Chapter 3

I wake up and look at the mechanical clock located at the wall near the door. I seem to have taken an hour-long nap. Nia who sees that I am now awake fetches my sparring outfit. As she helps me change into it, Nia suddenly speaks up to me.

“Milady, congratulations on the growth of your mana.” I smile towards her.

“Thank you, Nia.” As she buckles the belt around my waist she stands up.

“Milady, shall we head for the flat terrain today for your training?”

“That would be fine, but please, go easy on me.” Her smile suddenly widens.

“Of course Milady, I will not leave a mark on your body.” My complexion pales, she still seems to hold a grudge for what I said earlier. *Sigh* All I can do now is train hard to make sure I do not suffer as much.

As we head to the 4th training area, I start recalling other spells that I should use for combat. Feeling out my mana pool I notice that I regained more heat. I can only assume that my mana recovered slightly throughout my rest. We reached our destination and the first thing that Nia and I do is to warm up our bodies. We did light stretches and ran to try and get a feel of our bodies. Nia picked up 2 wooden swords on the weapon rack and she hands me one.

“Milady you do not need to hold back. You won’t be able to scratch me anyways.” Oh, here it comes the she-devil’s true form. For some reason she loves to make me mad when we train. I won’t fall for her wicked tongue. I give her a smug smile as I say.

“My, my Nia what would happen if I do end up scratching you today? Will you give up your pudding to me today?” Her expression is still smiling, but her aura changes to her menacing one.

“I will play with your little game Milady. Hopefully you do not disappoint me.”

I guess I found more motivation to train. As we both keep distance and ready our fighting stance. I start changing my mindset from training to life and death. Father has always advised me to visualize it like this for this will hone my skills faster. I take a deep breath and focus on my surroundings and my enemy.

I start chanting “Wind:Feet:01, Clarity:Eyes:02” As the sensation of heat transfers to my feet and eyes. I am now ready to fight Nia, who has been patiently waiting puts up her pointer finger and gestures (Come at me). If she wants to be on the defensive so be it.

I charge at her not forgetting to pay attention to my surroundings. With my feet imbued with magic I reach her quickly. I swing my sword at her right torso, but as if she was already prepared for it. Her sword already came to intercept mine.

*Kuu* With her strength she sends me skidding back. I do not lose balance since the wind on my feet supported me. My eyes still focused on Nia who has not moved from her position. I charge at her again swinging the sword to her right torso, however, I am paying close attention to her arm holding the sword. A crooked smile pops from her face. She chose to dodge backward ever so slightly that my swing looked like it could have nicked her torso. She is going for a counter with a sword slash towards my head. I saw it coming and managed to hold my sword to block the attack.

*Ugh* I let out a groan as the impact of the hit was too strong. I almost lost grip of my sword. Nia who is now looking down at me looks impressed. And her smile deepens. I suddenly notice movement coming from her left foot. I notice it, but my body could not react on time. Nia had managed to give a swift kick towards my stomach.

*ugh* I was sent flying with that kick; I landed on the field and rolled a couple of times before I managed to stop myself and stand up. As I was trying to reassess my situation, I heard Nia’s voice.

“Type: Target Object – 01 – Snake”

Damn, I notice the change on the field. Cracks appeared on the ground and rock snakes came out of the ground and are now coming to charge at me. 4,5,6 As I count the number of snakes that were created. I prepared my next action; I’ll practice what I learned from Professor Randol today.

“Type: Target Object – 02 – Armor” I imagined myself as the target. I recall the armor I have seen in the mansion. As I feel that the heat in my body depleting at a faster rate Shreds of armor like objects appear around my body. It did not fully form into a full plated armor, instead it only created rock gauntlets, it seems that the rocks found around the field became my gauntlets. It seems like there is still a lot of work to do. The snakes reached me and go for an attack. I go for circular sword spin attack to counter them. I managed to kill 5 of the 6 snakes and the one that I missed meets my gauntlet. The snake bit into it, but it could not destroy it. I finish it with a stab with the sword. The gauntlet now looks damaged but still usable. I suddenly felt a chill down my spine. I tried to look behind me, but before I can get a glance. Pain already assaulted my head. The last thing I heard as I fell was.

“Milady your new magic is amazing, but please pay attention to your surroundings next time.”

I wake up and notice that I am lying on a bed. With a glance, I notice that the room I am in is not my own. The room I am in is the infirmary room which is beside the training grounds. The white interior and the single beds all lined up is a good indicator of the room. I recall the mock fight that has just occurred and I could not help myself but sigh. Nia is strong she did not even fight with her full strength. I wanted to use her overconfidence against her. I thought I would at least deal a single blow towards her. Yet here I am again in the infirmary. I look around the room and find that Nia is not in the room. She must be waiting for me outside the room. Similar to the other times she has sent me to the infirmary. Now recalling the fight I think the new magic I tried was decent, however, it drained a lot of my mana. Compared to the level 2 eyes of clarity I can safely say it consumed at least 3 times that amount. The issue now is that the cost did not even attain half the result I was expecting. This either means that the level of the spell I used was not sufficient enough to get the result I wanted. Or that could also mean that the image I had was not strong enough, and the materials used to make the armor happen was not sufficient. It seems the questions I have for professor Randol is growing. I get off the bed and walk towards the door. As I exit the room waiting outside is Nia still smiling.

“It seems like you had a good rest Milady. Would you prefer to wash up before supper? Or would you like to eat first then wash up? ”

“I would prefer to wash up first then join my parents for supper.”

Nia nods and is now leading me to my room. As I follow along I try and think more about the fight.

“Nia, how long did it take you to learn how to do the alteration magic you used in our training?” She replies without stopping her steps.

“It took me 3 months of secluded training to achieve acceptable results Milady.” I nod

“So someone as strong as you still requires quite some time to master their magic huh.” She gives me a side glance and nods.

“Milady, is the magic you used in combat something someone taught you, or was that something you attempted for the first time?”

“That is something I attempted for the first time.” Nia halts her movement and turns around. Her face shows both shock and awe. Without her saying anything I could already assume that what I did was not something normal.

“Milady you may have a good affinity with mana or your imagination is just that strong.” I was curious about why she said that.

“Why would you think I am one or the other?” Nia’s face returns to her usual smiling self and she starts walking again.

“You will know more when you talk with Professor Randol Tomorrow Milady.”

Tsk, why does everybody try dodging the main question? Well I will surely get my answers tomorrow. For now I will just try and take it easy and think of what has transpired today.