As Zaya looked upon Casmir, she couldn't find a single thing about him that was satisfactory.
Zaya could sense that Casmir was only a Grade 1 cultivator and that he hadn't advanced yet. This meant that he was a new cultivator who was unlikely to be experienced or skilled at any Qi techniques yet.
From his features Zaya could tell that he most likely came from the human race, a race with inferior physical prowess.
Her judgement of Casmir's abilities confused her, after all Instructor Redfire was supposed to match the students together with those of similar levels of strength. This was so that they could form a cooperative team as equals to learn from each other and develop their teamwork to take on a ferocious beast.
Unfortunately for Zaya her 'equal' was far less experienced and much weaker than her.
However Zaya didn't say anything to Instructor Redfire about her doubts, she did so out of respect for his strength but also a tinge of fear.
She was very mature for her age and understood that Instructor Redfire must have paired them together for a reason, perhaps Casmir was from a special race or had a naturally powerful ability.
However before she could examine Casmir further, Instructor Redfire spoke to the pair with a firm look in his eyes as if his decision was not up for debate.
"You two will be paired together for now, don't slack off Casmir. Zaya is a very experienced and mature cultivator, she can teach you a lot."
"Zaya, I know that you might have some doubts but I believe Casmir will be able to surprise you."
Zaya nodded calmly understanding that Instructor Redfire wanted her to take the lead in teaching Casmir.
Casmir also thanked Instructor Redfire casually, before he turned his attention to Zaya.
"Nice to meet you Zaya, I'm Casmir." Casmir said politely.
Zara nodded at Casmir calmly still trying to figure out what was so special about him.
"Nice to meet you too... So, what's so special about you?" Zaya asked getting straight to the point.
At this point Casmir was unaware of the gap between them so he was understandably confused as he spoke to her.
"What do you mean special?"
Zaya frowned after hearing Casmir's reply, she realised that Casmir truly was clueless.
She sighed before she explained.
"The Instructor paired us together for a reason, I'm a Grade 1 Advancement 5 cultivator and you're only Grade 1. Why would he pair us together with such a blatant difference in strength? There must be something special about you for him to do so. "
It was true that Casmir hadn't realised the strength difference between them, he was noticeably surprised to hear Zaya's cultivation but he understood what was happening after a moments thought.
Instructor Redfire was giving Casmir someone experienced to train with, someone to pressure him and guide him. Obviously Instructor Redfire was giving him special treatment because of his connection to Master Bluefire or perhaps under her instruction.
However this created an awkward situation for Casmir, he couldn't tell Zaya that Instructor Redfire was being biased in favour of him, that would create a poor relationship between the two and hamper any advantage Instructor Redfire hoped to give him.
Fortunately, Casmir did have something 'special' about him that he felt he could rely in order to explain Instructor Redfire's decision.
Casmir was going to rely on his abnormal physical strength that he had gained by training the Life Body Cycle in conjunction with the Minor Body Cleanse.
"I understand now, my physical strength is quite high and my physical training speed is quite fast. Also, I was planning on breaking through to Grade 1 advancement 1 later today, as long as I can get my hands on a Qi catalyst." Casmir explained.
Hearing this, Zaya grew curious towards Casmir, his cultivation breakthrough didn't matter much as it would only increase his strength by a small amount but If he had a high physical strength it could definitely help them.
"Come, lets go to the practice hall to test your strength." Zaya declared, not giving Casmir a choice in the matter.
Instructor Redfire had already explained that the students were free to practice how they thought best until the end of the school day. During that time the instructors would answer any questions they have and watch their practice on the training fields.
After all, most of the students were occupied in training their Qi flow or physical strength to pass the optional tests, only a small portions of the students had decided to take part in the ferocious beast test.
As Casmir and Zaya walked to the practice hall, Zaya explained to him how she could sense Casmir's cultivation level using a skill called Qi sensing.
There were very few skills one could learn at Grade 1, however there were a few tricks one could learn at this stage, such as sensing Qi levels.
It was a simply trick that involved a similar process to Qi drawing, this was often called Qi Sensing or a cultivator's sense. After following Zaya's detailed instructions Casmir managed to understand this trick before the pair had even reached the practice hall.
Casmir felt like he had opened up a new pair of eyes, he realised that he could see strange orbs around him that quickly grew larger and spread out swallowing everything they passed through.
Casmir realised that these orbs were like waves or pulses, they originated from all the cultivators around him gradually sweeping through everything and then fading away. Each pulse had a different strength but they felt like a cultivator's heartbeat, Casmir couldn't help but marvel at this fascinating sight.
It wasn't until Casmir and Zaya passed by an elderly man dressed like a teacher, that Casmir was shocked out of his new found sense.
All of the cultivators around him released a weak pulse every few seconds that Casmir could feel weakly pass through him as he sensed them but as Casmir passed the instructor, he felt like he was hit by a blinding light and a deafening sound at the same time.
At first Casmir had taken this old teacher as a normal person because he didn't release any pulses. However the old teacher suddenly released a pulse that seemed much thicker and heavier than any other he had seen, as the pulse passed through Casmir his consciousness shuddered and he was dazed.
Zaya couldn't help but laugh at Casmir as she watched him be overpowered by the Instructors cultivation.
She explained that cultivators release these pulses unconsciously and unless concealed, their cultivation, strength and many other characteristics can be understood through the details of these pulses.
Most cultivators would use these invisible pulses to gauge each other's strengths or understand one another's cultivation, Casmir was simple too inexperienced with Qi senses to be able to notice these characteristics.
These pulses were called Qi Waves and they were not unique to cultivators. All living creatures that could use Qi energy had them and even certain types of objects created using Qi energy could produce them.
