Volume 1 Chapter 3: Part 3: The Start Of Their Training

 

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE WILL BE SEPARATED?!" Irene screams out in horror. Her look says it all. She was about to explode from anger!

 

"Hero Irene, please calm down. There's a reasonable explanation for this." The priestess tries to soothe the situation. But her desperate expression was the opposite. The sweat coming down her forehead is enough to cause a flood!

 

How can she not, though? The person who's considered the most important is about to burst into tears. The priestess quickly explains, 

 

"Because the two of you have different skills, it's better to have separate teachers teach you instead." It was hard to find a teacher who's the same skills for both of them. 

 

So having a specific teacher with them is the better option. 

 

"But, why are we so far away from each other!" Irene burst into tears. The rooms they'll be taught in are on the opposite ends of each other! It'll take them at least ten minutes to get to the other side. 

 

"Irene, it'll be ok." Onyx sighs and pats her on the shoulder. But that just made Irene sadder, 

 

"But it's such a long time!" They will be learning magic for about 10 hours every other day. The only time Onyx and Irene can talk is during the night.

 

That was the final straw. If Onyx was taught in the room beside hers, she might've been ok with it. 

 

But nope. Irene didn't get that. 

 

"I don't wanna! I don't wanna! I don't wanna!" Irene flails her body on the ground and has a temper tantrum. 

 

Thank goodness the only people who saw this were Onyx, Walter, Vargar, and the priestess. Well, the priestess was about to faint any second. The other two didn't speak as they had wry expressions plastered on their faces. 

 

They can't believe the girl they met before is acting like a child. Well, she was technically a child a few days ago. 

 

Walter nudges Onyx, who was sighing, "Onyx, can't you do something about this?" The priestess can't do anything about it since she just met Irene.

 

And Walter and Vargar can't do a thing about it as this is an experience they don't have. The only person who can handle Irene is none other than her childhood friend. 

 

Onyx nods, knowing that he's the only person who can do it. He crouches down to Irene, "Irene. Don't be like that. It's not that long." The moment he says this, Onyx instantly regrets it.

 

Irene looks up at him with a red face, 

 

"What do you mean it's not that long?!" She jumps off the ground and holds onto his body like a body. She locks on, planning to never let him go. 

 

"One minute away from you is already hard enough. Don't you feel the same way about me?" Irene sniffles in front of Onyx. 

 

"..." Seeing the tears coming off the angelic girl, nobody could say anything to that. It was like the tantrum she had a few seconds ago was only a dream. Onyx was the only one who didn't fall for that. 

 

"Of course, I feel the same. Not being able to see you for 10 hours is weird. But if these ten hours mean protecting you for a lifetime, then this sadness is worth it."

 

Onyx felt the same as well. It was strange for him not to see Irene for so long. However, he knows this training would be able to help him. 

 

"..." Watching the scene, Walter and Vargar gave strained expressions. The two felt they got stuffed full of sugar in their mouth. Damn. Do you not feel any embarrassment from your words?! Is this what you call young love? 

 

While the two sighed at how brave Onyx was to say something like that, the priestess blushed. She felt envious of Irene for having such a handsome childhood friend. 

 

She just witnessed the ultimate puppy love. Not knowing what the three are thinking of, Onyx strokes Irene's head.

 

To not be deadweight for Irene. That is his goal. 

 

Kyuuu!

 

Irene's face turns redder. For a different reason this time. She says blushingly, "Not fair."

 

"Hmm?" What's not fair?

 

"I want to protect you as well!" Irene shouts out loud. If Onyx is going 100 percent, then she will go 110!

 

She lets go of Onyx and walks toward the priestess, "Teach me magic now!" Before the priestess can say anything, Irene drags her into the classroom. 

 

Onyx sighs and turns back to Vargar and Walter, "Sorry for causing trouble for the two of you. I'll go to my classes now too." 

 

"Alright, good luck in class then." Walter gives a smile and leaves Onyx to his own devices. 

...

When Onyx walks into the room, a priest is waiting for him. He has a smile on his face, 

 

"Hello, Hero Onyx. I'm priestess Bron. I'll be teaching you about the history of magic and the basic history of the world. 

 

Onyx bows his head, "Thank you for teaching me."

 

Bron smiles, "Before I start teaching you, I want to know how much you know about the world itself."

 

"The world we live in is called Areis. The land we are on right now is the Espoir Kingdom." Onyx explains the information he knows. 

