015 Field examination

After my brisk morning practice, I went and sat down below the banyan tree near our inn.

According to Nara, banyan tree's had dense mana around them and hence learning to control it was not frivolous.

I sat down in the lotus position and began to concentrate mana in the air.

I could feel a thick luminous prescence lingering around my body, I quickly opened my pores, forcing them to enter me.

As the mana began to circulate, I began collecting some of it in front of my chest.

A huge spherical orb like structure floated in front of my body.

I could feel the ominous energy oozing out of it.

I quickly directed this sphere into chest.

"Blurghhh",

I winced in pain, feeling the torrenting mana raging inside me.

Every inch of muscle in body, throbbed but I bit my shirt and held on.

After a while, the current calmed itself, revealing a steady stream like flow inside me. I could feel my senses heightened and my mana reserve jump leaps and bounds.

I quickly concentrated and summoned the wind, which danced across my palm leaving behind a greenish after image.

I poured more mana into it, and the gale of wind grew bigger and bigger.

I quickly shaped my wind into a tiny Lance at the the size of a pencil. Right now I couldn't control much of it but I was pretty satisfied with my results.

I wrapped up my training and headed back to the inn, to help my father.

The inn was somewhat bustling with a huge crowd.

Lot of people were holding a piece of paper in their hands reading the contents.

"Roy, check this out" Alice called me out looking with a tinge of enthusiasm in her words.

Before I could respond to her, she pulled my arm and brought me Inside the inn.

There was a huge board with a few set of notifications attached to it.

"Look our first lesson," she said jumping around like an hare.

"What lesson??" I asked still confused about the situation.

"Uncle Jon and Anna are going to teach us, field expedition and examination"

"What....what is the use-,Alice what is going on?? I'm not getting it"

"From today onwards all the kids from the slums at your age range will learn how to study a field in terms of danger or any attack.

Although all this would be taught at the academy, not everyone from the slums get a chance for schooling. This is done to make sure kids can learn to survive until the age of 12 where they can either visit the academy or take military training at the Central." Anna said tossing me my favorite snack along with a cup of tea.

"Hmm, so there's an academy?? That's nice, but what exactly will we be learning in this so called examination??" I asked looking at Anna with an amusing smile.

"You're gonna have to see it yourself" she smiled playfully.

Tch,

"I would've said that to him, you didn't have to interfere" Alice said pouting.

"Well, forgive me young lady, for failing to live upto your expectations",

Cough,

'That was one of the cringest joke I've ever heard. Haa, who knew Anna couldn't Crack a joke', I thought making a mental note in my head.

We then talked for a while about somethings Anna had done in her past. Just normal pep talks.

After finishing up I went to my room and wore the leather armor given to me.

It was not anything out of the world but it looked like it could do its job.

I then equipped my twin Steel Scimitars with a few daggers clinged to my waist.

I looked one last time in the mirror, seeing my black hair with a small tinge of blue contrasting the black. My blue eyes perfectly lining up with my hair. My whitish brown skin made me look alluring.

With my hair tied back, I indeed looked like a unit. My chisled jawline and my sharp gaze, now that I had gained some mass made me quite appealing.

I quickly put on my boots and went to the western gate of the inn only to see most of them had already arrived.

"Roy, here" Nero called as I saw my group along with Klein waiting for me with my horse.

There were a minimum of 25 kids more or less the same age as me, gathered in a group of four or five along with their instructors.

Every group had two horses for the students and one horse for the instructor.

They all carried different weapons varying in sizes and shapes.

"Guess I'm a bit late, it is what it is, I was just adoring my own beauty in the mirror" I said.

It was the truth.

Alice made a disgusting face and uttered,

"Over-confidence",

"Well, atleast my hair doesn't look like red poop does it??"

"Shut up Roy, it doesn't look like poop, you're just stupid," she said.

We all began laughing at her outburst, while she just pouted.

Moments like this surely warm my heart. I wanted cherish such a moment.

"OK enough jokes, attention. Listen to me carefully, what you are going to do right now, is a major indicator on passive skills. No matter where you enter, always scout that area and examine the surroundings. You don't require mana, aura or any external influence. This is just purely based on your senses. We are not elves, we aren't blessed by mana or we don't harness aura from birth like orcs do, but what we do have is intellect and primal instincts. We have evolved over generations and developed our brain to such an extent that we can sense danger faster than anyone. Right now, that's what we are going to learn and control. Forget about anything happening in the slums right now. You're focus should just be on the task given to you. I will demonstrate what to do, and how to do it. Observe and learn" he said sitting on his horse.

"Follow me," he said moving forward.

Thadak, thadak

We reached a huge grass field, with fewer trees. The lush green mat over the ground gave away a weird but comfortable smell.

The mild sound of crickets and the sizzling heat of the sun, made me want to eat icecream.

'Fck, I miss ice cream.'

Klein got out of his horse, tied the leash to a nearby tree and began to introspect.

He clapped his hands, gaining out attention.

"What do you see here??" He asked.

"A simple grass field....?",

"Yes, what about now", he said throwing a small of meat from a bag he had bought.

There were no movements for a few minutes, but then suddenly a huge centipede sort of a creature, wranged above the surface of the soil and snatched the tiny piece of meat, disappearing back into the lush green space.

I was petrified. I couldn't sense any sort of movements from the underground.

"You couldn't sense it, could you?, Those are called flesh eating pedes, or bloodpede.

They are one of the most formidable opponent in this grassland, as they eat humans too. These insects possess a rare skill, ability to blend with the soil.

Deleting their movements, they are extremely difficult to detect, even for a high mage, unless you train enough.",

"Were you able to detect it??"

"Yes I was, that's partially because it's still a youngling. Younglings are always reluctant to approach humans, due to our superiority in strength. But if an adult had arrived, then the fight would have been longer" he said gesturing to the spot it had erupted from.

"So what should we do??",

"Just focus on your 5 senses and the work would be done.",

"What if it tries to kill us??" I asked.

"Then I'll just step in. It won't harm humans yet, it's still vary us"

He then quickly touched the ground, placed his hands over the ground and closed his eyes.

"Follow me, this is step one. Check for any underground enemies. How, you might ask. Just carefully feel Gaia's mana. The mana itself will guide, you don't need to spend yours. When you carefully tap into the world's mana, if there's someone inside the circle of your perception, you'll be able to detect them. The moment you feel something, you dodge.

Now the next important step, Analysis."

He said with an earnest voice. It was going to be a hectic day.