Magic

Tom's first real mage education started at sunrise, when he arrived at the desolate training field, Lizzy was already there, standing with her arms crossed inside her large, stained robe the instructor wore her usual fox-like smile while her green eyes shone sharply while the dark circles usually found under her eyes were almost non-existent at this point, indicating that she had for once gotten a proper night's rest.

"Right then, let's start off easy. First and most importantly for your own survival is [strengthening], by using moving mana around within your own body while focusing on different muscles, bones and tendons you can enhance the individual performance of those body parts."

Demonstrating for her sole student, Lizzy shifted her body slightly to the side as she craned up on her right leg while starting to move the warm mass which was known as mana around inside the body, reaching her right leg, Lizzy focused on the most important muscles for what she was about to do before starting to move mana through them. This entire process only took a split second as she had used [strengthening] more times than she cared to count, so even though she started to move her mana after she had shifted her centre of mass, the mana was in the right place by the time she was balancing on a single leg.

"Watch this~"

With minimal effort, Lizzy used her right leg to launch her entire body a good two meters into the air before falling to the ground and landing using only her right leg again, somehow not losing her balance through the entirety of that manoeuvre.

"So, how exactly do you want me to learn something like that?"

Immediately getting a strong feeling that he shouldn't really have asked Lizzy that question, Tom nevertheless had any time to take his question back as Lizzy's smile bloomed even larger.

"Oh, that's the easy part~"

Starting to dance around on the palms of her feet, Lizzy did some light warmup as she started shadow boxing before explaining what kind of 'training' she had in mind for Tom.

"I'm going to count to 60, and after that, I'm going to start attacking you at a speed you won't be able to avoid without using [strengthening]. The rest is for you to figure out on your own~"

"Are you fucking seriou-"

"One, two, three~"

"- Fuck."

Realizing complaining would only put him behind, Tom closed his eyes as he started to focus on the mass of heat/energy within his chest, Tom did his best to try and manipulate that warmth.

(Come on…)

"- forty-one, forty-two, forty-three~"

(Fuck, come on come on come on-)

Realizing that Lizzy skipped most of her counting, Tom started panicking really fast. Although he had managed to soften up this mass of energy inside his body before, he hadn't attempted to do it this fast before.

(Come on come on, move you fucking- MOVE!)

Finally feeling a meaningful progression, Tom started feeling the hard mass of energy within his chest soften up.

He just needed one more push.

"MOVE!"

With sheer force of will, Tom finally succeeded in pushing a part of his mana into his legs, he was, even so, surprised. That he managed to use some approximation of strengthening surprised Tom so much that he opened his eyes, only to catch a glimpse of Lizzy's fist right in front of his face before everything went dark.

-

"... For fucks sake."

The next thing Tom knew, he found himself in an infirmary bed with a head-splitting headache.

"Well, what did you expect, kiddo?"

(Right, I ought to know that Lizzy doesn't pull any punches…)

With a quick groan of pain, Tom sat up in his sickbed before swinging both legs out over the side of the bed.

"Let's get back to it."

Catching his instructor off guard as she was just about to light a cigarette, her typical fox-like smile quickly replaced the slight hint of worry she had had on her face as she put away her smokes.

"Are you sure you want to go again?"

"Yeah, I got plenty of rest didn't I?"

Turning Lizzy's question around with a question of his own, Tom attempted to imitate his instructor's smile.

"That you sure did, now get up kiddo!"

Moving fast Lizzy quickly closed in on Tom before proceeding to mess up his hair to the best of her ability, all in an attempt to hide her slightly reddened cheeks.

Getting back to the practice field as the sunlight had turned orange and drew lengthy shadows across the academy, Tom realized just how long he had 'slept' and decided to put in some extra effort.

(I can't afford to fall behind… That reminds me-)

"So, same as last time?"

Interrupting Tom's troughs as she cracked her knuckles, Lizzy was just about to start counting when her lovely pupil interrupted her.

"Wait for a second Lizzy… [Status]."

Focusing on the symbols which slowly took shape in his head, Tom was surprised when his hunch turned out correct.

Tom Laplace

Race: Human

Age: 19

Vitality: 162/162

Strength: 59/59

Dexterity: 129/129

Agility: 55/55

Intelligence: 113/137

Luck: 18

Mana: 25.524/25.524 (UP)

Not really paying attention to the fact that his intelligence was slightly lowered due to his headache or that he had gained a single adrenal point of mana, Tom's set his sights on his [skills]

Skills:

[Cooking 4/10] [Housework 4/10] [Memorization 2/10] [Pain resistance 3/10] [Etiquette 1/10] [Mana control 2/10] (UP) [Fine motor control 1/10] [Strengthening 1/10] (NEW) [Combat awareness 1/10] (NEW)

Magic affinity:

"I've gained the strengthening [skill] and levelled up my mana control already, moreover another strange skill has appeared..."

"Really? What kind of [Skill]?"

"[Combat awareness]."

