1.23 After a Week

It has been a week since we started training under Miss Lilith. Even though it is said that we are training together Miss Lilith has separated us into different groups. Everyone needs to train while maintaining 'Mana cloak'. They are only permitted to turn it off during their sleep now.

Marina and Nina are training about the support roles, mostly regarding the defense against long-range attacks and the healing of injuries using magic. They have also started learning about the magic potions in the Academy library. Nina is practicing defense with water and earth magic, she is also learning spells like 'Earth wall' and 'Earth hole' while Marina is learning several healing magic and water defense magic like 'Aqua shield' and 'Water manipulation', which works especially well against the fire attacks.

Princess Eliane and Princess Anna are learning long-range attacks. They were already familiar with the theoretical part but had never practiced them properly so it will take some time for them to really be able to use it. But watching how naturally talented they are, they will probably master them soon. They still need some work in the accuracy and magic control part. Miss Lilith was saying that she will teach them how to combine different elements after they are able to control their magic properly.

Sistina has somehow joined Arica and Ronald's group. She is learning physical enhancement and how to change mana into the elemental energy during physical attacks that can be used in close range. She hasn't shown much progress yet, but she has gotten better than others in manipulating 'Mana cloak' for physical enhancement.

Arica is learning powerful frontal attacks by combining Fire magic with her sword while Ronald is learning precise sneak attacks using his Wind magic. They are both naturals at it and are learning at a fast pace. Ronald especially has been increasing his speed significantly. They, including Sistina, practice with Miss Lilith for around an hour each day where she only dodges. They haven't even been even able to touch her yet though they are improving each day.

Finally, I have been training by myself trying to combine all sorts of magic. The things I learned are that dark and light magic cannot be combined with other elements while the rest of others can be combined with one another. I also learned that the properties counter each other. Like you can combine fire and water magic but the result would be nothing but water vapor. Well, it could be used as some kind of diversion but not as actual attack magic.

'Oh, it's about time I go back to others.'

I was in the academy woods training on how to combine the different magical elements. I have been here since morning and Miss Lilith has taught me nothing new during this period. All she says is to test combining various elements. At this point, I have tried so many combinations that I don't remember all of them. Some of them were extremely hard to control while some were a piece of cake.

I stood up from the wood that I was sitting on and started walking towards others. As I got out of the forest I stopped walking and looked back. Many trees had fallen during my tests because I wasn't able to control some of the combinations and had to release the attack. Blank areas could be seen between the forest where there were dense trees before.

'I wonder how many trees will be still standing if I keep this up for a month.' As I was thinking I turned forward and started walking again. 'Well, they can be grown back using magic so let's not worry too much about it.'

The sun was almost about to set when I reached where everyone was. Everyone was sitting on the ground and looked exhausted while Miss Lilith was standing and giving a satisfied smile.

"Hey everyone, how did the training go?" I asked when I got close to where everyone was sitting. Sistina, Ronald, and Arica were covered in sweat while the rest of them simply looked drained.

"Like yesterday, we weren't even able to touch her even though Marina and Nina supported us today," said Ronald as I passed him the pouch of water.

"It's like she can see what we are going to do even before we do it. I thought I had her that time when I raised the 'earth wall' behind her and Ronald and Arica were charging at her from the front but she simply dodged it by jumping high and got past them," said Nina getting up.

None of them had any bruises so Marina had probably healed them already. I asked marina, "are you alright" to which she responded with "Yeah, I didn't do much in the actual fight so I could at least heal everyone's injury".

"And what about you princesses?" I turned towards them and asked. Both of them looked very exhausted even though they didn't participate in the practice against Miss Lilith. That was because they still were not able to use the magic at the level where you won't hurt your teammates during the fight.

"I think we are getting better at it. We will be able to join the others soon," said Princess Anna while getting up.

"Using the right amount of magic and making aim considering everyone's movement is a bit tricky but I think we will be able to join others with some practice," Princess Eliane added. It looks like both of them are working hard too. I think I need some work on coordination with others too but for not Miss Lilith just wants me to learn the combination of elements for now.

After everyone got up we walked back to the dorm. Though everyone is a lot more exhausted than me, they were slowly getting used to this kind of training.

After we got back to the dorm Ronald and I went to the bathroom to take a shower while the girls went to the hot spring.

We could hear them make noise from the spring which sounded like Arica was teasing the princesses about something but I thought it would be best to ignore them.

After shower, we all gathered in the sitting room but there was silence for a while. After a while, princess Anna broke the silence with, "Nara, what kind of training did you do today, you told us that you were learning how to combine elements but we still don't know much about it".

"Oh, it's mostly trial and error right now, I try something to see if works or not, and if it works I see what kind of effect it has. If the effect is useful, I practice it, and if not I move on to another combination. Wind magic works well with almost everything while fire magic is hardly compatible with anything. Holy and dark magic can't be combined with any other magic. Now that I think about it, I haven't ever seen dark magic being used before," I replied.

"To be honest, I haven't really used dark magic much before too. I have heard many things about it, but still, I haven't been able to use it at anything useful," Arica added to the point about the use of dark magic.

"Hou... dark magic can be one of the most useful magic if you learn how to utilize it properly. Humans don't know how to use it properly so they just make assumptions based on the word 'dark'," said miss Lilith.

"Are you going to teach us about it miss Lilith?" Sistina asked in an excited tone. She also had an aptitude for dark magic so she is probably excited to learn more about it.

"Well, I may teach you the summoning magic after you finish with this training," Miss Lilith replied to Sistina and then turned towards me.

"From tomorrow I have something else planned for you so be ready," she said with a wry smile. "Okay, I hope it's not something that will kill me," I replied since it looks like she is planning to do something crazy again.

As we were talking, Sam came in and signaled that the dinner is ready. He was a good butler who knew all the proper manners while serving masters. He also was excellent at household work and left no room for complaints. He was also a good cook who could cook almost any popular dish in the city.

As soon as Sam signaled we all went towards the dining hall since we all were hungry. We had dinner in the usual style where we talked about different things that happened today. When we were about to finish it looked like Princess Eliane wanted to ask something so we looked towards her.

"Miss Lilith, you said we will be able to be as strong as a graduate knight in the next three weeks so what are we going to do after that?"

"Hmm... I have thought of something but that's after you finish the training and beat an 8 man knight squad. If you do that I will win the bet with duke after which I will be able to train you any way I like," she replied.

"A bet?" Marina asked in confusion.

"Yeah, it's a simple bet I made with duke before your test. If I made a group of newbies strong enough to beat a knight squad, he would let me train them any way I like," She replied as if it was no big deal.

"Well, You could have told us about that earlier!" said Sistina with a troubled look. She had already finished her dinner and was waiting for others.

Miss Lilith ignored what she said and just replied with, "If you guys keep this weak attitude, I will have to make your training even harder" after which everyone became quiet.

After we all finished our dinner we went to our room. Due to all the training, it has somewhat become a habit to sleep early.

Next chapter: After a Month