Chapter 19: How Do We Improve?

"So, where to begin?" Captain Ceres said.

"Uh, sir?" Miriya spoke up. "I think Captain Exelcia said that we needed to find out on our own how to pierce through the bubble."

"She said to think about it until the morrow came," Captain Ceres corrected her. "Each student has their own special needs that must be attended to by their classes, and if you are in this class, that means you may need some extra assistance with addressing problems such as this."

Cleinz could not help but scoff.

"Ah, of course." Captain Ceres said, his voice suddenly devoid of the wonder and emotion he had spoken with before. "We do have one student here who was able to pierce through the surface of the bubble with relative ease."

"Thus proving that I do not belong here, Captain." Cleinz spat from his seat.

"Proving…" Captain Ceres answered back, unphased, "that you know something that the other students here may not. And as such…"

Captain Ceres set down the stone creature he had been holding onto the floor. No sooner than he had done so did the creature melt away into the floor as if it had never been there. He then stood up and twirled his hand around lightly, his fingers pointing to the edges of the room. There was a sudden burst of activity as the surrounding papers and bookshelves were nearly instantly encased in stone that flew out from the floor walls and ceilings, one of the students could not help but yelp at the surprise. Lastly, he pointed at the floor between him and Cleinz and a pillar of stone rose up from the ground, taking the form of a beautiful statue suit of armor.

"Cleinz, why not have you start us off for tonight?" Captain Ceres said, tapping gently on the newly-formed statue. "Because you know so much more than everyone here, it should be easy to show off exactly what it means to have good mana flexibility."

"My stone targets are by no means as durable as Captain Exelcia's shields," Captain Ceres continued, "but they should be more than adequate to illustrate the point. Just hit it however you want."

Cleinz stood up and made his way to the statue. It was about the same height as him, and Zel thought that it was a rather good likeness, except the statue had nothing to say. Cleinz performed his routine and was soon encased in his stone armor with his trusty spear in hand.

He took up his stance as Zel had seen him do before and lunged at the statue, his spear piercing through the other side easily just as it had done with the bubble in the previous class. He withdrew his weapon with a rather smug look on his face that was quickly done away with when Captain Ceres made a ticking noise with his tongue.

"The same technique again… hmm," he said while gently shaking his head.

"Was it not effective?" Cleinz asked, his annoyance with the Captain's words quite evident.

"Perhaps." Captain Ceres said in a flat tone. "But effective is not the goal of this course. The goal is to learn. Explain to the class how you did what you just did."

"That is a Duphor secret! You know that as well as-" Captain Ceres interrupted before Cleinz could finish speaking.

"There are no secrets here, Cleinz." He spoke in a blunt and authoritative tone as he continued, "You, me, the other students here, everyone is here to learn. There will be no progress made if we cannot start by teaching one another."

Cleinz still seemed hesitant, but Captain Ceres had a cold look on his face, and soon he broke.

"The stone armor that I encase myself in is the key," he began, "I do not have the muscle strength to force myself through a barrier like Captain Exelcia's so I supplement my physical strength with mana. The stone contracts and bends to my will, providing tremendous force."

"It is a technique developed by the Duphor family so long ago that nobody even remembers who made it," Captain Ceres continued, taking over Cleinz' response. "And you demonstrate it perfectly, Cleinz." Zel saw a smile begin to creep across Cleinz' face before Captain Ceres dashed it once more.

"But you demonstrate it too well," he said. "Duphor techniques are all you know, down to the way you point your spear. You have no originality, no creativity, and put no thought into your actions. You simply do what you have been shown to do, what a waste when you could do so much more." Captain Ceres' words struck Cleinz, his fist clenched and shook, but he did nothing. He understood that, to some extent, his brother's words were true.

"What I would like is if you could each come up with a different strategy to combat the statue than you normally would." The captain continued, "For example, just now, during the exams, and during Exelcia's lecture, we saw Cleinz attack with a spear made of stone. Can you think of something different that would effectively damage the statue I have made?" Captain Ceres asked while rubbing his chin, thoughtfully. As he spoke the statue began to mend itself, the surface rippled like water as it reformed.

"Of course I can," He said, staring down the statue. He leaned down to the floor as Zel had seen many times, but this time something was different. Already wearing his armor, there was nothing to equip. Zel looked on in shock when a pit appeared beneath the statue, sucking it down into the floor before collapsing in on itself leaving only the armored head of the statue exposed

Captain Ceres clapped his hands in a solo applause. For the first time that Zel had seen, he seemed genuinely proud of his brother.

"That was good, Cleinz, an excellent alternative to what strategy that you used before. Now," Captain Ceres turned towards the other students, "Is there any criticism that you could give Cleinz to improve his technique, anything at all is fine. Tonight are just focused on improvement and possibilities." Another awkward pause insued, but eventually it was Zel who first broke the silence.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"I think that opening the ground below them is effective," she said, "but I think it would be better if you maybe disabled them in some way first."

Cleinz huffed, ignoring Zel's statement, but Captain Ceres raised an eyebrow.

"Could you explain further what you mean, Zel?" He asked.

"Well... I was just thinking if we don't know what the opponent is capable of, it might make sense to force them to fall in the hole by, I don't know, grabbing a leg with the stone or something, and pulling them down into it." Zel explained.

"What nonsense," Cleinz retorted, "What enemy would be ready for the ground beneath them to be torn out from under their feet?" He asked in his uniquely condescending tone.

"I didn't say it was a bad idea, did I? Just that, you might be able to push it further." Zel said defensively.

"I think that it was both an excellent observation and idea, Zel," Captain Cleinz said reassuringly. "Give Zel's suggestion a try. See if there's a way that you can make the trap you have already constructed more robust." As he said this, the statue slipped out of the stone floor that healed below it, returning it to the state that Captain Ceres had first created it in once again.

