Time Goes On

As such time went on. Weeks passed and weeks became months until just only a month remained of their first year, of course there was also the one month college break before the second year. But during the year that had passed so quickly Samuel and his teammates had poured their all into studying.

Master the art of first level spells and starting to learn second and third levels of the spells they already knew, upcasting was a tough challenge in the beginning for Samuel at least, there was something about magic that had always been really hard for him but every time he was finally able to cast he usually could cast the spells stronger than anyone else.

It was a grade S mystery, theory in the fields of all magic schools was something drilled into the first year students more so than any minor academy many trained at before the college. In what fields to use the appropriate school and how to counter and learn how to recognize what school easily, the magical detection spells were like an automatic answer, but there were spells that could fool or trick such detection, so sometimes one had to rely on all their senses.

Eventually even Samuel learned second and third level upcasting of his spells and started learning spells belonging to the higer levels. After all, certain spells that took more power were automatically classed as second or third level, the more mana a spell required the higher it was placed and it was an extreme rarity that mages ever found a way to degrade spells without making them useless.

Not only did they learn about magic, but also about monsters since many mages were asked to use their skills to aid in the slaying of monsters or bandits it was always good to know strengths and weaknesses of such beings.

There were also plenty of monsters they were told to avoid if alone, after all - not even a whole class of students would be able to take one an adult dragon, let alone a young dragon. But there was plenty of monsters out there that were way weaker than a dragon. Also dragons were intelligent creatures, to discern the difference between intelligent monsters and dumb ones could very well save ones life.

Try to barter with an intelligent troll to pass a bridge was one thing, while dealing with a cannibal troll in a swamp was another. Monsters were just as unique as the humanoid races in shapes and sizes and what they did.

Soon enough they would go out more into the world with their teams, second year students were expected to shadow experts in the field, it was part of the eduacation as such the theory classes would diminish almost completely during the second year. So all the theory during the first year had been leading up to the last month exams that were just around the corner.

Now Samuel's group had also trained in the secret groves once or twice per month, Sonya and Erica had the toughest eduacation when it came to battle and they had both gotten really strong and were excellent mages in battle after so long. Ulma had rarely fought during her lessons, mostly learning how to channel life and nature, and nature could be a terror to face in battle as she had soon discovered from the few times she used it to fight instead of heal.

Triss had bragged about Ulma being as good of a healer as she was at that point, all she lacked was the mana for higher level spells, so that was her main focus to train on. Samuel on the other hand had also gotten to spar several times with Alsian and never getting close to beating him at all, no signs of his bloodline ability ever activating but he had started understanding magic in another way. Children of mana were blessed by the land itself, not too much unlike druids. But druids drew their power from nature and some from the elements while Children of mana drew power from everything around them.

Samuel had developed the mana breathing technique pretty well during those months and he could now refill his mana in a matter of seconds while undisturbed, although Alsian had told him to try and keep that hidden from others. There were always plenty of people who would exploit those with gifts, so Samuel had simply lied and said that he never told anyone whereas in fact he had told Ulma everything.

Samuel and Ulma drifted back and forth, they were both so busy with studies and their goals they rarely spent time, but Ul never needed to find an excuse to sleep in his bed and hugging him, they never had to try to find comfort in one another. Recently though they had started arguing about whatever seemed most important, even though it could be the smallest of things. Ulma had gone back to being sassy towards everyone and Samuel had not liked that. That was the most recent thing they argued about.

After all, during these months that passed Samuel had come to think of his teammates as his family and he cared very much for them. He was a bit too clingy, afraid to lose his new family and this Ulma did not like. Growing jealous of him being so close and caring for the other two girls.

The final month had begun and they were all sleeping less from studying like crazy which might have increased the paranoia. Ulma had come down from her room in the middle of the day and seen Samuel come back with Erica and Sonya carrying supplies and all of them laughing together looking really happy, they had gone without her and looked so happy that her jealousy boiled over. "It looks like you had a fun time without me! I hope my presence doesn't bother anyone!" She had made a nasty remark in haste before her mind could stop her and the other three had looked at her in shock.

She had always been sassy but this was different. "Woah there princess! I don't know what side of the bed you woke up on but we simply didn't want to disturb you when you was locked in your room!" Sonya replied back in a sassy voice, but Ulma hardly took notice before turning to Samuel. "You, you're a piece of real work! Two timing me or some shit?!" Ulma's inner voice was screaming for her to stop at that point but she just couldn't.

