Chapter 6: First Training Session
After Phoebe had finished her treat the fox servants took her out to the backyard. It was a standard suburban backyard, except for the large mahogany door that stood at the end of the yard. Anyone with a highly sensitive mana sense would be able to perceive the change in space where the door stood but they would be unable to see it or enter the door. However, anyone with permission would be able to see and enter the door and enter the pocket dimension.
Phoebe softly opened the door stepping to the other side and was amazed at the sight. The pocket dimension was twelve acres of beautiful grassland, ginkgo trees decorated the edges of the spaces, along brook winded down the land, and at the center of it all was a large pavilion. It looked like a classical painting had come to life.
The dimension was split into three distinct regions, each one being taken up facilities that would teach her one of three disciplines. The space was roughly split evenly with the pavilion being at the center of the dimension, the crown jewel of the dimension. The pavilion represented where Phoebe would learn intellectual insights such as monsters, constellations, champion bonds, and the Dismantlement. Outside of the pavilion was a large training site, it was fully furnished with training dummies, an archery range, rows of wooden and metal weapons, and a large track and obstacle course meant for stamina training. Past all of that was a large open outdoor training area meant to provide space for magic training. It was incredibly high quality, it made professional athlete training facilities look like cramped studio apartments.
Phoebe stepped in between the doorframe looking in and out of the door star struck at how this space could exist in her backyard. Kiki and Min-Min looked at her antics with a doting smile. She repeated this action for about two minutes as the shock and astonishment finally wore off.
Phoebe was given a quick tour by the foxes, they explained to her the basics of how she would be trained in this space. The girl looked a little confused, not understanding the importance of the training schedule they mentioned but agreed to follow it.
Today's training would begin with stamina training, Phoebe would be required to complete ten laps around the track then she would cool down with some stretching. She would be timed during this so that she could have a target set to beat. After a small break to let the girl cool off and relax, she would begin mana sense training, Aurelius planned to gift Phoebe with a magically potent item to help cheat this process since mana had yet to become an abundant resource in the world. After an hour she would finish the training session with a lecture on constellations and champion bonds.
....
Running laps had started a little rough, Phoebe had started strong but found herself winded by the second lap. She clearly didn't understand the concept of pacing herself quite yet, the poor girl thought she had to run at her fastest the entire time. Kiki and Min-Min watched from the side of the track giving the girl compliments and plenty of encouragement as she ran. Sadly, the encouragement served as a double-edged sword for the girl, she was spurred on by the encouragement but at the same time, embarrassment and shame flashed across the girl's face as she failed to meet the perceived high expectations.
Aurelius noticed that the girl had started to cry as she slowed down even more during her fourth lap, her light jogging no different from walking. Phoebe hastily attempted to wipe the tears from her eyes, which was becoming increasingly difficult as more and more tears dripped down her face.
Ding!
[The Constellation, Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies, informs you that you don't have to be perfect right now this is just a test to help you improve.]
Phoebe came to such an abrupt halt that she nearly tipped over. She read the message several times over as she tried to catch her breath to respond. Her face was so flushed red that she mostly closely resembled a tomato.
"But I don't want to disappoint you. You won't want a useless girl." Phoebe huffed barely managing to string together the syllables through her exhaustion.
Ding!
[The Constellation, Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies, disagrees with your statement.]
"Will you still want me even though I've failed?" Phoebe questioned looking at the looming figure of Aurelius.
Ding!
[The Constellation, Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies, says that he will be with you even if you make mistakes or fail.]
Phoebe's eyes watered slightly looking at the messages before her. She shook her head a few times trying to prevent tears from leaking. Once she had calmed down a bit she looked back at the track and continued running. She was running slower than earlier but now she no longer looked uncomfortable or strained, she was focusing on keeping a consistent pace.
Phoebe managed to finish with a time of thirty-three minutes and forty-five seconds. After drinking a large volume of water Kiki took Phoebe through a simple stretching routine to help ease the girl's sore muscles. As Aurelius watched the small girl follow the fox's instructions, he planned a workout schedule in his mind to help raise the girl's stamina before they started weapon training.
After about thirty minutes Aurelius had Kiki and Min-Min lead Phoebe to the next training facility. There she was made to sit in lotus position as the foxes ran the girl through the basics of mana sensing and mana absorption.
To put it simply all human bodies had the capability and capacity to absorb and handle mana but only a small few had a vessel large enough to create large magic effects. At the current moment, she and most people had yet to absorb mana into their cores and awaken their mana veins, simply because mana wasn't an abundant resource, and it was not an easy process. So instead of trying to have the girl sense the minuscule mana present in her environment, the plan was to have her senses and hopefully absorb the mana of a precious artifact covered in mana.
Ding!
[The Constellation, Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies, has gifted you a Luminous Pearl.]
As Phoebe outstretched her hands a small perfectly spherical pearl the size of a baseball appeared in her hands. The pearl was a milky white with a strong bright white glow coming from within the pearl. It looked more like a beautiful lamp than a pearl, but Phoebe didn't say this comment out loud.
Phoebe put the pearl down in front of her and then closed her eyes, trying to sense the presence of mana within the pearl. It was difficult to focus on the pearl and pick up the traces of mana from it, but Phoebe didn't want to give up just yet.
