“Try to remember the feeling of casting the spell using the grimoire, then try again without it.”

On Kai’s right, Leo raised his arm, and a small jet of fire leapt forward, slamming into the straw dummy a dozen meters in front of them. The flames sputtered out without doing any visible damage to the target.

“It’s better than it was a few days ago, but it’s still not enough.” Brewan scratched his head as he looked back down at his grimoire. It was three days after Sydney invited the quartet to participate in the tournament, and Kai had immediately increased the time the crew spent trying to improve their combat spells.

Kiin and Leo had both made enough progress learning the written language to borrow Brewan’s grimoire and cast fireball using it, but they both struggled with the activation of it. Leo’s normally lightning fast casting time turned unbearably slow.

“I’m too slow casting from a grimoire, and my normal spells could hardly start a campfire. There’s no way I’m going to be able to compete with anyone else in our class in just a month.”

Leo’s head drooped, and Kai gave his shoulder a light shove.

“Hey, at least you’re doing better than me.”

Kai… still couldn’t cast any spells. He didn’t originally plan on learning much magic, but after spending so much time trying to learn the written language, it seemed like a waste not to at least learn the basics.

And he probably wouldn’t have struggled with that.

[Hm, you mana has almost regenerated enough to try making this formation again. I’m sure I’ll get it this time!]

For the past three days, every time Kai’s mana regenerated enough for him to attempt using a spell, Halia drained it away. She’d apparently been excited by something she found in the book Entil picked out, and despite her early accomplishments when they were in the forest, it was taking her a bit longer to figure this one out.

[If only Edwin were here, he’d have this formation figured out in a couple minutes… Whatever, I’m sure I’ll get it soon!]

Even when Kai tried to drag her out of her newfound obsession with mana gathering formations to help the others learn spells, she almost completely ignored him.

The best way for Kiin and Leo to improve is probably with Halia’s help, and it would also be pretty nice to be able to use my own mana again. I never really paid attention to the formations back home, but I might be able to help Halia out a bit. Heck, it might be worth it to ask someone else, too. I doubt Sydney would be of much help, and Entil is still gone visiting his hometown, but Soren might be willing. I'll try before I ask for help, though.

Kai quickly bade farewell to his friends and headed to the library. Halia had already sent Brewan searching through the whole place for any other related books, so Kai didn’t bother trying to search again. Instead, he headed for the back of the library, where there were a few small study rooms equipped with blackboards.

He’d already had to stare at the mana gathering formation when flipping through the book for Halia to have it almost completely memorized, and he immediately started scratching it onto a board. A few of the lines were a bit uneven and curved when he finished, but it looked decent enough. After double checking that there weren’t any other students around, Kai tapped on the ruby necklace to get Halia’s attention.

“Oi, Halia. This is the thing you’re trying to figure out, right? I’ll try to help you with it.”

[Huh? Are you sure?]

Kai nodded his head. “I’ve been listening to you mutter to yourself for the last three days. Maybe an outside perspective will help you figure it out. You worked on a few projects with the other disciples before, right? Now we can be study buddies too.”

The ruby necklace somehow reddened a tiny bit as Kai spoke, and Halia let out a small cough before she spoke again.

[Then we’re partners! I’ve already made quite a few changes to the formation you drew on the board, erase it and copy this down instead.]

A blue box appeared in Kai’s vision. The formation looked… similar… to the previous one Kai had drawn. It was like a second formation had been stacked on top of the original one, and it looked similar as well. Earlier in the day, Halia had presented it to him to test out.

[I’m trying to make something that can gather and then store mana, but the book only had information about the former. Even using everything I know about Qi formations, nothing seems to be working.]

Kai frowned as he stared at Halia’s formation.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Hmm… Halia’s been at it for three days already. I think she would’ve already caught any errors in her formation design- and I can’t see anything wrong with them- but every time we’ve tried to test it, the paper just bursts into flames. There’s nothing in here that looks even remotely like a fireball spell, so there must be an issue somewhere.

Kai mulled over the issue while Halia made a few small tweaks to the formation, and after an hour, she asked him if he could test it again. The piece of paper he fetched from the library’s front desk burst into flames almost instantly after Kai finished engraving the formation.

[Again. I can’t even tell where it’s failing, it almost looks like the entire thing breaks down all at once.]

Kai was about to head back to the blackboard to take another look at it, but Leo’s head suddenly peeked around the bookshelf to his side.

“Hey Kai, we need to head to the professors’ quarters. I don’t know why, but Golal is suddenly calling for all four of us to go there.”

