A few curious glances met me as I walked towards the firing range. Each year's students had breaks at different times so everyone had as much space as they wanted.
Approaching the firing range, I could hear some form of fighting inside. Someone else was working hard? I thought all nobles liked to slack of. Opening the door, a familiar girl was launching low-tiered dark magic at the newly repaired dummies. The dummies were actually golems engraved into the ground. Their core magic circles are under the ground, allowing the teachers to move them through the ground as much as they wanted. It also allowed the teachers to repair the dummies as long as they pour magic into the magic circle underground.
That familiar student was Fez. If I remember correctly, Tom sensei had called her ms tsumond. The tsumond family was one of the 7 great noble clans, each clan specialised over one element and were said to be the strongest mage's in the kingdom.
"What are you doing here, during break?"
"Can't you see it yourself? I'm just training here! What are YoU~ doing here." (Fez)
"Same as you, I guess."
With that last exchange, the conversation stopped and the atmosphere grew stale. Walking over to the lane I used during lesson, I started to fire off the new [Cursed fireball] skill that I acquired. Every hit guaranteed the dummy's destruction, so I focused on the aim and mana cost for now. Using [Mana control] and [mana detection], I memorised and started deciphering the magic circle that forms the core of the dummies. A new idea had sprouted into my head.
While continuously firing my spells as I pour out mana with my left hand, my right hand was placed on the counter as I began to think. There was one particular component that resembled my skill [Auto-regeneration], except that it was incredibly more complicated. It helped the dummy have a fixed shape and regenerated it with mana everytime it was destroyed. Is there a component somewhere that takes mana from the atmosphere instead of the user?
Looking around the details, it had the usual channel that allowed people to pour mana in and it had 2 more unfamiliar components. 1 was similar to the channel, while the other was completely different. I should experiment with those 2 components. Shaping my mana around the magic circle, I engraved the pattern into the air. Pouring in mana from the surroundings, I recreated the same 2 patterns.
While all that happen, my antics caught the attention of Fez. '... What the hell is she doing? How is she moving the mana around so smoothly? I could probably pull it off if I took a couple weeks, but that person just took a few minutes?!' (Fez). Changing the surrounding medium of the stolen patterns into the dark element, deep black marks manifested ontu the counter that I was at. With this, I won't lose the patterns and can start experimenting. After all, it was absurd to instantly memorise these complicated patterns.
After 5 minutes of experimenting, I found that one component was a mana tank and the other component just sucks in mana when activated, I'll just call it a mana vacuum. On the dummy's core magic circles, there were minor channeling patterns outside the larger more complicated components that looped the mana tank and the mana vaccum.
The loop starts of by sucking in mana from the surroundings, store the mana in the tank, mana in tank is used to activate vacuum and tank, the process restarts. I need a way to install the mana vacuum into my spells and make it simultaneously drain large amounts of mana from the surroundings as the spell activates.
This helps by reducing my mana consumption in spells by roughly 80%. Perhaps, if there is some form of mana drain spell, it would be much more effective. For now, I'll just make do with these, I don't have much time left before the next lesson anyway. Using the dark element, I engraved the patterns under my left arm in the form of shadows. If I wear a cardigan, I can conceal it and use it as an emergency attack if some seal was placed on my mana pool.
During the whole session, I forgot Fez was there. Did she see anything? Looking over at her lane, she was still firing dark blades at the dummy in concentration. What a hard working girl. Ahh, I seem to have perspired a lot while doing my experiments.
"Here's a towel mdm." (Butler A)
"Huh?"
" Mdm Fez over there pities over the fact you do not have servants. She has requested me to lend you a towel after you were done." (Butler A)
Guess they saw my experiment. Whatever, it wasn't the end of the world after I copied 2 spells. Because of the stored spells under my arm, dark eye shadows will manifest permanently until the spells are disabled. I hope the teacher don't question it. *ping! *, a new notification came from the world system. Opening the message displayed:
After a while, a new skill was acquired! : [Shadow engrave] [Shadow manipulate-tier 3] [Shadow memory]
Using my new skill [Shadow memory], the patterns were memorised and I could recall them as long as I activate the skill. The dark eye shadows faded away as I exitted the firing range and head for class.
The next class was history. It might sound boring at first, but that's because it is. We mainly study about wars and even small-scale fights. The main focus was on possible tactics that could be used to bring the situation to our advantage. There was the cliched mage's shouldn't fight in close range and must keep their distance at all times. Part of the lesson was tips on how you keep your distance and another part is war tactics used in the past by the generals of this world.
With that, the short school day had ended and everyone had left the classroom...except for Fez and I. Shortly after the bell rang in this surreal fantasy setting, Fez asked for me to meet her after everyone had left. "Alright don't stay too late! I'll be going now." ( Idarick, history sensei)
After the teacher left, Fez proceeded to talk. "Listen here, there is a tournament in 2 weeks. As my rival, you should win and fight me in the finals. The school will hold a tournament for each year batch of students. The support types won't participate so there will only be 32 participants in each year. "(Fez)
" Hehehe~kukuku! That's all? How about a bet? "
" What could you~ possibly offer? "(Fez)
" If you win, I can be your slave. I'm a
prodigy you know~. Being level 62 at only the age of 7. If you train me well, I could be the most formidable assassin in the kingdom. " A devilish smile sprouts on my small face. What is it going to be~? My expression pushes that thought forward. Intimidating Fez a small bit. That's okay, one day I may break her like I did with the mage association staff. One small bit is a good progress for only one day.