Dirin was with Keith in the training field the morning after. The sun was rising higher, and there were no clouds in the sky. Dirin was doing push-ups as Keith was creating more shapes with shadows, with Mr. Till, the supervisor for the day, watching with intense boredom that he was struggling to hide.
He signed up because he had no classes he was lecturing or was supposed to help lecture, but he would've taken the day off if he knew that it was going to be this boring. He seemed to make this mistake every year as well. He looked over at Dirin, whose arms were shaking as he kept going, and tried to figure out what path the kid was going to take. He saw him in Elemental Manipulation as well as Life Energy. He checked his attendance records and saw he had attempted a variety of other classes as well. His main theory, however, was that he was still undecided, but every time he looked at the kid, he saw a variety of notes next to him on exercises and training he was going to be doing for the whole day.
Mr. Till wanted to ask what path he was going down, but no one had said a word the moment they got here, so he figured that they all agreed on silence during the training. He was going to look at them for the two hours and then hope that the other students who came here today were more engaging than these two.
It wasn't until he looked over and saw Dirin running around the whole field did Mr. Till decided to close his eyes and rest. He was too tired, and it was way too early to pay so much attention to these boring workouts. He was starting to wish he had signed up to the Rank 1's training grounds instead of here, at least there it was more packed and at least a little chaotic.
He opened his eyes for a bit and saw Keith setting up mirrors to move light and create shadows with said mirrors. He started to theorize how Keith's path would turn out and where the limits were, but if he studied this thoroughly throughout the ranks, then he would surely make it to at least Rank 4. The mirrors will make light go elsewhere, so it'll probably end up manifesting into an ability that allows him to create shadows despite there being light. Probably properly manifests around Rank 3.
Dirin was now lighting things on fire as well and attaching them to various weapons, which Mr. Till thought was very dangerous and was very tempted to stop him, but he held himself back instead and let him keep twirling the quarterstaff. He was assuming that Dirin was now just bored and having fun, which was true and wrong.
It wasn't until noon did more people started filing into the training ground. Mr. Till's face lit up slightly as he took their names and jotted things down. Unlike actual classes, the training field didn't automatically record attendance with the star badges the students had, but he was a Rank 4, so if he couldn't do this much, he wouldn't be qualified to teach to begin with.
Dirin and Keith retreated to a darker corner as they kept up their training. Mr. Till knew they were already here for far more than two hours, so he wasn't too concerned with them anymore and only kept an eye on them from time to time to make sure they were still breathing.
The students were few and scattered throughout the training field. It was only the fourth day, so even this was a lot of students, but some people wished to train what little they knew before they learned more, and Mr. Till did the same thing when he was training here.
All of the students were training in various things, some of which even surprised Mr. Till. Some were training multiple elements that had nothing to do with each other, such as air and metals, while others were training in magic or life energy. He tried to help those training in the latter with advice when he could, since he was also adept in that field.
As he was watching the students, one of them came up to him. He was a short and portly man who had a cap on to hide what Mr. Till assumed to be early balding. He had a nervous and tired look as he frequently glanced towards a corner. "Sir... I have a question..." His voice was small and meek as he kept his eyes down.
Mr. Till didn't recognize the man personally, but he heard of a particular outburst of his from a magic class. He assumed it was untrue, though. "I'm here to help with whatever I can answer." His answer seemed to make the young man sigh a bit as he looked back to the corner.
"If I were to study everything about magic... how long would it take?" If his voice was small and meek before, then now it would be silent and barely hearable.
Mr. Till tilted his head at a question. He didn't know anything about magic except how to fight it, but that wasn't what was asked. I could call over Mr. Vince since he teaches magic, and I think he is free this hour. While the boy waits, I could also tell him how to fight magic, since it would technically involve everything about magic. Mr. Till radioed in Mr. Vince to come over and told him of the situation before turning back to the young man.
"Why would you want to study everything about magic? Tell me that first." He wanted to know what motivated the boy before he started to train him, to start with things that would interest him. If he wanted to be strong, then he would talk about all of the strengths of magic before getting to the weaknesses, and if he wanted to know about usefulness, then he would tell him about the everyday uses that he was envious of.
"I'm a lazy person... and I've recently met someone who is attempting to learn everything..." When Mr. Till heard that, he finally glanced at where the young man's eyes were going to constantly and saw Dirin studying a paper ball with the intent to move it, probably an attempt to use telekinesis or something similar. "I didn't want to be so lazy while someone else was doing so much more than me... hurts whatever pride I barely have..."
Mr. Till's gaze didn't move from Dirin as he started to think back to this morning and started to piece everything together. He mentally sighed as he realized he was going to have to report this to the headmaster. "Okay, then. Let's have you learn as much as we can teach you during your brief time he-"
"His time here will be anything but brief. I'll make sure of that." An old and soothing voice went into the ears of Mr. Till and Zack. Zack was about to fumble for his phone to record the voice, but he gathered his self-restraint and his common sense and decided not to. "Listen, boy. If you wish to learn everything about magic, then you will be bored out of your mind. It isn't something that rewards the incompetent or the Unresolute. I know everything you need to learn about for Rank 1 and even Rank 2, but I never trained in them, so I can't give a lot of personal experience or guidance. Mr. Till, will you please transfer him to my care for his attendance?"
Mr. Till nodded as Mr. Vince walked away from Zack and filled out the form, and radioed into the main faculty to make sure they got it. The rest of the training field was still bustling about with more people entering. Mr. Till looked over and still saw Dirin training random things as he checked his phone and a variety of notes.
"Sir, is it possible to borrow the weapons from the wall?" Dirin pointed towards the wall with all the weapons from Weapons Training were hanging. Mr. Till looked at Dirin for a brief moment before nodding. "Thank you." Dirin rushed over and grabbed a couple as he started to look over texts and videos from Ritchard describing how the weapon was used and the proper ways to use it.
Mr. Till looked over a Dirin more often as the day progressed. Keith was still messing around with shadows and discovered something new from time to time, and started to practice doing it and testing ways to use it differently. Mr. Till was lamenting before finally emailing the headmaster over the matter. The matter was now out of his hands as he looked towards the other students. He was slightly curious how the others from the main sectors were going to react, though.