First day/Class

For a week we lived in a bunk style room with girls around Kana's age. The room was simple and long with fourteen small beds, seven on each side ran down the small hallway. At the end was a bathroom, on the door was a schedule that had each of our names on it, it listed times and dates. It rotated daily so that you would eventually be the first in line, being last was annoying as by then the water would be cold and unless you were proficient in fire magic you were stuck with it. Kana being the last to arrive was at the bottom of the list and last to use the water, it surprised everyone to see her walk out with nothing but a towel and not be a shivering wreck like many of the one before her were.

They assumed she had a fire affinity but in reality she was matched with ice, probably due to our bonding. One of the books I read mentioned that the mages magic can be affected by the elements their bonds use, Kana and I share a stronger bond then others so it's bound to affect her more.

I noticed recently that she started to extrude an aura of ice, weaker than mine but holding her hands felt like you were holding a corpse. If it wasn't for her smile and overall joyful if not shy demeanor, the other girls would have thought she was a corpse. It's also easy to understand why she was the most popular person in the bunk room, it was mid summer and being stuck in a room with fourteen girls and no windows created an uncomfortable experience. Kana however was always extruding a cold aura and the girls had to eventually make another schedule for when people could join Kana at her bed.

The room was a mess, clothes thrown everywhere and many of them opted to just walk around in their underwear for which I was extremely happy to see. My tail waged evertime I watched them walk by, my head also hurt as Kana noticed where my attention was going and made a habit to bonk my noggin when ever I stared.

On a day just like any other, roughly a week after we moved in. The front doors were slammed open and a large muscular woman stood ram rod straight as she looked out into the room, clear disgust on her face. "Alright everyone line up, In front of your assigned beds. We will do roll call." She waited for everyone to line up. "That was pathetic, next time be up, moving and in your place in ten seconds or less. I don't have time to waste on those with out discipline" She began rolling off names before she put her clip board away. "Now your first job it to clean this room until it is spotless, failure to do so in one hour will result in double training for all of you. Am I clear" everyone nodded "Whn I am speaking to you, you are to say Yes ma'am, No ma'am or permission to speak MA'AM. Do I make myself clear" a bunch of half hearted yes ma'am rang out "I said, DO I MAKE MY SELF CLEAR RECRUITS!" she said with her voice being so loud it echoed three time in the room "Yes Ma'am" we all shouted as the women nodded "Remember one hour to clean this room to the way it was before you all moved in. By the end of the week I expect this place to stay that way or be cleaned and pressed in less than five minutes. Do I make my self clear" she said again "Yes ma'am" rang out "Good I'll be back in an hour cleaning supplies is in the closet by the bathroom." She tossed a key to the nearest girl. "This is the key, put everything back when your done. This is only your first day and the training in our nation is much more strict then yours. You are training to defend you homes and lively hood, not to uphold the law. These next few months will make you wish you were dead but if you pull through even the common mercenary will fear your skill. DISMISSED" She turned and walked away and everyone scattered to clean the place, we were only half way done when she came back.

"Double the training for today, usually I try to make it easier for new recruits as many have never done a day's work in their life. However each of you are mages with bonded familiars, some of the smaller less dangerous ones were left here in the dorms but for the rest of you your familiars have been taken care of and for the past week have undergone evaluations. Those whose familiars are still here and have yet to undergo the evaluation, drop them off at the desk on our way to the training field. We will be running forty laps around the facility before moving to body strengthning. No combat drills or spell focus will be added this session until you reach the basic threshhold. Line up in rows of two in alphabetical order and let's go."

We marched down the hall stopping briefly to set me at the desk, Kana gave her my name breed gender and element before heading off.

The receptionist looked at her paper then back at me with puzzlement in her eyes. "I think someone made a mistake, for now I'll put you with the rest until I get this sorted out." She walked over and placed me in a cage just big enough to fit me and placed a sticker that said to be decided. I was definitely not happy about the cage but I figured I had no say in the matter since I was 'just a mana beast' so I waited and waited and for almost hour nothing changed. Other cages were grabbed by people who looked like trainers but I was skipped over and ignored. Soon a bald man in loose military garb in the colors of the nation, black, yellow and red walked up to the desk with an irritated expression on his face.

The receptionist paled seeing him "P-professor Jackson w-what can I help you with?" the professor stared at him intently before speaking.

"Where is my student? I know he can't be late because I made sure of it" he said coldly

"What's the students name, Professor? I'd be happy to help, I wasn't told that one of the new recruits was to be pulled for mana training otherwise I would have pulled them." the receptionist relaxed visually.

"His name is Little White he's a small snow fox about yay big, he ussusually exhibit an attitude towards stupid people, he's contracted with Kana a new recruit and controls the higher form of water, the ice element. A friend of mine from the academy recommended that he be treated as a genius student and not a rabid animal. I trust his judgment and so I made sure to include him in my class. So where is he? I'd like to meet the so called genius."

