I am now in the middle of a massive Coliseum with empty spectator stands surrounding my current Arena.
The Awakened are separated according to their respective abilities along with the teaching instructors: close-range fighters, healers, and I, a mage.
Currently in the mage area supervised by Geist, I have taken my position with an artificial human target in front of me.
Sighing… looking at the artificial human in front of me makes me feel sick and bored. This is truly basic-level magic; my knowledge feels insulted by this.
'Well… what can I do? I also can't control my magic properly.' I raised my hand toward the target that was quite far away.
Beside me, many Mages were unable to hit the artificial human because of the distance.
However, I have a way to hit it: by using Mana Sensing. That artificial human must be made of Mana, which means it can be detected with Mana Sensing.
I took the straightest position toward the target, then closed my eyes and tried to shut down all my senses except for my perception.
At this moment, I felt a lot of mana detected around me, but I focused on what was in front of my hand until I finally felt it and lined it up.
I condensed my mana into my hand while imagining wind and practicing what Geist taught.
'Small wind! Small wind!' I repeated that mantra in my heart so it wouldn't grow uncontrollably like last time.
Then the wind began to form; from initially being small, it became uncontrollably large and drew the attention of the other students.
–Swoshh!
My wind shot missed, but it destroyed a small part of its body. However, my hand was hit by a large repulsive force until I was thrown backward, followed by falling into a sitting position.
"Ouch." I groaned in pain; my hand seemed to be slightly sprained.
"Whoa, Hale, I didn't expect you to be able to do that," Scott said beside me in surprise. Meanwhile, the others just watched.
–Tap! –Tap! –Tap!
The sound of footsteps came from behind, making me turn around. It was my supervisor, Geist. He stopped in front of me and said:
"What is it, Hale? Can you not control your magic?"
'He knows?'
"Y-yes. I don't know why." Even though I had tried to control it, it still ended up like this.
"I see your mana leaking excessively." He sighed. "What are you thinking about? The stability of mana output when using magic also depends on your mind. If you are calm, it will be stable; if not? Then it will be chaotic like this. So first, you must calm yourself down." His face showed no expression when he said it.
'He's right.' My mind right now is truly a mess because I'm thinking that one day I will die along with everyone here.
And he's right, I have to calm myself down… I can't keep dwelling on this guilt because it doesn't change anything.
I didn't expect to be reminded like this by a character from my own novel.
I picked myself up, brushed off my clothes, and said, "Then it seems I should take a rest first to calm myself down, right?"
Geist nodded and said before leaving, "Certainly. Don't force your practice if you can't control it yet; it will be dangerous for you, especially since you've just recovered from mana exhaustion." He walked away.
Following his orders, I walked up the empty stands and sat down while watching the other Awakened busily practicing their magic.
They looked quite proficient, or at least able to control their magic better than I could. It could be because they have a higher rank than me. Of course, Adrian is the student with the lowest rank in this Academy, which is Rank-E+ with a Mage role. Additionally, it seems he is currently experiencing a regression because my knowledge does not match his body.
Hhh, damn it!
'Hmm, thinking about it, it's actually good that I'm still at a low Rank because it means I can still add Attributes besides my current ones, which are Fire and Wind.'
'Uh, that's truly my advantage. If I were a high-rank Hunter, I definitely wouldn't be able to add other Attributes because my magic characteristics would have already formed, thus rejecting other elements.'
'In that case, I will look for Attribute-adding Runes, especially the Shadow Rune! That seems suitable for my current situation and perhaps also... my future enemies.'
'Hhh... that means I have to buy them at the Hunter Guild, right? Uh, the price must be very expensive per Rune, especially since there are five stages that must be consumed.'
I touched my chin and thought about my next step. 'Alright, I have an idea, I'll go to the Black Mar—'
"Are you okay?" A woman's voice coming from the side broke my daydream, arriving along with the scent of perfume that somehow made my heart calm instantly.
I turned and saw a beautiful woman with whitish-blonde hair and fair skin; she wore a cream-colored mage robe that made her look soft yet elegant.
I knew her; she was Sierra Aunsworth, my party member besides Aaron. She was also the one who healed me when I fainted in the Dungeon.
