Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 40: The First of Many

"I'm so glad that the two of you can finally join us." Austin growled at both Koko and Christina when they finally made their way to class the next morning, though his words were obviously sarcasm as the man's entire forehead seemed to be covered in pulsing veins from his anger.

"Sorry! We had more important stuff to do!" Koko replied cheerfully, already having had enough of emotionally stressful situations for that week.

"There's nothing more important than my class!" Austin roared, shooting forward and grabbing the top of Koko's skull before squeezing it so hard that she thought that her head might pop. "I would expect this from the worst rank in the academy, but not from a hero!"

"You have my apologies, Instructor." Christina preformed a short bow while Koko complained and attempted to free herself in vein. "I can make no excuses for my actions."

"Then before you both waste any more of everyone else's time, I expect you both to make up for all of the running that you missed out on." Stated. "Christina, you'll run thirty laps around the academy. Koko, you'll run ten."

"Huh? Only ten?" Koko asked curiously before he let go of her head and smiled at her evilly.

"That's right. Besides, it's nearly useless to you, isn't it?" Austin asked knowingly. "Which means that while everyone else is running, you're be going over magic control lessons with me on the side."

"Eh?!" Koko shouted in complaint.

"What's there to complain about?! It's the perfect exercise for you, isn't it?!" Austin asked angrily towards her. "Now hurry up and get running, and if I think that you're procrastinating for even a second then you'll be practicing during your lunch break as well!"

Running away as soon as she was free, Koko complied with the unfair punishment and completed ten laps in the time that it took everyone other than Christina and Richard to do three. However, what was awaiting her when she returned was almost what she considered torture as Austin started making her practice infusing her magic into a small and overly fancy board that he gave her. The board had the design of a maze on it that had several route in which it could be completed, and it was now her job to concentrate on infusing only a small dot on the board before she had to focus it between the lines and attempt to complete the maze. Though while the amount of MP that it used wasn't that much, the sheer amount of concentration that it required made Koko want to infuse focus in it as well, though she couldn't seeing as her tight grip would most likely break the board if she accidentally used Dragon's Wrath.

"Relax your hands." Austin instructed, apparently spotting her predicament. "If you break that board then I'll break you."

Continuing to practice with it until everyone other than Christina had finished their laps, they all continued their daily routine of jumping-jacks, push-ups and rock-wall climbing as Koko rejoined them. Though, compared to the what Austin had just made her go through, physical exercise was nothing to her before they all finally finished and continued on to the showers.

After cleaning up, everyone met in the classroom where Austin started explaining a troll's biology, which Koko found interesting seeing as it was different from every other monster they had learned about. Other than it's seemingly cheat-like ability to regenerate it's body passively and heal it's wounds almost instantly, they also seemed to be a sort of gorilla-lizard hybrid by nature as they shed their skin just like snakes did. And seeing as their skin had the same regenerative property as the rest of their body, it soon became a completely new troll in a process that Austin called 'Molting'.

After their discussion on trolls and their various weak points, Austin started going through certain scenarios where adventurers had encountered the creatures and the tactics that they'd used to become victorious such as either using fire magic to temporarily halt the troll's regeneration or leading them into sunlight where they would turn to stone. However, one would have to shatter the newly petrified statues afterwords or the creatures would simply return to their normal conditions when the sun fell.