The receptionist paled again as he look in my direction. I took the opportunity to stare directly in his eyes and smile, this made him pale further as he rushed over to unlock my cage. He quickly brought me over t the professor before begging him to forgive his actions.

I jumped up onto the professors shoulder but was placed on the ground "I show no favoritism towards my students, if I carry you I'd have to do the same for the whole class and that be bad for my old bones" I huffed thinking that, that was a stupid analogy but didn't make a scene. The professor ignored the receptionist as we walked down the hall. "I made an exception today as your circumstances warranted it. Seeing how you were locked in a cage you wouldn't have made it to my class even if you knew about it. This won't happen again, remember the way, I won't come looking for you if you fail to show"

I nodded and tried to keep up, it seemed everytime I was about to stride side by side he sped up. I eventually started releasing my aura just to keep up and soon my paws were covered in ice and I was dashing after the professor "old bones my ass." Right before I reached my maximum speed the old guy suddenly stopped, ice being ice I lacked any stopping power. I was forced to create a half circle and forcfully redirect my momentum and I flew up around and into towards the classroom door that opened just before I slammed into it. "Ah professor, I was just about to" bam she was cut off as I slammed into her full speed, we skidded into the room and I was dazed and confused as to why pillows would be placed behind the door. "Did that old man predict my failure?" I tried to stand up and that caused the pillows to let out a yelp as my ice coated paws hit a bump under the fabric. Still dazed and confused I ignored the sound and put more weight on my paw as I readied to jump off.

The pillows I was under let out a muffled sound and I was thrown off and into a wall "ow what the hell" looking up, a young women of about eighteen years of age sat on the floor covering her breasts like she was trying to warm them up. Her face was tinted red and she first glared at me and then the professor who just stood in the door way with a big smile on his face.

"Remarkable you are rough on the edges but with proper teaching you could be a powerful ice elementalist, now go find a seat. Amanda why are you still on the floor we have class and please bring Little White his books. He is handicapped in the thumb and finger department and I'd rather not wait for him to drag his materials to his desk" the professor walked to the front as Amanda stared at me as I walked over to an empty desk and jump up into the seat. I couldn't really see over the desk so I ended up sitting on the top of the desk as Amanda annoyed brought me the books, clearly displeased she had to accommodate a mana beast.

"Now class let's start on some fundamentals so that everyone is on the same page, this will be a crash course so please hold your questions until after I have finished." he began

"As many of you should be aware, mana is the power our world naturally creates and cultivation is the method of taking this power and refining it in the body to both strengthen ourselves as well as cast magic. We cannot directly control the mana in the air so we must refine the mana in our bodies instead." he paused before writing on the board.

"We store this mana in our cores located above the sternum and resting next to the heart, mana beast also have these cores and must follow the same rules as we do in order to grow. In the beginning you must first form your core by condensing the mana in your body into a singular spot after that you must refine the mana in your body until it reaches a solid state, this is just the basic stage and is the easiest to complete."

"The next stage after this is to refine your body, everyone has impurities in their bodies and by purging them you can enter the body refinement realm. Using your solid core as a filter you must run your power through your body and grind down the junk in your trunk until not a single spec of impurities can be found, this is only the first stage out of five, the second stage is to refine your bones by adding mana to their absolute limit, success beings you closer to the third stage. Repeating this method of cleansing and reinforcing, you start at your bones, skin, muscles and lastly your interals. You can essentially start from anywhere but this path yealds the greatest benefits as with to much strength you can break your own bones and skin, with thin skin your muscles and organs are at risk until you cleanse them. "

"When you finish your entire being you have finally reached the peek of the body refinment realm and you enter the spiritual realm. In this stage you will use mana to reinforce you metal sphere until it is as clear as the noon sky, this process is a cross between core reinforcement and body reinforcement. You are to clean the mind off all impurities before saturating it in mana, this will create a special aura called mental aura and you must focus on condensing it into a core much like your mana core, the bigger the sphere you can manage the better the benefits as it this will be both your defense for your mind as well as your mental stamina."

"When this is done and your core, body and mind has been cleansed you must undergo a tribulation brought down by the heavens themselves, this is activated once you have reached the limit of your bodies capacity. This process will destroy your body entirely where you must recreate yourself, this is a dangerous stage and many have died. Those that succeed go on to become saints, you will lose your mana core and your mental core and instead combine the two into soul fire the specifics on this information is limited as the powerful wish to keep to them selves."

"There is levels above this stand like Demi God and God, the process to Demi God's is unknown and when reaching the peek of that stage they vanish off the face of our world. We assume they attained God hood and presumably entered another stage of the universe, it's said that cultivation is a never ending path of personal growth"