“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?” a roar that shook the entire room but was stopped by barriers. The source of this voice was a thick armed tan old man with white hair and beard. His face was bright red and his eyes had veins appearing.
"I am securing the safety of our academy!” an old woman in front of him said.
This same woman was the old alchemists that had handed out the spells to the children.
“If we wanted to make a combat academy like any other then we would have started with that from the get go!” the muscular tan man who was dean, Glenn Rudy, shouted. “We are an academy of magic crafts and commerce! Combat is important but that is secondary! It is only to guarantee they can escape with their items and life! Power comes with time!” He roared.
“Although being able to craft is good, we will not be able to if the spies are still snooping around and stealing our knowledge! What use is that when we can just enslave them and keep them quiet!” The old alchemist said.
BOOM!
The dean’s table was crushed under his punch. To the side, a barrier protected the librarian who reported this. “Glenn, I shall let you deal with her, I shall deal with the aftermath by giving the children an extra lecture and ‘repair’ the damage.” the librarian said.
“Please, please do, and give the little girl the true high ranked spells for reporting this. I can’t help but feel so much shame at letting this happen.” Glenn said.
“You are going to wreck my hard work!?” The woman said.
“SHUT UP!” Glenn roared making the room shake once more. “Your ‘hard work’ could allow the other academy invade us and steal our hard life’s work because of your selfishness! So what if there are spies!? We know the face of each and every one! Do you really think these low leveled things can break into my masterpiece restriction zone I forged out of my own blood and fifty magical metals!?” the alchemist took a step back but clutched her hand.
The librarian called the children and gave them an extra lecture and after reading the sequence, he taught them a bit about how to identify these high level spells while replacing all the slave spell sequences that were hidden, and would slowly activate with each use, with proper sequences while repairing the areas of instability formed by their change giving all the children the true alchemy spells at a high level.
Only when Nadir safely built the spell she calmed down and let they replace her lower grade ones she had built with a huge sequence allowing her to use them more efficiently.
Sadly for her though, a great deal of damage was done to her. When class ended, she tried to talk with others but as soon as she approached, they distanced themselves.
She just blinked and her smile slowly shrunk as she left the room and headed to the library. She went once more and started to further research the books she was seeing before.
“My, my? What’s this, a cute child reading the remedial knowledge of space magic? What could a deal child like you need with such a complex book like that?” a gentle elderly voice said.
Nadir looked up and found an elderly man dressed with a gardener overall and checkered shirt while a straw hat was hanging by a string around his neck.
“Who are you gramps?” Nadir asked.
“Hohoho, it’s not nice to ask others their name without saying yours.” he said.
“Ah! Sorry! I’m Nadir Null.” she said standing and bowing to the elder.
“I’m Rudius Spirits, I’m an old man that was hired as gardening and take care of the herbs of the academy. I couldn’t help seeing you causing trouble when you put that poison weed venom after harvesting all the herbs from your alchemy teacher’s garden all over it. Did you know the ground became infertile for almost two months before she can purify it?” he said.
Nadir stopped and her face cramped as she began to sweat and turned like a rusted hinge to look at the man. Her face was like that of a typical child caught red handed.
“Ahaha, you naughty child!” he laughed, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell but you have to tell me why are you reading such a hard book like something on space magic?” He asked.
Nadir calmed down a lot and sighed before replying, “My familiar has an innate spell called Dimensional Pot. I wanna figure out how to use the spell together with my transformation magic spell I was making!” She said openly.
The old man was a bit startled, “Transformation magic… that has no practical use child.” he said.
“Naa ahh! I tested it! Watch!” She said and summoned her pot. “Watch, I will have it forge an iron ingot!” She said and made it use Smelt and soon the iron ingot came out.
“Yes, and?” The old man asked.
“Now watch gramps!” She said and let go of the pot that floated down and transformed into the Furnace Pot form and she had it Smelt again and when the metal came out, it was several shades lighter and better quality.
