Individual Training

As a new day started I waited at the front door. Only to be kept waiting for far too long. I did say I was going to come wake them up if they didn't come.

I walked into the house and went up the stairs. I checked everyone's rooms, only to see they had indeed decided to sleep. 

They didn't even do much yesterday other than meditate and circulate their ichor. Now I have a promise to keep.

I silently walked into each of their rooms and opened their windows. As I did this I also slowly picked up their beds and placed the bottom part of the bed under the window. 

After I had done this with every single one of them I went to the furthest room in the corridor. It was Aaron's room.

As he was sound asleep I pulled the head of his bed extremely hard so that he was flung off. And because he was under the window, he zoomed right out.

I quickly sprinted to everyone's room and did the same. They must have woken up mid-fall because the sound of screaming and shouting broke the silence of the morning.

As I threw them all out of the window I came to the last person. Stacy.

I knew the others would somewhat survive if I had done this, but I was sure about her. 

Eh, oh well.

I'll just catch her before she falls. As I also flung her out of the window, I jumped out too. 

She had woken up pretty quickly and started to scream her head off. However, before I could catch her, I felt something. Sorcery.

Before she hit the ground a bed of flowers and other similar miscellaneous plants had sprouted out from the floor. 

As I looked at this I could tell it was most likely her doing, as the bed of flowers was right underneath her.

Therefore, I decided to let her fall into it. She fell fairly softly as the plants mostly cushioned her fall. It was interesting. It's like nature favoured her and decided to give her a hand. Weird.

As I dropped to the ground I looked at everyone, they seemed fairly alright. They didn't suffer any injuries. I was mostly surprised by Lia. I noticed that she didn't even scream and instead did a front flip to land feet first on the floor. I guess that the 'Adaptability' personal aspect is doing her well.

"What the hell! What's your problem?!!!" Screamed Noa. 

"I told you I'd come to wake you myself if you guys didn't. Next time I'll burn the whole house down." I told her as she got up off the floor.

Aaron also seemed to be alright. His 'Enhanced Endurance' probably helped with that.

Before Noa could continue spouting nonsense she saw Stacy's bed of flowers. Everyone circled her and admired the miracle they had just seen.

"Well done Stacy, you're the first one to use Sorcery." I clapped.

Her previous fear had turned into delight as she started to feel and smell the flowers.

"Alright everyone pick up your blanket and pillows that came flying with you and go freshen up. It's time to teach you some sorcery." I told them. 

They practically ran back to the house to get ready and came back in a couple of minutes.

I told them all to sit on the ground and to get in the same meditation position as yesterday, which they did.

"Alright, I'll command you guys in what you must do to start using your respective element," I said.

After everyone got comfortable and they were a good distance away from one another, I started. After a deep breath, I started instructing them.

"Now feel the Ichor. Feel it circulating through your body. Feel it in your veins."

"This new and foreign sensation will be what you use to conquer the stars." 

"You got it? Good. Now use it. Control it. This power is yours to command."

"Guide it to your fingertips and bring your imagination to life. NOW!!!"

BOOM

CRACKLE

FWISH

At that moment the whole area was filled with BOOMS of fire and CRACKLES of lightning. I opened my eyes only to be met with most of my students lying on the floor like corpses.

"Did you guys really just use all your ichor in one burst of sorcery?" I asked although the answer was obvious.

They couldn't talk much, and let out painful groans. 

The only people left sitting were Colt, Stacy, Alex and Luca. The ones with the high affinity had better control over their elements and didn't let all their ichor seep into that one spell. And Luca was just talented I guess. Although, he was looking unusually fatigued.

The ones lying on the floor were left feeling both happy and pained. 

"For the ones lying on the floor, you're probably feeling intense pain in your body. Like you've just gone through a hellish workout. Only much worse."

"You'll be unable to move for a day or two, and even after that it will bring great pain to partake in strenuous activities."

"Let this be a lesson to you all, always be wary about the amount of ichor you use and how much you have left." 

After this, I carried them all to their rooms and let them rest.

As I came back down I was met with a drenched Luca. 

"Go to your room. Take the day off. You did well in not ending up like the other." I said as I patted his shoulder.

"I would deny that offer, but to be honest I think I need that rest." He admitted

"Come back tomorrow, for now, you need to get your strength back," I told him as I walked to the others.

"Alright guys, it's just us three. What's your IP at?" I asked.

"Mines at 10." Answered Colt.

"10 as well." Said, Alex.

"Mine says 15." 

Amazing. Not only had Stacy cast sorcery now, but she also did this morning. For her to have this much control over her ichor is extraordinary. She had an exceptional amount of control as a starter.

"Umm, Mirage?" Stacy called out to me as I looked at her.

"Why does it say on my status that I'm Apprentice level?" She asked 

That can't be right.

After a couple of seconds, I asked "What was it yesterday?" 

"Novice." 

After staring at her for a couple of seconds, bewildered, I came back to my senses. 

How has she gone up a rank in only one day? For normal people, it takes up to six months to rank up from Novice to Apprentice level. She had some sort of blessing from the nature element.

After some deep breaths, I decided not to dwell on it too much.

"It just means you're at the next stage with your element. Remember when I explained it." 

"I remember when you explained it, I just didn't know it was this easy." 

She didn't mean to be cocky, but it still felt like she was. 

As I sighed I continued to talk. 

"It's not, you're just gifted."

As she blushed and started to nervously fiddle with her fingers I was asked another question.

"So how do you rank up?" Asked Colt.

"Well, it could be a couple of things. Usually, it's a combination of max Ichor and Elemental control. Sometimes it could even be a life-threatening battle that allows you to tap into your potential and breakthrough." I explained.

