Chapter 19 - Combat Training (1)

The next morning, I woke up at an ungodly time and brought my gun and sword to the eastern training grounds. Once I got there, I looked around curiously. I was in an open field a bit larger than the size of a football field at the edge of a forested area. The field was surrounded by a large black track that eventually led into the forest.

At the center of the field, Professor Rebecca Lee stood dressed in a skintight black body suit with her short hair held back by a black sweatband. In her hand was a long spear and to her left and right sat two gigantic black wolves with blue and red gems on their forehead.

As she spotted me walking over, she snorted.

“It’s 4:02, you’re late.”

“…sorry” I immediately apologized.

“That’s fine, just don’t do it again. Let’s get started. As a warm-up, go run 15 laps. I’ll be timing you and little red and little blue here will make sure you’re properly running for your life.” She patted the heads of the two wolves before smiling at me. It was not a pleasant smile.

“Get to it.”

“Yes ma’am.” I nodded before going to place my weapon down.

“What are you doing?”

“Pardon?”

“Run with your weapons in your hands. Do you think you can just place them down and come back to retrieve them in a dungeon or when you’re getting attacked? Hold on to it and run.” She coldly ordered.

“….got it.”

Although it made sense, I was still resentful at having to run with the weapons. Thankfully, both weapons were light and small so it wasn’t too cumbersome.

I quickly stretched before starting off in a slow jog. Suddenly, I heard a howl behind me before feeling a sharp pain in my ankles.

I glanced back and noticed the wolf with the blue gem lightly trotting behind me while the one with the red gem bit my ankles before displaying a mouth full of large teeth.

“I said run not jog! If you don’t speed up, I’ve permitted them to attack you as hard as possible without crippling you. And don’t worry, I’ll heal you up before we properly start training. The first potion is on me.” Professor Lee yelled out.

As my ankles got nipped again, I picked up speed until I was almost sprinting. As I completed the first lap, I could feel my sides begin to hurt as my breath started coming out rougher. By the second lap, my legs started to ache and my hands were sweaty and cramping from having to hold the weapons. By the third lap, I felt exhausted but the moment I slowed down again, I felt something swipe at my back and I tumbled to the floor. Somehow I managed to hold onto the weapons but the air got knocked out of me as a heavy paw smacked my stomach again.

Awooooooo!

Another heavy paw rolled my body around and I could feel a large cold nose digging into my neck and the warm, musky smell wafted over me causing me to gag.

“Get away from me,” I grumbled while shoving the large blue-eyed animal away. It backed off temporarily while panting in laughter before smacking my chest with its large paw once more.

“3 Seconds before I order them to bite!” The professor began.

“3!”

“2!”

“I’m up!” I shouted as I dragged my body up. I began to run again and the cycle repeated itself. A wolf would nip me. One would knock me over. And I would have to try to get up quickly and run again before one of the wolves tried to stand on me.

By the time I finished my 15 laps, I could see the sun began to poke through the trees. Unable to breathe, I collapsed to the ground before Professor Lee and gasped for air.

“Weak. Way too weak. Honestly, I’m surprised how you were able to defeat anybody with a weak body like that. Most definitely F rank, maybe even G. Rubbish.” Professor Lee clicked her tongue as she stared down at me in disgust.

Hah. Hah. Hah.

I could only lay on the ground while trying to catch my breath. I didn’t disagree with her. This body was too weak, too slow, and didn’t have enough stamina. Even compared to the body I had in my previous life, it was sorely lacking.

“Get up. We don’t have time to dawdle.” She grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me up.

As I stood unsteadily, she clicked her tongue and handed me a potion. “Drink it and let’s keep moving. I’m adding it to your tab.”

“Analyze” I whispered.

[Low-Rank General Recovery Potion]

[Drinking the potion would heal a user of minor injuries and help slowly replenish mana*

*Drinking too many potions in a short period may negatively affect your body and reduce the efficiency of the potion.]

