“Alright, Efy, punch me.”

The man had hair the colour of the clouds and looked to be in his 60s. He stood at a staggering 200 centimetres. His dull grey eyes were surrounded by the various wrinkles of his face.

“I can try, but it won’t be powerful at all…”

Efy and Mr. Choppo were situated in one of the many training rooms stationed within the school. These training rooms were the size of your average bedroom and generally had zero equipment or furniture inside.

Efy tried his best to punch into his teacher’s palm but after all, it was useless as he held little belief in himself.

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“Nonsense, what you just did was much better than the punch in class. You improve quite quickly don’tcha?”

Mr. Choppo expressed his feelings towards the discouraged Efy. Whether his feelings or not were completely genuine was another story, he just had to make sure Efy felt confidence.

“C’mon, give me the next one!” Mr. Choppo acted hyped up. He was jumping on his feet like a little child in a playground.

Efy let out a little smile of belief, it was not much, however it was more than zero. Even if it was just a little bit stronger, Efy felt as if he could do it for sure.

“Here goes!”

When Efy hit Mr. Choppo this time, the professor let out a content smile. “Now that one had a little bit of gusto on it!”

Efy was overjoyed. While his punches were still quite lower than the average Xor user, he had made some progress. Although he felt a bit more confident in his abilities, he still held the view of inferiority towards his peers in this area. So when Efy was asked to give a harder punch, nothing came of it.

“You certainly have to omit holding your classmates to such a high standard, they’re not that special.”

“I don’t know how to, sir. I just feel like I would not be able to reach their level.”

“I will get you there, slowly, but surely. I will help you build the blocks to your tower and transform you into a capable user of Xor.”

Efy looked bothered. He knew what happened the last time a teacher tried to help him become capable with the power of Xor. He knew he was hopeless.

“I can try…”

Mr. Choppo gave a warm smile, as if he understood the war taking place inside Efy’s head, as if it was all too familiar to him.

“Hey, Mr. Choppo. How come the teachers and even the nurses do not discriminate against my…you know-”

Efy pointed at his forearm. It was a question that spiked him recently, after seeing how natural the employees at this school treated him so much differently.

“It’s because we have seen the world, Efy. The hate your classmates demonstrate is of ignorance. Go see the world yourself.”

Efy’s heart set ablaze.

Does that mean there are more like me? I have to get a scholarship now, I need to!

“What’s next, sir!”

Mr. Choppo looked surprised at this sudden burst of energy and then a look of satisfaction appeared on his face.

“Efy, I had forgotten to ask, what type of expert do you want to become?” Mr. Choppo asked curiously.

“Sir..! You’re supposed to question such things before you train me, you know.”

Mr. Choppo looked away with a palm on his face.

“I want to become the best mage in all of Xoria, a mage who can snap his fingers and a destruction-level fireball would appear, a mage who can close his eyes but still snipe the opponent with spells of great magnitude!”

Efy looked downwards.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“I want to become a mage who can use the elements at my will.”

Mr. Choppo looked surprised, mostly because of the last words Efy uttered.

“Are you not a mage right now? Can you not do that?”

Efy shook his head with a saddened expression. This seemed to surprise Mr. Choppo further.

“How did you pass the exams? Were you blessed with a team that helped you pass?”

Efy suddenly became worked up. “Hell no, my teammates were lizards, they betrayed me without hesitation. I had to fight the opponents all by myself!”

The old teacher appeared thoroughly impressed. “A person who can fight multiple people, yet he is not a physical combatant, nor capable of using elements, I wonder what his specialty is.” Mr. Choppo whispered to himself.

“If not for teammates, then what? What powers do you possess, Efy?”

Efy raised his head as he took out his Xor orb. He then brought out fifteen daggers from the orb and made them float behind his body. The daggers looked alive, as if they could not wait to penetrate skin, dancing up and down slowly.

Mr. Choppo was stricken with astonishment, however, he needed to know just how well Efy could manoeuvre these pieces of metal.

“Try your hardest to hit me once with those.” he said, cracking his knuckles and stretching his body.

Without hesitation, Efy snapped a finger shut and a dagger bee-lined towards the man with astounding speed. “Woah!” the teacher exclaimed, expecting a much slower attack. Still, he managed to dodge it early by stepping to his side.

However, a next dagger came soaring through the air, giving Choppo not much time to react. But the experienced old man dodged it again.

Efy then sent a third dagger aerialing towards his current opponent, simultaneously mobilising the two daggers behind the man. They were at an offset timing, meaning as soon as his opponent dodged the decoy attack, the already flying daggers would strike him from behind.

But Choppo took the weapon from the air and used it as his own to deflect the flying swords behind him. Efy took advantage of this moment and sent the remaining daggers he had towards him, but Choppo ran towards the danger and jumped through an extremely narrow opening inside the daggers’ range. Efy tried to chase the man down with the daggers while he ran away from the scary mini giant, but within a blink, Choppo disappeared.

Efy then ran into him.

“Efy, this is truly incredible! You are capable of moving around so many objects, in such a complex way, something only elites and experts can do.”

“But it is the only thing I can do…Sir, you were much more incredible!”

Efy had wondered if all the teachers in the school were this amazing. Were all the teachers prior experts? Or were they elites, the step before becoming an expert? These questions he had no answer to. However before he could ask, the man before him spoke.

“That does not negate the fact, young man. Keep practising this skill until you can move a thousand swords! Fear not, I shall assist you with the other aspects of your Xor.”

Efy smiled, joy filling his body like a tsunami. It reminded him of what his Sensei Boha had told him. Deep down in his heart, he knew he had a fighting chance.

“Alright! Let’s practise something that would serve you better, albeit a bit more difficult than upgrading strength, defence or speed. It’s a bit of a secret Xor experts utilise. We will practise enhancing your sixth sense.”

Efy paid great attention to what his teacher was explaining. If it was something only Xor experts could find out, he would improve immensely because of it.

“Are you ready for some rigorous training?”

Efy aggressively nodded in response. He sought as much improvement as he could achieve.

“Sit down and close your eyes. Good. Now, dodge!”

Mr. Choppo immediately sent a karate chop onto Efy’s skull.

“Ouch! What was that for!?” Efy held the top of his head, which was in a considerable amount of pain.

“Hoho! I didn’t even use Xor for that, you truly are feeble. Efy, there are no tricks or shortcuts, if you want to have the sense of an expert, you must be able to feel my attacks without vision or sound.”

At this moment, Efy sighed, understanding the torture he had just signed up for.