If Franz was a possible genius of hand-to-hand fighting, then what was Nepheli? A monster?
Not just once, not twice, it was several times that Nepheli managed to sweep the floor with Franz, at first the fight was a bit even, but over time, Nepheli managed to adapt to Franz's strangeness, managing to gain ground in each fight.
Franz on the other hand, was forced to take the potions made by Pom Pom to heal himself and try to keep up the pace of the fight.
Although she could tell that he was also improving and growing, it wasn't at the same rate as her friend without a doubt.
For Franz this was the first time that someone's energy fluctuated at the same time as his body moved, Hans could probably do the same, but Franz believed that this could be due to the vast experience he had.
Franz had the theory that the mysterious energy was the desires of the person himself, he came to this conclusion after having interacted with many mana practitioners and with Hans his teacher, possibly the more in synchrony a person was with those desires and the more control he had of them, the more fluid and strong the movements of that person would become more fluid and strong than normal.
An example would be Shadow, Nepheli's beast that, despite not wanting to really hurt him, there was still a desire to win, an intention in his movements. And Franz could see Shadow's desires flowing through his body, those desires seemed to flow before Shadow's body moved, allowing Franz to some extent foresee a few seconds in the future the movements of his enemies or something quite similar.
However, since Nepheli's desires flowed with her, it was almost impossible for Franz to predict her movements, resulting in ten consecutive beatings for him.
After ten rounds the maximum time Franz was able to stand was 6 minutes and the worst time was one or two minutes in which Nepheli was able to submit him without much effort.
- Then Franz, will you give up? Shadow, I've forgiven you a long time ago – said Nepheli who was holding out her hand to Franz who, by the way, was lying face to the ground.
- Well, I give up - Franz said without delay.
Nepheli was surprised by the quick response and said - So easy? Won't you cry a little before giving up? –
"I'm not a masochist," Franz replied angrily.
- Well, ten beatings in a row don't say the same thing - Nepheli said who helped him up from the ground.
Hans who was watching the whole exchange, thought to himself – "The two of them have quite interesting qualities, I see that taking them both as disciples was a good idea after all" –
"I see you're both having a good time," Hans said, making Franz and Nepheli have a bad feeling, even though Franz still maintained his usual calm and seriousness.
After that Franz and Nepheli had to train against Hans who punished them every time they made a mistake or left an opening that left them exposed, Pom Pom and Shadow were not exempt from training either.
The little slime was greeted with an attack every time he tried to fire mana projectiles, shadow was beaten every time he tried to attack without any success, as for his owners, it was difficult to describe where on their body they did not have bruises.
In the end, the four of them didn't just get beaten up by Hans, the strict teacher par excellence.
He also put them both through all kinds of infernal physical exercises to cultivate and forge their bodies, because, although they were both already beast tamers, Hans wanted to test if they had talent in any other of the three branches of mana practice such as magic and physical cultivation.
However, learning magic could take years as none of them understood the most basic concepts about magic.
So physical cultivation was still the best option since among the three branches of mana practice, it only required a well-trained body and an unbreakable fighting spirit.
The training continued until after 12 midnight, leaving the two friends exhausted, filled with a feeling of pain that almost made them want to crawl on the ground rather than continue walking while trying to stay on their feet, in fact, if it were not for their condition as mana practitioners, it is most likely that such training would be impossible to follow.
And the same situation happened for almost a month, the good part is that both Franz and Nepheli were able to grow quite a bit during that time and thanks to the potions made by Pom Pom, the two of them were able to grow at a fairly fast pace without fear of getting hurt and losing the rhythm of training, although of course, with Hans' magic, It would be an illusion to miss a day of training.
Unfortunately, although it seemed that the two of them had some talent in physical cultivation, it would still take a few months until they could reach the first grade, luckily for them, the odds of that happening before the two of them had their first mission as storm chasers were quite high in Hans' words.
Almost a whole month passed and both Franz and Nepheli were grateful that the hell they were both going through was over.
Hans had to retire for two weeks and during that time he asked the two of them to continue training and not to dare to falter in their training or they would do badly.
Franz and Nepheli of course did not dare to disobey, fearing that Hans would force them to train to death the next time he returned.
Moreover, Hans' position in the storm chasers was quite high, therefore, he could hardly take a time at a time to train the two of them, in fact, it was a miracle that he could take the time of almost a month for the two of them, Franz was quite curious about Hans' work, but he didn't dare to ask so as not to interfere with his master's privacy.
-Well? What will we do now? – Nepheli asked, who was wiping her sweat.
Franz thought about it, after a while he remembered that there were simulation rooms in the wizard's game room, so he invited Nepheli to go, to continue gaining combat experience.
- Sure, but let's see you after three days, I'm dead tired and I still have things to do –
Franz agreed, he also had a few things he wanted to do, one of them was to find some interest in the nearest alchemist association, he originally planned a breakthrough within at least two to three months, but thanks to Hans' arduous training, Franz felt that he only needed a little push and could successfully advance to the second degree as a beast tamer, which is why he wanted to find something that could help him with a smoother advance.
Franz looked into his soul space as he returned home to Nepheli's side, it turns out that he wasn't the only one who had a breakthrough after training.
Slime (Hierro): Pom Pom
Current Kingdom: First Grade Beast.
Skills:
Mana Pool (D)(Mastered)
Polymorph (D) (Advanced)
Minor Healing Liquid (D+) (Mastered)
Mana Pebble (E+) (Mastered)
Mana Shot had become a commonly used skill for Pom Pom, Franz had also tried to bring said skill to the enlightened level with his enhancement skill, however, the mana amounts were simply terrifying, Franz had been trying almost all month to bring said skill to the enlightened level, but he found it quite difficult since the progress with each enhancement was minimal, the same was true for the other skills, fortunately Franz found that he could discard and relearn other skills or the same ones.
Franz was also sure that he could take mana shooting to the illuminated level in another week, Pom Pom had also become quite skilled at creating and firing projectiles to the point that he could compete with many archers, obviously it was all the result of Hans' beatings, he had also become able to change his shape a bit, now he could mold his shape to create simple shapes such as a cube, sphere, etc.
Franz was no doubt looking forward to how much he and Pom Pom might grow in the future.
But for now, the two needed a good rest, a hot plate of food for Franz and some blue stones for Pom Pom and if possible a good bath.