“Gears has a total of 4 different types of training modes. Each one targeted at enhancing a very important aspect of your spellblade abilities. All of them have different difficulty levels as well. From level 1 to level 5. What you just completed was Assorted Dishes level 1. Let me explain the different training modes to you one by one.” Professor Oak began.

“Assorted dishes, as you have already experienced, is a training to enhance your battle aura. You need to be able to sustain the battle aura for a substantial period of time, coupled with the task of conjouring mana and ki shields on top of that. The main goal of this training is to increase the quantity of both mana and ki, as well as to familiarise yourself on how to channel your energies fluently and accurately. I did not expect you to clear this so quickly. Clearly you show great talent in moving your energies around. However, are your mana and ki levels still sufficient for another round?” He curiously asked.

“Nope. They are almost fully depleted. Maybe I have about 10-20% of mana and ki left.” I said.

“Mm. This is why quantity of mana and ki is so important. However, moving your energies around is arguable even more important because the difference between someone who is efficient and accurate with his energy distributions and another who is not is like heaven and earth. One will immediately be able to tell who is stronger based on this alone.” Professor Oak lectured.

“Alright. On to the second training mode. This training mode is called ‘Controlling the fire’. Basically, Gears will turn into a portable stove and how big the fire of the portable stove becomes depends on the quality of mana or ki you are channelling. This exercise requires you to match exactly how large the fire must be to what Gears is demanding. For example, if he asks for 250 degrees Celsius of fire, you need to compress your mana or ki to that appropriate quality before he will pass you. There is an allowance rate of +-10 degree at level 1. It means that if you get anywhere between 260 to 240, you’ll pass. This is also extremely hard. Proper mana and ki quality control is necessary as well. In a fight, you do not just make every compress high quality mana into every spell you cast. You will run out of mana faster this way. Similarly, you do not use full amounts of ki in every attack or footwork. There must be attacks that are weaker in order to set up your main offense or to make the difference between your secondary and primary attacks even more formidable. If someone is used to taking mana arrows of 100 dmg, he will subconsciously lower his defence to that level. If you suddenly cast an arrow similar in size but containing 300 dmg, his defence will be penetrated you see. The same logic applies for physical ki attacks.” Professor Oak explained.

I immediately got the point of the training exercise. All along, I have been trying to control my quality of mana but I still could not attach a numerical value onto it. I also could not vary my control of quality of mana extremely well. I either make it extremely concentrated like what I do for the heaven and earth technique, or not pay much attention to it at all when I’m casting normal spells such as mana arrow and mana shield. Same for my sword strikes and footwork technique.

“The third training mode is called ‘Washing the dishes’. In this exercise, you will have to use pure spatial recomposition in order to literally ‘wash’ dishes. This training has two distinct parts. In the first level, Gears will conjour a sphere of mana or ki in the shape of a dish and you will have to devour that energy dish, by using your own mana or ki, enhanced with spatial recomposition. You swirl your mana or ki and continuously brush off the sphere bit by bit. Pure spatial recomposition can increase the power of your energies and this is what we are doing. This will increase your spatial recomposition to level 2. A technique that relies on this is called spinning mana arrow. By making your mana arrow spin continuously, you increase the damage potential of the arrow exponentially. The same logic applies for a cockscrew blow in boxing. The more rotational strength that punch has, the stronger the penetrating power. However, this would obviously require a high degree of spatial recomposition. However, as your power of the spatial recomposition increases (The amount of rotations you can add to your spinning mana arrow, how fast it spins), it is also harder to maintain the original shape of that spell. Therefore, the second part of training will lie in maintaining the shape of the spell while you add power using spatial recomposition.”

“You need to be able to hold the shape of the spell well, so during the second part of the training, Gears will ask you to spin your mana or ki continuously but give you different shapes to conjour WHILE you are spinning your mana. This means that you are continuously shaping your spinning mana into different shapes. From a spinning mana sphere, to a spinning mana arrow, to a spinning mana sword, to a spinning whatever endless amounts of shapes there are in the world, without dispersing your mana even once. It is not like cast a spinning mana sphere, release the mana and cast another spinning mana arrow. No. The mana must be maintained at all times so you won’t be wasting any more mana. However, you have to concentrate extremely hard to keep shaping that powerful mana into many different shapes. You need to practice both in terms of mana and ki.” He explained.

This was also a very interesting training technique. It increases a student’s ability for spatial recomposition quite holistically. I was quite amazed by the different type of training Gears could provide me with already.

“Alright. The fourth training mode is of course with regards to elemental recomposition. It is called ‘Taste Buds’. The concept behind this training is extremely simple but yet it is the hardest thing to do for most people. However, for you, I believe that this training will be the easiest for you. In a fight, you’ll need to be able to sense what type of elemental attacks your opponent is throwing at you. However, he will obviously not tell you and sometimes, you might not be able to see the attack. Especially if it is elementally enhanced ki or wind based mana techniques which are usually quite hard to see with the naked eye. This training, as its name suggests, will incorporate ‘taste buds’ into your battle aura. To develop your battle aura to the second stage, where it is able to not only sense ki or mana but also the type of elemental power incorporated into it. Gears will keep randomly generating a certain type of mana into an opaque box and you are to use only your battle aura to try to sense the element behind it. He will start off strong first, so it is easier to sense the element and slowly get weaker and weaker until your ‘taste buds’ reach a sufficiently strong level.” Professor Oak said.

