"Would you look at that?" Richard smirked, "impressive stats you got there huh?"

Ventus looked at the stone tablet hologram carefully and was quite happy. His capabilities were quite high, he had a good affinity and could train in 3 elements if he wished plus his comprehension was also very good. However there were still some things that made him curious, and a special one that bothered him quite a bit.

He frowned a bit and obviously, Richard easily noticed the unrest in Ventus's face.

"Anything you did not understand?" he asked

"Well..."Ventus spoke,"why is there a bloodline stat on the projection? also, is there any way I can improve my physical strength?"

"Oh, so that is what's bothering you" he chuckled, "Well, the bloodline stat is actually quite complex" he replied, "There are special bloodlines among the races that grant the holder some advantages over others, some may be slightly stronger than common folk, others may have a higher innate comprehension towards mana, and others even may have a special comprehension towards certain elements that will help them develop far easier in that specific field of magi art"

"As for ways to improve your physical strength.."Richard continued, "Well, there are two paths you could take to reach that objective"

He stretched one finger.

"You can do physical training and use the aid of special medicines to massively strengthen your body's physical capabilities, that is usually the way of soldiers, fighters, and magi knights"

He then stretched another finger.

"Or you can train in special magi arts that strengthen your physical capabilities and allows your body to become more attuned towards mana in such a way that allows mana to massively boost the body's power output in physical efforts by using mana reinforcement, that is the way that magus, wizards, and sorcerers compensate for their weaker physique compared to physical practitioners"

"Do you have any way of allowing me to train in any of those right now?" Ventus inquired.

"No can do kid" He replied, "Before we start your training, we must have you take the entrance trials and become an official apprentice under me"

"Why? you are the one teaching me, not the association! why do I have to wait?" Ventus questioned annoyed.

"Contractual obligations kid" Richard sighed slightly annoyed, "Although I am a powerful magus, I can't go breaking rules around the association lest I face punishment"

"They are pretty strict and annoying with their stupid rules!" Ventus grumbled.

"I agree" Richard snorted, "But don't tell them that okay?" He laughed mischievously.

Ventus laughed and then looked at his body, he saw the glowing runes on his bandages and a spark lit on his brain.

"Hey old man" Ventus spoke," How do I treat injuries to my core and meridians?"

"You managed to injure those as well huh?" Richard replied frowning.

He then stood up from his chair and prompted Ventus to stand up as well. He procured a glowing round green pill from his robes and handed it to him. He then prompted him to sit down in his usual meditation training position.

"That pill I just handed you is called spirit mending pill, it will aid you in your recovery and by using its effects and your usual training, you should be able to fully recover from those injuries in about three days" He explained.

"But I must warn you, this pill has an immense amount of mana inside it, if you do not rigorously train precisely in the way I instruct you, you will injure yourself further and make it even harder to recover" He sternly warned.

Ventus silently nodded as his eyes were closed and the pill was still in his hands. He diligently paid attention to Richard's words.

"Now" He instructed, "Before you swallow the pill and start your training, we must first get rid of the bandages in your body, otherwise the different technique on them will interrupt the pill absorption"

When he said that, Richard made a hand seal and circulated his mana. Then, he drew an arcane rune in the air and pointed at Ventus. The rune flashed through the air and landed in the bandages that covered his body, a glow then rose from the bandages and they disintegrated into light particles that in mere instants disappeared in the air leaving Ventus stark naked.

But before the boy could even feel that he was in his birth suit, Richard drew another rune in the air and pointed at Ventus. The rune flashed and landed on his body, light particles started glowing in the air and immediately flew towards him. In instants, a set of clean white training garments materialized on Ventus's body. He now wore a sleeveless shirt and comfortable pants that fit him perfectly but wore no shoes.

Richard then pointed a finger at the window and circulated his mana. A minuscule sphere of light the size of a bean congealed at the tip of that finger, with a thought it flew rapidly towards that window and entered its frame. The window then glowed and swung outwards letting in the cold and comfortable air of the night into the room.

"Now, swallow the pill and immediately begin to execute your refinement technique" Richard commanded.