"Your Qi senses are still very weak, at the moment a strong cultivator can disrupt your senses. As long as you practice them regularly, they will get stronger and when you reach Grade 2 you can start to reinforce your Qi senses with various Qi techniques." Zaya explained.
Soon after Zaya finished explaining Qi sensing, the pair reached the practice hall. Zaya immediately brought Casmir over to a practice dummy and asked him to show her his full physical strength.
Zaya was quite surprised as she watched Casmir remove his shirt and begin to attack the practise dummy. She could tell by the speed of his attacks and the damage inflicted on the dummy that his physical strength seemed to be even better than her own, which she had been training since she was young.
Zaya almost joyfully watched the raw power in Casmir's body flow down the muscle's in his limbs like a wave until it crashed onto the wooden dummy eliciting a deep groan from the wood that was now showing sign's of breakage.
Casmir continued to attack the dummy unaware that Zaya was not only judging his strength but also admiring his muscular body secretly.
Zaya could see that Casmir was strong, his muscle's were flexible and toned. However even though his body was well honed, his movements were inaccurate and inefficient leaving Zaya to conclude that he was indeed inexperienced.
Zaya came to the conclusion that if they wanted to fight off a ferocious beast in the test later this week, their best tactic would be for Casmir to distract and withstand the beast's attacks with his physical strength while she used her superior speed and skills to attack the beast.
"Ok, you can stop now Casmir. Your strength is pretty good, I've got a plan for how we can take on the ferocious beast. For now I think it would be best if we use an arena for some actual combat, so that I can point out your flaws and you can actively improve them." Zaya explained.
Casmir didn't argue with Zaya, from his recent experience with Master Bluefire Casmir thought it best that he didn't create conflict with a stronger cultivator, especially a female one.
The pair made their way over to a small arena, there were many such arenas that students could use for practicing and hung on a wall nearby to the arena was a set of wooden practice weapons.
Zaya made her way over and picked up a Short sword, which was her preferred weapon, then turned to Casmir asking him what weapon he used.
"A weapon? I've never practised with a weapon before... I guess a sword." Casmir decided.
However before he could take the sword Zaya stopped him.
"Wait. If you've never used a sword before, you won't be able to learn how to use one properly in a week... I think your best bet would be a spear and shield. Your strength is well suited towards them and they will be relatively simple to pick up." She explained.
Casmir couldn't help but question her advice thinking 'Surely all weapons would require a similar amount of time to train in, I like the sword, so I'm choosing it.'
Zaya frowned as she watched Casmir ignore her however when she saw Casmir smile happily as he recklessly swung the wooden longsword around, a cruel smile appeared on her face as she decided to teach him a lesson.
"Ok then, lets first practice your blocking. I'm going to swing at you and you're going to block me, that should be easy for you seeing as I only have a short sword." Zaya explained as she grinned maliciously.
Casmir simply smiled and nodded back unaware of what was to come.
Soon enough, repeated cries of pain rang out from the arena as Zaya ruthlessly 'taught' Casmir.
Every time Casmir attempting to block her strikes, he failed, resulting in Zaya striking him harshly with her sword. At first he asked her to not actually hit him but all she did was explain that a ferocious beast wouldn't care about his pain and continued to torment him.
To Zaya's surprise Casmir held up against her strikes for nearly half an hour, she realised that although Casmir was still a bit simple minded he did have a strong enough will to push through the pain he was feeling.
During this period Casmir didn't manage to block one strike of Zaya's sword, not for lack of trying but because Zaya was simply too fast and Casmir was indeed too inexperienced with a sword.
After finally dropping his longsword, Casmir reluctantly walked over to the weapons wall and retrieved a long spear and a large shield.
Zaya laughed mischievously as she saw Casmir's put out expression, she almost found it cute.
"Ok, let's start the real training..." Zaya said as she went on to explain a much more thorough and complex training regime than simply 'block my sword'.
Casmir was quite impressed by how much thought she had put into it and as he started practicing with Zaya, Casmir felt much more satisfied.
Soon enough Casmir was running around the arena under Zaya's instruction, occasionally he would thrust his spear at Zaya, only for her to dodge and sometimes Zaya would attack him with her sword.
Only this time Casmir managed to block her strikes with his shield, one couldn't imagine how satisfied and relieved Casmir felt being able to finally block her attacks, every time he did so a small smile appeared on his face.
However as Zaya noticed Casmir's smile and saw that he was fairly capable when it came to using these weapons, she decided to pick up the pace.
Zaya, who had always been standing at the centre of the arena as an immobile target as she instructed Casmir, suddenly started to move. She was much faster than Casmir so she quickly circled around Casmir's back and with a swipe of her sword she swept Casmir's legs into the air."
Casmir's body promptly made a satisfying thump sound on the hard ground as he groaned in pain.
"Come on Casmir. Are you a man? So far all you've done is get beaten up by me." Zaya said aggressively trying to rouse Casmir's temper in order to make him to fight better.
As Casmir looked up at Zaya, he saw her mocking expression and finally couldn't take it any longer.
He quickly got up and started chasing Zaya around the arena.
Casmir would thrust his spear whenever Zaya came close enough to him and Zaya would occasionally attack back, at this point she was the one on the run. Casmir even managed to force her to block some of his spear strikes with her sword instead of simply dodging them as she did before.
Casmir had truly gotten into the rhythm of fighting now that Zaya had succeeded in coaxing Casmir's fighting spirit out of him.
The pair practiced for hours until Zaya finally couldn't last any longer, Casmir was exhausted as well but his endurance caused Zaya to be shocked, she couldn't help but try to think of more cruel ways to train this persistent young man.