The days went by relatively slowly for Reivan, mostly because he had to spend a lot of time pretending to study. It was a surprisingly hard thing to do, if he was being completely honest.
If he was actually trying to learn something, then he could just focus on the studying aspect and let time pass normally. But because he was pretending to study, he had to stare at information he already knew and think about whether he was going too fast. Then he had to act like he was testing out the spell, failing from time to time before finally "understanding" it.
He was still convinced that the Tower was watching him like a hawk, waiting to catch him red-handed. Because of that, Reivan was constantly on edge, trying to make sure that he didn't let anything slip. That was, obviously, quite draining. And being so conscious of time had a tendency to slow it down.
Despite that, time still passed, no matter how slow it was for him.
Soon, it would be time for their monthly assessment. It was the first one, so he had no idea what it would be like. The people who came from established Magus families, like Kantor and a few other people he grew acquainted with by sticking with Aldimir, didn't seem to know what was about to happen either. They just knew something important coming up and were told repeatedly to be vigilant—which was a piece of advice that had permeated their entire batch, sending everyone on edge.
While others were panicking, Reivan just went about his own business as usual.
After judging that the real Clover Salwyn was good enough to learn all the assigned spells in a month, Reivan slowly showed himself casting each one. That said, he'd been attracting too much attention for his excellence so he chose to slow himself down, opting not to "learn" the scrying spell yet, focusing on the Penetration spell and the Resonance Bulwark. That would, he hoped, reduce people's opinion of him slightly.
Of course, it wouldn't make sense if Clover Salwyyn just sat around and accomplished nothing, so he tried hard to "improve his casting" of the Penetration spell. Apparently, there was a fairly new trick to the spell that allowed it to take on an element of its own. In other words, it was the only thing Reivan didn't already know how to do. He actually had fun with it, seeing as he wasn't so focused on pretending.
In the firing range, Reivan aimed his wand at one of the moving targets and cast the spell.
Unlike every other spell he'd learned, he couldn't quite instant-cast this one yet because it was a level more difficult than what he was used to.
'Yep, that sounds like a good excuse. Let's go with that angle.'
After about a second of casting, a bolt of magic power shot across the air and drilled a hole right through one of the targets. The penetration power was so high that the target barely moved from the magic's impact, a hole simply appeared in the middle of the metal plate.
Recognizing the strike, the metal plate then fell to the ground in a clatter, where it melted and reformed into a new plate before it rejoined the targets flying around at erratic speeds and patterns.
Reivan shot a few more of the targets. He had no problems with accuracy, but with every shot, he subtly made the cast time a little shorter. Unfortunately, he didn’t have an unlimited pool of magic power to pull out of his bumhole, so he did eventually have to stop. He wasn't even pretending this time. In terms of magic power, Reivan actually had less than Clover because of being a hybrid—but that was counterbalanced by how much more efficiently Reivan could use magic power for elementalism and body augmentation.
Not sorcery though. Sadly.
“It should be about time to get lunch…” He muttered to himself as he looked around, trying to gauge what time it was judging from how many people there were in the training hall. His pocket watch had been left in his room, so this was the best he could do right now.
Unfortunately, his method wasn’t very effective since the place was still full. In particular, the dueling pits on the other side of the hall were still in use, with quite a few groups of students watching from above.
‘What a bunch of diligent kiddos. When Kyouka was their age, she just fooled around with girls at every opportunity.’
Reivan didn’t know if it was because of him, but after his duel with Kantor, and the following duel between Kantor and Aldimir to supposedly compete for the position of Reivan’s head minion, the entire batch went into a dueling frenzy.
Everybody was just dueling each other constantly.
Nobody challenged Reivan though, since some kind of rumor spread that they had to beat both Aldimir and Kantor before having the right to challenge him. Which was completely baseless, but was very convenient for him since that meant he could focus on working out, pretending to learn spells, practicing those spells, and from time to time, bonding with Sen through a very risky game of tag that could see him ending his stint as a battlemage prematurely.
Speaking of the young spirit beast, Sen had grown a little bit smarter from all the times he’d tricked her. She no longer ran into the walls head first, for one thing. And Reivan was gradually coming to terms with the fact that the white panther would earn the win soon. Unfortunately for the adorably innocent spirit beast, Reivan would stop their wagers soon since it was quite obvious that Sen had already adjusted to the material world. It was very noticeable because she stopped whining about how weird it felt to be outside.
There were even times when he caught her lounging in some hidden corner with sleepy eyes, obviously quite relaxed. He was an adamant lover of dogs so he was a bit biased against cats, but now, he was slowly starting to see why some people liked the felines so much. Well, Sen wasn't a cat, but she looked like one, so his thoughts were still sound.
