Let's have a quick recap in case you've forgotten.
After entering the room, Phukan encountered a girl he had bumped into earlier. He didn't actually remember her, but she remembered him. When she asked if he recognized her, he took a wild guess and said yes—and surprisingly, he was right. Afterward, she walked over to join the crowd of girls swarming around Zephyr. He's the "hot guy" of the class, so it's only natural they'd all be lining up to be his partner.
As for Phukan, he sat in the corner for a while before noticing another girl sitting alone in the opposite corner. She had long purple hair, was quite tall, and was undeniably attractive (though Phukan didn't give much thought to her looks). Her skin was pale, but what truly caught Phukan's eye were the sparks of electricity flickering from her hands. A Lightning user.
Seeing his opportunity, Phukan walked toward her. Was it just for a strategic partnership? Who knows. Let's get into it.
I was heading toward the girl with the lightning element, but she was the one who spoke first.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing. I was just passing by."
Wait, why did I lie? That's not like me. Whatever.
"You're lying. You were just sitting there staring at me."
"Oh. I guess it's because I'm interested in your lightning element. I wanted to ask if you'd be my partner."
I hate socializing. Just composing a sentence is a chore.
"I see. And what's your element? As long as it isn't Earth, I'll consider it."
"It's Ice."
It made sense why she wouldn't want to pair with an Earth user. A Lightning user paired with Earth is practically useless due to grounding and lack of conductivity.
"Ice, huh? And what's your name?"
"Phukan."
"Hmm... That's not a local name. Are you from Earth?"
I froze. Wait, if she's asking that, it means she's from Earth too. That made things a lot easier; the people in Ignis are usually hard to read.
"Yeah, I am. And yours...?" I asked quietly, ensuring only she could hear.
"I'm not telling," she replied instantly.
What? 'Not telling'? Well, whatever. It's not like it matters. I'll just wait for someone else to call her name. I moved straight to the point. "So, is it a deal?"
She thought for about five seconds before answering.
"Deal. And I bet you weren't even going to ask my name a second time, right? Fine... I'm Sola, or you can just call me Sol."
She guessed correctly—I wasn't going to ask. Sola... Strange name. If she's from Earth, did she rename herself? My curiosity about this started to itch, and I knew it wouldn't go away until I found out.
"When do we start training?" I asked.
"4 AM tomorrow. Can you handle that?"
The moment I heard "4 AM," a smile crept onto my face. This was perfect. No time wasted.
"And we'll go until 7 PM after classes end," she added.
Wait! 3 hours in the morning plus 5 hours in the evening? That's 8 hours of extra work. I'm going to die.
"I can handle it," my mouth said, betraying my lazy heart.
After that, I sat down next to her. We didn't exchange another word until 7 PM. Suddenly, Sol spoke up.
"I'm going back to my room."
"Okay," I replied shortly.
She walked out, and I glanced over at Zephyr. He was still in the same spot, surrounded by his fan club. Staying here was useless, so I headed back to the dorm. Once in my room, I remembered something: a person can acquire a second element by absorbing enough of that element from nature.
I don't know what I was thinking, but I chose Darkness. I sat in meditation, absorbing the dark mana continuously until...
I snapped out of it at 3:55 AM! I dashed toward the training hall. I arrived at 3:59 AM. She was already there, looking a bit out of breath. Her foot hit the ground at exactly 4:00:00 AM.
"Am I late?" I asked, panting.
"Uh... no. You're perfectly on time."
"I see."
She looked exhausted, but what caught my eye was her weapon—a dark navy, almost black sword. The hilt looked a bit extravagant, but it seemed functional.
"Alright, let's start."
"Okay."
Not even a split second after I finished speaking—Wait, hold on! Why on earth is there a fireball flying at me? Shouldn't it be lightning? Even though I was caught completely off guard, I managed to dodge it by a hair's breadth. But the moment the fireball passed me, a bolt of lightning appeared behind it, hooked back toward me, and hit me dead on. Despite the shock, I managed to scramble back to my feet immediately.
I was stunned for a moment. Don't tell me she has two elements? That's impossible. If she's from Earth like me, how could she have had enough time to absorb another element? I shoved that question into the back of my mind for now, drew my iron sword, and swung at her.
