How To Use The System - Phoenix Flight

"You okay?" Falco handed Davi a healing potion, and Davi gratefully accepted it and gulped it down.

"Better now." Davi wiped his chin and felt his bruises mend and heal. His bones began to snap themselves back into place, and he let out a satisfied sigh.

Falco gave a grin and held a hand out, helping Davi back up. "You're crazy, you know that? That stunt was nuts. You could have broken your neck or seriously injured yourself beyond what that potion healed if you weren't careful. You're lucky, which is something that rarely happens with members of our guild."

"I wanted to win," Davi said simply.

"You put on one hell of a show!" Ghost laughed. She stood next to the crater he and Ragna had formed, watching as Falco helped drag him out. Next to her was Olivia, who was also grinning, and Ragna was doing a few squats, getting the excitement out of his system, and Greenie had turned into a bundle of tendrils, wrapped around Ragna's neck and shoulders. "You were almost as fast as Olivia."

"Almost?" Davi's eye twitched, and he shot a look at Olivia, who gave a sheepish laugh. "So your method worked better than mine?"

"I told you, I really only won because I managed to catch that monster off guard." Olivia looked toward Ragna and shuddered. "I don't think I could beat him again."

"No one besides Vlad and the Captain can beat Ragna." Ghost nodded. "He's one of our best members for a reason. That's why he's in charge of training us all. I'm better at teaching you how to use a knife, but when it comes to everything else, Ragna is the standard trainer."

"He's also going to lose to me today!" Without warning, Falco jumped at Ragna, attempting to strike the man, but Ragna easily dodged the strike. He then reached out and wrapped his hands around Falco. He was so large that he could grip Falco by the head and feet, and he began to raise Falco up and down, using the mutant as weights. "Put me down!" Falco yelled, trying to break out of Ragna's grip, but he couldn't get the muscular man to budge.

"Put you down?"

"Yes!"

"Well, if you insist!"

"Wait—"

Falco realized what was about to happen a second too late as Ragna dropped him. As Falco began to fall toward the ground, Ragna then pulled his foot back and kicked out with it, ramming it into Falco's stomach, and sent the man blasting into the air and back toward the ocean. A loud splash was heard moments later.

"Why do you keep sending him into the ocean?" Davi asked.

"It's funny."

"Fair enough."

Ghost giggled and gave a half-wave. "I'm going to go fish Falco out of the water and make sure he sees Olem. Those last few strikes might have left him with a concussion."

"Oh, I'll go also." Olivia offered, but Ragna shook his head.

"No!" Ragna said sternly.

"No?"

"You and Davi are going to stay put." Ragna declared. "Now that I've had a match with both of you and seen a bit of what you two can do, I think I have some tips and ideas. I also want to go over some basic improvements and handy features you now have, since you are both new to having the system within you."

Olivia looked a little bummed. She was still scared of Ragna, the man being a little too intense and loud for her comfort, but it looked like avoiding him was becoming impossible. Davi casually sat down on the sand, and she did the same. Ghost laughed at them before eventually leaving them to their fate.

"So, what do you want to teach us?" Davi asked.

"First, let me see your stats," Ragna ordered.

Davi and Olivia looked at each other, and then they both summoned up their stat screens.

'Shadow Core: Grade A+ Mana: Grade C, Endurance: Grade A-, Strength: Grade S-, Efficiency: Grade D, Resistance: Grade E1.'

'Blood Core: Grade C+, Mana: Grade D+, Endurance: Grade C+, Strength: C+, Efficiency: Grade C+, Resistance: Grade S-.'

Davi was a little surprised to see that his had improved. His Core, Endurance, Strength, and Efficiency had all gone up by one spot. He didn't feel that different, though, for the most part. Olivia's had also gone up slightly since he last saw her, but hers seemed even less than his.

Ragna nodded and slowly read off their stats. "Not too bad. Davi, your stats are about average for a Squire. If your E1 was in another category, you'd actually be above average, but for the most part, you seem well off. Your Core is decent, but we should get it to E1 as soon as possible. You should also get your Mana and Efficiency up. You're lucky your spells aren't high-level, but if you get any offensive spells, you'll struggle a lot more with them." Then he looked at Olivia's. "I hate to say it, but you're below average. Resistance is higher than normal, but everything else is quite bad. We need to get all your stats, especially Endurance and Strength, up so you can start training more."