Sen might complain after he stopped playing tag with her, but Reivan had never said he would give her the same opportunity every day for the rest of their lives. In fact, he had planned to stop after the first one. The only reason he kept going was because he had found her reaction to failure pitiful.
Suddenly, someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind. “You’re still practicing when you’re that good?”
Recognizing the voice, Reivan turned around with a shrug and pushed up his glasses. “I’m this good because I practice.”
“Fair enough." Aldimir grinned and waved a lazy hand toward the purple stone platform in the middle of the hall. "Lunch?”
“Hmmm…”
Reivan unconsciously rubbed his stomach, feeling like it was getting a little empty. But he still hadn’t washed off the dried sweat from his early morning workout, so he also didn’t appreciate how he could smell himself — especially since he had a human nose right now.
A wise man once said that if you can smell yourself, other people can smell you more. Reivan couldn’t quite remember who said it, but he was sure it wasn’t Sun Tzu since the quote wasn’t related to warfare.
“I think I’m gonna take a bath first.”
Aldimir nodded vehemently. “At least you’re self-aware. I was gonna tell you how nasty you smelled if you wanted to hang around in the Mess Hall like that. Wouldn’t want you to embarrass yourself.”
Reivan snorted and headed off for the men’s bathhouse attached to the training hall.
----------------------------------------
Right after cleansing themselves, Reivan and Aldimir teleported up — or down? They could never be sure in the Spirit Tower — and picked an empty table to have lunch on.
“So the first monthly assessment’s just one week away, huh?” Aldimir sighed, staring wistfully at his food. “Time sure has a habit of moving forward when you want it to stop.”
Reivan’s fork stopped on its way to his mouth. He stared at Aldimir to see if the idiot was being serious but eventually gave up because he couldn’t quite tell. “Aldim. The assessment is tomorrow. Not in a week. Are you gonna be okay?”
“...Time sure has a habit of moving forward when you want it to stop, huh, Win.”
“Sure, man. Just finish your lunch and do your best.”
Aldimir suddenly broke out into a pitiful cry. “You gotta help me!”
Reivan’s face screwed up in confusion. “What the hell am I supposed to do? Also, I thought you already learned all the spells. You're doing better than me on that front. I haven't even started on scrying.”
“I did, though I’m not that good at casting. I fumble sometimes.”
“Okay… Well, that’s a problem, but it’s not something I can help with, is it? Work it out for yourself."
“I will.” Aldimir deflated onto the table. “I don’t need help with the spellcasting itself. This is me, we’re talking about, so I can handle it myself.”
“You’ve got the confidence, at least…”
“The problem is the assessment itself! You gotta help me out.”
Reivan scratched his head. “But I don’t even know how we’re going to be tested.”
“It’s probably a group thing. If it is, you gotta group up with me. That’s what friends are for, right?”
“Eh… I don’t know if I’d be okay with that… You kinda lost really badly to Kantor. You said you were good, so I thought you’d put up more of a fight, but you kept eating stun bolts to the face. Won’t you just be a liability to me?”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Aldimir threw both hands into the air in exasperation. “I already told you. It was a fluke. A fluke. I wasn’t in prime condition from all the studying.”
“Sure.” Reivan rolled his eyes, making no effort to hide it. When he noticed Aldimir hadn't seen it though, he snapped his fingers to get the guy's attention, pointed at his face, and rolled his eyes again. Slowly, this time.
“Fuck you." Aldimir, obviously, flipped him off. As he should be doing. "C’mon, let’s group up, yeah? I swear I was still hungover when I agreed. I just wanted him to get off me!”
Reivan chewed a mouthful of steamed vegetables carefully before replying. “Like I said, we can’t be sure. Let's say that you're right about the assessment being done in groups. How are you so sure that we’ll get to pick our own teams? Isn’t it more likely that the elders will group us themselves?”
Aldimir bit his lower lip in frustration. It seemed he’d missed that possibility. “B-But if we can choose, let’s team up, yeah? C’mon, I’m at least a little better than most of the guys in our year.”
Humming to himself in thought, Reivan decided he’d tormented Aldimir enough. “Sure.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, yeah… I’ve seen you practicing, so I know you're good.”
“Of course.” Aldimir snickered, skipping past relief and going straight into smugness over being praised. “Let’s team up with Kantor too. You made him look like a kid during your duel, but he’s really good.”
“Oh, I know. He kicked your ass, so I at least know he’s better than you.”
“Okay. Listen here, you little shit…”
Reivan ate his lunch while listening to a very long and detailed excuse on why Aldimir lost to Kantor on three separate duels. Strangely enough, [Lie Detection] didn’t activate even once, telling him that the excuses were either real or that Aldimir honestly believed they were.
After finishing off his meal, Reivan retreated to his room and lounged on his bed. He had worked out earlier and went straight into spell practice right afterward, so both his stamina and mana reserves were drained.