[Creator: Meraki Corp]

“First lesson. We’re getting rid of that bad habit of yours. You don’t need to speak to utilize any skills. It should happen at a thought. Speaking is detrimental to you especially if you’re in a situation where you need to stay quiet in or battling someone. Are you trying to give your skills away? Think and use your skills without a sound. Got it?!”

“Yes,” I muttered before chugging the potion. Immediately energy began coursing through my veins, and my pounding heart calmed down.

“Good. Secondly, how do you see yourself fighting and what do you want to learn from me? I will help you improve your general physical stats but what else? I see you brought a short sword and a gun so it’s looking like mid-range to close-range combat. But with that gift of yours, you could probably switch between weapons depending on the situation. How do you want to be taught and what can you share about your gift? I assure you, any information you tell me is confidential, and even Basil Lionheart couldn’t pry it out of my mouth even if he held a sword to my neck. I know because he’s tried“ Professor Lee said with a sharp smile.

“What?”

“Of course he has. Multiple people have. With a gift like mine, I’ve trained most of the 9 clan kids in your age group, a few older than you, and many younger than you. I've also trained a good amount of professionally ranked heroes. Everyone wants to know how strong their competitors and enemies are, what talents to look out for, and what special gifts have appeared. If you train with me, the only way anyone else will find out about your gifts is if I’m dead. My word may not mean much to you but you can ask around. I’m a vault. So be as honest as you can with me for the best results. That way you and I won't waste the limited time we have.”

Seeing the serious expression on her face, I resolved myself.

“I want to learn everything.”

“Hmm?”

“Professor, I’m kind of talented and can learn anything I put my mind to. Any type of weapon, any type of skill, it doesn’t matter to me. You’re one of the strongest people I’ve ever seen. I want to learn everything that you can teach me and then some.”

I focused my gaze on her to convey my conviction. The only way to move forward was to become as strong as possible. Somehow I had been given gifts that would allow me to have a variable battle style and the woman in front of me had the skill to expedite my training and was willing to train me for some reason. It would be foolish not to utilize her.

“Heh. Hearing you say it like that makes it sound like you want to be my protégée.”

“If that’s how you want to take it, professor. Teach me in whatever way you think is best. I’ll learn it. I’ll even share the details of my gift with you.” I replied seriously.

“Hmmm. Is that right?”

“Yes. As you guessed, I have a gift called Mana Craftsman currently ranked F. It allows me to craft objects.” I honestly confessed.

“….Mana craftsman hmm? I’ve never heard of that particular one but it sounds like a creation-type gift. I’ve seen variations of that before though it’s generally limited and the mana usage and the constraints of the gift are ridiculous so I rarely see people use it in battle. The Meraki clan likes to collect those types of people to research and help create their items so they would have more details than I would.” She responded thoughtfully.

“Limited how? It seems like the perfect battle skill to me.” I asked her in confusion.

“Hmm for example some people are limited to making a single type of object like only spears or swords, or limited to making only potions, or making things from metal. It’s a weird gift that requires a lot of research. Additionally, I’ve heard that using those types of gifts has horrible mana consumption, and the time to gather the mana to create the object can be quite long as well. From the few people who have similar skills that I’ve talked to, it’s more profitable to sit in a cozy lab, sipping potions while creating a couple of weapons or potions a day than trying to use the skill when fighting for your life in a dungeon.”

“Either way it gives me a good starting point on how to train you. So what constraints do you have so we can devise the best plan for your use? What items are you limited to, time to creation, and on average how much of your mana gets drained per use.”

“I can make anything as long as I understand it. I’ve never particularly felt low on mana when creating items though I guess I’ve only created a few items in a day and the time from thought to creation is pretty quick as well. I suppose I should test the limit out one of these days.” Apart from the initial drain of mana from my body when creating something, I hadn’t felt anything like a drain. The only time I had experienced a significant mana drain was when I utilized knowledge in the library.

