Training

The 4 kids bowed to me as I stood there at the center.

"Since I gained something out of it… I will let this one go," I spoke as I saw Lucas straightening his back with his eyes gleaming. Though I haven't finished talking yet.

"But!" I spoke in a dominant tone, making them all shook a little.

"We can no longer be seen together. I need to function alone for the time being. From now on, keep a distance from me until I come to you," I added as I knew that saying anything else would mess it up more.

I didn't know the relation between us to make an act out of it. I should rather focus on collecting information.

"Boss! Are you outcasting us?!!" Lucas cried and the others behaved the same way.

I sighed a little before looking at him and speaking,

"Do you remember the place where you left me?"

"Yeah. In the abandoned mechanical factory. What happened there, boss?!"

I looked at the idiot for a while as I smiled on the inside. So the place where I can get more information is that abandoned factory, huh?

"Forget about it. Just lay low for the time being. Something big might happen soon," I mumbled as I took out the colorless ball out of my hands, making them all look at it.

"This might turn dangerous. I can't risk the lives of you by involving in it," I gave them a warm smile, and they looked at me with a rather dumbfounded look.

Glancing at the colorless ball, they figured that I wasn't lying.

Lucas seemed really moved right now. He seemed as if he wanted to say something but I spoke first,

"Leave now."

They were stumped. But all four of them nodded and then left with dejected faces, as I looked at the afternoon sun right at the top.

'While I certainly can visit the factory right now, but… it would be better to check the mage's training area right now. We got the whole night for the factory.'

According to Zara, the library and the training areas are only available during the day. There are special training areas for 1C and above, but no one other than the respective students were allowed to use it.

And with that in mind, I then moved towards my next destination.

The mage's training area.

And within that training area…

"Wow!" I exclaimed as I saw the huge empty area that could hold thousands of people at once.

But right now only a single person was present within this area. She seemed to be chanting something before a fire ball appeared in front of her and then vanished in an instant.

Ignoring her, I then moved into the training area, about a 100 meters away from her.

'I could feel the mana density a bit more than outside. Nothing compared to the density of heaven but… still better.'

Beggars can't be choosers, I guess.

Sitting on the spot in a meditation spot, I then start collecting the air mana in the surrounding air.

The concentration of Air and Earth Mana was more than others. There were some more traces of fire mana, but that was just probably because of the girl there, so I ignored it.

With this weak body, both the amount and the types of mana I can store at once is rather pathetic.

And thus I closed my eyes and began absorbing the mana with high concentration, as I filled my body with that mana.

Time passed slowly as I stood there, and while I was doing that.

"WATCH OUT!" A feminine voice cried out, breaking my concentration as I saw a fireball coming at my face.

But that wasn't the only thing, another trace of magic was present there.

And the next moment, an ice wall formed in front of me and blocked the fireball.

-Boom!

The wall cracked down, but held the fireball before it dissipated in the air. The ice wall also thinned down after a few seconds.

And the previous girl who was practicing with the fire ball ran towards me with a panicked expression. And another girl, a white haired one walked behind her.

The fire ball girl had red hair that reached down to her waist, while she wore an orange robe. Her black eyes filled with slight tears as panic covered her face seemed a little cute right now.

As for the white haired girl, she seemed to be carrying little expression on her face. Unlike the red haired one, she had short hairs reaching her shoulders, and she wore a purple robe.

'Orange was… 1B… and purple was… 1A,' I recalled as I saw both of them.

"Sorry! Sorry! You aren't hurt, are you?!" She asked as her eyes checked my entire body for any burn marks. Though not finding them, she sighed as she fell on her butt and wiped the sweat on her forehead.

"Safe!" She mumbled as she chuckled, making a fear-filled smile," almost got another detention."

"Never seen you before here. What's your name? And more importantly, what are you doing here?" The white haired girl asked as she looked at me. Or more specifically at my robe.

"Just checking out a theory that I came up with in a life and death situation," I answered them since it wasn't a lie. This method of restoring mana was something that I developed on my own in my prime days.

"A theory?" The white haired girl seemed intrigued.

"Wait! What are you guys talking about?" The red haired girl finally snapped back to reality as she looked at me and the other girl.

"Why is a gray robe in a mages training area… " the white haired girl pointed it out.

"Gray robed? Ah! You really are one! Wow! Didn't you come an hour ago? I was curious about what you were doing… but I got busy doing my own thing… tehe…" the red haired girl laughed sheepishly.

Ignoring her, the white haired looked at me as she waited for my answer.