Magnus followed Restiel as they went from the post office and moved around Quarteridge. They turned a few corners, walked some streets, and even boarded a carriage at one point, making things difficult for Magnus.
Luckily, Magnus was mobile as a cat; He could take routes that the carriage could not take. Moreover, road traffic was not a problem for him. No random pedestrian bothered him, nor were there any tricky-to-navigate corners.
He was free.
This continued until Restiel arrived at Galemind Academy, where he probably stayed in its dorms.
Needless to say, Magnus followed him through the gates, garnering a few stares from the students.
"Look! It's so cute!" They said.
And Magnus flaunted his assets. He acted as cute as he could be so that if anything bad would happen, he would have the support of the populace.
Moving on, Magnus made a show of roaming around, allowing himself to be pet by the students around and caressed, but he never lost sight of Restiel, his target. He always stayed just within the line of sight or within his cat-like hearing range.
He watched as Restiel mingled with a few of his friends or interacted with some teachers. He witnessed what went on behind his back as well. The rumours, the stories.
Magnus learned a lot about him in his short time just stalking.
He learned about how well Restiel did in school, a few details on his friends, as well as a few problems he was currently facing.
It was a surreal experience, to say the least. Just like any other time he played as a cat.
'Oh, he's finally going to the dorms. His guards have thinned out...' Magnus thought as he leapt out of a girl's arms.
He circled the building in a sprint, catching a bird between his fangs as he did, and making a few students yelp in surprise.
He even drew Restiel's attention for a moment before turning a corner and leaping towards a higher floor.
Magnus then waited by the stairs, for Restiel to pass by.
He was half expecting the young man to scale another floor, but he ended up stopping on the floor Magnus decided to wait on— The fifth floor.
It was at this moment, Restiel was holding something in his hand, muttering something as he did. With his keen hearing, Magnus caught the words,
"It might not be enough... and there are exams coming next week..."
Ah, the worries of a student.
Magnus then watched as Restiel put his hand into what seemed like a scroll. He drew a mark, one that looked like a star and sword on top of each other, and a light flashed right after.
A hole of light appeared on the scroll and Restiel reached into it in a habitual motion— a motion that Magnus found all too familiar due to the physical memories he gained from the Mirror World Restiel.
Restiel then pulled out a simple water bottle from it, but this simple action made Magnus' eyes gleam.
'I was right.' He thought to himself, 'A rare Scroll!'
.
.
.
Back in his hotel room, Magnus opened his eyes after a quick nap. He had rushed home after witnessing Restiel's little and undeniably mundane action.
To Magnus though, it meant way more than a simple mundane action.
He looked over and saw Klaris who tossed him a Scroll.
"I got what you asked." He said before disappearing in a flash of light.
He took the Scroll in his hands and read the text at the top,
[[ Storage Scroll ]]
[[ Owned by: Restiel Bavia ]]
A huge grin could be seen on Magnus' face at this moment as he executed a familiar motion and drew a symbol onto the Scroll. There was a flash of light, and then the portal was opened.
Magnus reached in and information flooded into his mind.
He learned of the contents inside the Scroll as he groped around for something to grab. He ended up getting the water bottle Restiel had taken out earlier.
He tried again, and this time, it was a wallet filled with cash.
"Bingo!" Magnus licked his lips as he continued pulling items out.
Spare clothes, toiletries, textbooks, and other stuff students would normally bring around with them. Magnus was particularly happy about the textbooks.
There was a lot of information he needed but couldn't access just yet. He also had to study up on the topics needed for Archaeon's entrance exams.
As for the grand prize of this entire endeavour, Magnus was able to retrieve a chestplate made out of some kind of metal. It sparkled in the light of his hotel room and gave a sense of divinity to those who saw it.
"It's Restiel's armour..." Magnus gasped in admiration as he appraised the item before him. "So this is what he has been keeping a secret."
Magnus found a few odd habits in the physical memories he inherited from the Mirror World Restiel. This piece of armour was the likely culprit. The ability to don armour in a single moment and fix its straps without help was a skill any knight would love to have— and Restiel had such a skill.
