"Colt sometimes I wonder what goes on inside that head of yours" Rea shook her head as she ate her meal.

Surprisingly this time it was not soup. It was a set of steak and salad.

"It was stress ok~, ain't this inhumane?"

I slurped my soup as I looked at the people around me eat a proper meal. This was my punishment from my earlier behavior.

'They're monsters' 

This meal was some sort of congratulatory present by our instructors for completing the first phase, all of us.

After Leyana gave me that advice to practice writing my rune, I had also added keeping a finger gun stance at all times. My performance actually saw improvement as I managed to complete the set at the last day.

It wasn't really making me more focused though as the princess predicted. It was more like a relaxing mental trigger, it ultimately loosened my tension and allowed me to circulate in peace despite all the distracting things happening around me.

It honestly became some kind of habit. My writing speed seemed to became much faster and precise as an extra.

"Rea, It is fair punishment for such disrespectful behavior, though such idiocy is not a surprise from this man" said Leyana as she glanced at me.

"Yeah...Colt can be an idiot sometimes" 

Rea giggled as she bonded with the princess. It seems like they were getting some fun out of my misery.

I looked at my side, feeling wronged being their subject for bonding together.

"...Im not giving you any dude..." 

Ben hid his plate, munching on his food. My brows twitched.

I just stared back at my gray bowl.

'...I feel so betrayed right now..'

-----

It was the day after, Mrs. Nellie was in front of us explaining the second phase from the King's ridiculous training regime.

"Trainees we will be moving on to manual circulation for the next two weeks"

Manual circulation simply refered to expanding our circulation to specific parts of our body, not just from our heart.

It also included being able to emit internal arcane outside our body. By mastering this we would be able to perform what Nellie explains as Arcane Arts or arts for short.

"Dude is it like painting?" 

Ben nudged me from the side as he whispered.

"..I don't think that's it man" 

I turned my attention again to our instructor.

"Arts is like spellcasting for warriors. Controlling internal arcane in a specific way makes a phenomenon close to magic"

"And teaching you an art will be our goal this phase" 

She added as she showed us a thick book. It was titled 'Irelian Arcane Arts'.

""" Ohhhh! """"

All three of us got excited. Even though I can technically do spells due to my ability, it still never fails to excite me.

Our instructor smiled as she looked at our eyes, shining. She then further explained as she showed some of the things inside the book.

Basically arts can range to anything from offensive, defensive and even auxiliary.

Offensive arts such as sword arts, spear arts, or any other combat arts that required both high profenciency of the weapon and arcane manipulation. She warned that this wouldn't be taught to us this phase.

She also tasked us to learn about weapon mastery as it was best to know about it if we ever try to pursue an offensive art in the future.

She explained that it will take too long and too much resources to learn something like that. Although we were dissappointed, we understood that we were limited on time.

Next was defensive arts. It was simply the same as Offensive arts but it was much simpler to learn. It included hardening parts of the body or creating a force shield using arcane for example. 

They were going to teach us basic 'Coating' which was the most easiest to learn and most used by warriors. It was an art that emitted thin coats of arcane outside the skin which could defend from attacks to a certain extent.

Lastly Auxiliary, it was arts that was not offensive and defensive. It acted more like buffs from what she said to us, one example was movement arts.

"Auxiliary arts will be chosen by you trainees since it will be the most helpful in complementing your fighting style, hence we will not interfere whatsoever"

"Ma'am when will we start!?" excitedly said Ben.

"After you complete lower and upper arcane manipulation" she then urged us to follow her.

-----

We were sitting in a lotus position our eyes closed shut.

Our bodies were fitted with collars from both our arms and legs before we were ordered to sit in this position.

"Those collars attached to your arms and legs will indicate wether you have completely channelled arcane to those respective parts of your body" she paused.

"It is attached with arcane crystals that light up once it detects a certain amount of arcane.  If you are able to light it up means that you have succeeded manual arcane control on that part. Better if you can break it but I doubt that you will be able to since it takes a measurable amount of time to master this"

She then taught us how to channel our arcane to other parts of our body. It essentially was the same as for our heart but moving arcane apart from that place takes a lot more concentration and mental power.

