I first checked and reorganized the abilities I possessed.
‘Huh? When did it fill this much?’
It was not intentional, but my gaze stopped on the Thunderbird’s mark. At some point, the filled portion had neared twenty percent.
According to my experience, the color of the mark filled in only when my proficiency in handling a special ability rose, or when I absorbed mana.
And those two different cases led to one thing.
‘......Growth.’
After all, absorbing mana to preserve myself would be no different from growth.
‘I thought there’d be some kind of reaction by this point.’
It felt as if something should happen now, but even if I knocked on the door, no answer returned.
In any case, this was a situation where the instructor could attack at any time.
‘I learned his movements last time.’
The faded light of the shopping arcade settled in my eyes. Slowly, what had not been visible began to appear.
The flow of air, and the mana drifting through the area.
‘Calm.’
I could feel the instructor’s calm aura. It was like faded peace before a storm.
“If you’re not coming, I’ll go.”
Just as that calm storm was about to head toward us, a shadowy swamp spread open right above the instructor.
Squeeze!
“......Ah.”
The assistant’s hand emerged and grabbed the instructor by the hair.
“What are you going to tell the president? Hm? That you got bored while watching the evaluation and went in?”
“Let go! I said let go.”
The assistant was brutally serious. The instructor’s scalp, being squeezed without mercy, looked pitiful.
Still held in place, the instructor opened his mouth.
“What do you think I am? I was only planning to teach them at full power.”
“How......?”
Perhaps the assistant felt the slightest urge to hear him out, because she loosened her grip on the instructor’s hair.
“Why are you asking something so obvious? Sparring as close to real combat as possible.”
“......”
The assistant took her hand off his hair.
“Good. If you’ve come to your senses even now, that’s enough.”
Of course, to my eyes, it did not look as if the assistant had followed his opinion.
‘Surely not?’
Because the assistant’s hand was moving toward the instructor’s neck like a snake. Soon, the assistant spoke like a venomous viper.
“Grab this bastard.”
“......?”
I was truly flustered. Weren’t instructors and assistants originally supposed to have a strict hierarchy?
Also, calling him “this bastard” was a bit much.
Snap!
Then why was I holding Instructor Wagner by the waist exactly as the assistant had said?
“I will seal you, Instructor.”
When had Jio taken off his shirt and grabbed the instructor’s legs?
‘When did this person wake up?’
And when had the bobbed-haired woman woken up and grabbed both of the instructor’s arms?
***
After spending such a chaotic day, the next day arrived.
As for the standard by which one could say they had adapted to an environment, I thought of it this way.
Was it not when it began to feel like home? However, the room in Dormitory A that I had grown attached to ended as of yesterday.
‘Every day is new.’
After finishing preparations to go out, I came down to the lounge of the dormitory I had been newly assigned to yesterday.
Traces of age remained intact, but in terms of facilities, it was comparable to Dormitory A.
In the lounge I came down to, Jio had his eyes closed and was tanning in the sunlight spilling through the window.
“Brother...... Are you ready?”
“Yeah.”
Starting today, we officially became direct disciples of Instructor Wagner. Because of that, we would no longer attend major classes with the students of Dormitory A.
‘It is a shame.’
One fortunate thing was that the instructor had said we could attend liberal arts classes if we wanted, but......
-Well, if you can?
In other words, he probably meant we should attend once we endured the instructor’s education and adapted sufficiently.
‘This seems to be the place.’
After walking while thinking about this and that, we quickly arrived at the classroom the assistant had told us about yesterday.
“Brother...... It seems we have come to the wrong place.”
Since Jio had been standing in front, he naturally opened the classroom door, then froze just like that.
I pushed Jio aside and looked inside. I did not want to admit it, but I flinched too.
‘It’s ordinary? Why?’
Because it was no different from a normal classroom. There was a classic green chalkboard, and even chalk.
However, I could not imagine the instructor calmly teaching with chalk in his hand at all.
Before I realized it, I was now flustered by something ordinary.
“What are you doing from the morning? I’m busy to death.”
The assistant pushed us in by the back.
