Summoning… that sounded so cool…

It had been promised to him by Gerald, the man he had come to acknowledge as someone so powerful they could probably shake the earth around him with a thought. So obviously, he had followed their words to the letter.

So why the hell was Elliot being forced to deal with this crap!? As that thought came to his head, said head was smacked by the little demon instructor known as Hannah. He groaned in pain as he fell forward, not because it actually hurt but rather to spend at least some time with his eyes open. Even if all he could see was this barren, empty room without even a single chair.

Hannah wasn’t having it though.

“Gah! Teacher told me you’d lose focus but I didn’t think it’d be this bad! Stop thinking and just meditate!!”’

She pushed him with her foot while he was down, and it wasn’t until he finally sludged back up into a sitting stance that she stopped, forcing him to regain the center of mana inside him.

Three days had passed since he’d come to this hell-hole, and in those days he’d experienced something much worse than the expected torturous training and beatings. No, what came instead was something he wouldn’t wish upon his worst enemy.

Mainly, sitting and staying still.

He’d almost gone insane, being cooped up in a blank room for hours at a time. Worse had been when Old man Gerald had seen the lacking progression on the second day and stood next to him to watch the whole time. The man had been busy today, apparently, and had sent the little lie-detector apprentice to watch.

The same girl who, just a few days ago, was having trouble dealing with him, was now using brute strength to make him meditate nonstop. Even Gerald would have at least given him a break.

…Well, no he wouldn’t have.

This went on for another two hours, until he had run out of mana and the girl had gone away for her own training. She’d have been back within the next two hours but that meant Elliot was given enough time to slack a bit. He obviously didn’t, though.

Still sitting on the floor, Elliot breathed in and practiced taking in the surrounding mana, with the mana sense Gerald had so specifically told him to keep quiet. With Hannah around he hadn’t been able to use his energy to the fullest, so it had left him to practice a rather faulty source to cultivate with.

That didn’t mean much in the short term, but if he kept that up for as long as he’d been with Hannah, he was bound to run out eventually, even if meditation only used a bit of mana.

His reserves were just that crappy, after all.

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Breathing in, he sensed the mana around him and laughed, a satisfying sensation spreading through him as the air regained its magnificent spectral blue color. The world was visible again, even in his blind state. Now, he could really have fun with his training.

Taking in the mana at almost twice the speed of when that damn girl was here, he couldn’t help but wish his teacher would have more trust in his ability to train on his own...

Still, Hannah had only been doing what was told of her, and she’d even given him points on how to train that even his teacher hadn’t told him about, so Elliot couldn’t really blame her. Like teacher, like student, he supposed. And just like her teacher Hannah was a real prude.

Fortunately the other student wasn’t taking that same attitude.

Not that she was any less difficult. As Elliot heard the knock on the room, he released his mana sense. He became more confident of his assumption as a pale hand opened the door, leaving a plate with a meal of fish and potatoes, along with a glass of some strange red drink.

It was Tiffany, her head poking through the opening for just one second.

“I got this in case of… I-if you’re… for when you’re hungry. Bye.”

He didn’t get the chance to thank her since her head disappeared and the door slammed shut, leaving him back in the empty room. She had been like this since he had woken up, too terrified to get an actual word in with him. This was despite literally being his life-line during the whole coma fiasco, and it bugged him that he never got the chance to really thank her.

…He’d wear her down eventually, he supposed. Like the cat near his old home, enough time around them and they’ll stop thinking of him as the bad guy… Though he was sure Hannah wouldn’t try to claw his eyes out, so it’d be just a bit easier.

Soon, maybe he’d keep her in one place long enough to apologize to her.

He sighed, letting the mana bottling up inside him out with an exhale, filling the air with an even thicker energy. The air was so dense he could no longer ‘see’ past the fog, and he grinned as his every inch of self buzzed with an intensity unlike anything else. It was beautiful, and it was terrifying to think this wasn’t even a fraction of the mana the two girls had inside them.

But that was that, and this was this…

And right now, this was amazing.

And his training went along like that for about three hours. One hour before Hannah came back, enough time for Elliot to make sure the girl wouldn’t enter in on him using ‘Mana sense’. He still wasn’t sure why the old man didn’t want them to know, but he didn’t want them to be jealous or anything.

With a look like she was being forced to chew on fat, the girl came into the room, eyeing him like a roach. He just smiled, making sure not to make her any madder than necessary. Luckily, what came behind her made the smile a bit more genuine.

“Hey, Gerald.”

The old man walked right behind his student with a grin on his face. On his back he was carrying some sack of… something. Whatever it was, it filled the room with an earthy scent, along with a scent of…

Mint?

“...I see you’ve been training, boy. Good to see you being at least a bit diligent. Now, get up and follow me. We have plenty to do.”

He followed along, a simple smile on his face, even when he saw a giant cauldron with water outside. After all, even with mana sense, meditation was basically just him sitting in a room. This would be a nice change of pace.

…What was the worst that could happen, right?