12 Commander Eleanor Farsteel
Riwall went to the training court that was reserved for his group. Even without Friday's taunt, he would have still tried to cast some spells. Who with a sane mind on Earth would not be anxious to try experiencing magic?
{Good, no one is here. Now, should we start by trying to cast a flame on the tip of my fingers?}
[I was going to suggest something even more tame, like condensing water from the air or making a pebble float, but it's your call.]
He wasted no time and started the process of spellcasting described in the book.
First, he emptied his mind from thoughts not related to what he was doing now, which was helped by his <Meditation> skill.
{Ok, first the intent. I want the flame to be warm and not to burn anything.}
After a few seconds, he had a mental picture of a tiny flame on his palm, it danced with the movements of the wind like a regular flame but did not burn his palm.
{Information. The process of combustion. Friday, pour all information from all textbooks from Earth about the matter.}
Friday did as commanded, granting the System access to all she had on the science behind a small flame.
Riwall felt that a pulling force was growing in his stretched palm, his mana was attracted to it, but he held it for a while longer. He extended this step as much as he could because it provided him with a window of opportunity to get used to the feeling of having your mana pulled. It was through this exercise that he would learn how to regulate the flow of mana of a spell correctly.
Once the pressure started to feel overbearing, he let a small stream of mana to flow towards the forming spell.
An absurdly massive stream of fire flew from his palm. In just a second the entire training court was engulfed by flames and he quickly dropped the spell. Luckily the spell was true to his intent and did not burn anything, although the sudden consumption of the oxygen in the area created a gust of wind that covered him in red clay.
{Holy pasta! Did you see that Friday? It was huge! It looked like high-level spells from games like Firaga!}
Friday muttered something along the lines of "you could have died." but he was too happy to pay it any mind.
---CONGRATULATIONS!---
--New Skill Branch Unlocked--
-Elemental Magic Casting - Level 1-
--New Skill Unlocked--
<Fire Magic Casting> - Level 1
-------------------------
---CONGRATULATIONS!---
--Skill Branch Level Up--
-Elemental Magic Casting - Level 1-> 4
--Skill Levell Up--
<Fire Magic Casting> - Level 1 -> 25
---------------------------
Just like it happened before, the System tried to impart knowledge directly into Riwall's mind. Friday intercepted its contents and found them lacking anything about fire and elements that he did not already know from Earth's science, so she discarded all of it.
{Wow, there was nothing about ways of casting magic or some cool spells?}
[No, it seems like, of the three steps, information is indeed the most important one. This, together with your pure mana, made the spell much bigger than we wanted it to be. If not for the strong intent put behind it, we could have got seriously hurt.]
{Well, we have about 2 hours before the end of Hector's class. I want to try condensing water next.}
He followed the same steps as before, with Friday providing all the science needed to back the second step. The moment he let his mana flow to his palm, a massive stream of water shot through it and the air around them got noticeably drier.
---CONGRATULATIONS!---
--New Skill Unlocked--
<Water Magic Casting> - Level 1
-------------------------
---CONGRATULATIONS!---
--Skill Branch Level Up--
-Elemental Magic Casting - Level 4-> 6
--Skill Levell Up--
<Water Magic Casting> - Level 1 -> 20
---------------------------
{Friday.}
[Yes?]
{I think I am in love.}
[If I had hands, I would be slapping you, oh wait, I do!]
And she did, using Riwall's own hand.
[Let's get the four basic elements done and wrap things up, you need another bath.]
Riwall went on to cast a mini hurricane to pop the wind element skill, and then he forced some red clay together to form a solid and dense brick.
These simple spells got the Elemental Magic Casting branch to level 10, which was the cap, and Wind and Earth Magic Casting to 20 and 15 respectively.
{Tomorrow we will need to get more creative to increase these skills. And if possible I would like to show Hector our book, and maybe he would be willing to give me more advanced books for us to make a new one.}
[No harm in trying.]
And so, Riwall had another bath and went straight to bed. Anna and Gregory had not even finished their classes yet, and he was already asleep.
---------------------------
Eleanor arrived at the training court one hour before her new students. She wanted to get everything ready for them to show the professionalism she got to be known for.
When she saw the state of the court, she closed her eyes, convinced herself it was all an illusion, and opened them. Yet, nothing changed.
The weapons were spread all over the place; there was a 2 x 2 meter brick of red clay in the center; everything was wet; the obstacles were scattered, and the walls were painted with red mud.
Her eyes twitched, and a vein was bulging from her forehead. She swore to herself that Edward would pay for pulling this prank on her.
---------------------------
Joshua awakened the three kids and led them to the training court.
"Today your training will be overseen by one of the best military instructors of Marsastor. It is a pity that she refuses to teach nobles, so you three should feel honored."
