Throwing the books on his desk, Jayce collapsed onto his bed. He was surprised that he was able to make it back while carrying a stack of books with him.
Jayce had grabbed books that were about mana, the different elements of mana, and common spells from the library.
There were two reasons why he did this, the first was to increase his intelligence stat, and the other one was to find out more about how mana worked exactly.
There was a knock on his door right as he was to fall asleep. Jayce was thinking about ignoring whoever was there until he heard who it was.
"Jayce I thought maybe we could have lunch together."
Reluctantly getting out of the cold comfortable bed, Jayce made his way and opened the door. A delicious smell leaked out of the picnic basket that Yuko was holding.
"Come in."
"Thank you."
Letting Yuko into his dorm room, he closed the door behind her.
"How did you even know what my room number was?"
"I remembered it last time you gave me your ID."
Jayce did remember giving his ID to her, what he didn't know was she could find which room he was his just by having his ID for a few seconds.
Since they were finally alone, Jayce decided this would be the best time to use his inspection skill.
---
[Name: Yuko Kitagawa]
[Race: Human]
[Gender: Female]
[Age: 18]
---
[Stats]
[HP: 160/160]
[Mana: 291/291]
[Stamina: 200/200]
[Vitality: 11]
[Endurance: 15]
[Strength: 12]
[Dexterity: 18]
[Agility: 20]
[Intelligence: 18]
---
[Skills]
[Wind Magic (C+)]
[Iaijutsu (B-)]
[Kyusho Jitsu (C)]
[Cooking (B+)]
---
Jayce assumed she would be weaker than him or at most the same. Yet she was better than him stat-wise.
If he used his gauntlets and Demonic Synchronization he would surpass her in stats. This wasn't taking into account the skills she had.
Jayce didn't have a single combat skill, the only thing he could rely on was physically overpowering his opponent.
Closing her stat screen, Jayce looked over to see Yuko unloading the food from the picnic basket on his dining table.
She had brought sandwiches, sliced watermelon, and plastic bottles full of lemonade.
Walking to the dining table, Jayce took a seat across from where Yuko was sitting. Grabbing a sandwich and taking a bite, Jayce was taken off guard as different flavors exploded in his mouth.
Before he could stop himself, he had devoured the entire sandwich in seconds.
"Slow down Jay, the food isn't going anywhere." She had spent all last night preparing the food, it would be a waste if he didn't enjoy it.
"Jay?"
"I thought that Jayce was a little too long so I shortened it to Jay. O-of course If you don't like it I can keep calling you Jayce."
For some reason, she was nervous about how Jayce would react to the nickname she came up with.
"I don't see a problem with it." He said with an unbothered expression as he finished his third sandwich with some lemonade.
"Yay! Jay liked the nickname I gave him."
Jayce didn't know why she was so happy but was too busy eating to say anything about it. They talked for a while before Yuko had to head back to class.
Since he was alone, he went back into his room and sat at his desk. Grabbing the book about the elements of mana, he opened it and started reading.
Jayce closed the book that he had spent the last few hours reading, he collected his thoughts about what he had learned.
'There are seven different types of elements, fire, water, earth, wind, light, dark, and special. Most races are favored by a certain element such as elves are favored by earth and wind magic.'
'Each element has sub-categories that a mage can unlock once they have mastered the element to a certain point. An example of this would be water magic evolving into ice magic.'
At this point, Jayce was thinking about what kind of element he wanted. Humans weren't favored by any element but no one could pick what element they were born with.
'Fire magic is creating and manipulating flames, the same thing goes with water, wind, and earth magic.'
'Dark magic focuses on shadows while light magic does the complete opposite.'
The book didn't get into the special element all that much but I can assume that it's any magic that doesn't relate to any of the other six elements.'
Thinking about what element would best fit him he got bombarded with new notifications.
[Your understanding of the elements has increased]
[New skill has been unlocked]
[Beginner Elementalist (Passive)]
{+50% at learning new spells of any element}
{+25% mana capacity}
[Intelligence has increased]
[Intelligence 11 -> 13]
He was expecting his intelligence stat to increase but not a skill to come with it. The skill itself seemed pretty good, but there was one problem with it.
'I don't have any mana to use it!' Jayce inwardly yelled to himself.
The first combat skill he got was something he couldn't even use. With him being born without mana, this skill was utterly and completely useless.
It was already getting late so Jayce decided to get some sleep. Turning the lights off, Jayce jumped onto his bed.
He was secretly hoping that soon his instructor would teach him some type of martial arts. If he kept getting skills based on magic, he might lose his mind sooner or later.
---
Jayce woke up early and started his morning workout routine. After finishing it, he showered and left for school.
Arriving at the gym, Jayce heard people sparring in the dojo section.
'Is the instructor teaching someone else?'
Being taken over by his curiosity, Jayce silently crept over to where he could hear the sounds of fighting coming from
Slightly pushing the sliding dojo door open, he peered in.
'Is that Yuko?'
Jayce could see Yuko and Bella sparring using shinais.
Watching the battle from the sidelines, Jayce was impressed with how Yuko was keeping up with the instructor.
Yuko swung her sword aiming for Bella's head only for her attack to be parried, throwing her off-balance.
Being thrown off-balanced, Bella went in to slash her across the chest. Knowing that she couldn't pull her blade back enough to block the attack, Yuko lowered her hand.
Bella was surprised when Yuko blocked her attack using the handle of the shinai.
Shoving her back, Yuko put the shinai by her waist as if it were being held in a sheath. Bella recognized it instantly and charged at Yuko.
Yuko slowly slid her front foot and arched her back towards Bella. Once Bella entered the range of her sword, she unsheathed her shinai at an incredible speed.
"Kata Five: Kesa Giri!"
Yuko's body spontaneously moved forward to swing, Jayce couldn't see the sword as it moved too fast, leaving only a blur behind.
A loud clang was heard throughout the dojo as Bella easily parried the attack and went in for the kill.
Yuko wasn't able to react in time as she was stabbed in the head. She flopped onto the ground with a huge bump on her forehead.
"Did you enjoy the show, Jayce?"