A couple of weeks have passed since Dirin first started to train with Mr. Till. He could now see some muscle form on him due to all the things Mr. Till made him do daily outside of the training field. He was also now very close to finishing all the things the headmaster had assigned him to train and study, with only a couple of things remaining.
Once he left his room, he saw Keith sitting down on a chair as he looked down intently at his shadow. He was sweating as he didn't move his body, but his shadow's hand moved as it waved at Dirin. One of Keith's abilities was to control shadows to a small extent. It wasn't much compared to other Rank 1s, but Keith's was a little bit more than simply control.
The shadows moved a bit and went directly into the sunlight but still remained dark. Keith was now sweating bullets, and his shirt started to show dark spots near his neck and armpits. As the shadows covered him, his sweat started to slow down as his breathing steadied. His skin, which was pale, started to regain some of its color the longer he stayed in it. He slowly opened his eyes and got up out of the chair and took a strained step forward. The shadows followed him deeper into the sunlight as they faded slightly but remained.
Dirin watched with anticipation. He's seen this for the past couple of days, but it never failed to amaze him that his friend was now a Rank 1. Once he was near the window, the shadows faded completely and appeared back in their normal place. It was odd seeing shadows move from their original place. What was left was a spot sheltered from light, but it was without a shadow as well. It was also odd to see a shadow that had light casting onto it, but he stopped questioning things a long time ago.
In the other corner of the room was Markus. He was analyzing a small tablet that was underneath a water bottle that was fogging up with cold water. He crafted and enchanted the thing himself but was still trying to figure out how he did it. He said he made it while he was 'zoned in', but Dirin didn't know what that meant. Apparently, it was a side effect from his training that ended up becoming an ability.
The water kept cooling until the tablet started to malfunction and dim. Markus nodded to himself as he pulled out his phone and started to text someone. He got Rose's number after he became a Rank 1, but so far, the only thing he could figure out what to talk to her about was how his smithing and enchanting were going. Dirin didn't know if she started any conversations, but one time, he did find a barrage of texts from her on Markus' phone when he left it. He didn't know the password to his phone, but he got the feeling that they were probably texts he would be proud to see.
Dirin went over to grab a bag and put some freshly laundered clothes in there. He was going through multiple outfits a day thanks to the water Mr. Till sent towards him. Today, Tillie was going to join him to watch and give some tips from the sideline. She went to the Rank 1 training field early this morning to get the two hours out of the way so she could watch.
When Dirin was going to the training field, she met up with him halfway there. She was wearing a red sweater and dark jeans. She had her hair in a bun with a couple of red strands of hair falling down the side of her face. They have recently been meeting up like this often, and Dirin was now confident enough to say that he was subconsciously keeping the distance small. He has tried to stop himself multiple times, but it always looked like a sudden movement that normally brought raised eyebrows from her. He tried being more subtle about it recently, but he was confident she figured out the reasons already.
"Did you have a fruitful morning?" Dirin tried to keep a forced tone out of his voice, but it was pretty hard for him and sounded even more forced instead.
She smiled a bit from the corner of his eye, but before he could turn to see it, the smile was already gone. He did see the amusement in her eyes, though, which bothered him deeply for some reason. "It was as fruitful as every morning. I did lose to someone else who was a fire elementalist, though."
That caused Dirin to look at her curiously and confused. He was confident she studied everything about fire, so her losing to someone who definitely didn't study as much as her was something that was unnatural. She saw the look and smiled openly this time. "I figured out something as well. The more you study something, the less likely you are to be powerful."
Coming to an abrupt halt, Dirin looked at her with even more confusion. If studying made you weaker, then he was about to be the weakest Rank 1 in existence. It made no sense as well until she answered his unasked questions herself. "While she is stronger right now, I'll definitely be stronger in the future. Consider it like investing in skills that are weak at first but are strong endgame. Unlike me, she doesn't have the ability to heal when she is covered in fire or to get stronger physically and mentally. While she might have more firepower, I already have things that will make me stronger in the future. The same thing will probably happen to you, but on a much greater scale than Keith and I."
This brought slight disappointment to Dirin. He expected that he would be stronger than everyone immediately, but if this was true, then he would barely be stronger than a normal person. It did make him question what type of abilities he would get, though. He made himself stop thinking about it and focus on his current training. He would find out soon enough, as it is. He was close to being able to break into Rank 1 already.
"I also heard of cultists trying to invade the school as well," Tillie said as she walked with him again. "Be careful of people you don't trust. If they have a shapeshifter in their ranks, then that would be even worse."
"Then why would you talk to me about this?" Dirin decided to do some small jokes. "I could be a shapeshifter as well and look like this to get close to you."
"Sadly for you, you are way too unassuming for someone to shapeshift into." She shook her head as she looked towards the training field, which was now in view. "They would've chosen the right person if they did turn into you."
He felt strangely proud when he heard that. He hasn't seen Tillie interact with anyone except some people in passing. The training ground was almost empty, with only Mr. Till, Vale, and Ritchard there. Dirin never talked to Vale, but like him, she also hadn't stepped into Rank 1 yet. Mr. Till was still going to attack him like the other times as well. Ritchard was only here because he fought with Mr. Till whenever he could, since Mr. Till also used life energy.
Ritchard was attacking with a sword at Mr. Till, who was simply dodging as every strike missed, and he threw out comments to help Ritchard improve. The sword was covered in a deep gold aura that surrounded the blade and Ritchard. His life energy was a deep gold that seemed to look even better in the sunlight. Due to how much training Ritchard did, his life energy was very pure and abundant. Every time he swung his blade, the aura would travel a bit of distance and also cut that area. The distance only covered a couple of feet, but that was still more than anyone who also had that ability.
"Looks like he didn't go down a path that made him weaker in any regard." Tillie was confused as she studied his strength from afar. Dirin went over to the side, and before he could even put his bag down, he was already running as water drops were forming and heading in his direction. After all of his training, he could finally guess when Mr. Till was going to randomly attack him. He jumped around as well as water exploded from the ground like a geyser.
Ritchard used this time to try to hit Mr. Till with multiple quick attacks, but he was met with a strong punch to the gut that caused him to double over as he dropped his sword and grabbed his gut. Vale brought two pens this time as she tried to get the rhythm of both fights, and she was actually doing really well this time. She wore a black sweater and a pair of leggings. She had her hair in a long braid.
Dirin was running around and was about to jump again, but water from above him splashed down on him and caused him to hit the ground a bit. He looked around and tried to will a bunch of things to happen. He knew none of them were going to work, but if he wanted to get out of this type of training, then he would have to play pretend to train to get out of it quicker.