Esora walked with haste going to the tower, she walked past a member of the Security Council Committee. Siesta greeted her but her attention span was brief, she just nodded and continued.

“I have to move quickly and report about the nightmare to Headmaster Walter.” She bit her fingers while murmuring.

Siesta overheard her murmuring, “I suggest you not do that, Ms.Mage.” She halted and tapped her shoulder.

“What?” Esora replied in confusion.

“The thing you said is a bad idea,” Siesta revealed a wicked smile.

“You overheard me?” Esora said. “You’re a member of the Security Council?” Esora took a glance at Siesta.

“Yes, we have a situation where we try to keep quiet, to prevent panic.” Siesta smiled again.

“So you know about that monster?” Esora said.

“Hmm, I have no authority to answer. But I really suggest that you forget what you saw and let us handle the situation.” Siesta narrowed her eyes while smiling.

“What? You’re suggesting me to turn a blind eye when a student almost died fighting it?” Esora frowned. “No, this is too important. I have to tell the headmaster.” She said in defiance.

“Well, fine.” Siesta smiled. Siesta zoomed in and grabbed Esora’s head. Siesta released an Aura, but it was dispelled by some magic tool that she carried.

Esora regained consciousness and cast a shockwave punch, thunderous crack trembled the earth. Siesta was unharmed as a creature that erected from the ground blocked the sound magic.

It had sand colored scales, it was taller than the tallest human, the wings were majestic to look at, it had a color of polished stone. Its tail wasn’t developed yet, the earth dragon started to grow a mace-like tail when it entered its young period. As expected its claws were dangerously large, great for digging and mincing prey.

“Earth wyrmling!?” Esora said. “You’re a puppeteer!”

“Wow, you’re such a genius. Correct!” She giggled. “Then you shouldn’t let your guard down Ms.Mage.” She revealed her wicked smirk.

A soundwave burst from the sky, almost hitting Esora but she canceled it with her own sound magic. “A sonic bat!? You can control more than one monster!?”

A large bat with a large gaping mouth, teeth sharp as a dagger.

“Wow as expected from a mage, you’re correct again!” She clapped.

“Why are you doing this!?” Esora howled.

“Orders from above,” Siesta sighed while pointing to the sky.

Esora bolted opening her palm and cocked her arms to attack Siesta, another boom could be heard Esora striked the wyrmling that defended Siesta. The vibration strike caused its body to shake from its head to its tail as it got knocked back a few metres. It kneeled as the sound magic hurt the earth wyrmling.

The ground shook violently and Esora noticed that something was moving towards her below the earth. She jumped as the creature leaped to get her. The black leathery monstrosity missed her, her large mouth shuts caught nothing but air, and dust.

“How dare you hit a baby dragon! You monster!” Siesta hurried to her earth wyrmling.

“You attacked me first!” Esora shouted.

“You animal abuser! Try to hit it when it’s a full grown adult!” Siesta howled.

“Are you okay? My baby?” She caressed the injured dragon. “You’ve done it! You’ve fucking done it!”

She whistled as if calling a horse. Embers emerged from the sky, the fire grew bigger and bigger. A huge horns were revealed, next was the head, its crimson scales shone in the sky as its body formed. Esora was frightened by its enormous size and wingspan. She smelled smoke and sulfur as she gazed above.

“What is it you want, Siesta?” The fire dragon spoke flames lick from its humongous mouth.

“That bitch hurt Sweety!” Her murderous gaze, her furrowed forehead was seen, even so her beauty remained.

“S-shit, how can you control an adult fire dragon!?” Esora shouted in disbelief, she shivered. “And how did you get them inside!?”

“Simple, they were underground, and this adult dragon right here can easily break through the barrier.”

“And control? Did you say control? You pathetic ignorant, there’s no control between bonds! Only respect!” Siesta gripped her fist. “Yes, I’m a puppeteer but I never control them like a mindless slave!”

“Get her Artharnax, I want her dead but the president would have to carry another headache, and I like it here.” Siesta said.

“As you wish, Siesta.” Artharnax replied, his voice echoed.