Olivia gave a hesitant nod. She hadn't trained as much as she should have this past month. In fact, she barely trained at all because she spent most of her time with Davi. She didn't even enter the World of Paths. She tried, but she kept having nightmares. Now that Davi was back, and some stress was gone from her, she was hoping that she'd be able to properly train again and get strong. She needed to catch up to a lot of people.

"Would you two like to see my stats?" Ragna offered.

Davi's eyes lit up slightly. "Sure? I saw the captain's traits, but I haven't seen the stats of someone powerful before."

"Well, allow me to show you."

Ragna held his hand up, and a blue box appeared before him. It lacked a listed Core, but all the other stats were filled out, and they made both Olivia and Davi do a double-take. It was about what the two of them expected, but seeing it in person was still a little shocking.

'Mana: Grade B1+, Endurance: Grade S1, Strength: Grade S1, Efficiency: Grade B1+, Resistance: Grade B1+.'

His Mana, Efficiency, and Resistance were all perfectly balanced and equal, and his Endurance and Strength were his highest, both being close to breaking through the level of E2. From what Davi remembered, that would mean that Ragna was above the level of a Title Knight, but below the level of a vice captain.

Of course, in an actual fight with a Title Knight, it was likely the Title Knight would win since they would have Knight Gear, which was far stronger than standard enchanted items and offered additional powers and types of magic, so while Ragna was above them in stats, he likely wouldn't beat one, or if he did, it'd be a hard-fought battle.

"Pretty cool, right?" Ragna pointed a thumb at himself. "I worked hard for these stats, and with a bit of luck, we can get you two up to the level of your average Knight in a year or two. A few years later, we might be able to get you both to the level of Title Knight and, even more years later, it might be possible to get you to reach the level of a Vice Captain. Of course, that's if we all survive and don't die from a wave of bad luck." Ragna laughed as if it were the funniest thing in the world.

"So how do we get stronger?" Davi asked.

Ragna stopped laughing, and his look grew serious. "There are two main ways, technically three, but one of them isn't available to us. Tell me, have you ever played an MMO or an RPG?"

Davi looked confused, while Olivia eagerly nodded. "Oh yeah, I love games like those! You're going to talk about the grinding or something, right?" She questioned.

Ragna gave a nod. "That's right. See, one thing you need to know is that every other guild has an advantage over us. They get to cheese the grinding that we'll have to do."

"What do you mean?" Olivia asked, while Davi looked more confused.

"Let's say improving your stats is like gaining EXP in a video game," Ragna explained. "Rossum is very good at creating a type of pill or medication that can help improve a person. These pills can offer temporary buffs, such as raising all their stats for a short period of time. They aren't permanent, and they get weaker the more they're used, but early on, guilds can take their vast funds and buy these pills. They'll take monster cores that they harvest and send them to Rossum alchemists who live here in our kingdom and have them forge these pills, which they can then feed to a new recruit. This pill can raise a recruit's stats from C- all the way to E1 in some cases. Usually, these pills can also be taken three times, with each one having less of an effect than the previous. While the recruit is in this enhanced state, they can gain a sense of their body and power. When the pill wears off, they'll still remember the level they reached, and their body will naturally progress to it, doing so far faster. In some cases, they'll grow one hundred times their normal rate."

"And we can't use these pills, can we?" Davi summarized.

"Correct." Ragna gave a sad chuckle. "Even noble families can seldom afford an improvement pill. The four main guilds, Pantheon, Hydra Storm, Oak Watcher, and Wandering Coin, can usually only afford one pill per new recruit. Guilds have managed to make a huge profit from monster hunting and other various jobs, so with their currency, they buy a single pill for their new recruits and use it to get a quick jump on their stats. The top three guilds, Umbra Mortis, Mourning Stars, and the Shining Sentinels, have more than enough funds to buy all three pills at once and will feed two of them to their recruits to massively boost them, while saving the third for them at a later date so it can be used if they ever need to get an advantage in an upcoming event or hard quest. Because of this, any Branch Noble you saw during your time at the exams is likely already on the level of an Arcane Knight, and in some rare cases, possibly already on the level of a Title Knight."

"It'd be useful to have those pills." Olivia sighed.

"They're just a shortcut." Davi shook his head. "We can just work harder than them. They'll get lazy and fat from their own strength while we catch up."

"You think so?"

"That's usually how it goes."

