“So, like I told all of you earlier. There’s a war coming.” in the underground training room, Josephine Wong said to Thomas, Aimee, Caroline and Jason: “And normally, we would have allowed ample time for you to gradually learn, train and adapt to your powers. It’s a very very steady but slow process. But since the war is coming, and you happen to be the ones who took the ‘codex’ or ‘key’, or whatever it is out of the academy and out of those henchmen’s hands, your safety is at stake, and we can risk going about it the normal way. So, here we are, in a special room here courtesy of Mr. Jianmen Yu, where time flows much faster than the outside world, but yet not impacting your actual age.”

“But … we gave the box to you and Boss.” Jason said: “I thought we might be off the hook from here?”

“Which would prevent, or at least deter the weaker ones from going after it. But it will never stop the stronger, crazier, nastier, and more ambitious ones from using you as potential leverage to bargain with us. Which would make your potential encounters even more dangerous.” Josephine Wong walked in a circle, using a thin long sword to draw an arcane symbol on the ground: “And we can’t have that - unless you plan to stay in the inn indefinitely until we decipher the secrets to the silver box, or until the war is over. You will need to hold your own in a fight against stronger and stronger opponents, and make sure that you will be able to make it out alive.”

Thomas let out a short exhale and said: “Well, I don’t think Jason and Caroline would need to worry about that - ”

“Thank you - but I think we still do, very much.” Caroline shook her head and said: “For example - Emilia Corin, I couldn’t even beat her, when she’s obviously quite new and under trained.”

“I know, Blue and Vivian told me. ” Josephine Wong smiled: “And that’s quite understandable - she was wearing a very powerful and dangerous piece of armor and she was wielding a pair of quite notorious swords. ”

“Do we have any of those armor and swords?” Aimee asked: “I mean - the guns are great, but they are not as powerful as the armor and the swords.”

“The armor was called Valcox. It’s not exactly what you’d want to wear, ever. ” Josephine Wong sighed and said: “The swords are called Bones of Valcox, they’re a set.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“The names do sound cool.” Jason shrugged.

“The Valcox was once a very powerful Wyvern. Until his ego caught up with himself. His spine was removed and made into the two swords she used, and his entire body got compressed from both outside and inside of his heart. So when you’re wearing it, you are literally enclosed by the internal membranes of Valcox’s heart.” Josephine Wong shook her head and said: “I’ll spare you the gritty details of prolonged contact with it - but if you prefer your sanity and identity, don’t ever do it.”

“Understood, but can we get the weapons that would turn into a ball at least? Like Caroline and Jason?” Thomas chuckled.

“It’s still too early for that.” Josephine Wong finished the symbol, then threw a small ball of purple flames at it, then the symbol lit up in more purple flames, and all of them felt some kind of energy field radiating from the flames.

“Now, before we start.” Josephine Wong bent the thin sword in her hand and turned it into a round mirror with fancy edges: “Show me your powers, strike this mirror with your attack, you don’t have to be specific, just do it the most natural way possible. But DO use every aspect of your power.”

“Guess I’ll go first then.” Jason raised his hand and swung it down a silver spike and a rock spike shot out at the mirror.

The mirror completely absorbed the shock and energy from the two spikes, then it flared up in silver and brown light. Josephine Wong took a look at the mirror and said: “Metal and earth, good constructs, not particularly explosive, and the ability to create illusions. Nice.”

“My turn.” Caroline simply threw a fireball at the mirror, which caused the mirror to flare up in orange, red and light green.

“Fire and wind, very condensed and yet volatile, very nice composition of energy for an explosive attack.”

“Okay, I guess I’ll try next.” Aimee tried her best and conjured a piece of ice spike on her one hand, then she threw it at the mirror.

The mirror flared up in light blue.

“So - you’ve been practicing your power as that of ice, yeah?” Josephine Wong went silent for a while, then nodded.

“Yes.” Aimee frowned: “What’s wrong?”

“Give me a moment first.” Josephine Wong turned the mirror to Thomas: “Thomas, why don’t you give it a try?”

Thomas threw a small fireball at the mirror, seemingly quite embarrassed after seeing what kind of fire attack Caroline was able to unleash without much effort. The mirror flared up in light orange, as opposed to red and orange.

“Huh.” Josephine Wong looked at the mirror and started pacing in the room.

“What?”

“I think it’s safe to say that your powers are not what they seem right now.” Josephine Wong stopped to explain: “I have a suspicion, it doesn’t fully explain things, like why your blood burns vampires, but it does kinda explain why you responded not so well with normal magical training of ice and fire magic. But this is still - a little new. So, I’ll kick off your training and leave you to it, while I go and find some notes and records in the library.”

“What is new? Are our elements not fire and ice?” Aimee asked.

“Looks like not - you might be natural civilian born wielders of Flow magic, which I think is unheard of till now.” Josephine Wong threw another ball of purple flames at the symbol on the floor, causing the purple fire to burn even brighter and higher: “I’ll check on you in a bit. Just go ahead and practice without me.”