Ventus quietly obeyed and put the pill in his mouth, swiftly swallowing it. As the pill fell in his stomach he immediately knew that Richard didn't exaggerate at all, he felt his stomach swell as the massive amount of refined mana burst out from the pill.

He immediately started running his refinement technique. As he circled his mana around his body in accordance with the technique, he noticed a new development happen. Instead of gathering world mana and refining it, every time his inner mana inside his meridians passed on his stomach region, several hundred wisps of pill mana would be attracted by his inner mana and would be pulled out from his stomach to join the great flow of mana inside his meridians.

After about three hours, He felt that his circulation was gradually accelerating as the pain in his meridians and core diminished. Ventus carefully observed his inner condition using his inner mana and found out that the slight cracks in his meridians were greatly healed, that made his heart fill up with joy.

On the outside, Richard observed Ventus's training and a grin grew on his face. Ventus himself couldn't feel it, but whilst he was training the wind around him gathered and revolved rapidly around him, far more noticeable than the previous time he trained. That alone, Richard mused, confirmed the boy's excellent wind affinity.

"Despite being only an entry-level technique, he can already cause such a disturbance in the element around him," he thought happily, "His father was indeed wise to name him with such a name, could it be the man knew his son would have such an excellent affinity from birth?" he mused.

"In any case, I've got myself a disciple to be proud of indeed" he laughed in his mind.

The four hours of training were about to be up and Ventus was still deeply immersed in his training and observation of his condition. His mana ran ever faster inside his meridians that were completely healed at this point, and now, were growing stronger under the nourishment of the pill mana.

He was also pleasantly surprised that his core healed slightly and was filled to the brim with energy. One had to know that his happiness came from the fact that it took him about 24 hours to fill his core up to 50% on his own, whilst with the aid of the pill mana, in a portion of the time he filled up the remaining 50% completely.

As Richard observed he knew that Ventus had reached the limit of what he could refine today, he then moved and crouched down near him. He then placed his hand close Ventus's stomach and sent a wisp of his own mana inside the boy. Immediately all of that bursting pill mana was restricted and forced back to the pill's shell. If one could look inside Ventus's stomach one would see that the pill retained its original shape but had lost a portion of its glow, and around the green pill, there were black chains made of runes sealing it.

Ventus noticed that the massive flow of mana was halted, he stopped circulating his mana and opened his eyes. He found himself face-to-face with Richard's face and was given a scare as he jumped backward.

"Old man! What the f*ck is wrong with you!?" He shouted angrily.

"Manners kid! manners!" Richard replied annoyed as he stood up straight, "I was sealing the pill mana so you wouldn't overdo the training and cripple yourself with the exaggerated amount"

"At least be thankful I'm not letting you explode your meridians and core!" he snorted.

"Oh...i see..." Ventus replied embarrassedly. "I'm sorry I overreacted"

Richard waved it off and helped Ventus stand up. As he did he silently scanned Ventus's inner condition with his mana and was happy with the results. Ventus had recovered significantly and even a bit faster than he expected. All that was left to recover was the core.

"Now, kid, you mustn't refine any mana until I say so, for the next few hours, you're going to circle your mana through your body and quench your non-mana related parts with mana to strengthen your body, do that until your core is emptied out" he instructed as he sat back on the antler chair.

Ventus proceeded to do that as instructed, he chose to do simple exercises whilst enhancing his every move with mana, that made his whole body glow with light. As his physical prowess wasn't that high, he could only do so much with his body and as such, 3 hours later he collapsed on the ground panting heavily, his core was emptied.

This time was much different from when he injured himself, that time he was unconsciously igniting his inner mana and that is why in mere minutes his core was almost emptied. This time he carefully controlled his expenditure and that is why it lasted as much as three hours.

"You lasted longer than i expected" Richard praised, "Although a bit rough, your control over mana is impressive for a beginner like yourself"

Ventus didn't reply and turned his head to the window. The sun had already risen without his noticing. He felt tired, but satisfied with his progress, he grinned and then turned to Richard.

"So, I remenber you told me something about entrance trials right?"