"The improvement pills aren't the only advantage they have over us." Ragna folded his arms and cracked his lips into another smile. "We really are at a huge disadvantage. Our guild has next to no funds, so we can't afford anything fancy. Besides improvement pills, the guilds can also afford to buy trait pills. These are a lot cheaper, and even most noble families can afford them, but for us, they're still impossible. A trait pill can allow whoever eats it to gain a trait. Of course, not all traits can be turned into pills. Things like Olivia's Polymorph or other bloodline-based powers are impossible to copy, but with trait pills, the guilds can use them to give their recruits and other members various resistances more easily or speed up the rate at which they learn fighting styles. Whereas you two will have to work your ass off to use a sword, they can just feed a recruit three trait pills, and that recruit might instantly gain Swordsman Grade S. The guilds can also buy the best spells for their recruits or personally hire enchanters to create new spells for them. I'd recommend using any money you do get on buying new spells, even if they turn out to be useless, because if your Enchantment school gets high enough, you can break those spells down and merge them into others to create new spells."

"So, what I'm hearing is that Phoenix Flight kind of sucks." Olivia sighed.

She knew that it was going to be bad, but she didn't expect it to be this bad. It sounded like it would be almost impossible to catch up to the others. Bruno was always ahead of her and likely surpassed even Davi, but what would happen now that he was in one of the top guilds? With the best funding, would he even be the same Bruno when she saw him? She wouldn't be shocked if he casually jumped up a massive amount of levels in only a short amount of time.

"Sadly, that's how it goes." Ragna hummed. "In this world, there will be people stronger than me who are just as old, if not younger than you two, simply because they were born into the right family or given the right chance. That doesn't mean it's hopeless, though. You just have to try harder."

"I know." Olivia nodded. "Believe me, I'm not about to give up. It's still processing through my mind, but I'm ready. I'll do whatever it takes. I'm still a Squire right now, and in one year, worthy Squires will be awarded the rank of official Knights. My goal hasn't changed. I still want to become an Arcane Knight." Olivia's eyes lit up, and Ragna looked just as excited as her, while Davi kept his blank, robotic look.

"I love your spirit!" Ragna gave a thumbs up and a wink. "Now, why don't you two show me your schools of magic! I can't show you mine since I have no type and have zero spells!"

Once more, Davi and Olivia brought their school grades up. The boxes shimmered and changed, bringing them both up.

'Alteration: Grade A. Destruction: Grade E. Enchantment: Grade E1. Conjuration: Grade A. Illusion: Grade C, Restoration: Grade E.'

'Alteration: Grade B-, Destruction: Grade C, Enchantment: Grade C, Conjuration: Grade B, Illusion: Grade D-, Restoration: Grade D.'

Ragna looked caught off guard by Davi's schools and did a double-take. "Destruction and Restoration are both E?"

"That means I can't use them, right?" Davi hummed, unbothered.

"Yeah…" Ragna frowned. "That's not good. Shadow Magic is known for its destructive power. At least you have illusions; it's good for that school, though yours is low. Ah, but your Enchantment." Ragna beamed suddenly. "E1 is great! With E1, it means you're officially at the rank of an Enchanter. A low one, but still, that's really good for someone who's not even a full-fledged Knight. Enchanters can create magical items and craft new spells for themselves and other people! No one else in our guild has managed to get their Enchantment up to E1, so you having it is a great boon! And with your new Circuit Core, you'll be able to use those enchanted items you craft!"

"So how do I make an enchanted item or craft a new spell?"

"No clue!"

"Seriously?"

Ragna gave a sheepish giggle. "Sorry, but that's one area I'm not good at. I know they can do it, but you'd need to actually speak to an enchanter. As for spell crafting, from what I know, they take a spell and can decode it. It helps if you have a Circuit Core, so if you have any spells you're not afraid of losing, why not mess with them in your free time? You go into the code of them and move lines around, adding new elements. See if you can make something great. As an Enchanter, you can rework spells or even create new ones from the code, though for now it's likely you could just transform one spell into a new form."

"I did something similar." Olivia nodded. "When I turned my hawk spell into a flying snake. Mine fell apart and used a ton of mana, though, and it didn't fully stay transformed, and I'd have to take the time to rechange it again."

"That's because you don't have E1 Enchantment," Ragna stated. "Davi's should be permanent changes. Your schools are low, but good, Olivia. Most mages have one school they can't use, and that's usually either Enchantment or Restoration, but your schools are all at a usable level. I don't know much about blood magic, but I know it's good at self-healing, so perhaps focus on Restoration. I'll try to learn more, but most blood mages aren't well known for being warriors due to the weakness it has."

Olivia clenched her hand into a fist, and she recalled Bloom. That horrible monster had been a blood mage like her. Unlike her, though, he was able to freely cast spells, using a seemingly infinite amount of blood.

