"The magi association entry trials?" Richard blanked for a bit, "Oh yes!, of course, I did indeed mention them"

"They are a must if we are to officially make you my apprentice in the association and to grant you access to your father's technique now that it fully belongs to them" he replied.

"So" Ventus continued "How do I participate in the trials?"

"For one, you have to go to the nearest branch of the association to take the trials that are held monthly" Richard replied, "Secondly, I have to apply for your participation as my apprentice at said branch"

"And then you may take the trials and its challenges" he concluded.

"When can we go so that I can take the trials?" Ventus inquired.

"Well, if my calculations are correct" Richard replied, "The last trial happened about a week ago, and as such, there are three weeks left for the next trial"

"There is still time then for me to recover and train to prepare for the trials" Ventus grinned.

"Hoho kid, calm down" Richard laughed, "You're talented, but don't get cocky"

"Three weeks is barely enough time for you to learn and maybe master a single technique considering your talent" he spoke, "As for greatly raising your overall strength in three weeks?"

"Impossible"

"All you can do is try and raise your fighting capabilities, you are going to need them" he concluded.

"But I know how to fight! with mana reinforcement, I should be able to at least get a decent score right?" Ventus replied indignantly.

Although his father had only taught him the most basic magi art of the tornado policy, Ventus was not a weak practitioner of martial arts. From a very young age, he was taught the ways of combat and strategy, as well as how to use most metal weaponry, excluding firearms. His village had those, but only the guards and the village's leadership had access to them. He was at least a decent combatant, even if he was a tad on the weaker side of physical strength.

"Yes, if all the participants were only allowed to use simple martial arts and mana reinforcement, maybe with a strategy you could score a decent result" Richard replied, "But remember, this is the magi association we are talking about"

"The place where magi all around the world gather to study and develop magi arts, as well as publicize them so that further knowledge may be developed in the future with the newer generations" he explained, "So, it's obvious that the use of magi arts will not be restricted"

"With combat training, you may last a bit longer in the competition, but without a single magi art to show aside from your refinement technique, you won't get far"

Ventus frowned. he had to agree that in combat he could hold his if it were only martial arts allowed, but the moment magi arts were involved, he would almost certainly be easily beaten.

"But what do I do then?" He complained, " I can't learn magi arts in the village because only the wealthy have access to those, and I can't learn my father's tornado policy due to the restrictions of the association"

"If I can't get a decent ranking on the trials, I won't be able to become your apprentice, and as such, I can't learn anything from the magi association at all!"

At this moment Richard began laughing. At first, it was discreet, but slowly it grew in potency and became an uncontrollable cackle that could be heard all across the inn's building. Ventus grew irritated at this and glared at the man.

"What's so funny old man!" he spoke angrily.

After a few seconds of laughter, Richard finally calmed down and grinned.

"You really are a kid! you even whine like a toddler" he laughed a bit more.

"OLD MAN!" Ventus hissed.

"Okay okay, calm down, calm down" he chuckled, "It is indeed true that you can't learn from this village, or from the association"

Richard then placed his thumb on his chest.

"But, as I said before" he spoke slowly "If someone creates a technique at the association, as long as that author lives, he can distribute and teach that technique however he sees fit"

"So you mean..." Ventus said expectantly.

"Exactly kid" Richard grinned widely, "Yours truly will teach you a magi art!"

"All right Old man!" He cheered, "That's how a proper master is supposed to behave, about time no?"

"Kid" Richard glared, "Say that again and you'll see how many techniques I'll teach you"

Ventus abruptly kneeled and kowtowed to the man whilst saying.

"Oh I'm sorry, oh so sorry revered master," he said as he kowtowed, "This disciple is foolish, have mercy"

Richard glared at the boy but then burst out laughing.

"hahaha, you truly are a kid all right" he chuckled, "Stop fooling around and stand up"

Ventus stood up and Richard did the same. He walked towards the door and opened it.

"I'll be heading towards my room to pack my things up, get yourself ready"

"Leave? what about my recovery?" Ventus inquired confused.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you recover to the utmost, but right now we'll leave this place and go to a better terrain to train you, and after you master the technique I'll teach you, we'll go straight to the trials"

Ventus nodded and silently sat down on the bed looking at the floor. He breathed in slowly and relaxed as Richard left the room. After but a few seconds, however, he returned and with a simple cloth bag tied around his waist.

