After leaving the village, Edward activated his Grimoire.
Erudite Magic: Space Gate.
A black gate appeared in front of him, and he teleported away after entering. He did not instantly arrive at the Common Realm. To do that, he would have to visit there already or have a map of its location.
Unfortunately, none of these two were possible for Edward. The Common Realm was too far from Bluige village, and he needed to train.
Secondly, a map of the entire kingdom was precious; from what he heard, only a few nobles may have one.
Edward teleported to the farthest he traveled from Bluige Village before a tornado appeared on his feet and flew to his destination. And his speed reached the hyper-sonic ranges.
So, he had to fly very high in the sky with an invisible spell to prevent anyone from detecting him. So, in just an hour, he landed outside of Kikka Town, where the exam took place.
As he looked at it from a distance, Edward was memorized by its beauty, and then, he muttered: "Why do I feel I've seen more beautiful sights than this?"
He lived his entire life in the village, so there was no way for that to be possible. However, he did not focus too much on this feeling; this was not the first time he had some weird thoughts or feelings.
Edward walked around to enjoy himself. Since he arrived early, the exam was still three days around, so he decided to enjoy the short break.
'The town's beauties are higher quality than the village.'
In the past three months, many changes occurred that shook the village. One of which was the new side of Edward that the villagers discovered: he was a flirt and a very good one too.
He somehow acquired the heart of some of the most beautiful girls in the village in a short time and even experienced his right of passage of man–numerous times.
While walking in the city, Edward secretly used a memory reading spell to check all the people around him in a 10 meters diameter zone. He did not read all their memories.
To do this, he would have to activate his Grimoire, and it was very suspicious that someone walking with their Grimoire started in such a crowded place. It might be okay if he was a magic knight or noble, but not for a commoner.
His purpose was to read what kind of magic these people had and see if he could find some unique ones. Unfortunately, most people only had spells related to the four attributes of fire, wind, earth, and water.
And his Grimoire contained most spells in these areas, and even if it did not, he could easily recreate them.
'It seems that I may have to find a place that sells information. Before that, let's find something to eat and a place to sleep.'
And that's exactly what he did. He tasted all the food he came in contact with–no matter how weird they were. Experiencing new things gave him a sense of adventure.
As for where the money came from? Well, he was filthy rich.
Edward knew that money would be essential to living a good life, so he tried to create a spell to convert rocks into gold. Unfortunately, as he was about to succeed, something seemed to have gone wrong.
His intuition told him that something intervened and prevented him from succeeding. Although puzzled, he could not do anything about it. So, he wanted to find another method to make a large sum of money in a short time.
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That same day, while lost in thought, he discovered a dungeon. After clearing all the traps and killing all the guardian beasts and golems, he finds a room full of treasure.
So, he was now filthy rich.
That night, after paying for a room in an inn, Edward put on a hood to cover his face before heading to some hidden alley. In the morning, he learned from someone's memory about the Black Market.
Once there, he immediately bought information about famous and powerful wizards. During the time of the Entrance Exam, this kind of information is prevalent.
However, Edward did not focus too much on whose famous noble son would participate in this year's exam. Anyway, if they were the same age as him, he did not think they could defeat him.
His focus was on the Captains. Their magic was bound to be extraordinary. As he read the information, Edward pondered how to infiltrate their residence and peak at their Grimoires secretly.
'These captains should be very sensitive to mana. So, I should find a way to hide mine.'
After pondering for a moment, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the mana inside his body. Following his instinct, the mana inside his body seemed to disappear; it was as if he was a person born with no mana.
'Well, I'm truly a genius that this world has never seen. Since I'm so great, I should have a way to sense mana to detect enemies.'
Then, Edward once again closed his eyes to follow his instinct. A few seconds later, he could see outlines of human bodies walking around him. Well, some of them resembled animals with four legs or more.
And all these figures had one thing in common: a blue light in the middle of their bodies.
'Is this mana? Let's see how far my range goes.'
Edward began to spread his senses, and he covered the entire Common Realm in just a few seconds. He could sense all the people across all different towns.
Furthermore, he had a feeling that this was not his limit. Maybe, he could cover the entire Clover Kingdom, and that thought scared him, so he did not dare try.
'Being too talented is scary. Alright, let's focus on these individuals.'
He reduced his senses to the town of Kikka and focused on a few individuals whose blue lights were extremely bright compared to others.
'Based on the information, these people should be the Captains. Well, that was a waste of money.'
Although he complained, he knew that the bought information was more important since it contained more detailed information about these captains.
'Although I should have no problem sneaking into their residence, it would be best to be extra prudent.'
So, he went to buy a bunch of other magical herbs and mixed them into a potion. As for how he knew how to make potions?
He was worried about magical beasts attacking the village once he left. So, he thought of concocting some potions that emitted a weird odor that kept them away before spreading it around the village.
So, he went to the forest and tasted all the herbs he had discovered. Then, after a few trials and errors, he knew which to mix to create potions with different effects.
This time, he made sleeping potions before sneaking into the first captain's residence. Based on the information he gathered, he knew that this person was the captain of the Grey Deer Squad.
Edward calculated the dose of the potion based on the captain's magic power before pouring a vial into the room. Then, he observed how the mana of that captain changed to a more calm and peaceful state.
'So, I can predict the state of people based on their mana? This method could be applied to battle to read the opponent's attack.'
After detecting that the captain was asleep, Edward placed an invisible spell and a Sound Removal Spell on him before sneaking inside. Most wizards slept with their Grimoires next to them, so he soon discovered his target.
'Well, this should be a lesson to me.'
Edward decided to place many warning and defensive spells on his Grimoire in case someone tried to steal or destroy it. If it were up to him, he would put it in the small dimension he created using Space Magic to place all his golds and other items.
Unfortunately, if he did that, he would not be able to reopen a breach to that small dimension to retrieve his Grimoire. Without it, he could only open a portal small enough for a tiny rock to pass through, so his arm could not reach inside.
'I swear, Grimoires are both a curse and a blessing.'
Edward did not like that he could not use powerful magic without his Grimoire. He always felt that this was a limitation that should not be.
Realizing that he was distracted in the middle of a heist, he shook his head to regain focus. He opened the Captain's Grimoires to read it.
And as usual, many news spells appeared in his Grimoire, and he could feel that they were the optimized version of the Grey Deer Captain's magic. Then, he visited the residence of the other eight captains to do the same. He even added a few critical participants that he was interested in.
The next day, all these people discovered they had the best sleep of their lives. Even the ones that had anxiety or insomnia regarding the upcoming exam.
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