Keeping his mana stable into a static shape wasn't too hard, Ethan found out, as long as he was looking at it, or touching it.

Charlotte was smiling and he unknowingly found himself smiling back at her.

The whole scene was fascinating... And weird. Both Simone and Tommy didn't feel like interrupting. Not really sure what to do with themselves, they sat down and kept on looking.

A pop-up from Ethan's interface informed him he had acquired a skill called “Mana Manipulation” which allowed him to shape his mana in all the ways his imagination could bear picturing, and another active, called “Shadow Claws”, a magical reinforcement for his fingers through solid status energy.

Tommy, was extremely puzzled: his energy still in hand, without realizing it was there, scratched his chin, reabsorbing the mana.

He soon had grown a goatee, which started with a natural dark blond and ended with a mossy green shade.

Two minutes after she had started feeding, Charlotte decided she was full.

She burped softly with her small pearly mouth, confirming that she had not only liked the meal, but that she was also stuffed. Soon the little Shadow Gobbler yawned, seemingly unable to keep her eyes open any longer. She kissed Ethan on the nose and sleep-flew to his left breast pocket, magically sealing herself inside for a nap.

-Normal days... Remember those? Or are them just a thing of the past?

Asked Tommy, while fiddling with his newborn beard.

-Overrated, normal is, young padawan.

Answered Simone kneeling and holding a short cane, in what should have been an impersonation of some long forgotten movie character.

-Right... So, correct me if I am wrong, we still need to decide what to do with our fighting styles, right?

He said while he struggled with making sense of that, so far, crazy morning.

-At least now we know how to release mana... Sort of.

-Indeed, checking your “character” sheet now, you should have your levels all clear and with a maximum mana value too. Since you just started training that value can be seen as an indication of your natural affinity to your element. So check out what is your maximum.

-Mine is two hundred and forty at level two.

Said Tommy, not knowing if it was good or bad.

-Mine is six hundred and twenty at the same level.

-Very good, mine was five hundreds and eighty at level two and now is more than twelve thousands at level sixty five.

-Why is it so different?

Asked Tommy

Simone answered like she was saying the most obvious of things.

-Because life makes us different, Tommy. Ethan, you have lived most of yours in a forest, I assume, taking in what it had to offer and building a strong bond without knowing it with your element. While you, Tommy, were more concerned about surviving and becoming a trader. I am pretty sure that if we confront other statistics, you will have several which are higher than Ethan's, like maximum health points.

-Eight hundred and thirty three, with a defense of ninety four.

He looked at Ethan, waiting.

-Five hundred and sixty four. My defense is one hundred and thirty one.

-There you go. This is just what you are right now, though. What you will be in your future is entirely up to you.

-When I started, I decided I wanted to be a caster, a mage with incredibly powerful spells that could destroy any threat with one spell from afar. Later during my training, I understood that wasn't really me and I just went back on my tracks, paid a hefty sum to a life mage specialized in alteration and reset my stats, restarting my training as a martial artist.

-Later still, I studied healing magic as well, creating my own fighting style and skills. This first choice as well is not who you will be forever, but I will give you one suggestion on how to decrease the chances of you regretting it later.

-Alright, I am all ears.

Half whispered Ethan not wanting to wake up his... Charlotte.

-Relax and close your eyes. Focus only on what you feel in this moment, the forest, the sun, the sweat you are covered into... imagine you are in a war camp waging war against a very organized enemy, but with plenty of allies that can help you and already have all the possible roles covered. There are defenders, fighters, ranged assassins, casters, mid-rangers and supports... Probably more. Now, considering you have to join this massive fight, where do you see yourself?

Ethan really tried to imagine himself on that battlefield... Behind the curtains of his eyelids, soon he could hear the sounds of a military camp: soldiers groaning in pain, heavy steps dragged in the mud, the banging of plates of armor. It all really felt familiar to him, like he had really been on some battlefield before. Before losing himself into those “impossible memories” of his, he forced himself to snap back to his current situation, focusing on a fighting scenario... He observed carefully for a while, then he said

-I think I just want to help in whatever way it is possible: I can't see myself locked in a specific position for too long, as an enemy is not a lump of clay or a dead circular target. Someone could spot me while I am trying to snipe them or while I am casting a long worded enchantment. I feel like I should learn both ranged and melee fighting.

-See? That is good, you are thinking about you... Now tell me: what do you think is the most vulnerable aspect of this picture?

Simone got closer to the boy and zoomed on Ethan's mid-ranger fighting card while he looked at it.

After a while, having considered all of what he was potentially doing in the image, he said

-My hands. My attacks come all from handling a weapon, if they were broken or cut beyond a usable level, I would be done fighting until healed.

-Very good judgment of the situation, same would be of course if you were hit on the head or any vital part, but without weapons, in this picture you would have a very difficult time fighting indeed. I already have an idea of what weapon we should choose for you. Tommy, what about you? In which position could you be?

-Mmm, on the front line, with a very agile fighting style, yet very... Solid, if you know what I mean. Resilient and able to use powerful attacks and spells if needed. A threat, a menace, something impossible to ignore and very hard to get rid of. And the part that I should protect the most, in my opinion is my vital spots.

Then he immediately added

-In minor amount my legs.

-Well, I see. Makes sense, given what I know about you. Just remember though, that you have people you can trust into this group. We will help you when the exam will come in two weeks, if you let us.

