After dinner, Earl decided to check out the training pound.
The training pound was located behind the academy, so it was quite far. However, thanks to the Magic Carts around the school, getting around the entire sky island was quite easy.
The training pound was filled with state-of-the-art technology for every type of training style.
There were sections for elemental magic, summoning magic, and even physical areas where one could practice their specialized weapon art.
While Ragnarok was a magic academy, not everyone was a pure mage type. There was a large population who wielded weapons alongside their magic.
Earl ignored these specialized areas and went to the largest area of the pound- a large open field.
This was where one could experiment with their magic with no limitations of space or fear of breaking anything.
The large field expanded as far as the eye could see. Despite the large size of the training field, there were not many people around. It was understandable. It was just the beginning of the year, and not many wanted to start putting in the work yet.
However, to Earl's surprise, he spotted a few of his classmates practising on the field.
Shin, Iori, and Kayo were practising what they learned in the field. Their knowledge of magic was elementary, and everything at the academy was new to them. In other words, they were plete noobs at magic.
"Flames, e to life!" Shin chanted with gusto.
"He's like someone with Eight Grade Syndrome." Iori blandly mented to Kayo.
"Now that you mentioned it, it kind of seems that way?" Kayo nodded.
Hearing the ments on the side, Shin stopped and turned red in the face. "It's part of the process! I'm learning magic!"
"He's learning magic, he says," Iori spoke again with the same bland tone.
Kayo nodded seriously. "He might really have Eight Grade Syndrome."
"I want to dig myself a hole," Shin said as he curled into a ball.
They all laughed and returned to their practice.
"Water, gather in my palms."
"Earth, manifest through me and emerge!"
They earnestly went through Novice-level spells.
"How cute." Earl smiled.
He decided to let them continue training without bothering them and found himself his own spot to train. At his current level in magic, the small details were starting to matter more. To be more precise, it was mana control that he needed to train.
At the lower levels, he could get away with inconsistent input of mana into his spells. However, Expert-level Spells required a huge influx of mana. A slight mishandling of it could easily result in miscontrol.
A blue orb of mana hovered with a quiet hum above his palm. It was a difficult exercise that demonstrated plete control of one's mana. Within the orb contained dense circuits of mana- enough to form an Expert-level Spell. But here it was, in his palm, hovering in silence in a condensed form.
Soon, the mana orb dispersed into the air. Earl took a small break to catch a breather before resuming his training. This time, he controlled two orbs at once. Then three, four, and five.
From afar, the three heroes silently admired Earl's practice. They could understand the sheer difficulty of it from how the flow of mana in the air changed. There was so much mana surrounding Earl that his surroundings have bee distorted.
"He's this good, and he's only Rank 2?"
"We're in the same class as this man?"
They couldn't help but think.
Pah!
Shin suddenly slapped himself in the face. "I'm going to train even harder!"
Iori narrowed her eyes at Shin's behaviour. She had seen what he was like back on Earth. He was just a nobody. A background character, one could say.
He was very different now. He was animated, he spoke a lot, and he still had no confidence, but regardless, he was himself.
She looked to Kayo, who was smiling quietly to herself. Kayo was a flower back on Earth. A flower that could brighten anyone's day. The flower smiled at everyone, but not everyone smiled back. In other words, she was a person with many friends but no close friends.
Iori thought Kayo was like her- a person who adapted to their surroundings. She thought Kayo was a flower in a vase.
However, Kayo was slowly being influenced by Shin's energy.
Then, she felt lonely.
"They're totally immersed in their roles." She thought to herself.
It was the middle of the night outside the training pound. Despite that, it was more well-lit than ever. It was very easy to walk at night on the sky island.
Iori enjoyed the night air as she walked around the island by herself. She quietly hummed a tune to herself as she took jolly steps. With every step, a physical trait of her changed.
Her hair became shorter and took a different hue; her eyes took a different shape, her lips, her nose, her face. Everything changed.
This was her Unique Magic. Transformation.
They told her that she was a hero, but she didn't feel that way. She felt like a background character in this world of monsters.
Her unique ability, bestowed by God, seemed to prove that; as if to mock her for being a faceless character. What use was there for an ability like this other than to blend in, losing her identity, losing herself?
Nevertheless, she found joy in it. The ability to interact with anyone while having no identity. She could bee anyone.
Then, she danced under the moonlight as a different person.
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