If they could cut down on the time it took for squires to help them into their armour, life would have surely been easier.
Excited, Magnus tried the armour on and he was not surprised to learn that,
"Mm... It doesn't fit."
Restiel was a good five inches taller than he was, standing at 6 feet tall. Magnus was 5'8" and still growing though, so there was a chance he could catch up.
Klaris, on the other hand, was actually pretty tall at 6'4" if he stood straight. Coupled with his lean frame, his deathly pale skin, and his somewhat bad posture, he looked rather vampiric.
"This can only be worn by the Hivemind's Restiel then," Magnus chuckled, "Mirror World equipment for a Mirror World being."
As for the Scroll itself, Magnus kept it like a treasure. There was a space of two cubic metres inside it. It was a suitable 1-star item.
"Enough to fit about four corpses,"
Magnus added to his thoughts before frowning.
"There I go again with dead stuff..."
.
.
.
With the Storage Scroll in hand, Magnus' life suddenly became much easier.
He went around Quarteridge and looked around their Pocket World Entrance Scrolls. He was looking for a commercial world that rivalled Tyrm.
"As expected, there's nothing. I'd have to infiltrate the different factions and take some of theirs if I want something as good as Tyrm." Magnus muttered as he continued to go through his plans.
He was going to visit a couple of different Pocket Worlds to commit them to memory so that if there was anything he needed from there, Mirror World Thief was just an invocation away. That, and he needed more money.
He needed at least 50,000 dollars for a semester of tuition at Archaeon University. Especially since getting a scholarship was unlikely with his past accomplishments currently lacking.
His current wallet was not enough to survive such spending. Moreover, cloning money was difficult, as each bill had its own code written on it. Using that kind of money with his still-innocent identity would be such a waste.
He would be tracked down and forced to answer for what he was doing.
Only by cloning actual resources and selling them could Magnus earn the money he needed.
On top of all that, there were only a couple more days left until the end of the current Trial. The reply to his application would come tomorrow.
If he got in, his reward would be boosted to 2.5 stars. It would be an amazing boon for the coming Trials that Magnus felt excited about.
As a cat, he had caught on to certain behaviours.
'Everyone is preparing for something,' He had dug deeper into this issue and discovered that the last parts of the tutorial Trial that the Earthlings were now experiencing would have some kind of special program.
Nobody knew what exactly it would be, but there was a pattern for all the Otherworlders.
For Earthlings, it was monster hunting.
What this meant was that Thare was going to be experiencing a rise in monster populations soon.
Thus, people were stocking up on items they might find useful. They also recruited Earthlings into their factions for the purpose of keeping track of the Trials and obtaining a percentage of their rewards.
There were also some more vile stories that occurred to new Otherworlders, and Magnus was happy to have followed The Jester's advice.
He did not want to become the target of a set of Trials for people much stronger than him nor did he wish to become a Trial slave.
Trial slaves were recent Otherworlders who, due to their unfamiliarity with the world, were forced to sign a contract to become a bonafide resource. They would no longer receive typical Trials, as all their Trials would be issued by their slave drivers.
There was no escape but death. Sometimes, though, with an especially cruel Blessing, there wasn't even freedom after death.
'Undead Blessings are the scorn of society for a reason, huh,' Magnus had thought when he learned of such facts.
And so, a day passed.
Magnus picked up his letter from the post office. Restiel was actually there again. It was clear that he had also applied to Archaeon University.
"Hey," Magnus gave the young man a nod and instantly headed out.
"Sup," Restiel nodded back and said nothing else.
It was a simple exchange, but perhaps that made them acquaintances.
There weren't that many people watching Magnus anymore, save for the hostile ones he had disappeared from, from some time before. It made him want to face them and see just who they were and what they wanted.
And so, instead of switching with Javelin, he waited. Inside an alleyway with his escape routes planned out and Javelin waiting on standby just a few paces away, ready to unsummon him at a moment's notice.
He waited until he felt those gazes bring him uneasiness. They were watching his movements, probably curious as to why Magnus wasn't running away.
"...What do you want? Come out."