The training began with jogs around the neighborhood, which always attracted stares. Eskaria refused to participate in this training, and Reeve couldn't figure out why. After all, she was the weakest among all of them. The trainees were woken up early in the morning, and forced to jog until the sun came up. After the sun had come up, they would be forced to carry large stones. None of the trainees knew the significance of this training. Up to now, they had not been trained on how to fight.
At first Riza complained, but when she saw her stamina improving, she stopped completely. Of course, the training didn't cause her playful side to dwindle. In fact, it caused it to become worse. She played so many pranks on Soren and Eskaria, that Reeve gave up on reprimanding her. There was one time she tied a thread to a bucket full of water, and then placed the bucket right next to Eskaria's bed. This happened during the night, when everyone was asleep.
Eskaria woke up with a yawn, and triggered the thread, which caused the bucket to tilt, and the cold water fell on her. She suddenly screamed, causing the whole apartment to wake up. Riza had been given an earful by Reeve, but of course, the reprimand fell on deaf ears.
After the prank, Riza played a few more on Soren as well. One of them was to carefully place a spider on the stone Soren was carrying. When Soren saw the spider, he accidentally dropped the stone on his foot, causing him to jump up in a loud scream.
Everyone started to dislike her, apart from Reeve of course, who didn't receive any prank from her. It seemed as if the only reason for this was that she was afraid of being punished during training. This had happened once, and she didn't want to run ten laps again.
As for Eskaria and Miranda, they somewhat became best of friends. Reeve didn't know what had happened for them to develop to this extent. When they went shopping, they would always be together. It was now difficult to separate these two, especially when Alvis was at work. Eskaria seemed to have matured, and it seemed as if this had something to do with Miranda. Reeve didn't know if this was a good or bad thing. However, he let it be.
During the training days, Reeve had spoken to Merezeka, and he had agreed to provide missions to carry out for some money. As for where the kid would get the missions, Reeve didn't ask, and he didn't want to know. Merezeka delivered, of course. The missions were simple bounty hunting missions, and as they carried them out, they managed to earn a few gold coins. This was when Riza realized the effects of the jogging and carrying heavy rocks.
As with all good things, the days came to an end. Well, for Reeve and Eskaria, they were good days, for Soren and Riza … not so much. Now, the time for the opening of Artemine Elemental College had arrived.
"Finally, I get to start learning magic!" Reeve declared, as he walked towards the magnificent gates. He could barely hide his excitement.
Eskaria and Soren were walking behind him, with a certain calmness. It was like to them, there was nothing special about going to Artemine Elemental College. As they moved, they saw many students wearing similar robes, of different colors. Among the colors, were yellow, blue, red and black.
"Why are they wearing different colors? I thought the robes were like a uniform", Reeve voiced his thoughts.
"According to Alvis, the robes show the rank of the student. Yellow is for the D-ranked, Red is for the C-ranked, Blue is for the B-ranked and Black is for the A-ranked students. Those students wearing black will definitely be graduating from Artemine Elemental College this semester, well … assuming they pass the final examinations", replied Soren.
"What about those wearing purple?" asked Eskaria. For some weird reason, she liked the color purple. It was unknown whether it was due to the fact that her magic had the same color, or if it was just an innocent preference.
"Oh, those are the teachers. Every teacher wears a purple robe, and as for the grey robes, those are worn by students who are trying to become S-ranked mages."
"Who ranks these students?" asked Reeve.
"In Vyren, there are a few places where people are ranked. Besides those studying magic at Artemine, there are also those who have never attended school to learn magic. Therefore, the council of guilds decided to make some ranking halls. As long as someone goes to a ranking hall, and pays the required amount of silver coins, they can be ranked. Once someone is ranked, they can enter any guild that accepts them. Of course, most guilds prefer people who come from schools of magic, because they are prepared for the guilds", Soren paused. They had arrived at the fountain.
Soren continued, as he stared at the water gushing up in the fountain, "Besides the council of guilds, the schools of magic also rank their students. I do not know how many halls there are, since Alvis didn't tell me much about them."
"Eh? You got all this information from Alvis?" asked Reeve.
"Of course! He teaches magic here, and he even said that he could give me extra lessons if I wanted", replied Soren.
The trio went inside the college, and in a few minutes, they were directed towards a certain hall by a student wearing a circular badge. This badge was engraved with Artemine's insignia. The reason why they were directed to the hall, was because they were not wearing student robes. And to their surprise, in the hall, there were more students who were not wearing student robes. After finding vacant seats, the trio sat down quietly.
"Good morning, I would like to welcome you all to Artemine Elemental College. This is the place where future leaders are made. My name is Rokkai, and I'm the current principal of this school. Since you're all new, let's start with establishing the important rules", a middle-aged man with white hair spoke, as he arrived in front of everyone.