Samuel flinched back not knowing what to say, he knew that he was terrible at noticing things that bothered his friends and partner, but he had definitely gotten better at it over the year so he just tried to open his mouth to say something but couldn't find any word. It was Erica that broke the silence next, "Hey! You know that either of us don't like him that way! I like women and Sonya likes the types with fur or scales. You know that, so I won't let you stand there and bash on our best friend!" Her face flushed red with anger at Ulma and Sonya nodded in agreement with Erica's words.

"Fine then, I apologize!" Ulma said in a voice that didn't sound apologetic at all, "Since you can't even say one single word, I guess you simply don't care! Im through with you Samuel Fayt." Ulma angrily stomped off back to her room and slammed the door. While the other three almost dropped everything they carried in shock. "What just happend, I mean what in the eleven hells was that?" Erica somehow managed to stutter out after a minute of silence.

"Did I do something wrong?" Samuel whispered, but the other two were close enough to hear and Sonya instantly shook her head, "No. That was just a one sided unprovoked beat down honey. You did nothing wrong! That was just screwed up. I don't know what the hells was wrong with her, but honestly! Don't do anything, don't admit that you are wrong when you clearly ain't!" Sonya's strong will helped Samuel carry his mind through the rest of the day.

But needless to say he didn't sleep very well that night. Trying to figure out what he had done that was so wrong. He tried to find reason to blame himself for most of the night and fell asleep only an hour before they had to get up, it was supposed to be another training day in the groves of the magical forest.

When they woke up and their mentors came to fetch them they were told that Ulma had already been fetched by Triss which just made Sonya and Erica shrug while Samuel looked tired as ever. Tere'he noticed the weird behaviour but didn't question it and stopped all the other mentors from asking, this was not their place to get involved.

Meanwhile Ulma had finally gotten to her usual training grove with Triss when she collapsed on the ground, she had not slept a single wink and she was confused and hurt and felt sick to her gut. Triss had come to kneel down in front of her to check that she was alright, using that opportunity Ulma had broken down and thrown her arms around Triss while breaking down and retelling what had happened.

"How long has this been going on?" Triss asked in a very concerned voice. "It only happened yesterday!" Ulma replied, confused at the question and Triss gently slapped her on the head. "Not that! You having these feelings in general? How long?" Triss asked specifically this time. "I do not know, a few months, it got gradually worse and worse." Ulma replied and Triss wiped away some tears.

"Give me a moment!" Triss made Ulma let go and walked over to the central tree and made one of its roots come to the surface for her to grab. Ulma was shocked to see her almost yank the root and instantly activate her connection. In fury she yelled, "What kind of unhealthy seeds have you been planting in the queen? Who gave you permission to do that to your own queen? HUH?" Triss roared at it and Ulma could see all of Triss tattoos light up white.

What shocked Ulma even more was that the tree replied in a voice even she could hear, although it sounded like a thousand whispers. "The man, man, man, man, man, man, he is toxic! He is not good for the health of the forest.... he is cursed by death, he brings death. Unaware, yet deadly nonetheless. We removed the toxin from our queen." The echoing whispers seemed to come from all directions.

"WAS THAT YOUR DECISION TO MAKE?" Triss hand started sizzling and it sounded the the tree was groaning in pain. "Listen well young Queen, you are still young and easily influenced, it seems that I was careless. I didn't think the spirits of nature would try to slowly infest your mind with their own ideas of whats right... no matter how you see it! This is betrayal to you! It must be punished!" Triss had to teach her pupil that nature was not always kind and beautiful, there were some flowers that were toxic and malicious.

"Let it go!" Ulma replied as she clutched her legs and remained on the ground. "It merely brought out my worst feelings, but the feelings were still mine... I still did the wrong. Just promise me, to never try to do that to my mind again!" Ulma said and Triss made some more sizzling to make it understand and it quickly replied with an apology.

"I just want to know what you meant with him being a toxin and cursed with death." Ulma asked but the trees remained silent. "Oh no!" Triss suddenly blurted out. "They have gone to take matters into their own hands." Triss realized that by now Alsian and Samuel had probably arrived in their own grove, so she quickly summoned her wooden staff and made a portal back to the main grove.

"Come quickly!" Triss shouted and Ulma ran with her quickly. "Couldn't you have made a portal to their grove?" Ulma shouted behind her. "Those bastards broke off its connection to the main grove." Triss replied and she quickly relayed the information to the main tree.

Ulma could feel the main tree and its annoyance, the other two trees has betrayed it as well. Doing something like this in her part of the forest was unacceptable. So she unveiled a portal made out of roots and two unicorns came running through. "Run fast!" The voice of the main tree was kind and caring.

Triss and Ulma quickly mounted a unicorn each and they quickly started running in the direction of Alsian and Samuel's grove.