 

Most of the kids in their village were taught basic geography and information. Their purpose was to focus on farming, so they didn't have enough time or money for school. 

 

"So it's this much." Bron mulls it over and continues, 

 

"What you said is correct. The world Areis is a world that's created by the gods. The world is split into six sections. And each section is governed by a god. We'll start with the human section." 

 

"The human land is governed by the god of lightning. Further on, it's split into 4 different pieces, each having its own structure. You should know two of them already."

 

Onyx nods, "That would be the Holy Land and the Espoir Kingdom."

 

"Mmhmm, The Holy Land and the Espoir Kingdom are part of the four. The other two are the Trident Kingdom and the Riqueza Kingdom." Bron continues to explain the general information about the two kingdoms. 

 

"Now that I've given the gist of the four kingdoms, now let's go into the concept of skills." 

 

Hearing what's next, Onyx looks eager. This is one of the things he's interested in. 

 

"Skills or blessings are given by the gods to the people once they turn 15 years old." 

 

Onyx nods. That information was something the head priest had drilled into Onyx and Irene's mind at a young age. 

 

"But there is more to it than that. Skills can be categorized into different classes."

 

"?' That is something Onyx doesn't know about. There are different classes for skills?

 

"There are four main categories skills will go under. They are; Elemental, Mastery, Enhancement, and Utility. 

 

Elementary skills allow the one to change the mana and release it like the elements. 

 

Master skills focus on increasing physical strength and techniques. These will give you specific enhancement and gear your body towards a particular job. 

 

Enhancement skills will target a specific part of your body, increasing the strength of the body part. 

 

And utility skills will grant you a specific power. Do you understand all of that?"

 

Onyx nods his head and writes down what Bron said about the skills. 

 

"Do you have any questions?"

 

"Mmhmm." Onyx nods, "I understand what elementary skills are based on the name. But what would the rest be?"

 

"For mastery skills, a great example would be the sword skill. It'll enhance your arms. In addition, it helps increase your understanding of using a sword. That's a great skill to have if somebody wants to become a knight.

 

An example of an enhancement would be eye enhancement which increases your eyesight. 

 

And for utility skills, it'll vary a lot. An in-demand utility skill people want is the appraisal skill. It gives the person the ability to look more in-depth into items."

 

As Bron kept talking about it, Onyx got more of an understanding of what skills are. He asks another question, 

 

"What category does my hero skill fall under then?" 

 

"Your hero skill doesn't fall under any of the four categories. Hero skills are unique. But we won't be talking about it for now. Let's focus on teaching you some spells."

 

"!" Onyx becomes even more excited about this, "What type of magic will I learn?!" If learning about skills is the horderves, then learning magic is the main dish.

 

"Calm down." Bron laughs, seeing the excited look on Onyx's face. He continues, "I won't be teaching you any dark magic right now. Without proper control, you might blow yourself up."

 

"I'll be teaching you this." As Bron says this, a ball of light shoots out from his finger. It was a tiny ball, about the size of his palm. 

 

"This spell is called mana ball. Just focus your mana into your hand, and it'll show up." 

 

"How do I focus my mana?"

 

The mana ball on his hand disappears, and Bron explains, "Everybody has a mana pool to use mana. Imagine your mana pool as a sphere at the center of your body. And imagine it flowing through to the tip of your fingers. Think of it as a stream of water." 

 

"Alright." Onyx begins to concentrate. Imagining a stream of water going down to the tip of his fingers. Out of nowhere, a giant black orb forms in front of Onyx!

 

Bron's complexion pales. He shouts out, "Oh shit! Hero Onyx, stop transferring your mana! It's too big!" Never did he expect Onyx to make such a large ball instantly. That thing was almost the size of him!

 

"How do I do that?!" Onyx's mind turns round and round, not understanding how to shrink it! Even he was surprised by the size of it.  

 

"Loosen your concentration! Slowly move your mana out of the orb and transfer it back to your mana pool! That'll shrink it." Onyx nods and stops concentrating on the ball. And slowly moves the mana out of the ball.

 

The black sphere slowly shrinks, turning into the size of his palm. 

 

"Thank goodness." Bron sighs in relief and says to Onyx, "That was good for your first time. But let's increase your control. Keep changing the size of the ball constantly. That'll help your control and concentration." Onyx nods and continues to change the size of the ball continuously. 

 

"Got it." After knowing the feeling of changing the size of the ball, Onyx continues to do it. The more he did it: I got this. The more he did it, the more he felt his control increased.