“Before I finish, I have actually added a small little feature to Gears which is actually targeted specially at you. I have no idea how it is like to have 7 elemental affinities. I train in 2 different elements so I know that it is not that hard to channel two different types of elemental affinities. It is exactly like channelling ki and mana. However, to channel 7 different elemental affinities… I believe that is an exponentially different ball game. Thus, I have come up with a training to help you with regards to that. The condition is that you finish ‘Assorted dishes’ and ‘Taste buds’ to level 3. Then you will be able to embark on this special practice.” He explained.

“You need to tell Gears that you want to do the ‘Colourful plating’ exercise. What will happen is that a combination of assorted dishes and taste buds will occur. Many different dishes, either made of ki or mana and all of different elements, will be shooting out at you. Your job, is to use the appropriate defences, either ki reinforcement or mana shield, to block the attacks but this time, you will also need to sense the type of element the attacks are made of and use the opposing element to counter it. For example, if a wind mana dish is sent at you, you must use an electric mana shield. If a fire ki dish is sent at you, you must reinforce yourself with water ki to block that physical fire ki attack. It will be extremely fast as well so you literally have to react instantly. This is to train you for real life battle scenarios.”

“You might also have to channel many different elemental energies simultaneously which will be very, very hard. Level 5 of this ‘Colourful plating’ exercise might even need you to cover 7 different body parts with 7 different elements of either ki or mana protection. Once you can do that….. I think it’s safe to say that no one will be able to give you an attack more demanding in terms of energy distribution. However, whether that is even possible or not is a whole different matter entirely. This is a training exercise I’ve designed based on theory alone. Sometimes, theories can be wrong so I’m waiting to see. Please prove me wrong Jinx.” Professor Oak said.

“Professor can I ask you something?” I said.

“Sure.” He replied.

“When you were coming up with the names of the exercises… Were you.. Hungry?”

I HAVE TO KNOW WHY HE NAMED THE EXERCISES LIKE THIS

“Hmm.. Now that I think about it.. Maybe. But aren’t the names so apt??” He said with a beaming smile on his face.

“Yes they are!” I lied with the best possible smile I could return.

Professor Oak left, instructing me to do whatever I want with Gears. I had permission to use this room any time of the day, any day.

I decided that since I was going to be free till evening, for today, I shall devote myself to experiencing every single training method that Gears could offer me because it was such a well-designed training machine.

I tried level one of ‘Controlling the fire’, only to find out that my quality control was terrible. When Gears asked for a fire of 200 degrees Celsius, I actually made mine 250. If not, it would be 150. I was of a +-50 deviation so let’s not talk about a +-10 deviation anytime in the near future.

I then tried level one of ‘Washing the dishes’. I had to consciously try to spin a mana sphere with my ability in spatial recomposition and it was actually quite possible to do it. My mana sphere was spinning and shaving off the other mana sphere steadily. However, it took too long. The goal of this exercise was to ‘wash the dish’ within 30 seconds. I needed about 45. This meant that the power of my spatial recomposition was just not enough.

By the time I finished training a bit for these 2 exercises, it was already lunch time so I went to grab a quick lunch and came back to train even further. I managed to reduce my timing to about 40 seconds to ‘wash a dish’ and I decided to stop for the day. I had not much mana remaining so I wanted to ration it and try the last exercise.

For ‘Taste Buds’, like Professor Oak suggested, I was easily able to clear level 1, where Gears put different element energies in a box and I sensed it using battle aura. Both ki and mana sensed elements in the same way, I think because they were channelled in the same way, using elemental spirits from an elemental room. It only makes sense that the element component of these 2 energies are consistent. It was a very peculiar feeling. It was literally as if my battle aura developed a brain and sensory abilities of it’s own. When it touches fire, it will relay information of heat emitting from that object. When it touches water, it will relay information of cooling down emitting from that object. When it’s wind, I can feel it like a breeze. To sum up the experience, whenever my battle aura detects an element, it will now be able to tell me exactly what element it is. However, it was still unable to tell me the degree to which the elements are present. I think as I go up the levels, from level 1 to level 5 of taste buds, it will eventually develop that aspect of both a quantitative and qualitative battle aura detection abilities.

After experiencing everything and training the full 10 hours from 8am to 6pm, I was now able to clear level 2 of ‘Taste Buds’ and level 1 of ‘Assorted dishes’. I was at about 35 seconds now for my time taken to ‘Wash the dish’ so I was close to achieving level 1. However, I was still quite hopeless at +-20 for controlling the fire. I could not imagine what it’s like to reach level 5 which was a +-1 deviation control.

I went back to hall to wash up and get ready. I met the 4 of them at the lobby of our halls at 7pm sharp.