"Alright enough talking. Let's get down to training. Today, since it's only the three of you, I'll be giving you individual training that I think will help and allow you to grow." 

"Stacy, you will be training your Ichor control to better help you control your element. Since it's the strongest thing in your arsenal we'll have you train it to its top."

"You two come with me," I said as I began to walk, leaving a meditating Stacy.

I led them to the usual training ground behind the house. They were met with nothing but a pool of mud. Slippery and slimy mud.

"Alright, Colt. Hop in." I told him.

"What?! I ain't going in there. It's filthy." He protested.

"It's part of your training. Do you wanna get stronger or not?" I asked.

"Augh, fine." He said after a couple of seconds of hesitation.

As he made his way in, before he even got to the centre of the pit, he slipped, kissing the muddy floor. 

"OOF," said Alex

"You alright?" I asked as he started to get up with a face full of mud.

"I hate my life so much." 

That's a yes.

"Alright, I don't have to tell you it's slippery in there. Since your balance is so terrible, you'll be improving it there. Start practising the kicks and dodges in there." I said while walking off.

"WHAT!?!" He screamed, his voice breaking a little.

"Chop chop now." I waved.

After walking for a while, I came to a stop and looked at Alex. 

"Alright, time to test your personal aspect," I said.

He looked a bit surprised and asked "Yeah OK. But how do I use it?" 

"Well, I don't know. Look at your personal aspect in your status." I told him. 

After a couple of seconds, he was done.

"OK I got it, it's like the information was just implanted in my brain as soon as I looked at my personal aspect." He explained.

"Alright then. Here you go." I said as I cast a football-sized fireball straight at him.

He seemed like he was expecting this and got into a stance.

My fireball hit him straight in the chest, but instead of the usual BOOM and groans of pain I usually hear, this time there was nothing.

It's like my fireball was sucked into him as it completely disappeared.

After this, I could see his muscles visibly grow slightly larger with veins popping out of his arms. 

"I guess you chose to physically enhance yourself." I pointed out the obvious.

"Yeah. It feels… amazing. That one fireball gave me 10 points of energy, 1 point gets used every 2 minutes. This energy will last me 20 minutes." He said

"Well then put it to use," I said as I drew one of my short swords. 

He picked up his staff and dashed towards me.

I was surprised by his speed. It was a huge difference from what he was usually like.

As he came close to me he slammed down his staff. Although he was fast, he wasn't faster than me. 

I held up my blade to block, and when the staff made contact I couldn't help but budge a little. He was strong.

I twisted my body so that he and his weapon would fall to the ground, and proceeded to kick him in the ribs as if I was shooting a football.

Although to my surprise he was able to barely bring his staff to the point of contact, slightly blocking my kick. Although it wasn't enough, he and his weapon skidded about 5 metres across the floor.

I held back since I didn't want to seriously injure him.

He got up fairly quickly, and for some reason,  he was smiling. 

He bolted to me again and this time I did the same.

I noticed he was about to bring his weapon from the side, aiming for my ribs. To this I blocked his attack before it reached its climax, and proceeded to kick him in the stomach, knocking out the air from his lungs.

As I waited for him to catch his breath, he stared at me.

"What the hell was that?!" He asked, breathing heavily.

"You stopped my attack before I even finished it" He stated.

"Yup, something you can learn as a staff wielder. It would be idiotic to wait for a person to fully swing his weapon at you, then block, knowing you could have stopped it sooner."

"This is typically used on people who are stronger than you, in terms of raw strength, but it's a good technique to be used on anyone," I explained.

"Also stop running in head first. Your weapon isn't supposed to be used that way. Don't get carried away just because you're stronger and faster than you were." 

"Again. Let's go." I told him.

This time he was much more reserved and making better use of his weapon. 

20 minutes later

HUFF HUFF HUFF

Alex lay on the ground with a couple of bruises on his face, his Energy had just run out. It looked like it had some sort of fatigue side effect. 

As I started to put away my sword I heard laughter.

"Hahahah. That was amazing." Alex exclaimed.

It was strange. I had never even seen this guy smile, much less laugh.

"When can we do it again?" He asked

Ah, I know what this is. This guy… this guy's horny for fights. 

To be more specific he seems to enjoy fighting.

"That's enough for today. Resting your body is just as important as working it"

"Ok." He said, slightly bummed.

"Let's go, we need to check on the others." 

We made our way to Colt, but we were met with a muddy sludge with a human shape in something that looked like a familiar fighting position.

"Colt?" I said as we made our way to him. 

"Hgey, ybovu vimb hoping ve ovbt." No one could understand what he was saying.

"Go see how Stacy is doing. I'll deal with this one." He said facing Alex.

As he left I started to help Colt out of the mud. 

Colt POV:

I can't believe I had to do such bogus training. I'm covered in filth and I'm pretty sure I swallowed some. 

WHOOSH

"WOAH!!" What the hell was that, was I just put under a waterfall? All the mud is gone. But how?

I looked at Mirage who was standing in front of me empty-handed.

"What did you just do?!" I asked befuddled.

Mirage POV:

"What did you just do?!" Asked Colt with a shocked face and dripping clothes.

"Don't worry about it. Let's go meet up with the others." I told him as I started walking. 

When we had gotten to the other two, we were met with Stacy tending to Alex's bruises with first aid. 

"Alex's smiling? Is that your doing or is he just excited to be touched by a girl?" Asked Colt

I decided to ignore him and walk up to them.

"How's your circulation going?" I asked.

"Good, I think I have better control over it now." She said as she grew a small flower out of the ground. 

"WOAH!!" Exclaimed Colt. 

Is that his catchphrase or something?

"Good. For the rest of the day, we'll just circulate our ichor and get better control over it."