17 The Magic Training Room (1)

"Don't limit your challenges. Challenge your limits."

*****1

"Th-This is impossible..." Feng Mian gasped, evidently shocked.

"Woah..." Qing Yue beside her mused.

I merely sat in silence. However, this didn't mean that I wasn't surprised as well.

After all, such a case has never been seen before.

*****

- An hour or so earlier, Magic Training Room -

Feng Mian and I had just finished our conversation, privy only to us. Upon arriving at the Magic Training Room, I couldn't help but widen my eyes at the size of it. People said it was like a gymnasium for magic...but this, this is something far grander than that. Compared to any other type of rooms in the school, these undeniably stood out the most.

Our school's main building was more or less rectangular shaped, albeit specific layouts were different for every floor (considering the classes taught for each year were different as well). And his single room alone took one of the two long sides of the hallway that surrounded the floor. If I had to describe it with one word, it would be DIVINE. The entrance was a large exquisitely designed white double door, with a huge banner above it that read: "Magic Training Room". Along the walls that extended to the ends of the hallway on either side of the doors were a beautiful painting of wings-

Wait, no. Painting would be the wrong word - the wings were ACTUALLY slowly flapping. This was done with magic, of course. But the aura it gave off was in no way inferior to that of a real angel...and I have came close to seeing an angel multiple times, if you catch my meaning. What really surprised me, however, was that now I can sense the mana emitting from the wings. I could FEEL it - all around, mana and traces of mana being used earlier were as clear as day to me. For the first time in my life, I could finally experience the feeling of detecting mana.

"Wow..." Feng Mian let out a whistle. "This is really something."

"...Yeah, you're right," I replied. "The school really put effort into this one."

Qing Yue was nowhere to be seen, so Feng Mian and I assumed she had already went in. We pushed on the door, and - not surprisingly, it wasn't locked. After all, Qing Yue must've already cracked it open...another skill she had learned over the years of sneaking out her house. It really wasn't one to brag about, however.

As we entered the room, Feng Mian suddenly stopped - and it didn't seem as if she was merely gawking at our beautiful surroundings. The inside was split into 21 different sections - 7 in each row, with 3 rows in total. I could see that the sections were split apart from one another with a magical barrier, leaving an approximately 2 meter wide passage way between sections. It's quite obvious that each section was made for a specific element. The entire array, if looked at from above, would closely resemble a city building game, except each 'building' was strictly evenly sized squares. The 'roads' ran between the 'buildings', and intersected each other at times.

Each barrier was a different color and had a different insignia on it, however. The barrier colors were based on the natural hue of the element it housed, and the insignia likewise also based on the element - for example, the fire element section had a fiery orange barrier and a glowing flame insignia, while the water element one had a tranquil and calm dark blue, along with a similarly glowing (although in a different color) water drop insignia.

Furthermore, each section had an environment and atmosphere that has a connection to the corresponding element. The Sky element section naturally had a cluster of clouds in it, and the Earth element section was much like that of a mountainous terrain (although a real mountain would be far too big to fit in here). Primary Elements were on the left side, while Secondary Elements were more or less in the middle. Dark Magic was to the far right.

Although the three elements - Void, Necromancy, and Demon - have been labeled as 'Dark Magic' by society, schools didn't strictly prohibit students who have aptitude for these three elements from training them. However, most pupils with Dark Magic tended to be feared and excluded by others - not unlike what they have done to me (albeit there wasn't anyone that feared a magic-less waste like me, of course).

The entire scene felt like a color paradise, and the mana emissions from each section were extremely high - goes to show just how many people use this room everyday.

I looked over at Feng Mian. She was still standing still, brows furrowed in thought. "...Hey. You alright?"

"H-Huh?!" Feng Mian snapped back to her senses and glanced back at me. "Oh...I'm fine. It's just..."

"It's just?" I prompted her to continue.

"Don't you feel it as well?" she asked.

"...I don't know what you're talking about."

"I mean, the pressure! Don't you feel it? From all around you."

"...Pressure? No." All I felt was awe at the amount of work put into designing and constructing this place. However, it didn't seem like she was lying, either...

"What? How can that be? I had assumed the pressure was built-in to provide a stricter training environment," she said. "After all, this pressure makes it harder to concentrate your mana and effectively use magic."

"...I don't feel a thing." I replied.

"Impossible...but then again, you've proved the impossible to me more than once now." Feng Mian heartily laughed, which made my heart skip a beat. "No matter, let's find Qing Yue and test out your magic aptitude!"

"...Right."

Knowing Qing Yue well, I indicated for Feng Mian to follow me, and headed towards the Blessing element section. I spotted the insignia for the Blessing Element not far away from where we were standing, having just entered the room. It was a small plus sign, and the barrier around was a lime color, representing healing. Being a Secondary Element, it was placed around the middle area.

We continued along the passageways between sections, and eventually arrived at the Blessing Element's division. Inside it was a small figure with long silver hair, who seemed to be in meditation.

"Qing Yu-" I began, but was quickly stopped by Feng Mian, who used her hand to cover my mouth.

"Are you an idiot? She's in the middle of concentrating her mana." she explained. "If you interrupt her now, it would have a huge impact on her future training."

"...I see." I merely said once she removed her hand.

I've never used magic before - although I do vaguely remember hearing Mr. Wang saying something about "not to disturb people who are training". Apparently, when people were concentrating their mana, if disturbed, the mana would instantly disperse and the trainee in question would suffer from a backlash from the rapid movement of mana. This may cause the individual to not be able to train for the next couple of weeks, or at worst have a damaged Dantian - greatly decreasing the amount of mana he or she's able to hold, and the power output of his or her attacks as well.

The only things I've etched into my memory from class were the formulas and incantation phrases for spells. The rest...I would have to really think about it to be able to recall the information.

After a short while, Qing Yue eyes snapped open and immediately spotted us waiting outside the Blessing Element division.

Her mouth opened as if she was calling out to me, but I couldn't hear anything. No doubt, this was due to the magical barrier in place - it seemed to be sound-proof, although able to see through. I signaled to her that we weren't able to hear her with sign language.

We had learned sign language together at a young age, for...well, no particular reason. The kids who give this answer to their parents when asked "Why did you do it?" after an accident - that's right, for fun. However, since then, we had used it to secretly communicate hidden from her parents for God knows how many times. She would crawl up to her window, I would sit on the branch of a tree - and she would let me know when she would sneak out of her house.

Reminiscing on all those fun times...I faintly smiled. Feng Mian seemed to have noticed this, and looked over in curiosity. Then, she turned back to face the front again and watched on as Qing Yue, having gotten my message, began heading over to us.

"You really love her, huh?" Feng Mian said, although there was a hint of sadness in her voice.

"...Yeah. She's my only family now, after all." I replied.

Feng Mian looked towards me once more, a look of hope in her eyes. "So...you only love her as a little sister?"

I didn't understand why she asked such an obvious question - but I answered truthfully.

"...Yes." I answered. "And why do you seem so happy at that?" I noticed the glimmer in her eyes.

Hearing this, a blush rose to her cheeks, and she quickly looked away. "N-Nothing!"

But this couldn't cover the playful smile that rose to her lips.