151 Ability Training

The class immediately followed him with no hesitation, trying their best to steer clear of Moby and Abby who were walking in front of them and behind Professor Leo, keeping a good distance of at least 5 meters between them at all times as they avoided them like they were the plague. No one dared speak to them, come close to them, or even breathe in their direction from the immense fear and pressure of being in their presence, especially in Moby's case, the same person who they had been looking down on and harassing for the past month.

As professor Leo turned back to see the site of his entire class cowering in fear from just 2 of his students, one of whom had skyrocketed in the ranks so fast that it was not even funny, now being in the middle to upper class of all students in the entire first year, he could not help but inwardly chuckle at the familiar sight. As he looked at them, he did not at all find the view odd or unrealistic, he had seen it happen many times. When a person of lower rank soared to that of a higher position and starts to act arrogant and get back at all of those who wronged him in the past.

However, usually, they only ended up being humbled by the stronger students, forcing them to bend the knee and join the more powerful gangs. Either that or they started their own gang which usually did not end too well for them. He had seen those exact 2 sights too many times to count on both hands with only a few people actually succeeding.

If he was being honest, even when he was still a weakling, he really liked Moby's character and personality, he thought that he was a smart guy who worked hard to achieve his goals, not like the majority of the nobles who had been spoon-fed power and money their whole lives. He could tell that Moby achieved everything he had today with his sheer will power and determination.

As for Abby, even though he knew that she was part of the Reid family, one of the richest and most notorious families in the entire country, he felt like she was different. She worked harder than every other student he had seen in many years, and, instead of flaunting her power and the power of her family like her sister, she was fairly quiet and kept to herself making Leo admire her as well.

They were both the gems of his class, the strongest and most skilled out of all of his students. From only the few weeks he had taught them, he knew that they would grow up to do great things. So, he hoped he does not see history repeat its self for both of them once more, especially in Moby's case since he was not part of any important family, making him a huge target in the eyes of many.

Leo told everyone to line up one against each other, making a fairly long line of students. Moby and Abby were both at the edges of the line, Abby being the last one meaning that there was one unlucky person that was forced to stand beside Moby, making him sweat profusely out of every pore, cursing his luck, wishing and praying for the moment to end. 

Moby noticed how scared and agitated the kid beside him was, so, he decided to show him that he was friendly and meant him no harm, to push the persona of him being a nice person. However, this only ended in him scaring the kid, even more, seeing Moby's friendly smile as the smile of a predator ready to eat him for breakfast, making him close his eyes and stand up straighter than an arrow, trying his best to pretend that Moby was not there and think happy thoughts.

'Good grief… this will be much harder than I expected…' Moby thought with a long sigh. 

"Okay, class! We will now start our ability training! Other than helping your basics, This is what your last month of training has all built up to. Like you know, refining your ability core and strengthening your bond with your inner spirit requires you to increase your physical strength to a certain threshold before attempting. If we had gone straight to ability training from the first day like several of you previously suggested, it would have not ended too well for you to say the least… Many of you would have failed miserably at improving your core and bonds, likey even injuring yourselves in the process."

"This is how every person's training usually is, a combination of physical training until they build enough strength to strengthen their cores and bonds, then rinse and repeat. The more you go the harder it will be, and every person will have a different level of strength increase depending on many factors, mostly coming down to ability and spirit type, talent, as well as luck."

"The many A rank students in your grade definitely started their ability training from a young age, probably using a family secret technique or something of the sort to boost their strength. So, don't get discouraged or feel down thinking that you will never catch up! They just had a small head start! With enough hard work and determination, you will be able to catch up and surpass them!" Leo announced, making the entire class look at him with smiles of nervous excitement and hopeful eyes.

As Moby looked around him, he noticed all the somewhat bright and excited faces of his classmates. However, when he looked to his right where Abby was, her face told a completely different story, a look that Moby had never seen on her face other than the first day they had met… despair… something that he confirmed using his emotion sensing to make sure that he was not imagining things.