That was something she couldn't do, and she was still locked into just six spells. She'd need to grow a lot stronger, as Maya suggested, if she wanted to be able to fight monsters like Bloom or reach the level of Ragna.

"There are two more schools you two should know about." Ragna hummed.

Olivia did a double-take and looked back at the man. "Huh? Two other schools?"

"That's right." Ragna rubbed his chin. "I'm not shocked you don't know about them. They aren't made public under normal circumstances, and they're both scarce. One of them is useful, though, and you might want to look into it. No one in our guild has it, and usually only people from branch families can use this school, but it's called the Holy School."

"Holy School?"

"Unlike the other schools of magic, Holy is more like an additional effect. It can be stacked into any other school but has no effect of its own. It just adds the Holy effect to spells, which is particularly good at killing high-level monsters and negating curses. Sadly, the only way to get Holy, from what I know, is to either gain the blessing of an Angel, something that hasn't happened in a long time; be born under the star of the Almighty, something extremely rare; or have the blood of an Angel flowing through your veins. Most Branch Nobles have this."

"Seriously!"

Ragna laughed at Olivia's shocked look. "A lot of people have mixed blood and don't know it. Over one thousand years ago, dragons, giants, humans, angels, elves, and anything else you can think of were all horny as hell and didn't seem to care who they were doing it with! Of course, nowadays, in the present time, most people who are related to one of these creatures are so far removed that the traits or powers won't awaken in them. There are stories of people praying in a church of the Almighty, and the Angel blood within them responds, granting them the Holy School or, even rarer, the Heavenly Body Trait. It never hurts to check. You could find out you're related to multiple creatures, also. You never know."

Olivia's head hurt a little as she tried to imagine her being related to some powerful entity from long ago. What were the chances of that? Slim likely.

Davi kept his usual look, but his eyes narrowed slightly. "What's the other school?"

Ragna caught his stare and looked a little uncomfortable. "That one isn't important."

"It's Curses, right?"

"...Yes." Ragna let out a heavy sigh. "The School of Curses does exist. Like the Holy School, Curses are more like an additional thing. They can be imbued into spells or other attacks. They also have their own additional effect. Unlike Holy, you don't need to be related to anything special, though those with connections to demons are often able to use the School of Curses. Don't bother, though. Curses are too dangerous to use in combat, even if you're powerful. If you don't have a connection to a demon, you either need a lot of malice and hate in your heart or a powerful curse already imbued within you. Using them at all causes other Curses to grow, so you'd just drive yourself insane or kill yourself before you mastered it."

Davi gave a nod, and Ragna's eyes narrowed. "I'm serious."

"Okay."

"Don't look into it."

"Okay."

Ragna kept staring at Davi with a look of suspicion. "Okay. Now, you two, show me your traits. I want to go over a few more things, and also, I have something I can show you both." Both Davi and Olivia listened and brought up their trait list.

'Traits: Master Hoarder: Grade B, Sprint: Grade B, Stamina: Grade A, Sword-Wielding: Grade B+, Way Of The Sky Cutting Sword Style: Grade C+, Hand-to-Hand: Grade D, Way of Self Iron Martial Arts: Grade D, Cold Resistance: Grade A+, Heat Resistance: Grade A+, Danger Sense: Grade B+, Loved by Mana: Grade A, Fishing: Grade S+. Curse Resistance: Grade D- Cursed Life: Grade D-.'

'Traits: Knife-Wielding: Grade C, Scythe-Wielding: Grade C, Poison Resistance: Grade A, Venom Resistance: Grade A, Hand-to-Hand: Grade D, Sprint: Grade D, Stamina: Grade D, Quick Regeneration (Physical): Grade B+, Determined: Grade A. Polymorph: Grade D. Cursed Life: Grade D-.'

"Oh, hey," Davi poked at his. "New trait."

"Huh?" Olivia turned her head to look at Davi's, and sure enough, near the bottom, she saw it. Curse Resistance. "Oh, cool. You must have gotten it when your body recovered."

"Neat."

Ragna sighed when he saw their traits. "Yep. An ugly mess."

"A mess? What do you mean?" Olivia asked.

"Your traits are lazily scattered and all over the place." Ragna hummed. "Here's a trick. Focus on your traits and think about sorting them. Think, Body, Skill, Other."

Olivia made a face but nodded. She stared at her blue screen and focused intently. A moment later, her traits glowed, and then the list reordered and changed. The box expanded to get longer, and it formed categories.