The eyes of the old man widened in surprise and shock when he saw the drastic rise in quality and what’s more, how a normally alchemy type pot familiar as able to use something like a forging magic spell.
Nadir went on and had her Spirit pot extract the medical extract from two low quality healing herb and the one that she used the cauldron had even improved to middle quality medical extract, mainly because of the high quality spell the Librarian had taught her but she couldn’t use completely well yet since the cauldron shook a great deal and almost cracked before completing the spell.
“This is amazing.” the gardener said and looked at her notebook and looked at the spells and his brows raised. “What an amazing little girl, she didn’t make it simply a transformation spell, although I watched her when she passed and she gives you the feeling of a dunce, these spells incorporate several spells and theories merging other spells into one for it to work!” He thought.
He looked at the forge spell and found the heat containment section that was a bit weaker while following it was the source of the fire which is a high temperature flame spell using second year knowledge she had learned before allowing the contained heat to be high enough to melt metal and purify it to some degree.
“You’re quite something child, show me what you want to do child, I may be an old gardener but I do have a familiar and was a student once.” He said showing her the seal on his right hand.
Nadir took out her notebook and showed the Dimensional pot spell and another one with the attempts she had tried.
"I see, so you want to take that and merge it with your transformation spell and form a dimensional living space.” He said.
“Yes gramps!” she said excited that someone understood her.
“That is a very big and bold plan child.” he said smiling before patting her head, “But it won’t work like this.” he said and pointed at the space the dimensional pot spell fits in. “You need to improve how the spell merges but also, right after the spell, you need to add all the basic elemental magics because the world is formed by all the types of magic so if you want a livable dimension in your pot, you need to have all the elements.” He said and stood up before walking to the book shelves and soon came back with a book on all known elements. “All known elements child, Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Lightning, Metal, Sound, Ice Light, Dark and Space are the most basic of the basic you will need make this work child.” he said.
“You're so smart gramps, are you really just a gardener?” Nadir asked.
“Ahaha anyone who graduated can teach you this.” He said laughing.
“Really, then gramps, can you help me?!” She asked.
“Ahaha, it’s better you make the spell yourself but let’s do this, you make it and this gramps will check it for you and I can give you some tips. How is that?” He asked.
“Really! Awesome! You're the best gramps in the academy!” She said really happy.
“In the academy, oh well.” he thought and pat the girl’s head, "I got to go and tend to the remaining gardens. Don’t go messing with the other gardens alright, the alchemy garden you raided had a huge supply of herbs that we could have used for ourselves and the students so don’t do that again.” he said.
“Aye~!” Nadir said but her nose was already in the books as she looked at the books the old man pulled out for her.
He smiled at her and left the library.
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***
The dean felt his head hurting. It was like a drum, he had scolded the old alchemist for what she had done while having sent his people to make sure that none of the spies had caught word of the incident but unfortunately, the same alchemist came in like a demented witch saying that someone had stolen all her herbs in her garden and laced the ground with a highly corrosive poison which would make the ground improper for planting for several weeks. She was nearing the point of biting someone’s head off because there were quite a number of rare herbs in her garden.
After that he was left along with the headache to think of ways to deal with Nadir. He had sent for a detailed report of her background and her family connections.
“You are quite stressed Glenn.” A voice echoed in the room.
He looked up and noticed the shadows of the room extended and gathering into a blurred human shape.
“Oh thank the gods you’re back!” Glenn exclaimed towards the formless shadow.
"I have completed the investigation. I do not think you will like what I found.” The shadow said and put the formless hand on the table causing it to expand and release a file from the shadow. The formless shadow sank into the ground while Glenn took the file.
The first section was about the father and his familiar and position as well as his contacts and as soon as he saw the familiar and what kind of creature it represented he paled.
“What have we done!?” He said. Glenn was almost having a heart attack when he saw that Silver was being regarded by the Order of the Dark Ice God as the starting form of an Idol beast. If he kept growing then their family would be regarded as the family of a saint.
“Keep reading.” The detached voice said.
