Better Understanding

So the weeks started flying by, Samuel was participating in every training session with the faction. Helping all of those he could at getting their foundations better. Not everyone needed help of course, some were quite capable already.

Those people were set up to be in leading roles or teaching their allies. The faction had also spent enough money to completely upgrade the large hall into a proper training hall.

Everything was done under certain supervision of course, there always had to be an assistant teacher there to supervise to make sure nothing went out of hand.

And whom better to do it but Khazan, he was one of the most talented assistant teachers. Even good enough to be a proper teacher if he wanted to be. To him it was a chore and he blamed Samuel for all of it.

But none the less he did his duty because he had nothing to gain by complaining, but he threw murderous glances at Samuel whenever he could, knowing that it was his fault for him being stationed there.

It seemed like Khazans father Vazal had taken great interest in the idea and wanted his son to personally be there as often as he could, and who was Khazan to deny the orders of the headmaster of the college.

Without any further incidents or accidents happening things started to calm down at the college again, but most of those in Samuels faction were getting really good at defending themselves with the basics.

If anything happened like during the last test, then all of them would stand a better chance at surviving.

Samuel spent whatever free time he had to train his Chronomancy, and he was making big strides towards using it properly. He was almost able to use them naturally without thinking too hard - much like regular magic.

Chantless casting was a great strength to have because then your opponent would only have prediction and analyzation of spells to go off. Not many could pull it off, but it was yet another thing that they started to teach those in the faction. It would take many months for anyone to learn it though, unless they were naturally talented in the area.

Most mages or wizards that reached old years were capable of doing it. But not many reached that level, most mages only ever reached the 6th circle at best.

The basics of all was the basic elemental control which included casting basic magic, like a simple fire bolt, or some cleaning wind and water spells, or creating some drinkable water.

After that came the circles or levels of spells, ranging from all between the 1st to 10th circle. But there was also the rumored 11th and 12th circle, some even speculated that one could go even higher.

Samuel at this point was a 7th circle in terms of spellpower. He had yet to actually learn any 7th circle spells, but he could throw out fireballs and lightning spells of destruction on the level of a 7th circle spellcaster.

Each circle had set spells created by mages long ago, sometimes new spells were created although it was a rare thing, making personal spells that are abbreviations of original spells was more common.

Since Samuel had already passed the spellpower limit of the 7th circle he was way ahead of most students, but that is where being a Child of Mana came in as a handicap.

Being more natural in his sync to the origin of magic, which also led Samuel to understand why Alsian had warned him that other older children of mana could be so much more powerful.

At the college only spells of up to 6th circle were ever taught, but most students only ever reached 4th, it was uncommon to reach 5th circle while a few selected talented people could learn 6th circle.

A passing grade was 3rd circle, and there were some that never got to 3rd circle after only three years, those people were given an additional year to pass.

The strongest 6th circle spell that Samuel knew was 'Lightning Surge' it was quite a simple destructive surge of lightning that could destroy many. But Samuel preferred sticking to the basics and lower circle spells. The basics were always the best.

Samuel also preferred creating his own spells, since he was someone gifted enough to do that. Which was mostly thanks to his basic knowledge of how magic works, and being a part of mana of course.

Some people had already been shocked to see that Samuel could create his own spells at such a young age.

But it wasn't like Samuel really cared, in his mind people could think whatever they wanted, it wasn't like he was truly trying to hide everything.

If people wanted to see him as an exceptional guy then so be it, the only parts he actively tried to hide was his true heritage, and even if he was exceptional among most people, the same could not be said around the other children of mana or other people at the top.

In this world where so many exceptional and talented people existed it was hard to single them out easily, thats why the best path to follow in Samuels mind was to simply train and train some more.

During one of his peaceful days of training at his house he was interrupted by loud knocks on his door, he was training with only pants on because he hated getting shirts drenched in sweat.

When he reached for a shirt the banging only continued so he picked a simple shirt up and walked over to the door. He was already training downstairs so it wasn't exactly a long wait, but even then the knocking continued as if it was something urgent.

It annoyed Samuel enough for him to just open the door as he was, "Alright alright I'm coming!" His voice filled with a hint of annoyance as he opened the door.

He looked outside and was quickly unimpressed, raising an eyebrow and leaning on the doorframe as the door was wide open. It was after all none other than Amanda Switchtrix, the woman that first tried to coerce him into joining and when that failed she tried to force him to join her faction.

She was the daughter of another noble household in Rejuan and had a certain prestige to uphold, but Samuel just called it all a bunch of bullcrap and in the process had made her into a ill tempered rival that obviously held a grudge.

The moment she saw him standing without a shirt on though she flinched which was unusual for her. Samuel also saw that she had come alone after a quick look to the left and right, something about that didn't make sense to him.

"It's uncommon for you to come without your goons following?" Samuel mocked her a bit.

"So what did you want?" He quickly followed up because he didn't want to waste time.

"Usually when you have guests you invite them in for some drinks at the very least." She quickly retorted with her usual sass, but that sass did not hold up as she quickly looked a bit flustered.

"Well I did not want to hold up your day. So I only came here to thank you!" Amanda closed her eyes and looked to the ground.

"Thank me? Thank me for what exactly?" Samuel became quite confused, was this another trick or plan to make him drop his guard or was it something else.

"You saved my life a while ago... During the training exercise!" Amanda looked up at him as if he was completely stupid. "You even carried me to safety!"

Amanda looked at him as if he was the most stupid creature alive but quickly averted her gaze either because she was flustered or because she had to uphold her noble attitude.

Samuel finally remembered, "Oh.. The shadow creature? Or was it the dragon?" He faintly remembered carrying a woman to safety when the shadow creature had attacked.

He looked at Amanda and realized what was missing, her hair had been covered in blood which had made it red that night, the moment he imagined her with red hair he could see the resemblance.

"Hah! You're right... Sorry, I wasn't really thinking about who I was saving that night, I didn't get that good of a look at who I was saving!" Samuel admitted with a big smile.

Amanda opened her eyes wide and stared at him, "You wouldn't have saved me then if you knew it was me?" She looked very offended and almost sad.

Samuel shook his head and sighed. "I would save anyone who was in need of saving from a monster like that, regardless of who it is... Unless they are a complete evil guy! You I would save over and over again if I had too!"

Amanda sighed and nodded. "Well, I don't want to take up anymore of your time! Thank you!" She turned heel and walked away, Samuel couldn't see the small smile and slight blush she was carrying.

Samuel wouldn't understand it easily, growing up in a prestigious noble family like hers, where they had to be responsible themselves to rise up without anyone there to pick them up. But here was a man who said he would save her no matter what.

Amanda couldn't help but feel that she had misjudged him, he wasn't an idiot, he was just a bit of a dummy although an honest one.