Chapter 67: Assessment (1)

It had been eight days since Wrik and the others were under the tutelage of Sophia.

What could Wrik say about the blonde woman? She was lively on some occasions, but a stubborn, stern woman while teaching. It shows how dedicated she was to her job.

"Today there is no need to meditate now," Sophia said as she looked at her ten pupils. "I'm going to teach something new. Something fundamental, yet something extraordinarily needed to be a full-fledged Mahasayer." She noticed the excitement on everyone's faces. "I'll teach you a sub ability of Maha mana applications. It is called Armament Reinforcement.

"But before that, let's access everyone's progress and situation first."

Ten cross-legged figures in the mat shuddered together. After a week of hell-training, all of them were seated organising at the mat with respect and fear in their eyes. Sophia seemed content with their behaviour.

Some of them even start praying hearing what their instructor said. Well, they have enough reasons for that.

Sophia had trained each of the ten pupils in various ways, like after the third day, she increased the laps for Anton and Evan by ten more. While the two mage candidates: Tanya and Michelle, had it easy on the tracks, Sophia made them meditate in the special chamber with just below the hardest level.

Yet the two ladies adapted well after a couple of days, though they did not have much energy to spare after that.

Sophia did not leave Wrik alone either. She made him tired enough with all types of muscle work, saying, "You got reflexes and perception, but your mind to body coordinates is awful, barely any better than the archer. You always try to neglect your body, focusing more on cognitive abilities. Tell me, are you trying to be a mage?"

And his actual answer then, "I don't know. I did not think about it before, but if I try, I may be able to cast a few spells though it would be difficult to go further in the way of mage. So my current goal is to pursue the sword further."

Wrik regretted saying that. How could he know his honest words would piss that stubborn woman? He could only curse at his bad luck.

After that Wrik ran forty laps in the track each day, combined with the two-hour muscle training in the morning and evening. While he still has to train in mahasaying for six hours in that damn chamber. That was over 12 hours of training and more than enough to make his life hell.

The VIP suite did not let his body break. It was the only reason he was able to continue for the next six days.

While another person was as miserable as him. Jacob or now known as Jake the archer. Unlike Wrik, who had trained with sword and simple self-defence in his adolescence, the archer had never picked up a stick. So he became Wrik's companion in muscle training, while Jacob had to further train in archery.

Lan and Lillian had it easy for the first week, as Sophia spared them from more than they could handle. Surprisingly, Lan was quite good at mahasaying, so Sophia asked him if he wanted to be a mage. The kid, who was oblivious to his environment, only looked at her sister. And Lillian could not decide it for Lan, so the issue was on hold for now.

Well, all the hard work was not for nothing. All of them showed some amount of improvement in this week, some were minimal and a few were quite great. Wrik did not know about others, but he made significant progress. In this entire week, he did not forget to use the growth-stimulating serum that he bought in the phase-I, and it's still quite effective.

Apparently, the more your state grew, the less effective these products were before, and there was the tolerance of the body too. Sophia said even the advanced stimulating drug is not of much help when their attributes touch the fifty mark, and it would take about a year to get there if they follow their current way of training.

A year may sound quite long, but Sophia empathised that a year to reach the fifty marks was a promising speed, as some mahasayer won't even reach that mark in decades.

Other than his progress in mana discharge that reached the next level, Wrik's physical fitness improved as well. And he had to thank Sophia for that. His constitution and vitality finally reached 20 marks, while his agility moved by 2 points reaching 27. There were no other changes in physics, but his other mental Attributes: intelligence, perception, and magic force raised by 1, 2, and 2 respectively.

While Anton and Evan made fair progress as well, he could tell after sparring with them. But he can't say much about the two mages. It's too difficult to guess the bottom line strength of a mage.

While Wrik had seen Anton and Michelle evenly matching in most of the spar, but on a couple of times Michelle overwhelmed Anton by sheer force after being taunted by him. And then there was Tanya, who refused to spar with anyone.

"After a week, you all made satisfactory progress," the blonde teacher said to her ten pupils. "So, it's time to bring it to the next level."

Ten faces turned ugly at the same time as they heard what they feared most. But they were too afraid to sound it out in fear of the consequences.

Sophia put no minds to their countenance, said again. "First, Lan, have you made your decision yet?"

The boy, who was barely fourteen, sounded out, "Yes. I'll take the path of the mage."

"Good," Sophia nodded. "You will follow the training with Tanya and Michelle. And besides that, you have to study the fundamental spell casting from Tanya for at least two hours each day."

The boy nodded.

Sophia moved to the next person, and her voice seemed to have lost its emotion by some degree. "Lillian, by now you should have realised you can not match your brother or Evan in talent."

The curly-haired lady looked down quietly. Her silence showed she agreed with Sophia.

"You can only go two ways from here," the blonde instructor continued from her stool. "Either you give up, or you work harder. What are you going to do?"

"Work harder," a whispered came from Lillian's mouth. Her face was still looking down.

"I didn't hear you, say it louder in my face."

"I'll work harder," Lillian said louder this time, looking at the instructor.

"Are you sure? Even if you work harder, you may never reach their level in your life."

"Yes," Lillian shouted. "I'll work harder so that I can stay together with Lan and Evan."

"Fine then, from now on you could choose your training with any of the other nine," Sophia said to Lillian. Before moving to the next person. "You will assess your own training. I like to see if you're all talk and no-show or not."

Jacob became anxious the moment he saw the look on Sophia's face. He waited for the instructor to continue.

"Jacob, I heard you are not sure about being a Mahasayer? Is that right?"

"Yes," Jacob nodded. "I'm not sure even now."

_______________

There are not many chapters left in the second part, it should be over by the end of next week.

Another reminder, the chapter after 19th August. Thankyou.