“You can’t be serious, I don’t know if I can survive fighting a dragon on my own.” Esora gazed above her knees, trembling, she couldn’t stop shaking.

“Do what I want, I’ll give what you desire. You’re going to spar with a golden dragon soon.” Siesta said with confidence. “My acquaintance knows a Raylight, I’ll make sure to fight him before others and you fight his gold dragon.”

“Ah, a Betrayer and a Dragon Knight, interesting, then it’s a deal. Don’t interfere, she’s mine.” Artharnax smiled. “Don’t die, dark elf.”

A two dozen magic circle was constructed from the sky and a barrage of fire bolts shot Esora. She wailed as the fire bolts were destroyed that were in her direction, the others exploded on the ground leaving small patches of crack.

“I guess I underestimated you. I was sure I was going to knock you out with that one, dark elf.”

Esora flicked her fingers casting her strongest magic but it had no effect. Artharnax roared as the sky echoed, clearing the clouds above him, canceling her strongest magic.

“Ah clever magic.” Artharnax defended himself.

She gasped, this was impossible was written all over her face, the last vestige of her morale. She slowly backed away, as the great fire dragon hovered in the air gazing at her like some ant getting trampled on. Esora’s prowess on magic became useless in her thoughts, even with magic she couldn’t fight this majestic divine beast. How could anyone besides a tenth tier mage face an adult dragon one on one. She was too specialized fighting other mortals, she had no magic for bigger foes like him.

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“Ah, she gave up naturally, facing me, the greatest red dragon, the pinnacle of all dragons is a death wish.” Artharnax smugged praising himself. “It wasn’t even a fight. I’ll wait for your promise, Siesta. We’ll meet again.”

Esora pathetically forfeit, she collapsed out of fear.

“Thank goodness Artharnax didn’t use breath weapon.” She sighed in relief after realizing what she had done. “Well, I was going to reveal him anyway when I test that kid. Well no use hiding it, I’ll wait for her here.”

The red dragon appearance and the explosions caused a ruckus inside the university. Svetlana deployed all of the task force to defend the university as soon as she saw it.

A few moments later, Svetlana and Siesta met. “She knew.” Siesta whispered quietly.

Svetlana understood what she meant and she nodded.

“And that dragon was mine, no biggies.”

“What!?” Svetlana frowned.

“Well, long story short, I tried to apprehend her but I got mad because she hurt Sweety and called Artharnax. Teehee.”

“Ah, right specialization. Inorder for someone to master the way of magic, one must know the basics. The main four basic elements of magic, fire, water, earth, and air.” Elena said while casting each element using magic circles. “If you can only cast fire don’t worry, fire is strong, fire created the first civilization, one of the fundamentals of magic. Not everyone can cast multiple affinities, or cast magic outside the four elements. So what should you do? You should specialize in what you’re good at, even if you're not talented with that magic. Training and experience makes the difference. In history there’s this one person who can only cast the most basic magic, fire bolt. But the destruction it made? Devastating if I say. So I encourage you to not be discouraged, talent is nothing without skills.”

“If you can cast many affinities then focus on the strongest you can cast, I almost forgot to mention, magic doesn’t exist only for destruction. There’s six schools of magic that one can focus on: Destruction, everyone’s favorite, Alteration, Restoration, Conjuration, Enchanting, and Illusion.” Elena said as she cast another magic on each school for demonstration. “A true master knows each school, and when he casts magic it’s indistinguishable from each other. But not everyone is a master or pursues to become a master. Most of us want magic to make our life easier. So don’t worry about that, instead the goal you want with magic.”

“So in short, if you're a fire mage and very good at exploding things then become a destruction fire mage or a fire mage really good at casting alteration magic like burning field, flame of aegis, fire enhancement, fire rebuke, etcetera. A restoration healer, a restoration water mage,” Elena added.

“I prepared these wonderful people to teach you and make you stronger.” Elena said.

Six mages stood still behind her, each mage was specialized to one of the schools of magic. It put him in thoughts, each school was powerful but Ezekill knew a lot of ways to kill or destroy but what if by chance there was something to learn. Like a magic that he didn’t know. Elena said focus on what you're good at but he was in doubt. He was a gamer afterall, every magic in games he played he could probably cast by now, he didn't know what a Destruction teacher magic could teach him.

