Next day, the students had gathered to the castles training ground. On the training ground, there was a small arena for one-on-one training fights. Away from the arena, there was an archery range with targets. Also there was a clear space, probably for technique learning and practicing.

Everyone here had changed into the clothes they were provided and now were standing here looking at the man wearing the same white armor as the other guards, but he didn't wear a helmet. He had short messy brown hair and dull green eyes. His face was rough looking and he had a few small scars on his face.

Right now he was looking at the students with his hands crossed and seemed to wait for someone.

The time passed and so Chris decided to ask"What are we waiting for?"

"The Royal Mage."he replied to him.

After a while the Mage showed up by just appearing next to the guard. This surprised few of the students,but not the guard, next who she appeared. He's probably used to it already.

The magie herself is wearing a blue robe decorated with a golden crest on her back. Because her hood is up, only down from her nose could be seen. The rest was covered by the hood. She seemed to be young because her skin was pretty smooth. Or she was actually old and could be using magic to make herself look younger.

"So they are the heroes?"she asks the guard and he replies"Yes. Also you were late, Ana."

"Don't wine, Walther. I am here now."she says to him and he just sighs and starts talking after clearing his throat."Welcome heroes. From today on me and my colleague here are going to be your teachers for the next three months. I'm your combat teacher Walther and she is your magic teacher Ana. First month everyone will get an equal training from us both and after that month, you can choose If you want to go down warrior or magician path. You can choose to learn both, but that will be hard. Is everything clear?"

Few people answer with a weak yes.

"I didn't hear you!"he yells and now everyone replies"Yes!"beside Echo. Echo just doesn't give a shit.

Ana, who is standing next to her says"Once you're finished with your torture, send them to me. Until then, bye."and she vanishes.

'I so want to learn that spell and thanks to my Magic Cards, I should be able to learn. Also...Why the fuck did we have to wait for her for ten minutes, only for her to appear for a minute and then disappear. Her introduction could have been done later.'

"Lets start off by finding out how good your endurance is. Everyone run laps around the grounds until you can't."

"Yes!"everyone replies, except Echo. He still doesn't give a shit.

And so everyone starts to run. After one lap, Echo estimated the lap to be about 1km. Also few of the students are almost out of their breath.

After one and a half lap, one boy is down and a chubbier girl follows him after a hundred meters.

'two down. Twenty one to go.'

After the fifth lap, only three are left: Echo, Chris and Mari. Three persons with the best stamina in school. Jack was down after the third lap which itself was kind a surprising.

Both Mari and Chris were sweating a lot, Echo has just barely started to sweat. His stamina was pretty huge and this was thanks to his shitty home country.

Eight lap and only Echo and Chris were still running.

"So your still running Ash-Head."Chris mocks him and Echo replies"Shut it blondie, before I beat you up so much that magic couldn't fix your body."

"The fuck did you say bastard?"

"You heard me."Echo replies and fastened his pace from the 15km/h he was running to 20km/h, leaving Chris behind.

Once Echo has finished his tenth lap, he just slows down and walks to the side.

'Warm up is done.'

After a few minutes, Chris makes it there and stops too while catching his breath."Got...tired.. Already."

"Nope. Just finished my warm up. But sa for you, you seem to be dying here."he says mockingly.

"Fuck...You... Ash-Head."he says while still breathing heavily there from running too much.

"You seem fine. Why did you stop?"asks Walther from Echo and he replies"Don't want to hurt the Legendary Heros ego now." Even though he said it jokingly, his face was still the same emotionless poker face. No one in the class had actually seen an emotion in his face and few were slightly creeped out because of that.

"Okay. I have a general idea of your stamina for now. Please follow me to the arena."Walther says so and a few students groan immediately after hearing that. They get up from the ground and follow the rest of the group.

Once everyone has grouped up at the arena, Walther asks"Okay. So how many of you have learned martial arts at least for a few years."

Echo and three others rais their hands.

"Okay. So how many years?"he asks.

"Five."answers a girl with a braided hair.

"Seven."answers a boy with a shaved head.

"Three."answers Jack.

"Fourteen or fifteen years. I don't exactly remember."answers Echo.

"That explains your [Martial Arts] level."he says and continues"Anyways. First I would like to demonstrate you martial arts."

He looks at Echo and says"You. Could you be my sparring partner."

"Fine."Echo says and steps out of the group and walks onto the arena, facing him.

"You're going to keep the armor?"Echo asks and Walther replies"Of course not."

And in a next instance, his armor disappears.

