The following morning, Joe woke up at his usual early time. The Sun still hadn't even crested the horizon. recalling what had happened the night before, he gently stroked the hair of the girl still sleeping soundly on his chest. Normally, he would have woken up and jumped straight to his daily training. Today was vastly different. Although he could easily have slipped out of the room without disturbing Shianne, He opted to close his eyes and enter a deep meditation.
Gazing into the pool flowing within himself, Joe was blow out of his meditation immediately. His heart began racing and his mind was utterly confused. After a few deep breaths, he managed to calm himself down before reentering his meditation. Once inside, he realized he didn't misread the pool. The chaotic fluctuations were slightly larger than his controlled flow. Just the day before, he had the pool flowing in a concise rotation with no fluctuations throughout the entire mass.
Slowly, he began grasping wisps of chaos and attempted to assimilated them. Bit by bit, his magic was coming under his own control again. Fluctuations were normal for everyone once they had awoken. Some individuals never learned to take full control of their strengths which left them in poverty. Others gained easy control and rose into a higher societal standing. Joe was meticulous about keeping his fluctuations under control in order to stay at his absolute peak.
After nearly two hours of repeated consolidations, the pool became stable, and all wisps flowed alongside each other. With a deep, slow breath, Joe opened his eyes only to be greeted by a bright, smiling face partially covered by a crimson vail. Reaching up, he carefully brushed the hair out of the beautiful face. When their eyes met, their lips naturally followed.
A brief but endearing meeting first thing in the morning left them both smiling as they each gathered the clothes, they had carelessly tossed around the room the night before. Once fully dressed, the left the room and parted ways to not draw attention so early in the morning. Joe returned to his dorm room and quickly gathered a new uniform before rushing to the showers. There was barely an hour left before the lessons for the day began and it would look bad if he was late on the second day.
On his way to his lessons, Joe decided to pull a vibrant crystal from his pocket and began pouring his magic into it. Staring down at the flat surface, he stopped dead in his tracks. The overwhelming fluctuations within his pool finally began to make sense to him. With a smile spanning the entire width of his face, he again stared down at the crystal. Two hundred forty-eight.
"In a single night, I more than doubled my own strength. Well, I guess I didn't do it alone. Maybe I should do something to thank her..."
Lost in thoughts as to how to best thank his beautiful instructor, Joe finally reached the training field. The others in his class had already gathered and were talking amongst themselves. A few of them looked at the new arrival with disdain while most pained him no attention. Either way, all conversation was cut short as nearly every student noticed the arrival of their dedicated Combat Instructor. With haste, every student moved to their given positions from the day before.
"From today on, I will personally be forging each of you so that in the event of your death on the fronts it will have amounted to something. I'm not going to pull any punches, whether it pertains to the training I will be putting each of you through or the high mortality rate if you manage to make it through the next few years.
After the pitiful performance yesterday, I have assigned each of you a new position in this formation. This position will only change is you give me a valid reason for it to. Do keep in mind that the four at the back after your midterm practical exam will be dropped from enrollment."
Following instruction, every student moved to a new, assigned positions once their name was called. Starting from the left most positions, these were the students that had the lowest standing in the eyes of this merciless instructor. Those all the way on the right included Joe at the front, Clara James behind him, the opportunistic classmate Joe had halted with a single kick, and a seemingly frail brunette. Digging into his memories from the day before, he recalled this girl moving quickly around the other classmates and aiming to strike in opportune locations. Unlike the others who were focused only on themselves, she was trying to use their failure for her success. She still failed though.
"I've arranged each of you based on the potential you showed yesterday. The levels you showed during the physical evaluations mean nothing in this class. If you can't grasp and utilize your potential, then you will just become a burden to those serving alongside you in the future. Use these next couple years to learn how not to be a burden.
At the end of three months, each squad will compete against each other in a mountain-based training exercise. From the day you took the written test and throughout your pending enlistments, you will be awarded Merit Points which can be exchanged for a variety of things ranging from better housing to daily necessities. Now, Joseph Merril holds the most MP at seven hundred for his perfect exam results as well as overcoming the challenge I put before you yesterday. Do better."