As I expected, he’s confused. Elena stared at him.

Everyone chose the school they wanted, but Ezekill stood still behind and gave it a lot of thought.

“Enchanting is a school that shapes, and enchants objects, as Elena explained.” Ezekill murmured. “Alteration on the other hand manipulates the laws of nature. Conjuration basically summons things. Destruction is destruction and I’m a former chemist and a gamer, magic in RPGs and here are not so different. I know a lot on how to destroy things even without magic. Mostly cause explosions, and war crimes. I really don’t know, maybe I can go for Alteration, it might be useful.” Ezekill rubbed his chins.

“Alteration sounds strong, why does no one want to learn it?” Ezekill asked himself.

Ezekill decided which school of magic that he should learn, so he walked towards the alteration trainer. He was the sole student who chose to learn alteration, everyone went to the destruction trainer, illusion, restoration and the others.

Elena left the students with their masters, the masters and apprentices moved to the training grounds where there were plenty of places to mess with magic.

“Well I am surprised, young ones tend to prefer flashy magic these days but you are different, I am Master Seryne Ralas, a tenth tier mage. Tenth tier on Gravity, eight tier on Earth, seventh tier on Water and Air. Who specialize in Alteration magic. I was personally trained by Magnus Mila herself. I hope this makes me qualified enough to take your interest more and won’t quit midway.” Seryne wore a fine red dress, and a blue cloak. Her gray eyes, gray hair, and her pointy ears with dark skin indicates her being a dark elf.

“Now, my dear student, what element, affinity can you cast?” She smiled.

“All of the four elements, light, and elec- I mean lightning.” Ezekill said politely.

“So I assume that you have one alteration magic, the basic defense field, perhaps?” She replied.

“Well, Lightning Skin, technically a modified defense field, I guess?” Ezekill said.

“Hm, perhaps a demonstration?” Seryne replied with curiosity.

Ezekill complied on her request, Ezekill’s body raged with electricity, sparks in his skin were visible.

“Oh,” Seryne eyebrows raised. “Who taught you that, perhaps a unique magic?”

“Yonnah the magic researcher, she let me borrow her magic book containing her unique magic.”

“Her? I never thought someone would succeed using that experimental magic, so Lightning Skin was the name, hm,” Seryne replied. “Ahem we’re getting sidetracked, let’s get back to our lesson.”

“Alteration is one of the six schools of magic. It is easy to mix Illusion and Alteration. Both schools of magic seek to create what is not there. Illusion magic, however, is not bound by the laws of nature but Alteration magic is. This creates an ‘illusion’ that Alteration is the weaker of the two. But as I said Illusion is illusion the only reality is on the mind of the caster and the target. Meanwhile Alteration creates a reality with reality that everyone recognizes. Around the caster.” Seryne pointed.

“Everyone will regret it when they face the reality of Alteration, hmp.” Seryne murmured, she was pouting a bit because the few years students had no interest in Alteration.

Ezekill awkwardly smiled as he heard her murmur.

“Understanding the basic principles of Alteration is required to master this school. First you must recognize this reality is a falsehood. Our reality is a perception of something greater for their amusement, like a book written for the author's entertainment. But there’s no need to ponder such things, for us this doesn’t matter. What matters is to appeal a reality that can’t be denied. It must be persistent but not offensive to the Greater.” She said in a serious tone.

“To alter is to convince the Greater, to master is to demand more changes of reality. In short, being thick faced in front of the Greater. But the Greater is too kind, everyone cast magic like nothing in this era. Everyone takes for granted the kindness of the Greater.” She sighed. “Perhaps we're not the only world the Greater created?”

“The Greater? You mean Herana?” Ezekill asked in confusion.

“No, a being higher than the Gods themselves, the Gods are just mere servants to the Greater.” Seryne replied.

“Now, now, let’s try something subtle with water magic.” Seryne said as she smiled. “I’m going to drown you.” She smiled again.

“Wha-” Ezekill was encased in a liquid circular prison.

