Mental Moxie Increase

Going to take a seat in the middle of Jake and Smith, Kevin said to Jake "Hey. I forgot to ask, what punishment did Miss Anna give you yesterday?"

"If you wanted to know, why didn't you stay here with me yesterday to find out?" Jake asked.

"Just tell me." Kevin said.

"She told me to run round the school twenty-five times."

"Really? That seems kinda small." Kevin said to Jake.

"Oh yeah? Why don't you try running around the school ten times, let's see if you still think it's 'kinda small'." Jake replied. "And she said that's only the first part of the punishment."

"So you're staying after school again today?" Smith asked Jake after listening to the conversation between him and Kevin.

"Yeah, but normally I stay back after school to do some more training with Miss Anna. Now I'm staying back to do punishment." Jake said.

"On the bright side," Kevin said, "at least you get to spend some time alone with Miss Anna."

Sarcastically, Jake said to Kevin "Yeah Kevin, that's very bright, makes the whole punishment worth it already." Bringing up his system screen, Jake looked at the system messages he had received when they had gone out for their break. He had seen the system messages earlier but had removed them from his line of sight because he didn't want to read them while walking.

[User's Mental Moxie has increased due to knowledge and information received]

[Mental Moxie +3 received]

[Mental Moxie: 19]

'Well this is a nice surprise, so my mental moxie can also increase without quests. This is good because the system hasn't given me any quests concerning mental moxie in a while. But is the system referring to what I'm being taught as the knowledge and information I've received? This is kind of confusing.'

"Settle down people." Anna said from the front of the training room where she had just gotten up from her seat. She had given the students some extra minutes for their break just as a bonus. She wasn't going to give them another break so she decided to add a little bit more time. "Your break's over."

With every student now present in the training, they all sat down and faced Anna.

"Who said you should take a seat?" Anna asked. "All of you, on your feet, now. We're not done with the side kick yet."

Not without some groans being heard here and there, the students rose to their feet and moved the chairs to a corner of the training room.

"Who can tell me where we stopped in the steps for a side kick?" Anna asked.

"We stopped at the step which includes a fighting stance." Kevin said. "When you were telling us that our standing foot should have turned one hundred and eighty degrees by the time we deliver the side kick. That's where we stopped."

"So you were paying attention." Anna said to Kevin.

"Of course I was paying attention." Kevin replied. "I got my eyes on you always."

"Do you? Wipe that smug smile off your face. I can mention at least five other students who could have answered that question."

"Mention them." Kevin said.

"The first obvious answer is Smith, then Jake, Kyle, Diane and Sora. There can be more people who could have answered the question but those are the ones I'm sure of."

"Who's Sora?" Kevin asked.

"I am Sora." said a girl who was standing close to the wall. She was tall, with short brown hair, average curves and beauty that could be considered average as well.

Turning his head to the back, Kevin saw the girl who had spoken and smiled at her as a sort of apology for not knowing who she was.

"Don't get any ideas Kevin." Jake said to Kevin quietly as he saw him smile at the girl.

"I wasn't even thinking about anything." Kevin replied Jake, also using a low tone so that people around don't hear what he's saying. "That was an I-am-sorry smile."

"So you don't have any ulterior motives?" Jake asked.

"Okay maybe a small ulterior motive." Kevin admitted. "But no one's going to die right? So no harm done."

"I would like to think the two of you would rather listen to me than get punished?" Anna said to Jake and Kevin.

"You are absolutely right Miss Anna." Kevin said.

"As I was saying before the interruption, the next step in carrying out the side kick is the rotation of your standing foot. You guys should know that the steps I already taught you is enough for you to deliver a side kick correctly, but the extra steps I'm about to teach you are ways for you to improve the side kick. If you feel you don't need it you can take a seat."

Laughing, Anna said to the students "I'm just kidding, learning the extra steps isn't optional, it's compulsory. So whether you like it or not, you're going to learn it."

"In the next step, rotating your foot all the way around will open up your hips so that your foot can strike your target at the correct position. The rotation also provides more power for the side kick. You can push off your foot as it turns so that you can use your hip, and core muscles to drive your kicking foot out at your target. The rotation means you turn power from the ground into the power going forward in your kick, which makes the kick stronger and harder."

"As the beginner you guys are, you can rotate your foot before straightening your knee to strike your target. As you progress you must make sure you are rotating your foot at the very end of your strike, that is when your knee is almost straightened, so that you rotate your hip into the kick. This generates more power and strength."

"Instead of all this talk and demonstration, let me show you what I mean." Tapping the wall behind her twice, a holographic display of a person doing the side kick in slow motion was projected. Explaining what she had said earlier with the aid of the hologram, Anna saw the students were now understanding her a lot better than before.

"Wait a minute." Jake said. "Not that I have any complaints or anything, but if you could have done this the whole time, why didn't you? Why were you demonstrating it yourself instead of just using this hologram?"

"I'll tell you what I always say," Anna said, "I didn't feel like. I do things when I feel like doing it, and it's not like you guys didn't understand the way I was teaching before."

"That's true, but Jake has a point." Kyle said. "Using the hologram would have been a more effective way of teaching us."

"I have an idea." Anna said. "Instead of focusing on the method I'm using to teach, how about you guys focus on what I'm actually teaching. Start practicing."