He flipped and saw the information about Opal and he further paled when he read the report about the harvest church’s complete reformation by true Dominions from heaven by the grace the goddess of harvest had towards the wife who, instead of throwing curses at the knight, instead made the mass of the village to pray to the goddess through her level 8 harvest angel in hopes to ask for forgiveness.
Glenns breathing turned hard and turned to see the oldest son.
The familiar was a devil of the blacksmithing trade causing his eyes to turn wide and he read the information, “Although the parents are fearsome, this young man is very interesting, maybe… maybe I can take him as a disciple to smooth things out.” He thought.
When he flipped to the next one, which was Void, he didn’t find anything exceptional except for the Devil familiar making him mildly curious as for the reason that two of the children had demon familiar.
Nadir was next and a detailed report of her spirit and her knowledge base was showed but no spells were shown. Then the next child caused him to freeze.
“T-This boy… he attracted the attention of the Dark Holy Church!” he exclaimed.
“It is stated clearly, his devil seems to somehow form a connection with the holy attribute. I have looked into this and the devil is an unknown one but it required simply asking other demon users and they told me about it. This Sword Devil is a highly feared one within hell. It forms a ‘holy flame’ somehow but to what degree it is holy I do not know.” the voice echoed.
“W-we have to fix this somehow!” He thought.
“Don’t worry Glenn, the girl is more focused on spell research than anything else. Besides for class, when I was following her, she only remained inside the library researching magic.” the man echoed.
“Still, we need to figure something out.” he muttered and opened the pages to Nadir once more.
“She isn’t an enemy spy right?” He asked.
“No, she is completely clean.” the voice said.
“Then allow her up to 3rd year library rights and let her access the Training grounds and resource zones. Also, tell Bagwin to give her a few tutoring sessions in the library. Have her advance quickly and catch up to the 15 years old age group that was recruited from earlier years.” He said.
"I shall pass the message.” the voice said and the presence vanished.
The dean sighed and fell back into his seat with a headache while he wondered if there was anything else he could do but found there was nothing else he could think of.
***
Ding! Ding! Bang!
The sound of sword clash was heard and the ten 1st years and five 2nd year students watched Xero and Ashley jump and rush around sparring.
With them was also Jasmine, who had been coming ever since Xero began using sword magic. She found that it would be a good idea to watch and try to learn from her younger brother in law.
She was almost horrified by how strong her little step brother was. Both Ashley and Xero were putting their all into training to further improve because the weekly battles to keep Univa and Meldie as his fiance had grown even more intense.
The rules had changed to anyone within the level rank of 31 to 40 below the age of 20. This meant that academy students all the way to the 5th year of Everlight and other similar strength academies could try.
The pressure became even more intense so Xero stopped holding back in his training and was now fighting Ashley seriously. As a matter of fact, she was in her demon form to fight him at his command while they both were sparring by using the partially complete ‘Sword Devil Combat Sword Arts’ that had formed in blocks for Ashley.
The reason that it formed in blocks isn’t because of inadequate spell building but because they both were amateurs in swordsmanship. At the time, they were only using the most basic sword forms and techniques in live combat to get used to them more. This is why it resulted in blocks. The compatible techniques would stick close while forming the ‘base’ of the sword arts were the more advanced techniques would be slowly assimilated.
Also through the use of the spells, the two would subtly change small sections of the spell structure to better flow and merge with the physical movements and attack pattern.
As the two suddenly broke off, they were both huffing and Ashley reverted to her Devil form and dropped to one knee.
Surprisingly, her body was covered in cuts while Xero only had a few scratches.
Xero smiled when he saw that he was getting better then Ashley even in her full power.
“Wow! Senior is so awesome! No wonder everyone says you’re the strongest 3rd year!” one of the 1st years shouted.
The other children were all excited as well as the exclaimed.
Jasmine was in awe as she walked over, “You’re amazing little brother.” She said.
“Really?” He said huffing, "I don’t think so, there is still a lot to learn and change.” He said as he took a bottle of water and drank it.
