Yui left as soon as Ezekill recovered, but she couldn't stop worrying about him. Elizabeth and Roy were also told that they should continue practicing their magic, instead wasting time on worrying when he's already fine.

 

“How did you do it,” Yvonne asked.

 

“Hmmmm, imagination, I guess?” Ezekill replied.

 

“You can't practice destroying things with healing magic but you already know how it feels right? Because I don't want to do it again, it really hurts like hella hurt.” He said.

 

“I don't want to do it again,” Yvonne clenched her fist.

 

“I'm sorry, Yvonne but thanks to you I managed to do it.”

 

Yeah if magic can heal it can also destroy. He thought.

 

Right, I have to expand my mana inorder to utilize everything I discovered, I also need to level up. Oh my constitution, and endurance increased. Somehow my mana increased, but my stats didn’t go up. Is it because my Arcane Core is improving? He thought as he checked his stats.

 

[Ezekill Raylight]

 

[Stats]

Level: 10
EXP: 300/10000

HP: 380/380

MP: 120/1720

SP: 700/700

Sta: 300/330

 

[Attribute Points: 0]

STR: 25  (+10)

AGI: 25  (+10)

Cons: 26  (+10)

Endurance: 21  (+10)

Wis: 50  (+10)

Int: 50  (+10)

 

[Magic]

Magic theory.

8th tier Light affinity: Pillar of Light, Bend Light, Light Bullet, Light Shortsword, Refraction Ray, Amaurotic Lambent, Solar Flare, Blinding Light Trap. 

 

6th tier Earth affinity: Burial Ground, Earthen Grasp, Earth spike, Stone bullet, Earth Lance, Earthen Armor, fertile soil, muddy ground, sink trap.

 

5th tier Glass affinity: Glass spike, Glass lance, Shard bullet, Glass Cube.

 

1st tier Air affinity: Gust.

 

1st tier Fire affinity: Flame.

 

1st tier Water affinity: Splash.

 

6th Lightning affinity: Shock, Lightning, Lightning bolt, Chain lightning.

 

1st tier Plasma affinity: Plasma

 

[Abilities]

Velocity Manipulation.

Swordsmanship boost.

 

Aura Mastery: Aura magic damage multiplier, Strengthen, Speed Boost.

 

[Skills]

Combat: level 5 Ascion sword-style, level 30 Kunst des Fechtens system, level 30  Flos Duellatorum system, level 20 Eskrima system. Level 6 Tactician, level 20 longsword proficiency, level 15 dagger proficiency.

 

Labor: level 20 Alchemy, level 2 Cooking, level 5 Cleaning, level 6 Gardening, level 20 History.

 

[Titles]

Sister’s love

Yui’s love

[Passive]

True arcane core

Green Aura Mastery  - First Level

The Guide. 

Blessings of Herana.

 

[Because of your deep understanding of magic: you can expand Air, Fire, Earth, and Water into Gas, Solid, Liquid, Temperature, Plasma manipulation.]

 

[Would you like to expand? Yes or No]

 

What? Expand? How is that different from typical magic?

 

[The difference between them is that you manifest magic without the aid of magic circle, without the magic circle magic is less optimized, and cast time is removed.]

 

I have to think about it more carefully, give me some time will you?

 

[Affirmative, expansion is on hold.]

 

[AUTOSAVE!]

 

“Remember Elena- I mean our professor's lesson?” Ezekill said.

 

“Yes,” she nodded.

 

“Then practice with that, until you memorize it,” Ezekill said.

 

Uno cleared his throat, he tried to regain control of the class, as everyone tried to imitate him but they couldn’t. It was starting to get dangerous because constructing an unstable magic circle could explode and hurt them.

 

“Okay okay please stop every activity, and listen to me,” Uno shouted.

 

The class continued its chaos, the students overwhelmed Uno's voice.

 

Uno sighed, he's too old for this he lacked the energy to compete. He raised his staff and a whistle could be heard then a boom followed. He cast magic to make them quiet, and it worked. Everyone shut their asses.

 

Peace finally, he thought.

 

Uno instructed them to line up, especially Elena's class he wanted to impress the headmaster he worked with. So he planned to teach them that he specialized.

 

Uno invited Ezekill, well there's a chance he already knew the technique, he wouldn't be surprised if he did, after all he did something that he couldn't. 

 

But his pride as a Wizard, as a mentor he shouldn't be intimidated by his intellect. No matter how great he was, he's still a student in the end.

 

Ezekill gladly accepted, he was going to follow anyway and it was confusing to why he needed to be invited.

 

Yvonne couldn't join as she was completely a beginner of destruction magic. She just stared at them and sighed.

 

“Did you know that you can cast as many with the same magic?” Uno said.