“Alright that’s everybody! Shall we go??” Chippy said excitedly when he saw me.

“Sorry I’m the last guys.” I said.

“It’s okay! Let’s just quickly grab some food!!” Puggy said.

As we walked out of school through the south-west entrance, we could already start to see what the hype about The Marketplace was all about. Although we were still about 500 meters away, we could already start to hear the bustling noises of bartering and see a huge ocean of people before our very eyes.

When we actually reached The Marketplace, it was a huge square, filled with tons of booths set up as far as your eyes could see. It was a square surrounded by buildings built with red bricks and these buildings themselves were also shops. There were set-up stalls selling food, equipment, magic tools, clothes, books and a whole assortment of products. There were signboards on the buildings around the place which also advertised for what they were selling.

The 5 of us walked together, within the sea of people, advancing forward slowly, absorbing everything we see. We decided to grab some food first at one of the buildings which had a huge advertisement that said: ‘Don’t Chicken out! Chicken Inn!’ Turns out that it was an inn famous for serving good chicken and we ate our fill. The name of the inn was obviously called The Chicken Inn and the interior was decorated in a very quirky but modern way. There were colourful chairs and tables everywhere and the waitresses were all wearing chicken costumes. There was also a giant chicken statue at the front door of the establishment. It was a bit expensive though. A meal my hometown was about 10 coppers. However, a meal here cost about 25 coppers to 40 coppers depending on how much you wanted to eat. My weekly allowance was 1 silver so I decided that to celebrate my first week of school, this splurge would be worth it. And indeed, it was some of the best chicken I’ve ate in years.

All of us also joked merrily at Chicken Inn for a good two hours. We all shared even more stories about ourselves to each other.

It turns out that Puggy was someone who was like the epitome of laziness. She literally was too lazy to go for the QE. Her mother who was a Legionnaire had to use magic to shift the bed she was sleeping on all the way to the QE stadium and force her to take the test. However, she scored quite well despite her laziness. Then, her mother lied to her and said that “If you become a Legionnaire, you will get to eat good food in school every day for free!” However, only the free part was true. The food wasn’t that good honestly. HAHA what a smart mother. Turns out Puggy was really someone who cared a lot about food.

Maybe she would like to meet Gears. I chuckled to myself.

Chippy was being a retard as usual, saying stupid comments which made everybody laugh, especially when the waitress was serving us.

“Would you like to order some chicken?” The waitress asked.

“If your name is chicken, then yes I’d like to order 10 of you.” He replied.

The waitress blushed deep red and I smacked Chippy’s head as hard as I could.

“Can I take your order?” She said.

“No. But you can take me home!”

She did not even know what to say anymore so I just wrote down our orders for her.

These were part and parcel of Chippy’s daily comments. He always had quirky, partially intelligent partially retarded things to say but that’s also what made him the life of a party. I already knew him for 6 years so it was really just another normal day for me. However, Draco, Jenny and Puggy seemed to really love his antics. Who could blame them? He’s a nice funny retard.

Draco also seemed to be enjoying himself with us. His demeanor when I first met him was that of a cold, powerful person. However, he seemed to be slowly warming up to us more and more, and that stone face of his was breaking into a smile on a more regular basis. However, only I knew the secret that he was a Vermillion I guess. I planned to keep that secret.

Jenny was being herself as well, laughing merrily but not talking too much. She was quite a quiet person. However, she would always politely talk to anyone that she wishes to talk to or someone who talks to her first. I realised that I did not know much about her so I made it a point to meet up with her sometime soon, in order to get to know the girl that I had a crush on better.

After eating a sumptuous dinner filled with the presence of lovely company, we decided to go shopping at the set-up stalls in The Marketplace. I did not plan on buying anything of course but the rest may want to get certain items to help them in their school life. Just as we left the Chicken Inn, as we were about to rejoin the sea of people in the Marketplace square, someone who was dressed in a cloak walked across us. Suddenly, he was behind Draco, one arm over his mouth and the other arm clutching on to one of his thighs. He lifted him up and ran away.

Draco was being kidnapped!

The moment it happened, I was obviously shocked but I quickly regained my mind. I immediately channelled wind ki to my feet and used Graceful Flight to give chase. Chippy was also running extremely fast and slowly disappearing from my sight despite him being directly beside me. Puggy was to my left, displaying shocking speed for someone who was so petite and Jenny was the only one lagging behind since mages have not learnt any movement spells yet. All of us were giving chase towards the cloaked figure carrying Draco.

“STOP!” I shouted as I cast a mana arrow in my hand while I was running. This was starting to create a commotion amongst the many people present.

“Jinx don’t! We’re not allowed to use offensive spells outside of school compound! It’s against the rules! Look at the amount of people here!” Jenny shouted at me from the back.

“My friend is being kidnapped in front of me and you tell me not to disobey school rules?! FUCK THAT!” I said as I even elementally composed it to a level 2 light mana arrow. I tried to spin it as well, adding as much power as I could to it in order to destroy that asshole kidnapping my friend.

I threw the arrow towards the feet of the kidnapper.