The private meeting ended after a few polite exchanges of words and bows. George's excitement almost made him unable to stop thanking Professor Supyan. Khan soon had to drag him out of that underground hall to return to the empty spot where their companions were attending another lesson.
The female Niqols in charge of that lesson didn't bother introducing herself since she preferred putting Khan and George to work right away. Her subject involved the sensitivity to mana, and the duo could finally experience the teaching methods of the alien species after following her instructions.
The professor had made their companions sit cross-legged on the ground around her. Their position matched spots with azure symbols meant to expand the range of their senses and intensify the influence that mana could have on their perception. Khan and George experienced those effects when they took their position on empty glowing marks, and gasps inevitably escaped from their mouths.
Khan wasn't a stranger to those sensations. He had felt something similar on the teleports and the Niqols' elevators, but the experience was far more intense while he sat on the azure symbol. His mind expanded past the circle and went beyond the usual range of his senses. Khan also noticed many details that his normal sensitivity to mana had never allowed him to see.
The purpose of the lesson was to make their minds used to that state. It was conditioning meant to improve their base sensitivity to mana, like a meditation focused only on their senses. It felt relaxing to experience such a tight connection to the world. The recruits even remained in a daze after the professor deactivated the symbols and interrupted their training.
The recruits had been in that state for only three hours, and it felt strange to return to reality and experience the limits of their senses again. The change was easier to endure for Khan, but his companions ended up feeling off for a few minutes while their minds readapted to their normal sensitivity.
Lunch happened inside an underground structure that harvested nutrient roots and the usual worms that even the human camp served. The Niqols didn't actually eat there since the forest offered a far nicer environment. Khan's group also went outside, and they ended up meeting with Azni and some aliens met the previous night in an isolated spot that gave them some privacy.
The atmosphere was quite relaxed during lunch. Khan and the others exchanged jokes, learnt gossips, and threw questions at each other to deepen their relationship. Those conversations mostly involved the events of the parties, but some topics explained aspects of the academy and the lessons that the recruits still ignored.
It turned out that the Niqols' academies only had two years. They divided their students depending on their achievements in the three major branches connected to mana which involved sensitivity, control, and manipulation.
Meeting the standards set by the Niqols when it came to sensitivity and control was enough to gain access to the second year. Manipulation was already an advanced skill, and the aliens required a certain mastery over it to approach more specialized courses.
A decent mastery over the manipulation of mana wasn't necessary to graduate. It turned out that even the Niqols found it hard to alter the nature of mana past certain levels. [The Pure Trees] only had a handful of geniuses in that field, and Liiza was one of them. Her ice came from one of the specialized courses of the academy.
The students were mostly free to decide their own future after graduating. Many of them usually became active parts of their tribes while others continued to pursue their studies to enter or expand specialized courses.
Money didn't seem to be an issue in that society, and it started to matter only when it came in significant quantities. Apparently, the elders were quite generous with the distribution of wealth when it concerned projects that could benefit the Niqols species as a whole.
Azni revealed how Khan and the other recruits wouldn't even gain access to the first year during normal times. It wasn't a matter of weakness or battle prowess. They simply didn't have any foundation when it came to the Niqols' methods.
The issue concerned the different approaches to mana of the two species. The human martial arts might require the recruits to express a level of control that only Niqols in the second year wielded, but that ability would apply on a single technique or move. Instead, the aliens had it as a general requirement for each process that involved mana.
That explained why their lessons didn't involve any specific topic. Their schedule was more packed than the Niqols in the first year because they had to go over basics that the aliens had mastered even before approaching the academy. Yet, they still involved the three major fields.
The recruits had gone through the lesson involving the sensitivity to mana in the morning. The afternoon would feature two more classes that would try to teach them the fundamentals of control and manipulation of mana.
An old male Niqols called Professor Kunta handled the control lesson. The alien was quite odd compared to the other members of his species. He was short and slightly fat. A long white beard even grew from his chin, but the light radiated by his white eyes appeared more intense than usual.
The recruits felt quite confident when they approached the lesson since the human methods had forced them to control the mana inside their bodies in ways that the Niqols ignored. However, the nature of the class shattered their hopes.
The lesson happened in one of the underground areas that had roots coming out of the ceiling. The external interference was at the lowest in that room, so Professor Kunta could inspect every mistake that the recruits committed during their assignment.
In theory, the Professor's assignment was quite simple. He wanted the recruits to move mana above their skin. His request almost sounded like a game, but the Niqols took it very seriously. The other students in the first year would be able to move a nail-sized mass of mana over their figures for an entire hour, but the humans could barely keep their energy stable for ten minutes.
Professor Kunta was severe and never let them rest. He forced the recruits to restart the exercise whenever he saw ripples appearing on their mana. The process was mentally exhausting, and only Khan, George, Helen, and Rodney showed some improvements after each attempt.
The lesson lasted almost three hours, and the recruits' mood worsened when they approached the manipulation class. An old female Niqols called Professor Zakhira was in charge of that course, and her methods were even more severe than Professor Kunta.
Professor Zakhira supported herself on a cane while she inspected the eight recruits sitting in a circle in a structure that completely isolated them from the outside world. Her hunched back bent even further when she stared at the white crystals that each human held in their hands. Those minerals changed color whenever mana ran through them, but they never showed shades different from the iconic azure of that energy.
"Pour feelings!"
"Use your minds!"
"The mana is alive!"
Professor Zakhira shouted those same three lines while tapping her cane on the smooth floor of the short structure. She appeared on the verge of hitting the recruits since they continued to fail with the task even after they spent hours trying to fill the crystals with different shades.
