Waking up the next morning, Theo realized that he was laying on his bed. Standing, and stretching his body, Theo looked at his reflection in the mirror. There he noticed some changes that happened with him while he was asleep, he became a bit taller, his skin became sturdier, and he felt an overall increase in his physical strength. He continued to look at himself when several people appeared, entering the room. There was a one-eyed man in armor with Arthur and Mira, entering the room.

"Madame, the young master should be fine, I gave him the healing potions and pills, he is sleeping right now," explained Silo, following after Mira.

Entering the room, they noticed that Theo was already awake.

Mira looked at her son, to observe all the changes that happened with Theo, and smiled several moments later.

"Since everything is good, and you became stronger, you won't be punished for not telling about your plan with pressure caves to your parents," said Mira, approaching and touching Theo's cheek before looking at others, "You may leave,"

A moment later when they left, Mira's glance softened.

"You didn't have to go to that extend, magic talent is already enough, you could just follow my and Aurellia's footsteps, and become a strong mage," told Mira, caressing Theo's hair.

"I know, but I also want to follow after father's and Stella's footsteps in battle energy, a little bit of pain is an acceptable price for that."

Mira looked at her son for several moments, before a pleased smile appeared on her lips.

"Good. Since you have already woken up, go and hurry to the academy, you don't have much time till the beginning of your lessons," warned Mira, leaving the chambers.

A moment later, Theo rushed to prepare himself and left 10 minutes later to the city academy.

***

Standing in the line of students, Theo and others were listening to Astra's explanation for today's lesson, and were starring at the long obstacle course behind her.

The obstacle course was around 100 meters in length, had many different obstacles and traps that could easily slow down many students. There was a long line of mud on the surface, and an obstacle course was made of wood and was half a meter above the mud. It was wide enough for everyone to use it at the same time.

"Today, we will have a lot of work, but before that, everyone will have to pass through that thing, it's your warm-up," said Astra with a smile, looking at the trouble-makers, and fat students she remembered from the previous lesson.

Just looking at that obstacle course made several students pale while others were already sweating.

Satisfied with their expression, she continued her speech.

"Each student will at first pass through the obstacle course, and will be given points on the basis of his speed, agility, and survivability, I will look at how fast you are, how well is your body condition and on how clean you are at the end of the obstacle course. The first 5 students would get 5 points, the next five would get 3 points, and the 3rd batch of 5 students would get 2 points while the rest would get only a point for finishing, of course, if you will be able to finish. After that, you will run 10 lapses around the arena around 10 km. Rules are the same, but it's time race, you should finish in 30 minutes, those who won't finish during this time, won't get points. Only after that, we will move to sparrings." said Astra with a bright smile on her lips, looking at still standing students, "Well, since you already know everything, you may start,"

Moments later, Theo, Leonardo, and others rushed to the obstacle course.

At first, everything seemed easy, students could easily move through small positioned obstacles, but the further they went, the bigger obstacles they met, space they could use became smaller, and they met moving obstacles that tried to push them to the mud below.

This was the time when the 1st group of students began slowing, becoming careful, but the further they went, the more difficult it became, so soon several fat students that got hit by a moving obstacle flew at the mud.

Astra just raised her glance, looking at the 1st bunch of trouble-makers that would learn the price for their behavior, showing to the start of the obstacle course.

"When you fall to the mud, you have to begin again from the beginning," said Astra, continuing, looking at her documents.

It was quite a spectacle to watch after those students and the reaction of other students, so Theo smiled and continued moving further, slowly moving along the course.

He wasn't the only one who had few problems with moving forward, Leonardo was physically fit, and trained a lot on similar obstacle courses with his father, knew how to pass them, so he was even faster than Theo, 2 noble students, and other physically strong ones.

Time continued to pass, and 10 minutes later, Leonardo, Theo, and a noble-looking girl finished the obstacle course. 5 minutes later, the noble-looking boy and the other 4 physically strong students also finished the obstacle course, but half of them were already tired and had sweat on their foreheads.

Astra raised her head, looking at them before showing at the marked land that stretched out across the training field.

Understanding the meaning of her gesture, Theo and others began running across the training field while other students were still dealing with the obstacle course.

If Theo participated in such training before becoming 1st rank squire, he would have been with other students on the obstacle course, but now, when his body got stronger and sturdier, and when he could feel the energy inside his body, it wasn't difficult for Theo to overtake Leonardo and increase the distance between him and other students that were running across the training field.

It was quite a surprise for Leonardo when he saw how Theo overtook over him because he believed that he knew overall Theo's condition, so it only meant that his friend became stronger than before. A noble-looking woman with brown hair that followed after Leonardo could only clench her fists and try to increase the speed.

While Theo was showing his abilities, Astra raised her brow in surprise when she threw a close look at Theo's body, and a moment later, she began writing something in her notebook.

15 minutes later, Theo and other fast students were standing in line before the Astra, looking at their classmates that were still dealing with the obstacle course behind her.

"What a shame, isn't it," said Astra, looking at Theo and others, and showing at the obstacle course.

