee-

My eyes widen at a sudden realization, I quickly pull up the Store search option and look up something life changing.

Name Tent Product Type Item Rank E Description A 2 person sized tent, folds up and fits onto most Store backpacks

Heh, suck it ground.

I hold off on purchasing the item for now, Ember was still here and would most likely freak out at the sudden arrival of a package. If she asks where it came from I can just say I've been camping nearby, my backstory is that I traveled all the way here so it would line up.

I announce my leave, eager to sleep in a actual tent.

"I will meet you here tomorrow for another lesson, do not make me wait long."

I got nothing in response, she appeared to have passed out on the ground. She would most likely be sore tomorrow, the rock ground doing nothing to alleviate her muscles. The boy as well, being left out in the night wouldn't be good for these two.

...

Anyways, I purchase the tent. The package appeared in front of me, I open it and a small rolled up green tent is inside. The package disappears after I take it out, eliminating the evidence. That answers my question where the one from my Ferrokinesis pill went to, I didn't pay much attention to it after and the instant disappearance of it makes it easy for it to escape ones notice.

I move over to the softer grass of the forest, unfolding the simple tent. It was a typical triangle shape, nothing special. The poles in it were made of iron, I might be able to learn how to fold and unfold it quickly if I tried. I climb in, the inside was warm and spacious enough for me to usually fall asleep instantly.

Sleep did not come, a lump in my throat making it hard to sleep easy. After a few minutes of tossing and turning I give up and succumb to my morals, picking up the two kids and putting them side by side in the tent.

I might've been able to fit but that would diminish my cool guy appearance so I just take a place next to it, hopefully making a cocoon for the last time around me.

Sleep came quickly despite the cold air.