 

As Bron watches Onyx change the shape of the ball continuously, his expression turns a little stale, 

 

"He's good at control."

 

Onyx doesn't respond to him as he focuses on what is in front of him. 

...

"I have so much fun learning from my teacher today!" After finishing their training, the two are in Onyx's bedroom. Both are sitting on Onyx's bed. 

 

"I learn so much from her." Irene's face was all smiles as she said this. Onyx smiles gently at her. Seeing her now from her having a temper tantrum a few hours ago was surprising. 

 

But seeing her happy is good. 

 

"What did you learn?" After Onyx finished practicing with the mana ball, Bron began to teach him more about the history of Espoir Kingdom and the Holy Land. 

 

Onyx felt he learned a lot. 

 

"I learned a lot of spells. Look at this!" Irene's hand starts to glow. 

 

"Wait-" Onyx's instincts went red when he saw that. Before Onyx could tell her to stop, it was too late. Irene aims outside through the balcony, and a shining thunderbolt shoots out!

 

The crackling of the lightning passes through the air towards the outpost. 

 

Bang!

 

What came out was a giant hole on the side of the outpost. 

 

"..." Onyx's eyes went wide. He turns over to Irene, and she has the proudest face ever. Like she did something good. 

 

It only took a few seconds as Irene noticed the strange expression on Onyx's face. She sticks out her tongue, 

 

"Teehee. I'm cute, so you'll forgive me, right?"

 

"Oh, no, no, no! Don't pull that cute thing on me. You just blew up a wall for no reason!" Onyx wasn't going to let this slide. That magic was too dangerous to shoot out like that. 

 

But Onyx doesn't need to scold her. The head butler and maids come into his room, "Hero Irene, your teacher told you not to use magic out in the open like this! Did you not remember the mistake in the classroom?!"

 

"?" Onyx was confused, "What happened to her- Ughh." Before he can finish, Irene pushes up his chin, 

 

"No! Don't ask. It's too embarrassing!" Irene blushes, remembering what happened. 

 

One of the maids sighs and explains, "Miss Irene destroyed half of her classroom when she unleashed her lightning magic. And then she began to fire off other elemental spells without a thought." Her voice strayed off as the scene was too horrible to remember. 

 

"..." Onyx's mouth gaped open like a fish. Irene slowly backs away from the bed, ready to run away from Onyx's room. 

 

A hand grabs onto her shoulder, not letting her escape. 

 

"Heh." The cold chuckle coming off of Onyx made Irene shiver. She quickly explains, 

 

"Onyx, I was just too excited. I just want to show you my new powers."

 

"And were you looking at where you aim your magic?"

 

".....No." Irene looks away from Onyx's smiling face. 

 

"That's all I need to hear. Sit down now." Onyx's calm voice was demanding and cold. And the lecturing starts. 

 

The head butler and maids never expected such a well-mannered boy would have such a side to him. 

 

Onyx continues to lecture Irene, and it looks like it'll go on for hours. It only stops when the head butler and maids decide to save Irene, who looks to be dead now. 

...

"What?! She destroyed another wall?! It hasn't even been a day since the last one!" Walter laughs, not believing what happened. 

 

"I'll get the earth mages to fix the walls. Thank goodness nobody got hurt from it." Vargar sighs in relief. 

 

"But you have to admit, she's a bonafide monster. To think she learned high-tier spells in only a day." It wasn't the lightning spell she learned. 

 

Irene also learned another high-tier spell and a bunch of intermediate ones.

 

"Didn't it take you three days to learn a high-tier lightning spell?" Vargar says, reminiscing about the past. 

 

"That's why she's a monster. I was called a prodigy for learning a high-tier spell so quickly. But- hehe." Walter doesn't finish his sentence as he laughs excitedly. But then he screams out,

 

"I can't wait to train her tomorrow!"

 

"Mmhmm." Vargar doesn't say anything as he continues to do his paperwork. Seeing how quiet his friend was, Walter notes,

 

"Also, Vargar."

 

"Hmm?"

 

"Go easy on the kid tomorrow?" 

 

"What do you mean?" Vargar tilts his head at him. 

 

"You know what I mean." Walter sighs. 

 

Vargar smiles, "You don't have to worry about anything. I will train Onyx accordingly." He doesn't say anymore and continues to work. 

 

"..." Oh god. Please be safe, Onyx. In his mind, Walter was already praying for Onyx's safety.