Chapter 42: Teachings of Sungrade
-Clank!
"Hmm? Do you hear anything?"
"There, look."
The common training ground of the Sungrade house for the younger children was pretty big since it covered almost the entire ground floor.
In addition to the sparring grounds located on the various floors, the ground floor, including the inside area and the outside area, were places where one saw the most activity throughout the day.
-Clank! Clank! Clank!
-Boooooooooooom!
Children from the branched families as well as the ones taken in from the outside were trained in different fields until they were of age.
Once the family confirmed their potential in the proof of worth, depending on their interests and affinities, they were sent to specialised facilities situated around the castle.
There, they were trained in different things. From practices of different Schools of taming, to the ways of the knights and mages. Sungrades were famous as a central learning institute in the eastern part of the empire.
-Oooooooooooooooong!
It can be said that the children chosen by the Sungrades were much better than the most. Not all of them can be called the cream of the crop but, some of them were the gems that the nobles cherished.
"Wow..."
"Is that really... him?"
"He’s fighting Jamen Killian on equal footing? Wasn’t his performance in the Proof of worth just an exaggeration?"
Prism appeared in the training grounds a while ago and the moment he did, even before he could start something of his own, the prodigy that the children compared with Able, approached him and challenged him for a match.
Furthermore, he insisted Prism not to hold back.
The new hero of the Sungrade wanted to test himself anyways so, he did not decline the boy’s challenge and now, the two were fighting.
"Are you blind?"
"Equal footing? That’s equal footing?"
As the children watched the battle between a young mage and the rising star, the only thing they could feel was awe.
One was throwing fire at the boy, and the opponent, instead of dodging or defecting the attacks, was ’catching’ every ball of fire that was being thrown at him.
"That guy’s playing with Jamen."
Able was present there, simply watching this fight.
The children who understood the flow of the battle showed the others what their eyes did not catch.
"Ah..."
Right after they followed the direction of their seniors, the others saw the smile on Sam’s face. The sweat that covered the mage boy.
They saw the way Sam grabbed all the fireballs that were thrown at him with bare hands and clenched them to break them like a bubble.
-Swiiiiiiiiiiiiiish!
When the mage understood the futile efforts he was making, he shifted to a different strategy and started using spells to blast the ground they were standing on.
With clever technique, he aimed the exploding rocks at the opponent, pushing himself to the limits.
But Prism was hardly impressed by those tricks.
"Your formulas are too excessive." Without using Felix’s skill, Sam simply used the power of his bonds.
The opponent was focused on him alone, and he wanted to show him everything he had for some reason.
Sam was used to seeing the look that the boy in front of him had in his eyes: the desperate look seeking someone’s acknowledgement.
He did not want validation for his strength and skills, but something deeper and more fundamental.
He wanted Prism to accept that he, too, was capable of something.
And Prism had already acknowledged that from the moment this boy approached him.
However, the boy was not ready to face him yet. Thus, Prism turned the challenge into a learning class for him.
"Jamen." Looking at him when the boy seemed exhausted, Sam threw a small recovery potion from his pocket towards the boy.
"Try reducing the fireball concentration. Focus on the length of the formula, not the width. You want to shoot it, not throw it like mud."
Right after saying that, Prism picked up one of the pebbles from the rubble and threw it towards the boy.
-Swish!
"Huh?"
And the pebble passed right by the face of his opponent, leaving just a small cut that opened into a bleed.
"You have three more chances. The last one will not miss." Saying that, he picked up three more pebbles from the ground, pacing around the ground with his eyes locked on the target.
"...!"
Jamen had grasped the threat, and also the opportunity.
He instinctively stood up and took the colorful recovery potion, feeling much better than he had expected.
Then, he tried doing what Prism had suggested as best as he could...
’Am I supposed to modify the formula?’
-Swish!
"You think too much. You have already learned the spell. You aren’t changing anything. Use it like I just said." The second pebble had passed right across his left hand, leaving a deeper scar than the last.
"Argh!"
The second one hurt him.
He did not like this feeling, but he could only do as he was told.
’Length of the spell...’
A spell was a mix of Mana, the magic energy needed to use the spell, the spirit connection, and a certain formula used to materialise it.
This formula was a set structure that did the same thing as long as it was made with the correct internal structures.
Maybe, that’s what he needed to do here.
-Oooooooooooooong!
The next spell he tried to conjure this time was activated with a broader boundary than before.
Instead of a perfect round, the spell was oval.
-Booooooooom!
"Wrong. It’s still excessive." The spell exploded even before it could materialise because the execution was too unstable.
The boy was still doubting himself.
-Swish!
It could get him killed in a real battle.
-Ghup!
"Arghhhhhh!"
The third pebble passed right by his right hand, leaving a much deeper scar that sprayed a fountain of blood across the ground.
"You know the answer, Jamen." If he didn’t, Prism would have taught him first before going to these lengths. But the one before him was a product of the sungrade teachings.
Every single child here was taught in a way that followed the conventional and efficient systems focusing on getting the work done.
They weren’t training just the mages or just the knights in this place. Most of the things were inefficient here, but that did not mean they were wrong.
If they weren’t going to spoonfeed them everything, the children here just had to realise the truth themselves.
And in the process, if they had to spill a little bit of blood, then, that wasn’t really a big deal at all.
"You have one last try left." Prism glared at him, serious as a hungry hound.
He twiddled the rock in his hand, his red eyes installing fear into the spectators present.
The boy standing before him, his hand blooded, his eyes almost hazy, finally stopped thinking.
Perhaps because of the loss or blood or because of his fading consciousness, what remained in his head was one singular spell structure.
It was still circular as the original one, but it wasn’t complete.
He could not draw all the channels needed to make a fireball...
’Length...’
But he didn’t have to make a ball in the first place.
-Ooooooooooooooooooong!
With his spell still incomplete to some degree, he fused his Mana into it and activated it.
"Wait..."
"What’s that?"
"H-hey! Hey! That’s wrong!"
What materialised instead of a simple fireball, was a spell circle that was twice the size of the fireball spell, while far less complicated than what produced an explosive.
-Zaaaaaaaaaaaa!
The destructive properties were retained. And what was shot from the spell circle was not a ball, circle, or an oval, but a beam.
"Flame arrow!?"
"That’s... that’s a (tier-2) spell!"
He had the mana, he had the spirit connection, and he had the knowledge of the spell. The only thing in his way was a self-made wall.
"Good."
-Swish!
-Bang!!!
-BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
And thanks to his opponent, that wall had just been broken.
-Shrrrrr...
Still, the way a simple pebble thrown by someone’s hand could destroy a (tier-2) spell was beyond the people spectating in this place.
"..."
"..."
"..."
They just could not understand what had just happened here.
"Can you help him get to the infirmary, Lexie?"
"Surely, young master."
What they did understand, however, was the fact that this destroyed part of the training ground was going to require an entire day of work to get to a usable shape once again.
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