'empty...'

Mars resized he was still a little early and found a table and sat down and waited for the cla.s.s to start and soon other students started to arrive and sit down, although they all kept their distance from Mars which confused him for a moment before he remembered

'oh right... they are afraid of the tactical cla.s.s students... I wonder why Ca.s.s wasn't afraid of me?'

as Mars was thinking a male teacher with long black beard walked in

"okay settle down everybody, I will take attendance now Max, Christine, Jasper--- "

as the teacher was taking attendance the student raised their hands as their names was called, soon Mars's name was called and he also raised his hand before taking it down again

"okay the... let's start the lesson, first can anyone tell me what powers a formation?"

about half the student raised their hands, indulging Mars

"yes you"

the teacher picked a random student that soon answered

"either a magic beast core or a mana stone"

"yes that's right, but where does mana stones come from?"

"form the empire"

"that's right most mana stones comes from a mine on the southern border of the empire, now about basic formations---"

the cla.s.s continued on and Mars felt his understanding of formations deepen, he even felt he would be able to make some basic formations, this was of cause way out of the norm and only thanks to his high intelligence stat

'maybe I should find the vice princ.i.p.al and ask some question about formations...'

Mars gradually got more and more interested in formations as the cla.s.s progressed on he even wished he had some magic beast cores to use for experiments and decided to go out into the city after the cla.s.s was over and buy some materials so he could make some basic formations

"well that's it for today"

Mars was snapped out of his train of thought as the teacher ended the cla.s.s and quickly got up from his chair and walked up to the teacher before he asked where he could buy some basic materials for formations

"hmm... there is this one shop, wait a moment I'll draw you a map"

"okay"

the teacher glad that one of his students seemed interested in learning took out a piece of paper and drew a rough map for Mars

"here you are, just follow the map and say James send you"

"thanks"

after thanking the teacher Mars walked out of the cla.s.s room and soon he walked out of the academy's gates and started following the map

'let's see... this way'

after navigating the busy streets for a while Mars arrived at a small shop in a side street and walked in and found it cluttered with stuff but empty of people and called out

"....excuse me, is anyone here?"

"give me a second!"

Mars waited as he was told and soon a middle aged man with a awesome mustache walked out form the back

"oh a student, what do you want?"

"well... I need some basic materials for formation building, James sent me here by the way"

"oh James... well in that case let me find something for you"

the man went back behind the counter out into the back room and soon he came back again with all sorts of stuff

"formation prof paper, array ink, a small mana stone and a formations guide"

Mars gave a smile when he saw the pile of stuff the man had piled up on the table

"well normally it's 6500 cel, but since James sent you just give me 50 silver coins"

"okay... here you are then"

"you need a bag for it?"

"if you have one then please"

"okay give me moment... here you are"

"thanks again"

Mars left with the bag feeling happy that he got a recommendation form his teacher and hurried home so he could play with his new toys, or rather experiments, as he arrived at the gate to the academy and quickly walked towards the dorm building while he went over the basics of formation building in his head, the 3 parts of a formation: runes, lines and the power source, runes made the formation do things like contain spells while lines connected the formations parts and a power source powered the formation

'well there's also pa.s.sing lines, circle runes and backup power sources but that's to advanced for me at the moment...let's just start with something basic'

Mars walked into room 202 and sat down at the small desk and spread out some formation proof paper on the desk witch was basically just some thick paper, before he took out some of the special array ink witch had mana stones girded and mixed into it

"now let's start..."

Mars started by drawing the power source which was a type of rune on the paper, then he drew another rune witch when powered would emit light, then he drew a line form the power source to the light rune and took a deep breath before he placed the small mana stone on the power rune and

"...nothing, I must have drawn the rune wrong... yeah there it is"

Mars spotted a small flaw in the rune he had drawn and started on making a new rune on the same piece of paper, he was not discouraged by his mistake instead he was motivated to get it right this time around and sure enough after 4 more tries Mars managed to get it right as a soft light shone out form the rune

"...neat, now for the next one"

Mars lost track of time and by the time he came to himself again he was out of materials, but the trade off was rather good as he managed to learn over 30 basic runes

"...what time is it?"

Mars looked out the window and saw it was completely dark outside, and when he looked at the clock tower he found that the time was 5:57 in the morning

"...well s.h.i.+t"

Mars felt hungry but there was no way anyone would make him some food now and he didn't have anything else to eat so he decided just to go to bed hungry and sleep a few hours

"let's hope I wake up in time... maybe I should just meditate for a while.."

having decide not to risk sleeping Mars walked over to the couch and poked the sleeping Victoria awake

"I'm going outside now, do you want to come with me this time?"

"I... want to... come with"

"okay then, let's go"

Mars and Victoria walked out of the room and after Mars locked the door they both went out of the dorm building and soon Mars found a tree where he sat down with Victoria laying on his lap, Mars closed his eyes and regulated his breathing...

hours later Mars felt an increasing amount of eyes looking at him as he sat and meditated, but ignored them until he felt one walking close and opened his eyes

"...hey Hanna"

"good morning Mars, you too Victoria"

Mars stretched for a bit as he looked at Hanna before he asked her

"what time is it?"

"it's a little over 7"

Mars stood up and dusted of his pants before he looked at Hanna and asked

"how's your swordsmans.h.i.+p coming along?"

Hanna gave a smile and brushed her hair out of her face

"I still train everyday once in the morning and once in the evening"

"I see, well then let's test your progress"

Mars stood up and pulled out his sword and handed it to Hanna

"...right now?"

"why not?"

"okay then... but what about your sword?"

Mars gave a smile and raised his right hand as it transformed and grew out 10 centimeter long claws

"see I don't need a sword, now come at me"

"okay then, here I come!"

Hanna raised the sword and swung it down as she steeped in towards Mars

*CLANG*

Mars blocked the sword strike with his claws

"not bad"

Mars felt Hanna's strength had gone up since their last training session

"then... how about this!"

Hanna momentarily lowered the force she pushed against Mars with and pulled back the sword before she lowered it and swung it form below towards Mars's neck

'she really is a genius with the sword...'

Mars stepped half a step back making the sword miss his neck before he responded with a rather slow slash of his own

*CLANG*

Hanna easily blocked Mars's claws

"nice"

hearing Mars's praise Hanna gave a slightly smug smile

"I know right?"

"looks like you can take some more then!"

Mars began raising his speed and after 10 minutes Hanna kneeled over completely out of breath meanwhile Mars stood and transformed his arm back into human form with a slight smile on his face

"you're improving fast, but don't get c.o.c.ky, keep up with the good work"

"y-yes"

Mars gave Hanna a hand and pulled her up on her feet