It was like I was staring at an underground paradise. Somehow there were trees in the room, growing all the way up to the ceiling covering it almost entirely with their branches and dimly glowing turquoise leaves. There was a small rover, going from one wall to the other, emerging from a heightened spot on a large rock at the end opposite the door. The ground itself seemed to be made of dirt with fresh, slightly wet turquoise grass that also gave of a dim glow, same as the leaves on the ceiling. The walls were made of a light grey stone and there were animals running around in here.

A small orange fox that gave of an orange glow, a few white birds that gave of a glow and in the corner I could see the watchful eyes of a frog, sitting on an out of place lily pat that sat still in the river. The frog also gave off a green glow.

'Whoever designed this room just said spirit when asked what his vision for the room was...' Ira said.

I nodded. Everything in this room gave off a distinct mana signature that made the entire room feel warm and welcoming, the problem was that it also masked the ambient mana, like a thick layer had been put over it.

That was the moment when the door opened behind me and I could feel my arm ring vibrate again, the beep was uncomfortable. I immediately turned it off by tapping the crystal once but not pressing it in at all and turned around. Standing in the door was Elsa, her fiery red hair falling down into her oversized white robe with the red stripe starting at the oversized collar, which could usually hide the nose but was pulled down right now, and stopped at the bottom of the robe which dragged across the ground a little. Her pale skin, freckles and differently coloured eyes made her look uniquely beautiful. She also had this mature feeling to her despite looking quite young, if I had to guess I would have guessed that she was in her mid-twenties at the oldest. She still didn't have any of her cages but I could feel that she had a connection to every spirit in this room.

"Oh, you're already here, that's great," Elsa said with a smile as she approached me.

It was sort of weird, she was supposed to be a figure of authority here but she was small, but despite me, literally looking down on her she looked up at me confidently and with a smile.

"Well, let's begin, shall we?" Elsa asked.

I nodded.

"Good, good. Now let's get some of the less interesting stuff out of the way. You might ask yourself why you're the only one in this class," Elsa said.

I am? I thought the others just didn't arrive yet...

"The reason for that is that among the volunteers you are the only one qualifying for this class and next time you will join the other internal mana users that take this class," Elsa explained.

I nodded again.

"Well then, let me begin explaining the reason why this is called advanced mana training," Elsa said as she stepped into the middle of the room, one foot dangerously close to the small river, which I just now noticed also gave off a slight glow.

"As you should have noticed, most things in this room are spirits or things closely related to spirits and as you might already know, spirit and spiritual things give off very thick mana that can easily be sensed even by unexperienced mana users," Elsa explained.

I nodded.

"Good, good," she said with a smile. "Now if you want to draw in any mana in this room you will need to figure out a way to filter it out from the spirit's mana as well as find a way to draw it in faster than the spirits are drawing it in. The room itself is currently filled with a lot of mana but as soon as I tell the spirits to start drawing it in that will change, so you'll have to be quick about it.

So this room's ambient mana is limited... interesting.

I nodded again.

"Good, then I'd like you to start by trying to filter out the ambient mana from the spirit's mana," Elsa said.

I nodded and got into my usual position, Elsa studying me the entire time, piercing me with her gaze. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, concentrating only on the mana around me. She was right, it was difficult to sense anything but the warm mana the spirits passively gave off. It was like I was trying to grasp something through a thick blanket, I may be able to slightly sense the ambient mana but drawing it in was impossible, as if the spirit's mana was holding it back.

'Make a mental image and just take out the things you don't want there, if you then try to apply that to the real world it might work,' Ira suggested.

I internally raised an eyebrow but did as she told me. I imagined myself sitting underwater, surrounded by a glass dome that kept the water away. Then I imagined the glass dome slowly crumble away, letting the water reach me. At nearly the same time I began to feel mana enter my body, slowly, far slower than usual but it did indeed work.

Elsa whispered something I didn't understand.

"Do you feel ready for the next step?" she asked after waiting a few more seconds.

I nodded, my eyes still closed. Elsa shuffled around a little, making strange whistling sounds and shortly after it felt like the room was being emptied of all ambient mana. I immediately went back to my mental image. This time I imagined the water being in a container, a container connected to a rope on both ends, a smoky figure was trying to pull it away from me while I was trying to pull it towards me. I imagined the struggle as I tried drawing in any of the ambient mana. By the time the room was empty I only ever came close once. I opened my eyes and leaned back, breathing out deeply.

"Well, that wasn't too bad," Elsa said with a smile. "Let's try again in ten minutes, alright?"

I nodded. After a few seconds of Elsa fiddling around in her left sleeve, I could feel the room filling back up with ambient mana.

How does this stuff work?

"So, what do you think about this place?" Elsa asked me, sitting down near me, leaning against a tree.

I was a little confused by the sudden question.

"Nothing yet," I answered, thinking that a conversation like this might be a good excuse to try and get ever so slightly friendlier with her. "Haven't been here long enough."

"Hmm, I guess so."

For a few seconds, there was silence.

...

...

...

"So, you got any friends... or family outside the fort?" Elsa asked.

Already getting this personal? Is she scheming something?

'Definitely... but why not use her scheme for your own advantage?' Ira suggested.

I smiled internally.

"Not as far as I know, there might be some members of my family I don't know out there tho," I answered, trying not to think about the fact that I was currently sitting in the fort led by the man responsible for the death of both my parents.

"Right, the Lyrius family was rumoured to be large, at least before the blood-wood war," Elsa answered.

I nodded, unable to find any words.

"Do you have anything you aspire to be?" Elsa asked.

Besides killing your brother? No... not really.

"I don't really have anything like that, I'm mostly just going with whatever seems like the best decision at the moment," I answered, hoping it would suffice as an answer... it didn't.

"Really? Do you not have any goals, anything you want to achieve? It could be anything, have a family, get rich, build a nation, become a king, a saint, maybe discover new things, explore the still unknown areas of the world! Is there really nothing you aspire to be, you aspire to become?" she asked, talking so quickly that I only understood half of it.

"Maybe I'll find something while I'm here," I answered, only half sure whether or not that answer would suffice.

From her satisfied smile, I could guess that it was enough for her.

"Well, I think we should get back to the lesson now," she said after a few more minutes of silence, suddenly sounding a little more serious than before.

What's her plan?

'No idea yet, but this might either work to our advantage or against us, no in-between here I'd say,' Ira said.

'Let's wait and see then,' I answered.

I repeated what I had tried before this time being able to draw in a little bit of mana while the spirits were drawing it in as well. After that Elsa ended the lesson and told me to just follow her since my next lesson would be on sorcery, which she also taught.

Great...