"Has anyone ever taken this long?" One of the old man's students asked as they looked at the door of the the small room Zane was in.
The weird part was everyone had very bad looking injuries on their bodies. Most of them couldn't even stand as the lay in the middle of the training hall.
Kieth and another man were the only ones standing.
"It's been over six hours, no one has ever lasted this long" Kieth said, clutching his broken rib with his broken hand, standing on one foot. The other was also broken.
"Maybe Bella is going easy on him" the man standing next to Kieth said. Like Kieth he was also badly hurt with bruises on multiple places and a large bump on his forehead.
"Impossible, Bella is the one who initiated me. She never goes easy on anyone, i even begged back then" Said a man sprawled out on the floor. Predictably he was also very hurt, he couldn't even stand.
Kieth sighed when he heard that, he knew how painful initiation was. Especially if you get initiated by a wind mage like Bella.
Before Zane and Kieth's fight, none of the other students liked Zane. They thought he was just some other rich snob who pulled some strings to get where he is. Unlike them, who were chosen by their teacher personally.
However after the fight, or rather Zane's actions after the fight surprised them. Most proud people after getting beaten like that would either throw a tantrum or claim their opponent was cheating.
Instead, Zane apologized and admitted his mistake, that was a big thing to do which required strong willpower. They had already pegged Zane as an arrogant fool when he challenged Kieth.
Then when the fight started he became a stupid fool. During the fight he was a stubborn fool and after the fight he became an eager-to-learn fool.
Now everyone wanted to know more about this blind fool.
"I wonder what's going on in there" Kieth mumbled.
.
.
.
.
.
.
In the small room, six hours ago.
'What the fuck have i gotten myself into!?' Zane internally cried.
Zane could say he wasn't a stranger to feeling pain, However the look on Bella's face made even him fearful of what was to come.
"Should i get started or explain the exercise first?" Bella smiled sweetly, completely contradicting the feeling she gave Zane.
"Please explain" Zane said.
"As teacher said, the first part of training is pain control. I'm sure you know this but our training is going to be painful, like really painful. We can't have you screaming in pain after every few minutes, that would be both inconvenient and annoying." Bella said.
Zane couldn't help but nod in agreement. However that only made him even more terrified of what was to come. He could already guess what was to happen in a few minutes.
"To cut the story short, we have to make you get used to the pain" Bella said.
Zane wondered how she was going to accomplish that though. Even if she beat up Zane continuously, he didn't think it would make him get used to pain.
If that was what they were doing in the room, then Zane wouldn't have any problems. After all, Kieth gave him a good beating not long ago.
"I watched your fight, and i have to say you are quite resilient. This might be easy for you to pass" Bella said.
"So what do i have to do in order to pass the exercise?" Zane asked.
"Easy, you just have to not scream, flinch, groan or even grit your teeth for 10 minutes. If you do any of those the timer restarts" Bella walk to a cupboard in the room and took out an hour glass.
She then proceeded to turn the glass over and the sand started flowing down to the other part. Zane could see the glass but unfortunately he couldn't see the sand inside so he wouldn't know how much time had gone by.
"The timer has started so i will also start" Bella raised her hand and Zane prepared himself mentally for the incoming pain.
SHING!
A small wind blade flew through the air and made a cut on Zane's forearm. He couldn't have dodged the attack even if he wanted to.
When the wind blade cut his arm, Zane was surprised at how...not painful it was. Of course he felt the pain but it was the same pain he was used to, so it didn't make a difference.
'Just as i figured, this will be easy' Zane thought. Bella had said that Zane shouldn't make a reaction when he got attacked, he didn't made any reaction when his arm was cut so he only had to do the same for 10 measly minutes.
However a few seconds later...
"Ahhhhh!, what the hell!" Zane screamed. From the arm which was recently cut by the wind blade, Zane felt the most intense pain in his two lives.
To his greatest surprise, the pain then disappeared soon after. It didn't even last half a second!
"What was that?" he couldn't help but ask.
Bella chuckled "That is a new technique developed by teacher. He refused to tell us how he made it, but what we know us that it triples the amount of pain the victim feels two seconds after the attack lands" she explained.
Zane would be lying if he said he wasn't impressed. A technique like that would work wonders in battle. Heck with this technique a Mage might even survive a fight with someone of a higher rank.
'I will have to ask Old man about----'
"AHHHH!"
Zane's thoughts were interrupted by another wave of pain, this time from his cheek. The funny part is that Zane didn't even feel the initial attack, only the pain after.
"Could you tell me bef----"
"AHHHH!"
Everytime Zane released a scream, Bella would turn the hour glass over, thereby resetting the timer.
Zane tried to talk to Bella but everytime he said anything, he would get attacked again. He ended up focusing on passing the challenge.
He didn't even bother to heal the small cuts caused by the wind blades, all his focus was on getting used to the pain.
SHING!
"AHHHHH"
Zane gritted his teeth to stop his mouth from opening.
"Remember the rules" Bella said. The hour glass was in her hand. She had stopped it as soon as Zane gritted his teeth.
Zane sighed and loosened his mouth, putting the tip of his tongue in the middle of his teeth. He did this to stop himself from putting his teeth together, his mind wouldn't let him bite his own tongue off.
A few hours later:
SHING!
"...."
"Your left eye twitched. Time reset" Bella announced.
Zane wanted nothing more than to complain, but he knew that would not help him at all. Instead he began focusing.
SHING!
"You blinked irregularilly"
'Is that even a word.....No Zane focus!'
SHING!
"Left finger twitched"
SHING!
"Took a deep breath"
SHING!
This continued for the next 4 hours everytime, Zane felt the pain, his body would subconsciously react even if Zane didn't want to. Most of the time he wouldn't even know what he did until Bella tells him.
Unknown to Zane, inside his body. Everytime he got the first cut, a small amount of mana would gather on that part of the body. Then when the pain comes, the mana would stop some of the signals the pain receptors sent to his brain.
However Zane didn't know about all this, not even Alex noticed it.
More and more mana would gather everytime the pain came. Zame felt that the pain was getting easier to handle and first thought Bella was going easy on him, however he just couldn't bring himself to believe that.
That only left him with the explanation that he was getting used to it. Six and a half hours later, Zane had spent 9 minutes without a reaction to the constant pain.
He could feel the initial pain of the wind blade as well as the second pain of the technique, but he just didn't care for it anymore. If asked to describe the feeling, he would say it was like being in a constant state of adrenaline.
"Congratulations, you pass. You could have done better though" Bella smiled.