The sun shone into my room, onto my skin, giving me a nice feeling before I stood up and made myself ready, then went to the training hall. We trained, then ate, and we were given clothes to wear. We, all of the heroes, were given a black set of armor with fully black clothes and a red sword mark painted on the armor. They said these armors and clothes are only for the heroes so that the civilians and other knights would know it's us.
We were also allowed to go outside the castle into the city whenever we wanted, with the rule to be back at night.
Then it was night. I had told Myra earlier that I wanted her to come at night to the training hall and teach me more about magic so that I would have the upper hand when it comes to magic against the other heroes.
As I entered the hall, she was already there waiting.
"You're late," she said with a pissed-off tone as she held her staff, standing in the middle of the training hall, holding another staff in her left hand.
"Here," she said as I got near her, reaching her arm out and handing me a staff that was about the size of an arm.
I reached out and took it.
"You brought me one?"
"Of course I did. How else am I supposed to teach you to use magic?"
"Why is it so small compared to your staff, though?" I asked as I looked at the staff in my right hand.
"Well, you only get a bigger staff once you become better at magic," she said calmly.
"Just be glad I even accepted teaching you magic, okay?"
"Glad?" I said as I got closer to her, looking down at her. "Sure."
She took a step back and cleared her throat.
"Anyway… let's start with the basics. I'm going to warn you though—you aren't ready yet for this level of magic. You should be at the same pace as the other heroes, but you insisted on going further."
"Bla, bla, bla… just start already," I said.
Her face turned frustrated, yet she held it in.
"Fine. Reach your hand forward while holding the staff."
I did as she said.
"Now just imagine trying to use magic—but not just imagine… try to feel it."
I nodded as I reached my hand forward, holding the staff, and closed my eyes.
"But don't be disappointed; you won't be able to use magic that fast anyway," she added.
After hearing that, I fully ignored her speaking and concentrated.
In novels they always imagine things in detail… so I should do the same.
I started imagining blue orbs appearing around my staff, feeling the warmth of the blue orbs.
"What do they call this again? Mana… or aura? Let's go with mana for now."
I imagined the blue mana orbs appearing around my staff, feeling their warmth.
I imagined the warmth going into my skin and mana forming in my body.
I then slowly opened my eyes.
In front of me was one small blue orb flying above the staff. Behind it was Myra, her face shocked as she looked at me.
As I looked closer at the orb, seeing how gorgeous it looked and feeling the sensation of using magic for the first time…
I lost focus.
The blue orb completely disappeared.
With that, Myra's shocked face returned to normal.
"Wow, not bad, Malvek," she said as she smiled. "That was actually good for a first time, you know?"
I nodded. I felt pride and confidence in myself.
After that, she started teaching me more about how to form more orbs, and she said that it takes a lot of time to finally be able to use magic freely. More than that, it's basically about discipline.
I went back to my room. Luckily, no one saw us.
Then a few days passed before I could finally make four orbs appear.
"WHOA YES!" Myra said as she clapped. "Finally, Malvek!"
I was, myself, also happy about my progress.
Also, the time we spent together in the last few days got us closer.
Yet she still had a kind of hatred toward me that I always felt.
"Well, I did break her fingers after all..."
On one day, as we were in the training hall—all the heroes, Draven, and I—training like usual with Kaelor, Draven got closer to me and whispered.
"Hey, Malvek!"
"Hmm. What's up?"
Draven then turned to Zareth, who was holding the weight bags and training, and waved at him to come to us.
Zareth placed the weight bags down and came over.
"What is it, Draven?" Zareth said, his face covered with sweat, showing how hard he worked out today. But when I looked at Draven, not even a drop of sweat was on him.
"Guys… didn't you notice something?"
Zareth looked at me, and I looked at him; then we both looked back at Draven.
"What do you mean?" Zareth asked.
"You see, guys… aren't we, over time, becoming less and less? Look around. There aren't as many heroes now as there were when we got into this city!"
Zareth looked seriously at Draven.
"Did you just notice that, Draven?"
Draven's serious face turned into a silly expression.
"Wait, you noticed that before, Zareth?"
Zareth nodded.
"Yes, I did. I just didn't think much of it. I thought maybe they just left the castle and didn't want to come back."
"Hmmm… I think you're right, Zareth," Draven said.
Then both of them looked at me.
"What do you think, Malvek?" Draven said while looking deeply into my eyes, waiting for me to answer.
"Well, I actually just noticed it too, but I think it's like Zareth said. They probably just left."
Draven nodded.
With that, we went back to working out.
"Of course I didn't just now realize that… I knew it would happen eventually, but not this soon."
"And in fact, it's not as Zareth said. There is a completely different reason for the disappearing heroes, but that's not the issue to be worrying about… not yet at least."
I lifted the weight bag onto my back and went back to doing push-ups. I continued acting like I was struggling with it.
"Now… I should start my next step soon."