"This is just one of the easiest obstacle courses, professional knights use for small children to help them train and improve their skills. This is what I wanted to show you, the ones that would at least have the potential to learn and become a warrior. You may not want to learn how to fight with a sword or use battle energy, but since you are here, you can at least put a goal for yourselves not to be like your classmates that are similar to many mages. I can continue to teach you with them or can give you some pointers during our lessons to help you improve your body condition even further to make training with battle energy much easier." explained Astra, looking at Theo, Leonardo, and others, "What do you think about this suggestion?"

"Will we have to pay extra for that?" asked a boy in an ordinary-looking training outfit.

Astra made smiled, looking at him.

"Don't worry, it's for free, but you will just have to follow several of my rules,"

"What rules?" asked a boy in the noble outfit.

"Simple ones, you will have to listen to me and do what I say, and help me from time to time with different things I might need, don't worry it will be things like helping me clean my house or helping me with shopping," explained Astra.

4 ordinary-looking boys eased up and released a sigh of relief, but a boy in a noble outfit showed his dissatisfaction while a girl in a noble outfit furrowed her brows together with Leonardo.

Seeing their reaction, Astra was quick to add.

"I don't force you, you can choose for yourself, if you don't want to do it, just continued doing things your classmates would do,"

Just as she finished her speech, a noble-looking boy smiled, showing his disdain.

"Teacher, I think I won't need your pointers, I have many good teachers that could teach me back at home, so I would better spend this time with my friends," said Kaleb Balkot, the boy dressed in a noble outfit, throwing a quick glance at Astra's body.

As if not even a bit surprised with the boy's answer and behavior, she smiled, sealing the behavior of his eyes at her memory.

"Of course, such an arrogant boy can always train at home, I bet your father and elder brother don't have enough time for you, so you are forced to ask others for help,"

The boy's mouth twitched, but he gritted his teeth and ignored her.

"I will also prefer to train with others, I belong to mages' family, and it wouldn't be good if I spend much time, tiring myself, and leaving no energy for magic training and other studies," said Lisa Lepiz, the girl dressed in the noble outfit.

Moving her glance at 4 boys, Theo and Leonardo, she wanted to hear their opinion, the ones for whom she proposed to help.

Two ordinary-looking boys looked at each other, before making sorry expressions on their faces.

"Teacher, we would like to join to harder training, but right now we two are working as porters at the port, and wouldn't be able to earn enough money for our studies if we get squished here on the training, besides we have to help our families at home after that. We don't think we would be able to make it." explained one of the boys.

Astra just paused to look at them for several moments before looking at the other 2 boys, Theo, and Leonardo.

"We would be happy to train under your supervision." said one of the boys while another nodded, agreeing with his words.

Feeling Astra's glance, landing on him, Theo looked at Leonardo who furrowed his brows, immersed in thoughts. Understanding what he is thinking right now, Theo just patted him on the shoulder before whispering several words in his ear.

A moment later, Leonardo changed his expression and looked a bit confused, and immersed further in his thoughts.

Theo finished what he wanted to say to his friend, and looked at Astra that was closely looking after his actions from the beginning. Of course, she heard what he said to his friend, and was a bit surprised because of the things Theo knew.

"We would be glad to train under your beginning, teacher Astra," said Theo, hitting Leonardo to the stomach to return him back to reality.

"Yeah ... of course, I would be glad to join," said Leonardo, returning to the reality.

Astra stopped her gaze at Theo for several moments, before smiling and looking at the students that were passing the obstacle course.

"Since others are not done yet, and we can't begin our sparring competition, let me give you several exercises so that you killed your time effectively and advantageously," said Astra, inviting Theo, Leonardo, and the other 2 boys to follow after her.

They continued to move for some time and stopped in front of the small field with several big stones, placed nearby with a servant not far from them.

The stones were 1 meter in height and had a weight of around 30 kg.

"Take one of the stones, and raise it above your head, it will be enough for you to kill some time in training, you, come, you will make sure, they don't slack off, you may hit them every time they would try to cheat," explained Astra, calling for a servant.

Several minutes later when Astra left to look after other students, Theo and Leonardo turned to look at their training companions that were also holding rocks with them.

Those 2 boys were dressed in ordinary-looking outfits, one was thin, short, but agile, while another had muscled and tall bodies. Both of them had brown hair and black eyes.

"I am Theo, he is Leonardo, what about you?" asked Theo, looking at them.

"I am Zed, he is, Felix," said the thin boy, turning his head in the direction of the tall boy.

"Nice to meet you, I would have shaken your hands, but let's do that crap after the training, it's quite difficult for my friend Zed, and he needs to stay focused just not to drop the rock on his head," said Felix, showing with his head in the direction of Zed's legs.

"You, muscle head, just wait, my time will come, we will have magic practice lessons anyway, so don't get too cocky of yourself just because of your natural advantages," said Zed, beginning, bickering with his friend, using his arsenal of bad words he knew.

Theo and Leonardo, exchanged glances among each other, before smiling, and continuing to observe after a show that was happening in front of them.