When Villin saw Pierson fall to the ground, he was extremely relieved. Meanwhile, Amelia was busy boasting to Aiden. Both of them were engaging in banter for a good while before Aiden threw over a small bag toward her.
Amelia checked it before nodding “Looks like I can finally get that self-combustion spell I had my eye on!”
Seeing her excited expression Aiden advised her “I truly still think that spell is a waste of crystals. It would be better for you to get a few more utility spells.”
Amelia shrugged before turning to Villin. He was rather surprised by the interaction between the two, it seemed they were actually pretty decent friends as Aiden seemed pretty sincere.
“Since you performed so admirably, take a bit more.” She winked as she threw four nail-sized magic crystals toward him.
He then took out his crystal holder before feeding the small crystals. Seeing the holder, both Amelia and Aiden looked stunned for a bit, after a moment Amelia spoke: “Don’t tell me you’re actually a noble… are you?”
Villin felt that this question was a bit odd. After all, Pierson was a noble and he guessed Aiden was too. “No, I’m not, both of my parents are mortals, my rune magic professor gave this to me earlier today.”
Once they heard that Aiden spoke up with an enlightened expression “Ah, you must have professor Crumb. To think someone managed to pass a test of his in their first week.”
“Alright then Villin, I should go get my spell blueprint and start awakening some nodes. I’ll send you a message again if there’s another competition with first years!” she said as she gave him a sheet of paper enchanted to be used for Cut and Crease.
“Alright then, where do you buy these papers?” his question was straight to the point as he did rather like the sport and wanted to continue practicing it.
Amelia looked him in the eyes for a bit before saying a riddle. “Every Sunday when the moon stands high, the halls shall open to show you the way. Follow the line and you’ll find the place, where secrets get sold and items go away.”
Villin simply frowned when she said the riddle but before he could ask any further, she was already headed out of the room, and well Villin wasn’t so clueless as to start asking any further.
He looked at Pierson who was laying on a floor but when he noticed Aiden now standing over him casting a spell, he decided to start heading toward the library.
He now had a total of around eighty magic crystals and so he hoped he could get a decent spell. He had also decided that if he had spare crystals after choosing a spell he would spend the rest of his crystals reading in the library.
The library wasn’t all that far away from the training rooms but Villin purposefully decided not to walk too quickly as he reflected on his fight. In total, he had used about two-thirds of his magic power. Yet up to ten seconds before the end of the match, he had only used a third.
Expelling magic in order to sense incoming object was extremely expensive in terms of magic power, even though he had only used it for a total of three seconds, it was as costly as the rest of the fight.
He also noticed some places where he could’ve performed better but he didn’t think he did badly whatsoever. The only thing was that he got tunnel-visioned in the start looking at the opponent’s main spike. If he wasn’t and he took everything in, the fight wouldn’t have been so close.
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He had also thought of a new strategy he could use in the future. He knew the rules as they were quite simple and he had noticed something people didn’t seem to do while it could greatly increase one’s strength in the game.
But at least for now, he wouldn’t worry about that. He wanted to get either an offensive or a defensive spell and master them by the next day. That day he would have the two final regular classes he had yet to do, namely wandless magic and combat classes.
What he needed most right now were magic crystals, he was still looking for a way to earn them but thus far he hadn’t gotten any truly good ideas. And so, the best way to momentarily earn some was by impressing the professors and showcasing talent.
Cut and Crease was a great application of wandless magic so he hoped to have a decent chance there but for combat classes, he didn’t have any spells.
Hell, that very same day in the evening he even had enchanting, something he was also decently skilled in and so he had high hopes and so he wanted to try and earn back at least a part of what he would spend today.
He soon arrived at the library and when he did the same contracted he met last time walked up to him and asked how long he wanted to stay in the library.
“I would actually like to buy a spell blueprint if that’s possible.”
The man seemed a little surprised but soon answered. “Alright then, please do note the cheapest spells are fifty magic crystals. If you wish to proceed then may I know your budget and what type of spell you wish to buy?”
The man spoke quickly and professionally making it so that it was hard to truly dislike him.
“I’m looking for either an offensive or defensive combat spell with a budget of eighty magic crystals.”
Hearing these words the contracted nodded and gestured him to follow. They passed through a gate that had to be opened with a key at the back of the library before the contracted repeated his criteria to a student who was standing around doing nothing.
The student nodded before casting a spell with a very long incantation, after a few minutes he finished and gestured them to enter the door behind them. When they went through the door they were greeted by a small room. The room was about ten meters by ten meters but the walls were made out of mostly-empty bookshelves. There were close to a hundred books, each of them seemed to be made of wood.
“These are limited spell blueprints. If, once you leave this room, more than a single person sees the blueprint within the book, it will self-destroy. Then you’ll have to pay back your book, and let me tell you, they are extremely expensive.”
After saying this he left the room leaving him to pick a book, each of the books were currently locked fo he couldn’t open them. On the books’ sides were the names of the spells while on the bookshelves were the prices. The back of the books, on the other hand, held a short description.
All of the prices were between fifty and eighty and they had some sort of defensive or offensive use.
There were many spells that he didn’t look at for longer than a second such as ‘needle prick’ and ‘bright light’. Spell names couldn’t be too misleading, all of them had to be approved by the government so weak spells couldn’t make themself sound as if they would be able to take out a dragon.
Whenever he saw a spell that seemed somewhat useful he grabbed the book and checked the back of it.
After spending half an hour in the room he finally found a spell he truly liked. It was called ‘Reverto’. The name itself didn’t say too much but the description explained it properly.
The spell contained of nine nodes, when cast it could revert back an enemy’s spell. There were some obvious limitations on the kind of spells that could be reverted but it still seemed extremely useful.
Moreover, this was one of the books with two prices beneath it. First there was a hundred-and-fifty but this got scratched out and replaced by eighty. Later he would learn that spells who were seen as extremely helpful or wide-spread would be given a fifty-percent discount. This spell was of the helpful kind.
Once he got the spell blueprint he left the room and paid for the item, this was simply done by keeping his crystal holder against the library’s until eighty crystals were deducted.
When out of the library he immediately headed for his room, he couldn’t wait to have a look at the spell blueprint and he wanted to learn the spell before classes the next day.
But when he arrived at his room, an unknown guy was bashing on his room’s door.