The Special Class was called special for a reason. Every single one of its members was a genius in their own regard, therefore, even though some of them were not as compatible with Intent as some of their classmates, they would perform much better than any of the students from other classes.
After Ray, Stelle, and Cù finished the exercise, it took less than a minute for the next student to complete it.
It was Jynn. He opened his eyes in great triumph as he showed off the small sphere highlighted by his Intent.
Not far behind him, less than a couple of seconds, Mara completed the exercise, her eyes focused on the sphere. They were innocent eyes of wonder that clearly projected her curiosity. That look made Ray slightly chuckle.
After them it was Arianne, still in her kneeling position, she examined the sphere floating in her hands.
Tiana didn't take too long to finish either, almost instantly standing up to show off to Cù and Ray what she had just done, just to be reprimanded by Professor Hector.
The last one was Zillah.
He was still clutching the sphere way too hard, and he was clearly nervous. The sphere was covered in the outline Intent from the very beginning of the exercise, but he quickly lost control and failed.
'His refinement and control are fantastic, however, he ruins them with his nerves. He needs to calm down.'
Surprisingly taking the initiative, Ray approached Zillah and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Stop trying for a moment, take a break."
Zillah opened his eyes, they were trembling.
"I-I... I'm trying my best, but it keeps failing," he stammered.
"I know, you are refining the mental energy just fine, and your control is great too. The reason you are failing is that you lose that control over stress. Breathe in and then breathe out, forget everything and everyone here, and focus on what you are about to do."
Saying that Ray stepped back, letting his words sink in. Hopefully they had reached the boy.
Zillah breathed in and, after a few seconds, breathed out. Still slightly trembling, he closed his eyes and tried again. He was no longer clutching the sphere as hard as he was before.
The outlines of the sphere lit up in white light and slowly hovered above his hands, steady.
"I-I... I did it."
A flash of pride appeared in Ray's eyes as he watched him stare in amazement at what he had just done by himself.
"You really helped him out there."
Mara had just approached from behind, her lips curving in a pleasant smile.
"Ah. Well, he seemed to be struggling, and he was this close too, it was just a little push, a simple break to calm down, nothing more."
"I see."
She playfully elbowed him in the arm and approached Arianne, who was experimenting with the Sphere not far away.
However, the teacher was no longer waiting anymore now that everyone had completed the assignment he had given.
"Okay, class! Listen up, the next exercise will involve sparring as well as the weapons that you have equipped at the moment, or any other item will do."
He moved from one side to another, hands behind his back, his imposing figure demanding everyone's attention on the subject.
"You will not be allowed to reinforce your bodies, you will only be allowed to use Intent in these spars. Your objective is to destabilize your opponent enough to force them into releasing the Intent wrapped on their weapons."
He stopped and looked everyone in their eyes.
"This however will not be possible until you get used to wrapping your Intent around a weapon, so start practicing. I'm here if any of you have any questions or complications. Cù Sith, since you are not holding a weapon, you will train with me for a second to learn the specifics of using Intent on your body." He paused for a moment before looking at the other students.
"Come on! Get to work."
They each got their hands on their training weapons and began to practice as Cù approached the teacher to learn more about using Intent on one's body.
Ray drew his practice sword and began to focus. The training sword was not made of the same Intent-conductive material as the sphere, and being a more complex object, it required a bigger understanding of it to successfully wrap it in Intent.
As they had learned in class, when an object was successfully wrapped in Intent, it showed those white outlines in it's edges, if one was using a sword, for example, that stage would be called Sword Intent.
After that, if one's Intent and understanding of swords and their uses reached a high enough level, they could harmonize with each other, allowing the object itself to start producing its own energy by refining the Intent imbued into it. With a sword, that stage could be called Sword Energy.
After that it was the Sword Aura stage, which Ray didn't know much about other than reaching a certain sense of sync with one's Aura.
Right now, what the instructor had asked of them was to reach the "Sword" Intent stage with their respective weapons and then spar with just those capabilities.
Ray looked around, inspecting his classmates' progress.
Jynn's Intent traveled around his rapier, the white outlines were mostly visible on the handle and crossguard, the blade being so thin it was almost like it had been completely replaced by the white light if one looked from afar.
It was pretty solid, however, the light of Intent seemed to flicker from time to time.
'His understanding of the rapier is good enough, and his control over Intent as well, he will get it in the next few tries.'
He then looked at Mara, who was not far away after approaching him.
Her staff was completely outlined by her Intent and it was stable enough to use in battle.
'As expected, a mage's mind is way more refined, she got it pretty easily. Her understanding of staffs must be very good, or rather, maybe it's too simple for her to understand it.'
His senses could even pick up that she was starting to experiment with her Staff Intent along with the Intent normally used in magecraft.
He then looked at Zillah, who was trying to imbue his dagger with his Intent.
He seemed to be much calmer than before. Well, success was a great motivator. He was still a step behind the others, but he wouldn't be that far apart from them.
After that, Ray looked at Arianne, she was holding the polearm in a combat stance.
'Good idea. Certain positions allow one to better refine their mental energy, either meditation for concentration or a certain stance for a specific weapon Intent.'
Soon her polearm was completely outlined by the white light of her Intent, however, it soon dimmed, replaced by a golden glow of divine power.
'As expected, because Divine Power acts in accordance with its owner's wishes, she needs to not only control her Intent but also her Divine Power if she doesn't want the two to mix.'
And last, Ray looked at her.
Stelle.
She was already practicing her swings, her sword already filled to the brim with her Intent.
She suddenly stopped her movements and looked at Ray.
For a moment they both held each other's gazes. Then she simply nodded and went back to practice her swings.
'How awkward. Well, I guess it's my turn to do something.'
With a simple mental command, his mental energy was refined and turned into Intent before flowing into the sword at incredible speeds, easily reaching that stage.
Sword Intent.
'That was easy.'
He swung his sword a couple of times. There was no substantial difference between a sword covered in Sword Intent and one that wasn't, unless you actually used that Sword Intent for something.
Ray started by trying to manipulate the weight of the blade. It was fairly easy, but one needed to be careful to not decrease the weight of the entire object to the same value all around, after all, swords were forged to have more weight in some places than others.
After playing with the weight of the sword, he started to try making other changes.
He made it sharper and duller.
He made it more mana-conductive and almost completely incapable of accepting any mana.
Not only that, but he made it capable of moving on its own, and he made it so that it was resistant to move regardless of gravity or any other external forces.
'I wonder how Sword Energy functions, I would like to go further on the path of Intent. I guess, as I go in this academy, I will eventually learn more.'
As he was thinking, another mind was focused on his training. It was their teacher, Hector.
'That was the student that the Headmaster asked not to investigate, he really is not simple. To reach Sword Intent in a single try, just who is he?'
*************
Author's Note: Another Chapter! Yay, you know I feel that this volume is going for way to long and with it I realized that I suck at Slice of Life, so if you could leave your feedback about the interactions between characters, I would be gratefull.
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