I continued down the path, firing off my mana detection so that I could be prepared mentally for my first truly solo fight. I was so focused on waiting for the little "drips" of the tier one goblins that it actually surprised me when I finally heard them come into range.

Slowing my jog to a walk, I unsheathed my claymore and did some stretches as they came closer. I had decided to go all out on the offense today as in all our trials and errors we had discovered they really were no threat to us. I had volunteered as tribute the final week of our three man squad and had taken off my gambeson, and allowed one of the goblins to scratch at my arm. It felt even lighter than if I had gotten scratched by a dog from back home.

We all ended up with a chuckle with how weak they truly were compared to us now at tier four. Emilia and Melania had even let themselves get scratched as well, although their scratches were a bit redder than mine, it was still nothing.

I snapped back to reality as the goblins were finally close enough to hear with my ears. I took a deep breath to calm myself, then charged their way to get this over with. I timed my charge to coincide with the goblins right as they rounded the corner, such that the first six had not even really recognized I was there before I was cleaving through them with gusto.

After the last one fell, I sat down and I briefly reflected on the encounter. It was over in just a couple of minutes, just like we had practiced. I seemed to not be in any danger as the little guys were dying before even getting close to me.

I couldn't help but chuckle at the situation. This was essentially entry level work in this world, the equivalent of working at a fast food place back home. While it wasn't as stressful as I remember my first job being, it also didn't give me a lot of free time to myself. I'm sure the burnout and turnover rate has to be real high in this line of work if this is all we're doing.

Sighing, I got to my feet and stared back down the corridor. I did get a yearly bonus depending on how well I did it seems.

Better get back to it.

—----

I had just cleared a seventh pack of goblins when I suddenly felt completely exhausted and drained all at once. I remembered that this is how I felt after I killed my first goblin all those months ago. I guess I tiered up to five now. Even thought it felt like I could go through another ten packs or so before time was up, I decided to call it early.

I turned around and made my way back to the knight instructor. It didn't take too long, maybe just an hour or so and I was back. I looked at her to see if she would say anything about me being back so early. As I moved to walk by her and out of the room she offered a "Congratulations." and that was it.

Smiling at the simplicity of it all I just continued on to the sparring room. Since there was still a few hours before lunch, I decided that I would just use this extra time to focus on my visualization of mana again. The lone tree in the sparring room seemed like the perfect place to do that. I approached, cast my claymore to the side and plopped down.

Instead of immediately going into meditation, I just laid back on the grass and looked at the sky. The sky looked more blue than I had ever seen anywhere back home. Maybe there was some truth to all those people who insisted we were polluting our sky with technology and carbon emissions. Or maybe it was just the magic here, how was I to really know after all.

Laughing, I sat up and began meditating. Hopefully I can get this down pat this time.

I activated my mana sense and just listened to my "drip". If the congratulations from the instructor wasn't enough confirmation, my sound was indeed deeper than it had been. I smiled softly at my continued growth in this world. My dungeon clearing should be even faster now, hopefully it would catch up to Emilia's clear time. Something I could tease her about before she realized I hit tier five.

Mentally slapping my cheeks, I realized I was getting distracted. I went back to just listening to my mana pool. I listened for about thirty minutes or so before I decided I felt like I was one with the little drop. I could recreate the exact tone of it in my head now, even the little echo-y quality. I do not think I could get more ready to try and advance my visualization.

After awhile of sitting there and nothing coming to me, I decided that I had to treat it just like the original thing that Bella had mentioned. Maybe I just needed to choose my visualization and that would work.

Taking a deep breath I went and pictured a pond. I then sensed my mana and pictured the drop I was hearing hitting that pond. It... came surprisingly easy now that I decided on my visualization. Firing it off a few times to make sure it was working properly, I was able to repeat the picture in my head consistently of the pond being hit by the drop and even ripples spreading out from it.

Now I just needed to take it one step further. Now that I had the appropriate visualization I attempted to superimpose a five on it. It took a bit of practice as I realized my mind was not focused on the type of five of all things. Sometimes the word five popped up, sometimes the number five, and a few times even the roman numeral five. After a bit of concentration and practice I was finally able to pin down on the number five and it snapped into place just above the mana drop hitting the pond.

Smiling to myself I just now needed to test it on others to see how it pictured them and if would be a bit more obvious for me to determine their tier, rather than the octave of the mana drop.

Standing and stretching I decided to make my way back to the instructor. As I did, I heard the bell toll. I guess I spent longer practicing that I thought. I hustled back to the room so I could be there to detect others.

When I got there I was surprised to find that I was the first one there. It seems everyone is taking their first day solo a lot more serious than I ended up doing. I walked over and sat next to a wall while waiting on my friends to show up.

As the class started to trickle in I scanned each person so I could test out my new visualization. Much to my chagrin I had a bit of success and failure from my practice. Trainees were trickling in and I was seeing the mana pond superimposed on them, however I was not seeing the number. Huffing to myself I just leaned back and waited for my friends to arrive.

I perked up once I noticed Tom and Bea stroll in followed just behind by Mel and Em. I stood up and waved to get their attention and they headed my way. I suddenly stopped waving though and dropped my hand as Bella followed up behind them. She had the number five on her mana pool! I was ecstatic on the inside, though I tried to school my expression as they approached.

Quickly glancing at Mel and Em who had confirmed they were tier four I visualized a four just above them as well. The four swiftly snapped into place, a whole lot quicker than the initial attempt at tier five pool did. As it did it also suddenly appeared above everyone else in the room, including Tom and Bea. Another quick glance around showed that wasn't quite the case though.

Some of the first people back into the room still didn't have a number above them. I assume these people were tier three, since Mel and Em had hinted that you had to be at least tier three to be here and considered an adult, but I needed a way to confirm it.

Focusing in on the supposed tier three and a tier four I scanned them back and forth non stop to see if I could find a difference in my visualization. Nothing was immediately obvious, even if I did get the drop hitting as an octave higher so I knew it was a lower tier. After analyzing the two visualizations for a long time I finally did notice a difference. When the drop hit the mana pool on the tier three, three ripples occurred. When the drop hit on the tier four, five ripples spread out. Taking stock around the room this was in concert with everyone else of a similar tier. All tier three's had three ripples, all tier fours had five ripples.

Taking an inner glance at myself and Bella I compared and noticed we each had eight ripples. Obviously there was something to it here, although it was nothing as obvious as a one to one comparison. Since my friends were almost to me I decided I would need to address this later and quickly shelved the thought process away. I quickly mentally assigned a three to the unknown mana pool and saw it pop into existence there and a few other places in t he room. I was still avoiding the knight so I wouldn't have another scary experience, but that was something I could try to broach later.

Either way today had to be considered a successful day for me, so I just put on a big smile as my friends finally arrived and we could talk about everyone's experience.