After looking at her for a moment, I nodded and said, "I-I'm fine. Just resting."
Sierra then tapped her forehead with her finger, looking at me intently, then she smiled and said, "It seems you're lying."
"W-why would I be lying?"
"Your physical state is fine, but your psyche is a mess; I can see it with my Life Vision. Hmm, are you having trouble?" Sierra tapped her forehead again and then sat beside me at a safe distance.
Ah, right. I forgot Sierra is a Rank C Mage Awakened, where at that rank, an Awakened can already use Life Vision in a limited way to see physical, internal, and even psychological wounds of others. It works like Thermal Vision but with indicators: if it's green, they are healthy, but if it's orange or red, it's a sign they aren't healthy.
"Just tell me if there's a problem," Sierra said, looking at me.
'Duh, now what should I say?' I muttered to myself, then hunched my body and told a lie. "Yeah, I'm having a fight with my younger brother. But, it's just a light argument, i-it's okay, you don't need to worry."
"Uh, by the way, why are you here? Shouldn't you be practicing?" I tried to change the subject.
Sierra looked at me in confusion. "I just wanted to check on you to see if you were okay. And it turns out you are, right...?"
"O-of course, I'm really fine now, i-it's just a small problem at home."
"O-okay." She was still looking at me in confusion.
The relationship between Adrian and Sierra before I entered his body was very close, but they hadn't expressed their feelings to each other because neither wanted to think about it yet, not wanting to ruin the party dynamics.
And now those feelings were rubbing off on me, but that actually made me want to distance myself from her because the closer I get to someone, the more it will hurt later when I lose them.
"Hey, what's on your face?" Sierra broke the silence with her soft voice.
"W-what? What is it?" I touched my face with my fingers, trying to find what she meant.
She took a mirror from her pocket and pointed it at my face so I could see my reflection. "Why are there scratch marks on your face?"
After looking closely for a moment, I finally understood what she meant; they were scratch marks on my forehead, down to my cheeks and both sides of my nose.
It seemed they were scratch marks I accidentally made while in the bathroom this morning. But in my opinion, they were very small and wouldn't be visible if not paid attention to... I also only realized it now.
"Oh, th-this… this was Debby's doing."
"Debby?"
"Debby, my dog, you know him, right? He was so aggressive earlier that he scratched my face." I rubbed my face while shaking my head.
She chuckled, covering her mouth. "Hmm, is he aggressive because you rarely feed him?"
"No, I always feed him on time!" My voice rose, but I didn't snap.
"Then?" she raised her eyebrows, still with a smile gracing her lips.
I fell silent, speechless. Finally, I just sighed, then smiled sheepishly and resigned myself to being the butt of her joke.
Sierra's smile softened even more, then she said, "Close your eyes."
"Huh? W-why do I have to close my eyes?"
She shook her head. "Close them."
I finally obeyed her and closed my eyes. Then I felt warmth in front of my face, which I was sure was her hand.
I peeked a little, and it was true.
Sierra saw me peeking, then warned me with a sharp gaze to close my eyes again.
I closed my eyes once more.
Then I felt a warm light softly enveloping my face, making my head feel a bit relaxed. That must be healing magic.
"They're gone," she said enthusiastically, then gave me the mirror again.
The scratch marks were truly gone.
"Th-thank you."
"Next time, feed your dog on time so he isn't aggressive," she replied jokingly.
"I told you, didn't I? I feed him on time. If you don't believe me, you can ask him; he'll definitely answer, 'I am always fed by my handsome master,'" I replied, going along with her joke.
Hearing that, Sierra laughed while shaking her head.
In an instant, I forgot for a moment about the future that would happen, which would also befall the woman in front of me.
'My god, why did I suddenly talk like that?' After a few moments, I finally realized I had been carried away by the atmosphere quite far and had strayed from my previous intention to distance myself from her.
I then stood up slowly and stretched my body so as not to hurt her feelings with this sudden change. "The training here is about to end, right? I'll head back to my class first to rest..."
She stopped her laughter, which then changed into a smile. "Sure. Let's go to class; I'm finished too."