Chapter 113 Pressure

Lucas arrived at the cabin drenched in sweat, the cold would normally cool him enough to not need sweat. But his magic had been constantly used to generate small orbs of heat inside his body. On one hand he didn't freeze to death, on the other hand his body didn't know what to do. The chilling snow on the outside and the orbs of warmth on the inside made his body confused.

Lucas still had a bit of energy left over, using magic to heat himself up did work, but it consumed a lot. Besides that, he underestimated the distance he had to cross. He couldn't keep track of the climb, so it turned out to be a lot longer than he initially thought, making him spend too much energy in the beginning.

Still, he reached his end goal. He couldn't wait to enter the warm and comfortable cabin. Elam mostly used the couch or the rocking chair to relax, so he knew that there was a place for him to lay down for a second.

The embracing warmth of the cabin refreshed him in an instant. But since he was sweating, it felt warmer than he wanted.

"Can you please not make my home smell like a laundry basket for soldiers? Get out and don't come back in before you clean yourself."

Lucas was pushed back outside due to a strong gust of wind. He landed back into the snow. The constant change in the surrounding temperature made him almost get a cold.

'How are we meant to clean ourselves, dumbass!?'

'Well...'

'What? Do you have another genius idea, like almost burning our lungs to a crisp when we were descending?'

'Hey, that was only partially my fault, we still don't have a perfect grasp on our magic. Besides that, we can clean ourselves with the surrounding water...'

'You want to bathe in the snow?'

'...'

'You know, I like to criticize things since I wish for improvement. The reason I go against most of what you say is to incite an obscure rivalry to motivate us. In this way, I get to enjoy critiquing others, while also pushing us to a higher level. Rarely do I not have anything to say..... congratulations.'

'C'mon, it's not that stupid of an idea, right?'

'...'

Lucas took his clothes off before taking the snow in his hands to wash himself. He laid down in the snow to make sure he got every nook and cranny cleaned up. Gathering a bunch of snow in a pile, he heated it up with the little energy he had left to create a bit of water. The storm was mostly situated at the top, so while the wind did make his skin almost frozen, he kept himself warm with the orbs of heat he still had lingering inside his body.

He was now wet and drenched, but it didn't take long before the water turned into ice again, making it a bit easier to remove it. Putting his clothes back on, he entered the cabin again. Elam looked up at him.

"I guess the smell of whet clothes is better than dirt and sweat. Fine, you can enter."

Lucas walked up to the sofa that seemed to be extra soft. He reached his hands out to feel the cushions before...

"Now that you're here, I guess we can start our practical training.", Elam said with a smile on his face. Lucas felt struck by lightning, wasn't he done with the lessons for today?

"What are you talking about?"

"Didn't you listen during your previous lesson? He teaches theory, I teach combat."

"You teach combat?"

"What? Is that so surprising?"

Lucas didn't find the right words to express his surprise. In his eyes, Elam was someone who would rather sleep for the rest of his life if he could. Anytime he had to work, he could feel Elam's disdain from afar. When Lucas left a list of tasks Elam had to do, he was scared that he would only do half of them or none at all. He made a backup plan in case his laziness won, but never had to execute it. Nothing in his mind could point to Elam being the combat teacher.

"What, cat got your tongue?"

"Never mind that, how will you teach me?", Lucas was curious as to how Elam would possibly do anything that required effort.

"Simple, go to the training hall in the school, I'll meet you there."

"Why didn't you just say so from the beginning?", he was better off with the warm sweat than the cold water that covered his body.

"You didn't ask.", Elam said while pulling up his shoulders, as if he couldn't see why Lucas never asked. Lucas was confused as to why they should move separately, but didn't think much of it. He still wanted to speak to Eleven and visit Micheal once more. He didn't know why he wanted to see Micheal, but something in his mind felt like it was asking, no, begging him to see him.

With a click of the tongue, Lucas started his further descend to the academy. It had been some time since he visited it, with everything that had been happening. Luckily, the academy wasn't like any other school, if you went to classes and passed them you would succeed. When you finished your year, you could re-enroll for new teachers or classes that you couldn't do in the first year, but most start to venture out into the world.

Still, Lucas only had the outcast teachers that most avoided. Every teacher had monthly and some, as the students described, horrible ones, had weekly tests that the students needed to pass. Lucas's teachers on the other hand didn't even have a planned schedule, which made it a lot easier for him, but there were still mandatory tests at the end of the year. Those were only for the end of the year, giving him enough time to prepare.

