“Wait, wait, wait. Did you kill him?”
“No, how do you expect me to kill him?”
“What? Wait, no, I’m confused.”
To an outsider, Elius was a self-talking lunatic right now.
‘I need to get to the academy first.’
“What academy?”
Elius was dumbfounded and forgot to move for a second.
“Yes, I can hear your thoughts.”
“No, no, I don’t like it. Get out.”
Elius slapped his own head.
“How is that even possible?”
“Our minds are linked.”
Elius took a deep breath and tried to empty his mind. He had an incredible amount of questions, but before anyone saw him acting like crazy, he quickly made his way to the academy. Ian wasn’t sleeping when he finally got to his room.
“Where were you?”
“At the library.”
He casually answered while trying to hide his panic state. Ian breathed a sigh of relief.
“Next time, let me know. I was worried sick.”
“Hehe, okay, okay.”
Ian quickly went to sleep because he was tired. But, unlike Ian, since he had just woke up, Elius didn’t know what to do, so he sat on his bed.
‘Okay, I’m calm now. Explain to me what you meant by saying that he had to die. In details.”
“To be able to give me life, Julius realized he had to do something more than just mana implementation. I actually needed to gain consciousness to be alive. So he chose to transfer his own consciousness to me.”
‘Then are you… Julius? But you have a woman’s voice.’
“I’m not Julius. I… don’t have a name.”
‘He gave you his consciousness, but you created your own? How? And how do you know all of this if you’ve never been activated.’
“Well, I’m not sure…”
‘Damn, so he chose to die. Why? It doesn’t sound possible.’
Elius tried to find a reason, but it was hard to say something since he didn’t know Julius well.
‘Let’s think about that later. I told mana to evolve, so how come you activated after that?’
“To Julius, I was an evolution to humankind, so he set up some specific keywords for my activation. The command you gave to mana did nothing. You were just connecting lines to activate me.”
‘Hmm, so what can you do?’
“What do you want me to do?”
‘Tell me how to create spells faster.’
“Insufficient data.”
‘What? Didn’t you say earlier, you’ll be anything I want.’
“I said, but technically I’m a newborn baby right now. So I need to learn first.”
‘Can you read books?’
“Yes, I can analyze a book in approximately 3 seconds and record its content. I mean… I think."
‘Looks like I’m spending the next day also in the library. Can you use mana?’
“I don’t know yet. But probably yes.”
‘Damn, so you are totally useless right now.’
“Yes.”
Elius rolled his eyes.
‘Then let’s start by giving you a name first.’
“As you wish, how do you want to call me?”
‘Elly. You’ll be Elly.’
“Understood.”
Then Elius kept chatting with her all night long.
* * *
‘Okay, we are here. What now?’
“Firstly, I need to gain independence with mana. Find the most basic books about it.”
On the first floor of the library, Elius found four books.
‘How will you even read them?’
“Just pour your mana. I can use your mana flow.”
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Elius began to pour mana on the four books simultaneously. Then, exactly after twelve seconds, she spoke again.
“I’ve recorded the content of those books. It will take a few hours for me to analyze them thoroughly.”
‘Okay. Wake me up when you have done.’
Elius nodded with a satisfied expression and put his head on the table to sleep.
* * *
“I told you, they are not trustworthy!”
A man screamed in the presence of 5 people.
“Calm down. They didn’t get caught or betray us.”
The man who was standing up said calmly. There were currently two women and three men in a dark room with no windows. All of their complexions were pale, close to gray.
“Yes, Ozran, calm down.”
The younger-looking woman said and then turned towards the standing man.
“Clock is ticking. When do we attack, Arkul?”
Arkul smiled.
“An old acquaintance who couldn’t let go of his pain delayed our plans a little bit, but don’t worry.”
“We’ve been preparing for a long time for this. Make sure we don’t stray from our goal.”
A tough-looking man said. He was Sozgadan, the second man in charge after Arkul.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry, our revenge will be glorious. We will make them regret it. The demons will rise again.”
He spread his arms and began to laugh maniacally. With his declarations, all of them put up on a satisfied smile.
“Began to preparations. We will strike in a month.”
* * *
‘What is this.’
Elius opened his eyes because he felt an unordinary mana flow. The flow continued throughout the first floor and kept jumping from book to book.
“Good morning.”
“It is afternoon. Are you the one who is doing that?’
“Correct, I’ve done analyzing, and now I can control the mana around you to some extent.”
‘Didn’t I tell you to wake me up?’
“You did, but I didn’t see any reason to do that. I’m still in the learning phase so waking you up was meaningless.”
‘Stop deciding by yourself. Are you analyzing the other books now? Can you cast spells since you can control mana?’
