It was the first day after the conclusion of their induction, and the beginning of the training curriculum.
After battle training, Blight first went to swordsmanship. It was divided into different classes for the different branches. There was one-handed, two-handed, curved, and speciality swordsmanship.
He didn't yet consider the incredible variety and options available, opting to choose one-handed swordsmanship which focused on weapons such as the short or arming sword, at least for now.
He'd just made it, being the last person let in before the session was at maximum capacity, and everybody else had to wait for the next session of the class.
Blight found that Bernault and Marsuu were also taking this class and when they also noticed him, they gestured to him, so he joined them.
The instructor did not offer any groundbreaking information, as it was only the first day she focused on foundational knowledge on the different kinds of one-handed swords, sword poses, and basic movements.
At the conclusion of the lesson, they were given some material for them to practice the foundational sword poses and movements at the training grounds later.
Survival tactics was largely theory-focused. Teaching them about the world outside the walls, the geography, flora, and how to survive against the horrors.
After blight completed swordmanship and survival tactics, he arrived at sorcery.
At first, the sorcery class was extremely popular, but soon word had spread that it was a useless waste of time, and the trainees abandoned it in droves. By the time the second session was scheduled, it was vacant.
The room was much smaller than the other classes. Tables and chairs were squished together, unevenly lining the room. On them, there were towers of books and papers. At the end of the room, even more books were stacked to the ceiling. It had really no resemblance to any of the other classes he attended.
The man who looked like the sorcery instructor stood at the front of the room, his long white hair and thick beard flowing down to his chest. Wrinkles creased his weathered face, but he had a sharp pair of blue eyes that looked like they had seen through the secrets of the world.
He sighed, looking helplessly resigned and murmuring to himself.
When he noticed him, he turned to look at Blight and shook his head and waved his hands in a shooing manner. "Go away, young man. There is no hope for your generation."
The man stormed off, mumbling to himself, "ungrateful brats."
Blight was baffled and thought sarcastically, 'Thanks for your kind words of encouragement.'
But outwardly, Blight only smiled and said, "Hello, sir, are you the sorcery instructor? I am interested in learning sorcery."
"Is that so?"
"Yes sir, it is."
"..."
"Call me teacher."
"Yes, teacher, sir."
"Hehe,"
He looked pleased.
"Sit down."
The instructor went up to the front of the glass and gestured at Blight expectantly.
'What's with this geezer?'
The sorcery teacher began to explain what sorcery was, and its origin.
"Sorcery is a human invention which aimed to replicate the magical abilities gifted to us by the gods. It is recorded that Sorcery was discovered by a celestial realm figure in the ancient era named Isolde, she spent many years developing and perfecting sorcery for Bastion to use."
There were three main kinds of spells in sorcery:
Tether, Current, and Surge.
"Surges are the most widely used form of sorcery, using ether to create a physical or ethereal manifestation or force of something. It can be used near instantaneously through gestures and channelling your ether in a specific way, using yourself as the conduit."
"Tier one surges, which can be used by you, a tier one awakened humans are slow, weak, and have a small range of effect, but there are also higher tier surges. It was said that Bastion could split the earth and the sky with his signature surge."
He gulped and could not help himself from fantasising about wielding this kind of power. Could he one day do such a thing?
The old man gave him a knowing look.
"But don't start fantasising like an idiot."
Blight choked on his saliva.
"Most sorcery and surges are utility-focused because they are incredibly wasteful and inefficient with ether usage compared to the abilities we gain through ascension. You would need to use a massive amount of ether even for a mediocre offensive or defensive skill."
"Because of this, it is much better to use your ether on your own abilities, or even just empowering your body because sorcery does not have the same usage efficiency as our god given abilities. Use it sparingly, as a method to provide support to your natural abilities and cover your weaknesses."
Blight thought he understood why everybody said sorcery was useless now.
"Currents are a form of empowerment sorcery which do not have physical manifestations. They have a wide range of uses and can be all attack, defence, and utility-related. The most basic form of Current is for example, increased ether regeneration in a small area."
"Tethers are a form of passive sorcery which bind individuals or actions together through conditional effects. Unlike a Surge or Mantra, which have an immediate or semi-immediate effect, a tether can, in theory, never activate. The sorcerer creates a connection that triggers under specific circumstances, it is often only used as a form of deterrence or last-resort defence."
