"Are you ready Miss Ophelia?"
"Yes. No. Yes? No, I'm not ready at all. Question."
"Yes?"
"Why is it called Layla's Forgiving Pot..?"
"Because, there's going to be a lot of forgiveness forged in my little pot when were done." She snickered menacingly, her clipboard held just above her lips.
"So, what are we going to do during this 'pot' time?"
"It's simple really." She unclipped a piece of paper, and as she flicked it, the paper flew directly into my hands with a gust of wind brushing past me.
A extensive list of wind training prepared for.. My eyes got closer to the paper, I was really about to do this for 5 weeks straight? Approved by Lione and Hanise? And, did she mean I'd forgive her.. Or was she going to forgive me..?
"Do you really think I can do all this.. In the time of our lesson and in each day?" My eyes peeked above the paper, and a grin she couldn't hide even with her hand over it.
"What do you mean in the time we have? You're going to be doing this till you finish all of it. It doesn't matter if it takes the whole day, you'll be doing it till even after you beg for mercy. Oh and those signatures are real, don't try to confirm it."
"Nooo!!"
We left Layla's small laboratory and went out in the open.
"Now get to it, I'll be right here. Watching. So you don't cheat." She beamed, "Oh and try to do it before night falls, I'd rather get some sleep for tomorrow."
"Are you serious..?" Her smirk stayed, and that was all I needed to know that she was... For real.
Many hours had already passed, and it was around an hour into the afternoon. How I was supposed to do this? 1000 perfect wind bullets, 1000 reps of sustaining a wind barrier for at least 10 seconds, 1000 reps of multi-casting, and then 1 rep of sustaining elemental aether skin for at least 3 hours!
Aether skin was using the element you had affinity to and used it as armour against environmental and elemental affects. Depending on the element, you could also hold stronger defensive effects against a different one.
Just keeping a wind barrier took more than an hour, and sustaining aether skin took 3 hours. If I failed to keep it up, it wouldn't count and I'd have to restart.
At first, I tried to endure the aether skin first, but after being unable to continue for more than 3 minutes, I opted for the other ones first. Layla looked content even after watching me fail for 2 hours straight.
She was even writing down on her clipboard as she watched me. Every time I had casted a wind bullet, she clicked her tongue whenever it didn't satisfy her definition of 'perfect'.
Around another 3 hours passed, and I had only done around 340 perfect wind bullets, and 900 'imperfect' ones. I hadn't completed the others yet, Layla was still as happy as can be, and there was around 8 hours left of the day before midnight.
I was low on the internal Aether that I had stored over the past 6 years from meditation, and was basically just physically grabbing the Aether from the surroundings to cast.
"Can.. We stop here Miss Layla?"
"You still have time. There's still 8 more hours till the next day. Of course, if you don't finish within that time, you'll have to keep going the next day without rest! So get to it!" She wrote on the paper stuck to the clipboard before looking up again, "Oh and, that last wind bullet wasn't satisfactory."
"I'm definitely not going to forgive you when were done."
"Oh, don't worry, I wasn't talking about you forgiving me. I'm going to forgive you for how appalling these attempts are."
Tch, I'm going to be out here for 5 weeks straight? Without food, water, or sleep?!
I was able to count how many times I had failed a perfect wind bullet, because the sound of her tongue clicking each time stuck into my brain. I had long since ran out of my internal reserves, and was only relying on the Aether surrounding me.
The Aether was basically infinite energy, unable to be exhausted. I kept plucking out wind energy and kept casting. Eventually, I got better and better, though it was harder because I had to essentially absorb it into my Aether soul first.
Finally, I had done 1000 perfect wind bullets, with a total of 3766 failed attempts. I guessed there to be approximately 3 hours left till the clock struck midnight.
I gave up on trying to hold a wind barrier up as I didn't have enough Aether to keep it up for even a second. I could barely multi-cast, both spells were sluggish, and barely flew through the air. Nevertheless, it was fine because Layla didn't try to tell me off.
The more I got into it, the more sluggish and rushed it went. To the point that my wind bullet and wall of wind barely went further than a metre.
It was fine, I wasn't being told off, and I had to rush. It didn't matter if at first it was bad, I still had to complete the other parts of my training too. I had no time, I had to push through.
Despite that, even if I did complete it within the next 2 hours. Around 6 hours of both a wind barrier and Aether skin was gruelling enough. Plus I had to redo it all tomorrow?
I was able to finish multi-casting within the 3 hours, of course they were all bad, but even Layla's grin turned to a face of apathy.
How was I going to tackle this obstacle? I couldn't activate the wind barrier or Aether skin properly, so what was I going to do besides fail?
It was obvious, how could I not have thought of it? I just had to regain my internal reserves and wait. Layla said I'd have to do it tomorrow if I couldn't do it all today, which meant that it wasn't a requirement to do it all in the day.
I'd just have to tackle it tomorrow! No point in tiring myself out with futile attempts. And so, it was soon the next morning.