“Senior! You learned tons of sword moves! Can you teach me!?” One of the boys asked.
He was the owner of the Inferior Lesser Kamaitachi Infant that was formed from a weasel that had once merged with one of Ashley’s Iron Sword Devil minions.
"I can’t, most of my spells are just adaptations from sword magic up to the 3rd year. You should wait until summer when you get permission for the 3rd year books and then look through the Sword spells in the library so that you can start to make your own techniques.” Xero said.
“Alright!” The boy said.
He was already level 13 and the Kamaitachi was level 17 which was within the average strength of the students of the year.
Xero and his closest friends were really the strange ones that were very rapid in their growing through many coincidences.
The students went to train of their own but Jasmine remained, “Little brother, can I talk with you?” She asked.
“Sure!” Xero said confused.
“Can you make the sword spells for me? I have never seen what sword spells were like structurally so I am unable to make them and I really need something like this to help Crystal grow stronger.” She said worried about the little junior knight she had had a difficult time growing until now and was worried he would soon stop advancing again without a huge development.
“Um… our sword arts are developed from simpler ones adapted to Ashley.” He said.
“Then can you build all the simpler spells for me? I have at least 2 years of magical knowledge and you recently began to tutor me on 3rd year studies, with time I could develop my own techniques with Crystal.” She said.
“Master, let’s do it.” Ashley said appearing, though paler, behind Xero. “he will need his own sword art to advance probably but…” Ashley looked at her, “Try to think of your own spells. Otherwise you will limit his potential.” She said.
“Alright!” Jasmine nodded.
They headed to some seats in the dormitory grounds and had Crystal summoned and Ashley took out a earth element Sword Demon minion that she planted into the ground.
“Alright, that should supply the mana easily enough.” She said.
From there, the two began to work to remake all the original spells that they had used to make their spells while using the mana that the Crystal could absorb.
It took a few hours before they were finished.
“Thank you.” Jasmine said while pouring tea for the two that were resting after that.
“It’s nothing.” Xero said.
“It’s a lot more than you know for me.” She said. It was then that she looked at Ashley’s eyes, “If I remember correctly, Ashley is supposed to be blind right? Are you still blind?” she asked.
The question caught them by surprise but Xero himself became curious and looked at her.
"I am blind, I can only see the mana in the world but after my breakthrough I could see even clearer and many more details have drastically cleared such as the human body isn’t just a solid form but instead it has details. The human eye that was blank before now has a ‘black’ pupil and iris I can see. I can even see clothing now.” She said.
“So you were seeing everyone naked before?” Xero asked.
“No, clothing caused the covered body to be blurred so their figure was usually disfigured most of the time.” She said.
“Seeing mana…” Jasmine muttered and looked at Crystal before looking back, “What is it like to ‘see’ mana? Is it any different to sensing it?” She asked.
"I can’t sense mana besides the free and loose mana in the air.” Ashley answered truthfully. “Well, I can sense it partially but I’m not overly sensitive. As for the difference, well seeing mana is just like looking around, I don’t know the difference for you. As for sensing, it’s like sitting in a river of water and the water constantly flowing. It’s always around you so you can feel it.” She said.
Jasmine nodded and indeed, someone who has a familiar is much more sensitive to mana. She turned to Crystal, “What about you? Do you see mana?” She asked.
“No, I have regular vision?” he said.
The three looked at each other, “For your race, what is regular vision?” Ashley asked.
“This crystal hair on my head that functions as the source of crystal matter for making my weapon, it aids me in identifying color and light. So my vision is the same as humans, following the visual spectrum.” He said.
“Oh, I see.” Jasmine said still curious as she looked at the glowing eyes in the crystal helmet. “Let’s go train these moves and start to adapt them to us?” She asked.
“Of course, mistress!” He said excited.
Jasmine bid them goodbye and went on her way to go deal with her own training while Xero and Ashley took up their weapons once more to start the next round after they spent a short time to do the small adjustments to the forms they had tried and decided which group of techniques they would use next.