Proper rest was also a vital part of working out, and he didn’t forget that.
Sen accompanied him, rolling around on his lap and chasing around a toy he was teasing her with. It was a cheap toy that he found while taking a break in the Lower City, peddled by a store that seemed to anticipate battlemages with feline partners. There had been plenty of toys in there and Sen had made it very obvious that she wanted him to buy more.
‘Man, I must be really tired…’
At some point, a sudden bout of drowsiness overcame him and he let it carry him into the dreamworld.
----------------------------------------
“...Huh?”
When Reivan opened his eyes, he was met with the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling — one made of clouds and countless glittering stars.
His bed and the pillow that was supposed to have been cradling his head were gone too, replaced with grass and dirt. And to top it all off, the regulated temperature of civilization was noticeably absent. In fact, he had probably woken up because he was sleeping out in the cold.
Basically, Reivan woke up outside.
“What the fuck…” he cursed as he struggled into a sitting position, fixing his glasses as he did. The soreness in his body was enough to tell him he’d been lying on the ground for a while now, which was strange since he was supposed to be in the safety of the Tower.
It didn’t take long for him to realize what may have happened though.
‘This the Tower’s doing, huh?’
Reivan fell asleep on the afternoon of the day before the scheduled monthly assessment. It wasn’t all that hard to imagine why he was suddenly in an unfamiliar place. The Tower had already proven on numerous occasions that teleporting mortals around without their consent was something they could do.
‘Okay. That sounds like the most likely possibility. Let’s go with that for now.’
The first thing he now had to do was take stock of his situation. A quick scan of his surroundings revealed he was in a clearing, bordered by trees of relatively normal height. Or maybe they were a bit bigger? He couldn't be sure because they were far away. There was grass too. Lots of it. A little too tall though, but it thankfully concealed his own body so perhaps it was a good thing.
Next, he had to check himself. In particular, he had to make sure he was actually equipped properly.
To support his theory about the Tower having a hand in his current situation, Reivan looked down at his clothes and found himself wearing his battle robes. He then grabbed his crotch, recognizing the feeling of his underwear rubbing against his skin — it was, he was forty percent sure, the same pair he’d been wearing when he fell asleep.
His belt buckle was also where it should be, so he immediately equipped the Wizard’s Claw from inside. After making sure it functioned normally by testily running a bit of mana through it, Reivan sighed at the security provided by its magical glow. Maybe he wasn't as safe as he'd hoped, but at least he could fight back. If only a little.
“I-Is anybody th-there?”
Reivan reflexively ducked down, ready to cast a spell at the source of the noise. But through the grass and the sky as a background, he could see someone he recognized inching closer toward him.
‘Alini…?’
The one who’d suddenly spoken out earlier was the shy girl he shared a table with every once in a while. He normally saw her with Panini, her younger sister, so it was a bit strange to see her alone. But then again, he woke up in an unfamiliar forest. Really, what wasn't strange about this situation?
Despite his familiarity with the person, Reivan didn’t reveal himself just yet. Knowing each other didn’t mean they were on the same side. He still didn’t know what the test was, and for all he knew, it was a battle royale where he had to knock out other first years.
First, he observed her from afar while steadily moving away from his previous position under the cover of the tall grass. Noticeably, she wasn’t wearing the wizard’s claw but had her wand in hand. She didn’t have it aloft though, her hand resting uselessly beside her.
Just like him, she was also wearing her battle robes. Unlike him though, it clung a bit tighter to her figure.
‘Damn.’
Reivan unknowingly stared.
The girl was hiding a surprisingly amazing figure underneath the baggy robes she’d always worn. Perhaps it made perfect sense, seeing as she was the older relative of someone who also had a good figure. It must have been in their genes or something.
‘Wait a minute. Focus, Reivan. Focus.’
Reivan snapped out of it and slowly stood up, raising both arms in the air. Judging by the woman’s demeanor, he didn’t think she had hostile intentions. “Wait. It’s me. Clover.”
“Oh, thank goodness it’s someone I know…” Alini trailed off, the relief in her voice palpable through the darkness.
With a flick of her wand, she produced a few wisps of light to better reveal their surroundings. And with another flick, something fell from the sky, crashing into the grass between them. “I was afraid it’d be a monster…”
“Uh…” Reivan glanced at the object to see a rock as big as his head. Something he’d failed to notice earlier. “I’m glad you didn’t think I was.”
Unbeknownst to him, the girl’s guard wasn’t as low as he initially estimated.
‘She’s good… When did she even cast a spell? I didn’t see the light or feel anything in the surroundings… Come to think of it, I’ve never seen her duel anyone.’
Regardless, it didn’t seem like they needed to fight each other. So he lowered his hands and dispersed the magic power he'd been gathering in his feet. “Do you have any idea what’s happening? Or are you as clueless as me?”