Cleinz merely huffed and placed his hands on the floor. This time, when the pit opened up beneath the statue, tendrils of rock shot out and gripped it from four sides. The tendrils whipped the statue down into the newly formed pit and it once again closed around it. The small group all nodded their heads and let out various sounds of approval, like a group of rich folk who found a certain vintage particularly satisfying.

Zel was amazed by Cleinz' ability to control his mana. It was clear that, Duphor ability or not, Cleinz was much closer to his brother's level of skill than Zel was. That made her a bit upset, the thought that Cleinz was better than her in almost all regards, but she swallowed her pride.

Class is for learning, afterall.

"An excellent improvement," Captain Ceres complimented, "as Zel said, there are indeed enemies that either do not need to touch the ground or, perhaps more fearsome, there are mana users experienced enough that they will anticipate the ground moving beneath their feet." Captain Ceres turned towards the others once again, "Any further suggestions for Cleinz' technique?" This time the pause was much smaller, as several students raised their hands after only a moment. Miriya's own fur-covered hand was the fastest among them.

"Yes, Miriya. What would you suggest for Cleinz' improvement?"

"Whenever you use your magic, you always bend down to touch the stone directly. Is there any way for you to avoid that? It makes your intentions obvious and gives potential opponents information about you," she said.

"Excellent observation," Captain Ceres said, turning to Cleinz, "Stone magic can be difficult to utilize without direct contact with the stone. Do you think you can manage to do without, or perhaps come up with a different solution to keep your enemies from reading your actions?"

Instead of sarcastic remarks or huffs as he had done up to this point, Cleinz was actually silent, seemingly deep in thought. After a moment his eyes lit up in a way that Zel hadn't seen before.

"Like this!" Cleinz exclaimed. Part of his stone armor elongated down his legs, stretching and coiling round until it touched the floor connecting it and Cleinz together.

"With this, I can have direct contact with the floor without having to actually touch the floor." Cleinz exclaimed proudly.

Ceres nodded. "An excellent solution. Perhaps it is something of a crutch, though, but it is an effective solution in the interim, and this evening is about learning."

"Does anyone else have any suggestions," Captain Ceres asked. They spent a while critiquing Cleinz techniques and brainstorming ways that he could improve. To Zel's surprise, Cleinz appeared a totally different person than normal. When receiving direct criticism, he would scoff or turn his head, but even when this happened he seemed to become thoughtful as he had done before, earnestly searching for a solution despite his initial reaction being to brush off anything he did not agree with.

After Cleinz had led the way, it made the rest of the class feel a lot more relaxed. It was scary to bare weaknesses to each other, but therapeutic to come up with solutions or ideas. They began working through the class one by one and fixing their problems or coming up with unique solutions to the difficulties they were having until they got to the beautiful girl with the orange tips on her hair.

She hopped up out of her seat and approached the dummy. Now that Zel got a good look at her, she was gorgeous. She had short hair like Zel's own, but it was a shade lighter and elegantly woven into a braid that clung tightly to the top of her head. Her eyes seemed to glow a fluorescent turquoise, like two bright gemstones in the night. She was wearing a translucent shawl over a long white and elegant dress, the likes of which Zel had never seen. It had golden edges and was made of a silk that seemed to move as though it were flowing through the wind, even in the still underground air.

As she walked by, Zel's heart thumped. Hard. She covered her mouth and looked away, terrified that she had made an embarrassing face. This did not go unnoticed by Miriya, whose lips curled into a naughty grin.

"You shut up," Zel said in a ferocious whisper.

"I didn't say anything at all," Miriya whispered back as they watched Rika approach the statue.

Captain Ceres had been talking with the last student who had gone, Scoville the tall skinny Splitfolk. He had some very severe control issues with his affinity and Captain Ceres was giving him some specific feedback, just finishing up as the new student reached him. When he saw her, he seemed surprised. For a moment it looked like he didn't recognize this person, but a moment later his normal warm smile reappeared.

"Ah, Rika. My apologies, I had forgotten you would be in this class." His confusion banished, he continued, "I hope you wouldn't mind giving a demonstration quickly of your own techniques?" Captain Ceres spoke to Rika differently than the other students, as if he already knew her quite well.

Rika gave a smile and a slight nod. She held up a single hand in the air. Before the small audience, flames erupted from Rika's fingertips, a smoldering red, the heat of which Zel could feel from where she sat. In a few short moments the flame went from formless and blazing to taking the form of a solid shape; a blade. There was something odd about the weapon. The blade was ablaze, of course, but had substance behind it. Where there should have been only flames of mana, there was instead a dark blade of blackened obsidian, red, glowing molten cracks clawed their way to the tip of the sword, where it dripped off the tip like magma out of a volcano.

Rika took a single step forward with the sword down by her side. She lifted the blade through the air gently, as if moving in slow motion. Zel was transfixed by it, following its arc as it passed from the bottom right to the top left of the statue. Rika then brought it back down to her side as gently and slowly as ever.

Zel found herself confused. Why had Rika moved the sword without doing anything? When she finally broke herself away from its hypnotic flames, she saw something that confused her even further. The statue was gone. There was a shimmer of superheated air that was flowing up from the floor where a puddle of melted stone was slowly spreading outward from where the statue had been.

Zel was not the only one who was shocked. None of the students made a noise as Rika's sword vanished from her hand in a puff of flames. Only one person in the room was unaffected by Rika's display, Captain Ceres who was scribbling down notes patiently, waiting for his students to regain their wits. After a few more moments he chose to break the silence himself.

"Excellent work. Does anyone have any criticism that they would like to give Rika?"