Hearing my words, her eyes widened.

“You’re saying you don’t have a limit to the number or types of items you can create in a day? And no significant mana drain?”

“No, although I think the gift rank is a bit too low to make the items permanent yet. Maybe that’s why there’s no drain and it’s so fast?”

“…No, it shouldn’t matter. And it’s instantaneous you say?”

I held up my hand for her to see, “Craft Pen. Pencil. Eraser.” The three items appeared in my hands and she picked them up and examined them curiously.

“Can you send it away?”

I willed them away.

“Make them appear.”

They reappeared on the palm of my hand with a thought.

“What a completely broken gift. Regardless of the item size, it should have drained you significantly and appeared much slower. I wonder what the reason could be…” She muttered.

“I may also have a gift that increases my affinity with mana haha,” I admitted while looking away.

Professor Lee: "...."

“….Are you a secret love child from the Nova and Meraki family?”

“Not that I know of,” I replied honestly.

"Are you sure? You remind me of a certain cheeky Nova clan kid."

"I'm an orphan," I replied blankly.

“…. Any other hidden gifts you want to share with me?”

“No that's it.” I immediately shook my head.

“I smell a lie. Curious and even more curious.” Professor Lee’s eyes twinkled.

She planted her spear into the ground and clapped her hands. “Well as promised, anything you tell me is confidential. And that’s a pretty good gift set. I can’t guarantee you become rank one but if you train diligently under me, I can guarantee you becoming top 50 in your class.”

“How about the top 10?”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t underestimate the students in your year. As I’ve personally trained quite a few of them, I’ll have you know that this is a year full of monsters.” She cautioned me before stretching.

“Enough talk. I will apply my gift to you and we’ll get started. For today’s goal, I want you to attack me with everything you’ve got. Feel free to use any ability you want on me and hit me with your full strength while I lightly defend. Once I have a general idea of the way you fight, I can go from there. Afterward, I’ll give you a book detailing how you should train your physical skills at the training center during the days we don’t meet.”

“You want me to use my full strength?” I glanced skeptically at her before glancing down at my gun.

“Heh, that puny thing? Don’t worry and attack. Even if you use high-ranking bullets, nothing will hurt me. Oh and as a penalty, each time you speak to use your skills, I’m going to lightly tap you. Understood? ”

“…got it. Do I have time to prepare?”

“Just this once. Any other time, stay ready so you don’t have to get ready. And remember, the moment you speak to use your gift, I’ll whack you.”

A bit irked at her easygoing tone, I backed away and brought out the three magazines I had brought with me.

For each of the thirty bullets, I imbued half of them with ‘Fortify’ and the other half with ‘Explosive’. For some reason, the bullets refused to take two effects so I would have to investigate the reason later.

“Oi Student. Hurry up. You’re so slow.”

“……”

I rolled my eyes before I turned to her, holding the gun in my right hand and the sword in my left.

We stood about ten feet apart and I saw that she had left her spear behind and instead had a piece of plywood about 3 feet long in her arms.

“I'm using this so I don’t kill you by accident with my spear. To be honest, you seem kind of weak.” She explained with a smirk when I glanced over. When I used my mana vision, I could see that there was no mana on it. It was just a regular plank. How insulting.

Professor Lee waved it around for a few seconds before yelling out, “Ready whenever you are.”

I took a deep breath before aiming at her head and released three shots.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Boom!

An explosion occurred and a cloud of smoke began expanding from where Professor Lee stood. Since I could see her within the cloud, I aimed at her body and began firing as quickly as I could. Head. Arm. Leg. Torso. I emptied every bullet in the chamber.

With a liquid grace, I watched as the professor easily avoided the bullets and began walking toward me.

“Is that it? All you know how to do is shoot? Weakling.” She taunted with a mocking expression on her face.

