Tests sucked. Enaril really didn't understand the need to test them in all this useless stuff.

Intellectually he knew it was important but still, he had never been one for theory, he very much prefered practice.

Still, he was here and had learnt for the test more than he would like to admit. While his new team leader was only a petite girl, her personality did not match her body at all. She had a certain aura around her that made most people listen to her.

He was sure most people didn't even notice it, but he could understand why the noble chose to adopt her. People just listened to her. Of course, that was helped by the fact that she always knew what she talked about. He was sure the small human had more knowledge of monsters and general magic than any of their year. Hell, so far any team under her guidance had only failed one quest.

That was quite spectacular after all, all other teams he had been on had botched quite some a few quests.

Mainly because the beastkin and Mary were incredible trackers and could move through the forest effortlessly. Recently, the two had started training them in the ’basic’ skills they needed to know. He snorted. Basic meant the ability to spot the two sneaking up on them without magic and moving through the forest without sound.

He was reasonably confident they all would manage the second one in a few weeks, but the other was impossible. The two seemed to have the time of their lives as they continued jumping out from angles none of the team would have never expected.

And only because they would be splitting up for a two months to visit their families.

‘We need to work on your perception. As it is, even a goblin could sneak up on you.’ She had said. And then proceeded a hellish training regimen where the only breaks they got were for learning and sleeping.

He also knew she was right. There were situations when it wouldnt be smart to rely on a spell. Furthermore it was always good to be prepared for any eventuality. There were some monsters that would be alerted to their presence by that alone.

At first he didn't understand that, they would be alerted to that, wouldn't he and his golem tip them off anyways? But he had been told mana was impossible to detect when moved in the body but was exponentially easier to detect after leaving it.

An hour later, the test was written and they were herded out for more training.

The training was hellish. Kaseo had no idea who gave Mary the idea she needed to teach them how to move through the wood like she and Taimanu did as the two had too much experience for them to have any chances to catch up.

He could understand the perception training, though he very much doubted they would ever need it as long as they didn't split up. With the unnatural awareness of the surroundings of Mary and the superior senes all beastkin had, he very much doubted that anything would be able to sneak up on them.

“Careful!” Suddenly a face appeared in front of him.

“Oh come on.” He said.

“I didn't even try.” Taimanu pouted.

“You weren't paying attention.” She said and then climbed up the tree she jumped down from and vanished in a few seconds.

He really wondered how the two did it, though he also thought they cheated, there was no way to move like they did without some basic body enhancing magic.

“Look at your feet as well!” Someone yelled in front of him, causing him to jump again.

Mary rose out of the floor in front of him, her armor and hair losing the leafs and dirt she used to disguise herself.

“Oh come on. I even looked right where you where.”

“Look closer.” She said and ran back in the forest

Taimanu was having the time of her life. While going around and hunting monsters was fun, it was also different.

Sneaking up on helpless teammates and scaring them to death in the guise of training was another kind of fun. It appealed her playful nature and she enjoyed herself like she did when playing the same with others of her race. Perhaps a bit more with the others being as inexperienced as they were.

Even better, what they did was really helping the others, even now, only days after their woodland training started, the other were showing serious signs of improvement.

They had to take care to not be seen while sneaking up on them now.

It was actually quite challenging. They had to maintain a balance of sneaking around the others while giving them the ability to see them if they paid attention.

They didn't tell the others, but they were already ahead of some of the other teams rangers. After all, they explained the mistakes they made at dinner.

She was stalking Dehla as the large lizardgirl tried to sneak through the forest.

She was rapidly improving as her body was made for stalking through the wood just like Taimanu's. The elves and humans had a harder time as they did not have the same natural help. The lizardfolk had a serious disadvantage for spotting others though. Even humans had better hearing than they did.

Today, she had started dropping on them from above, just as they grew accustomed to them sneaking up behind them.