Kai frowned as he turned around.

Golal wants to talk to all four of us? I haven’t even seen him since the first day I arrived here… is it something about the tournament coming up in a month? He does seem a bit crazy, so even if he told Sydney we could compete before, he might be rethinking it…

Kai did his best to push away his speculations as he followed Leo outside. Sure, Golal was strong enough to kill Kai without any effort and was visibly crazy. Surely, nothing bad would happen.

Am I really getting intimidated by someone just because they’re stronger than me? I saw plenty of people stronger back home. It’s too pathetic for a future sect leader to be afraid of a random crazy man with a bird living in his hair.

Kai straightened his back as he reached the professors’ building and joined Kiin and Brewan who were already waiting outside. Kai still had yet to see even the shadow of another professor aside from Golal, and the hallways of the building were almost empty.

Almost, but Kai immediately wished they were completely empty as he reached Golal’s room. There was already a small group of students gathered outside of it, and Kai unfortunately recognized all of them.

Angela’s cronies… and Rylon’s as well. Wonderful.

Kai didn’t even get the chance to hope that their bosses weren’t present, and Angela’s annoying voice echoed down the hallway.

“You want us to go out and hunt beasts without a tier 3 mage to protect us?! We are the future of this world, and you want us to risk our lives pointlessly?”

Kai’s group was close enough to hear Golal’s raspy voice through his open office door.

“Yes. I’ve heard you’re quite bratty and immature, maybe this will help you to finally grow up.”

“W-what?! How dare you?”

Kai couldn’t keep the grin off his face as he reached the door.

Heh, maybe Golal isn’t so bad. I bet I can make this even better.

Kai didn’t bother greeting all of the Heritage faction cronies as he slipped into the office, then gave an exaggerated bow to Golal.

“I came as soon as I heard you wanted to speak with me, Professor.”

Kai saw the corner of Golal’s mouth curve up.

“See, this is the proper respect you should have for your seniors. Angela, you should try to learn from Kai’s example.”

Angela’s face turned bright red with anger.

“Learn from him, one of the Illiterate Idiot Quartet?!”

Golal gave a sagely nod. “And there’s good news, you will have plenty of time to learn from him soon. I’ll be sending all of you to Ledville to quell the growing number of beasts there.”

I take back everything I said. Golal, you better not make me go on a trip with her. She even modified our already stupid team name to make it even more insulting.

“I’ll split you into two groups of four. I’d like to mix everyone up so you can all make new friends… but for team composition, it’s probably best if I don’t. Team 1 will be Rylon, Angela, Cain, and Dane. Team 2 will be Kai, Brewan, Kiin, and Leo. I know that all of you have met Entil before, he is already in Ledville and will be the leader of this mission. Follow his orders.”

Kai let out a breath of relief at not having to team up with any of the insufferable Heritage brats, but at the same time, a trickle of unease wormed through his stomach. Ledville was to the west- the same direction Talonia had been in. It was the closest settlement to the now-destroyed town Kai had come from.

If there’s an increase in beast activity there, is Golal not worried that the tier 3 terror bird will attack? Why is he only sending a bunch of tier 1 mages instead of someone stronger?

[It would’ve been nice to be able to work on the formation a bit longer, but this isn’t so bad either. You haven’t gotten any stronger over the last week, but if we’re going to be beast hunting, your level might shoot up again. Your friends might get a lot stronger too.]

Kai’s hand drifted down to the hilt of his sword. He hadn’t managed to make any progress adapting his old Qi techniques for use with mana, but he was still confident in his fighting prowess.

Right now, I can probably beat any tier 1 beasts, but even a fairly weak tier 2 one like the bear can kill me. If I want to get stronger, strong enough to actually challenge the terror bird, I need to hunt more. Sitting around in the academy isn’t going to do me any good.

“We’ll hunt down all of the beasts. My team can be ready to set off for Ledville right away.”

Off to the side, Angela had been about to open her mouth to complain again, but she quickly shut it when Kai immediately accepted the mission.

[Heh. Kai, I’m going to teach you a lot on this trip.]

Huh? What does she mean?

[Fufu… I’m going to show you the joys of teaching someone to be more open and agreeable. Angela is a perfect target…]

A shiver ran down Kai’s spine as he remembered the years of torment he’d gone through. Halia had taken every chance he’d had to embarrass him in front of others, to the point that he’d grown used to it.

At least it’s not me this time, and it’s someone who actually deserves it.

Kai frowned.

… I never deserved it, right?