"Ready kid?" He asked.

"Always" Ventus nodded.

Ventus stood up from the bed. Richard walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Richard's power blasted out and in an instant a bubble of mana formed around the both of them. At first, that bubble was pure white and didn't allow them to see anything, but after a few moments the bubble became transparent and allowed full view of everything around them.

The bubble trembled and slowly started to float in place. Ventus became anxious, he had never floated before, and the feeling of not being able to touch the ground was weird and made him uncomfortable.

"Relax kid" Richard grinned, "The fun hasn't started yet"

The window was open and as such, it was pretty easy for them to fly out of it. The bubble trembled once more and slowly flew towards the window, at first it seemed that the bubble was too big and wouldn't go through, but when the bubble arrived before the window it transformed and fit the window precisely going through it without making any sound or damage.

They were out of the window and in mid-air. Ventus couldn't help but look down, and when he did, he found out they were at least 10 meters in the air. He shivered and was about to complain when he felt a tug on his shoulder and calmed down. He knew that Richard would not let him fall and so he just waited to see the next move of the man.

"Kid, witness with your own eyes" he grinned widely, "The might and possibilities of mana"

The bubbled trembled and then everything around them became a blur. From Ventus's perspective, they hadn't moved at all as he couldn't feel the pressure of the wind or the high speed. But if one were to look from the outside, they would only see that the transparent bubble looked light a shooting star due to its ridiculous speed.

They travelled for about 10 minutes before stopping in mid-air. As they hovered they saw that below them was a barren flat rocky land. The land was dusty and had cracks all over it as the earth was truly dry. But it also had a very peculiar thing about it, the earth had a black colour to it.

"Yeah" Richard spoke, "This should be a good spot"

Ventus however ignored that. He finally recognized where this was and shock grew all over his face. They were in the Black Rock Plains. The place wasn't special or anything besides its colouration. The thing that shocked Ventus was that this place was 400 kilometres away from the village, a distance that would take about a week to travel on a horse at full speed.

Richard circulated his mana making them descend to the ground. As the bubble touched the ground it disintegrated into particles of light and in an instant, it completely vanished. Richard walked some distance away from Ventus and commanded.

"Sit down and rest, in a few hours you'll be refining the remaining portion of the pill to completely recover," He said, "This time, however, I'll help you refine the pill so that you may refine it faster and more accurately, allowing you a to make a complete recovery"

"But before we do that, I'm going to demonstrate the technique that I'll be teaching you later so that you can have a grasp of what it is and what it can do before we start the actual training" he explained.

Ventus nodded and sat down and waited for the man's next instruction

Richard's mana erupted and released a flash of blinding light forcing Ventus to close his eyes and put his arms across his face to protect his retina from being damaged. The next moment he could see, Richard was wearing a clothing very similar to his own, he wore a set of dark blue clothing that was composed of a sleeveless shirt and comfortable pants.

"This is a technique that I've created and perfected throughout my life, one of the most useful and versatile ones that can cover almost every aspect of a magi art"

Richard's mana erupted out of him once again, but different from the previous time, his body now had a brown-yellow aura around it that reminded Ventus of the very ground they stood on. It seemed as if the man had become one with the earth and could disappear at the next instant if he didn't pay full attention to him.

"I call it...." Richard spoke slowly.

He then stomped the ground and a flash of his brown-yellow mana entered the earth making the ground beneath them to start trembling. The next instant a black rock spike the same size as the man rose to his left. Ventus was impressed, but what happened next left him so astounded he could not even speak. Four more spikes rose at the left of the first one, then five more spikes rose to Richard's right, after that, nine spikes rose behind each one of the ten original ones. The ground stopped trembling

The spikes themselves started cracking and after a few seconds, they were shattered, releasing a huge black cloud of dust. After the dust cloud cleared away Ventus saw something that he would remember for the rest of his days. The spikes had become identical statues of Richard, and they moved naturally as if they had life in them. Each statue was stretching and doing some light exercises, and every single one of them did so independently, without a single command from Richard.

"The Terra Control Technique"