Another Apprentice

Accidentally forgot to change the title, but don't worry nothing else in the chapter has changed. Thanks for reading!

-SocioPhobia

Professor Avius' class was rather boring as the knowledge I had gained through wills covered pretty much everything he went over. However the different ways people look at things made it not be a complete waste, such as creating wind barriers or even fire barriers. Of course I technically knew this, but when you get so wrapped up in pure fight power, you forget the little things like your own protection.

After all I'm sure there will come a time where I can't just dodge or evade as I've been doing in all my battles, especially later on I can see myself needing to conjure shield like magics for protection. As soon as the class ended I made sure to hold Kathyln and Tessia back while everyone else left.

"What is it Jaron? We have our second training session with the Director to get to." Kathyln looks confused so I give her a nod that meant I would explain that later before I began to speak.

"I was wondering if after school you 2 would want to come to my house and meet my family. I know Kathyln has met them, but only in a formal setting for the most part." Tessia crossed her arms in indifference as she looked at me.

"I'm flattered for the invite, but I didn't think we were close enough friends for such a thing." That makes me smirk causing her to raise an eyebrow.

"You'll get to meet Arthur's parents." I could see her completely blank out of the conversation as she had a big smile. Thoughts raced and I could tell what kind as her cheeks slowly grew a pink dusting. Eventually she nodded her head when she came back to reality.

"Yes, I suppose I could come visit your family." She tried to look dignified, but me and Kathyln just traded small smiles at her actions.

"Great, it's settled then. You're both coming over after the last class." Kathyln looks slightly nervous so I just rest a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You've met them before, it's nothing to worry about." She nods her head and smile in return before clapping my hands together.

"Right, need to get to our training session and Kathyln to her next class. Tessia, you go in ahead and I'll walk Kathyln to her next class." Tessia, without another word, walks out of the room and towards the private training room. Kathyln turned to me and looked ready to wave me off.

"You don't have to walk me to my class." She said as she went to grab her bag, but I grabbed it first and grinned at her.

"You're right, but I want to. Now come on Princess, you don't want to be late." As I turned toward the door I slipped my hand into hers as if I'd done it a thousand times. For brief moment she was frozen, but as I pulled slightly she fell into step beside if a half step behind. I could see her head tilted slightly downward staring at our hands with a blush on her face.

With my free hand i tilted her chin up so she was facing forward rather than the ground.

"Chin up Princess, you only have to bear with this a little longer." I say with a wry smile that causes her to puff at me slightly. I feel her hand grip a little tighter as she stares in me in the eyes before facing forward and walking like the royalty she is. Head held high, and shoulders back, back straight as she walked with now confident steps.

"You will regret teasing me one day." She said quietly still focused on walking forward and I just smiled.

"I don't think that will ever happen." I could see her faint pout again, but it was quickly replaced by a soft smile. We walked without talking the rest of the way to her classroom, to which the door was still open and all the students could see us walking together. I could feel her hand squirm in my grasp, but I just squeezed it gently. I passed her bag to her and said my goodbyes, as she walked to her seat.

Most people knew me by now, whether because we were of similar standing, or because of the ruckus I had caused with Professor Geist. What they didn't know though was that I was close with the Princess, Kathyln. All eyes shifted between me and Kathyln as she made her way to her seat, and when she sat down she turned to see me. With a look of confusion on her face I grinned before giving a 2 finger salute.

"I'll be back to get you when class ends, Princess." I turned around as I saw her do a quick nod, which led to the hushed whispers of her classmates. I just chuckled lightly to myself as I headed to the training room, where maybe this time it won't just be me and Tessia. If not I suppose she still has a way to go in tea making before I'll train her myself. Maybe tea making for me can be like "wax on, wax off" was for Mr. Miyagi?

Opening the door to the training room, I'm met by Tessia and Cynthia meditating in the center. Though Tessia seems to ingrained in the training, Cynthia immediately notices me as I come closer. I guess she's not a silver core mage for nothing, though it is a little annoying she can sense me that easily. Maybe it was sound rather than sensing? Either way it's unsettling going my whole life sneaking up on people for her to immediately notice my presence.

"You're late." Cynthia's words bring Tessia out of her mediation and her eyes to me as I begin stretching. I wanted to immediately pull a quote from Gandalf or Kakashi, but I decided to shelf them for another time.

"An astute observation there Director. It's no wonder you've been the head of this academy for so long." She only looked slightly annoyed before using wind mana to raise herself up from her sitting position. It's a wonder she isn't overweight with as much use of mana to move around as I imagine she does. A small glare from her makes me think she read my mind, but I'll just pretend I didn't notice it.