“Now you have a minute to learn water breathing.” She smiled. “Now in order to water breathing, you must think this water is false, you’re just breathing the air. Change it, demand the Greater, appeal to it.” She smiled.

This fucker!

I can breathe, I can breathe! Think! He screamed inside.

She watched in amusement as her face showed full of ecstasy. She gripped her hands in anticipation. For her Ezekill was the first of the newer generation to have interest in Alteration outside learning the basic defense field.

Ezekill gasped as he learned water breathing, he was a fish now. Not literally. She clapped in amusement. Ezekill frowned, he wasn’t happy with her actions but this was the way of magic, learning it the hard way.

[You learned Water Breathing!]

“Congratulations, my protégé but I never saw you construct a magic circle.” Seryne said.

“Well, I learned how to cast magic without it.”

“What!? Without magic circles? Incantations!? Are you weaving!? That’s impossible, I didn’t see a pattern. But how did you do that?”

I want to say I have a literal cheat console but she won’t understand. Weaving? First time hearing that. He thought.

“Weaving?”

“You’re trying to evade my question, very well every mage has secrets, I won’t pry.” Seryne said.

“Weave is a lost art only known through tongue but lost in practice, that won’t matter here so let’s go back to our lessons again. I have a lot of magic in store for you to learn.”

“I'm afraid that Alteration would be gone too when old fools who learned it died somewhere in some ditch.” Seryne said. “Most of my students are Mariners, veterans, and young ones who turned thieves getting hanged.”

“You give me hope, child.” Seryne said. “Hoping that your intentions are not for thieving.”

“It's for expanding my capabilities in a fight.”

“Oh! That's great news then!” Seryne said. “I can show you how to make a fight quick and simple.”

Seryne and Ezekill sparred and she taught Ezekill the most simple way to dominate. Hands on combat was the best way to teach when he was the only student to teach. They both activated the pendant. Both barriers were active.

[You have been buffed, you gained Shield: 500/500]

“Should I only use magic?” Ezekill asked.

“Fight like you used to,” Seryne said.

Ezekill nodded, he tried to show off his magic he manifested a stone lance without constructing the magic circle. Seryne was impressed for a second until her face changed, she pointed her hands forward, magic constructed on her hands, Ezekill suddenly felt a cramp on his legs, arms, his muscles won’t move. He fell down, his magic crumbled and he used his mana for nothing. Seryne took her leisure towards him. “Your body is false, you’re a tree, you cannot move, that's the reality that the world agrees.” She smiled, she took a dagger under her legs.

Ezekill was on the ground unable to do anything, his blood pumped so hard that he was sweating. He tried to move, trying to get out of her way as she slowly walked. He felt defenseless, he was scared, dying without being able to move, unable to run or hide.

“Do not show off your flashy magic boy, it doesn’t matter when you face a master of Alteration magic.” She crouched, she pointed her dagger on his belly then slowly went upwards until it reached his neck. “You died. Stab stab, EZKILL.” She closed her eyes and smiled wickedly.

He gasped in fear, Seryne sighed. “Well even you get scared when you’re defenseless, a child who can use magic without any magic circles. This is the power of Alteration boy. Most people don’t know this and underestimate Alteration. If you master Alteration first, you’ll have no problem killing Mortals, but be careful not to get addicted to killing helpless foe. Promise me this, Alteration is powerful, most of its users die because of it, misusing Alteration leads to death. Don’t misuse your power.”

Ezekill nodded.

“I need more than that boy, why do you want to learn Alteration? You have the power to use magic without a magic circle, how much power do you need? And the purpose of gaining that power. I need a clear answer before I decide to make you a protégé.”

“I want to survive my impending doom, I also have someone to protect, after that I want to live with them.” Ezekill said.

“I see, promise me, you won’t use Alteration for thieving, murder, and other crimes.” Seryne said.

“I promise, like I said, I just want to live. You have my word, and actions.” Ezekill said.

Live, the first time he had the will to say it, in his previous life he had no purpose, no goals to continue living, dying for him was a reward rather than a punishment. But now with someone to protect, a purpose to live, a family he wanted to create, living was now a reward, and dying was a punishment.

He needed to survive to achieve that, and protect the loved ones.