"For real?... It seems like you have an aptitude for magic kiddo, not bad for my student~"

Surprising not only himself but also his instructor, Tom was so happy he didn't even mind Lizzy talking about his aptitude for magic.

In just a few weeks, he had improved more than his entire life, as Tom realized that, a long-forgotten dream of following in his mother's footsteps and becoming an adventurer slowly started emerging from the back of Tom's mind.

"Then there's no need for me to hold back, is there? I gotta say kiddo, you really are the best student I could ever dream of!~"

Launching an attack without warning, Lizzy used strengthening to instantly close the range to Tom before she swung her leg up with clear intent to cleanly sever Tom's head from his body.

As Lizzy's leg rapidly closed in on Tom's neck it was like time started slowing down for him, moreover, it was like there was some vague sort of red fog or mist forming in the path Lizzy's leg would take, making Tom able to predict its trajectory to a certain extent.

(Move!)

Softening up the mass of mana in his chest, Tom found it was not only far easier to do than the last few times he had attempted it but the mana also quickly flowed to the muscles in Tom's legs as he took a step back to avoid Lizzy's kick.

(Yes!... Oh, fu-)

Moving faster than he had expected, Tom quickly found himself falling over with the back of his head first. Reacting almost instinctively to avoid smashing the back of his head wide open, Tom put his arms out behind his back to protect his head as mana flooded into his arms. That bit of quick thinking managed to save Tom's skull, but as he attempted to set off from the ground with his arms he accidentally put mana into his legs too, as a result, he did some sort of strange reverse somersault before landing directly on his chest, knocking all the air out of his lungs.

"GHA!-"

Seeing her student not only manage to avoid her slightly serious kick but also flip himself over right after, Lizzy might have quickly run to his aid if she was like the other instructors at the Laurence mage academy.

"What the hell was that sound!~ 'GHA!-' That looked really funny!~ Hey, kiddo, do that again~"

But alas, Lizzy was far from a normal instructor, so instead of helping her student she instead fell on her butt as she held her sides while laughing loudly, with tears quickly forming in the corners of her eyes.

While Lizzy continued laughing for a while as she rolled around on the ground, Tom suddenly felt like he had to re-learn how to breathe all of a sudden, and the pain in his chest plus the laughter of his instructor didn't make that painful process any easier.

Understandably, it took quite a while before either of them got back on their feet.

"How much mana do you have kiddo?"

Abandoning the idea of getting back to their feet for the moment, Lizzy and Tom instead chose to sit across from each other as the sun was well on its way to setting.

"Roughly 25.500. Why."

"Because the more mana you have, the harder it is to achieve fine control with your strengthening [skill], strengthening is originally a spell for swordsmen with low mana, not something a [mage] should use."

It suddenly made a lot more sense why Tom hadn't heard about that [skill] before, but learning about the strengthening [skill] evidently made Tom even more curious as to why Lizzy, a [mage], used skills meant for a [swordsman] or even a [knight].

"Let me be entirely honest with you for a second here kiddo."

Addressing Tom without the usual smile on her face, Tom sat up straight when he saw Lizzy had turned serious, in response to the serious attention Tom returned her, Lizzy breathed a heavy sigh before continuing.

"It will be extremely hard, if not outright impossible for you to make proper use of this [skill], and without it I can't-"

"What would I need to do in order to master strengthening?"

Without even waiting for Lizzy to finish, Tom showed his sincere dedication by bowing deeply towards Lizzy, this seemed to put the instructor off, as she wasn't used to such behaviour directed at her.

"... I once heard of a court mage which mastered strengthening, she did it by constantly circulating mana throughout her entire body for days on end, eventually she got used to moving around normally like that."

Even without Lizzy telling him, Tom already had a pretty good idea how hard such a feat would be to pull off, and that was even before Lizzy started talking about the risks such a bold method would pose to his health and sanity.

"If you try this, there's a good chance your body will break itself kiddo, although you have the fine motor skill, something like that is far outside the scope of it."

"Okay. I'll try that method."

Without even waiting for Lizzy to fully explain it in a way he could understand it, Tom succeeded in ticking Lizzy off and making her angry, something Tom had never seen her be before.

"Now listen here kiddo, I clearly don't understand the threat such a reckless method poses, so let me spell it out for you: If you apply strengthening to your entire body at full power, you will rip muscles from your bones just by flinching or antecedently tensing your muscles! Even with your pain resistance [skill] and instructors on staff which can heal that kind of damage, it will be excruciatingly painful, taking weeks if not months of constant pain to master."

Taking time to clearly think over and register what Lizzy was saying, Tom's answer still didn't change.

"If I can't learn this I can't train under you can I?"

"No, bu-"

"You don't understand Lizzy! If I can't do this then I might as well be dead! I would rather slice off my own head or slowly peel off all my skin than become some political tool for a person I loathe for the rest of my life just because he said so while demanding my gratitude a week after I put my fucking mother in the ground without any of his help!"

Clenching both his fists as he looked straight at Lizzy, Tom finally succeeded in convincing his instructor.

"... Okay kiddo. Looks like you're going to have to learn to walk again from scratch."