This training will be our main concern for this week before we could learn any arts. She also added that physical training will be required from us for a short time in the mornings now.

She reasoned that after phase one, basic physical training will strengthen our base strength before any enhancement. 

I wasn't worried thought since all three of us were used to sit ups, curl ups and such from uncle Desmond.

"Now just try what I taught you" she instructed.

And so we began our training in phase two.

-----

Heaving and tired groans could be heard from the camp. Mr. Harold approached the three as he grinned at us.

"Its going to be harder than general circulation trainees. It would likely take you a week and a half to finish this, give and take" 

He lifted Rea and Ben from their collapsed position.

He then turned to me, a look of confusion on his face as he observed that I didn't collapse nor was I catching my breath for that matter although I was sweating a lot.

"Colt Pelter, slacking off won't get you anywhere you know. You do know the punishment for all three of you will be an extra collar to light up" he reprimanded as he left, grinning.

'...that old man must be a sadist..' 

I looked at my arms, more specifically at my gun finger stance. I had held it the same as I was training in a lotus position from earlier.

"Why did it feel smoother in my arms than my feet?"

I mused after I observed that it was really hard moving arcane down my legs, just as Mrs. Nellie said before but it wasn't the case with my arms as it honestly didn't feel that much restricting.

"Hmmm that's weird"

I stayed there thinking for a while but ultimately went back to camp to proceed to combat training after I realized that I wasn't smart enough to figure it out.

"Might be a fluke or something~" 

-----

"Weapon mastery?" 

"Yeah~, Mrs. Nellie mentioned it in our training on arts"

I was drinking a healing potion as I was slumped beside a stone, beaten black and blue by my sword instructor.

We had moved past blocking techniques and now she was teaching me parrying which was way harder than the former. 

It also didn't help that she was very fast when she swings her sword, even with my enhanced senses, it all seems like a blur to me.

'I'm pretty sure she's at Bridged stage'

I mused after realizing that she didn't intake any limber potion all this time.

I didn't want to ask her about what stage she was at, I fear that she was going to get all smug about it.

She wiped her face with a towel, her face sweating although it surprisingly added beauty to her glistening platinum hair.

However more than that was how her clothes were sticking to her supple skin due to the sweat.

It was really distracting though I didn't complain.

"Hmmm-why are staring at me like that?"

She asked. It seemed she noticed me staring.

"...Nothing.."

She stared at me, her eyes seemingly trying to look past my faked calm.

"Suspicious indeed.....well no matter. I shall tell you so listen closely Colt" 

She sat next to me with her sword pointed upwards.

"Weapon mastery is what it literally means- mastery over one's own chosen weapon but take note this also includes all types of martial arts. When mastery is turned into arts it becomes a very lethal weapon"

She placed the sword down. She then stated that it doesn't have a deterministic level although Folerian's made their own scale.

Novice-Warrior-Expert-Master

"Mastery may be defined differently by those that have achieved it and those that seek it so unfortunately I don't have a definite answer for you besides it's too early for you to think about that."

She paused then grinned as she glanced at me, a condescending look on her face.

"In addition you're not even proficient enough to parry my strikes yet so stop looking so ahead Colt huhuhu"

'This prick..'

"....You know your beautiful face is really wasted on you due to your personality Leyana~ " 

I argued back, waiting for her usual comeback although after waiting a while It never came.

"...Hey-"

I looked to the side to see what was wrong although what I saw quickly made me silent.

There she crouched, both her hands cupped in her reddening cheeks. She looked down, her brows furrowed, her lips seemingly forcing a frown despite seemingly smiling.

"C-Colt its g-getting late so lets dismiss for today! G-Goodnight!"

She hurriedly went inside her tent, not even minding to store her wooden sword.

As for me, I stood there dumbfounded how she just left me here all of a sudden.

I picked up her sword and mine as I stored it in the rack. I decided to also tuck in for the night. My thoughts lingering.

'I should practice to parry more'