Lisa had always been curious about Vale, as he was very different from the other students. He was incredibly powerful and could be considered to be on par with their senior students.

Although many students doubted him after stagnating with his Spirit Strands, he didn’t seem to care about it. As a matter of fact, he didn’t seem to care about grades or status, or popularity either. He just did his own thing without bothering anyone.

He also had a mysterious aura about him that intrigued her.

Lisa took a deep breath as she reminded him about the activity.

“Vale, we need to participate in the activity. Should we pair up?”

He looked up at her with surprise as his mind seemed to wander off.

“Hi… Lisa. Yes, let’s work together… What’s the activity again?”

Lisa wryly smiled as she was right, Vale wasn’t listening to the assistant professor at all.

‘I thought all the boys are interested in this gorgeous and young professor? Does he have a different taste with girls?’ She mused.

“Ahem. The activity was quite simple. We just have to take turns using our Darkness Manipulation spell…” Lisa then explained what they should do and added the assistant professor’s reminder that the dummy would actually reject their Dark Energy in the process.

Vale nodded after understanding what they have to do.

With his current mastery of the Darkness Manipulation Spell, this wouldn’t even pass as an exercise for him.

Anyway, they quickly began to practice the Spell taking turns to cast and observe.

Lisa went first. She entered her Phantasm State and focused her mind on the Dark Energy surrounding them and chanted…

“Darkness…” This was her own chant. Spellcasters don’t have to chant their Spells as long as they access their Spell Models. However, by creating your own chant, your control and casting speed was said to greatly improve so she was doing it.

Then, her dark energy that seemed to be a tiny black blame appeared at the tip of her finger. She aimed it at the target and released it. The black flame flew towards the target and hit it, leaving a small “scorch mark” before spreading throughout the whole dummy.

However, before it even covered half of the dummy, a repulsive force seemed to have been triggered as Lisa’s dark energy started dissipating.

Well, it was actually the same with the others.

“W-what? How come it’s retreating?”

“What kind of Mystical Item is this?”

“It must be a Royal Rank item!”

“Fool… Even a Regular Mystical Item would be enough to shatter your Spell.” Warren teased Roswell who immediately jumped to the conclusion that the dummy was a Royal Rank item.

“If I’m not mistaken. There’s a talisman that rejects the Dark Energy inside the Dummy… It won’t be effective forever but it’s enough to deal with our Darkness Manipulation Spell.” Leonore explained after seeing how she also failed to cover the whole dummy.

Assistant Professor Machley didn’t respond to this and simply smiled at her students.

At this time, Lisa finally heaved a sigh of relief knowing that it wasn’t only her who was having a hard time.

“How was that?” She asked Vale.

Vale nodded and replied. “Not bad. But you can do better. Before you release your energy, try to expand them inside you. Make it bigger and stronger. Then, don’t focus on just wrapping your Dark Energy… The professor only said to wrap it but it’s better to think of it as filling the dummy with your Dark Energy instead.”

“Fill it up?” Lisa nodded as she seemed to understand what Vale was trying to say.

“Okay. Thanks for the advice. It’s your turn now.” She added.

However, Vale shook his head. “Just try again. I’ll be watching.”

Lisa didn’t argue and just agreed with him. Anyway, she knows that Vale was monstrous and perhaps, this training was just too simple for him.

She took a deep breath as she tried once more, following his suggestions. This time, she managed to make the energy stronger and hit the target with more force.

As soon as the dummy was almost filled or covered with Dark Energy, it started to recede once again. She failed but she was happy with the result.

She immediately looked at Vale with an expectant smile. For some reason, she wanted to be praised after improving with just a simple instruction! She believed that she deserves praise from the best student!

‘Eh?’

She suddenly realized that Vale was looking at her awkwardly…

‘No, it seems that his face was turning red. Is he embarrassed? What happened?’

“Ahem… You did well. Good job. Keep it up.” Vale said as he then stepped forward and took his turn.

He closed his eyes as if he needed serious concentration to do this. It was quite baffling but no one noticed this since they were all busy aside from Lisa who was watching Vale intently.

Snap!

Vale simply snapped his fingers and the dummy started to be covered in darkness immediately.

He didn’t summon a tiny surge of Dark Energy like Lisa! The dummy was covered in darkness instantaneously!

However, when only a tiny fraction was left in the dummy, the Darkness suddenly receded making Lisa feel pity about it.

As she was about to comfort Vale, she heard him chuckling.

“I almost destroyed the Talisman. I didn’t know it would be destroyed if I filled the dummy with Darkness Energy… It’s a good thing I noticed it immediately. Don’t worry, you can continue practicing, Lisa.” Vale said with a hint of a smile on his face.

Lisa didn’t understand it at first but after a few seconds, she realized that Vale had deliberately canceled his Spell!

“T-thank you?” She responded.

“Haha… No problem. You can continue now, Lisa.”

Lisa wryly smiled at this as she agreed to Vale.

They continued to practice, or perhaps, Vale continued watching her practice.

During this time, Lisa felt that she had gotten closer to Vale. Aside from talking about the Spell, they found that they had a lot in common, such as their love for books and their curiosity for magic.

They enjoyed each other’s company and had fun throughout the whole class

She felt a bond of friendship and respect forming between them. 𝘪𝑎.

However, she didn’t notice that someone was watching them from afar, with a look of interest and amusement.

It was Aubrey Hall who had forced the two to become partners in this activity. All this time, she was looking at the two secretly, and seeing how they were so close together by the end of the class, she couldn’t help but feel proud of herself.

‘Well, well, well. Looks like Vale has found himself a girlfriend. How cute.’

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