A few days passed, every day with the same schedule. Mornings would have a short propaganda session under the guise of teaching basic knowledge, and the afternoon would have us train skills. I’d gathered a few new skills, although all at level one.

Halberd Lv. 1 Grants proficiency with the halberd. Multiplies damage dealt through a halberd by 1.1. Diminished effects for similar weapons.

Physical Conditioning Lv. 1 Increases physical conditioning and strength. Grants base stamina pool of 1 that is used up by motion or aura use. Regenerates each minute.

Aura Control Lv. 1 Increases control of aura and ability to learn aura techniques. Divides amount of stamina consumed by aura usage by 1.1.

Reflexes Lv. 1 Multiplies reaction speed by 1.1, and improves ability to use thought to guide reflexes.

Mental Focus Lv. 1 Increases focus and defense against mental status effects. Provides a base mental focus pool of 1. Regenerates each minute.

Mana Affinity Lv. 1 Affinity with mana determines base mana pool of 10. Regenerates each hour.

Mana Control Lv. 1 Increases control of mana and ability to learn mana techniques. Divides amount of mental focus consumed by mana usage by 1.1.

The skills were mostly simple. I chose the halberd as my weapon since it had a longer reach, which would be crucial when surviving against demon monsters. I also carried a short sword for when an enemy got too close, or for civilian situations where a halberd would be infeasible.

[Reflexes] had our aura instructor, Griff, throw cloth bean bags at us. If we failed to dodge, the impacts stung and bruised.

The mana skills required a new teacher, who insisted we call her Lady Casteliano. She was an uptight aged woman who was part of the imperial branch family, and clearly thought a bit too much of herself.

[Mental Focus] had us struggling to read bland, unimportant textbooks. The most useful thing I learned was how farmers used skills to grow crops.

[Mana Affinity] only took meditation to acquire the first level, after which I felt a soothing energy suffuse my consciousness. Lady Casteliano referred to the skill as ‘becoming more in tune with the fabric of reality’.

My comrades grew more excited as every day passed. Mana was a mystical energy, and the brief exercises we’d done to swirl it around the air brought out their inner child.

I was the opposite. Despite learning new skills, I kept feeling that my escape was falling out of my reach. The skills that would provide me the most utility weren’t being taught. Where was my [Situational Awareness], or my [Aura Sense], the only two skills that I knew for sure that there was a synergy between? Lady Casteliano had already said that [Illusion Magic] wasn’t fit for a hero.

Perhaps these would come with time, but I was getting anxious. I had a sneaking suspicion that the emperor wanted heroes to hit hard but have little utility, so they could be easily controlled (and perhaps assassinated).

That led me to where I was now, standing outside the library after sunset.

“Hero Julius, are you sure you want to be here? You need to get your sleep,” my maid said. Every one of us were assigned a personal servant that attended to basic needs.

“Yes. Thanks for leading me here, Patty, but I’m good now,” I dismissed. She seemed torn, not supposed to leave me unattended. That wouldn’t do as I couldn’t have her reporting on what I read.

“Patty. Look at me,” I said, making eye contact. “I just want to read a little about what Instructor Griff said during class today. I’ll go right back to my room soon. Why don’t you get started washing my clothes? If you wait too long, you won’t get much sleep either.”

“Thanks, sir,” she nodded slowly before leaving. I wasn’t exactly lying. Griff had mentioned that [Aura Circulation] did not directly create aura, instead increasing our capacity to contain it. That left the question of where aura came from: did our bodies create it, or was it some foreign energy?

The library was a massive building from the outside, made of sturdy stone and embellished with carved statues. When I entered, I was greeted with a librarian behind a desk and two guards in full plate armor behind him.

“Hero Julius?” he recognized me, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“I’d like to read some books,” I said simply. Internally, I was annoyed that he knew my face somehow. “Is that okay?”

He bit his lip and quickly glanced at the guards standing menacingly behind him. “I’m not sure. Why don’t you wait here while I go ask someone?”

I couldn’t allow that. “Are you telling me that you’d block a hero?” I growled.

He cowered, but didn’t say anything, and my face fell. It was another confirmation of the hollowness of the hero status. I sized up the two guards, but fighting really wasn’t an option. My calculations put middle-aged guards as having a few level fourteen skills at the very least. There was no way I was getting past that.

