After a nice bath to washed away his mood, Viers went to eat dinner, the menu was a nice butter chicken with rice and some salads. It was a lively scene at the dinner table, some kids were obviously already buddy-buddy with each other. The boys sometimes checked out the girls and vice-versa, overall a warm dinner scene, at least there were none who sticks out like the black goat of the group… yet.

There were some who talk about their training experience. Fire types were cooked near a bonfire, earth types buried on the ground, wind types were hung out to dry on the roof, while water types were drowned in the pool. After exchanging information, Viers realized, apparently there were no rare attributes talent among their batch of trainees, all of them were from the 4 main elements.

Viers wondered how lightning type train, will the teachers zapped them with mosquito zapper over and over? The thought amused him and lightened his mood. When it was over, he returned to his room, there were still experiments needed to be done. He put on the no disturb sign but vaguely felt it was useless but put it on anyway and locked the door.

He lit a candle, took out his knife, and put the knife on it. “It’s time for the main course Viers, brace yourself this is going to hurt,” Viers gathered up his courage.

This is the centerpiece of my power, from now on pain shall be a friend. Viers took the hot knife and prepared to slash his left arm.

The burns from bandit mage have all disappeared, not even a scar, let's test it lightly first. He then made a small slit on his arm.

Khhh, that stings, on Earth how often one can get hurt in a city? I don’t even get a paper cut before. A 3 cm red line opened on his arm.

Viers watched his pocket watch closely, he needed to time his process. The first test shall be about passive healing, I do nothing while let the body work their thing.

It was a shallow wound and not deep, in 5 minutes the skin was already healed, the skin had a thin slit, a proof that he was hurt but gone soon after.

Alright, second experiment. Viers slashed 3 cuts this time, all cuts were just like the first experiment.

The 3 wounds were healing simultaneously, but the rate of healing rate was slower and it took 10 minutes to heal them all.

Third experiment, Viers slashed another 3 cuts, just like before, nothing changed, he wanted to check the consistency of his healing.

It was the same as before, the 3 cuts were healing all at once and it took 10 minutes to heal.

Viers jot down his experiment results in a paper, then prepared for another go.

Fourth experiment. Just like before 3 cuts, this time Viers meditated and tried to feel the wounds, he focused his attention on his injury.

I may not be able to use Mana for anything yet, but if I focus on these wounds and willed it to heal, would something happen? Time to finds out.

It healed at 9 minutes, Viers looked at the result and felt very happy.

Good! This means I can influence my healing factor to a certain degree, perhaps Mana is the key to this phenomenon? I am still a novice at Mana manipulation, need more experiments when I’ve become better at Mana-mastery… if I regenerate over and over again would that make my regeneration skill level up and get stronger?

That’s the best-case scenario, oppositely my regeneration is limited, the more I regenerate the shorter my lifespan or my telomere ran out faster as I healed my wounds rapidly… What is the cost of this? I hope it’s not ‘destroy your body’ kind. The flower is the key… how could I found out more about it? I don't think there are books depicting it at the Training Centers…

Fifth experiment, here comes the big one. Viers put a piece of cloth inside his mouth and bit it, then he put his left hand on top of some cloth he prepared, and stab the knife through his palm.

A painful muffled scream came from Viers's mouth, there were tears welling up in his eyes as he tried to hold the pain at bay. He pulled out the knife and tried to concentrate, let the healing work at full potential.

Shit, shit, shit, heal, heal, heal…

After the worst wave of pain passed, he looked at his bloody palm, he watched and observe the regeneration. It stopped bleeding at 7 minutes, he felt that the flesh was mending, it was a somewhat weird sensation, in 35 minutes Viers his palm injury seemed healed but Viers note his grip is very weak, it took 46 minutes to full recovery.

In my regeneration, the first step is blood loss prevention, and it took more time to regenerate complicated things, like the nerve for example. I assume for organs like liver it would take a significantly longer time, getting my heart or lungs stabbed means death most likely, as for brain… let’s just say I don’t want to know the answer.

I think it’s time to end the experiments now, I can know better after more research in this ability.

Viers started to clean up the bloody scene, washed the blood with water from the basin he brought earlier, he brought the bloody cloth and washed it at the washing area, thankfully no one saw him when he brought a bloody cloth through the corridor.