Sol managed to parry my blade, but there was a problem: her sword was coated in lightning. The electricity flowed through the metal and straight into the crossguard, shocking my hand severely. I grit my teeth and refused to let go of the sword as I retreated.
Wait a minute... even for a Lightning user, that shouldn't mean they're immune to electricity, right? Shouldn't the lightning be shocking her too?
I cut off my train of thought and switched tactics, creating ice knives and hurling them at her instead. She deflected them all with ease and lunged at me instantly. I chose to slip to the side at the last second and counter-attacked with a side swing. Luckily, she didn't have a massive mana pool like Zephyr to maintain a lightning cloak around her body, so my sword hit her squarely—even though I used the blunt side of the blade.
She jumped backward to create distance. While she was mid-air, I tried to conjure an ice floor at her landing spot, but I was too slow. She landed before the ice could form. The moment her feet touched the ground, she manifested a fire bird and launched it at me. This time I was ready. I leaped out of the way immediately, and as a result, the lightning hidden behind the fire bird missed me completely.
I jumped in to strike her again, and she blocked with her sword. This time, I made sure my hand didn't touch the metal parts of my hilt, so I avoided getting shocked.
I backed away to quickly craft an ice spear and threw it at Sol. What?! She caught it and threw it back at me? I tried to manipulate the spear's trajectory to turn it back toward her, but the shock from seeing her catch it made me lose my focus. My control was sluggish. Sol swiped the spear away with her sword and charged in.
At that moment, geometric patterns flashed through my mind: Two circles, one line, another line, and four 90-degree lines repeated four times. Four sheets of ice walls materialized in front of me. The sound of ice shattering grew louder and closer, layer by layer, but it finally stopped at the very last sheet.
I exhaled in relief. "That was close..."
But then, out of nowhere, a fireball drifted in and slammed into me, sending me flying across the hall.
"Heh, still haven't figured out my patterns? I thought you were supposed to be smarter than this," she teased.
I felt a spark of annoyance at her words. I immediately manifested ice magic circles and fired them in a rapid barrage. Of course, she couldn't parry them all, so she chose to dodge instead. Sigh, what a life. I picked up my sword again; if magic wouldn't win this, then physical force would.
I lunged and swung, but she blocked. This time, I used ice to lock our blades together. With her sword pinned, I delivered a solid kick to her torso. She nearly went flying, but she held onto her sword so tightly that she stayed grounded.
I broke the ice lock and tried to strike again, but she rotated her sword to parry with incredible speed. How is she so fast?! I shifted tactics, creating ice on the floor to lock her legs in place. Then, I tossed my sword aside and landed a direct punch to her stomach.
The battle continued like this—raw and messy—until 6:30 AM. There was still no one else around; it was the start of the semester, after all. Who else would be crazy enough to train this early?
I eventually collapsed from exhaustion. Sol was out cold from fatigue as well. Realizing we had other things to do, I used a blast of ice to wake her up.
"Wha—!? What happened?" she shouted.
"It's 6:30 AM."
The moment I said that, she sprang up and bolted out of the hall instantly. I ran back to the dorm as well to shower, brush my teeth, change, and do my laundry before rushing to class.
Why do I feel like my schedule just got infinitely more hectic? Whatever. I made it to class just in time. Barely. But as I looked around, the back of the room was completely full! Only two seats were left—right in the middle of the room. I had no choice but to sit next to Sol.
After the first period ended, I went to eat. I ate way more than usual, likely due to the morning's intense training. With an hour left before the next class, I decided to go for a walk. I ran into Alice, Lhong, and the others. I was tempted to ask what they were talking about...
But then I remembered: I can just ask John later. No need to waste social energy asking them directly. I walked past Zephyr, who was busy flirting with girls, and quickly moved on.
When the second period started, I sat next to Sola again. Come to think of it, she seemed quite focused on the lesson... I caught a glimpse of what she was writing in her notebook.
Wait a minute... She hadn't written a single word of notes. Her pages were filled with nothing but drawings! If she made it into Ignis class, it must have been purely on her practical exam score. If she keeps this up, there's no way she's going to survive the finals.