Thankfully, I had a level one skill that was more important in this situation.

I switched tracks, speaking softly. “Princess Adriana said I could read a few books here. Are you saying she lied?”

All three of them twitched, even the guards. The librarian stuttered in fear. “O-of course not! Why didn’t you say so sooner! Come in, I’ll guide you personally.”

“That won’t be necessary. After your disrespect, I don’t want to see you anymore than I have to,” I scoffed, putting on the image of an offended noble.

I brushed past the guards in a confident walk, neither of them moving a muscle to stop me.

A smile made its way onto my face, before I smothered the feeling and focused. This might be the only time I could enter this building, so I had to make it worth it.

I spent a frankly absurdly long time finding the books I wanted. A librarian would’ve been a blessing, but I couldn’t have everything.

First, the book An Experimental Examination of Aura and Mana Regeneration. Second, Schools of Magic and Training Methods, which looked like it was written for kids. I didn’t think I would find any secret skills in there, so I also found The Intricacies of Illusion Magic, and Defending Your Family From Heretics.

Finally, I couldn’t resist taking one more book. It wouldn’t help me in the short term, but I doubt I would find it outside the royal palace, so I had to take it: Mental Palace: How to Train Your Memory. If I was going to live for eternity, it was something I’d need.

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There were a few scholars in the library, but I quickly found a secluded spot to read. There were too many books to read and no ability to take them outside, so I resolved to skimming quickly. Thankfully, despite the sun setting, the library was still lit up by white orbs embedded in the ceiling, larger versions of the light in my bedroom.

I formed a priority queue of the books based on importance, length, and the ability to be skimmed. First were the books that would secure my immediate survival.

I read through the table of contents of Schools of Magic and Training Methods. Like I thought, there weren’t any skills I didn’t know of. There was a final section about magic that only existed in rumors, but I decided it wasn’t a priority.

In the end, I only read the first pages of the [Elemental Magic], [Summoning Magic], and [Illusion Magic] sections. The empire was already teaching [Elemental Magic] and [Summoning Magic], but I wanted to check if they left crucial details out.

I quickly moved to The Intricacies of Illusion Magic. Acquiring the skill would be only a small part of the trouble- the harder part was applying it. Therefore, I skipped directly to the ‘Techniques’ section.

Immediately I found a long list of techniques. I quickly scribbled the important information with pen and paper I’d smuggled from class. Each of them required a certain [Mana Control] level, which I wrote down as ‘MC’.

Light Illusion Prof. X Difficulty: 100 Requirement: MC lv. 5, Illusion Magic lv. 5 Alter light in your surroundings. Proficiency greatly increases the ability to form complicated structures for the same mana and mental focus expense.

Physical Illusion Prof. X

Difficulty: 200 Requirement: MC lv. 6, Illusion Magic lv. 7 Partially convince reality that a light illusion has substance. Greater proficiency allows for mimicry of mass, temperature, and other physical properties. Dispels under damage.

Aura Masking Prof. X Difficulty: 200 Requirement: MC lv. 6, Illusion Magic lv. 7, Stealth lv. 4 Hide aura from [Aura Sense]. Consumes aura/(2X) mana per hour. Effectiveness of the masking determined by proficiency and skill levels.

Mana Masking Prof. X Difficulty: 200 Requirement: MC lv. 6, Illusion Magic lv. 7, Stealth lv. 4 Hide mana from [Mana Sense]. Consumes mana/(2X) mana per hour. Effectiveness of the masking determined by proficiency and skill levels.

Sense Manipulation Prof. X Difficulty: 500 Requirement: MC lv. 10, Illusion Magic lv. 8, Intrusive Magic lv. 4 Change what a target senses. Consumes small amounts of mana, but large amounts of mental focus. Easily disrupted if the target realizes the illusion.

Peter, our basic knowledge teacher, had eventually taught us about techniques. You could think of them like skills that had a continuous proficiency from 0 to 100%. Acquiring proficiency quickly ramped in cost: the difficulty listed for each technique was the amount of XP required to get to 50% proficiency. The same amount of XP only got you to 75% proficiency.

