Now I understand what my parents went through went I was little. Maria kept turning in her sleep and if that wasn’t bad enough she was also trembling. I thought that hugging her would do some good but I also had to take care of her.

When I woke up I saw Maria tidying up the room. It’s summer break, can’t she stop working for at least a day. On the other hand it’s better to keep herself busy rather than remembering what she has been through.

“Good morning.”

“Morning.”

“It looks like I made quite a mess last night.”

On the bed there were supposed to be blankets, sheets and pillows, things that now reside on the floor. The state of the bed reflects the state she was in last night. If Daniel wanted to talk to me he could have done that when I was alone.

“I will get up and help you with the bed.”

“OK.”

For some reason Maria developed a habit of patting my head every time I offer to help her. Somehow the way difference between the way I act and the way I look was amusing for her. I am a kid in man’s body and she finds that amusing.

After making the bed Maria and I had breakfast. Apparently during breaks Maria eats in the girl’s dorm; she says that the food is better here and she is right. The food here has some taste in comparison to the one served in the boy’s dorm. The reason behind this is that boys should be taught to eat anything edible regardless of taste. Most men become adventurers or worse so they can’t be picky eaters. Now what I need is a way to eat here even during school days, worst case scenario I will put on a skirt, nobody will notice I’m a guy.

“There are more people today than yesterday, is it common for kids not to go back home?”

“What about you; why didn’t you go home?”

“Well I am adopted.”

“And how’s that relevant?”

“I don’t really want to go back and Lea is too young to even care if I’m there or not.”

“You are going to stay here?”

“I have to read the books I saw in the library, learn demon and elven language and try to create that blackboard I told you about.”

“We have the materials here. In my opinion the biggest challenge will be to get the teachers to use them.”

“Let’s just take one step at a time, all right?”

“Where do you want to begin?”

“I am to actually start that training first.”

“Until midnight you can help me with some jobs.”

“Sounds good.”

Maria asked me to help with some small job or rather requests. Most of them consisted of manual labor and maintenance. I have nothing to complain about, any effort I make makes my body stronger and seeing how I almost got killed twice this week I really need that training.

Something strange happened when I helped Maria carry some accessories. In that pile of magic items was a ring that my scan said it increases the user’s stamina when worn. I tried wearing one just to see its effects. After you put the ring on your finger you put some magic in it to activate its effect, that’s how these work. In my case the enchantment in the ring literally broke. These things usually have a rune that represents the enchantment. When I tried adding magic to the ring the rune disappeared or it was erased.

“So this just happened.”

“If we count the incident with the fire crystals…Maybe you destroyed the enchantment because it was too weak. These kinds of rings are for beginners and require little magic to use. This is bad, if you can’t use something like this then you’d better not use anything that’s enchanted.”

“I still have the bracelet Ellen and Kraft gave me.”

“When I wore that I was unable to stand, that’s a powerful enchantment, one strong enough to allow you to use it. And one other thing, unlike the usual enchantments your bracelet takes the amount of magic needed itself without you being conscious of it.”

“That explains why it stopped me from getting magic poisoned. Well, I think I will keep the ring.”

“These were just some extras, nobody will mind if a thing or two disappear.”

“Thanks for understanding.”

“With pleasure, now back to work.”

I couldn’t get what Maria said out of my head, enchanted items are a must for an adventurer. Well shit, this one of the scenarios were I’m supposed to compensate by strengthening my body which is bullshit. I just need to hunt some powerful items to help me.

After helping Maria I went back to my room to help Jaden with homework then I went to visit Astrid. I want to ask her about the Master. If she felt his presence yesterday I might understand his powers a little. Poor creature, I wonder how she can cope with being locked in there.

“Yo, it’s been a while.”

“Good evening Alexander.”

“Sorry for asking this out of the bat: Did you feel an unknown presence around midnight?”

“Indeed, I felt a foreign presence in the premises. It belonged to a human, a powerful individual.”

“He is a master assassin, he is known as the Master.”

“I’ve heard stories about him, how did you manage to anger such a man?”

“I killed one of his subordinates.”

Astrid’s face lit up, her curiosity could be seen in her eyes. She was watching me closely. Seeing both versions of her staring at me was really disturbing, I’m fine with her child version but her mature one was something else.

Seeing that I had no way out of this I told her the story from the beginning, how I was stabbed by Mir, how I fought the Puppeteer and how I killed him despite Master’s intervention.

“That’s why I want you to tell me if you feel his presence again.”

“I will.”

“Thank you. Well, it looks like it’s time for me to go.”

“Farewell for now.”

It is almost eleven, I should read a little to pass the time, elven language is harder than I thought.

Once midnight arrived I went back to the courtyard where Maria was waiting for me. It looks like she was ready.

“I will show you how to use Blade Empowerment, pay attention.”

Maria extended her arms with her dagger in her right hand. After extending her arms she put her left hand on the dagger’s blade. She used body enchantment then slowly touched the blade and moved her hand in a straight line; it looked like she was dusting off the blade. The part of the blade touched by her hand became black and magic gathered inside it.

“When you empower weapon you gather magic in both your hands. First you grip the handle with your dominant hand; after gripping it tightly you use your other hand to inject magic into the blade. Usually you start from the guard then slowly work your way to the point of the blade.”

I understand most of it…OK, what the hell are the [guard] and the [point]? I know how to use a dagger or a knife but that doesn’t mean that I know what it’s made of. Well the [point] is self-explanatory. How about I scan that dagger and find out what the [guard] is. A guard is used to protect my hand form opponents if I parry somebody. Now that I know where the beginning and the end are, let’s actually get to the good part.

“You should try holding in from both sides at once.”

So on one side I will use my thumb and on the other side I will use the rest of my fingers.

I activated Black Blood, gathered my magic in my hands and started the process: First I released magic from my right hand and then I started dusting off the blade, slowly, carefully. Holy Shit Man! This drains less magic than I thought and it’s actually working.

After some time I finally finished injecting magic in the dagger’s blade. It looked cool; now let’s see how long I can keep this running.

“Nicely done! Now let’s test it for real!”

After she said that Maria charged at me. When I spar with Maria the only way to win is to parry her attacks and wait for a chance to strike. I remember last time I tried to avoid her attacks; she appeared behind me, grabbed me by the collar and threw me backwards a few meters, great day.

Trying to keep up with her sure is difficult, she is able to stop mid strike and then change the trajectory of her attacks which is annoying. So between trying not to get stabbed and controlling both Blade Empowerment and Black Blood I was doing better than expected.

After a few dozen strikes I noticed something strange: when our daggers clash there seems to be magic being released from Maria’s blade, she can’t keep this up for long. Control or not her strikes are as fast as ever, I can barely parry them.

“Let’s stop it here.”

“Very well.”

We both deactivated the techniques and then something funny happened, the blade of my dagger broke, basically it turned into little pieces of metal. I was dumbfounded; I couldn’t understand what I just saw. The dagger’s blade just turned into iron sand and on top of it my right hand started shaking. Oh well, there goes one iron dagger. Then again, Ellen told me that the dagger was for training only, now the only thing I have left is the combat knife Kraft gave me.

“That was strange. What the hell happened?”

“I think it’s the same thing that happened to the ring, only that instead of an inscription you injected magic in a blade. At least now you know how long you can last using an iron dagger.”

“It’s a little disappointing.”

“It shouldn’t be. You managed to keep Blade Empowerment active a lot longer than I expected. If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t have stopped the sparring. Well, good job!”

I’ve never seen Maria so pleased; is that what a teacher feels when she sees her student doing something right for once? Now if I remember correctly the combat knife was a silver one, maybe it will last longer.

“Maybe something made of silver?”

After a few seconds of thinking she responds.

“Theoretically is should work but that’s not the problem here.”

“So, what’s wrong?”

“Your control over magic is. I have an idea: try using Shadow Step continuously from now on. If I’m right it will improve your control over magic.”

She has a point though. Shadow Step works by releasing a burst of magic when you step. My magic is going to get depleted faster but I can handle it.

“Incidentally, how much magic did our fight consume?”

Well, it’s time to go to my Inner World. It’s been some time since I looked at the lake. By the looks of it I guess I spent one fifth of my magic and it’s already starting to regenerate. That’s actually very good especially considering what happened to me. If I’m here I might as well check the time…It’s two in the morning? Damn, I know that my fights with Maria are mostly staring contests but it doesn’t feel like we fought for almost two hours. Then again I wasn’t in any danger and neither of us was going all out so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Oh well, Time to give her an answer.

“I used about one fifth of my magic.”

“I see. You were able to use Blade Empowerment on your first try, good work!”

I am so happy I can’t help but smile. It’s been a while since something went the way it should.

“By the looks of it you can use it more than me. Now we only need to test your power.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“The Wall.”

“The Wall?”

“Yes, the Wall.”

The Wall in highly resistant to all forms of damage so if I cut it I will see how powerful the spell is. During the entrance tests I made a hole in that Wall, I think that cutting it will not be difficult or that’s I would like to say but the Wall can repair itself up to a point.

“You want me to strike that until what?”

“If your output is high enough the Wall will not be able to repair fast enough. If you can put two cuts on it before it repairs itself you can consider yourself stronger than me.”

“Not faster?”

“It’s more about power than speed. Try slashing it a few times and you will see.”

The next day I decided to go and practice my knife fighting on the Wall. Now I understand why Maria told me that putting a cut on the Wall is a test of power, because I can’t cut it. When I try hitting it my knife bounces off. I spent half a day hitting this fucking Wall but nothing happens, I can’t even leave a mark.

“How are you doing?”

Oh look Maria is here. I’m already pissed; I don’t need her here right now.

“What is it?”

I’m really not in the mood for this….She is holding something in her hand, a dagger.

“I brought you a silver dagger. That knife looked like it was a gift so I thought that you might hold back when you use it.”

I put the knife in the Null and took the dagger Maria gave me. Was I really holding back? I might have unconsciously held back because I was afraid I will break it. Well, it's a good thing that I learnt to keep my mount shut or else I would have insulted her for no reason.

“Thank you. Will there be a problem if I break it?”

“No, it won’t. You’ve helped both me and the headmistress a lot, she won’t mind if you break a few things.”

“Well then, I’d better get back to work.”

“Good luck.”

Now let’s start all over again. Slowly inject magic into the dagger and start slashing. It feels different, I can’t say exactly how but it feels different. I tried slashing it a little…Well; at least it doesn’t bounce off.

This isn’t working, I have to use more magic. OH! After a few strikes I did it! I DID IT! I actually cut the wall. The cut was small and it disappeared shortly after I made it but it was there.

“Well done.”

“Huh? I thought you left.”

For some reason Maria was still here looking at me with great interest. I thought she had work to do. Usually I can't feel her presence so when she's not talking and I can't see her my first thought is that she left.

“Why are you still here?”

“I had a feeling that you will come through if there is nothing to hold you back. It looks like I was right.”

“Yeah, I did it. Now it’s time for the real trial.”

“I’m going to leave you alone now. Remember, this isn’t a race, stop when you are tired and rest.”