The gym

Then he went to sit with Heimer at the available tables. He started to read the book and soon discovered something that had not been talked about in school. In the book, it said that mages can learn spells from different elements, but normally people couldn't go beyond two elements.

There were no major elements or rarer elements. The rarity was determined by the difficulty in finding techniques to practice with a certain element. For example, it is easier to find fire techniques for sale than light techniques, as fire is easier to learn and has more practitioners. Normally, each element had its peculiarities, such as healing, defense, or attack.

After reading for a while, they heard a knock on the table. The sound echoed through the entire floor. Kayden looked up, startled, to see a smiling Ryan staring back at him. Before either of them could say anything, an old man magically appeared beside them, wearing a black robe and the library's logo. He said with an orderly tone:

"Out, the three! And Heimer, I expected more from you." After saying that, he withdrew as silently as he arrived. An awkward silence fell between them. Heimer interrupted him:

"Let's go out. If he repeats that, he'll send the three of us flying. I've seen that madman throw an elderly man off the fourth floor for making too much noise while eating," he said with a strange expression.

Three children were seen leaving and one of them was red with embarrassment. Arriving at the stairs, Heimer gave Ryan a mild scolding, but as soon as he remembered why he was there, Ryan lost his embarrassment and came back with his excited smile.

"Kayden, now that you're ranked second, I can take you to the academy. There you can learn to fight by practicing with others. The owner of the place was once a national champion in non-magic fighting." As he spoke, Ryan looked more and more excited. I could see his body vibrating with his words.

Kayden had already heard about Ryan's gym. He knew it was from a friend of the old man, so it was free for the children at the orphanage. He wanted to go from the beginning, but with the excitement of ranking up, he forgot.

"Come on, we still have some time before dark," you could tell he was just as excited to see the place.

As they headed there, Heimer came up with a rather weak excuse to get rid of the duo. Like a true wizard, he hated any intense physical exercise, so he had no interest in going to the gym with the two of them.

After walking for a few minutes, they arrived at a small, two-story building. It was a yellow building.

"Isn't it too small?" Kayden wondered.

"I know you must be thinking it's too small. I had the same impression when I first arrived here. The master lives upstairs, the dojo is in the basement." This answered Kayden's question, as the building was barely 5 meters by 5 meters.

Upon entering the door, they found themselves in a blank room with a trapdoor. Going down through it, there was a ladder. It took a few minutes to come down. It was pretty deep. As soon as they finished descending the stairs, Kayden was impressed for the second time that day. The place was huge, at least 200 meters from one end to the other.

At one end there were sofas and some food available. It also had a pool table. It reminded Kayden of Brazilian bars. There were several people practicing duels in small circles, with a barrier around that prevented the magic from escaping. It was impressive. At least 100 people were training there, from children to adults.

"Here there are mainly knights and some magic swordsmen. You are the first magician in this place, hahaha." Ryan guided Kayden over to a middle-aged man playing pool.

The man was athletic looking, he looked to be in his early thirties, but what caught the eye was his dark blue hair. It stood out among so many people.

"Master! Today I brought Kayden to the dojo. He just moved up to the second rank," Ryan introduced him to the man. In no time he took his eyes off the game and even replied without looking:

"Hello, Kayden. My name is Shawl. Congratulations on reaching the second rank. You are welcome to use my gym facilities." The fact that the man played and talked at the same time made Kayden feel strange. "Ryan, go introduce him to the coach."

As he pulled Kayden to one side, he commented:

"Don't care too much about the GM not even looking at you when talking. He probably bet again on the pool. That makes him focus 101% only on the game." This seemed to be a common event in this place.

"As the owner of the place, he must be good, right?", Kayden commented.

"He's the best swordsman in this place, but when it comes to his pool skills... he sucks. In almost 8 years here, I've never seen him win a bet," Ryan said quietly. "But never say that in front of him, or he'll make you a punching bag using some excuses like private practice."

Ryan winced as if remembering an unpleasant thought. This did not go unnoticed by Kayden. He made a mental note never to criticize Shawl about his pool skills. As they walked, Kayden observed several people using different weapons, from gigantic swords to short daggers.

He also saw some swordsmen with their weapons on fire or covered in lightning. This impressed him once more on the day. He felt admiration and, above all, a desire to reach that level as well. The walk was short and they came to a gigantic man. On the day of the class presentation, Kayden was away from the knight, so he didn't pay much attention. But now that he got close to one, he saw how big they were.

With his hair shaved and shiny, the man looked to be at least the size of three people comfortably. If he told Kayden it was over a ton, he wouldn't even doubt it. He was shirtless and wearing baggy blue pants.

"Look, Ryan, who is this?", the man greeted in a friendly way. His friendly, smiling manner was practically the same as Ryan's. Now Kayden knew where the boy's inspiration came from.

"Hello, coach. This is Kayden. He just got to the second rank, so I decided to bring him here for you to torture him... I mean, train him. That's right, train him", Ryan seemed to be hiding something. from Kayden, but Kayden didn't think much of it. I was still impressed by the size of the trainer.

"Nice to meet you Kayden. My name is Raul and I'm the trainer for this place. Do you have any specific goals in mind?" At the same time as a greeting, he extended his hand to the boy. As soon as the two hands met, the coach shook it vigorously.

"My pleasure. My goal is to learn to fight. In the future, I want to be a combat mage", Kayden said excitedly. The coach's energy was infectious. "If I can, I'd like to start combat training today."

Coach gave a satisfying laugh.

"You're still green, boy. You need to go through physical training first." Kayden tried to explain that he already had good conditioning, but Ryan gave him a nudge and a look that said "Don't do this, don't make that mistake". "Come on boy, I'll train you personally for now."

The moment the trainer said that Kayden saw Ryan sneaking out, intending not to be noticed. That was weird, it felt like Kayden had walked into a trap. Ryan was training somewhere nearby, he was using a big broadsword. It was the first time Kayden had seen Ryan use a weapon.

As they reached one of the circles, the trainer turned to Kayden and asked:

"How far does your will to win go?" It seemed to be a very serious sort of question from the man's tone. After some thought, Kayden decided to come up with an answer that he believed matched his actions to date:

"I don't know, I never made it to the end to find out."

"Hahaha, today you'll find out, kid."