'Hey… Abby, are you alright?' Moby asked, trying to find out what was wrong with his friend and subordinate to better understand why she was feeling the way she was.

'O-oh my lord… I am just… I am really nervous about this… I have not tried any ability training ever since before I became a demon… at that time, every time I had tried it, I would break nearly every bone in my body and be forced to go into immediate care… I tried it over, and over, and over again, constantly breaking my body just for the slight chance of it working. However, in the end there was virtually no success in sight. So, that led me to pursue other methods of gaining strength... it led me to train my body which did not help, which then led to me experimenting with many things until I met you… I-I am just scared for the same thing to happen to me again… It is not about the pain… far from that! I am just scared of failure and disappointment… I don't want to be left behind...' Abby explained in a sad yet sincere voice, greatly surprising Moby and making him feel bad for her. 

He never expected Abby to let her heart out to him and explain her true feelings, he expected her to deny his claims as she would think of her self too lowly to bother Moby with her selfish problems, making him nag her until she finally admitted everything to him. However, what happened was not at all that case which made Moby really happy to see her self confidence grow. Yet, he was still sad to see his dear friend in such a mood. 

'Hahaha! Don't worry! That was the old you! This is the new you! You have grown so much since then! Your new and improved demon body is not at all like what it used to be! It is no longer frail and weak like before! So, it should be a different story when you try now! I have full faith in you!' Moby said with a smile, being completely honest while at the same time trying his best to lift her spirits.

'Y-yes, my lord! Thank you so much for your words of confidence! I promise that I will absolutely not let you down!' Abby said, her expression changing drastically into something more positive and serious than before, stealing her mind and resolve as the words of her lord and saviour had relit the spark in her fiery heart, vowing to try the method that had caused her so much pain and suffering, not just physically but also mentally once more.

Moby just looked at Abby's face that was full of resolve with a smile and a nod, reaffirming his previous words before looking back at professor Leo who was about to give everyone instructions on what to do.

"Okay class, we will be doing the most widely used and standard way of training, there are others but this is the one we will be mostly using in class as almost everyone can benefit from it. Don't worry, we will be working with other ways much later on in the year. So, for now, we will all be doing meditation. You might be forced to see some images, maybe some test or tribulation. What a person sees and the difficulty of them all depend on the person's spirit, personality, mental state, ability type, and a few more that I don't have time to go into detail with and won't really change the outcome of anything." Leo explained, leading to every student giving him a serious nod in response.

"Everyone sit down in a cross-legged position," Leo ordered, making everyone immediately comply with no hesitation.

"Good! Now! All of you close your eyes and, calm and clear your mind…" Leo ordered once more, making everyone do as ordered, including Moby who looked over at Abby with a smile before he too closed his eyes.

"Focus deeply on the mana flow in your veins… Now… Once you find it, follow the flow and trace it back to your blue ability core that should be around the centre of your body mass… once you have located it, … try to communicate with what lays within… stare deeply into it, and let your mind drift…" Leo said, making Moby listen intently and follow his words step by step, changing them slightly to fit more with his circumstances. 

In his Ability core, he noticed that instead of the blue colour that Leo described, it was a nearly perfect sphere that was coloured a mixture of blue, black, red, and purple with all of the colours clashing inside of it like a raging storm, almost like all of the colours were fighting over supremacy, making it seem almost unstable... It was a very odd sight to say the least.

Moby decided to ignore the obscure nature of his ability core and did as Professor Leo suggested, neglecting the part about communicating with his inner spirit for obvious reasons and opted to instead do his other suggestion of staring deeply into his sporadic ability core, clearing his mind and letting it drift… 

After 30 seconds of nothing but staring, Moby felt like it wasn't working… Making him slightly disappointed. But, he persevered and kept on doing it for a little longer…

...

Then not even a second later, he felt his vision grow extremely blurry as the orb became bigger, smaller, taller, wider, morphing into different shapes like he was extremely nauseated before he felt his consciousness slip away… eventually making his vision go completely blank...