After twenty minutes of trying Phoebe had shown no signs of detecting mana just yet, she sighed frustrated shutting her eyes tighter. Her brow was drenched in sweat with each failed attempt but none of that mattered to Phoebe, she was trying her best to succeed. Without warning Phoebe felt a weird tingle in her lower stomach. She wanted to open her eyes to figure out what was happening, but she felt a furry paw covering her eyes.
"Don't stop my lady you just started to absorb some of the mana from the pearl, keep going, and don't stop until you feel full." Min-Min's soft voice whispered.
Phoebe nodded slightly, keeping her eyes shut as she willed the soft whisps of mana into her body. The process was slightly painful, it felt like she was slowly boiling alive, but she didn't stop, pushing past the sensation. After two minutes Phoebe felt a heavy sensation in her body like she couldn't move, realizing what the feeling was she stopped collecting the mana into her body and focused on spreading the mana throughout her body. She felt the mana spreading throughout her body until every single part of her body was bathed in the quiet feeling of mana, it was quite weak, but Phoebe was happy with her progress.
Phoebe opened her eyes to see the smiling faces of Min-Min and Kiki. She gave them a weak smile back, feeling extremely wiped out from the whole process. Phoebe looked down at the Luminous Pearl and found that a minimal amount of the pearl's shine and luster had dimmed, she had barely managed to make a small dent in absorbing the pearl's mana.
Ding!
[The Constellation, Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies, is proud of you.]
Phoebe smiled at the message languidly untangling herself out of the lotus position. She looked slightly absent-minded as the fox servants rushed to towel off her sweat and give her water to drink.
Pop!
Small soft red fledgling wings popped out from Phoebe's back. They were incredibly small, it made Phoebe even cuter as the wings flapped lazily behind her. Besides the wings, there were some other small changes to Phoebe's appearance. Her brown eyes were dyed with a bright amber hue that made her eyes resemble the sun. Lastly, the ends of her hair became a dark fiery red making her hair resemble a flame.
Pop!
Just as quickly as they appeared the wings snapped back into her back and disappeared, and the rest of Phoebe's physical changes disappeared as well. Phoebe's eyes glazed over as she lurched over and fell onto the ground, she shivered as sweat ran down her face and back. She could barely hear Min-Min and Kiki call out to her. The last thing she could perceive before she blacked out was a small blue message box, but she was too dizzy to be able to read the words.
....
Phoebe was quickly rushed out of the training dimension, the training plans had fallen by the wayside after Phoebe's collapse. The poor girl was burning up in Kiki's arms as she mumbled and groaned. She was placed gently upon her bed as the servants rushed to and fro bringing water and cold towels to the girl. They tried to break the girl's fever, but it didn't work, and the poor girl shuddered weakly.
Aurelius panicked; the girl's pain brought him large amounts of emotional turmoil. He wanted to wrap the girl in mana to bring her relief, but he was unsure if that would worsen her condition. Aurelius tried to calm his nerves as he used their kin bond to check on the girl's status.
[Phoebe Oriel Sinclair
Constellation Sponsor: [Kin with Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies]
Martial Technique: None
Divine Ability: [Rebirth], [Phoenix Transformation], [Fire Immunity]
Status:
HP: 7/20
Mana: 0/8
Stamina: 0/10
Str: 4
Dex: 6
Agi: 3
Res: 12]
Once he saw her status, he understood what had happened. This was all his fault; he should have told her about her Divine Abilities' activation requirements and their drawbacks.
Earlier Phoebe had used her new mana to activate [Phoenix Transformation]. This skill would allow her to transform into a partial phoenix. It would give her wings and other minor physical changes to her appearance, and it would raise her speed and strength to the max. However, it would drain the user's mana for every second it was activated and once the transformation was canceled the user's stamina would be heavily hit putting them in a state of exhaustion. Unfortunately for Phoebe, she didn't have enough stamina to withstand the drawback and it put her body in a state of shock.
If Aurelius had done a better job of explaining to the girl the dangers of using her Divine Abilities before she reached a certain amount of strength then she wouldn't be in this situation, curled up tightly in a ball fighting a dangerously high fever. But that wasn't the only thing that concerned the constellation, he saw another Divine Ability with a drawback that was worse than the [Phoenix Transformation].
[Rebirth] was a skill that would allow the user to return to life after they had died, they would rise from the ashes like a phoenix. But unlike a phoenix or a constellation, there would be a high cost to use this skill, each time the skill was used the mana cost would rise until it was physically impossible for a human to use it. And with each revival, the user would lose more and more of their memories and humanity. It was a heavy price to pay to resist the laws of life and death.
Aurelius swore that as soon as the girl woke, he would make her promise to refrain from using her Divine Abilities until he deemed her ready to use them. He never wanted to see this little girl in pain like this ever again.
"Dad…it hurts! It hurts! Boohoo!" Phoebe wept weakly as she lifted a shaky hand towards Aurelius.
Ding!
[The Constellation, Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies, tells you to sleep. He will watch over you.]
Phoebe nodded slightly as she drifted back to sleep cuddling the small red bird plush.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone