The next morning, Finn returned to the guild, though this time he went straight to Amelia to ask if she knew of a place where he could train without having to leave the capital.
"What are you doing here so early?" Amelia asked, bored, staring at the clock on the wall. "It's only 7 in the morning."
"I'm looking for a place to train, but I don't want to go to the outskirts of the capital" Finn said.
"A place to train?" Amelia asked back, with her typical bored look. "Why don't you go to the training rooms on the lower levels of the guild? If I'm not mistaken, they're on the lower 4th level."
"The guild has lower levels?" Finn asked, surprised.
"Sure, there are the halls and equipment that guild members usually use. Many go there to train or practice their magic. Although not all of them are accessible. As a simple Class D, you can only access the lower levels, from 1 to 7. To access more, you need to increase your Class."
"Why prohibit access to certain classes? Aren't they just training halls?" Finn asked.
"No, I said adventurers usually went there to train, but I didn't say it was exclusively for that. Many of the lower halls contain libraries with very powerful books and high-level creatures. The latter are used so adventurers can face them in a safer area and gain experience in combat against those creatures. However, since they are only creatures that only Class B adventurers and above would face, all Class C and lower are prohibited" Amelia explained.
"I understand. So the fourth lower level will be" Finn nodded as he headed toward the stairs Amelia pointed out.
Finn went down the spiral staircase until he reached a large entrance with the number 4 painted above it. Upon entering, the first thing he saw was a room with several shelves full of books and potions, and some armchairs and tables scattered throughout.
'I guess this is like a rest room,' Finn thought, then saw several doors around the room. One door, right in the middle of two shelves full of books, had a picture of an open book on it; another, right on the opposite side, had a sword painted on it, and the last one, right in the middle of the two, had an apple painted on it.
Without thinking much, Finn guessed that each door led to a designated area: the book led to the library; the apple to a dining hall; and the sword to the training halls.
Finn entered the door with the sword, seeing a large hallway that stretched at least a kilometer. Finn walked down the hallway, seeing several numbered doors; several of them had a red light on the number, and below them was written "occupied" along with the name of the person using it.
Finn walked to door number 5, which was the only unoccupied door, and without hesitation, entered it. As soon as he entered, he saw a small pillar with a slot indicating he should place his guild card there. As soon as he inserted his card, his status appeared in front of him and a message appeared indicating that Finn was occupying the room.
Name: Finn
Race: Human
Class: D
Gifts: None
Blessings: None
Strength: D > D+
Agility: D+
Durability: C > C+
Magic: D > +
UP: None
Abilities: Body Enhancement (Low)
Natural Magic: Fire (none), Earth (none), Water (none), Air (none), Sound (none)
'My stats increased and two more options appeared... funny, I don't remember learning a body enhancement skill. Maybe it's the magic that passively enhances my body,' Finn speculated, looking at his status window. "Okay. And how am I supposed to start training? There's nothing here."
At Finn's words, another screen appeared in front of him.
[Start basic training?
(Yes)
(No)
]
"Wow, that was easy" Finn said, clicking (yes).
The previously white room began to glow. Several writings appeared around the room, and little by little, it began to change into what appeared to be a forest. In front of him, a mound of earth grew, taking shape and color until it transformed into a goblin who seemed to be asleep.
"Is this the power of magical writing? It's terrifying, everything you can do with that magic," Finn said, amazed by his surroundings.
Spontaneously, the goblins woke up and launched themselves at Finn without any organization. Finn simply dodged them without much trouble, occasionally hitting one hard enough to destroy it and turn it back into earth.
'I should focus on practicing and developing my magic; that's what I came here for, after all,' Finn thought, dodging a goblin and placing his hand on the goblin's head. He used the third phase of telekinesis, repulsion.
The goblin's head barely moved under Finn's telekinesis, causing him to grimace in disappointment.
'Sigh, this is going to take time,' Finn said, dodging another goblin. 'However, if I'm correct, this magic will be very useful in the future.'
Finn continued dodging and constantly using his magic on the goblins. Sometimes he tried to pull them toward him with the second phase, attraction, and other times he used repulsion to push them away. This cycle lasted almost three hours until Finn was finally able to kill the last goblin using only his telekinesis magic.
Finn sat on the grass, drenched in sweat. He felt completely exhausted. His body ached despite not having been hit, and his arms were completely numb.
"Is this what happens when you overuse magic?" Finn wondered. Then he saw a glimmer appear in the grass in front of him, followed by two recovery bottles: one for wound recovery and one for magic recovery. "Recovery potions, huh? They're the same as the ones in the video games. If I remember correctly, both are made from the bodies of monsters. The wound recovery potion is made from the monsters' blood along with a bit of their magic, and the magic recovery potion is made from the monsters' souls."
Uncapping the wound healing potion, Finn drank it down without hesitation.