'Skill Traits: | Knife-Wielding: Grade C | Scythe-Wielding: Grade C | Hand-to-Hand: Grade D |'

'Other Traits: | Determined: Grade A | Polymorph: Grade D | Cursed Life: Grade D- |'

"Oh wow, this is so much easier to read!" Olivia said, startled by the change. It wasn't all clumped together now in one big block of text. The captain had a massive amount of traits and skills, and it made reading through her list hard, but if sorting were possible, it'd be a lot easier to figure out what went well and look for specific ones.

Ragna let out a relieved sigh, his OCD fading slightly. "Better. Body Traits refer to physical characteristics that affect your body, such as sprinting, stamina, resistance, and similar abilities. Skill Traits are for weapons you can use or other things, and lastly, Other is for random categories and powers that have to be turned on and off. Now I can actually look through your stats. Davi, you do the same."

Davi hummed and flicked his finger out. His stats began to reshape, also.

"Finally." Ragna looked happy again. "Now, let's see what I'm working with." He looked their stats up and down. Again, his eyes narrowed slightly. "I'm seeing some traits I've never seen before. Determined, Loved By Mana, and Master Hoarder?"

Davi flicked his hand and showed what Loved By Mana said: 'You are the child of (error), and that allows you to use (error). When the right conditions are met, your (error) will open.'

"Well, that's not helpful. What about Master Hoarder?"

Again, Davi flicked his hand: 'You were made to consume and hoard. You have an easier time handling the strain of your mixed (error).'

"Seriously!" Ragna grumbled a bit. It wasn't his first time seeing a glitched or incomplete skill. The truth was, most people who were connected to long-lost bloodlines or from other regions had traits like this that were incomplete, since the king's system didn't know all the information, and so his system couldn't say what it didn't know. "Oh well. Olivia, what's yours?"

Olivia hesitantly opened hers. She still hadn't told anyone about Maya or the Determined World yet, primarily due to not having the right time. She wanted to ask Davi about it first, but something always seemed to get in the way. As she opened her trait, though, she felt confused.

The box glowed and shimmered for a moment, and the text paused and then came out: 'You are determined to live and will get back up no matter how many times you're knocked down.'

That wasn't what the trait had said before? It had said something totally different. This version sounded bland and just seemed like it would give her a second wind or something. It didn't look special at all. Did her trait change? Did she lose it?

Ragna nodded, not knowing how worried she was. To him, this just seemed like a random trait. "Alright. For the most part, Olivia, the best trait you seem to have is Polymorph. Do you know how you gained it?"

"Not really." Olivia said, still confused.

"Well, to put it simply, your great-grandpa or grandma fucked a dragon."

"Oh. What!"

Ragna laughed at her outburst and reached up, scratching at Greenie, who was still wrapped around him. "Polymorph is a trait that comes from the dragons. It's super rare, but I have seen people who have it. Usually, it appears in women. We often call these women 'witches' as they gain a few additional traits. You having Polymorph likely means an ancestor way down in your lineage did the nasty with a dragon while it was in another form, and thus some of its bloodline awakened inside of you nine hundred years later. Since Polymorph did awaken, it's also possible you'll gain other traits that witches have. I don't know too much about it, and no one else in our guild is a witch. I'll look into some information and try to help you. We'll need to find out your color as well."

"My color?"

"It's not important until more witch traits appear." Ragna waved it away. "Now that I've seen your traits, let me explain a few things. Firstly, let's go over the traits you do have. Davi, for you, you should focus on learning how to better use a sword. I don't know what that style is, but it'd be best if you learned other sword styles and trained more with the blade. Additionally, in our fight, you demonstrated skill with a claymore, but perhaps try other weapons as well. Every swordsman has a preferred blade. Find yours. In the guild, the two best people to train with in terms of the blade are Vlad and the Captain. Good luck getting any of them to teach you. Falco is also handy with a sword, so spar with him some, okay? As for your Hand-to-Hand, you should refine it a bit better, especially as you lack any form of weapon creation right now. Learn more martial arts as well, preferably ones that distribute damage or avoid attacks. You can train with either me or Clause for hand-to-hand training, and I'd also recommend asking Tea for tips when she comes back."

Davi gave a slight nod. He also planned to improve his fishing. That was priority number one.

"What about me?" Olivia questioned.

