Zephyr and Cedric stayed together as a group while the instructor continued, "I think by now, you should already know where you stand."
"For most of you here, you may never reach the level of your peers over there," he pointed toward the higher groups.
"But just because you may not, doesn't mean you should give up. Each person has their own place in the hierarchy of things. You must learn to understand your place and perform to the best of your ability."
"It's not all doom and gloom though. At least at these early tiers, you can still give them a run for their money." He walked slowly back and forth, his boots crunching against the dirt.
"Spellcasting is moot as long as you can get in closer than they can cast. At this stage, their casting speed, efficiency, and power are still subpar. So you can still overpower them... if you can close the distance."
"As long as you still have the will to be a combat mage, I can teach you everything you need to know to be a real pain in their ass during these early tiers." He smirked.
"But know that, from now on, you'll have to put in even more effort during your combat classes in the mornings. You should begin to prepare yourself to transition into a brawler."
He clapped once. "Alright. You've all chosen your partners. Good."
"Now look at them. From now on, that person is your rival— in fact, your enemy. Each week, whichever of you performs better will get to take the merit point I award from this class, directly from your partner."
A wave of shocked murmurs rippled through the group. People started trying to swap partners quickly, but Mr. Wilson barked at them.
"Don't you even dare!"
"Is this how weak-willed you all are?!"
"If you plan to go far as a combat mage, you'd better change that weak mindset!"
"Whenever you see a challenge, you run towards it, not away! I want you to be mad bulls, not scared little chickens!"
"Your partner will be your only partner going forward in my class. You'll only get a chance to switch partners at the end of each month— and that's strictly at my discretion." He raised a finger.
"If I see you're having too easy a time, I will personally assign you a tougher partner."
Zephyr glanced up at Cedric, who looked completely calm, without even a flicker of concern on his face.
'Damn it... I'm going to have to face this guy for a whole month... and here I was thinking I could stay low key...' Zephyr grimaced.
"First spell model!" Mr. Wilson shouted without preamble, suddenly breaking into a fluid motion.
He raised his arm and clenched his fists, and the air around it began to ripple and distort. It shimmered strangely, swirling and building up pressure for a few seconds, then in one sharp movement, he struck out, and the air ripped apart with a loud bang.
"Whoa!" A few of the recruits flinched and gawked at the show of force.
"That... was the first spell of the Gale series. [Galestrike]." He rolled his shoulder like it was nothing. "And before the end of this class, you should all be able to cast this spell without any excuses."
The recruits nodded eagerly and Mr.Wilson began teaching them the spell model, after which they jumped straight in with enthusiasm.
They couldn't cast the spell.
Almost of them couldn't. More than an hour had passed, and aside from Cedric—whose version of the spell was still shaky by the way— not a single person had succeeded.
Mr. Wilson was surprisingly patient, though he still barked now and then as he corrected their form. He repeated the chant over and over, helping them drill it into their minds.
The principle behind Galestrike was fairly straightforward. By reciting the chant of the spell model or performing a precise set of hand gestures, a caster's mana would synchronize with the airflow around their arm, compressing it like a coiled spring, then with perfect timing, the energy would be released in a powerful strike.
But that was the theory. Execution was another story entirely. Most of the recruits couldn't get their timing right. They kept mispronouncing the chant, which made it nearly impossible to visualize and direct the spell correctly.
"Sael'vyn... ael... thoril" Zephyr chanted the elvish words slowly as he visualised the spell in his mind. He had no problem with the chant. He could recall each intonation perfectly well, his enhanced memory helped with that.
Instead, his issue was the execution. He could feel his mana node struggling to execute each step of the spell as he chanted and visualized. It just wasn't enough.
'Man, I can now see the benefit of having at least two mana nodes to process a spell... This... is basically a disability.' He exhaled in frustration as the energy unraveled in his arm. He'd failed again.
At this point, it felt hopeless. Everyone else had at least two mana nodes working for them. He was trying to do the same job with less than half the resources.
He glanced over at Cedric, who had managed to pull it off with his eight nodes. The air shimmered tightly around his arm, his gaze locked forward as he focused on timing the release.
Whoosh!
Too soon. The spell fizzled as he punched out, and the energy dissipated harmlessly.
But still... he was already ahead of everyone else. Others were still struggling to maintain the form of the compressed air around their arms.
Zephyr wasn't even in the conversation.
"Hooo." He exhaled. 'At this point, I don't even have to try to be low key... I'm naturally behind.' He thought, leaning up as instructor Wilson walked towards him.
"I saw your form. And your chant was dead on. So I'm guessing the problem lies with your executor."
"You must be that one mana node kid, huh?"
"Yeah," Zephyr nodded. 'Great, looks like the word's already getting around.'
"Hmm..." Mr. Wilson rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Rather than trying to process the entire spell like everyone else, break it down even further. Take each step and chop it into smaller chunks."
"You'll need intense focus though. Breaking it into more steps means even more points for failure. And then even if you succeed, your casting speed will be really terrible."
"I'll still give it a try sir," Zephyr said, closing his eyes and focusing hard. He visualized each step of the spell model and imagined dividing it into even smaller fragments. As he did, he noticed the load on his mana node lessen slightly. The spell began to feel more manageable. He started to get excited then his focus slipped, crumbling the spell, but he didn't care, it was actually working. He opened his eyes.
"It's working, sir." He nodded with a small smile of affirmation.
"Good. Then keep at it. Once you get the execution right, your next goal will be shortening your casting time. You'd be dead before you know it with that kind of slow speed in real combat."
"Yes sir." Zephyr nodded again, shutting his eyes as Mr. Wilson turned and headed toward Cedric.