The next morning, Klyran was roughly woken up by Ranya.

'That woman is lucky that it's too cold here to sleep naked' the Ryan thought annoyed, hating when someone wakes him up.

The young woman stood fully dressed in her black attire. The weapons strapped to her body were polished to perfection, as if she was getting ready to go hunting. The bow and arrows on her back, and a pair of daggers on her hips. There was even a double-pouch strapped to her thigh, which, for a moment, perked Klyran’s curiosity.

'What... Hour is it?' he took a look at his watch and noticed that it was still early morning, 'Did that woman even sleep?' he gave her a funny look.

He didn’t doubt that the woman also possessed weapons that he was unable to see at the moment. The aura she emitted was dangerous, even in this relaxed stance, the Ryan knew that there was a beast ready to pounce its prey beneath that delicate figure.

'Is she rushing somewhere? It's not like you can't train in the afternoon' he groaned and dropped his head back into the pillow.

“Up you go”, she said and a smile broke on her face, “Be ready downstairs in five minutes, otherwise I will drag you to train whether or not you will be ready”, she said in a firm tone.

After she left the small room, Klyran groggily stood up. It seems like all the time that he didn't sleep was catching up to him. He stretched a bit and shook his head to clear it. Then, he wasted no more time getting ready. He quickly got dressed and put his precious watch back on his wrist before leaving the room. At one point, he automatically stretched his hand toward his sword, only to bitterly remember that he didn’t have any weapon at the moment spare for the dagger that Aldryn gifted him.

'Maybe I should just ask Ylvis to make me another weapon' he thought sadly.

With a sigh, he left the room and wondered if the blonde was still asleep. When he approached the balcony, he then remembered the bathroom that Aldryn told him about. He was curious about it the nigh before, but didn’t wish to cause any noise while everyone was asleep downstairs. But since Ranya was up, the Ryan didn’t doubt that Midryl and Zevram were already doing whatever it was that Greenyards did during the day. Not carrying one bit about Aldryn, Klyran strode into the bathroom.

'If he is still asleep... Why should I be the only one of the two of us awake?' he shrugged and opened the door.

He quickly noticed the items that his blonde friend briefly described last night. The room was as big as his bedroom. A sink stood in the corner and after a few seconds of trying to remember how it was supposed to work, Klyran turned on the water and washed his face. Near it was a toiled and facing it was a shower cabin. The Ryan was curious about testing them out, but then he remembered Ranya’s words about waiting for him downstairs and he quickly forsake the idea. He slowly climbed down the stairs and entered the small hall.

There, Ranya was seated on the cupboard that contained the shoes. She was reading a small book. The moment Klyran stepped into the room, the girl quickly noticed his presence and looked at him.

“Finally. I was just about to go fetch you” she said with a grin.

'No you weren't' he looked at her relaxed posture that showed no indication that she was actually planning to move.

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Not sure what to say, the Ryan only nodded in greeting.

“Thank you for taking the time to teach me”, Klyran then said respectfully.

Without saying anything else, Ranya made a motion for Klyran to follow her and then went toward the stairs leading down. The two of them walked slowly out of the house and the girl led the two of them away from the village.

'Where are we going?' the Ryan wondered, looking around the trees and noticing that the farther the they walked, the less people they encountered.

The two of them wandered into the forest and walked some distance. Then, Ranya made a few turns and while they were still in the forest, the trees became fewer, making Klyran wonder if they were truly in the middle of the great forest, or at its edge. Shortly, the Ryan understood why the number of trees became less, as the two of them stepped into a clearing. While it looked nothing like Ildurin’s training ground, there were a few pieces of equipment that Klyran managed to recognize. Among them included some training dummies and targets for both sword and archery. They all were obviously used and had signs of wear.

“Alright” Ranya then suddenly said and went to the middle of the training ground, “Show me what you are made of so I have a general idea”, she spoke in a gentle tone, but there was an obvious challenge in her eyes.

“Are you sure? I am faster than a human”, Klyran said worried to attack in case he hurt the girl.

