Their classes went well as expected. Krios had a lot of learnings, but the most significant one came from their mana manipulation class.
He had a few ideas as to how he can implement his learning in that class to the real world and he can't wait to have a chance to do what he was thinking about.
"Do you want to go to the dorm now or do you want to go hang out somewhere else?" Loras asked him as they were walking down the hallway.
Krios thought about going back to the dorm to rest but he remembered that Headmistress Zelester told him to go find her after he completely learns the Mana Equivalence.
"You go on ahead, I still have something to attend to." He told Loras.
"On the first day of class?" Loras asked in confusion.
"Yeah. It's pretty important so I can't miss it."
"Where? Am I going to wait for you so we can eat dinner together? Or do I go on by myself?" Loras asked again.
"I'm going to the admin building. If I don't come back after three hours, you can go and eat dinner without me." He instructed his friend.
Loras nodded and they parted ways. Krios made a beeline towards the Admin building while Loras walked straight to the Residencial wing if the campus.
At the entrance of the lobby of the familiar admin building, he came across an attendant and decided to ask for directions.
"Good afternoon, I would like to ask for directions to Headmistress Zelester's office."
The attendant looked up and stared at him for a couple of seconds before speaking.
"Do you have any appoin-" She stopped mid sentence when a telepathic voice sounded in her head.
" Let him in." Headmistress Zelester said through telepathy.
The attendant placed a small plaque into a formation and the formation lit up for a second, then a stairway opened up at the far end of the lobby.
"Just go straight to that stairway and it will lead you to her office." The attendant pointed towards the stairs.
Krios was confused by the sudden shift in the attendant's actions but thanked her nonetheless.
He went straight for the staircase, and after about five floors, he came up in front of a doorway.
'This must be it.' He thought.
*knock* *knock*
"Headmistress Zelester, It's me Krios."
"Come in young one." Headmistress Zelester spoke from inside the room.
Krios entered and was greeted by a decent sized room. At the far end of the room, Headmistress sat on her intricately decorated chair that looked more like a throne. There was a desk in front of her full of papers and books.
In the middle of the room was some sort of a living room with sofas and a coffee table. Krios stood silently waiting for the Headmistress to say something.
"Please have a seat." She finally spoke.
Krios walked towards the expensive looking sofa and sat on one of them.
"How was your first day?" She asked.
"It was fine. I learned a lot. I did not regret my decision of studying here." He honestly replied.
"That is heartwarming to hear young one. And I assume you have mastered Mana Equivalence?"
"That I did." He did not wait for her to ask and just showed her his progress.
Krios enhanced his mana input and output showing the headmistress just how much he has improved. Mana flowed in and out of his mana core on almost the same rate.
"Very nice Krios. You have exceeded my expectations for you." The Headmistress said.
"Now, to show you my dedication to your progress, I have curated a few battle, movement, and defensive arts that I think will fit your style."
She waved her hand and a number of scrolls and books appeared on top of the table.
"Choose whatever piques your interest."
Krios immediately began inspecting each item on the table.
'Blazing steps. this one is a movement arts. It uses the explosive properties of fire to propel the body in the desired direction.'
'I'll take this.'
'Pyro Sphere, this one produces a fire sphere that covers the surrounding area in a hellish inferno. Making it hard for the opponent to move.'
'I'll take this one too.'
'I still have one battle arts that I brought from my clan that I have not studied yet so I don't need a new one. What I need is another defensive arts because the firewall won't protect me while I'm moving.'
He continued scanning the pile of arts looking for what he needs.
'This one would be perfect. Infernal aegis. Conjures a high pressure fire shield on the arm.'
"I'll be taking these three." He told the Headmistress as he showed her what he chose.
"Interesting choices. But are you sure you only need those three?"
"Yes Headmistress. But I do need a training area to practice these newly acquired techniques."
"Don't worry about that. I have already made arrangements beforehand." She said and handed him a badge.
"Thats the key to one of the largest private training rooms in this academy. Just go to building number seven in the academic wing and ask for a building attendant to assist you."
"Thank you so much for everything Headmistress." Krios said as he stood up.
"Go and train to your heart's content. But do be careful and not tell anyone about this arrangement for now."
"Understood headmistress." Krios bowed politely and slowly exited the room.
'She really is serious about helping me grow stronger.' Krios smiled at his realization.
'Let's make the best out of this opportunity then.'
He went out of the admin building swiftly and went to the direction of building seven. When he arrived, the attendant was slightly shocked with him showing the key badge as that training room is never used.
They walked towards the direction of the training room and they stopped in front of a large door.
"Please place the key badge on the formation on the side." The attendant instructed.
Krios placed the badge and the door slid open.
The attendant left him alone and he entered the teaining room and was instantly mesmerized by what was inside.
The training room was big enough to fit a couple hundred people. It also had mutliple different terrains to use during trainings. And the walls are fortified with a defensive formation to withstand strong battle arts.
"I'm going to enjoying training in this place."
"Now on to training!" He shouted enthusiastically.
He started reading the contents of the battle arts he had, including the one he brought from his clan. He focused first on the Phoenix fire, a signature battle arts of the Whiteflame clan. This battle art manifests a phoenix like entity that explodes upon contact with the target.
"I was not able to practice on this as I needed to be on the Mana Compression realm to even manifest a tiny bird using my flames." He spoke.
He started studying the mana output, mana path, the meridians to be used for the battle art. After some time, he finally decided to test it out.
Mana flowed out of his core abundantly, and his mana veins churning with power.
"Slowly, I can do this."
As the mana went out of his hand, it naturalky turned to blue fire, but as Krios was about to do the final step of the battle art, it exploded right on his face.
Krios was thrown to the ground coughing and huffing.
"What the hell! I didn't expect it to explode like that!"
He sat down again and tried to reread the book, looking for what he did wrong.
'Ah so I need to let the mana accumulate in my meridian before releasing it in one go.'
He stood up and tried emulating what the book had instructed him to do. He did not release any mana but just repeated the mana route in his mana veins over and over until he felt confident enough to do it for real.
A couple of hours had passed and Krios felt like he would be able to do it finally. He released his mana from his core and it traveled with practiced precision. The mana then piled up in the meridian on his right hand, Krios struggling to keep it at bay.
"Now!" He released the mana from his meridain all together and a majestic bird screeching above his hand came to life. It was a blue phoenix, the size of his palm.
"It's so small." He said, entranced by the beautiful bird in fromt of his eyes.
"Probably because of how small my mana output is right now."
He then faced the wall and willed the bird to fly forward. It screeched loudly once again before flying towards the wall at an unbelievable speed.
It hit the wall in an instant and it exploded upon contact. The wall' defensive formations flared up and the entrie room slightly shook due the impact.
"That was amazing!" Krios smiled as he now had a new trump card in his arsenal. His fireballs were not considered as finishing moves so him having a strong battle arts such as the phoenix fire.
"The battle arts itself is dependent on the mana output, so the phoenix would grow in size stronger I become." He said to himself.
After training the battle arts some more, he finally decided to end the day's training and head back to the dorm.
He left the building as fast as he could and swiftly ran back to the residencial wing of the academy. While at the hallway of their dorm building, he came across Loras who was walking to the mess hall to eat dinner.
"Hey! What took you so long?" Loras asked him.
"I will tell you later once we get back to our room." He said.
"Are you going to eat dinner now?" He asked his friend.
"Yes. You coming?" Loras asked.
"Definitely. I'm famished. I need a good meal before I start telling you about what I did today." He teasingly said.
"Then let's go!" Loras laughed and together they walked towards the noisy mess hall