Kai and Leo hurried out to the training grounds, where the rest of the class was already gathered. Kai led Leo through the small crowd of students until they were standing next to Brewan. Aside from their class, there were no other students in the training grounds, with most of the academy presumably busy with their own classes.

“In both combat and daily life, you will almost always have your grimoires on hand. There are scenarios, however, when you won’t be able to use one.”

The assistant professor paced back and forth in front of the students, holding his grimoire up for them to see it.

“You won’t always be able to stand still and cast spells in combat. Often you will find yourself running and dodging away from the attacks of beasts, and it's possible to lose hold of your grimoire.”

The teacher set his grimoire down on a wooden post, then walked away from it.

“It’s just as important to practice without one as it is with one.”

One of the students on the other side of the group from Kai raised their hand, and the professor nodded to them. Kai recognized Angela’s bratty tone before he even looked over in her direction.

“I’m not going to drop my grimoire fighting some stupid beast. I’d understand wanting to practice without one if you were illiterate or something, but it’s just a waste of time for competent mages like myself.”

The professor raised an eyebrow at Angela, then beckoned for her to come forward.

“I can tell you from personal experience, there are times when you will need to use magic on your own against beasts, but that’s not the only time you will need to cast magic on your own.”

The teacher motioned for Angela to move a few meters away from him on the training field.

“Say, if we were to duel right now, who do you think would win? You with your grimoire, or me without mine?”

“You. I’m only a tier 1 mage, you are tier 3. Even without a grimoire, you would definitely win.”

The teacher slowly nodded as Angela spoke.

“And what if I were a tier 2?”

“I’d win.”

The professor looked mildly amused at her answer, and asked her to deliberate why she thought she could win.

“Grimoires are filled with small formations. Casting a spell from one of them will always result in a much more powerful effect than casting one without. A fireball cast with a formation will be more than twice as strong as one cast by hand.”

Kai glanced back over at the post where the teacher’s grimoire was still sitting unattended.

I don’t have a grimoire, but when Halia casted a fireball before, it didn’t seem that much weaker than the ones Brewan casted with his grimoire, and I’m pretty sure the remaining difference in strength if because he has more mana and more experience with the spell.

Kai wanted to ask Halia about it, but he refrained from doing so in the middle of a crowd.

“You are correct, Angela, but what are the downsides of grimoires?”

Angela looked puzzled.

“None? Your spells will cost less mana, be more powerful, and are easier and faster to cast.”

“Let me change my question. Who made your grimoire?”

Angela pulled a book out from within her robes. It looked similar to the one the professor had set down on the post.

“My dad made it. All of the formations are of the highest quality, much superior to the ones made by commoners.”

The professor motioned for Angela to rejoin the rest of the class, and he turned toward them as he spoke.

“Yes, and that is precisely its weakness. Even if your formations are high quality, the vast majority of them are the same as the ones in other grimoires. If you use a grimoire to cast a spell, it will be stronger, but your opponent will also know what type of spell you’re using- and if they have seen a similar formation, they might know the exact spell you’re casting.”

[I see. If someone is casting fireball with a grimoire, it’s easy to see what spell it is before they throw it. It’s not just other mages you have to worry about- even if it’s not an issue against weaker beasts, they start getting a lot smarter at tier 3 and above. It’s a bit like what I’ve been doing, but I’ve just been doing it in my mind instead of constructing them on a piece of paper.]

At the front of the class, the professor clapped his hands to gather everyone’s attention back to him.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“In truth, even if I were a tier 1, I would still win. The main factor that would decide the winner of a duel is fighting experience. Having strong spells in your grimoire means nothing if none of them hit the enemy, or if you lose before you have a chance to use them. Now, back to the lesson. Today we’ll be practicing without grimoires. I’ll need to get a baseline evaluation of where everyone is at right now.”

The class started to spread out, forming a line at the rear of the training grounds. Half a dozen meters away, small roughly human-shaped dummies were set up. Some of them already looked a bit scorched, as if previous students had stuffed fresh hay into them after using them for practice.

“Brewan, I heard that you gained a lot of experience in the last couple weeks that you were out of class. I’ll have you give an example for the rest of the class to follow. Cast a fireball on one of the targets without using your grimoire.”

The young mage nodded as he walked to the front of the class. Previous to being stranded in the woods, he’d exclusively used his grimoire to cast spells. Even when he was hunting with Kai, every time he’d used his fireball, he continued casting it with his grimoire.