Lucas didn't have any magic energy left, so he could only wait until it recharged. During his walk to the city, he remembered that Elam had visited the blacksmith to buy him a weapon. He gained magic vision from the man and wanted to repay him in his own way. But he hadn't seen the weapon once.

'We should definitely talk to him about it when we see him again.'

'No kidding, still, for him to play with us, I don't like it.'

'It's a stupid joke, think nothing of it. Next time we'll be prepared and ask first.'

Lucas reached the city after walking for a while. On the way, he cleared his thoughts a bit, but immediately started to go into full drive again. A group of people were protesting in front of one of the noble's mansion.

'They dare to complain to one of those hoity-toity types?'

'No, commoners know the difference between power more than anyone else. They would only stand up to someone with authority if they have a backing with the same or stronger authority.'

'Couldn't it be lower backing as well?'

'Do you think Maria would protest against the Head of the village if the baker supported her?'

'I guess that makes some sense, although I still don't fully agree. So who is our prime suspect?'

'People with tattered clothes, some with decent clothes, and the smell is bearable.'

'Lower and middle class commoners, basically?'

'Does seem to be the case, so we already know who's our mysterious backer, perhaps we should delay our visit for now.'

Lucas avoided the crowd, moving forward to the academy. Although Lucas himself didn't notice it, he had already separated himself from the typical commoners. His upbringing was still a precious part of him, but he unconsciously saw himself as better than the rabble that was protesting in front of the mansion. He didn't feel contempt or arrogance, he merely saw them as a different group to which he didn't belong to anymore.

Arriving at the academy, he was confronted with the task of finding the training room. Lucas knew that the hallways of the school were warped and had something magical about them, sadly his rank was too low to gain anything useful from analyzing it. Other students always used their maps to reach their classes and once they knew the way they didn't need to use it anymore, but Lucas never received one. He had to rely on his instincts and the feeling that the building gave off.

Reaching the training hall took longer than expected, but once he made it he was proud of himself. Entering it revealed a giant open space with nothing in it. Just a spacious room, his senses told him that there was something strange, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"And now we wai-"

"You're finally here?"

"HUH?!"

The familiar voice scared Lucas for a moment, looking around he found Elam laying on a beautifully designed sofa.

"How did you even get here!?"

"You don't need to know that for now.", Lucas didn't like being in left not knowing. If he could learn it, he would without question, there were only specific fields that didn't interest him. Elam continued with his relaxed demeanor.

"Go stand in the middle of the room, we'll start your training with an easy exercise."

Lucas obeyed without question. He himself couldn't use any spells due to his new restructured body, but it wouldn't take long before he could fight back. For now, he assumed dodging incoming attacks would also be great training.

"Fine, what now?". Lucas stood in the exact center of the room, Elam's sofa was located on the edge, so he had to speak a bit louder to reach him. Elam would've probably heard him if he just talked normally, but it felt natural to increase his volume.

"Reach me."

"Hu-Argh", Lucas fell to the ground, his face pressed into the quite dirty floor with his hands in front of him. An immense pressure was forcing him down, not even letting him move his head.

"This is the natural aura of a rank 2, if you're going to be fighting them, you'll first have to be capable of standing next to them."

The pressure was unbearable, his bones felt like they were being crushed. He wanted to throw up, but everything was being pushed to the ground.

'You've got to be kidding me! This is just Rank 2?!'

'Looks like we'll be here for a while.'

'Don't joke with me, how the hell are we going to do anything like this?'

'Easy, we'll use magic to create a shield that will withstand the pressure.'

'Aren't you meant to be a smart one, because if you've forgotten, we don't have any energy left.'

'Not, now, but in a while we can try again.'

Lucas tried to move his body, but nothing happened. The signals were definitely being sent by his brain, but nothing seemed to respond. Luckily, his eyes and eyelids were still capable of moving, though he didn't know why. Perhaps Elam was being generous enough to let him have some control.

Elam didn't have to do anything, he simply laid on his couch, eventually falling into a deep sleep. Lucas on the other hand couldn't even relax since the constant pressure hurt him immensely. Hours seemed to pass with nothing changing. Lucas had almost given up on moving his body, but now that he had saved up some energy, it was time to experiment once again.