Two weeks have passed, and Rain has been steadily improving his skills. His sorcery training has proven extremely fruitful. Not only has he learned to sense the mana sources of his fellow trainees while training, but also managed to use his sorcery in combat actively. The physical combat portion of his training, while nearly breaking him, reached a point where he now only felt exhausted after training, instead of on the brink of fainting.

  Making his way toward the shared men’s bathroom, he walked by a couple of other trainees. While he had mostly kept to himself, except for interacting with the ones in his own group, he had come to recognize most of the others living in the same compound.

  Thankfully, things were rather normal. Elys often spoke with everyone around him, thereby building up a sort of rapport between the different groups. Nodding his way toward the multiple showers, Rain realized how much he had changed during this period, both physically and mentally.

  In only two weeks, his body had undergone massive changes. His face was a lot fuller, his shoulders wider, as well as growth in his arm and leg muscles. Needless to say, he was now a proper Selected, still not quite reaching Lance’s stature, but a far cry from what he was only two weeks ago. This growth wasn’t only visible, but he himself felt healthier and stronger. In these two weeks outside of the regular training, he improved his stamina with Elys and worked on his spearmanship on the side with Lance, who proved himself quite an excellent teacher.

  He entered the shower area, where Elys and Lance were already washing themselves.

  “There you are, buddy! Took a little longer today.”

  Smiling brightly through the steam, Elys greeted him. A rare occasion where Elys didn’t oversleep.

  “I’m more surprised to see you here. Why so chipper?”

  “Ahh, a bit nervous, I guess? I actually got pretty confident in my skills, but…A Shard is still a Shard, you know.”

  Catching his gaze, Rain and Elys shared a worried look before Lance intervened.

  “You’ll both be alright. You made solid progress so far, and it’s just a drill hound.”

  Two weeks had passed, and now training had to take the next step. While sparring was always beneficial, their main opponents will hopefully not be other Selected. Therefore, today, their combat training was focused on defeating their first Shard, a drill hound.

  “Well, you’re right about the progress; it has only been a short time, but I already feel pretty comfortable with my bow. Naomi has been helping me a lot…She’s been doing a lot of work on the side with me, Jun, and I think even some from other groups.”

  Rain and Elys felt quite lucky to have the twins take them under their wings. One of the main reasons why slum children had such a high mortality rate was the fact that, other than the lack of training, most didn’t want to associate with them. This obviously went on in the Mirror as well. No one dared to join a liability.

  This raised a question for Rain. Why are they so keen on helping the ones deemed worthless?

  “Lance, while we appreciate all the work you and Naomi have done for us. Why exactly do you help us? Surely there’s no meaningful training for you in the basic training you provide us?

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  The trio finished showering, and Lance spoke as he wrapped a towel around his body, his calm voice resonating through the room.

  “It’s true, we ourselves don’t really gain much from it. Training-wise, at least.”

  His tone turned more serious, and the nonchalance shifted:

  “Our parents weren’t born into our wealth. We…and our brother, were the first ones born in a comfortable life. They struggled a lot, but our dad managed to build his company from the ground up…They raised us to help others. Humanity won’t make it far without each other. So yeah, we try our best to do whatever we can. Maybe leave the world a little better than when we found it.”

  “That’s…”

  Silence struck the trio; both Elys and Rain hadn’t expected such a meaningful answer.

  ‘I thought he would just say: “Because I can.”’

  Seeing the dropping mood, Elys interfered, stretching a hand out to Lance.

  “Thank you. I think I speak for Rain and the others that without you…Our chances would be a lot worse.”

  Giving him a rare smile, Lance shook his hand with a firm grip, giving both of them a knowing nod.

  “By the way, you said you have a brother? Older than you?”

  Lance stopped, his eyes mournfully gazing toward the floor:

  “Yeah…he…died a couple years ago…He didn’t find his way back.”

  “Oh…I’m sorry.”

  “It’s ok, he was mainly the reason our parents put us in such expensive schools.”

  ‘He died in the Mirror then…’

  The somber mood held for a bit before they all returned to their dorm and started preparing for today’s training. As the usual schedule, Rain first had his Reflection training, so Elys would be the first one to take on the Shard.

  The group walked together until the halfway point, shortly stopping before splitting up.

  Elys turned toward Rain with an awkward and worried smile.

  “Soo, guess I’ll go first. Fighting a Shard…so exciting!”

  ‘He really can’t even act excited.’

  “You’ll be fine, just shoot it before it reaches you.”

  “Yeah, thanks, Rain. I hadn’t thought about that.”

  Revealing his sassy side, Elys jumped up and down to hype himself up.

  “Alright, let’s go! Naomi, make sure I don’t die!”

  “I’m not allowed to interfere; you’re on your own there.”

  Spinning his head almost like an owl, Elys pleaded with Naomi while the rest, including Rain, wandered off toward their own training hall. His cries mixed with Naomi’s laughter still lingering in the air.

  Rain was not very worried about Elys or himself, for that matter. Both of them had worked their hardest and adapted eerily fast to their new life. Watching the other slum children throughout the weeks, they knew there was a clear gap between them and the prodigy duo.

  Arriving at the usual hall, they quickly changed and stepped into the area. With Officer Trant already lying in wait, he promptly announced some new training regimes.

  “Starting today, you will face each other in a spar, solely using your Reflections. In the Mirror, there are countless Shards, each adept in a plethora of ways to kill you. So to maximise your learning, you need to not only face each other in martial combat, but also in sorcery. Most of the Mirror is unexplored, and you will likely find yourselves in unknown reach of Blessed assistance. Because of that, most Shards you will face will also be unknown. Documentation is highly important not only to yourselves, but also for future Selected. Today, after you spar, I want each of you to explain your opponent's abilities, their strengths, weaknesses, and how you dealt with them.”

  “Since we are only three, I borrowed Luke here from group B6. I’ll rotate you once I see some progress, and remember: Your goal is not to hurt each other, but to learn how to react against unknown forces. Rain, you are with Lance first, and Luke, you go with Yuol.”

  Looking around themselves, Rain stepped forward against Lance. The air turned cold as a gray wraith rose from the ground beneath Lance’s feet, shooting with high speed toward Rain.

  ‘I won’t hold back then.’

  Rain’s eyes turned a slight orange, and with a swift movement of his wrist, a rough ring of fire surrounded both of them, engulfing the surrounding area in steam.