Luckily for them, the Professor held back from adding physical punishments to her lesson. Yet, recruits couldn't feel happy about the overall class since the Niqols never explained how to generate different shades. She had basically handed them the crystals, given them the task, and started tapping on the floor while repeating her three lines.
The lesson ended after three hours, finally putting an end to that long day. The recruits' clocks warned them that the afternoon had long since passed, but none of them felt hungry.
Sharp headaches had ended up afflicting their minds after spending nine hours listening to the three professors. The recruits only wanted to meditate and sleep to make that day end.
"Why would you even want to do more of this bullshit?" Brandon shouted after George explained Professor Supyan's offer.
The recruits had turned to their room. They were alternating themselves to take showers, but they didn't fail to speak about their second day in the academy during those moments.
"I understand improving the sensitivity to mana," Brandon continued, "But why would I even need to learn to move mana over my skin? Who cares? I'll just learn to perform specific movements if my next martial art asks me to use mana outside my body. I don't see the point of mastering this ability."
"It would improve your future training," Gabriela uttered, even if doubts filled her voice.
"How many martial arts and spells can we even learn in one life?" Brandon asked in a frustrated tone. "I'm not surprised the Global Army doesn't bother to teach this stuff. We have the chance to skip the intermediate steps and approach the techniques directly instead of spending years building a foundation that we'll never have the chance to exploit to its fullest."
"He is right," Helen commented while she adjusted her clean white robe and created a sensual spectacle that the boys in the room struggled to ignore. "Our control gets better after each technique that we master anyway. It's pointless to spend years creating a foundation when we can do specific exercises for our styles."
"I think the sensitivity and control lessons can have benefits," Rodney commented while lying on his bed. "The problem is Professor Zakhira. She didn't explain how we should change the color of those damned crystals."
"That's why we should attend Professor Supyan's additional lesson!" George repeated.
"I'm sorry, George," Veronica sighed. "I don't know if any of us will decide to spend three more hours of our days for something like that."
"You two even put us in a bad situation," Kelly scolded while moving her eyes between George and Khan. "You shouldn't have accepted the offer without considering us. We have to justify our decision not to attend the additional lesson to our superiors now."
"Well," Rodney cleared his throat, "They don't need to know."
"I won't keep secrets from the army after getting this chance," Brandon snorted. "I don't think they'll blame us anyway. We still have to prioritize real training over this useless stuff."
"Khan?" George asked when he saw that the recruits had no intention to support him on the matter.
Khan closed his locker before tying the null-grade blunt knife to the belt of his uniform. He couldn't hide his new martial art with that lack of privacy, so he opted to reveal a few clues without lingering in detailed explanations.
"I don't see the point with this discussion," Khan honestly explained while crossing the room and picking a white robe of his size. "We are here on a political mission, but we still have different goals inside the Global Army. Just do what you feel like."
"Where are you going?" Kelly asked when she saw Khan approaching the staircase that led to the surface.
The group didn't meet Doku that day, and Azni had confirmed the absence of parties. Khan could still decide to leave the habitation to train in a private spot in the forest, but Kelly found it strange that he was bringing clean clothes with him.
"Outside," Khan explained while stopping his track and turning toward the recruits. "I'll take Snow out for a flight."
"Do you care about this political mission at all?" Kelly blurted. "You have already spent an entire night outside, and you want to add a second right after accepting more workload in our name. I'm not going to cover for you if you start missing lessons."
Khan shrugged his shoulders before turning toward the stairs again. He had already expressed his position to Kelly. It wasn't his fault if she continued to be angry about that.
"What about tomorrow?" George asked as his voice almost faded toward the end of his question.
"Room full of roots, eight am," Khan said without bothering to turn.
George showed a broad smile after Khan confirmed that he would attend the additional lesson. The recruits could only wear ugly expressions when the boy turned to look at them and the faint steps coming from the staircase stopped resounding in the room. That was only their second day in the academy, but some factions had already formed among their group.
Khan walked toward the mountain in the same direction as the marsh. The trip forced him to pass through the empty central area of the academy, and a lonely figure appeared on his path right before he could enter the other side of the forest.
"It's you," Ilman exclaimed in a sad tone when he noticed Khan.
The Niqols was sitting on the ground, with his back on one of the white trunks. The glow of the large leaves above him illuminated his figure and made his sad expression even more evident.
"Bad day?" Khan asked as a curse resounded inside his mind.
"Usual day," Ilman grunted while forcing himself to stand up and make his face regain his usual determination, "But love isn't only happiness. I know this struggle will lead to better times."
Khan showed a fake smile before performing a polite bow and going back on his way. However, a second curse resounded in his mind when Ilman spoke to him again.
"You are good with women, right?" Ilman asked. "Can you tell me your secret?"
Khan turned to look at Ilman. The Niqols appeared really honest about his feelings and request for help. The alien was trying to date his girlfriend, but even Liiza had confirmed that his character was far from bad. Actually, Ilman had been one of the few Niqols who had never blamed her for her decision to break the engagement.
'Maybe it's better if I keep him close,' Khan concluded in his mind even if he hated that option.
"I don't have a secret," Khan revealed while thinking about Liiza's words from the previous night. "That's my secret."
Ilman frowned before his eyes lit up in understanding. The Niqols performed an honest bow before hurrying somewhere in Khan's opposite direction.
'I should keep Liiza updated about what I say to him,' Khan sighed in his mind before continuing on his way.
It was still relatively early, but his days had shortened. Khan had to hurry to fit everything in his packed schedule. Still, he knew that sleep wouldn't come for him that night.
