About half an hour passed. Lux felt more and more confused as she practiced. For a moment, Lux felt her magic flowing smoothly, thinking she was about to succeed, but the next second it would get blocked up and flow back into her body.

  Perhaps it would be more effective to summon accessories to practice, but with the two elves standing on the edge of the training field watching her, Lux could only flail around like a fish trapped in shallow water.

  Sabrina was quickly losing patience. She whispered to Emily, "Captain Emily, how long are we going to watch this stupid monkey make a fool of herself? Even if you gave this human a month, she wouldn't be able to learn it." (Sabrina was getting tired of Lux's "ahda ahda" shouting.)

  "Are you bored? Watching her practice randomly is indeed quite boring," Emily also replied quietly to Sabrina. Then she picked up a small pebble from the ground and flicked it. The pebble flew and hit Lux's head.

  Lux felt a slight pain in her head, then glared at Emily, who was sneering over there, and thought, 'If she dares to throw another rock, I'll pretend to lose my grip on the sword and smash it back at her as a gift.'

  "This is fun, Captain Emily," Sabrina said, her interest piqued again. She bent down to find a larger rock on the ground to throw, because Nova looked quite resistant to being hit.

  "Alright, staying here is a waste of time anyway. Sabrina, go check on the progress of my custom-made sword. I'm tired of watching too. I'll leave in a bit," Emily said, crossing her arms.

  "Captain Emily, how about I keep you company?" Sabrina said softly to Emily.

  "No need. After you ask about the sword, go rest. We have a mission to go on the day after tomorrow," Emily said, waving her hand to dismiss her.

  "Okay, Captain Emily," Sabrina replied, then looked at Lux, who was still trying to activate her magic. "Human, you definitely won't be able to do it today."

  After her outburst, Sabrina turned and left.

  "Phew," Lux exhaled. At least one of the annoying duo was gone. Now all she had to do was wait for Emily to leave, and then she could focus on practicing.

  Just as Lux was trying to figure out how to circulate her magic based on some circles and triangles, a small rock suddenly hit her hip.

  'Okay, flying sword attack ready. Countdown 3, 2...' Just as Lux was preparing to perform a high-speed, spinning sword disarm on her next swing, she heard Emily's voice: "Use the power of your waist, and also engage the muscles in your back to squeeze."

  'Alright, waist and back,' Lux thought. Revenge could wait; mastering the release and wrapping of magic was the priority.

  Lux circulated the magic within her body, following Emily's instructions. But when the magic rose from her waist to the middle of her back, it felt like trying to swallow dry bread without water – it got stuck.

  Then two more pebbles hit Lux's back. "These two areas. Imagine two ellipses that can wrap around the ribs of your back, and flow the magic along these ellipses."

  'That's a little better,' Lux thought. Following Emily's method, the magic flow was slow, like trying to siphon water from a tank with a thin tube, but at least it was flowing.

  "Now repeat this cycle a hundred times, until the magic flow becomes smoother," Emily's cold and strict instructor voice continued. At least she wasn't throwing any more pebbles—

  —Just as Lux was feeling relieved, a pebble hit her head. "Too slow! Alternate between a fast flow and a slow flow of magic."

  Again and again, Lux controlled the flow of magic within her body, like directing traffic inside herself. She didn't know how long it took, but she felt the magic gradually break through the invisible barriers within her, circulating a little faster.

  "Next, try compressing the magic flowing within your body in your head, shoulders, and the base of your thighs simultaneously, then try to expand it, but don't let it exceed the boundaries of your body," Emily said. As she spoke, five pebbles hit Nova's head, shoulders, and thighs with pinpoint accuracy. Nova felt that the pebble that hit her head was completely unnecessary.

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  Lux did as Emily instructed, compressing and expanding the magic within her body. She felt increasingly hot inside, like she was forging iron, and the flow of magic became clearer and clearer.

  Just as Lux was beginning to feel pleased with her visible progress, she suddenly felt more pebbles hitting her back and even her chest. Well, she was getting used to it. Emily's pebbles could even curve in mid-air, as if embraced by the wind and striking with perfect precision.

  "Try to force the magic out from these points, then try to spread it over your skin," Emily directed Lux, adding, "Magic can be released from any part of your body, but for a newbie like you, these spots are the easiest."