 

Rey raised his hand, Uno nodded, “Yes, professor.”

 

“What's the technique called?” Uno asked.

 

“Duplication, professor.” Rey was surprisingly polite.

 

 Roy was shocked at how polite he was, with no smugness in his tone.

 

“Correct! Duplication is a technique that copies the same magic and only requires a single cast. Meaning you can cast many with a single cooldown.” Uno said.

 

He demonstrated, and cast a single firebolt but constructed many magic circles that intertwined with each other.

 

“With this, you can choose to use every magic circle at the same time, or you can use one to measure the range, then correct with the second and expend everything if you have the correct accuracy of the target.”

 

“Or just bring down hell to them all at once,” he added.

 

He taught the class duplication, they must construct the magic circle and branch their mana out and manifest another one. Second was to control, and stabilize.

 

Ezekill had trouble with the process, somehow he kept releasing the magic. While Rey made three duplicates, the magic circle was stable. 

 

Roy followed the instruction, managed to do the same and made a single duplication.

 

Elizabeth did so well, she worked her magic like a double action revolver. She fired a single, then another one bursted on the wall, six shots were fired. On her first try she got it. Her face was full of smugness, her slight close-lipped smile, her raised eyebrows could be seen.

 

Uno was impressed as expected of her students, their brimming talent was shown. But he noticed that Ezekill kept firing the same magic without duplication. He was perplexed, he involuntarily tilted his head in confusion.

 

Ezekill was getting pissed, why he couldn't do it, it was simple but somehow he can't.

 

Uno noticed he was getting frustrated, so he got close to him.

 

“Boy, you can't feel cooldowns? Like pain everytime you cast the same magic in short quick succession?” Uno asked.

 

“No, I guess.” Ezekill said.

 

“That's probably why you can't duplicate,” Uno said.

 

“Meditate, I suggest you meditate, feel your circuits, flow your mana as if you were constructing magic, try to feel the protest, the pain, ” he added.

 

Ezekill bowed his head to thank him for the advice he gave. Ezekill broke out from the row and secluded himself from others, he meditated.

 

Ezekill followed his advice, he let his mana flow like a running river, he tried his best to feel the pain but he's still numb.

 

If it doesn't work then he doubled his effort, by mimicking the activation of Solar Flare, the mana rushed, it worked. He felt the pressure, he felt tired not pain. 

 

He used his time, meditating and Uno let him be as Uno taught the students his preferred modification.

 

Uno also coached the students on how to stockpile the magic circles, like bullets inside a magazine. Every blast the magic circle disappeared then the next one behind it until every dupe was used.

 

Time went by, Ezekill and Yvonne had a different training, and used their time to fix their own weaknesses. 

 

Yvonne could now effortlessly stabilize her magic.

 

While Ezekill improved his mana capacity by meditating as a by-product of trying to feel cooldowns.

 

Uno's class was dismissed, and Elena arrived at the gym. Uno and his students left, He bowed his head when he saw Elena. Elena let her class continue the training that Uno left them.

 

Two hours of meditating, he could somehow feel the cramps in his body.

 

Elena dismissed the class she stared at Ezekill as they left, she wanted to talk to him but her busy work made her unable to. There were no chairs to lift, no alibi to let him stay, Elena sighed, she took care of the rubbles left by the blasting of magic.

 

Ezekill immediately stride forward to Life class with Yvonne, the gang seemed very busy as they had their own training plans. Uno gave them a push the gang had planned ideas on how to get stronger. Inspired by their friend, Ezekill.

 

As they strolled it felt a bit awkward to talk to each other, Ezekill couldn't get words out of his mouth. Yvonne looked downwards, and took a glimpse of him every few seconds while gripping her notes.

 

Ezekill throat, and body stiffed, he couldn't talk as he opened his mouth.

 

“I'm sorry, I shouldn't blame you, I know you did it to help me.” Yvonne broke the silence.

 

Ezekill glanced at Yvonne, “No, I should have considered what would have been the effect. Instead of doing what I want, I was being selfish, I'm sorry Yvonne.”

 

“Uhmm, will you forgive me Yvonne? I promise next time I'll ask for your consent!” Ezekill stepped in front of her and bowed his head to apologize.

 

She patted his head, and smiled.

 

They arrived, and sat. They mend the friendship they had, Yvonne and Ezekill talked until the professor arrived.

 

“Shh, Professor Fel Gud is here we should stop,” Yvonne said.

 

“The elements were pure but could not be found in that state on earth. Every visible thing was made up of some combination of earth, water, air, and fire.” Fel Gud said as he discussed.

 

“I would love to talk about the elemental planes, but unfortunately that's for major as you picked this class as a minor.” He added.

