Victoria PoV

[Thank you for talking to me about your life]

After being inside this room four days, the Goddess finally talked to me again.

Suddenly the sculpture gets enveloped by a bright light. Seconds later the Goddess is in front of me.

“I think this way it will be easier to talk”

Her tone sounds relaxed, clearly in this world sculptures come to life every day, but not in my world, a warning would have been nice.

“Did I surprise you?”

“I’m sorry, I’m not used to this sort of situation”

My voice sounds nervous.

“You will get accustomed to it”

Then she examines me for a few seconds.

“What is love?”

“Huh?”

Her expression looks serious but I notice a slight sign of a smile.

“What is your definition of love?”

Wait a minute, is this the fifty-fifty chance of me learning the skill, what should I answer?

“Don’t worry, you already earned my blessing so just answer honestly”

At least I’m not gambling my skill with this answer.

“I don’t know, I love my parents, I love my best friend, but I don’t have words to describe ‘love’”

She smiles.

“Good answer”

She walks a step towards me, I’m still on my knees, she puts her hand on the top of my head and a bright light covers the room.

‘By communicating with the Goddess Naleya you have obtained her blessing and learnt the skill Naleya’s Touch

Faith added to status

Mana +5

WIS +1

Faith +10’

[See you soon Victoria]

‘Goddess Naleya has left the room’

I didn’t manage to thank her.

“Naleya’s Touch description”

‘Naleya’s Touch – Beginner Level 1

You can convert mana into health and transfer it to another living being, abnormal status can be cured upon direct contact with the objective.

1 mana for 1 health

Simple abnormal status can be restored

Health can be transferred within a 5 meters circle’

Doesn’t look as useful as I thought it would be, but being able to cure abnormal status is a plus I’m grateful for.

Now I can leave the room.

I look for Daniah to tell her I learnt the skill, after a while I find her standing next to the door of a room.

When I’m closer I hear the sound of a sword hitting something, the heavy breathing of someone.

Daniah notices my presence and with her hand makes a gesture for me to be silent.

I reach the door and a knight instructor is attacking an adventurer holding a shield, when the sword hits the young man gets pushed pack a few meters and immediately returns to his original position to get hit again.

The adventurer is handsome, short white hair and pale skin, broad shoulders, 1.80 meters tall.

Suddenly Daniah grabs my hand and starts walking, I follow her.

Minutes later we reach the garden.

“Looks like you enjoyed the view my friend”

What? I feel the temperature of my face increasing, I flush.

She laughs.

“Well, he’s a handsome young man isn’t he?”

“I guess”

I try to avoid the topic.

“Should I introduce you to him?”

“Enough teasing Daniah”

I know he doesn’t look like that in the real world, besides I’m not here looking for a man.

She pouts.

“Congratulations on getting your skill”

Daniah smiles.

“Thank you”

“What are you going to do now?”

“I want to learn a combat skill, a magic attack maybe”

The priestess remains silent for a while.

“I can’t teach you magic attacks, it would take too long and you would have to become a follower of Naleya”

That’s disappointing, I like it here and I thought all my skills would be learned from Daniah.

“But I can tell you where to go, if you want to”

“I trust you, please tell where to go”

“My brother is the Priest in the temple of Natech, god of war and knowledge”

She pauses for a second.

“He can teach you an offensive magic skill”

“I will go there”

My friend smiles.

“Tell him I sent you”

“Thank you for everything Daniah, I’m really glad I met you”

“We will meet again dear friend”

Then she walks to a box in the garden and takes out a small bag.

“Take this, it will help you in the future”

I grab the bag and put it around my waist.

“Don’t forget to take some fruits from the garden with you”

Then her eyes get teary, looking at her my eyes get teary too. We hug.

“I really enjoyed your company”

Her voice sounds happy.

“It isn’t like I’m leaving the academy you know”

We both laugh.

“I know, it’s just that it has been a while since I could talk to a friend”

Her duty doesn’t allow her to have much fun.

After that we talk for a couple of hours before I leave the temple.

We say our goodbyes and leave to learn my last skill in this academy.

An hour later I arrive to the temple of Natech, looks like a coliseum. All tree instructors are muscular men carrying a spear and shield.

I’m not sure what kind of magic I can learn here, Daniah told me to come, I have to trust her.

Asking around for the priest an instructor points me towards his direction.

Daniah’s brother looks a lot like her, he doesn’t fit with all the other instructors in this temple, I would say he has a girlish appearance.

“Excuse me”

I interrupt him while he’s talking to another NPC.

He turns around.

“Yes?”

“Daniah, the priestess in the temple of Naleya sent me here, she said you could teach an offesinve magic skill”

He looks at me, Daniah said that instructors have a skill to see information of the adventurers within the academy.

