Magic itself only exists in its practice, and it seems to be truly vast, only to catalog a tiny percentage of the various professions that use magic. The author, Zagoraios, spoke of various professions, such as wizards themselves, but also alchemists, healers, runemakers, among many others.

As expected, the book simply didn't cover much in terms of truly practical topics. Instead, it seemed more like some pseudo-philosophy from a schizophrenic school from almost two thousand years ago.

However, there was an experiment within it, a very simple one at that, which was meant to showcase the potential of a magician.

The absolute potential of an individual is always unknown, naturally understood as entirely relative. It not only can but will vary throughout one's life. But in a world where knowledge is rigidly controlled, it's natural to think that resources would go to the most talented, not the most hardworking.

At least the experiment was really simple and only required a pure crystal, no matter which one, as long as it's crystalline and untouched by any magic to avoid corruption.

After finally finding one, strategically positioned for him to discover, he finally conducted the test, which was solely about focusing his consciousness on that crystal.

The test shows how attuned a non-practitioner is naturally to magic, and it indicates how much one needs meditation to gain more aether over time, enabling them to perform more spells or any other magical work.

Meditations seem to be taught in the second book, "Absorbing the Universe in a Mysterious Box," so he wastes no time in reading it after finishing this test.

During the meditation, he would also need to keep track of time, and the crystal, due to atmospheric aether, would eventually change color. This color would determine their primary elemental affinity, which almost all physical beings possess, including earth, fire, water, and air.

Finally, after two minutes of constant focus, the crystal began to alter, changing from something transparent, similar to glass, to a milky, completely white color.

Two minutes?

Dante thought.

It wasn't bad. It wasn't a god-given talent, but it was within the parameters for acceptance into the academy before its fall. It was actually slightly above average, so he could be proud of this natural characteristic.

However, the color bothered him because the milky color indicated that he simply had no elemental affinity, meaning he would need much more aether to cast any elemental spells. And those made up the vast majority of spells, as he had just read.

But this wasn't the end of the world, as there were spells and research for non-elemental spells. Some were mostly supportive, while others were quite remarkable, like necromancy. There were also some more palatable to the modern mind, like arcane magic and the school of lightning magic. Both were somewhat underground, but there must be thousands of books on each in the library.

Dante learned from Amelia that more civilized societies, like the one they were in, also used solar-related time systems, and their day had twenty-four hours. Since it was now almost midnight, he decided to postpone his decisions until he had complete knowledge of spells.

He didn't want to admit it, but he was obviously a workaholic. He could leave everything else for the following days while trying to relax in these few hours of complete silence that he had, especially after the extremely busy and chaotic day he had experienced.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

But he simply couldn't stop; he didn't want to stop. He was studying what was supposed to be impossible, and he found it fantastic, not in the literal sense, as a book, even a large one, held these mysteries of reality, which shouldn't really happen.

But after just two hours, he emerged from that reading with a completely changed perception of reality and the foundation for what could be his entire future.

Finally, he decided that he would read the second book and thanked his somewhat battered body for it, as without it, he probably wouldn't have been able to finish the first book so quickly.

Even before starting to read, from what Dante understood about "Absorbing the Universe in a Mysterious Box," it was probably an introductory book on meditation.

Simplifying the simplification found in the previous book, it seemed that these meditations were a way for the body to connect with the universe and slowly begin to absorb aether into itself.

It seemed extremely esoteric and magical, but in reality, this process occurred naturally in the human body, as well as in any other physical being. Even stones in rich aether worlds accumulated more energy over time.

The difference here lay in terms of efficiency. A magical meditation technique needed to surpass the curve of what one's body already consumed in terms of aether to not only store it but also train it so that the body itself became a magical energy source.

This allowed not only for the performance of complex magic but also for the return of unused aether to the world.

____

Unlike all previous days, where Amelia always made an effort to wake up as early as possible, she ended up spending a bit more time in her comfortable bed than usual.

The previous day had been so exhausting for her, mainly psychologically, and even though she didn't want to show it, she was simply terrified. She didn't know that her previous master had already decided to leave that world, and if he did, at least he would bring someone as capable...

But no.

She obviously didn't blame Dante for this, but this was an extremely inconvenient situation, and they would now have to face many problems until they could truly settle somewhere or even earn a steady income doing whatever Dante deemed best.

In reality, she was far from being a truly influential person; she was basically useless in a society of wizards. She had only become a domestic servant in the world that was this tower because one of the old order masters had, at some point, felt pure pity for her situation.

She knew her place in that world, but after the order fell, and she met the old master, she could have a life she had never thought possible. She not only began to learn something but also found that she wasn't useless at all, especially when it came to warrior skills, feeling strongly connected to the path of the monks.

The bed was so comfortable and warm, and knowing that she would have to leave that room she had lived in for the past few years soon made her not want to leave that moment.

But with a loud and cheerful shout, which she usually gave to herself when she was alone to boost her mood and wake her body up faster, she finally agreed that she couldn't stay there all day. After a few more minutes, she finally emerged from her heavy blanket.

The naturally cold air met her warm body, but she didn't feel a thing because her body was already far beyond that of an ordinary human, and things like morning cold didn't bother her anymore.

In her mind, she began to plan her day and tried to create a schedule for the most important things she had to do now that they were planning to leave that place in a few days.

The first thing she did, as she always did after waking up, was to train. She didn't need complex weight machines or anything like that; she used her body for it. This didn't excessively increase her physical strength relative to her body, while maintaining the feminine aspects she carefully cared for. However, it wasn't a simple calisthenics or gymnastics workout; it was physical training combined with knight techniques to constantly increase her life force and physical attributes.

Because she had learned this technique from Zargorios himself, it was not a common technique but could naturally be compared to the best techniques in this realm, famous for its knight orders.

After finally being satisfied with her performance, which took a little over an hour of intense physical training, she finally sat down to rest a bit, drinking much more water than she really should for her body size.

But it was essential to maintain her life energy in balance throughout the day.

After finishing this part of her day, she finally took a hot bath to relax her muscles and put on her natural maid clothes, starting her daily tasks.

She didn't have much to do, though. They were going to leave that place, so she didn't necessarily need to continue cleaning.

Dante didn't eat regular food, so she didn't necessarily need to prepare breakfast for him.

However, as he mentioned earlier, he could drink some beverages, and tea and coffee seemed acceptable.

Amelia felt a little embarrassed that she couldn't properly feed Dante, but it was something she couldn't control now. She only hoped that Dante's hunger wouldn't develop as quickly as she believed it would. If that happened, they would have to leave the tower earlier than planned, in one or two days.

But everything about Dante was very strange.

He clearly had traits of a High Undead, but they generally consumed vast amounts, while Dante seemed to naturally sustain himself with just over two brains a week, an extremely manageable amount even in small towns where crime ran rampant, and people died or disappeared all the time.