After training outside, Raze had returned back into the Red headband living area. There was only so much his body could handle at the moment. Due to the restriction of oxygen, his muscles would tighten up.
The buildup of lactic acid in his body was even worse. Even though he had only moved slightly, and had only swung the sword a few times, it felt like a full day's worth of training for his body at the moment.
When entering the room, Raze immediately went to sit on his bed and started to have a coughing fit. He coughed and coughed, taking in short sharp breaths in between. It was hard for him, and his face was turning slightly red.
Immediately Safa had gotten up from her position and sprinted over to his side. She was already gathering her light magic in the palm of her hands, but before she could get close, he placed his hand out and shook his head.
The coughing had just stopped, but he was still breathing as if he was hyperventilating or in the middle of a panic attack.
"Why Raze, why won't you let me use the restore spell!" Safa shouted out, her eyes watering up, and she was on the verge of tears.
She hated seeing Raze this way, even though she knew it wasn't her real brother, she had a liking for Raze, and he was still in the same body as before. It was a trial reaction to want to do what she could, and the thing was she could help.
"Even if the restore skill won't completely heal you, it will make you better, and after some time, I know you'll get better," Safa claimed.
Still, Raze shook his head and pointed toward the magic circle that was on the floor. The one he had set up for Safa. He then started to sign to her. It was the way her brother used to communicate to her in the past when she was a mute.
With each sign, Safa would say the words out loud.
'Go back to the magic circle, you think I'm ready now?'
She listened to her brother but felt like if he had the time to sign something like this, then why didn't he just sign to her what he was thinking in his head.
When she sat down before in the circle, Safa was told just to gather her light magic into her magic core. Like she had done before. The technique was quite similar to that of cultivation, and she was a quick learner, so she had no problems with that.
Just like how she would gather light magic around her throat, she was gathering it around her chest. It was easier with the magic circle, but she didn't know why. She hadn't had much time to study the book that had been given to her yet.
Now though, the magic crystal was pushed slightly forward by an invisible force, which was Raze's wind magic.
Although Raze couldn't speak, he could still use spells. It would just take him slightly more time. He would have to think about the spell and what it looked like. Rather than work off his muscle memory.
Where he had gotten into the habit of saying the word of the spell and the magic circle appearing in one's head.
Safa closed her eyes and immediately got to work. The mana was swirling around her. A sense of bliss was coming over her. A calming sensation, and then slowly the crystal was starting to break down.
Bit by bit, particles of the crystal were entering, and she could feel the core in her heart changing; it was growing until a large explosion from within occurred.
On the outside, mana swirled out in all directions, pushing through everything in sight. Raze knew straight away what this was.
'She's done it, she's finally reached the second star!' Raze thought. 'With this, even though her Light magic affinity hasn't increased, she will still get somewhat of a boost and be able to control more light magic.'
However, that wasn't the only thing that Raze noticed. Just above, several sparks were going off in the room where Safa was. The sparks were light blue, and he had seen this before.
'This is... it's trying to open a portal. Like Himmy and Charlotte said, magic used in Pagna attracts the other dimensions.'
As he continued to watch, the sparks eventually disappeared, and it looked as if for now, a portal wasn't going to open up. Raze had been quite lucky; the last time a portal had opened up, it wasn't a portal break.
He knew his luck wouldn't always be the same though, but if a real portal break was to come, he didn't care right now.
'With the reaction we got from becoming a 2-star mage, then when Safa becomes a 3-star mage, it's most likely a portal break will occur.' With these thoughts, Raze signed to Safa, telling her to do the same again, he wanted her to reach the third star.
——-
After a couple of hours, the others were still training outside, and once again, they were witnessing Raze come out from the building. They were unsure what was happening with him coming in and out every now and again, but whenever he did come out, they knew it was time for him to train.
Just like before, he had grabbed a wooden sword and struck down on it. He did the same again, repeating the same patterns as before, leaving them to question what was the point.
However, this time, like Ricktor said, Mada had kept an eye out on him, and he couldn't help but grip his hand tightly.
"Why, why is he doing that?" Mada claimed.
"You mean, you still don't understand?" Ricktor replied.
"No, it's not that, I know what's happening. His strikes, when he first came out, it took him 38 seconds before he swung his sword again, the time after that it took 37 seconds, and the time after that 36 seconds before he struck again.
"Even now, in the poor state he's in, he's training, and he's getting stronger. If he's healing, why doesn't he just wait for his body to heal!"
"You think he's healing, if you listened to the sound of his breath, it has not improved," Ricktor stated. "Instead, the amount of Qi needed, the amount of oxygen needed for him to strike again, his whole body is getting used to it.
"He's not healing, but even in this state, his body is getting stronger. Which makes me think, if he is able to get even stronger in this current state, and then was somehow able to heal his body, I think he would be too far ahead for us to catch up after that."
The other students didn't quite know what was going on, but they got used to watching Raze, and they could feel it. With each swing, his determination.
"Raze... he hasn't given up," Tinson claimed. "We can't either; I'm sure of it, he still plans to go through with his plan, so we need to be there for him when he does!"
Running from their room out to the courtyard was a startled Joe.
"Everyone, you need to head to the main courtyard now, and see what's there!"
"Huh, what do you mean?" Tinson asked.
"Why don't you just tell us what's there?"
"It's... students," Joe replied. "Lots and lots of students are here, yellow, red, blue, there are lots of them."
