"This is not real, right?" Mei asked. She looked at the surrounding that was full of trees around the clearing.
"No," Yan answered and generated a shooting board. He placed it nearer for Mei to try.
"Since you're in Mage class, your goal is to deal the most amount of damage in the shortest time possible by casting all your spells." He explained while Mei nodded in understanding.
"You only have one skill for now. Aim using your hand and try hitting the target," Yan stated and pointed at the shooting board.
"Ye-yes, Senior," Mei looked at the board and took a deep breath. The vessel on her hand disappeared when she transformed into her artificial body. She followed Yan's instructions and aimed with her palm.
They waited for a few seconds, but no firing came out. Making Mei trembled with embarrassment.
"Nothing is coming out," Mei muttered, discouraged by her lack of skills.
"Think about hitting the prey. As a mage, you should use your mind to induce your mana into firing at your target," Yan clarified and went behind Mei. He kneeled down to match her height.
Yan held Mei's hand in line with the target. "Focus your mind and blur everything else. Centralize the mana into your palm; try saying 'shoot' if it helps."
Yan removed his hand and stepped away from Mei to give her time to work on herself.
"Shoot!" Mei yelled loudly. At the same time, a blast of light appeared on her hand and hit a small part of the target.
"Woah!" Mei exclaimed in amazement. She couldn't believe that she had done something like that.
"That's good. Continue practicing; I'll be back after I have eaten breakfast," Yan said while patting Mei's head.
"Okay, eat well, Senior," Mei smiled and watched Yan walk out of the door.
"Okay, I got this," Mei whispered to encourage herself. She looked at the new target that appeared after she had shot the previous one.
"Sh-shoot!" Mei yelled, but she was distracted, causing her blast to fire at a different location, destroying several trees.
Mei yelped in shock.
"That's scary," Mei mumbled. She took several deep breaths and thought that everything around the room was fake and nothing was destroyed by her blast. "I'll try again!"
Mei closed her eyes and extended her arm. She imagined the target in her mind and focused all her mana, preparing to fire again.
"Shoot!"
The blast erupted on Mei's hand like lightning, but it was unstable. She pursed her lips and tried again and again.
After 2 hours...
"Ah, Yan, you're back," Fang greeted when Yan arrived at the entrance after eating.
"How's Mei?" Yan asked while rubbing his full stomach.
"Ah, she's still going," Fang answered as she looked at her screen.
Yan nodded before entering the training room to see multiple shooting boards on the side that Mei had destroyed rather than shoot. The surrounding trees were also in ruins.
"What just happened?" Yan muttered in disbelief. He thought that Mei had got the hang of the vessel's power.
"Senior Yan," Mei beamed after seeing Yan at the door with a confused and horrified look.
"Fang, reset the room, please," Yan stated and looked above where the camera was placed.
"Okay," Fang replied through the speaker, and the room returned to its original state.
"I'm sorry," Mei lowered her head. She felt so small for unable to do better.
"It's fine, Mei. This is your first time, after all," Yan said and patted her head for comfort. "Let's try again, but don't put too much mana while firing this time. You are only a trainee, so don't be hard on yourself, okay?"
"O-okay," Mei nodded her head and looked at the target. "Shoot!"
Another unstable blast erupted and destroyed the trees again. Mei immediately faced Yan and apologized.
'She's strong but incapable of wielding such power,' Yan thought and asked Fang to reset the room again.
"How about saying those words in your mind. It could lower the power range of your mana," Yan suggested and stepped back when Mei tried again.
Mei fired another blast but was weaker and hit the center part of the shooting board. "I did it!" She exclaimed upon seeing the improvement.
"Good job. Do it several times. So that we can proceed to the next step," Yan stated, letting Mei do her thing for a couple of minutes.
When Yan saw that, Mei got the hang of firing. He generated a new shooting board that moved scarcely.
"Try hitting again," Yan muttered and watched Mei struggle with the new board and miss every shot.
Mei became frustrated that she couldn't hit one. She was about to develop a vast amount of mana, but Yan stopped her.
"You need to be patient. For mages to earn points, they need to aim and shoot precisely at their enemies. You need a lot to learn, such as shooting while running, escaping, doing ambush, and firing while staying hidden. This is just the basic part of the training," Yan explained for Mei to understand what she needed to know.
"Thank you, Senior Yan," Mei smiled sincerely and went back to practice shooting again while trying to maintain a decent amount of mana released.
"I'm sad to say that I need to leave again. I'm on duty around the day, but I'll be back at night. You can end your training once your mana is used up. We'll continue training together again if we are free," Yan stated and walked toward the door.
"Okay, keep safe, Senior Yan," Mei exclaimed and bowed her head for respect before returning to firing at the moving target.
Yan stared at Mei before leaving. He faced Fang, who was busy eating fries with Xuxu.
"I don't see Mei as a Combatant. She's too rushed and impatient with her firing," Yan commented and shook his head. Although, he won't give up easily on Mei, especially since he saw how determined she was to learn.