Thud!
"Kyaa!!!"
"W-what's happening?!"
"An a-attack?!"
The three wildlings scrambled confusedly inside their own rooms.
They soon noticed me standing in the hallway outside.
"Hey, what's going on here?!"
Yuxia angrily shouted as he walked to the door.
The other two mages arrived at theirs around the same time.
"Put on something comfortable to move in and meet me at the entry hall. Be quick about it."
I said promptly to them right before walking away.
"A-are we starting our lesson already?!"
"This early?! But I just went to sleep barely half an hour ago!"
"I even only got to close my eyes for a few minutes. I've been spending the entire night memorizing those equations!"
I heard the wildlings echoing their complaints as I walked down the hall.
Once they realized I did not care for any of their words, the three rushed back to their own room. I managed to hear clothes ruffling before I turned to the stairs.
Either way, with their beds turned upside down, they would not be returning to sleep.
That was how the dorm supervisors woke the fresh first-years in my magic academy.
If you did not want to wake up with bumps and bruises, you would make sure to leave your room before the supervisors made their morning call patrols.
It was to encourage discipline, or so they said.
I thought such method would be beneficial for my three wildling pupils.
My wake-up call seemed to prove effective given the three mages joined me not long after I descended to the entry hall.
Vallerynne was in a simple shirt and skirt instead of her frilly dress from yesterday.
Given her glistening cream-colored hair and porcelain-like face, the girl still looked like a noble despite her modest outfit.
Matrias wore a plain tunic and baggy pants.
He had firm thick arms, making him looked like a rough-worker. But the man also had a slight mound for a belly. Though I supposed it reinforced the assumption even more.
Yuxia wore the same set as Matrias.
Outside his eastern gown, Yuxia's masculine feature stood out.
The man was tall, firm and lean. His shoulders were as broad as any man's, pointy as well.
With his long gray hair tied up, Yuxia's sharp jaw became more prominent, as well as the protruding little mound on his neck.
You could never mistake him for a woman this way.
"Are we starting our lesson now? Why are you telling us to wear comfortable clothes?"
He asked as the three approached me.
Ignoring his questions, I turned to the doors.
"Follow me."
They did not say anything, but I could hear several exasperated sighs behind me.
The four of us then walked through the third floor training grounds, onto the grand stairway leading to the second floor of the lobby, through the rows of workshops and storage, and down another stairway to the first floor.
"W-wait! You're too fast! Hold on…a second!"
Matrias shouted from the rear.
His voice was breathy. The man was wheezing.
"Let me…catch…my breath"
He said as he dropped himself to the last step at the bottom of the staircase.
"These stairs are so long and steep. My feet are getting sore already."
Vallerynne commented.
Yuxia nodded to her.
"I'm already dreading the climb back up to the third floor. If we're having our lesson now, why are we down here instead in the magic hall anyway?"
His last sentence was directed to me.
"You'll see."
I said before walking away from them.
The three grunted as I withheld the purpose of their early schedule.
They all joined up with me before I entered the huge gates leading into the first floor training ground.
"Keep up your pace! Don't dawdle!"
Trudy shouted from the side of a huge training yard. She was dressed in her combat instructor uniform.
Dozens of the first floor residents were running around the vastest training ground in the lobby.
Given the deep footprints on the yard, they had been doing this for at least an hour before we arrived.
"I said no walking! Ten more laps for you, Mirone! You too, Elward!"
The combat instructor shouted sternly to a tall skinny woman and a wide plump man. The pair shrieked upon their naming.
Trudy seemed to have settled in her new role.
"Working hard, instructor?"
I said to my former party comrade.
The blue-haired woman smiled upon my greeting.
"76 trainees in total. Most of them wants to learn how to wield a weapon right away. But it's pointless if they're already wheezing and puking after ten practice swings."
"Endurance is important. It's hard to stay composed if you're tired."
"And composure means survival in the Quintal Trials."
Trudy added, recalling her own experience on the tenth floor.
She then caught sight of the three stragglers with me.
"I don't suppose you brought them here to just sightsee."
I nodded to her and turned to the mages.
"Everyone, as you must've recognized already from the records, this woman is Trudy Calle. A former member of Party 1 and the combat instructor to the first floor training ground."
The three mages gave Trudy simple acknowledging nods.
They were still eager to return to their beds.
I continued.
"Trudy will be supervising your physical training every morning from today."
This time the three mages did not reply with just simple nods.
"Physical training?! What do you mean?!"
"We're not warriors who rely on their strengths! We're mages! We rely on our minds!"
"That's right! We don't need to train our body!"
I pointed my finger to the rift of space time by the first floor square.
Their chattering immediately quieted down.
"Are you people blind? Or do you simply have bad memories? Didn't you see how vast the areas of the Quintal Trials were?"
I told the mages who just finished watching the Quintal Trial records not yet twelve hours ago.
I went on.
"The fifth floor was composed of expansive plains and forests. The tenth floor was a whole mountain range. How do you expect to face those kinds of trials when you can't even climb up and down the lobby without running out of breath?"
The three wildlings turned uneasy upon my words. Especially Matrias. He even gagged.
They knew what I said made sense.
Trudy also nodded approvingly.
"I fought with Serafina on the tenth floor. She might be a mage who rely on her minds instead of her strength. But she never failed to keep up with her warrior comrades when we were climbing the steep mountain paths of Surga Pass."
My former party comrade said.
She went on while staring admiringly at me.
"We never had to wait for her to rest or catch up with us. In fact, it was the other way around."
The three mages gritted their teeth upon Trudy's statement.
She saved me the time to point out the obvious. Though I was not looking forward to tell my pupils how capable I was.
I never liked boasting.
"Every day, the three of you will train here early in the morning with Trudy. She will help you increase your endurance, which is very important for a mage. You'll never be able to properly cast your spell when you're tired."
They all sighed when I stated their grueling schedule from this point on.
The three had expected the magic lesson would be tough. But now they also had to endure physical training.
"Don't look so down. We will turn this into a game to motivate you. A prize will be waiting for you each day whenever you stick to your training schedule."
I said to them.
The wildlings' faces brightened up.
"A prize? What kind? I love prizes!"
Vallerynne asked excitedly.
I nodded to her.
"If all of you managed to make it in time for your physical training with Trudy, you'll be allowed to eat anything you want from the kitchen."
Yuxia suddenly frowned.
"We've been able to eat anything we want so far, though."
I nodded again to acknowledge his words.
"Each morning, should any of you fail to arrive here at this hour, all three of you will be eating plain boiled potatoes for the rest of the day."