“Magic missile... Initialize, actualize, realize!” Alec muttered under his breath. The compact ball of mana separated from his hand and hit the dummy square in its chest, scraping off a layer of dust.

“This is so fucking hard...” he muttered. “How did the past Alec manage to catch up to his classmates?”

From his repeated trials throughout the past two hours, Alec had managed to properly cast three magic missiles in total. Apparently, his first attempt being that close to success was simply a coincidence, as he would very frequently fail to get past the formulization stage for the spell.

“Hey!” Alec heard a voice approaching him, alongside relaxed footsteps. When he turned around, he noticed it to be a blonde young man with sharp facial features.

‘Oh no... Is he coming here to make fun of me or something? Is this that famous trope where the genius prince doesn’t want to breathe the same air as a commoner like me?’ Alec thought when he saw the person’s hair color. The way he carried himself was also very confident, which added to Alec’s worries.

“I saw you struggling with that magic missile earlier,” the blonde guy said. He reached out his hand with a smile. Alec indecisively grasped his hand and shook it. “I’m Edward Spellson. Are you Alec Greenwood by any chance?”

“Yep. That’s me,” Alec answered. Much to his surprise, this Edward wasn’t condescending at all. As Alec didn’t know if his polite demeanor was just a farce or not, he kept his guard up.

“It’s nice to meet you Alec, I’ve heard what happened last semester. I hope you get your memories back soon,” Edward said. “It must’ve been really hard to readapt. What you have managed in such a short time is impressive!”

‘This guy is... Not annoying..? Am I missing something here?’ Alec thought to himself.

“Thank you, Edward. And it’s nice meeting you too,” he answered. There was no reason to be rude to someone who was trying to encourage him. “Is there something I can help with?”

“What? Oh, no. I’m not here to ask for something. I just came to check up on you,” Edward said. “I know how hard it is to get started with spellcasting. If there is something you need help with, I can teach you.”

“Wait... Really? You would do that?” Alec asked. Although he still felt somewhat suspicious about Edward’s motives, getting help from someone who actually knew how to cast the spell was too good to refuse. Of course, he could’ve asked his friends in the dormitory, but he didn’t want to waste their time. ‘It’s okay if he himself offers the help, though.’

“Definitely. Your fight against Evan last semester was really inspiring,” Edward said with enthusiasm. Alec was almost blinded by his excitement. “I think a brilliant mage like you who can overcome their defects is an important asset to our country!”

‘Damn... A true patriot aren’t you?’ Alec mentally commented. Seeing Alec keep his silence, Edward walked up and raised his hand toward the dummy. In his hand appeared the circle for a magic missile.

“Wait, hold it there,” Alec stopped him. What he needed was to see the fully formed magic circle.

“What? I’m not yet at the, oh...” Edward muttered. He then stopped himself from talking further and kept the magic circle on standby.

“Hmm...” Alec hummed as he inspected the magic circle closely. ‘Welp, this doesn’t help at all. My main problem is the formulization stage, and the only way to resolve that problem might be increasing my mind stat,’ he thought.

“So? Are you learning?” Edward asked as Alec’s close inspection continued. Alec answered by shaking his head and gesturing him to continue.

At Alec’s gesture, Edward nodded and went on to continue his demonstration. By the time he was done casting the spell, Alec had understood something.

“I think that’s about enough. I appreciate your help,” Alec answered.

“That was enough?” Edward asked as his brows rose. He knew how hard it was to cast spells without the system’s aid, which made him question Alec’s giving up so easily.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Yup. That made me understand a lot,” Alec answered. And in fact, he wasn’t lying at all. It was just that, the fact that he understood was too harsh a truth.

‘I can’t become a traditional mage,’ he thought. His shoulders visibly lowered as a frown settled on his face. ‘The system’s help is too great. It would barely be possible for me to replicate it with years of practice. Obviously, that’s while I’m standing still. Replicating it while in a real fight will most likely be impossible for the foreseeable future.’

Then, however, another thought popped into his head.

‘If I were to go at it blindly and unaided, of course,’ he thought as he scoured his abdomen to feel The Author’s Pen.

“Are you okay?” Edward asked. He seemed a little worried about Alec as his body leaned slightly forward.