Rather than respond, I quickly reloaded the gun before dashing towards her, my left hand slashing at her neck as I fired a round of shots with my right. She leaned back, easily sidestepping my attack, letting the bullets whiz past her before sweeping my legs out from under me. As I fell, I aimed at her head once more but before I could pull the trigger, the plank struck me in the side, sending me tumbling through the grass.

“Cough cough bleh!” I spit out the mouthful of grass and struggled to my feet as the professor leaned against the plank with a bored expression.

“You seem to use the same patterns. Shoot, close distance, shoot again to distract, then go in for the kill. Switch it up. You can summon different weapons can’t you or is this all you have?” Professor Lee began strolling toward me again.

Gritting my teeth at the pain in my stomach, I stood up and dashed toward her again.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

I quickly unloaded every bullet I had in the gun before hurling it at her. As she easily ducked, I muttered.

“Bat. Incorporal. Fortified.”

“Don’t talk!”

In a blur of motion, the professor swung the plank at me while yelling.

As the bat appeared, I immediately went incorporeal phasing through the hit, before solidifying and swinging the the bat at her. She raised her arm to block it before swatting at me again, her eyes widening as I phased through it once more. Without relenting I continued slashing and swinging, alternating both sword and bat as I attempted to hit her. As she effortlessly dodged everything, her body weaving without taking a single step, my speed began increasing due to frustration. Throwing the short sword at her, I immediately backed away and created another gun in my hand.

As I went to reload, she easily grabbed the sword out of the air and threw it back at me before dashing forward.

I dove to the side before leaping to my feet and firing again.

Thud. Thud.

The bullets safely flew past her, digging into the ground.

I continued shooting, and as if she were dancing, she wove past the bullets before grabbing something on the ground and throwing it at me.

The moment I phased through it, bat at the ready, her fist flashed toward my face. As I backed away, becoming solid, she swung the plank once more at my side.

“Round Shield! Fortify” I hurriedly yelled dropping the gun and willing it into my hands. Instead of the impact on the shield, I felt something smash into my jaw. My eyes rolled into the back of my head and I dropped to the floor.

****

“Oi. Wake up. Let’s go again.” A foot tapped my side and my eyes snapped open. I could feel the blades of grass beneath my body as I stared up at the professor’s calm face.

“You knocked me out." It was a quiet statement, not a question.

“Of course. Do you know where you went wrong?”

I sat up and reviewed the fight before shaking my head. She was much faster and more experienced than I was but I thought my approach had been sound. Maybe if I could match her speed, things might have been different.

“Well let's review. To start with, that skill. Incorporal right? Or phase through. Something like that? It’s the effect on the bat? You’re too dependent on it. The moment you’re attacked, you immediately try to avoid it with that and once you know the trick it’s easy to predict. From what I can see, it lasts about four seconds, then you become solid again.”

I could only look at her blankly.

“You know what I threw at you earlier? Dirt. Your eyes are focused and you could follow my speed but you need to pay attention to details. That was an easy feint. You should have dodged it or created a shield. Why didn’t you?”

As I silently stared at her, she continued.

“Also, I don’t know what your dependency on guns is, but if you’re going to create one, why don’t you create one that’s fully loaded? I let it slide the first time, but if this was a real fight, I would have killed you the moment you tried to reload.”

“….it’s what I’m used to,” I replied honestly. Knives and guns. Those were my specialties.

The professor sighed before squatting next to me.

“Kid. You are limiting yourself to commonsense when you have a nonsensical gift. You can create nearly anything. Is there a requirement that what you create has to be in your hands? Or that you have to make them one at a time? Have you tried controlling things with your mana, or even shooting mana bullets without a gun? It doesn’t even have to be a bullet, there are so many options apart from physical items. You can make mana arrows, mana spears, even a fucking mana cannon if you wanted. Others can do it with years of training to manipulate mana. If your gift is how you described it to me, it is a cheat code and a shortcut to those skills. You can literally use mana to make whatever the hell you want. You’re limited by your imagination and all you attack me with is a common bat? Weak.” She snorted before grabbing my hand and pulling me up.

