School (4)

After saying these words she moved on and left them standing in the line which had slowly moved on so it was now their time to get their meal.

After they got their meal, which consisted of one main dish, one salad, one side dish and a dessert, they sat down at a table.

"What do you think about what we just heard?", Greg asked the other two.

"I can't really comment on it, since there is no way to check it and if she is right. But does it really matter? For me it won't change anything since even if I know why I ended up like I did, what can I do about it?"

They talked about it some more but it always came back to them not having enough information and so the time flew by and it was time for class once again.

"Usually we would have a theoretical magic lesson now, but for today there is something else you have to learn.

This morning I thought you about how to learn Mana Manipulation. But besides being able to use our mana, mages do have a need for information too. The more you know about something, may it be a monster you are targeting or a material you want to use, the better you can work with it, so you all should learn the skill Inspect. As with Mana Manipulation the skill is a bit inferior than the one from skill books, but the difference is quite small and can be compensated by collecting a lot of information.

To learn this skill you will have to read a lot and then use the methods I will teach you to extrapolate the data to gain information about what you want to inspect."

"I guess you have a big advantage then Serge, since you have read so much.", Greg says to Serge, " But how come you don't have the skill?"

"Didn't you listen? There is a special method for data extrapolation and sadly I didn't have access to it."

"Oh"

After that they listened to the teacher explanations and tried it out, but to no success.

"Alright, everyone. Class is over, now go down to the training ground. Mr. Martin will be awaiting you there."

The training ground was separated in multiple smaller fields, and most of them where full of students training forms. Ivan and his classmates went to one of the smaller fields which were empty and had the sign of the mage department in the center.

As soon as the first student reached the field a middle aged man which had a very robust statue walked towards them.

"Welcome, I am Mr. Martin and I will be your combat trainer. There are two rules you all have to follow, if you don't I will make sure to get you expelled."

"Wow, so serious.", Greg whispered.

"You there. Shut up, while I am talking", he instantly got reproached. It seemed like this teachers hearing was quite outstanding.

"First rule, on the training field you will follow my commands without thinking about it. If I say you jump then you jump if I say you stop then you'll stop and not even move a muscle. Understood?"

"Yes." , "Sure" , "Mm", the students answered.

"It seems you even need to learn how to answer my questions. If I ask you if you understood, you will answer with a loud and clear Yes, Sir, Understood?"

"Yes, Sir.", this time the students answered loud and clear, but there were still on which was later than the others, which was Greg, who was more interested in watching the weapon on one of the racks at the side.

"You there!", the teacher shouted at Greg, who jumped and hurriedly moved his attention.

"Since you seem to find the weapon on the racks so much interesting, then what I have to say, you may clean all of them after we finish."

Greg's face sank and he looked really unhappy, but he didn't dare to say anything.

"Now for the second rule. And this is as important as the first one. Don't injure anyone deliberately, understood?"

This time all the students answered with "Yes, Sir."

"Great. Then I will now tell you a bit about what you will be learning.

Since you are mages there won't be any of the usual drill for working together since it would be unexpected if you had to work together in combat, so we will directly start with weapon training."

"You will learn four different weapons as well as weaponless fighting in the first year. After that you will have to choose one thing you want to concentrate on.

The weapon we will start with is the staff, since it is the most used weapon by mages."

One of the students lifted his hand. "Yes?"`

"Isn't the staff used to amplify our skills and not for close combat?"

"You are correct, but there are always situations where you have to fight in close combat. And if you don't even know how to use your staff then you will be gone faster than you can blink."

He waited if there were any other questions, but nobody else seemed to have any, so he continued.

"After that you will learn how to use dagger and then sword, bow and finally unarmed combat. Any questions?"

"No, Sir", this time the students seemed to have chosen the right way to answer, since he nodded in satisfaction.

He then went over to one of the racks which was full of simple wood staffs, which were about 2 m long.

"This is the standard practice staff, each of you go get one and then I will demonstrate you how to hold it and the basic stances."

Each of the students grabbed a staff and watched him demonstrating the way to hold it before imitating him. He went around and corrected some who did it wrong.

After he was satisfied with the way everyone held their staff he then slowly demonstrated the basic forms multiple times while explaining the steps.