Alini shook her head, looking around with clear apprehension. “I only just woke up…”
Reivan sighed. “Same as me, then. Anyway, since we found each other and everything, what do you say about sticking together? Power in numbers, and all that.”
“That would be great!” Alini nodded with great vigor, a relieved smile on her face.
“Great.” Reivan reached forward and offered a hand, which she shook after a bit of fumbling with where to put her wand. “I think we should move away from this place. We’re out in the open here. Also, you should kill the lights. It doesn’t let us see all that far but now, everybody can see us.”
“Th-that’s true… I’m so sorry…”
Alini seemed horrified with the realization that she’d just done something so risky, but Reivan just waved off her concern. He understood the instinct that most humans had a tendency to seek the light. Back when he couldn’t see in the dark, he held similar sentiments.
As they were about to kill the lights and leave the clearing behind them, someone else spoke out from somewhere nearby. From the sound of it, this newcomer was also a woman.
“Wait.” With her arms raised, Inaria Netral slowly stood up and walked toward them. “I want to come with you.”
“Fucking… just how many people are gonna keep popping up so suddenly...” Reivan muttered under his breath, earning a sheepish giggle from Alini. “You’re Inaria Netral, yes?”
“...That’s right.” The redhead answered after a short pause, her bright red eyes staring into his own. “Does that matter?”
“It would have mattered if I didn’t know who you were. But since I do, then we can be a bit friendlier.”
Inaria didn’t seem to see anything wrong with the answer and nodded. “I know you too. Clover Salwyn.”
“Yes, well, I wasn’t exactly living my life quietly…” Reivan sighed and gestured for her to come along. “Come on. Before something that isn’t a human pops out of the grass.”
“There aren’t.” Inaria shook her head. “I scryed the place.”
“Oh, you did, huh…?”
“I did. Your friends are here too. And they haven’t woken up yet.”
“My friends…” Reivan thought of the two people he interacted with most. “You mean Aldimir and Kantor…?”
“I don’t know their names,” Inaria said in a deadpan voice, as if she wondered why he thought she would know. “I mean the sleazebag and the short guy.”
‘Wow, I knew she was blunt, but I got the impression she grew out of it… I guess she just didn’t show it to me when her Favor shot up.’
Reivan cleared his throat as he offered his hand. “Yeah, that’s them. Aldimir’s the manslut and Kantor’s the guy who’s still waiting for his growth spurt. Please remember.”
Inaria nodded as she shook it. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I-I’m Alini Lizeth, by the way…” Alini introduced herself hesitantly, as if she was afraid that she’d get insulted too. “You can call me Alini. My sister’s in the same batch, so it’d be confusing if people called us by our surname…”
“I see. It’s nice to meet you, Sister Alini.” Inaria also shared a handshake with her, sounding considerably more amiable than when he was talking to Reivan. “You can call me Aria. My name’s long and my surname’s… well, you should be aware.”
“Ah, yes… Sister Aria.”
Reivan waited for their interaction to finish before gesturing at the clearing they were in. “Where’d you see the two? I don’t want to waste mana scrying since you already did it... is what I would say if I knew how to scry. Which I don't.”
Inaria wordlessly led the way and Reivan followed after her, but not before asking Alini to cast some alarm spells in the area. They were cheap but useful spells that rang at a special frequency that only sorcerers could hear. The sorcerer could even set the conditions depending on how skilled they were, but by default, they rang out when something other than a human entered its range.
Reivan likened them to the door chimes that alerted store employees whenever a customer entered the store — except these spells were normally used for less peaceful matters.
Sadly, they only lasted for three to four hours, so one had to recast it repeatedly when guarding over a place for prolonged periods. Even after they left, the spells would be useful since they could provide two pieces of information: the absence or presence of creatures in the area right behind them.
Just as Reivan reached the sleeping Aldimir and left Inaria to wake up Kantor, Alini regrouped with him.
“I’m done,” she said, somewhat out of breath.
“That was quick,” Reivan commented with a raised brow. “How many did you cast?”
“Only one… I made the detection range wider in exchange for not lasting as long. Is that okay?”
Reivan nodded and knelt beside Aldimir, trying to shake him awake. “That’s perfect. Thank you.”
Alini stood on guard, holding her wand with both hands as she skittishly looked around in the dark. “Oh, and to avoid having it triggered by squirrels or birds, I modified the spell so only something bigger than a dog should trigger it.”
“Good idea. Let’s hope it doesn't ring before we get out of h—”
Before he finished his words, the alarm spell rang, ringing in each and every sorcerer’s ears.
Again.
And again.
And again and again and again.
The ringing grew constant. Like the sound of raindrops drumming against a glass window.
'Fuck me and my stupid mouth...'