“I haven’t learned how to do that yet. And it’s not a skill with this gift.” I replied. I had thought about those things before but hadn't had the time to learn them in class or the opportunity to duplicate them from anyone else.

“That's a weak response. I expected more from you. Did they teach you how to create the gun or the bat in class? It’s your gift and your mind is what’s limiting you. You need to push yourself and expand your mind to figure out what the limits of your gift are rather than just going the easy and obvious route. Anyone can have a variety of weapons if they carry them around, you can make things other than that.”

I could only look at her in silence. She was right, I had never truly tested or even pushed the limits of my gift before. I simply treated it like a convenience store that could give me any item I wanted.

"Prepare yourself. I’ll show you how to truly use that gift."

The professor patted my head and in my mana vision, I saw a flash of mana surround her previously dark body before disappearing once more.

I watched in silence as she walked away from me before turning to face me, a wide smile on her face.

“Watch carefully Asani Martin. This is what can be done with your gift at this level. I will pound how to use it properly into your head.”

I watched as a gigantic spear of mana appeared in her hand, the color blinding in my vision.

“Are you ready?”

I created another gun and bat and stared at her, my gaze hungry.

“Yes.”

“Then let’s begin.” With no hesitation, she threw the spear at me before dashing forward, a short sword appearing in her hands. As she got closer, like stars appearing in the night sky, bright points of light appeared in the air above her, before extending into sleek arrows. Blue, red, and the white-blue I associated with regular mana, the array of mana arrows formed in the air behind her, before flying at me.

Seeing the fierce smile on her face, I could feel my face smile back, my gold eyes flashing. I would learn everything, copy everything, and make it my own strength.

***

The result was my resounding defeat. Over and over again.

As if she were dealing with a child, the professor beat me to the ground repeatedly with her sword and an array of floating mana weapons. If I shot her with my gun, a barrier would appear as her mana arrows and spears chased me around. If I created a barrier, she would speed-blitz me before knocking me to the ground.

Throughout it all, my eyes followed every move, trying to replicate it. As I kept getting bombarded by attacks. I couldn't help but keep smiling. The reason was my vision kept filling with alerts.

[Rank E Mana Arrow]

[A simple arrow made of unattributed condensed mana. ]

[Replicate?]

[Rank E Flame Mana Arrow]

[A simple arrow made of condensed fire-type mana.]

[Replicate?]

[Rank E Water Mana Arrow]

[A simple arrow made of condensed water-type mana.]

[Replicate?]

As the professor kept attacking me, I tracked her every move while laughing happily. After all, how could I not be happy when I was learning all these skills for free?

As the battle progressed, I slowly began incorporating the skills I had learned from her, yet I couldn't touch a hair on her body. Even with the same skills, it was like comparing an amateur to a master painter. Her barriers were smaller and more compact, her arrows sleeker in appearance and faster, and even her weapons were stronger.

For the first time since the library, I felt what it felt like to have mana drain from my body completely. After using a couple of mana arrows and barriers to defend, it felt as if a chunk of mana was ripped from my body. And yet, the moment I was about to collapse, it would be refilled to the brink and I could continue.

Even when her skill ran out, she switched over to the plank easily attacking and defending while making mocking comments until I lay on the ground completely out of stamina, and mana, and covered in bruises.

By this time, the sun was high in the sky, all I wanted to do was go back and lay in my bed. Although it was a fruitful experience battling myself, I was exhausted.

"You did well today."

"I didn't manage to touch a hair on you," I grumbled.

"Not many do. Still, you're a quick learner. And that gift of yours is quite terrifying. The drain on mana is absolutely horrendous."

I simply lay on the ground panting.

Suddenly a booklet dropped on my head, as I tiredly pushed it away, I heard her calm voice say.

“Read this and train accordingly to get your physical stats up. I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow. Even if I can't apply my gift to you, you can still show me what you've learned today. Make sure you take a potion for those injuries.”