 

“Now back to the topic, as a continuation of our topic yesterday we talked about earth, your bones are made of earth. Now we talked about water.”

 

He continued to discuss the connection of the four elements to human anatomy, like how their blood was made of water. Ezekill realized that they had the same idea as the ancient Greeks with slight modification. 

 

Yeah, chaos would erupt if they knew that we are made of more than four elements. It might also affect how they use magic. Ezekill thought.

 

They took a long quiz about the topic after Fel Gud the discussion, and was dismissed after they finished.

 

Ezekill rushed towards the library after he ate his lunch.

 

Ezekill continued his research about Alchemy. He spent his entire lunch break on his research, he took the books and opened it where he left off. He needed to understand Alchemy first beforehand.

 

It's still a bit risky to try, he needed more time.

 

The rest of the day went on like an ordinary student doing his own student things.

 

Night time, Svetlana patrolled the grounds, “Patrolling around the stadium, I'm going in,” she communicated through her armband.

 

“Status report comrade,” she said.

 

“Northern part is clear as the night sky, comrade,” a man with a deep voice replied.

 

“Affirmative comrade, continuing my patrol, over.” Svetlana said.

 

Svetlana marched and went inside the arena, she overheard a voice.

 

“Target is getting stronger each day,  gather ten people, and deploy the armor, we need it to eliminate the target.” The mysterious voice said.

 

“It would take months to deploy, numbers will suffice.” A person with a snake-like voice said.

 

“Initiate the plan, no more qu-” the enigmatic doll was interrupted.

 

“Hold! State your name! Explain why the five of you gathered here!”

 

“Found a group of suspicious individuals, requesting backup asap.” Svetlana readied to draw her arming sword.

 

“Tsk, disperse.” The doll said.

 

“Oh no you don't!” Svetlana howled.

 

The enigmatic group split up, three of them jumped towards the first level, the other two ran towards left and right.

 

Svetlana slashed, a crescent shape zoomed as she drew her arming sword. The largest one blocked the attack.

 

“It seemed the shorty is the boss,” Svetlana let out an aura, and boosted her jump.

 

She leaped into the air, chasing the suspicious people in black hoods.

 

They leaped to the second level and out to the streets, Svetlana followed. They ran trying to outspeed and removed her from their tails. She slashed two times, the first one was blocked by the giant and the second one curved, bypassing him and hitting the small enigmatic figure on the neck.

 

“I'll hold her off,” the enigmatic voice said as he halted his tracks.

 

“Giving up?” Svetlana said as she stopped.

 

“No, I stopped to crack your skull open,” he said.

 

He charged, he was fast even with his large build, Svetlana got caught off-guard as the giant punched. She ducked, a few seconds too late and her skull would crack open. It wasn't just words.

Svetlana was on offensive, she swiped her arming sword down aiming for his legs. The giant leaped backwards to dodge, Svetlana followed up and released another crescent slash hitting his chest. He tanked the damage and he didn't flinch. His face was covered but her narrowed eyes indicated his fine.

 

“Tch, hard bastard,” Svetlana had no other choice but to go full power, he seemed to be able to tank damage.

 

She inhaled, “Release!”

 

She exploded, a massive thick orange aura visible around her.

 

She was fast, she appeared to be blinking from the giant's perspective. She thrust her arming sword to his heart, it didn't pierce but the giant was thrown.

 

“Urghh!” The giant groaned in pain as he rolled, and tumbled.

 

She appeared on his face, his eyes widened, she's fast, the giant thought.

 

“You're just a bulk of meat,” she said with a stone-cold gaze.

 

She grabbed his face, and pinned him down. She released a fear aura, orange mists bursted from her hand. The giant screamed, he squirmed “No! No! Ahhhhhh! Make it stop! Stop, don't touch her! No! Please!”

 

“Sleep,” she said.

 

“No… m-mom.” The giant raised his hand for a few seconds, his hand fell, stopped and fell asleep.

 

Svetlana removed the hoodmask, revealing his face. An outsider, she didn't recognize the face.

 

“Svetlana!” a deep voice howled.

 

“You're late Dosto! Help me restrain this giant,” she clicked her tongue.

 

“Sorry! On it!” Dostoevsky said.

 

Below the tower's basement inside the dungeon, Svetlana sat in front of the suspicious giant. Drinking her distilled alcohol, she drank the bottle chugging it nonstop.

 

“You're not supposed to be drinking that,” he said as he sighed.

 

”I worked hard enough to earn at least a bottle.” Svetlana said, she stood up.

 

“Alright, break time is over,” she got close to the intruder.

 

She slapped him hard to make a cracking sound on his cheeks. “Wake up, you bastard, we don't have water here to splash your face.”

 

He gasped, and was wide awake from the slap, he groaned as he felt the pain.

