After they were done Theo asked "how long have you been training for? And what rank do you have?" Ferdinand looked at Theo a bit surprised, "Well, I started at a young age, was probably 8 years old when I started training and I'm currently a 4th rank advanced stage Elementalist with fire and wind affinities"
Theo was shocked, Ferdinand was very strong, if they were in Vermis he could be appointed to the highest position because of his strength.
He could tell Theo was in shock and asked "what about you?" "I'm an early stage 2nd rank," said Theo a little embarrassed, "That's pretty good, a lot of the younger recruits like you are usually 1st rank so just work and your ranking will go up naturally, also I can tell you are very talented don't worry"
"Why are you in the hybrid class? With your power you should be heading a garrison or something" asked Theo, "well because of my wind affinity I have a special movement technique where I can move very fast and almost make no sound, so I'm probably going to be part of the Rangers or Scouting teams" said Ferdinand.
Afterward, Theo went to his tent and would practice on his bed Mana Restoration until he fell asleep.
For the next few days, Theo would wake up, and go do his morning routine with Ferdinand, they would then train with Everette and then have dinner, and after he would practice with Ferdinand, he'd help him improve on mana manipulation and they'd spar using mana to enhance themselves.
On the fourth day after training with Ferdinand, "Hey Prim how is my progress with my mana core?" Theo asked, "You've improved Mana Restoration to Tier D and you've been able to increase your Mana Core to 170 which is still very low", "Is there another way for me to increase my Mana Core, I feel it's taking to long", "Well you started at least 4 years late so don't worry, also if you need your pendant holds 50 additional mana you can use", "Well I guess that's not so bad, but with 220 mana I can fight while enhancing myself for about 10 min", "Don't worry just keep training, when you have enough mana I'll teach you a new spell," said Prim, "wait so you know spells?" Theo asked very excitedly, "Of course, I have quite the library but you won't be able to access it for now".
Theo thought about this for a while, he was very excited that he had Prim now but he wanted more.
The next day at the training session they started sparring, Ferdinand was sparring with an instructor but it was clear who the better fighter was, and that was Ferdinand he won after just a few moves with his lance and pinned the instructor down.
Theo was sparring with another recruit who was a 2nd ranked, but he had more experience than Theo, really giving him a hard time, Theo still wasn't very used to fighting so because he could tell Theo was a novice the recruit got cocky.
The recruit was fighting with a staff, and so far all Theo had done was dodging and blocking, "is that all you know, stop running!" said the recruit, he then went with a full swing with the staff, Theo was a second late to block it and he got hit very hard on the head, as Theo was going down his head was a little dizzy but then time started slowing down.
"Theodore use your mana enhancement on your legs, roll forward so you can get behind him the hit him while enhancing your arms," said Prim, time started flowing again
Theo went with what Prim said, as he was falling he rolled forward while enhancing his legs giving him 4 times more speed, he tucked his wooden dagger and sprang up quickly at the recruit, he already thought he had gotten Theo so he had him completely by surprise, when he turned around Theo struck him right in the gut with full force, his eyes widened in shock, and he was thrown a few meters across the training grounds unable to get up.