Zac sat down in a meditation posture and started thinking about his family and what became of them. Moving your Mana throughout your body needs concentration, but the students of the Actual Combat Class were taught about a simple trick by Soma. Soma assigned Mana Control training to his students as homework right at the start of the Academic year and at the same time, he taught them a trick that will allow them to train their Mana Control easier. The trick was that since training Mana Control doesn’t require one to move at all, so they ought to do it as they do something else that doesn’t require them to move and would lead to them losing track of time.
In essence, Soma taught them how to turn Mana Control training into a habit they can run on auto-pilot. He instructed them to train in Mana Control as they review what they learned during classes and to do simulation training in their minds to think about their limits and how to go past them in the right situation. At the start, they couldn't do both things at the same time, training has the impression of being a chore after all, but as they started to show results in-class training became more and more enjoyable. And with the impression of it being a chore gone, they became able to do Mana Control training and the image training at the same time. They would go at it for hours without them noticing and would stop only when they run out of MP. Other than gaining the skill [Mana Control] and leveling it up, and their maximum MP kept increasing more than expected with each level up and at this point, all of them have gained the [MP Recovery Speed] skill.
And right now they are trying to do just that, they each took the most comfortable posture for them and started doing image training as they moved their Mana in circles throughout their bodies using the [Mana Control] skill. Zac was looking back at his past, looking at the first time he learned about his family’s actions, looking at the time he was yelled at by his brothers and mother for not acting like a proper Glorious Noble, looking back at the time he spent waiting to reach adulthood. Even though his oldest brother died and his mother and his two brothers are going to face a fate worse than just dying. His mother and two brothers were sentenced to Death Row Slavery, a punishment given to those who have caused a lot of death to innocent people. Death Row Slavery is in essence an execution, but rather than just killing them normally, they are killed by overworking them to death as slaves that can’t be freed. Even with that, Zac didn’t feel sorry for them, instead, he feels strangely happy that justice was served to them.
If an outsider knew about what's going on inside Zac’s mind, the outsider will shout at him “They are your family!! How could you think like that?!”. But Zac would respond calmly with “What about the children kidnapped and turned slaves and sold as playthings by my family? What about the pregnant women who were given addictive drugs as medicine to relieve pain and then turned into slaves once they became hopelessly addicted to the drug? What about the men who were tricked to think that they were being helped by lending them small amounts of money to feed their families only for them to be raided one day to be turned into slaves along with their families? Those men signed documents that specify the amount they took, but the documents were modified later on and the amount was changed, you know. Didn’t all of those people have families? What about those sold to criminals? What about those sold to bandits only to be turned into Zombies and Ghouls?”.
Zac is someone very good at leading others on the battlefield, and right now he is trying to shake himself up ever so slightly while trying to keep his Mana moving without disturbance. As the leader, Zac needs the ability to adapt to any and all situations as fast as possible. That’s why he is trying to stir his emotions but keep his mind calm and what happened to his family today is the perfect chance to do that.
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On the other hand, David was thinking of new ways to fight, he is trying to come up with a new fighting style that incorporates the mage style that he has been using until now with a more physical style. Up until now, David was a pure mage type of fighter, a rearguard to be more precise. He along with Zeek and Emma were rearguards that fight with magic from the back, Zac and Alice are in the middle, Zac with his spear, and Alice with her bow and with her sword when the need for it arises. Anolan is the tank that attracts the enemy’s attention with his big build and greatsword. Nad and Rimi would attack from Anolan’s sides while The Four Brothers disable the enemy’s means of attack by attacking the joints and tendons of the enemy.
But what if another enemy appears from behind the rearguards? And what if David had to fight alone? In preparation for such situations, David had been training his body along leveling up, and he has been training on how to fight using a mace as a weapon. He was wondering if his staff can be reinforced, so he can use it as a mace. And thus the reinforcement of his staff was left to The Four Brothers or more like they are making a new staff for him. Starting this week, the Magic Item Creation Class stopped taking classes from Soma, instead, they were sent by him to work at the Craftsmen Guild until the end of this month as a test. The Magic Item Creation students are going to be evaluated based on their performance there, but that leaves The Four Brothers. The Four Brothers were given a different test by Soma, their test was to work together with David to make a staff sturdy enough to be used as a mace, and they were tasked with embedding it with some interesting abilities as well. The staff will be evaluated at the duel between David and Greed at the end of the month, and David right now was doing image training to come up with a new fighting style.
Close to Soma and Marina, Rimi and Alice were doing image training to learn how to fight as support to Soma and Marina. Rimi intends to join Soma’s party and Alice intends to follow Rimi to the bitter end. After coming back from Elk, Rimi sent a letter to her brother through the Merchants Guild asking him to incorporate her Second-Order Knights into his First Knights Order and to make preparations for her, so she can accompany Soma right after graduating from the Academy. And right now she is trying to find a way to advance her fighting style, so she can support Soma from now on.
From the entrance of the training grounds, the students and teacher of the Knighthood Class could be seen standing there and looking at the Actual Combat students lazing around in the training grounds. From their perspective, the Actual Combat students were sitting and laying around in the training grounds that is supposed to be used for training, even though they have a duel against them, they can afford to laze around?!
“Look at these fools! Even though he has a duel against me, this fool of a teacher is actually sitting around reading a book! They are actually looking down on us! US!! We are the Knighthood Class! The ones with the most honor!...... You remember what I told you at the start of the Academic year, right? We Knights are the most honorable of all! These slackers can’t hold a candle to us! Them lazing around like this is the biggest insult to our pride! Burn their appearance right now in your eyes so that their despair-filled expressions after we defeat them will be the more enjoyable!”(Rowan Borin)
Rowan Borin was a knight of the Third Knight Order(Standing Army), but he was dismissed by Ren using his authority as the crown prince because Borin was too much of a coward. Borin was someone who would use those under him as meat shields while he attacks from a safe distance, and then he would go and claim that he defeated the enemy “Alone” without anyone's help. Ren saw him do just that and after investigating him thoroughly he found out that it’s not his first time doing such a thing and that made Ren very mad, and so he used his authority to dismiss him. But to save face the Captain of the Third Knight Order made it, so it looks like Borin retired due to injury.
At the back of the training ground, the teacher and students of the Magic Class were looking at the Actual Combat students with awe.
“…That’s awesome! I’m sure that to those unable to perceive Mana those kids would look like they are lazing around, like those noisy fools for example”(Milin)
“T-They are using the [Mana Control] skill, right? But what are they trying to achieve by moving their Mana like that?”(Shiho)
“It’s something called [Body Reinforcement]. It’s a skill that raises one’s sturdiness. In general, it raises one’s defense, it also depends on the way you use it. Having a sturdier body means that you have the ability to unleash stronger attacks without hurting yourself”(Milin)