Chapter 134: Field Trip to Oakhaven
The classroom was bright and quiet. It was just like when things were soon going to be interesting.
Noah sat in his usual place at the back, chair tilted slightly, arms folded loosely over the desk. Around him the other students chatted in low voices or flipped through notes, filling the room with that particular restless energy that came before a class officially began.
Then the door opened.
Instructor Morgana stepped in.
She was dressed sharply today black trousers, a clean white shirt tucked neatly, and a black blazer worn over it with the kind of effortless precision that made it look less like an outfit and more like armor.
Her sky-blue hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail that rested over one shoulder. Her amethyst eyes swept across the room once, calm and indifferent, taking in every face without lingering on any of them.
The low chatter died almost immediately.
She walked to the front without rushing, set down the folder in her hand, and looked out at the class.
"Everyone! Listen carefully. At the end of the next week," she began, her voice carrying easily through the silence, "we will be departing for Oakhaven City. A field trip."
A ripple moved through the room. Heads lifted. Their backs straightened.
"You will have the opportunity to fight monsters in the surrounding forest areas. Oakhaven is well known for its greenery and natural terrain, which means the conditions will be different from anything you can replicate in a training hall." She paused, letting that settle.
"It will be a two day and one night trip. Pack accordingly and make sure you are prepared. Train hard between now and then."
The ripple turned into a wave.
Excited murmurs broke out across every corner of the classroom. Students turned to each other with wide eyes, already making plans, already calculating what they would bring and who they would pair with.
The energy in the room jumped several degrees in the span of about ten seconds.
Even Noah felt it.
He sat up slightly in his chair, a quiet but genuine excitement stirring in his chest. A proper outdoor environment. Real monsters. Open terrain instead of stone walls and controlled dungeon corridors.
’That sounds good,’ he thought simply.
Morgana gave the class a moment to absorb the news before raising her hand slightly. The murmurs tapered off.
"We will be heading to the training hall now. Use the time of this week well. If you need guidance, come and find me."
She turned and led the way without waiting for a response.
But then Noah’s expression turned sour. ’Going outside the city...it means trouble. Might be next arc... I have to prepared well for it.’
He thought carefully and went outside the classroom.
---
The training hall was large and well-equipped, filled with the sounds of movement almost immediately after the class filed in.
Weapons clashed against practice dummies. Mana flickered at students’ fingertips as they worked through their abilities.
Pairs split off to spar in the open floor space while others moved toward the equipment racks along the walls.
Damien went together with Emma, Leonard and Kaelan to sparring platform.
Arisha to shooting range. While Lyria toward another corner to practice her spearmanship.
Noah stood near the entrance for a moment, watching.
Then he made his decision and walked toward Instructor Morgana.
’I seriously need help with this. Guess she’s the only option I have.’
She had positioned herself toward the far side of the hall, arms crossed, watching the class with those sharp eyes that never really seemed to turn off. She noticed him approaching before he even opened his mouth.
"Instructor," Noah said. "I’d like your help with weapon training. Without any use of mana. Pure technique and physical form only."
Morgana looked at him for a moment, expression unchanged.
Then she gave a single nod.
"Why not." She tilted her head slightly toward the open floor in front of them. "Let’s do it here. Pick your weapon and come at me."
Noah turned toward the weapon rack along the nearest wall. His eyes moved across the options, swords of varying lengths, spears, a pair of short blades, shields and then stopped.
A large axe.
He reached out and wrapped his hand around the grip, lifting it from the rack. He held it for a moment, testing the weight distribution, adjusting his hold once, then once more.
’It’s heavy. But manageable.’
He had the Combatant profession. A rare and versatile class that granted him foundational proficiency with virtually any weapon he picked up.
He wasn’t a master of any single one, but he could swing an axe without looking completely lost. That was the starting point.
He turned back to Morgana and walked to where she was standing in the open center of the floor.
"May I begin?"
Morgana stood with her hands loose at her sides, posture relaxed in that deceptively easy way of hers. She lifted one hand and gave a single lazy wave.
"Attack."
Noah didn’t hesitate.
He stepped in and swung.
The axe came in a clean diagonal arc from the right, basic but committed, with real weight behind it.
Morgana’s hand came up without any visible effort and stopped the blade flat against her palm as if it had run into a wall.
"Attack faster," she said.
He pulled back and swung again. Then again.
He cycled through the fundamental strikes faster– diagonal cuts, overhead swings, horizontal sweeps– moving through them with focus and reasonable form.
Morgana remained where she stood, deflecting or redirecting each blow with nothing more than her hands and the occasional shift of her wrist.
Between strikes she spoke.
"Your grip loosens on the follow-through. Correct it."
He adjusted.
"Too much shoulder on the overhead. Drive from your core."
He adjusted again.
"Your footwork collapses when you commit to a heavy swing. You’re leaving yourself completely open."
Noah absorbed each correction without argument and implemented it as quickly as he could.
That was his ability working alongside his own stubbornness. Adaptive Learning.
Every piece of instruction, every pattern he observed, every mistake he made fed directly into an accelerated understanding. That a normal student would need weeks to develop.
He could feel it happening in real time. Each swing felt slightly more natural than the last.
The axe felt slightly less foreign in his hands with every passing minute.
Then without any warning or change in expression, Morgana stopped defending.
She stepped inside his next swing before it landed, turned her hip, and drove her elbow into his stomach with controlled but deeply unpleasant force.
"Gahhk–" he groan.
The air left Noah’s body in one sharp burst.
He stumbled backward, lost his footing, and went down hard on the floor, the axe clattering to the side. He lay there for a second staring up at the ceiling of the training hall.
’That.....hurt quite a bit.’
He had known going in that Morgana was not the kind of instructor who pulled her strikes to make students feel comfortable.
Her reputation for brutal and uncompromising training was well established throughout the academy. He had felt her brutal way together with Damien.
It was the reason most students kept their distance when she offered help during open sessions.
It was the reason even Damien– her own direct disciple. Quietly avoided requesting her guidance during academy hours whenever possible.
Noah had walked up to her anyway.
He rolled to the side, picked up the axe, and got back to his feet.
’I decided to ask her for help...can’t back away now.’
