When Villin entered the library he already knew what kind of spell he wanted. First of all, he wanted to see if he could get a decent spell that had eleven nodes since these were the best spells he’d be able to save. Sadly the contracted told him the most the first grade’s library had were spells with ten nodes, spells with eleven nodes were only available in the second grade and above.
Villin didn’t care too much about it as he probably wouldn’t be able to buy it anyway due to a lack of funds. The other kind of spells he really needed were cheap, useful utility spells. If he saved up for a week or so he might be able to get a decent spell for the tournament, but since he didn’t really know what kind of spell he wanted anyway, he figured that for now, utility spells would do.
Looking through the utility spells that had a discount due to how often they were purchased and had less than five nodes, Villin felt like it had been a truly good idea to come here.
There were a few he immediately had to pick up. Such as the basic cleaning and repairing spell, and a spell that would make objects float. These three spells together cost him seventy magic crystals, halving his funds.
He also wanted to get the hardening spell which made items less breakable but since such effects could be caused by enchanting he let it be, for the time being, after all, he still needed magic crystals to find the runes that he found on the miniature wooden trainset.
Once he got these spells it was time to start reading books on runes. At first, Villin wanted to spend eight hours here spending all of his magic crystals, reading a large number of books, but since Amelia was still expected to drop by his room he decided to limit himself to four hours.
To some people, four hours wouldn’t even be enough to finish a single book, yet Villin got annoyed when he only managed to finish five. Runes weren’t as simple as letters, even though he had gotten a lot better at reading them, he had to comprehend the runes somewhat if he wanted to be able to remember them.
Four hours passed and Villin found about half of the runes he was looking for. If he wanted to he could’ve certainly found all of them but it seemed a waste not to try and comprehend the other runes within the books.
He walked back to the dormitories somewhat absentminded, when he arrived he was surprised to see Amelia outside of the door knocking with a seemingly mad expression.
Villin quickly checked the time and noticed it was only six o’clock. He thought the evening would mean seven at the very least. Mentally preparing himself to be berated Villin tapped Amelia on the shoulder.
He had only just done so when he felt something punch into his stomach, Amelia had elbowed him and only a moment later her wand was about an inch away from his eye, ready to fire.
Villin stopped breathing for a moment as he stared at the wand with wide-eyes. He could vaguely tell Amelia who usually looked smart and refined now had a fierce and hateful expression on her face. But this was only for a moment, as then, she recognized him and hurriedly lowered her wand.
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“Haha, my bad Villin I thought you were something else, so you gonna let me in?”
She seemed to immediately try and brush off what had just happened as something small but Villin knew better. He needed a few more seconds to recover as he felt an incredible amount of danger when she pointed her wand at him.
After a bit of time, he opened the door and let her in, still not saying a word. Amelia kept her happy attitude as he looked at him with an obviously fake-angry expression.
“Tch, I had to wait for over ten minutes at the door you know, boys these days really are hopeless.”
Villin looked at her for a few more moments before deciding against questioning her earlier behavior. He then plopped down onto his bed before speaking “Say, Amelia, how many solutions have you taken in total?”
He questioned honestly as he sat straight to look at her. Amelia seemed like an extremely capable Magus so trying to do better than her seemed like a good goal.
Amelia thought for a moment before responding. Six that I made myself and then I traded with other club members for four more, so that’s ten in total! Kay has taken eleven I believe and Aria eight, one of which she invented herself.”
Villin nodded a few times but since after a bit Amelia realized he didn’t have any follow-up questions, she decided to get to the point,
“Normally today’s spell was Reverto, but since I told Kay you already knew the spell and you did so well, you’ll be getting the spell blueprint for ‘Fireball’ today.
Amelia took out an iron book and when she opened it Villin felt very surprised, it wasn’t because of the multitude of routes between the two nodes, he had expected it, instead, it was because this spell had exactly eleven nodes.
“Amelia, you have no idea how-”
“How perfect it is? I know your glove has eleven slots Villin.”
He looked at her with a stunned expression, he was about to ask her a question but she already responded before he got a chance to talk.
“Oh please Villin, you really think a regular wand-maker would dare to make a wand in the shape of a glove. There are many ways our group increases influence Villin, sports may be a big one but it’s not the only one. First, we normalize having wands in all shapes or sizes, then we start making gloves like the one you commissioned.”
Villin felt as if his head was about to explode but now that she said it this way it was rather obvious. What kind of wand-maker would dare make a wand in the shape of a glove?
The only ones that would are those not completely loyal to the central continent, and these were the ones their group targetted.
Villin felt a headache coming and so he decided to focus on the spell blueprint. Amelia patiently explained the difference between each of the different lines between the nodes. Other than multiple useful ones there was also a node colored in gold. This node couldn’t be replaced since it was what connected the fireball to your magical energy, if you changed that node, the fireball would also burn yourself. Another notable thing was that this golden node was actually slightly away from the ‘original’ spell. This would surely somewhat increase casting difficulty.
Once he understood the entire spell blueprint Amelia took her leave so he could train. He felt like things were going extremely well, he was rapidly becoming a better magus and had plenty of ways to increase his strength. Sadly tonight he would once more have an odd dream taking down his mood a notch.