“If you are so worried then use a stick for all I care. I wish to see just how fast you are”, she then laughed and pointed at a few fallen branches.

Despite the mocking, the Ryan simply nodded and went to a nearby pile of fallen branches. In his mind, he believed that in case Ranya was unable to dodge him, a stick would cause much less damage than his fist.

'It will also snap before it manages to break any bones' he nodded happily.

After that, Klyran took an offensive position that Ildurin taught him and charged. To his surprised though, the girl managed to dodge him at the last moment.

“Not bad, but not very good either, no wonder the Kenman sent you here”, she said offhandedly.

Before Klyran could even get over his surprise, a faint aura emitted from Ranya and she disappeared, causing his eyes to widen.

'W-what...?', before he could turn his head to look for her, a sharp dagger was pressed to his throat.

“How?” he asked amazed, never expecting the girl to be faster than himself.

“Magic”, she said and begun giggling, “Have you never faced a wind sorceress?”

“I heard about magic, but never saw someone use it, except for Aldryn”, Klyran explained and then turned around to face the girl, who simply nodded in understanding.

'And apparently he's not really the best at it' went unsaid between the two of them.

Ranya then narrowed her eyes and gripped the dagger tighter. She grabbed Klyran by the arm and with one swift movement tried to cut his wrist. Yet except for his human skin peeling off, there was no damage visible on his black scales.

“It will take more force than that to make me bleed”, he said with hesitation, unsure about how Ranya will react to his true form.

“Amazing”, she simply said,” Does it hurt?”, she asked and after receiving a negative shake from Klyran, she grabbed the skin and pulled, ripping it off to take a closed look at the black scales.

“I fought serpents from the South, but their scales were hard and slimy” she said with a disgusted look on her face,” but yours are surprisingly soft”, her voice held admiration as she stroke the black wrist.

'Her hands are very gently' Klyran looked at the way she gingerly rotated his wrist looking at it with sparkling eyes.

“All right”, she then suddenly said and let go of his hand, “Here”, the girl them muttered and begun searching her pockets, until she found a piece of paper and handed it to Klyran.

“This paper is special. It contains a high amount of pure mana. It’s used to test one’s affinity toward magic”, Ranya explained.

“I thought such things are rare”, Klyran said confused, remembering Ildurin’s words about having to call someone to have his nephew tested.

“Maybe for those living outside the forest it is”, the girl said with a laugh, “but here, in this forest” she then waved her hands, “it is not so rare.”

“Why?”, the Ryan then asked and looked around himself.

“This forest is old and home to the Yakards, it has many places that contain pure mana. Only trees grown in such places can produce such paper, but only strong sorcerers can enter and harvest them, because the mana is so strong that it would be a poison to anyone else”, as Ranya offered the explanation, Klyran simply nodded.

“So what do I have to do?”, he asked and looked at the paper.

“Take it”, Ranya said with a shrug, “It will latch onto your mana and manifest. It doesn’t do that now because I am suppressing my magic”, the girl then explained as an after-though.

With a nod, Klyran then took the paper from her hand and with little surprise saw it go up in flames almost immediately.

'Fire... huh... Can't even say that I am surprised' the young Ryan clung to the warmth left behind on his fingertips.

“What a pity”, Ranya said, “By the instant combustion I would say that you should be able to learn fire magic without many difficulties, but unfortunately I wield wind magic and we aren’t really compatible”, she then laughed.

“Aldryn said that if I were to wield magic it would most likely be fire, because of my nature”, Klyran then said, trying to explain his lack of interest.

“Back to our class”, the girl then clasped her hands, “Is that the fastest you could go?”

“Yes”, the Ryan nodded, “When I faced the Kenman I tried to preserve my strength, thinking that I might hurt him, but he told me that it was disrespectful toward him. So I didn’t held back to not offend you”, he said, his voice becoming more quiet by each passing word.

“We should see about that” Ranya then shrugged, “ but first let’s warm up”, she stretched her hand as she said those words.