...

Sofia and Nemu were in the classroom along with all the other students, today they had a Magic Class with Mary, as she said in the last class today they would practice the Inner Mana.

Soon after Mery arrived, greeted her students and took them straight to Field 2, the physical exercise field.

"Alright~ everyone should start stretching and then jogging all over the track~ this is to warm up the body before using the Inner Mana~ but first~ go and change, I don't want your official clothes to smell bad~" Mary explained as she ordered her students to go to the restrooms.

Inside the women's restrooms were some lockers with clothes of different sizes. Sofia with the help of Nemu helped her change quickly and leave her clothes in the lockers so they wouldn't get lost or stolen.

Once they got back to the track with everyone already changed clothes.

"Alright~ then~ let's get started~!" shouted Mary cheering on her students.

Nemu had no problem with stretching since she had learned how to use Inner Mana she had been trained to be a close combatant, meaning she had pretty good control of her body.

Sofia on the other hand... she was struggling a bit she didn't do much exercise at home, mainly due to Sofia's condition and not liking to be sweaty, plus how she can't control Inner Mana she came to the conclusion that exercising was a waste of time.

After the 15-minute warm-up, Mary instructed them to run around the field for 50 minutes with a 30-second break every 10 minutes.

The idea of this exercise was for people to use Inner Mana to maintain their endurance and keep running for quite a while....

But these are 8 year olds, not military kids, many of them don't control their Inner Mana properly which makes them get tired faster than normal, others use too much and get shot, and lastly there is Sofia who didn't know how to use her Inner Mana, the only thing she could do was to use Wind Magic to keep up with her companions.

Obviously this use of magic didn't go unnoticed from Mary's eye so when the first 10 minutes were over she approached a Sofia who was breathing heavily and all sweaty.

"Um~ Sofia no~, why aren't you using the inner Mana~?" asked Mary approaching Sofia.

"I don't know how to use it teacher, I know the basics of using it but it's like my body refuses to use it in the conventional way" Sofia explained as she took a couple of deep breaths.

"I see~ so~ why not use another way to use it~?" Said Mary

"There is such a method?!" Sofia shouted in surprise.

"Yes~ instead of binding a part of your muscles individually with your Inner Mana, try binding your whole body with Inner Mana and spin it into a vortex shape~" Mary proceeded to explain the other method to Sofia calmly with a smile.

"Um, I'll try it!" Sofia nodded determined.

After the 30 second break the students trotted around the track again.

This time Sofia tried to spin all the Inner Mana in her body like a vortex, the result was 50-50, while I can amplify the strength and stamina in Sofia's whole body, it wasted her Inner Mana too fast making her tired.

I guess I can't be a master on the first try... Sofia thought with a bitter smile.

Quickly came the second break and Sofia took her time to analyze the vortex more, she realized that she was putting too much effort in spinning her Inner Mana so she decided to lower the intensity a little bit....

...It was at that moment when she was looking at her vortex that a memory came to her mind...

The way the vortex was spinning was incredibly similar to the way Astrid's, her grandmother's, mist was spinning.

Only Sofia didn't have the black sphere on her chest and it didn't give her a sense of defeat or depression....

Hesitating for a moment, but keeping her determination firm, Sofia decided to use this method as her way of using the Inner Mana, even if this method is deficient and more exhausting than the conventional one.

Just as they were coming out of their break....

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!!!!" A bestial scream rang throughout the Campus.

The students froze due to the loud scream.

Nemu searched for the source of the scream as she joined Sofia and became alert, that included her eyes that looked like crazy all sides.

The teacher joined her students to try to calm them down when she received the emblem on her chest glowing white.

Mary pressed her emblem where shortly after a voice was heard.

"Alert Level 3: High Red Level creature detected on the premises, please meet with your nearest teacher for better security. Intruder Location: Unknown. Alert Level 3:..." Said a mechanized voice that panicked everyone.

"Shit, alright everyone don't panic cure! Stay in this camp as it will keep you safe!" Mary ordered changing from her cheerful voice to a serious one.

Some students were worried, others on the verge of tears and but most were calm... due to the fact that they were in one of the safest places in the Kingdom.

Mary went to check on the situation and marries the beast, locking down the Camp to keep us safe.

"Phew, well that was intense... but I guess the teachers will take care of it... Sofia?" said Nemu in an all around relieved as he let her guard down and returned her gaze to Sofia.

But he could see Sofia's face pale as cloth looking up at the ceiling.

Following her gaze her looked up to see what was....

... hanging above the dome was a grotesque and disgusting creature, with protruding bones, many eyes and several mouths... it vaguely resembled a monkey, but much more gory and grotesque....

But that wasn't what had Sofia disturbed... no...

What had her disturbed was that from the monkey...

... a large amount of black smog was coming out...

...

AN: Well I have some news to give... nothing bad.

Lately I've had an idea for a story that I honestly really want to write, so yes, I will do another story, well more like a fanfic, making a story from scratch takes a long time to think of overnight.

In case anyone is worried that this novel might be delayed or have less chapters per week, don't worry, this story is my priority, so the updates will remain the same.

The other story I guess I'll update it once every two or three days.

That's all I guess I should have 5 chapters of the other story ready by Friday, the day of its publication :p

No chapter tomorrow because college sucks.

Happy day and don't eat stone.