Chương 134: Back To Training

The smell of sizzling bacon woke Damion in the morning. The scent brought to his mind breakfast prepared by his mother. Damion got out of bed quickly and headed to the kitchen before he remembered. In the kitchen Elicia was once again cooking his meal. Damion took a seat, trying to push the memories of his mother and breakfasts out of his mind. Shortly after sitting down the young woman brought the food to the table and sat down with a plate of her own.

"Will I be eating all my meals in the dormitory?"

"Lunch is served in the main hall, where you had lunch yesterday."

"I guess they will add more tables when there are more students. Will I be eating with all the professors again?"

"I am unaware of which professors will come to lunch. It is not uncommon for professors to be preoccupied with their own studies and skip meals."

"Am I allowed to skip?" Damion hastily asked.

"You can. May I ask what you will be doing instead?"

"Training. Once classes start I have a feeling I won't have as much time to train. Even if I don't have any points to spend on the academy's training facilities I can still train like I normally do. Plus, it will help occupy my mind."

"And what do you normally do to train?"

"Physical exercises and casting spells repeatedly to increase my mastery of them," Damion said with a shrug as he got up from the table. Damion headed into his room and got ready to start his training. He slipped on a comfortable pair of shoes and wore his backpack canteen filled with water, strapped down tightly to keep it from bouncing as he ran. Damion wished he had training bracelets like Mage Teft had once given him, but those stopped working when he reached D Rank and he returned them to her.

He never asked if there were more advanced versions, but now he kind of wished he had a set. When Damion emerged from his room he found Elicia had changed outfits as well. Instead of the simple black shirt and pleated skirt she and the other attendants typically wore, Elicia was wearing an outfit that would look right at home in a gym on Earth. She had a form fitting top that covered her from her collar to her midsection but had no sleeves and left her toned midsection exposed.

Her skirt had been traded in for skintight leggings. Both the leggings and top were black with the green pipping along the hems leaving Damion to wonder if the attendants had a closet full of outfits for different occasions. Elicia turned to look at Damion, who was a bit stunned by her outfit, and waited for him speak. After a moment he regained his senses and fought to put aside the thoughts he found suddenly leaping into his head.

"Shall we head out?" Elicia asked when Damion still said nothing. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"What? Oh, yes," Damion said and headed towards the door.

"Is there a good running path or…" Before Damion could finish asking Elicia brushed past him and took off towards a nearby set of trees.

"Follow me," Elicia called as she began moving further away. Damion hurriedly followed after her. He was able to catch up fairly quickly, given his years of physical training, but given how quickly Elicia had moved when she headed out the door told him she had done a fair amount of training herself. Elicia did not let up when Damion caught up, instead she started running harder, moving through the wooded area of the academy grounds with practiced ease.

While Damion did not want to be beaten, let alone by this E Rank that seemed to despise him one minute and the next cook him dinner, he did not mind following behind her. The pace Elicia set was good and since he did not know the paths through the grounds yet, he reconciled himself to follow behind Elicia and found himself enjoying watching her run. After about an hour of running Elicia began to slow her pace. Damion was not sure, but he felt that they had nearly run completely around the perimeter of the grounds.

The area they were in had a wide path, so Damion sped up to run alongside her and watched out of the corner of his eye how Elicia's chest was heaving up and down with each breath and her body was drenched in perspiration.

"Getting tired?" Damion asked as he effortlessly matched her pace.

"We're almost done. The dorms are just ahead. That will make it a full circuit." Looking ahead, he could see through trees and make out parts of his dormitory building. Now that he had gone over the path once, Damion was fairly certain he would be able to follow the path again on his own. With a sudden burst of acceleration, Damion took off, leaving Elicia far behind.

"I'll see you in a bit," Damion called over his shoulder to Elicia as she tried to keep up with him. A few minutes later Elicia was panting as she entered the dorm room to find everything turned off. She quickly checked Damion's bedroom and bathroom, finding them empty. Damion had not returned to his dorm, even though he told her he would see her in a bit. As Elicia thought about what Damion said she realized he had probably continued on his run.

She debated for a bit if she should go after him, she was supposed to stay with him at all times, to ensure he stayed out of trouble, but given the speed at which he had taken off Elicia knew she would not be able to catch up to him. Instead, she went to her room and peeled off her sticky clothing and climbed into a warm bath. If Damion wanted to exercise more that was fine, she would use the time to relax. Now that he knew roughly what path he needed to take, Damion continued to run around the academy grounds.

He was used to running around Saung for exercise, with its wide smooth road along the automated farms. Here Damion had to watch out for low branches, random debris on the path or outright holes, not to mention sudden changes in direction as the academy path looped around rocks and heavily wooded areas. In the time it took at Elicia's pace, Damion managed to complete two circuits of the grounds, despite that on his first solo circuit having taken a wrong turn and ended up in at a dead end.

When he decided to call it quits for the day he stopped outside his dormitory, but did not see Elicia. Figuring the young woman had gone inside to rest, Damion pushed her absence out of his mind and settled down in an open patch of grass to focus on his mana control. After leaving Elicia in the dust, Damion had activated Mana Absorption and used the time during his solo run to practice casting Ice Shard and Ice Shield.

Ice Breath was a bit hard to cast while running and Icy Grasp required him to hold onto something, so it was not easy to practice those on the move. Now that Damion was finished with his physical exercise, and could sit still, he began casting Ice Breath and focused on spewing out the freezing air for as long as he could.

Despite having enough mana to keep Ice Breath going for a considerable amount of time, Damion could only maintain the spell for a few seconds since despite being magic, the spell required him to exhale.