As I moved through the gardens of Koshima academy my mind was at peace. Walking among the flowers calmed my emotions. There was a lot to think about, and I had so much to do.

It was nice to take a breath of fresh air. My priorities straightened out and the fog over my mind lifted.

Right now, my focus was on increasing my strong points. My earth attunement, my metal attunement, and my symbol education. I was training constantly and improving the skills related to these areas. Every day my mind asked itself the same question.

What skills would I need to survive the ascension?

No Marked one had ever lived past twenty-five years of age. Gerial had told me that some of them had tried to activate their Mark constantly, and others had tried not using it at all.

Neither method had worked.

I had a little over twenty-two years left. My priorities were split down the middle. I could create a life worth living, making friends and memories that would support me during the difficult times.

The other half of my mind told me I was wasting time chatting and feeling happy. Every minute I drew closer to my deadline.

The deadline wouldn’t be so overbearing if I didn’t know about it.

I knew that death could happen prematurely, it had happened to me in my last life, but knowing my exact time of death unnerved me. I could get hit by a stray magic spell and die and I could have been killed when Eli kidnapped me, but it was this timer that weighed on my mind.

“Do you know how much a single spar helps our skill levels?” I spoke.

Amanda turned towards me. She had been lost in her own thoughts. It was just the two of us this break. William was busy, and the birds had decided to go flying. According to Amanda’s translation of Agni’s chirps, she wanted to stay outside the whole day.

It got stuffy for them inside the classrooms.

“I’m not sure. I haven’t really fought anyone outside Alexis lately.” Amanda smiled. “Are you going to go crazy for levels?”

“I’m not going to rush it, but I feel like I’ve been stuck recently, and I want to do the best that I can.” I waved my hand, and a tendril of metal found its way towards me.

It was my silver.

I wanted to have metal manipulation active at all times, but it took concentration and effort. I couldn’t listen to a lesson and focus on my skill growth at the same time.

“If you’re worried about money or status then I don’t think you know what you’re bringing to the table.” Amanda intercepted the silver and flicked it. Then she winced. “Metal manipulation is rare, and valuable. Your friends the Destin household have a bloodline and focus on raising earth magicians, but they hadn’t had a metal magician in years. Until Ouros.”

“When you’re drowning in gold, I’d like a nexus boat. No, wait.” Amanda raised two fingers in the air. “Two boats. That way I can show off one and cruise in the other.”

I smiled.

She was right. Any potential magician in the school would love to have an attunement with a middle-ranked element. Cities would fight for the right to hire a trained metal magician with valuable skills.

Unfortunately, my goals didn’t involve getting rich.

I wasn’t sure that metal magic could help me with the ascension. There was a reason I still focused on learning symbols. I had seen magic do wondrous things, but I had also seen regents do the same.

My grandma had made a living house, Master Wilhelm had a floating island, and my dad had hidden me from my watcher with a mask.

It was one of my best bets for survival.

“Are we allowed to use regents during our practice?” My eyes gazed at the dome.

I hadn’t used the active abilities of my mask yet but trying them in a real world environment was one of my priorities.

There was already a group of students there. It had quickly become popular to schedule fights or watch others that were fighting. Classes were also held inside the arena.

“A regent? That’s new.” Amanda had a twinkle in her eyes. “Are you going to surprise me?”

“It’s within the rules we made.”

“Then I’ll allow it.” She smiled. “It won’t level your skills, but it’ll help me with mine.”

While we walked, we’d come up with a few rules for sparring. Magic was terrifying, and I didn’t want to cause a rift in our friendship. There were certain boundaries that couldn’t be crossed, but they had to be discussed to find out what they were.

I didn’t want to bury Amanda alive and then find out that she was claustrophobic.

She’d also wanted to avoid the same fate for me, but with fire. I didn’t even know how fire could be used to bury me.

We had agreed to ban one thing. I couldn’t lift Amanda too high up into the air and keep her there. I especially couldn’t hang her upside down.

