Unbeknownst to Samuel, Tyklion was the kind of man to never praise others, always remaining behind his armor - showing no emotion, one could hear it in his voice of course. But he rarely let it show through his voice.
"Not many students can wordlessly cast ten fireballs simultaneously."
"What? Surely you jest." Many of the ones that remained all seemed to show shock and let out different reactions. Except for the leaders of course.
"He really did ten at the same time, without chanting?" Markal - one of Tyklions teammates was the first to ask, Tyklion simply gave him a slow nod.
Markal looked at Samuel and slowly nodded. "Alright, so he is already high end when it comes to the casting of spells with that information out. Keep it up kid!" Markal imparted him with those words and left.
"I will make an exception for you, because I know you and your story!" Vazal spoke and held out a small token that floated towards Samuel.
He grabbed it midair and looked at the weird token that looked like a sun before looking questioningly at Vazal.
"You are free to come and go as you please with that token. Even if the college is on lockdown." Vazal explained and left.
Only Tyklion and Alsian remained at the end, Tyklion looked at Alsian "So can I assume that he as well?"
"Yes, and you would be correct!" Alsian replied.
"But he will probably one day surpass both you and me." Alsian added those last words with a smile.
"Its a good thing there was no illusion magic activated around him, because then I wouldn't have gone easy on him." Tyklion grunted and left with a very annoyed walk.
Alsian shrugged and walked up to Samuel, "Sorry! Didn't mean to eavesdrop... I was on the verge of leaving because I realized I shouldn't be there - but thats when he noticed me."
Alsian just patted off some more dust, the fire in the hall had long since been put out by other Dawnkeepers. "Well, you keep training. I will be available not tomorrow, but the evening after tomorrow. I will impart some chronomancy lessons on you then."
Samuel grew wide eyed at the mention of chronomancy, it was true that he was part of the bloodline where it should come naturally to him, Alsian had even guessed that his ability to see things slower was a mutation that derived from their bloodline.
"Okay!" Was the only word Samuel was able to speak, Alsian pointed him at the exit and gave him one last nod before returning to his own business.
Samuel left feeling a bit weird about the whole thing. He had just barely managed to survive the attacks of the one rumored as being the strongest Dawnkeeper, and he probably would have died if it wasn't for Alsian.
He had also overheard that there were cultists that had snuck into the school or that someone was working with the cults. Neither of those possibilities made him remotely happy.
But he was also happy that he had been given permission to come and go as he pleased, when he started at the college he would have never anticipated that family connections could give him something that useful.
It actually made him feel a bit dirty, almost like he had cheated. But Samuel had no idea how much it meant, he would have never been given such a token if he hadn't proven himself over and over again. Especially Tyklion complimenting him.
Samuel was also weirded out still by the fact that he had slept for at least an entire night and day.
One of his questions on his way back was of course answered quite fast, he found himself surrounded by guards and mages with the insignia of a Dawn, representing the Dawnkeepers.
Every time he had to show the token he had gotten, he found it surprising that he had never seen any of the guards on his way to the training halls, but on his way back there was an extreme amount.
They were surprised to see a student with a token - which lead to many of them double checking with their superiors and checking who gave out the ring.
Soon enough word must have spread among their ranks because he was let go faster and faster each time, until he was finally back to his place.
Left alone to his own peaceful thoughts once more there wasn't much to do but train, exercise and study on his own.
Trying to mentally prepare his mind for what chronomancy could mean, the power to control time to some extent, his ability to perceive time slower and to react faster to things was definitely something connected to that power.
So he spent his time either studying, training or sleeping. He had felt weird after sleeping an entire day last time but he still got tired like usual, his next sleep was more rough.
If Samuel could have seen his own body while sleeping he would have been shocked, the first full day had prepared his body for the next sleep. His entire body sucked in mana with every breath, he wasn't even doing it on purpose, his body was doing it for him.
So used it had gotten to training mana breathing that he was now even further attuned to the natural energy that flows through every thing that exists.
The only one that could see what was happening would have been Night, not only was mana being sucked in at an incredible rate, but every major vein in Samuels body was lit up in the color of rainbows.