"If you're done being cheeky, we can begin the training session." She says as she placed her hands behind her back staring straight at me. I'm currently folded at my back with my head sticking between my legs, Tessia is giving me the strangest expression but I just focus on Cynthia.

"Eh, i don't know how much you could teach." Her eyes widen slightly at that and even Tessia looks back and forth as if expecting Cynthia to get angry.

"Is that so?" She drawls out the so as she gazes at me before flinching slightly in pain causing me to smirk.

"Sorry Cynthia, it makes one feel rather vulnerable for just anyone to be able to see their core. Hope the defenses weren't too jarring for you." She shakes her head before staring at me strangely for a moments.

"No it's quite alright. Once you get to where I'm at there's not many who have the abilities to hid their core stage from me." I smirk at that as I pop up and go into a hand stand leaning my legs to wait her side. I finish my stretching and stand back up right as I look to between the 2.

"So how are you training Tessia? She needs to get stronger if she's going to be the vice president." Tessia huffs as she stops a foot.

"I'm plenty strong enough!" I deadpan at her and she has the decency to look abashed while Cynthia chuckles lightly.

"As for how I was training her, it was mostly just perfecting her control over her mana. I don't know enough about plant magic to help her with any attacks or strategies for it, I imagine she would need Alea Triscan for that." I nod my head at that, and even Tessia nods her head as she had heard of the woman being one of the Elven Lances.

"Well, what's the extent of your plant magic currently?" I hold a hand to my chin as I look at Tessia, she looks like a deer in head lights before conjuring a vine. I facepalm before collecting myself.

"You mean to tell me you can only create vines?" She pauses briefly before giving an unsure nod to which I just sigh heavily.

"Well we will have to change that. As is evident in the name itself, it's plant magic, not vine magic." She still seems slightly confused, so I pull out a flower from my dimension ring that's covered in thorns.

"Here, try to replicate this flower." I pass her the flower, and almost immediately she seems to realize what I had been getting at. Though it's easier said then done as she couldn't seem to figure out a way to recreate it.

"Cynthia do you have any extensive books or textbooks specifically on the various plants in Dicathen?" She think for a moment before nodding her head, a grin spreads across my face.

"Good, loan it to our vine girl here so that she can learn more about the plants. I'm pretty sure vines are just her strongest affinity inside of plant magic, she should be able to recreate poisoned flowers or even carnivorous flowers like those found in the beast glades." Cynthia eyes me closely before speaking.

"And how would you know what's in the beats glades." I tilt my head at the dumb question.

"You made me take an exam to make sure I was competent and you really feel the need to ask that?" Her mouth opens slightly before she coughs into her fist.

"You're quite right, after all I don't think you got s single question wrong." She relented but she still eyes me suspiciously. Turning back to Tessia she's still staring at the flower in one hand while the other is trying to form the flower.

"Ugh! Why won't this work?" This causes small laughs from me and Cynthia.

"Let's move on from this and have you and Jaron spar." Cynthia proposes only for Tessia's face to fill with despair as she shakes her head.

"Nonono, please anything but that. I'm still a little numb in some places from the 'spar' earlier today." Cynthia looked confused as I just laughed, remembering the shocks I gave her with my mana strings.

"I may have been a little ruthless, but she was fighting stupid because I promised to tell her something about Arthur if she won." I shrugged as a wry grin appeared on Cynthia face while Tessia blushed from the embarrassing memory.

"I don't mind training her though. Tessia, you're a conjurer, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't practice melee combat." Willing out a sword I had gotten from a dungeon dive, I tossed it to her. It was a light sword with a short blade only being about half her body height. It wasn't anything too crazy, but it would do until she got her own sword. Cynthia nodded at Tessia when she looked at her as if asking if she should do what I said.

"He's not wrong, many conjurers pick up a weapon on the side to protect themselves if an enemy gets past their augmenters and the ones that don't, usually don't last very long." Tessia looked back down at the sword and she nodded in determination.

"Alright. I'll do it. Please teach me how to use a sword, Jaron." She said as she looked at me seriously and I could only chuckle at how alike her an Arthur can be. Though I suppose I'm not much better when it comes to just diving straight into things. Just a few days- or I guess weeks- ago I was talking to a massive sea serpent that I could have avoided if I had fled as soon as I sensed it.

"Alright for the first lesson." She seemed to lean forward as I paused while I began pulling things out of my dimension ring.

"You must make a cup of tea." She almost fell over and I could see Cynthia fighting hard not to laugh.

"Do I have to?" She groaned as she stared at me with a look that was less than pleased. I unsheathe my katana and flourish it flashily. Being able to do this isn't really a show of skill as even a movie swordsman could this if they practiced. However to someone who hasn't swung a sword a day in her life it looked rather professional.