-A martial artist and a slinger can work well together if they cover each other and trust in each others' skills. Hope you will trust us a bit more in two weeks time. In the meanwhile we sure need to get you both weapons to start proper training. Come.

Tommy helped Ethan back onto his feet while Simone managed to get up on her own. She wasn't the kind of woman to ever overreact or try to impress, so, for her to walk slowly and carefully as she was, it meant she was indeed running on empty.

Simone was feeling feint: it had been a long while since the last time she had to summon such a massive amount of energy all at once and looking inside herself, she felt like something had cracked.

The woman released a droplet of mana from her already depleted vivicar: her core was intact. She then proceeded to search in all directions, still finding nothing. And yet her breath was shallow, her head throbbing in a painful way... In the end all she could think of was extreme fatigue.

Simone tried to convince herself it was so. Seeing their master like that, both young men understood that emptying their mana pool was not a pleasant experience. When they entered the creepy and rusty manor, they once more got to appreciate how much nicer it was on the inside.

Ethan had a sudden realization: maybe Simone, to a certain degree, kept the scar on her face for the same reason, not showing people that she was amazing, keeping strangers at arms' length.

If all people were like Samson, after all, Ethan sure knew he wouldn't like them at his door, or too close to his face.

Eventually they reached the far side of the house, past the living room, and Simone knocked on what looked like a broom closet. The lights went on as she opened the door and once she touched the light bulb with a finger, the back wall in front of her disappeared together with all the tools, revealing a raw dark stone staircase that went down spiraling.

She didn't move though, instead asking her disciples to take a few steps back: after a few seconds, a roaring ball of fire came blazing up the stairs. Simone simply stopped it and breathed it in, transforming it into sustenance for her depleted mana.

-Better...

She said, and started moving more naturally. The stone steps where taller than Ethan expected.

He would have some jumping to do, had he tried to walk them when in his rokian form.

When they reached the lower level, Simone raised her right palm, lighting up the otherwise pitch black darkness and dropped the small globe of flames she had materialized casually on the floor, where it parted in four smaller fires, which split once more before rushing for the walls. A moment later, the room was magically lit in a proper fashion.

It was a wide room which gave a martial feeling, without unnecessary ornaments or refined details: a war room. Ethan was sure that Simone’s behavior was all to disengage whatever security system she had in place, and he could understand why: the room was full of fascinating and peculiar weapons.

-Boys, we have to think both practically and strategically: your first weapons will not be your best... Nor your last, but they have to be light, fast and easy to use, for obvious reasons.

-Like what?

Asked Ethan.

-Well... For starters, neither of you are in a perfect shape or have muscles which “know” how vexing is to handle a heavy weapon for say the thirty minutes that a real fight against an equally skilled opponent might take. Sure, in an ideal situation, many fights end with a first good hit or... Soon after, but there are cases when that is just not possible.

-Real fighters will be as ready as you are, shielded, covered in enchantments and armor... You must get used to use your weapons in these two weeks...

Simone was pausing a lot while taking, feeling feint yet again.

Still, she smiled satisfied at both of them, glad for their worried faces, glad that they seemed to grasp this was a serious matter, that they had to get prepared for life and death situations.

-It might sound cliché, but a good weapon is only as good as the relationship it has with its user. Ideally, it should be like an extension of the mage's body, which is also why... we will not start with big weapons.

She turned around and went for where the cutlasses were, on shelves carved into the stone walls and covered by glasses.

-Cutlasses and rapiers were the swords used by both pirates and armies. Can you guess why?

Tommy and Ethan were looking at the swords behind her. The thin and long rapiers, sharp and pointy, made the mind associate their use to a piercing, thrusting, fighting style, while the fat cutlasses, with their rounded blades and pointy ends were more of a mystery. What they had in common was...

-They both have some full cover for the wielder hand.

Said Ethan uncertain.

-They look light weight.

Pointed out Tommy.

-Both of those things... And more.

Confirmed Simone.

-Armies had trainers, but they were made of common folks... farmers, sons of merchants, castless... while the sons of nobles had high class military training their whole life and were made into officers.

-Those simple soldiers had to get used to wielding those tools fast and rely on them for not dying. More so for pirates, which had no one to teach them how to fence. So... The major reasons why both armies and pirates chose... These weapons are that their use is highly intuitive and they are perfect war tools.

She took a sturdy looking, dark bladed cutlass from the display and just wielded it in front of her.

-The weight is good, the blade is not too long... For avoiding hilarious incidents and self mutilations. The guard can block attacks and be used for punching people with gusto and devastating results, the point can pierce... It is, all in all, a versatile, well conceived, all purposes weapon, which was made even better with magic. Now, time to measure you, boys... In order to give you the proper cutlass, we need to know how long your arms are and how tall you are.

-Alright, the proper ratio for body height is 0,58 for a rapier and 0,33 for a cutlass, more or less, which means we have to multiply your height for 0,33... In order to find out the proper length, with possible adjustments... Yet this value shouldn't surpass... Our arm length from shoulder... To... Wrist...

As Simone started to move closer for measuring her disciples though, she felt another violent crack, inside of her.

Something was not right, finally broken, crushing her essence, giving her a sort of pain which, even as a doctor, she couldn't place or recognize.

The fierce, stoic woman, fell to one knee, trying to fight the unknown still, only to realize she was unable to breathe.

She reached for her throat with her left hand, utterly surprised, like she had seen a unicorn in a tutu, but she was already fainting.

All was dark...

Silence.