Each ‘cycle’ took the same XP and divided the remaining proficiency till max by half. Eventually, the system would just round proficiency to 1 and call the technique mastered. This happened at eight cycles. However, later cycles required greater skill levels than the basic requirement, generally an extra level of [Mana Control] per cycle.

That meant I’d need to level my [Mana Control] to absurd levels to master these techniques.

The Intricacies of Illusion Magic gave relatively intuitive instructions to train these techniques, but the problem would be leveling my requisite skills high enough. Specifically, [Stealth] and [Intrusive Illusion], which I had never encountered before. I flipped through the book until I found mentions of them.

Stealth Lv. X The ability to not be noticed.

Intrusive Mana Lv. X Stealthily seep your mana into a target, allowing you to make minuscule changes without notice.

I really wanted these two skills. With a shaking hand I wrote down the skill descriptions and training requirements. It would be a challenge to level these two, as I was constantly watched in the palace. Moreover, [Intrusive Mana] required levels in [Stealth] and [Illusion Magic] before it could even be gained. It was classified as a synergy skill, as it had its own independent level, as opposed to [Danger Sense], a synergy subskill.

Heavy footsteps alerted me to a problem. The librarian worked faster than I expected, it seemed. I wasn’t done yet, so I enacted my backup plan. Before coming here, I’d acquired an unassuming robe from my maid (it was harder to get than you’d think) and stuffed it in the bag where I kept my class supplies. Now, I pulled out the robe and draped it over me.

The guards would be looking for a hero in luxurious green clothing. They wouldn’t notice a poor scholar desperately studying late at night. To that end, I moved from my secluded spot and sat down next to the other scholars, who didn’t even spare me a glance.

When the clanking metal of the guards passed by me, I imitated the scholars and kept my face glued to my least suspicious book: An Experimental Examination of Aura and Mana Regeneration. It was actually very interesting. It detailed how [Aura Circulation] expended stamina to metaphorically grind against the walls that contained our aura. Then, experiments that involved knights stuck in boxes of aura-insulated materials showed a gradually decreasing rate of aura regeneration.

Ergo, aura came from the environment, and flowed into us through a diffusion-like process. The greater the ‘cavity’ inside our body, the faster aura would diffuse inside.

Mana was different. While environmental mana existed, it seemed to have no link to mana regeneration. I tapped my pen against my chin in thought, playing into my role as a scholar.

Thankfully, the sound of guards eventually moved away. With perfect timing, I felt a skill level up. I checked my skill list and saw:

Deception Lv. 2 (+1)

Despite fooling the guards, I still felt the time pressure creeping up on me. Therefore, I pre-emptively returned the books I’d read to their locations, to minimize the damage if I was found early.

That left me with only Defending Your Family From Heretics and Mental Palace: How to Train Your Memory. I skimmed the first, and as I expected it didn’t have detailed guides on how to learn heretical magic. However, it did name a lot of heretical magic, which was what I wanted.

[Necromancy], [Mind Magic], [Blood Magic], and [Alchemy] were all considered heresy. The instant I saw [Alchemy], I saw a whole new future unfolding before me. Before I could get lost in fantasies, however, I quickly put the book away and skimmed through the last book. I could hear shouting, and I was running out of time.

I found the skill [Mental Palace] on the fifth page and devoured it with my eyes, not willing to spend the time to write it down.

Mental Palace Lv. X Construct a mental structure out of your memories. Greatly increases memory retention.

Suddenly, a hand snatched the book out of my hands just as a voice hissed into my ear, “That’s not something you should be reading.”

I jumped in fright. The intruder was covered in black robes, disguising their appearance and even gender.

“What spawn of vitriol are you!” I asked in shock.

“Who I am doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve been a naughty boy,” they spoke in an androgynous voice. I opened my mouth to try and give an excuse, but they didn’t give me an opportunity. The figure reached out their hand, and the world melted around me like hot wax.

My mind went blank, and the next moment I was back in my bedroom.

“Please go to bed, Hero Julius,” the voice said from outside my door.

I didn’t reply, shivering in fear as I waited to hear them leave. I didn’t hear any footsteps. As far as I knew, they were still right outside my door even as I fell asleep.

The next day, I was given a different maid. I didn’t ask what happened to the old one.