"We mostly went over it with you." Ragna turned to her. "Your Hand-to-Hand isn't as needed since you can summon weapons, but I'd still learn the basics just in case and pick up a martial art or two. Knife fighting and Scythe fighting seem to be what you'll be best at. I use a glaive, which is the closest thing to a scythe. Besides me, you'll have to ask Merlin and Miranda for help, since those two are the only ones who use scythes, though good luck with that. Knife fighting is best done with Ghost. I'd also learn some stealth skills from her. Since you have Restoration magic, you should also ask Olem for some help."

"If possible, I'd like to also learn some alchemy," Olivia stated.

"Alchemy?"

"Yeah. For potions and stuff."

Ragna nodded at her explanation. "Olem can help a bit, but Tea is the best with that kind of stuff. You'll have to wait for her to come back."

"Okay." Olivia felt a little giddy. Maya had told her to learn alchemy. That thought then made her bitter again, though. Could she speak to Maya again? She hadn't been able to access Maya since Davi was in his coma, so what if the ability broke and she no longer had access to it? She decided to try again at night and prayed that it would work. If it didn't, perhaps that was the punishment for failing to save Davi.

"Now," Ragna began. "Some basic skills and traits you should both learn. In the next few days, I'll have you both running laps. This is so you can build up your Sprint and Stamina traits. We should also work on teaching you both how to use Wall-Walking. Later, we can progress it to Water-Walking, and when your Core reaches E1, we can teach you both Sky-Walking. The main focus should be getting your Core to evolve into E1; that way, you can learn advanced Mana techniques."

"What are those?" Davi asked.

"There are three basic ones." Ragna held up three fingers. "Mana Step, Mana Strike, and Mana Skin. You know how to boost your body with mana. That's a basic form of combat that any mage can do. The three Mana techniques I listed can only be done by those who have a Core that is rank E1. Leveling your Core up is only possible inside of dungeons or by using pills, so most of the world is unaware of Mana techniques, as only elites can use them. They're advanced forms of the basic usage of mana. Go ahead and coat yourselves in your aura."

Davi and Olivia glanced at each other and then flared their aura up. It came out as a white glow that covered them from head to toe. When they were using spells or going all out, their aura would gain a color and form, Davi's being blue fire and Olivia's being a bubbly red.

"While your mana is activated, you're able to move faster, hit harder, and block attacks that would hurt normal people. The more mana you have, the bigger the boost. You can also move your mana into a specific part, focusing it all in that area to get a better task done. For example, if you want to run faster, you force the mana into your legs so you can boost yourself forward. If you want to hit harder, you force all your energy into your fist or weapon, and so on. Mana Skin is the second advanced form you'll learn. When you have it unlocked, your aura will be activated at all times and will be able to be compressed and be far sturdier. This will enable you to hit even harder, move even faster, and withstand even harder hits. It's the basics that all Knights have."

"What about that fast teleportation that you do?" Davi questioned. "I'd rather learn that."

"That's Mana Step. It can be learned after Mana Skin. Mana Step is a single step and is akin to instant movement, but it's not quite that. What it actually is is someone sending out a line of their mana across the ground, and then they instantly appear at the other end of that line. Think of it as creating a doorway between spaces that you can move through. It has a limit to how far it can go, with stronger users able to send it out further, and it also costs a lot, but if you've mastered it, it allows you to rapidly flicker across the battlefield. Mana Strike is similar. You use it and Mana Step to go from point A to B, allowing you to deliver full momentum, even though you haven't fully swung. It greatly enhances your attacks and their speed. Of course, with these three things, it'd be dangerous to fight against someone who knows them, which is why I'll teach you two an advanced technique before any other. When you reach E1, the first thing you'll learn is Mana Sense."

"Why sense?"

"When powerful mages battle, because of how fast they're moving, the eyes simply can't keep up, even if you enhance them with magic. Mana Sense allows you to read energy in its entirety, allowing you to keep up, even though your human senses are lagging behind. It's needed so you aren't instantly sliced to bits by someone with Mana Step and Mana Strike. Powerful monsters have these as well, so you'll need Mana Sense to keep up with them. I won't lie to the two of you. This training will be harsh and grueling. You may wish that you were dead. Knowing that, though, are the two of you prepared to work your asses off in the hopes you can reach the level of power required to become full Knights?"

"Do you even have to ask?" Davi sighed.

"Of course we are." Olivia declared.

Ragna's eyes twinkled a bit, and he placed his hands on his hips once more. "Then in that case, welcome to hell. Let's start with the basics. One thousand laps around the beach!"

Chapter 108 - How To Use The System