“Aren’t too many potions detrimental? Plus I’m broke.”

“…You’re at a low enough rank that it shouldn’t matter regardless, plus your mana affinity is good. I'd say buy higher-quality ones if you're worried but I guess that's off the chart. If you can’t afford potions then go to the infirmary and bribe the nurse to heal you. You met Julian yesterday, right? He has low blood sugar in the mornings so take a vanilla latte extra sugar and pastries with you. If you treat him like a dog who wants a treat, he'll heal you even if he grumbles. If he complains too much, tell him I sent you. I better see you in class later today.”

A groan was my only response.

After a couple of moments of contemplating my life, I dragged my aching body to the cafeteria. Ignoring the weird looks that I got from my torn and dirty uniform, I grabbed a sandwich and water for myself along with a vanilla latte and croissant, and trudged to the infirmary.

As I slid open the door, I caught sight of a familiar blond man in a white lab coat lying face down while groaning on the floor.

Sniff. Sniff.

“Is that coffee I smell?”

“Hello again Professor Jullian. I brought you a latte and chocolate croissant.”

“….is this a bribe?” the muffled yet tired voice asked.

“No, it’s not Professor. I just care about your well-being.” Even though he couldn’t see me, I gave him a bright smile.

“….”

The man slowly dragged himself up and I caught sight of dark green eyes with dark shadows under them. Shaggy blond hair fell to his shoulder and his face was horrifically pale. As he sat up, I could see that his body was shaking every now and then, as if he had the chills.

“Who would believe you when you look like that? Speaking of which, you look familiar.”

“I was here yesterday professor. With a shoulder injury.”

“Sighhhh. It doesn’t matter, I treat so many injuries each day, I don’t care. Bring the coffee over here student.”

“Will you heal me?”

“Was this an injury during school hours? If not, you have to pay. If you can’t pay, get out.”

Smiling softly, I shook the coffee as I squatted in front of him.

“Are you sure you don’t want this? It’s a vanilla latte. Extra sugar. Freshly made. I even got the croissant toasted so it’s nice and warm. Don’t you want it? I heard you have low blood sugar.”

Professor Julian: “….”

Asani: “:)”

Swipe! Swipe!

As Professor Julian tried to steal the bag and drink from me, I held it just out of reach while smiling at him.

Professor Julian: “….”

Asani: “Let's trade. Sugar for healing?”

“Lee sent you. That damned woman using me like her personal healer” He groaned.

Seeing as I didn’t deny it, he groaned once more before holding out his hand. An orange glow surrounded me and I felt my sore body begin to heal up.

The moment he dropped his hand, I placed the drink and food within arm’s reach and he began chugging the coffee, ignoring the heat.

“Thank you, professor.”

“Whatever. You know the drill. Eat lots of food. Get lots of sleep. Goodbye. I hope you don’t come again.” He waved me away as he began devouring the croissant.

“Can I have a potion as well?”

“Student?”

“My name is Asani professor.”

“I don’t care. Get out before I curse you.”

“Of course professor. Have a good day. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Don’t.”

Ignoring his words, I ran back to my dorm to shower and change into a new uniform before heading back to class.

I took a seat and the very back and placed my head on the table.

Just a quick nap. I was so tired.

“Asani Martin. Does my class look like a bedroom?” a familiar voice asked.

Slowly opening my eyes, I looked around and saw the whole class staring at me including Professor Lee whose eyes flashed yellow.

“Pardon me?”

“I said does it look like a bedroom.”

“No ma’am.” I promptly responded.

“Excellent. Now that I have your attention, I shall continue. Today’s class is relatively easy. I just want to test your base speed and endurance. 40 laps around the eastern field and you're free to go. If you dare to walk, I’ll add another 5 laps. Let’s go.”

As I stared at the professor in disbelief while the rest of the class groaned, I could see her lips curl up in a wicked smile.

Fuck.

I was screwed.