After he finished, he returned and found his room was plagued with the smell of blood, he opened the window and look at the time, it was 9 o'clock. It was still too early for Viers to sleep and so he practiced his Mana manipulation.

Viers sat in front of the table, there was a glass of water filled almost full. Viers put both of his hands beside the glass without touching it, and tried to ‘feel’ the water while breathing yoga breath. This was his training in controlling Mana, he continued doing it for two hours.

Disappointed by the lack of progress, he went to sleep grudgingly. He planned to wake up early tomorrow and do some morning run before class.

With my tier 2 talent, perhaps it will be a long while before I can make progress, perhaps those with superior talent already have some favorable outcome… sigh wallowing in self-pity is useless, go to sleep Viers, and don’t give up making the world your oyster.

***

Viers was woken up by the song of chirping birds, He felt fresh and energized, the clock showed it was a bit past 6. If it will be like this for every morning, I didn’t regret subscribing to the healing factor service. Viers thought as he did some stretching exercises. He washed himself, brushed his teeth and went out for a run. Yisha greeted him as he went out of the dorm, he met other students, each was doing their own activity.

I still haven’t sent the mail yet, I should do it before going to class today, no need to come as early as yesterday.

Viers went running around the neighborhood, there were many residences around the area, and most were still asleep without any sign of activity. He looked around while committing the streets and houses all over him to his memory, filling his mental map.

The weather felt good and the morning air was invigorating, Viers recalled of the seasons, Luxore town placed on the south side of the Coalition territory, the seasons were like Europe here, with four different phases every year. It was mid-spring now and as time went by it will become hotter.

After an hour of running, he felt famished and searched for a place to eat breakfast. He chose a stall that served a noodle-like dish, it was pretty good, Viers ordered a second portion. After he felt full and satisfied he returned to the dorm to freshen up and getting ready for class.

He stopped by at the Guild, some adventurers were looking at the quest board. Viers note that only three in ten people seemed to be experienced adventurers, most were young people, a few of them were at his age. Viers presumed they were those who couldn't afford the Training Centers high fee.

In the Training Center, I was given lessons of the Path, what about these kids? Were they going to fight monsters with their physical ability alone? Perhaps they can kill animals like wolves or boars and weak monsters like mutated big cockroach or goblins but what can they do after that?

Wait... no, not goblins perhaps, before my coming to this world, Spring of Wisdom have shown me that their reputation had flown through the roof lately, the little buggers are very vile, very devious and many reincarnated people among them… I hope there are none of them in this world.

Viers met Sherry again, prim and proper like the last time he saw her. They exchanged short pleasantries before Viers sent his mail, after that he went to the TC.

When he arrived in the classroom, he noted that there was a new boy sitting at his seat from yesterday. It seems there will be some new faces here and there in the coming days. Viers thought and sat at an empty seat. Terry greeted him, he seemed more chipper than yesterday.

Today Nakala explained more about yesterday’s topics.

“There are basically two ways of battle, martial and magical, you all can chose to fight up close and personal or stay at the back while dishing out the punishment, both are equally important but, unless you are very exceptional you cannot specialize in both at the same time, especially for acolytes like you kids who are just getting started.”

“Martial is about strengthening yourself, you can hit harder, move faster, see farther, and so on. They are the ones who focus on body strengthening to fight, mostly their focus is in melee combat thus usually wield weapons and wear armor. We call them warrior-type.”

“Magical is about using Mana to manifest a phenomenon, you can conjure a fireball, make a water wall, create a thunderstorm, and so on. More often than not they can make more damage to the enemy than warrior-types if they manage to complete their spells, but they usually suffer from weaker physical ability. We call them mage-type.”

“For the time being, you acolytes are to continue training to sense then manipulate your Mana, I tell you this now because I want to give you time to choose which type you want to be, think about this carefully because it will become your battle-style for the foreseeable future.”

The classroom was getting noisy after Nakala said that, most kids were asking one another about which type they want to be and the like. Terry who maybe had some experience told some advantages of mage-type to the kid next to him. Max proudly said that he will be the best warrior-type. The others also affected by the fervor and it was getting louder. Even the quiet Paina seemed excited.

