Chapter 83: First Class (2)

For the group on the left, Warden called out as all of them stood straighter. "All of you will begin with physical conditioning," he said. "Since it is the first day, you will all run 10 laps of the ground."

"But, instructor," one of the mage candidates, a girl barely 15 years old, called out, "I only have 13 points in strength. It would be impossible for me to complete the task."

As her complaints were raised openly, a few more joined, giving similar excuses, or rather admitting their weaknesses. Ten laps would be over sixty miles, an impossible number for common people. But these weren't common people.

Warden considered that for a common human, strength was about three to five points. Thirteen was almost thrice the number of an adult male's capabilities. It wasn't impossible for her to complete the laps, though he was afraid she wouldn't be able to make it in due time.

"Ten laps," Warden stated. "If you can't complete them, I will add those incomplete laps to the next day."

"So if I can only manage 5 laps, I have to run 15 laps tomorrow?" The girl looked horrified.

"Yes, unless I add more laps to the exercise regimen," Warden smiled, his curly smile giving shivers to the young boys and girls.

"This is impossible." Many of them tried to complain, but Warden silenced them, raising his hand.

"Strength is the easiest attribute to raise, and this exercise would only stimulate your potential to raise the attribute. With each point raised in strength, you will find the tasks to be easier." Warden's announcement seemed to have quelled some of their worries, though they still looked at each other with worried glances. "Now go, the class is only for two hours."

She did not have any other attributes. It wasn't really a surprise, as Warden had already found out it was already uncommon for any of them to have three attributes in the copper rank. Most people tended to have only two.

Surprisingly, Tam had four. His strength was high, almost as high as Warden himself, a staggering 70 points, but he lacked in other attributes. Other than strength, dexterity, and spirit, he also had perception, which was a minor attribute related to the mind.

Dirk had the same three as Arsala, and his attributes were more rounded. As for the last guy, Tim, he only had strength and spirit. These four were really the cream of the crop, even if the reason behind their higher attributes was that they had awakened before anyone else.

"Now you four will begin with sparring, testing each other's abilities in different forms. After a few rounds, change your partners," Warden instructed. "And by the end of it, you will join the other group with those exercises."

"Instructor, you mentioned our weakness is energy control the other day," Kirk asked. "I thought we'd be learning that first."

"Honestly, it was something you should learn from the professors," Warden said, "but I do plan on getting you all to do some exercises later. Just not today."

They all began practising as Warden began to scribble whatever he picked up about their strengths and weaknesses in a notebook. Not knowing everyone's name made it difficult for him to remember everything, but he managed to access all their serial numbers, paired with the authority enabled in his Arcane society badge.

The instructor's job was mostly to instruct on things, not teach them, though Warden still corrected some of their forms and taught them the right ones if he saw them making a mistake. Warden also began practising with them, as there was still benefit to have from exercises, not to mention he had to skip his training session for sleeping too long.

Warden had only begun for two days and already missed a day. That's not a good track record. The least he could do was rectify that as much by putting his body through some stressful exercises after putting on some weight bags.