"Excuse me, Mr. Joshua, how is her personality? Is her like her brother Edward?" Riwall got curious.
"It's either Mr. Farsteel or Master for you. They may not like it much, but they are nobles, show some respect."
Riwall rolled his eyes but luckily for him, Joshua did not see it.
"Now, to your question, she is not like her brother. Commander Eleanor holds military dignity in high regard. The control of her posture, the impeccability of her uniform, the maintenance of her weapons, and her knowledge about etiquette are only behind that of Lord Marsastor himself. You will find no one in these lands who better represents what any commander should strive to be than Commander Eleanor."
As soon as Joshua opened the door, his jaw almost hit the floor.
A woman in her mid-forties, dressed in a white military uniform, utterly drenched in sweat and red clay, was hunched in a wall removing hardened mud from it using her military knife with an inhumane speed while shouting.
"THAT SON OF A WH0R3 WILL PAY! I WILL GUT HIM AND WATCH AS HE DROWNS IN HIS OWN BLOOD! HE WILL NOT ESCAPE ME THIS TIME! OH FOR TEMELTH'S SAKE, WHY IS THIS MUD SO HARD TO CLEAN!? I ASKED FOR A MAGE CLEANER OVER HALF AN HOUR AGO, AND YET NO ONE IS HERE BUT ME! WHEN I GET MY HANDS IN THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MAINTENANCE, I WILL MAKE SURE TO PUNISH HIM IN SUCH A WAY THAT THE LORD HIMSELF WILL HAVE TO INTERVENE!"
Riwall gulped seeing the scene. He was really impressed by how much she fixed the court. She managed to destroy the red clay brick and spread it evenly around the place; the obstacles were all in place, the weapons were in the rack, the only thing out of place was the mud on the wall. He thought Joshua would be the one cleaning, so he made sure to harden all the mud on the walls before leaving.
Without him saying a word, Friday was already in control of his facial muscles in case he got questioned.
Joshua carefully approached the madwoman while sweating and trembling, for he was the one who should have checked the place before the instructor arrived. He lightly coughed to caught her attention. She snapped her head in his direction. The scene got even scarier as her gray hair was all haggard; the white of her eyes was red, and some prominent veins were buging in her temple.
Her expression went from one mad with anger to a stoic military commander in the blink of an eye. The four spectators were surprised by how noticeable the changes were.
"Kids, we will have to, unfortunately, delay our scheduled training. To not waste your time, I would like for the three of you to run laps in the main course outside. Your supervisor and I need to talk about some issues I found in the maintenance of the place."
They may have been kids, but they were not stupid. The three silently and hurriedly left the place to do as they were ordered. Some soldiers tried asking what happened for them to be running outside, but the three refused to make any comment about what they saw.
After almost one hour of running laps, a healer came to them and said their training would begin as soon as they got to the designated training court.
The three got to the door and kept staring at it. None of them had the guts to open it.
"I vote for Anna to open the door" Riwall broke the silence.
"What? Are you crazy? She will kill me!" Desperation was stamped all over her face.
"But you are the cuter of us, she would not hit something as cute as you!" Riwall insisted.
"No no no no no! I won't open it! Greg, you do it!"
The poor boy was shaking from head to toes.
"Riwall, you are the stronger, you open it!"
Riwall turned his back to the door to face Gregory, who was a few steps behind Anna and him.
"Don't be a coward Greg! She is just an old hag who is having a bad day! She won't hit any of us! Grow a pair of balls and show Anna and me that you are not afraid to face a witch, no matter how scary or crazy they may look like!"
{I think its working. As soon as I started talking, Greg went white all over his body. I think I managed to put him on the spot and he will now rise to the occasion.}
"An old hag and a witch, huh? Anything else, young man?"
As soon as he heard the calm and composed voice behind him, it was Riwall's turn to go white.
Gregory was still frozen while Anna was muttering a praying for the boy who was about to leave this world.
"You two, today you will only run laps outside until your reading classes. I think this one is in dire need of some private lessons."
Riwall watched the backs of the fox girl and the scared boy as they ran away as fast as they could.
{Traitors!}
He sheepishly followed the old woman inside and not a second after she closed the doors, he dropped to his knees and cried his eyes out while apologizing.
"Save the performance, boy! You are in the presence of Commander Eleanor Farsteel!"
He immediately jumped to his feet and got into an attention stance.
"State your name!"
"It's Riwall Madec, ma'am!"
"Mr. Riwall, do you plan on disrespecting your superior again?!"
"NO, MA'AM!"
"Do you plan on trying to throw your companion to the fire to save your own skin again?"
"NO, MA'AM!"
"Will you put your life in the line to prove you mean what you just said?!"
Riwall gulped before answering.
"Yes, ma'am."
With an evil grin on her face, she said.
"Then let us begin!"