Mary was waiting for them to cross their pass, half buried in the ground only moving when they weren't looking at her. Though from what Taimanu knew, the girl was entirely capable of lying still for hours.

Now was the time. Dehla had just started turning around to check her rear. Without making sound, she slipped down the tree only to stand in front of the other girl.

When Dehla turned around and saw her standing there, grinning at her, she jumped backwards and her hands moved towards her weapon on instinct.

“Hi there. And bye.” She said and climbed back up.

After arriving in the trees again, she stopped and waited for one other teammates to make another sound. Soon enough, she heard Darion mumbling something to himself and set off again.

She really loved the forest, there was no better feeling of freedom that moving through a forest, with all the smells and sounds of life around her.

They were training in the forests surrounding the academy, where nothing was powerful enough to best one of them.

“Watch out!” A sudden exclamation caused her to nearly jump out of the tree.

“Gotcha.” Mary said and grinned at her.

“Did you use Starshadow to find me?” She asked.

“Nope, I was also following Dehla and when you just climbed up the tree I couldn't resist.”

“That's not fair, you used magic to do that.” She pouted.

“Of course I did. It would be impossible to sneak up on you otherwise.”

“Who of you can tell me how we are able to control mana?” The teacher asked.

Mary was instantly bored, the topic was one of the advanced theory things she already knew.

‘Better help them to get over with it faster.’ She thought and raised her hand after checking if there was anyone else wanting to say something.

“Perfect, what can you tell us about it?”

“Every being has a second set of veins running throughout their body. They are partly incorperal channels “

“Alright that's enough. Yes you are right, we control our mana through manachannels.

How did you get the idea that there is anything physical about them though?”

“That's easy, having manachannels wouldn't make much sense otherwise.

Furthermore it would make monster cores useless.”

“How so?”

“Well, if we go with the common theory that monsters start to build cores to increase their capacity of mana, then it would be logical that said cores have actual physical impact on the monster’s bodies.

As I cut up quite some monsters so far, a plant drake being the last of them and did not find any physical proof.

I think the mana channels are unique to every being, it’s only logical that the mana is actually making its way through our bodies while pressing the tissue to the side.

So, once we die and most of our mana leaves the bodies the tissue gets back in place, destroying all proof of them.”

“That's a very interesting idea. If you’d agree, you can explain me more after the lesson, but let's quit theory crafting and get back on track using commonly accepted facts. Do you know the normal theory as well?”

“Sure, my mom taught it to me.

The amount of total mana you have access to is determined by your mass and the density of mana in your body.

If you are able to cast magic depends. If you have manachannels ending at your skin than your personal mana will be able to leave the your body with some training and enable you to cast spells.

If there are none, than you will not be able to cast any magic other than body enhancing magic.

The output of mana is once again determined by the density of mana as well as the thickness of your manachannels.

The thickness of your manachannels also determines how precise you can be with the same amount of control over your mana.

Dwarfs for example have very thin manachannels and as such are the most precise if slow casters which enables them to be the best enchanters in existence.

Elves on the other side have so thick manachannels that they need to be a sorcerer to be able to cast magic, but have a very hard time casting spells that need precise control.

That also means they have the biggest problems casting any kind of dragonrune.”

“Thank you very much. The last part is true, but we will do the theory about those later on. Most people are not yet able to cast those after all and learning about them without being able to cast them is of no use.”

“so …” Mary started zoning out once more, as the teacher started to give them examples and asked them to try and find their own manachannels. That was something she had done years ago, there was a definite advantage if you knew where mana could exit your body.

Most people used their hands as the origin of their spells as it was intuitive, but had problems once their hands were bound in a way all magic they cast would be directed at them first.

If you knew where else you had manachannels exiting your body, you could surprise your enemies and get the advantage needed to win a close fight.

She really looked forward to returning to her team’s training. She had to excuse herself to do this lesson as it was out of her normal schedule, being an advanced course.