Erio's axes were short and light. Their handles were just barely longer than his forearms. The head had a long, sloping blade that finished in a hook-like tip. They looked like axes made for trimming twigs and branches.

In Erio's hands, they turned into dangerous weapons. He could swing them around all day with ease.

Isidore's sword was a standard, double-edged longsword with a rectangular cross-guard. Since both of their weapons were training weapons, they were blunted and without any flair. But they were sturdy.

Erio and Isidore sized each other up as they stepped onto the sparring grounds and started slowly circling each other.

Since Isidore was taller and had the longer weapon, he had greater reach. That meant he had the advantage as long as he didn't make the first move. Isidore was also patient enough to wait for however long it would take Erio to lose patience and attack first.

From the start, Erio was at a disadvantage, even if they didn't count the fact that he hadn't condensed his first star.

But Erio didn't care. He was shorter than almost all of the students in the Warrior division. He was used to it. There was a reason why he was almost undefeated during the training spars in class, after all.

Size and reach weren't everything in a fight.

Erio stepped forward while raising one axe and keeping the other close to his body.

Isidore smoothly slid backward, keeping the distance.

Erio lunged forward and pursued Isidore.

Isidore abruptly halted his retreat and met Erio's charge with a quick thrust.

Erio brought down his hatchet toward the sword. Isidore deftly moved it aside before continuing from an angle.

Erio smacked the sword away with his other hatchet and lunged forward with his first hatchet outstretched toward Isidore's shoulder.

Somehow, Isidore managed to pull back the heavy longsword in time to catch the hatchet's blade with the pommel of his sword and knock it away from him.

"Hey, Taryeon, Erio's…" Alec started saying while looking at the intense fight.

"Yeah…"

Erio cut through the air horizontally with his other hatchet as if to chop Isidore in half at the stomach.

Isidore quickly dropped the tip of his sword and deflected it, only to have to bring it up again to defend against the first hatchet.

It was the advantage of someone with two weapons. They could attack from two different angles at the same time.

It was also what happened once Erio stepped inside Isidore's reach. Isidore didn't have the room to make the swings and slashes he needed to control the flow of combat. He needed to put some distance between himself and Erio.

As soon as he blocked another attack, Isidore raised his leg and kicked Erio in the stomach.

No, he tried to.

Erio instantly dropped his hatchets and caught Isidore's ankle.

Isidore felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at Erio's grin.

Erio spun around while still holding Isidore's ankle and, in a superhuman feat of strength, threw Isidore over his shoulder and onto the ground.

"...He also condensed his star," Taryeon finished his sentence.

Alec shook his head while Erio held out his hand and helped Isidore to his feet.

"What's up with—"

"Aw man, Erio beat me to it!" Maura called out, slightly out of breath.

"Don't worry, Maura, Alec's also not there yet." Taryeon turned around and comforted Maura, who stood with her hands on her knees after seemingly sprinting across the Academy to get to the training grounds.

"Ah, no. I meant that he got to tell you guys first."

"Tell us first…?" Taryeon tilted his head in confusion. Why did Maura want to tell them about Erio's condensation instead of letting Erio do it himself?

"She means that she also condensed her first circle," Alec said tiredly.

'Am I just surrounded by geniuses or something?'

There were four students in the commoner division who had condensed their first circles and stars.

Those four were surrounding him.

'System, is something suspicious going on?'

Two of them were even high up on the System's importance scale based on the original story written by his brother. The other two weren't far behind them in talent.

[Not that I can tell.] The System's answer was as reliable as always.

Alec sighed.

If it hadn't been for him being slightly distracted and almost getting run over by a carriage on his first day in Miteria, Taryeon and Isidore probably wouldn't have stepped in and befriended him.

The two had also befriended Erio and Maura because of similar ideals and whatnot.

Logically, it seemed like a coincidence.

"Don't worry, Alec, I'm sure you're close, too." Taryeon put a comforting hand on Alec's shoulder.

"Yeah. That's the problem. I'm close, but I don't know how to seal the deal."

Alec had one big, shapeless bubble of formless mana drifting, bouncing, and swaying around inside him. Trying to make it bigger barely had any results, which was a sign that it was ready to be turned into a circle.

But no matter how much Alec spun it around his heart, it just wouldn't stay there. So, he resorted to condensing more Aether into mana for now, hoping it would eventually lead to a change.

"Have you tried looking for a catalyst like Taryeon?" Maura asked curiously. Most of them had been too focused to care about their own circles and stars to bother the others about their progress. But now that they were done, they could try to help Alec.

"I started."

"And…?"

"Where am I supposed to find a non-attribute catalyst?"

Taryeon had his lightning, Maura had her fire, and Warriors rarely relied on elements. Wind mages had the breeze. Ice mages had ice.

Mages could find their magic somewhere in nature unless they were exceptions to the rule that all mages used elements. There were some who used elements so rare that finding them in nature was harder than getting struck by lightning twice.

Formless mana, however, was something that theoretically didn't quite fit in with nature.

"I think it's because elemental magic, the magic that all mages use, is the magic of nature. Formless mana, on the other hand, is…something like the opposite. I'm not sure if it's the darkness to the light that is elemental magic or something like the canvas that elemental magic is drawn on, but I think it's something like that, at least." Alec happily invited them to a discussion on magic.

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