“Interesting, I did not expect my sister to find an apprentice so soon”

The air around him is completely different from his sister, he doesn’t seem gentle.

“What is your name child?”

I wonder why the instructors treat me like a child, I’m already seventeen.

“My name is Victoria”

“Good, Victoria, my name is Darius and I will teach you the skill you are looking for”

He smiles but his gaze makes me uncomfortable.

“First, let me test your abilities, come with me”

I follow him outside, adventurers are learning how wield spears or use shields from the instructors.

Darius call one of the instructors.

“Fight with her”

What? Fight? I don’t have fighting skills.

The instructor get combat ready.

Darius looks at me.

“What are you waiting for?”

I don’t like him.

At least if I get hurt I’m capable of healing myself.

Suddenly the instructor attacks me with his spear, I barely have time to avoid the attack.

I don’t think I will last long, in fact, one hit and I’m out.

“Block”

I keep avoiding his attacks, I consider myself an agile person.

Darius frowns.

“Why aren’t you blocking with your mana?”

The instructor stops moving towards me.

“Blocking with my mana?”

“Didn’t Daniah teach you Mana Manipulation?”

I didn’t think about that.

“Wait a minute, Mana Manipulation can be used to defend?”

Darius sighs.

“I bet Daniah showed you how make things glow and look pretty but didn’t even mention how this skill can be used in battle”

I nod.

“I get it, I’m going to show you, Aulon, attack me please”

The instructor uses his spear to attack Darius, he doesn’t avoid the attack but I feel his mana concentrating into his arm, then he blocks the attack.

“Did you notice?”

“Yes, you focused your mana in a single spot of your body and used it to block his attack”

He smiles.

“At least you are a talented child”

I really don’t like him.

“Do you think you can do it?”

“Maybe, let me try”

The instructor gets ready to attack.

I cross my arms and focus my mana there, I can’t seem to focus as much as Darius, neither can I concentrate it in a single spot, my mana is dispersed all around my arms.

‘Health -20’

The spear hits right into my arms, somehow the mana managed to stop the attack, but I fall to the ground after his attack, the pain is unbearable and I can’t seem to move my arms.

“As expected”

Darius tone sounds confident.

I try to take a look at him, but everything is blurry I believe I’m going to pass out.

“Use Naleya’s Touch”

Right, healing, I can heal myself.

“Naleya’s Touch”

The mana flowing through my body starts converting into energy, the pain slowly disappears and my vision clears.

A while later I try to stand, my arms remain numbed.

Darius thanks the instructor and makes me follow him inside.

“I’m sorry if my ways are too crude, but that is the way of Natech”

He completely changed, is he bipolar? Before he looked like a sadistic fellow and now I feel the same warm feeling that I felt while training with Daniah.

“To learn the skill I’m going to teach you it’s necessary to feel a spear with your body at least once”

“I understand”

He grabs a cup from a table in the room and fills it with magic.

“Drink this”

As I drink the water the numbness in my arms disappear and I feel all my mana coming back to me, my body feels slightly different.

“What was that?”

“It’s normal water blessed by Natech, it restores energy and makes you thirst for battle”

That’s what I’m feeling right now, it’s an urge to start fighting.

“The thirst for battle will disappear in around five minutes”

He laughs.

“What’s so funny?”

He keeps laughing.

I grab his collar and glare at him.

Then I take a look at his face, he looks amused.

The rage disappears, why is it that I’m grabbing his collar? I let it go.

“Well, that’s a little side effect from the drink, but at least you are in a better condition now”

I don’t want to drink that again, it felt like all reason left my mind.

“So, are you sure you want to learn from me? I’m not a nice teacher”

“I trust Daniah sent me to you for a reason”

He laughs again.

“Let’s go outside”

We leave the room.

“Look at this”

He raises his hand towards the wall, the mana inside his body starts condensing in the air forming a spear of light which remains floating in his hand.

“This is Magic Spear, it’s a simple magic attack but stronger than most spells you can learn in this academy”

Then he throws the spear into the wall, which is easily destroyed.

“Can you do it?”

I nod.

I stand in front of the wall, raise my hand and focus my mana outside of my body, controlling the energy outside my body it’s harder than I thought, little by little the mana takes a shape similar to an spear, an inconsistent spear and a smaller version than the one Darius used.

‘Skill Learning: Magic Spear

To learn this skill you need to be able to create a stable spear with your mana’

“It’s shabbier than I expected but I guess it is good enough for a first try”

My spear right now is humiliating, it barely resembles one and looks like it will disappear any moment.

“I will improve”

Darius smiles, for the first time it doesn’t look fake or sadistic.

“Keep trying, come back inside to rest when you are out of mana”

Then he goes into the room and I keep trying to form a correct spear.