"Ugh, this tastes awful!" Finn said, looking at the empty bottle.
Little by little, Finn felt the pain and numbness in his arms disappear until he felt completely fine.
"Sigh, just what I needed, to heal my body so I could use natural magic again," Finn said, then looked at the floating screen and clicked start again. "Now I have to do it faster than before. Once I beat it in less than 15 minutes, then I'll move on to the next level."
—
Finn sat in the break room, grabbing a towel to wipe his sweat and a book to read while he rested. After four more attempts, Finn had finally completed basic training in 15 minutes and had made tremendous progress with his telekinetic magic. He could now easily throw goblins or pull them toward him. However, he felt he could do more, that he could develop this magic further, just as the others had developed their natural magic.
"But how…?" Finn wondered, looking at the clock on the wall and realizing it was almost 4:30 in the afternoon. "I'm going to get something to eat. After that, I'll try it one more time, but this time in less than five minutes. Then I'll go rest in the house. I don't want to use any more of those potions. Even though they're healing me, my body feels a little strange. I shouldn't overuse the potions."
Finn went up to the main floor of the guild and then headed to the dining room, sitting at an empty table to think about how to take the next step with his magic while he waited for someone to attend to him.
"So, any progress in your training?" Amelia asked, sitting next to him.
"Oh, Amelia, weren't you working as a receptionist?" Finn asked.
"Yes, but it's my break and I wanted to come get something to eat" Amelia replied. "So, how did it go?"
"It went well, I guess," Finn replied, moving his hand slightly and moving Amelia around the table until she was right on his other side.
"He mastered telekinesis so quickly?" Amelia wondered, somewhat surprised. "It's good, I guess, but why focus on telekinesis instead of an element or even the magical derivatives of telekinesis? Wouldn't one of those derivatives be more useful to you?" Amelia asked, confused.
"Yes, I thought about it, but I want to develop this magic a little more before moving on to another. Besides, I think it's possible to take telekinesis to the same point as its magical derivations," Finn said confidently. "The magical derivations of telekinesis are nothing more than individual spells inspired by each phase of telekinesis. To learn them, I would have to learn them one by one and switch between spells depending on which one I needed… that would be very time-consuming and would waste a lot of energy canceling a spell and quickly casting another. Not to mention, I would also have to learn how to use multiple spells at the same time, and that's still too advanced for me," Finn thought, convinced that the path he was taking was the best.
"Well, do what you want, it's your path after all…" Amelia said, bored, watching a waiter approach them and Darwin enter through the dining room doors.
"Finn, I finally found you!" Darwin said, catching Finn's attention.
"Oh, hey Darwin, how was your training?" Finn asked, looking at the excited Darwin.
"That's exactly what I wanted to show you, look!" Darwin took his sword from his back and imbued it with his light magic, causing golden lines to appear around the sword, which then began to emit a faint light from those lines.
"Wow, you've already developed your magic to such a level!? What effect does it have? Can you fly or something with it?!" Finn asked, amazed, seeing the shining sword. Amelia was also impressed by Darwin's progress, as it had only been a few days since they started training.
"Nah, I just imbued it with my magic," Darwin replied with a big smile. "It doesn't have any effect other than glowing… But it looks cool, right?"
"Yeah, you're definitely going to excel in fights with that magic" Finn said.
'This idiot, he focused first on learning how to imbue things with his magic to increase the power and versatility of his magic!' Amelia thought, surprised, angry, and at the same time speechless.
"What about you? Have you already learned any elemental magic?" Darwin asked, and Finn simply waved his hand, pulling Darwin to the table so he could sit with them. "What? You can already pull people with your telekinesis so quickly? Not even I can use it that fast," Darwin said, surprised.
"I've been practicing a lot, and I don't plan on stopping until I see more progress in this magic…"
"...speaking of which, I think we should take another quest. I'm already running out of money," Darwin suggested.
"Darwin's right. Adventurers shouldn't waste so much time at the guild, especially D-class adventurers. You should focus on gaining experience as soon as possible," Amelia said firmly.
"I guess we'll take another quest, then…" Finn said, still not entirely convinced.
"Wow, are you going to take another quest? You're certainly great adventurers!" Two hands were placed on Finn and Darwin's shoulders. "You guys are so hard to find. I've been waiting for you for almost a month."
Finn and Darwin turned to look at the tall girl who was talking to them, seeing a tall young woman with red hair and golden eyes, who for some reason smiled at them as if she were very proud of them.
"Oh, Cristel, you're back from your fight with Silia" Amelia said as she ordered something to eat from the waiter.
"That's right, and I think I have the perfect mission for these two" Cristel said, separating Finn and Darwin and sitting between them. "But first, let's eat something. I'm pretty hungry, what do you say?"
'Cristel, Cristel Stronghold!?' Finn thought, amazed to meet one of the protagonists of the novels, nodding quickly at Cristel.