Her hair had burst into flames at the thought of it happening.

She didn’t have an issue with heights if she felt safe, but she was adamant on not having it happen during a fight.

I’d agreed and we resolved to flesh the rules out as we found out what we didn’t like.

My footsteps echoed out as I reached the stone floor at the entrance of the dome. Through the glass doors I could see the main arena where William and Alexis had fought each other. There were students walking inside and chatting.

A couple of familiar faces appeared as I spotted two people walking towards us.

It was Unice and Ouros.

“Hey, Andross!” Ouros’ booming voice startled the people nearby. “Fancy seeing you here. Did Unice invite you?”

A wave of metal rippled through the air. Titanium. It weaved around Ouros’ body. I gestured with my hand and my silver joined it playfully.

The two metals swam through the students, teasing them.

“Invite?” I looked at Unice.

She looked at Ouros and then back to me. “We've booked the earth cultivation room for practice. Ouros is helping me attune to metal.”

“That’s smart.” I hadn’t known there was a cultivation room in the dome. “Was it hard to book a room? Amanda and I want to spar.”

“Good luck with that. You won’t find anything until next week.” Ouros chuckled. “We had to come on the first day to get our spots. We’ve been here twice, but it’s competitive. Apparently, people calm down after the first week.”

“Everyone wants a piece of the shiny new toy.” Amanda spoke out from beside me.

“I should’ve known.” I frowned.

I didn’t mind waiting for a week. I was planning on visiting the Zodiac library in Koshima this Fue. I didn’t want to leave it until the end of the weekend, but the first day of the weekend would be fully occupied by my measurement.

“You know, you should join us.” Ouros smiled. “Two future metal magicians are a better teacher than one.”

“Oh?” I leaned towards him. “What do we have to do?”

“Use our metal manipulation skill and hope that Unice can feel something that’ll help her.” Ouros grinned. “We have this neat trick that makes it easier for her.”

His titanium whipped around my silver and the two flew through the air and weaved around each other. Unice looked at the metals with wide eyes. Her hand reached out towards them. Then she hesitated and stopped.

It wasn’t a bad offer.

I wanted to train my skills and seeing what Ouros could do would help me improve my own metal manipulation.

I was going to take the opportunity.

“I’d love to.” I looked at Amanda. “If my friend is okay with it.”

She grinned at me and pointed towards the arena. “I can book a room for our spar and then join you. Is that alright?”

She looked at Unice for confirmation.

“As long as you don’t annoy us then it’s fine.” Ouros grinned.

“I can practice on my own.” Amanda said dryly.

A single strand of her hair transformed into a flame, and she brushed it behind her ear. Unice stepped towards her with a placating expression.

“He’s kidding, don’t mind him.” Unice tugged on Amanda’s sleeve. “He thinks words become funny if he says them loud enough.”

“Because it’s true.” Ouros waved his hand and his titanium fell back towards him. “We’re going to head to our arena, you’ll love the place.”

He started walking deeper into the dome and Unice followed him. I looked at Amanda.

“I’ll text you the available times.” She smiled.

“Thanks. Don’t get too lonely over here without me.”

Amanda gave me a smack on the back. “Go blow Unice’s mind with your amazing abilities. I’ll be there in no time.”

I rolled my eyes. Ouros was better than me in his elemental skills.

I power walked down the dome and caught up to the two Destin family members. We walked as a trio towards the back of the dome where the smaller arenas were. I paused as we made our way through a familiar corridor.

This was where I had encountered the illusion.

I activated my mana sense, just in case. The area was bathed in orange. My silver and Ouros’ titanium were composed of orange mana, and it also radiated out of his body.

It looked like he was bleeding mana.

“It’s around this corner.” Unice stopped in front of a door.

“If this place didn’t have the earth symbol etched into the wood, I wouldn’t have given it a second glance.” I examined the symbol carefully.