Once again Viers felt he was out of place learning in the same classroom with teenagers. Nakala let the rowdy atmosphere persist for a while, she looked at the kids with warm eyes.

“For those who have not yet managed to sense or feel their Mana, which is all of you… always remember that the first step is always difficult, don't give up kids.”

“Now most of you here want to be adventurers but I must stress once again that you don't have to be, battling monsters are dangerous and a single mistake can cost you your life… all of you here at the Training Centers are given lessons of Mana-mastery to have some manner of self-defense, not to force you to become adventurers.

“Those of you that prefer to be civilians is perfectly reasonable, if all people become adventurers, who will tend the farm that provides food for you to eat? Who will tailor our clothes? Who will build all those houses you see on the street? There are so many professions in this world that you can choose, you can be whatever you want to be.”

“Now, Training Centers are a place of education, what you shall learn are not only for Mana-mastery, therefore you will now learn something that will be very useful throughout your life, it's called… mathematics.”

When the familiar word was spoken, Viers felt like he met his long-time nemesis.

***

It was not as bad as he thought. Only primary school grade of difficulty, Viers managed to excel because he was an old boy in young classrooms but the rest of the class were not so blessed.

There were a few that couldn't read and write, them having trouble were a given thought Viers, only four including Viers of the remaining twelve managed to sailed through smoothly, If Viers didn't have otherworldly memory, he would have trouble too. The education rate is so mish-mashed here. Viers wryly smiled to no one in particular.

It was 12 o’clock and the classroom was over, break time for the trainees to have lunch, the TC didn’t have a cafeteria thus the trainees scattered around the town to bought food of their liking. The next schedule was the Mana-mastery training at 1 o’clock, which meant it was swimming time for Viers and the other water element trainees.

Viers didn’t bother much about his clothes, he simply changed to short pants, in appearance, it was similar to trunks.

Terry wore a red brief fitting his lean body shape, somehow he seemed to be brimming in confidence. He stood with arms akimbo beside Viers.

“Hey, what kind of swimwear Farley and Paina will wear you think? Aren’t you excited?” Terry said with a shining smile plastered in his face.

“They can wear a potato sack, it makes no difference to me,” Viers replied to his question.

“Hahaha no need to so be so hard wearing a stoic mask my friend, come on admit it, there is a tiny-itsy-bit of you that somewhat looking forward to it,” Terry said nudging Viers with his elbow, still arms akimbo.

“…” Viers didn’t answer, for the truth was he cannot completely deny the kid standing beside him.

They were not “a peerless beauty who only appeared once in a hundred years” or “an immortal like goddess whose beauty causes the downfall of nations” like the harem targets of wuxia novels, they are simply, cute… there I admit it, why should I deny nor appreciate cuteness? I am not aiming to be the best to die old and alone.

While Viers was deep in his thought, Farley and Paina came out together after changing. Paina walked behind Farley somewhat shyly.

“Heya, sorry to keep you two waiting, what do you think? Cute right? Shall we?” Farley said twirling once, Viers catch a bit of blush on her cheeks so despite her behavior she seemed to be a bit embarrassed, while Paina stays silent, her face was red like a tomato.

Farley wore a yellow-colored bikini with cute frill designs, while Paina wore a one-piece black swimwear with flower pattern, she tied her hair into a ponytail. Their cuteness grew +3 in Viers’s eyes.

First, why am I standing here with Terry waiting for them? Second, how could a medieval age culture birth such sophisticated materials and designs for a swimwear? Third, why I feel like I am a cherry boy?

Viers was busy inside his head thus didn’t answer while Terry gave them a two thumbs up and answered. “Yes, yes, you are both very beautiful, please go on to the pool, ladies first… Viers, say something.” Terry said while nudging the boy beside him.

Viers cursed a bit an offer them a complimentary. “Right, very cute, both of you.”

“Thanks, sooo let’s get to it then, time's a-wastin’,” Farley jumped into the pool.

“Un,” Paina nodded adorably and slowly dipped into the pool.

“Time to go Viers, stop daydreaming.’ Terry said while jumping into the pool, he kept his smiling face the whole time, Viers sighed and followed them. I hope this kind of Japanese anime scenario isn’t come out too often.