When Samuel woke up in the morning he felt more tired than he could ever explain. But at the same time his body felt light and strong - if he disregarded his tired state.
He looked out the window and saw that it was already midday, not long before he would meet with Alsian and train. Which led him to decision to take it easy for the rest of the day.
Eventually the time came around when he was to meet his older cousin, so he took what he needed and left his house, there were still plenty of guards and mages around.
However there were also some teachers and assistant teachers out and about, no students however. But it seemed like they had started clearing out some people from suspicion.
Samuel was of course stopped two or three times by guards that checked him, but he was quickly allowed to leave again thanks to his token.
Still tired from his restless sleep he didn't let it bother him as he finally reached the hall. He had not been able to fall asleep again, not that he wanted to risk falling asleep anyway in case he would sleep and miss his first lesson.
Much to Samuels joy, Alsian was already there in the hall waiting for him. But even as he entered the hall he could see that Alsian also looked tired.
"Long days?" Samuel asked and Alsian nodded, "Looks the same for you!"
Alsian looked at him up and down, they both hated to admit it - but they looked like two real piles of mesh right about now.
Dishreveled clothing and messy hair, it wasn't hard to see the simillarity between the two, at that moment they looked almost like brothers. The same hairstyle and color was the most obvious fact, but also the eyes.
"We'll keep this a bit short, because frankly: I am exhausted!" Alsian sighed and waved Samuel closer. "So listen closely!"
"Are you listening?" Alsian asked to make sure and Samuel nodded.
Seemingly pleased Alsian nodded, "Alright good, because chronomancy is not easy." He turned to the right and threw a dagger from some hidden place on his body.
Then he shouted, "Stop!" And just like that the dagger froze in midair, someone without magic would have a hard time seeing the golden chains that appeared out of nowhere and bound themselves around the dagger.
But for a spellcaster like Samuel that was no problem, the chains themselves seemed to coat the dagger in a yellow force shield that kept it from moving.
He looked at where the chains came from but they seemed to come out of thin air and weren't even anchored to anything but air.
Alsian started walking around the dagger, "Chronomancy is the power to control time, to a certain extent - but it is limited in what in can do, for many reasons!"
"The gods do not like anyone playing around with time to a larger extent. Changing the timeline, travelling in time, are all very dangerous things." Alsian waved his hands and a linear yellow strand appeared in the air.
"The easiest thing to do, would be to simply rip apart ourselves when attempting it, the risk to rip apart time and space itself as well."
"Fortunately, chronomancy is rare and the amount of chronomancers that can reach those levels are extremely rare. The amount that can reach that level and do it safely is nigh impossimble thankfully."
Alsian looked at Samuel for a while as if to make sure he got all that. When it seemed like he did he continued.
"I will not be teaching you any of that expertise stuff, at most I will teach you the advanced teachings and that is if you can pass the basics!"
"Time is fickle and not a plaything, however it is only when the larger aspects of time are threatened that otherwordly powers interfere."
Alsian motioned to the yellow strand exploding into several smaller strands before he brought them all back together.
"Rewinding wounds on yourself or a friend, essentially a healing spell."
"The ability to speed yourself or an ally, making them incredibly fast!"
"The ability to slow down an opponent, giving you an advantage."
"The ability to stop an object in time, temporarily giving you an extremely strong advantage." Alsian snapped his fingers and the dagger that was still stuck in time was suddenly released and flew into the wall where it plunged into the wood.
"Those are the first four basics I will teach you!" Alsian grinned at Samuel who seemed to be frantically nodding. He raised his arm to speak and Alsian nodded.
"That stop thing is what you did to Tyklion when he was trying to kill me right? How does it work exactly?" Samuel excitedly almost yelled, he was always eager to learn new things.
Alsian sighed and shrugged. "I will get further into details when we get there. I will teach them in the order I spoke off, but I can tell you this. For inanimate objects that are not moving it can last nigh infinitely, for moving objects there is a timelimit, while using it on a person or monster it will last at most two minutes."