It wasn’t just a decoration.

Mana poured out of Unice’s hands and into the symbol, activating it. The door opened and we walked inside.

It was exactly the same as Zodiac’s cultivation room.

Mana bathed around us as dirt and boulders came into view. The only difference between this cultivation room and Zodiac’s was that there were no plants here. This was a room dedicated to the earth element, not nature.

“Not bad, right?” Ouros grinned.

His chest puffed out and he swept his arm around the room, causing dust tornadoes to form. I admired the speed of his magic. He was better than me, I knew that from the test we’d done, but I hadn’t known how much better.

“We have this guy for the whole break.” Ouros sat down on the dirt.

I did the same, but Unice moved the dirt away from her until there was only the stone floor. She didn’t want to get dirty.

Ouros sighed. “You can just move the dirt off you afterwards.”

“I’d still know it was there.” Unice pursed her lips.

Then her expression brightened. She gestured with her hands and three beads of stone swept out of her bag and onto the ground. Each of them cracked open to reveal a different metal within.

I stared at them curiously. These were the metals that she thought she was proficient in. Even if she hadn’t attuned to metal yet, it was possible for her to see and feel the mana inside the materials. She had tried to form connections to the mana, not manipulate it.

She would need to be attuned to see if she was right about her proficiencies.

I checked my inventory and saw my texting regent flashing. Amanda was messaging me.

‘Crazy good spot tonight. One whole hour after school ends! Is that okay?’

I thought over it. I didn’t want to worry my mum by avoiding the house, but training and relieving my tension did sound nice.

I sent a message to my dad to confirm that it was okay, and he replied immediately.

It was fine.

‘Okay. Sounds great. Thanks. Bye.’ I texted Amanda.

My texting skills left a lot to be desired.

My mana sense fluctuated, and I looked up to see Ouros and Unice meditating. There was a trickle of earth mana sprouting out of their bodies. It quickly turned into a tide that swept across the room.

What were they doing?

The air around me filled up with mana. Most of it was coming from the Destins, but I could see the environment spewing forth mana in response to their actions.

They were transforming the environment into a haven for earth magic.

I crossed my legs and took a breath. We were starting by meditating and calming our minds. I closed my eyes…

What?

My mana sense tangled as something disappeared from the room. Magic hadn’t been used, something physical had existed, and then not existed the next instant. I used my skill and traced the strange phenomenon back to its origins.

I blinked and stared at Unice. Then I frowned. The moment I had closed my eyes the mana around me had thinned. It was slight, almost imperceptible, but my mana sense had picked it up.

In one section of the room Unice’s earth mana had disappeared.

I opened my eyes and checked again. It was back. The missing mana reappeared and was floating among the rest.

Had she used an earth skill?

I shook my head and cleared it of thoughts as I drifted into meditation. A few minutes later there was a shift in the mana, and I opened my eyes.

There was a shuffling of dirt beside me as Amanda sat next to me. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths.

Ouros and Unice stopped meditating and I had to turn off my mana sense because it was being overwhelmed by the earth mana in the surroundings.

I just gestured with my hand and my bar of silver melted into liquid inside my inventory and flew out of my pocket. Ouros did the same with his metal, and we both focused on manipulating our elements around Unice.

I focused on his titanium. There were things that we both did differently from each other, and I wanted to learn how to do what he did.

Ouros’ titanium moved through the air sharply, taking sudden turns and forming jagged shapes. He had control of it at all times.

My silver moved in a different way. It swirled through the air in a circle and shimmered brightly. It was free to do as it wished, and I only guided it.

Unice watched our spells with calm eyes, and she held her hand over the three beads in front of her. She watched my silver fluttering beside her hair and smiled.

She gestured with her hand and the three beads in front of her started to shift. I gazed at them intently and then closed my eyes. Their true form was revealed to me as I saw something jumping inside them.

The mana inside them was starting to react to her.

She was attuning to metal.