"If you want to learn from me, you do." I finished by smoothly sliding my sword back into my sheath with a satisfying clink. She sighed, but walked up and began going through the motions of brewing tea that I had shown her earlier today.

"I seem to recall an adventurer with an obsession for tea as well." Cynthia says quietly enough beside so that the tea making Tessia couldn't hear.

"Sounds like a smart person, enjoying the fine arts of tea. Perhaps I'll get to meet him one day." I say without batting an eye, and though she stares at me for a few moments she doesn't push further. I sensed a presence coming towards the door so I did a quick mana pulse. A bird like mana beast with the strength of an AA rank adventurer maybe even S rank.

"Seems your pet is here Director." Being sensitive to mana she had felt that quick pulse i let, but was distracted by it when the door opened and in flew Avier. He flew to Cynthia's shoulder as he stared at me, I looked directly into his eyes and could see the intelligence inside them but I turned back to my new apprentice.

"Hmph, only you Director would bring a Wyvern on school grounds." They both widened their eyes as they stared at me in shock.

"Ho-..?" I spoke up again before she could finish.

"Please Director, you're still surprised by the things I know? You may have everyone else fooled with its transformation, but as someone sensitive to mana I can tell he's more that he portrays. It doesn't matter anyways, it's not like it affects me." I waved it off and she seemed to sigh in relief.

"Thank you, Jaron. He really is here to protect the students should anything happen, but it would be quite troublesome if the parents of the students knew a Wyvern was on school grounds." I just nodded as I was handed a cup of tea by Tessia, I looked at it and could instantly tell that it was going to tasted terrible.

"You're welcome, Director. Here, try some of my apprentice's tea. And don't hold back, any feedback is good feedback for a budding apprentice." She nodded her head in thanks as she took the cup from hands, I was fighting the grin that threatened to split my face as Tessia looked on hopefully. As soon as the tea reached her mouth I could see the look of pure regret pass through her, but she choked it down.

"It was quite delicious, but I believe you still have room to improve. Good luck Tessia." With that she quickly began to walk out the room as Tessia had a big smile on her face at the positive praise. I was currently laughing silently at Cynthia before I wiped it away and turned back to Tessia. I took the cup of tea and swished some around in my mouth. It really was surprisingly bad.

"Okay, first the Director lied to you, this is terrible. Second how did you mix a completely unrelated item in here, it wasn't even apart of the stuff I set out for you to use. Lastly, not the worst first try, Arthur's was way worse." Her face had saddened with each thing I said until I got to the Arthur part and she beamed at me.

"I'm better than Arthur?" She asked hopefully and I just snorted.

"No, haha. He came a long way in the almost 2 years i traveled with him. Nope, you still have a long way to go, both in tea making and in swordsmanship." She deflated again and I just clapped her shoulder in consolation.

"Don't worry with my help you'll be making the best tea in Dicathen." She deadpanned slightly as she looked at the sword.

"I'd rather be the best with a sword." I laughed again.

"Haha, well that can't happen because that's me." Slight brag, and maybe in pure swordsmanship I wouldn't be the best, but I have yet to lose a sword fight in this world.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you're perfectly adequate at both. Though you'll be better at making tea so that you can make it for me." I smile cheekily at her and she sits down in front of the tea set and begins to make another cup.

"What are you doing?" I ask her.

"I'm making another cup of tea? I thought I had to perfect the tea before you would train me." She said in confusion.

"What?! No. That would take way too long and Arthur would be here before you got any sword training done. No one cup of tea that you actually tried hard to make, equals a lesson. Now pull out your sword, it's time for your training." She smiled brightly and shot up as she pulled out the sword held it upright in front of her. She grew serious as she eyed my sword and settled in to a makeshift stance.

"Alright. Lets begin.

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Author's Note

Not much happened this chapter and I apologize for that, but next chapter will have a quick scene of Tessia and Kathyln meeting the Helsteas and the Leywins and then I plan to do a time jump to when Arthur joins the academy.

I don't remember much of Tessia's plant magic capabilities from the book as I only remember her using vines. So I decided to give her 2 boosts bu having Jaron train her in the sword and also have her learn extensively about plants to utilize different plants for different situations.

Tessia now equals Bulbasaur

Tessia used poison/paralysis/ sleep powder! It was super effective. Jokes aside, I plan to have her use a flytrap like magic as well. All this on top of her swordsmanship should make her a pretty dangerous fighter. And more fun to write in fight scenes than just "vine does this way and then that way! Oh no vine gets cut, but luckily she has… another vine!"

Anyways I don't plan to go to in depth into their training, I just alluded to the fact she will be very knowledgeable in all things plants. And she will become fairly strong with a sword.

On to the next chapter

Thanks for reading.

-SocioPhobia