“......”
At some point, I had grown used to that way of speaking. If she spoke kindly now, it would probably feel awkward.
“Good morning, Assistant.”
Jio solemnly bent his upper body and paid his respects.
‘That makes sense.’
The sight of the assistant desperately resisting the instructor in that shadow space yesterday was still vivid.
She, too, was clearly strong.
“Mm...... It certainly looks good.”
After some time passed, Instructor Wagner also entered. Absurdly, he was holding an attendance book.
‘There are only two of us, though?’
There were even nameplates on the desks? It was not as if this were elementary school.
However, the instructor, with his hand on the teacher’s desk, looked as if he was genuinely enjoying this moment.
‘They said it was something like a romance of his, didn’t they?’
According to the assistant, this was the instructor’s first time taking charge of anyone.
But there was a familiar name attached as a nameplate to the seat beside mine.
“Instructor, is Elena part of our group too?”
The nameplate read Elena Eshdid. The instructor opened the attendance book without meeting my eyes and replied.
“She has good potential too. But she’s on the magic side, so for now, I entrusted her to Teacher Kwon for a while.”
“......?”
The instructor and Jio were martial-type, and if one were to classify me, I was martial-type as well.
So for her growth, it would indeed be better for her to receive instruction from Teacher Kwon, who was magic-type.
‘Teacher Kwon was someone who listened to requests.’
Even though I understood all that, the reason I found it strange was because Teacher Kwon had listened to the instructor’s request.
‘Is this like minus times minus equals plus?’
In any case, I thought it was an excellent opportunity for Elena.
Teacher Kwon’s teaching method.
-Humans cannot react to what they have not experienced. Therefore, I intend to make you experience everything. Innate Magic......
If she survived that education process, she would not die wherever she went.
‘She’ll do well.’
Because I had heard Elena’s personal circumstances from Kubanda, I knew she would endure no matter what.
Tap. Tap.
The instructor tapped the teacher’s desk.
“Choi Jio.”
“Yes-!”
“Good voice. Lee Wonwoo.”
“Yes.”
“Good manners. From now on, this instructor will be your assigned teacher. Let’s do well.”
Personally, I thought there would be a follow-up critique of yesterday’s evaluation, but my expectations were grandly wrong.
Because the instructor was teaching mana from the perspective of a martial-type.
“When a bone breaks during combat, what will you do?”
When Jio clenched his fist, his muscles split apart, and his veins rose.
“Is it not obvious that one endures with muscle, Instructor?”
......Is that right?
“There certainly is a method like that.”
So it was right. If a bone broke, one supported it with muscle and held it together.
The instructor pointed to me next. I had no suitable answer that came to mind.
After all, we would go to the hospital. But that was common sense for ordinary people.
I had to give an answer befitting a Hero.
“I would......”
“Normally, you see.”
Just as I was about to answer, the instructor cut me off. He struck the edge of the teacher’s desk with the wrist of the hand he had been resting on it.
Crack-!
Judging by the wrist that swelled in an instant, it seemed to have fractured. I found myself seeing the teacher’s desk in a new light.
In any case, this could be called the instructor’s teaching method, where seeing something once was better than hearing it a hundred times, to an excessive degree.
Now it was time for the instructor to show us the response method.
‘Let’s make sure I see this.’
I watched with the Heavenly Hound’s eyes to take everything in.
“Watch.”
VMMMM!
A strand of mana from the instructor’s lower dantian transferred along his meridians and finally reinforced his wrist.
“Well, there are several methods, but this is how I do it.”
Afterward, the instructor spoke in a somewhat regretful tone.
“Lee Wonwoo, you have a tendency to rely only on your special abilities.”
There was no room to deny it. Perhaps I might be the only person in this training institution who did not know how to operate mana and strike with it.
This was a clear difference in starting lines.
‘It’s fine. It means I can move forward.’
However, I did not think I was late. Rather, I was only happy about the fact that I could advance and learn.
“And Jio, you have a tendency to rely too much on muscle. The next class will be practical, so that is all for today.”