“Oh, yeah. I’m okay,” Alec said. His posture straightened as he smiled. Whatever he had to do from now on, he didn’t need further help from Edward. “Thank you for everything, Edward. You’ve been of great help. I should leave now.”

As Alec turned around with a smile, Edward put his hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“Are you sure? Will you be able to get past the opening ceremony like this?” he asked. Which made Alec raise his brow questioningly.

“The opening ceremony?” Alec asked. He hadn’t heard of such an event so far.

“Your roommates didn’t tell you? That’s interesting...” Edward muttered to himself. “Well, that tells a bit about your relaxed demeanor. You see, every year, Lation Magic Academy organizes a welcoming ceremony for its students.”

‘Oh no... I know where this is going,’ Alec thought as his hands tightened nervously. Page after page of cliché magic academy web novels flashed past his mind. This was a trope he was not unfamiliar with.

“There are a lot of different events prepared for the young magelings. Though, the one that interests us, and the most important one is the duel requests.”

‘Welp... Here it comes...’ Alec mentally commented before Edward continued.

“Each year, the three students who get the highest score in the entrance exams will get the chance to prove themselves by requesting duels from their upper-classmen. Although most new students don’t know how to use magic, at least a few will be from famous families. They will have good magic education from childhood,” he said. He then shifted his weight from one foot to another. “Now, the chance you are going to be chosen is really low but-”

“No! No don’t say that man! Come on...” Alec stopped Edward. Even before he had said anything, there was a very good chance he would get chosen by some stupid web novel logic. “You had to go and jinx it...”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Edward said apologetically as he scratched the back of his head. “It’s that thing called... Raising flags, right? Sorry. I don’t read a lot outside the school textbooks.”

“It’s okay... I doubt it changed anything after all,” Alec said. His hand rose and grabbed his chin to think. “But if that’s the case, I have to figure something out before tomorrow...”

“Thank you again, Edward. I have to leave now,” Alec bade his farewells before departing from the training grounds.

***

“I’m sorry, but that just doesn’t make sense,” Evan said while sipping on his drink. Alec had gone back to the dorms after his talk with Edward. However, he couldn’t find Evan there. After asking his other roommates, he managed to find him inside the cafeteria, stuffing himself with whatever his student card’s free daily meal pass could get him. ”Why would someone pick you in the duel requests? Sure, you were pretty strong back when you still had your memories. But now...”

Sighing, Alec contemplated Edward’s words. They made the most practical sense. That was the reason why they hadn’t told him about the duel requests after all. However, the main character getting picked for no reason was a very common trope, and Alec couldn’t shake off the feeling that he would be met with the same fate.

“And you know,” Evan continued. “Even if they did choose you, you can just refuse you know?”

“Hmm...” Alec hummed. However, he had already made up his mind. ‘I can’t refuse. That’ll just make me look weak and easy to bully.’

“Anyway. What I want is, I want you to teach me a skill that goes together with close-quarters combat,” Alec repeated his request. After a good amount of contemplation, Alec had arrived to the conclusion that for the foreseeable future, he would have to place his bets on his physique. Fortunately, thanks to the rigorous training he did with the Author’s Pen, Alec had a pretty strong body.

[Name: Alec Greenwood

Strength: 22

Agility: 20

Health: 23

Mind: 22

Mana: 26]

He had done some research with all the information he could get his hands on in the past few days. People were weirdly cryptic about how the system worked, however, he still managed to find out what he was searching for.

Apparently, his stats individually were not that impressive for people his age. His mana was slightly above average and that was it. Any of his friends would have similar numbers on their mind and mana stats. Of course, they wouldn’t do so in strength, agility, and health. Unless it was a close-quarters mage like Evan, they would ignore their physical stats. Alec, on the other hand, had the stats of a specialist in every aspect, which made him a great jack of all trades. Unfortunately, he didn’t know if this was a good trade-off with how hard spellcasting was without the system’s aid.

At Alec’s insistent requests, Evan sighed and finally buckled.

“Alright. I’ll teach you something. But the ceremony is the day after tomorrow you know. Will you be able to make it in time?” he asked.

Alec smiled confidently before answering.

“Don’t worry. With the right preparations, I’ll have learned it before you even realize it.”