Booom!
"I wonder what she's doing," Ruford said as he went on with his business.
The Earl wasn't in his manor so most of the tasks fell onto Ruford. Earl Grant was the strongest human in the county so he had to go out every now and then as a part of his duty as nobility.
Now was one of those times since winter was approaching. Monsters and bandits all became more rampant during this time of year. They would begin to attack merchants and villages so that they could stock up on food to last them through the harsh incoming months.
Most monsters that would act up in this time were those that hibernated. That said, the truly terrifying monsters were the ones that were active in the winter months. Some of them had become active recently too, so the Earl's strength was needed more than ever to hunt them down or chase them away.
"Well, it doesn't matter she's up to. I have to finish this task," Ruford said as he kept on signing away at the documents at his table.
Back in the training hall, a lot of dust had been kicked up due to the explosion. Well it wasn't an explosion to say since it barely did any damage.
Winsor was still on the ground seated as though nothing happened to him. Winsor opened his eyes after finally pushing all his mana out.
[Your MP is 0]
[Your Wind and Shadow Affinities are now lv1]
[Your Fire Affinity is now lv2]
He felt a wave of dizziness once the message popped up.
'So this is what happens when you use all your mp,' Winsor thought as he stood up shakily but not too fast.
"Wow, that was loud." Miss Aiko said with a slight frown on her face.
"That usually happens with this method but its not supposed to be that loud." she added as she opened up her hand. She muttered something under her breath then a gust of wind came form her open palm and blew the dust away.
"You have wind, fire and shadow abilities. This is one way to tell someone's affinities and how much mana they have." she said after she finished blowing the dust away. "Hmm judging by the single burst, you have a terrible mana stat so its best you abandon any hope of becoming a magic swordsman."
'Hmm so I can't take the easy route. Wait, what if I chose the magician class what then?' Winsor thought as he remembered how he almost chose the magician class.
"Miss Aiko, what if I chose the magician class. Would I just be a bad mage?" Winsor ask her as he finally gained some stability.
"Yes but then again not really. Everyone gains boosts from their class. You'd obviously have mush less mana than an average mage but it wouldn't affect your abilities much. Wait, don't tell me you took a gamble without finding this out before" Miss Aiko responded with a laugh.
"Well, hehe I kind of did. I guess I was lucky." Winsor said with a wry smile. "What bonuses did I receive for choosing a warrior class then?" he added.
"You gain an extra strength, agility and endurance point. Basically a body upgrade. The bonuses are more of growth based so you'll barely notice them among beginners." Miss Aiko replied
As they were talking, Lukart, who was still taking in mana from the crystal, finally started releasing it. It wasn't as loud as Winsor but kicked up dust all around the hall.
"Oh? you got wind too? That's interesting. Hmm also water and earth." Miss Aiko said while she blew the dust away again.
Winsor was completely unable to sense anything and was confused on how Miss Aiko was able to sense his affinities. She got them spot on so he knew she wasn't bluffing.
"I can finally move my mana! Wait it's all gone!" Lukart said as he stood up quickly. He lost balance as soon as he got up and fell back down.
"Ah" he exclaimed while rubbing his behind.
"I was about to say relax for a bit since you'll always get dizzy if you finish your Mp. That's another lesson but its still important. Lukart you have an average mana stat so make sure not to abuse it too much." Miss Aiko said while looking down at Lukart.
"Now I know your affinities so that'll help me know what I need to teach you and when. I'm no mage but I know a bit of magic so I'll teach you the basics" she added as she collected the crystals the two had already forgotten about.
"We're not going to do any exercise today since we are going out on a trip tomorrow. So head back and do whatever, you have the rest of the day to rest." She said as she put the crystals in the box and left shortly after.
"Well that's great. At least the aching in my legs has reduced. Are you going to stay and train Winsor?" Lukart asked Winsor as he finally gained his balance back.
'I think endurance stat also affects how fast I recover. He took much longer than I did to recover from the dizziness.' Winsor thought. This, plus his increased stamina scaling would mean that he could beat Lukart if he just played the waiting game and dragged things out in the future.
"Well, I have to prepare for tomorrow so I won't be training. Did you want me to join you?" Winsor finally responded after thinking for a while.
"Well, not really. It's just that you often listen to Miss Aiko a lot so I thought that maybe you wanted to suck up and do extra." Lukart said with a cheeky smile.
"What? No no no. Do I look that boring?" Winsor responded quickly hoping Lukart hadn't got the wrong idea.
"She is beautiful, surely you didn't think I wouldn't recognise the staring. hehehe," Lukart added with a cheeky laugh.
"No! That's not it. Don't you feel that the air is weird around her?" Winsor asked Lukart. Even though she looked like a happy go lucky person, Winsor could feel as though there was something wrong with her.
"Yeah, I mean who couldn't? It always gets brighter and you get that feeling in your gut." Lukart responded with a weird face. Winsor couldn't really tell what it was. It looked like a mix of happiness and longing. His eyes were off to the side so he was definitely picturing Miss Aiko in his head.
"What." Winsor said with a flat voice. He couldn't imagine that this kid got a crush on his teacher. A shiver went down his spine as he imagined what would happen when sparing begun.
"Yeah, don't you see it too?" Lukart added while still having that lost look in his eyes.
"Huh, I guess she looks good. Anyway I'm going to the kitchen," Winsor said while shaking his head. He didn't want to talk about women with a 10 year old kid.
"Why? Wouldn't it be better to wait for lunch? I know you didn't have breakfast because I didn't either." Lukart asked while following Winsor.
"I'm preparing water and food for tomorrow. I don't know if she's going to make us train in the woods or something but I doubt she'll bring us anything to eat." Winsor responded as he walked towards the kitchen.
Lukart was a bit surprised that Winsor knew where the kitchen was but he didn't say a thing. Once they reached, they asked the chef who was present for some dried food and water bottles.
It didn't take them long before they found themselves in Winsor's room They talked along the way about the possible places Miss Aiko would take them the next day.
Just as they reached his door, Winsor took a pause just as he had his hand on the door knob. He realised that his door was fixed looked perfectly fine.
'Well I guess that an Earl's house can't have broken doors or it'll be a laughing stock.' Winsor thought as he entered his room. They place the dried food on the table and the water bottles.
"So we have dried fruit, some jerky and two large bottles. Do we split it in half or do I take more. I have a higher strength stat." Lukart asked as he looked at the table.
Winsor hadn't thought about how they were going to divide the stuff leave alone think about stats. "Lets split it, you carry more stuff since your stronger. If we don't eat like gluttons, this should last us a day." Winsor said.
"Great! She's gonna think we're so smart." Lukart said with the same look he had earlier. Winsor ignored it and simply sighed.
'How did this even happen?? He didn't trust her when she first arrived. Maybe that's how he acts around girls?'
"We are probably going to fight something as our training tomorrow. Have you ever fought and killed something?" Lukart asked as he finally stopped day dreaming about Miss Aiko.
There was a sudden silence as Winsor became awfully quiet. Lukart didn't notice the sudden silence as started packing the food into two bags they had also got from the kitchen.
"Yes, I have killed before." Winsor said finally. Those words made Lukart stop packing and look at Winsor. His face was still the same but his eyes had become a bit more serious.