  Emily had also moved to a different spot, because the ground where she had been standing was now devoid of pebbles.

  And Lux soon managed to force the magic out of her body, like squeezing juice from an overripe tomato, but it was difficult to make it adhere to her skin. Lux felt the magic crawling over her body at a snail's pace, even occasionally falling off.

  Emily, however, fell silent, no longer giving instructions, but quietly watching Lux spread the magic over her body.

  Time passed. The sky was turning yellow as the sun prepared to say goodbye. If life only lasted for a single day, it would probably look like this sky, now beginning to show its bleak orange-yellow hue.

  Lux hadn't eaten anything all day except for breakfast, and only water was provided in this Green Training Field. Now, Lux felt hunger consuming her entire being. Suddenly, the magic that had been slowly crawling through her body connected, and like a person doused in liquor and set ablaze, Lux felt magic erupt from her body, enveloping her completely.

  Lux felt incredibly energetic now. The hunger and fatigue seemed to have been burned away by this magical fire. Her entire body was radiating red – the color of Lux's magic.

  "Quickly, retract the magic into your body! If you don't want to exhaust all your magic and collapse, do it now!"

  A familiar, forceful pebble struck Lux's head. Lux hurriedly pulled all the magic back into her body, and she felt that the next time she released the magic, it would be much faster and smoother.

  "Next, pick up the training sword," Emily said. Lux had dropped the sword on the ground earlier while practicing the release. Now she picked up the somewhat heavy wooden sword again.

  "Try releasing magic from your wrist, and then, like wearing a bracelet, gradually wrap the magic around your wrist," Emily said. As she spoke, Lux saw a small pebble loop around from behind Emily and accurately hit her right wrist. Lux was certain that the pebble was imbued with magic, because she saw faint cyan ripples on the stone, which disappeared after it hit Lux.

  At this moment, the music from the central flowerbed began to play. Lux turned her head to look at Emily, who still stood there sternly with her arms crossed, holding another pebble between the fingers of her right hand. 'So, elves don't consider the period from morning to afternoon as a single day,' Nova thought, feeling a wave of relief. But that feeling was quickly shattered as another pebble hit her head.

  "Expand the magic wrapped around your wrist to encompass the sword hilt," Emily commanded.

  When Lux expanded the magic, her hand felt like it was about to explode.

  "Now, extend it upwards, rotating and wrapping it around the sword," Emily instructed.

  Lux felt the magic, like a slow-moving and patient snake, begin to climb the wooden sword.

  But when it had climbed less than a quarter of the way up the sword, Lux realized that it was already dark, and the magic snake was still climbing.

  "Now, release the magic directly, making it erupt from where it's wrapped and shoot to the sword's tip, then compress and envelop the sword," Emily said. Even before the pebble could hit Nova's head along with the sound of her voice, Lux focused and released the magic. The magic immediately engulfed the sword, and then Nova forcefully compressed it, turning the wooden sword crimson red, as if it had been drawn from the fiery clouds of the setting sun.

  But before Lux could even celebrate, Emily leaped up, jumped onto the sword rack behind Lux, drew a sword, and cyan magic instantly bloomed from the sword hilt, then wrapped around the blade like a layer of light silk. Then, this cyan blur of motion lunged at Lux.

  Lux immediately raised her magic-infused sword to parry and defend. The red and cyan magic collided, creating a loud explosion in the air. Lux was sent flying backward, slamming into the wooden wall of the training field with a "bang." Emily, however, only tapped the ground with her toes to steady herself, then looked up and said, "You passed."

  With that, she walked to a package and tossed it to Lux. "Inside are the badge and crystal disk that prove your identity. The crystal disk has 500 points, which is a loan. It will be deducted from the points you earn on your next mission. Remember to buy some decent armor and weapons. And there's a mission the day after tomorrow. Meet at the city gate in the morning." After saying that, Emily turned and left without looking back.

  Lux, who felt like a racehorse that had just finished a race and then been forced to haul cargo all day, lay on the ground, not planning to get up.

  'I don't want to go back to that inn. I'll just sleep here,' Lux thought, squinting her eyes.

  Then she watched the cyan figure of Emily receding into the distance and thought to herself,

  'What a stubborn and strange woman. But still, thank you.‘