The spells that Halia made for him to support Kai during their hunts, though, weren’t in his grimoire. Even though he’d never casted fireball on his own before, his experience with Halia’s spells was more than enough.

“Fireball!”

After just a second’s delay, a bright bolt of flame leapt from Brewan’s fingertips, shooting toward the dummy. A small shockwave ripped through the group as it exploded, sending some loose hay flying into the air.

The strength of the blast was comparable to the fireball Brewan had used on the first boar Kai ran into. It was vastly weaker than what Brewan could do with his grimoire, but it was still well beyond the expectations for his current level.

“Well done, you must’ve gotten some practice in while you were out of the academy. Francis, you’re up next.”

One of Angela’s crew cut lackeys stepped up next. The fireball he shot couldn’t be compared to Brewan’s, but as more students stepped up, it still proved to be above average. Soon, Leo’s turn for the test arrived.

Halia’s evaluation of his level didn’t give Kai much hope.

[Leo- Level 5]

He was at the bottom of the barrel in terms of levels. There was only one other level 5 student in the class- a scrawny fellow named Kiin. His case made a bit more sense though, considering that it was Kiin’s first time in the class, just like Kai. He’d recently been recruited from a small town north of the academy.

Kiin’s fireball had been as unimpressive as his level, and Kai was worried that Leo’s would be the same. He could already hear Angela and her cronies laughing amongst themselves as Leo stepped up to the dummy.

“Fireball.”

Flames leapt from Leo’s hands, appearing much faster than even when Brewan casted his. Kai’s eyes widened as the fireball shot across the training ground, but when it reached the target, it disappeared with a small poof. Despite its speed, the fireball could barely measure up in strength to the one thrown by Kiin.

“Hah! What was that supposed to be? I don’t know why I expected anything from an illiterate dunce, but that was just sad!”

Angela made an exaggerated laughing motion as she scoffed at Leo, but winced in pain and straightened up, rubbing her side right where she hit the table after Leo knocked into her before.

“Your casting speed is good, but there isn’t much strength behind it. Practicing more with a grimoire should help, Leo. Now then… there should only be two people left. Angela and…”

The teacher’s eyes focused on Kai.

“Kai.”

“Instructor Ken, let me go last. At least that way, we won’t end in disappointment.”

The teacher- Ken, as Kai’d just learned his name- shook his head.

“I’m curious about both of your abilities, but I’ll have you go first. You seemed quite confident earlier that grimoire-less magic was useless.”

Angela flipped her hair and scoffed as she walked up to the front of the group.

“Just because it’s useless doesn’t mean I can’t do it.”

She held her hand out toward the target dummy, and flames started to gather over her palm.

One second…

Two seconds…

Three seconds passed before she finally launched her spell. It impacted the dummy with a similar amount of force as Brewan’s attack, and a few small pieces of hay were once again thrown up from the dummy.

“Hmph, if the dummy wasn’t reinforced with defensive magic, that would’ve blown it to bits. Still, I did by far the most damage to it.”

She glared up at the teacher, expecting praise.

“Too slow. If you’d been dueling Leo, he could’ve hit you with half a dozen fireballs before you hit him with one.”

“So what? His attacks wouldn’t even hurt me. A weak spell is a shame to the caster.”

Man, she’s starting to get on my nerves.

The teacher didn’t look like he wanted to argue with Angela over her fireball, so he sent her to rejoin the rest of the class before calling Kai up to test next.

Crap. Let alone casting something on Brewan’s level, I can’t make a fireball at all.

Feigning a cough, Kai covered his mouth with his arm.

“Halia, I need some help here.”

There was a brief delay before she answered.

[Yeah, just a second. This bitch is starting to get on my nerves.]

Kai’s eyes widened a bit. He’d never heard Halia curse before, not even when she was angry at him for accidentally throwing away a paper she needed when he was trying to clean up after her.

“Kai, if you’re ready, you can cast your spell.”

A few snickers rang out in the crowd behind Kai, and he did his best to ignore them.

[Alright, I’ve got it. Pretend like you’re casting a spell.]

Kai stretched out his arm and pointed at the test dummy.

“Fireball.”

Nothing happened.

Seriously?! Halia thinks now is the time to mess with me-

Kai felt all of the mana in his body suddenly drain away. If there had been one of Halia’s boxes in front of him, he knew it would’ve read ‘Mana- 0/29’. A tiny flame flickered over Kai’s palm for a moment before floating toward the target. It moved considerably slower than all of the ones thrown by his classmates.

“Pfft! Look how tiny and wimpy that thing loo-”

BOOM!