So It Begins
After nearly an hour, Xander let out a turbid breath, performing one more precise swing of his sword before slowly lowering it.
His upper body was covered in sweat, and around him, the training room was covered in sword marks, some deep, some shallow, some jagged, some precise, and if anyone was as good at swordsmanship as him, they would recognize that each sword mark correlated with a specific sword style.
'It's a lot better compared to a month ago.' Xander thought as he stared at his hands.
Compared to back then where his entire body felt like it was getting ripped apart when he endured the backlash of using Mana Breathing, now, even though the pain was still significant, his body as a whole had strengthened immensely. Not just his muscles, but everything, even his bones.
With a sigh, he sheathed his sword and prepared to eat and recover while going over the things he'd comprehended during this training session.
He turned, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Mia standing right in front of him.
'STOP DOING THAT!' He yelled inwardly and brought a hand to his chest, his heart somehow pounding more now compared to when he was actually exerting himself.
While he was barely avoiding a heart attack, Mia just looked at him, her head tilted like a fox that just noticed something interesting and confusing. Clearly, she wasn't trying to hide her curiosity.
"Where did you learn to do that?" She asked, which gave Xander a pause.
'Huh?' He looked at her closely. Gone was the usual drowsiness in her eyes. Now, her gaze was alert and interested, her eyes moving from his face, to his body, to his sword.
"... Do what?" He asked back carefully.
"The way you move your mana, and the way you use your sword. I've never seen them before." Her questions caught him off guard.
'Well, the second one was bound to happen. I'm surprised no one has questioned my swordplay till now. But how was she able to read my mana flow? Mary is the only one who has shown herself capable of such thus far.' Xander frowned slightly.
Reading mana flow wasn't super rare. Most mages could do it with time and practice. The thing was that the way Xander used mana was fundamentally different from other mages. Mary could read his mana flow because, as an Elemental Spirit, her sensitivity towards the energy was naturally higher than most other species.
"... I'm self-taught, my swordplay and mana control are things I learned myself." Xander finally responded, which was... the complete truth, technically. He learned how to use channeling in this manner and Mana Breathing by himself, and, well, since his memories of swordsmanship are just that, and his methods don't exist on Tatonia, it's not a stretch either.
"... Oh! Is that why your mana is so weird?" That confused Xander, but Mia went on. "Your mana quality is average, but it when you use magic, your spells seem like they were made using high-quality mana."
'Ah, that.' Xander scratched his head.
Mia wasn't wrong. The Spring water from the Spring of Life had increased his mana capacity, but the quality was still so-so.
'How do I tell her that I understand chemistry and molecular activity enough to mimic the effects of high-quality mana without actually possessing it?' He smiled wryly.
"Let's just say it's a special technique I learned." He offered, though inwardly, he was suspicious.
'She's far more observant than I guessed.'
"I see... can you teach me?" She asked curiously.
'Would you understand even if I did?' He wondered and hesitated. 'I planned on giving Curtis a watered down explanation on how molecules and water worked so he could make his ice more durable, i also planned on helping Aubrey improve her perception magic with some bits of earth knowledge. If that's the case, helping Mia shouldn't be too bad, but...' He looked at her.
"I'm not sure, it's not that simple. Also... I don't really know what sort of magic you use, so I don't know if the method will be of any help to you." He admitted. It's also why he hadn't come up with anything for Falael, he had no clue on how to workaround the low mana capacity, and he himself needed an external item to increase his.
"Oh. Okay," The girl looked up as if in thought, then she held up a finger, and a purple magic circle the color of her eyes appeared near the ceiling.
Xander watched with interest, eager to finally see what this mysterious girl was capable of.
However, never in his wildest dreams did he imagine what played out next.
***
The next day, everyone in unit 5 gathered in the same training field as yesterday, and there was a nervous energy in the air as the 5 squads seemed quite nervous, and for good reason.
After all, they had gotten a glimpse into the ruthlessness their attractive Sergeant was capable of, and she told them that was just to 'guage' their capabilities to help prepare for their 'real' training, so their nervousness was understandable.
"... Is there a reason you are carrying her without prompting?" Falael raised a brow and asked Xander who just stared forward, refusing to meet anyone's gaze as he kept a straight face. On his back, Mia was sleeping soundly as he gave her a piggyback similar to yesterday.
The others also stared, because it was clear that unlike yesterday where Xander had been blindsided, he was clearly doing this of his own accord.
'If y'all knew what I witnessed the night before, you'd be treating this girl like royalty.' He thought, still keeping his expressing carefully neutral as Sergeant Alya finally appeared appeared with her signature smile.
"Alright everyone, seems like we're set, so I won't waste any time." She held out a large sack and poured its contents to the ground.
'Hm?' Xander raised a brow when he saw what had been dropped.
A large pile of grey bracelets sat there, and as everyone was considering what they did, Alya spoke.
"I'm sure some of you must have noticed your seniors training with items that causes their mana to leak if they don't consciously control it, forcing them to improve their mana control, correct?"
'Oh, so that's what those are?' Xander hummed and nodded along with some others.
Then Alya's grin widened.
"Great, these are much worse."
"!!!"
Before anyone could speak, she went on.
"These don't just make your mana leak like a bucket with a hole in it, they also have a special function that ensures that if you use magic, no matter what spell it is, if your mana output exceeds a certain threshold, three things will happen." She raised one finger.
"First, you will receive a 'small' electric shock," She raised a second finger. "Second, the local gravity around you will increase by 0.25×," She rose a third finger. "And last, all your senses will be diminished by 10%." When she finished, everyone stared at her with dropped jaws.
'... That has to be illegal.' Xander gulped as he stared at the seemingly unassuming bracelet, and suddenly felt like he was staring at a piece of white-hot iron.
"After you all put on those bracelets, we'll first do warmups for an hour before delving into the real training for the rest of the day." She looked at all of them. "Any questions?"
One boy raised his hand and asked.
"Can I like... quit? The school as a whole?" She smiled sweetly.
"Oh, honey, did you not read the contract attached to your admission form? We own you guys now. Whether you want to quit or not doesn't matter."
SHUDDER
'And I thought my team was the most concerning part of my school life. Why is my Sergeant a genuine psychopath?' Xander just sighed.
"Now then." Alya flicked her hand, and all the bracelets floated off the ground before shooting to each student, and before they could even resist, they had clamped themselves tightly around their wrists.
But curiously, no bracelet attached itself to Mia, who slept without a care in the world.
Speaking of, Alya walked over to Xander and held her hands out.
"Give me the girl." She said simply, and Xander just nodded, turning and allowing Alya to pluck Mia from his back and hold her like she was a child.
Alya returned to her spot and said.
"Okay, without further ado." She snapped her fingers, and like yesterday, a colorful magic circle appeared. But this time, instead of multiple circles per squad, there was one large one in the center of the field.
"Your warmup for the day is this. Destroy the beast before it can overwhelm you with its minions." She said simply, and the students went pale as they saw what came out of the magic circle, and Xabder cursed as he drew his sword.
'It just had to be a spider.' He grumbled.
Indeed, from within the circle, a spider the size of a house emerged, and around it, countless smaller spiders the size of dogs swarmed towards the 5 squads.