“Yes, I’m analyzing. No, I can’t cast spells. I only can do analysis. At least yet.”
Elius didn’t say anything since she looked almost done for this floor, so he silently waited.
“Floor 1 completed. Can you please move up?”
Elius sighed while getting up.
‘Now, I’m doing what she says, great.’
“Please stop complaining. My knowledge is your power.”
‘Can’t they detect the mana flow in the library? Looks like no one bothered by it.’
Elius asked while climbing up the stairs.
“Based on my calculation, they can’t detect me. I don’t know the reason.”
‘I don’t know this. I don’t know that.’
Elius reached the second floor while nagging, and she quickly began to scan the books. The more she did that, the more her mana control improved, and her speed increased steadily. Her learning speed shocked Elius.
‘Can you help me create spells?’
Elius asked, but he wasn’t expecting a positive answer.
“You can think of me as your second brain. I can help you connect lines on the same spell, or while you are connecting lines for a spell, I can work on another one.”
Elius’ eyes widened, and he started to grasp how valuable she could be in the future. A smile formed on his face.
“By the way, currently, you can only feel the mana flow but can’t see it. So I advise you to work on that. That would be perfect if you could visualize the mana flow of inner fighters.”
Elius never thought of anything like that until now.
‘There is no harm in trying, I guess.’
Then he sat at the table and concentrated while Elly was scanning the library.
* * *
Ian avoided the two incoming arrows by stepping to the side while rushing forward. The rain of arrows didn’t let him gain momentum, but Ian was slowly approaching even though Ruvyn kept moving backward while shooting arrows. Ian was about to close the distance and prepared to attack, but suddenly a powerful force slowed him down, almost making him stop. A strong gust of wind blew from Ruvyn towards Ian. Slowing Ian down was just the one thing. The wind also made Ruvyn’s arrows almost twice as faster. While trying to resist the wind, Ian had difficulty dodging, so he began to deflect with his blade. He was still moving forward, but the distance between them was only getting wider now. The wind pressure finally ended. At the same time, the clock was ticking for Ruvyn because his back was looking at the walls. If the fight continued, he would be cornered. Just for a second, he glanced at the surrounding with the corner of his eyes. That gap was enough for Ian to disappear.
“Huh? Where did you go? Stop cheating!”
Ruvyn hurriedly got closer to the wall to eliminate the chance of Ian’s appearance behind him. Then he again began to emit air in all directions. It wasn’t powerful this time since his purpose was different. He read the flow of the wind and detected a point where it hit something. It was Ian. Ruvyn quickly shot an arrow in that direction. When the arrow met with Ian’s blade, he revealed, but he was closer than Ruvyn thought. Even though he was cornered, he didn’t get panicked. Ruvyn calmly stepped back, put his one foot to the wall, and jumped in the air. He was above Ian now and aimed at him, but before he could shoot, Ian disappeared again and reappeared on the wall where Ruvyn’s shadow reflected. As Ruvyn did, he jumped and turned the tables instantly. Ruvyn tried to turn his body in midair, but he got kicked by Ian before that. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground with a blade pointed at his neck.
“The area is too small.”
“Well, not that small, actually.”
Ian said while helping him get up.
‘His reaction time is good, and he can adapt to the situation quickly. On top of that, he doesn’t lose his coolness. I was reluctant to accept him on the team blindly, but he is good.’
Jay was observing them from the corner.
‘And for Ian, I really can’t understand his situation. He mastered the shadow step at this age, but his range is only around 2 meters, and he only has three nodes. On the other hand, his decision-making as an assassin is good. I don’t get it.’
Then he approached them and gave a little lecture about the points they were lacking.
“Now, I advise you to rest because the real things will start tomorrow, after the tournament.”
“But why are we finishing training this early today? We have already formed a team. Do we still have to participate?”
Ruvyn asked.
“No, you don’t have to. It is up to you, but this is a good opportunity to face different opponents.”
Then jay left them alone. Ian was also about to leave but saw Ruvyn was not coming.
“Will you not participate?”
Ruvyn shook his head.
“I’m not comfortable fighting with melee opponents. I prefer team fights.”
Ian shrugged.
“Okay, but you don’t know when you will be in a situation you had to fight for your life, so you should get used to it.”
Ruvyn smiled and nodded. Then he began to train again while Ian left him alone. Currently, Blernian Academy has 300 hundred students, and almost half of them were people who wanted to support their team instead of fighting in the front line, like healers and enchanters. The rest who wanted to fight were all looking forward to tomorrow’s tournament. Because unlike the support types, who got in a team automatically, they had to prove themselves. And they all had the same goal, becoming a member of one of the five SS-rank adventurer’s teams. So everyone worked hard. And the day they waited impatiently has finally arrived.