"Okay. Ready when you are."Walther says to Echo, who is tying his hair into a ponytail so it wouldn't get in the way. Once it is tied, he takes in his stance with hands protecting his head and says"Come at me."

"Okay."he says and dashes at Echo. Before he reaches him, he sends out his fist towards Echo, who dodges it by side stepping and grabs it under his right arm. Immediately he moves his right hand to Walther shoulder, while still locking his right arm. Now both of their right sides are defenseless and so Echo take advantage of that immediately by slamming his fist from above at his shoulder, dislocating his arm during that. If he were to have knife in his hands, then instead of dislocating his arm, he would have just slid his coronary artery with ease and the fight would have ended.

Even though he could take him down right now but because he doesn't have nothing against Walther and he is supposed to be their teacher, then there is no need for further embarrassment. So he just lets go of his arm and immediately follows it with a kick to send him back.

Walther looks at his arm and says"Your win. In a real battle I would have died."

"Yep."Echo just replies.

After that, Walther locates his arm back and tells Echo to go back to his group. He then started to explain about the martial arts style they were going to learn and what it was meant for.

To sum it up, the style doesn't have a name and it is primarily meant for defending from armed opponents and attack unarmed opponents. And that was basically it. There was mot much else.

After their training was over they had a lunch at the dining hall and after that they had the magic lesson.

For that, they needed to go underground where the mage was. They were currently walking down the stone stairs and after a while they reached a room. The door was opened and a completely new world was seen. Students started to slowly enter, while looking around with amazed look. The world itself basically was a grassland which was completely surrounded by a green treeline. There was light but no sun.

"Liking my world?"was said by the mage who was wearing her robes.

"This looks amazing."says Mari.

"Thank you. I take pride in this world."she continues"But you can look around later. For now we need to learn magic. As it was said before, my name is Ana Hylius, the Royal Mage. I will teach you all about the magic you need to know. But before we start, lets find out how big is your mana pool." A glass orb appears in her hand and she continues"For that. Please touch this orb and the brightness of the orb will show you your mana pool size. The brighter the better."

"Okay. Lets start with the Hero. Come here."she says and so Chris walks up to her and touches the orb. Immediately bright light shines, but not enough to blind. Once he takes off his hand, she says"That is about level seven. Pretty good. The average among humans is three."

After that people start to go to her and touch the orb. Evelyn got ten and she really needs a lot of mana, because of her priestess job. Jack got three, Mari five. And finally it was Echos turn who touched the orb and got eight.

The level chart goes:

Lvl 1.-0

Lvl 2.-0

Lvl 3.-2

Lvl 4.-6

Lvl 5.-4

Lvl 6.-3

Lvl 7.-2

Lvl 8.-3

Lvl 9.-2

Lvl 10.-2

"These are pretty good levels mostly. Okay. Now onto the lesson."she says.

"First you Are going to learn how to control your mana. Until you learn to control your mana you won't learn magic."she continues"First off. Get into an comfortable position."

Everyone sits or lies down how they like and she starts talking"I'll start telling a little about mana. Mana is a source of energy that is all around us. Our bodies are capable to collect it into our bodies and use that energy to create magic. The body will passively restore your mana pool and the speed depends on the person and the size of the pool."

"Now I shall teach you to control it."She starts"First close your eyes and clear your mind. Then try to find the blue spot in your mind and keep focusing on it."she says with a calming and a gentle voice.

Everyone tries to find the spot while she keeps repeating it.

"Keep focusing until you can feel it. When you do, try to control it. Take your time. No need to rush. Don't control it too long."

'I see the spot.'

Echo focuses at the spot in his mind and while he is doing that, he starts to feel it more and more. He sees blue energy in his mind, which he tries to control. First time nothing. Fifth time he could slightly move it. Tenth time he could more and once he tried fiftieth time he could control it.

'It looks beautiful.'he thought while he was moving the blue energy in his mind. He kept controlling it more and more, before something hit him, causing him to wake up.

"What the fuck."he muttered, while laying on the ground.

"That is what I want to ask."says the mage ."I told you not to control it for too long, but you still did it. I thought to leave you here, but then your mana started to leak, so I slapped you awake."

"Okay. How long was i out?"he asks her. He sees that beside him and her, there is no one else here.

She looks at him and says"Twelve hours. You were here for twelve hours. So I hope you can at least control your mana to an extend. You heroes are supposed to be naturally fast learners."

"Well It is too late to try now, so tomorrow. Until then."he says and gets up from the ground.

"See you tomorrow then."she says.