 

 Thank god, I didn't get caught staring at her ass. Dostoevsky thought in horror, it would be hell if he was slapped instead.

 

“First question, who are you?”

 

The giant stared at her eyes, he was silent.

 

She sighed, she grabbed his hair and slammed his face on the stone table. He squeezed his eyes shut, he squirmed, bruises visible.

 

He slowly opened his mouth, Svetlana got closer in anticipation of hearing the correct answer.

 

“Fuck you, human bitch,” he smirked.

 

“Seriously, I may be part of the Security Council Committee. I still attend my class, you know. You're losing me sleep for fuck sake.” Svetlana covered her face in frustration.

 

“Let's get done with this,” she grabbed his face.

 

She expelled an aura making him subservient. She smiled, thanking he didn't have a resistance to mind manipulation. She controlled him in one try.

 

“Let's start over, so who are you?” Svetlana asked.

 

“Gibborim Apikoros,” he said in flat-tone.

 

“What's your purpose? Why are you here?” Svetlana waved her hands towards Dostoevsky and signaled him to write down.

 

“We came here to test the Magnus, it seemed it was too easy to get inside,” Gibborim said in a robotic voice.

 

“How did you get inside!? This place is protected by magic!” Svetlana howled to her surprise, no one succeeded in infiltrating the University, until now.

 

“We have friends inside.” Gibborim replied.

 

“Who do you work for?” Svetlana said.

 

“I am a child of the Night Mother, the one who will bring salvation.” Gibborim replied.

 

“Night Mother?” Svetlana asked, holding her own neck while rubbing it.

 

“Night Mother, the Shade God, the one Herald of Herana fought. The Night Mother’s purification ended the first darkness as she was the one who brought it.”

 

“Layawin destroyed the cult along with their ‘Mother’, but I supposed the hero failed to destroy them completely.” Dostoevsky added.

 

“What do you hope to accomplish here?” Svetlana continued her interrogation.

 

“To kill,” he said.

 

“Who?”

 

When Gibborim was about to spill the information, he suddenly stiffened, his cursed mark on his nape was activated, it spread like a root on his spine. He screamed in agony, his eyes expanded, he clenched his jaws, veins cracked in his head.

 

His eyes popped, a spasmodic burst of blood followed. His ears gushed out blood then he limped, head crashing on the table, missing an eye.

 

Dostoevsky stood in shock, Svetlana’s eyes widened, she wiped the blood that spilled on her cheeks, her bottle was sullied, now was undrinkable.

 

An enigmatic doll stood still above the battlements of Magnus University, she gazed below the tower as if she saw it.

 

“Foolish idiot,” she said.

 

The next morning, Ezekill decided to expand his magic, he tried the new upgraded magic, he cast a stone bullet, it magically appeared on his hand without the aid of the magic circle. He thought of cracking it, then it split with no delay. It became second nature, and faster than the classic casting.

 

 To his surprise the cost mana was seventy percent less, he thought for a minute and had the idea why, he didn't think of the speed, power and so on that would add mana cost.

 

Roy woke up early in the morning, he sat on his bed as he yawned. Roy stretched his upper body left and right.

 

“Morning world,” he said.

 

He stood up, he stretched his legs next. It made an audible crack, it felt good as he pushed himself down.

 

He inhaled and exhaled, he positioned himself for a repetition of squatting. He went down and lifted up, he had a good breathing technique as his trainer taught, he didn't labor after fifty squats he aimed for a hundred, then one hundred fifty. He pushed another fifty, a total of two hundred squats, he did. Not even a hint of exhaustion on his face.

 

“Someday my hero I'll be strong enough to not make you bored when I spar with you!” He conjured a longsword, he swung continuing his morning exercise.

 

After he was done doing his morning routine, he wiped his body’s sweat and the servant went inside. She bowed her head, and reminded him that the food was prepared. He nodded, and told her to go, he needed to be ready for school.

 

He cleaned himself up in his own tub, Roy disliked being cleaned by his servants. Such a trivial task was a bit insulting to him since he could take care of himself.

 

He yanked his black pants up, then his white long sleeve was next, he buttoned the silver buttons. Lastly he brushed his hair to fix the messy parts.

 

Roy walked outside, and went to the next door. He knocked.

 

“Mia, breakfast is served.” Roy leaned beside the door.

 

He waited for a few minutes, and he concluded his little sister was fast asleep. 

 

He jerked the door, he sighed as he saw she was still sleeping. He yanked the blanket that kept her warm, Mia groaned in protest, she pulled the blanket back.

 

“Okay, five more minutes then.” He smiled and sat at the empty side of the bed.

 

He looked at his sister and caressed her head. They were inseparable, Roy cared for his little sister, he smiled as he gazed at the precious little princess.