With those words as the end, Instructor Wagner left the classroom.
As he went out, the instructor tossed out a comment.
“Why does it feel like talking is harder?”
All of that happened within ten minutes of class starting. However, to me, it was also enough time to understand many things.
‘I think I know what he’s telling me to do.’
Moreover, I liked this teaching method.
After all, being spoon-fed and simply swallowing it down did not suit my temperament at all.
***
Immediately after it ended, I went to the dormitory’s individual training ground.
Like the dormitory, it was a place marked by the traces of time. Grass grew between the wooden floorboards, and moss clung here and there to the marble.
‘This atmosphere feels familiar.’
These small details felt tasteful to me, and inwardly, I liked that it was nature-friendly.
Thinking it might help me raise my concentration, I closed my eyes.
“Phew......”
I breathed out tension with my exhale and breathed in peace with my inhale.
Following the breath entering me, I slowly observed the inside of my body. Then I felt the sensation of clear oxygen striking all the way down to the tips of my feet.
In that state, I sank into the world and into my own inner world.
According to the instructor, I either could not perform mana operation or was neglecting it, but......
When I thought about it, I had never neglected mana operation, nor was it that I could not do it.
‘I just never tried.’
I had once created two different mana spheres, and I had also entered mana exhaustion on my own.
At the time, I had thought only this. Let me see my mana changed into the shape of spheres. Let me grind away the mana in my lower dantian.
Because I had only thought those simple thoughts, I did not know what had happened inside my body.
‘Everyone else is different from me.’
The people here, excluding me, had communed with mana from a young age and steadily moved forward.
However, all of that had happened within a fixed framework. Because of that, their way of thinking was confined.
‘I don’t want to be bound.’
I had no intention of being bound by a framework. As I had grown up until now, I merely decided to transfer mana wherever I wanted, without fixed rules.
‘If it operates, then it’s operation.’
Only after feeling mana freely raging through me did I open my eyes and look at the clock farthest away.
‘Now let’s go over there.’
That was the end of it.
I decided not to think about things like which meridian path I would use, in what manner, to send mana to my lower body.
***
Someone might think Wagner was irresponsible for ending class after ten minutes.
However, Wagner was currently thoroughly hiding all of his aura and following behind his two disciples.
‘He is the spitting image of the guild leader. Truly.’
Above the place where Wagner stopped, something had been scrawled with a thick brush.
-Physical Training Room.
From inside, a booming voice pushed its way out.
“I lift even my weak self and raise it up!”
‘Heh heh heh, I like that.’
Jio had returned to the basics and was waging war against the iron equipment.
Inwardly, there was something Wagner found unfortunate.
Students who came to the training institution tended to overlook mana operation, which was both the foundation and the end, in order to grow quickly.
It was not that he could not understand. When one saw flashy techniques and magic with powerful force, one could not help drooling.
‘They know one thing, but not the second.’
However, in order to possess flashiness and power, one eventually circled back to mana operation.
There were even occasional eccentrics who, seeking to approach its essence, buried themselves in mountain valleys and got battered by waterfalls.
‘It will be difficult.’
Therefore, it would be an even more arduous and difficult time for Wonwoo. From a glance, it was obvious that the boy had never learned mana operation.
And that was not all.
‘Some would think of it as a blessing, but......’
When Wagner saw him in the cave, Wonwoo’s mana had been divided into two.
Wagner judged that the two types of mana would use different meridians.
‘The reality is no different from a disaster.’
Even Wagner had never seen it in person. He had only occasionally heard news that people like that existed.
Perhaps asking those people for advice would help Wonwoo as well, but.
‘They cannot be brought back to life.’
Every one of them had their meridians twisted and died at a young age, so there was no one to ask.
Of course, it was not as if there was no method at all.
‘If by some chance he has an innate body like theirs, then the story changes.’
The “theirs” Wagner spoke of referred to a pair, a man and a woman, the only ones he addressed with proper honorifics.
‘Where could they be?’
At some point, they had vanished without a sound or rumor.
Lost in memories, Wagner’s steps headed toward the training ground where Wonwoo was.