"You can think of it more like, 'If I die, you die with me' or 'If you take another step, your friend will start bleeding from his ass.'"
Blight stared blankly at the old manner who was grinning.
'Was this the bearing an instructor should have? Why did this guy seem so out of place?'
"But don't worry about currents and tethers for now. You will not be able to use any of them until you reach at least the Exalted realm, and even then, you will face much difficulty, and they will be very costly.
"As an awakened, you cannot use any currents or tethers, only surges."
Blight was curious why this was and asked him. He suspected it had something to do with not having enough ether.
The old man became melancholic and sighed.
"You have enough ether to conjure a few of them, but unlike the abilities blessed to us by the gods, which are natural and perfectly balanced, sorcery was crudely engineered from humans' desire for power and survival."
Blight wondered if it was the old man who had a mind-reading flaw and not himself.
"It is extremely flawed and harsh on the body. Lower tier sorcery is fine to use and relatively harmless, but if you tried to conjure higher tier sorcery, you would simply explode because your body is incapable of withstanding its power when acting as the medium. It is even extremely difficult at higher ranks to use a single spell that was a rank lower than your own realm."
"Sorcery doesn't really have tiers. We only made them up, as we did with all of sorcery, to assign a corresponding rank to a realm of those who can safely use it."
His perspective was changed.
Blight sat in the middle of the otherwise empty classroom while the old man taught him the basics.
He was shown a list of tier one surge spells which he could learn, and what would be required to learn them.
He had to memorise and perfectly replicate in some cases up to a hundred different hand signs in a matter of seconds while channelling his ether in a distinctive way to conjure the surge.
This in itself would often take weeks to learn and obtain any success, and many more months to gain proficiency.
Compared to investing your time in progressing your offensive and defensive capabilities, he could understand why it didn't seem like it was worth anything to most of the trainees.
"But they all just lack vision, unlike you. I like you, kid, even if your eyes are a bit creepy."
"Hehe."
Of the kinds of surge he was able to learn, he found a few in particular that he thought would be best for himself.
The first was called Astral Projection.
It allowed him to momentarily project his consciousness outwards and observe the world from around himself while his physical body remained in it's place.
This surge spell was extremely unpopular. It used too much ether and provided no attack capability. In the eyes of the trainees currently, it was useless.
The reason why he found it so intriguing was how well it could potentially synergise with his lineage ability [Gaze into the Abyss].
Blight quickly speculated after obtaining it that the ability could not predict that he had this ability, in other words, it didn't know of its own existence or at least could not predict that his thoughts could change due to it, until they did.
When observing the world around him, it was relatively straightforward and uncomplicated. But when it came to predicting himself, it became complicated.
It predicted his actions based on his current thoughts, but it could not predict a change in his thoughts when that change was caused by the ability itself.
Did that mean he could somehow find a way to trick Gaze of the Abyss into thinking that he truly wanted to cast Astral Projection when he didn't for it to show him a future where he did?
Could he then gain the ability to constantly view everything from his surroundings at all times without costing any ether?
It sounded too good to be true, but he would give it a try.
The next ability was called Spider Sling.
It was a surge spell with little use, only capable of manifesting a white thread of ether that looked like spider silk up to a distance of three meters that could attach to anything. It was quite sturdy, being capable of withstanding the weight of three adult men.
This was another extremely unpopular spell. It had no offensive or defensive capability and little use as far as utility went, but for Blight, who lacked any immediately useful ability from his lineage and boon, he could imagine some situations where this could offer him some utility or survivability.
The old man gave him a book with a recipe of sorts containing the different hand signs and ether channeling required to cast the two surges he was interested in, and Blight bid him farewell.
He'd developed a good impression of the old man. Their shallow, surface-level relationship, for what it was worth, was pleasant.
He was the first instructor in this place that he developed any goodwill for, and he would not let his flaw ruin this.
After completing battle training every morning and then attending all of his classes, Blight would return to the training grounds to practice his swordsmanship, movement, and battle tactics until dinner, before studying sorcery until midnight.
Like this, multiple days passed smoothly, with him making great progress.