Edwina was staring at me, and the book she was reading dropped from her hand, I was so absorbed in my cultivation that I didn't notice her.
'Mordred Xander, what did you just do?' I couldn't tell her how much power I had actually accumulated, but being honest would be the best option here.
'I created a new core.' She looked baffled. Well, I couldn't tell her that I made a core AND a circle, at that point she could report me to the school authorities and have me investigated. That'd be a major pain in the ass. She put her hand over her face and squeezed her eyes.
'I have no words. Well whatever congratulations on your new core or whatever, how many cores do you have now?' I needed to lie to her again.
'I have 2 cores.'
'I have 2 cores as well, I'm close to my third core though.' I nodded and she just stood there, it was awkward.
'Well have a good day.' I bid her farewell first because the awkwardness was painful.
'Likewise.' I went into my room and took out a piece of paper and a quill. There were some spells I needed to memorise. So I wrote them down.
Spellsword: I could have 3 magic swords orbiting me and send them off to attack an enemy whenever I want to. I could infuse any element I would want to into them. To memorise a new spell and activate it upon saying its name you needed to repeat its incantation 5 times, I didn't need to do that with Walpurgis Flame because it wasn't a new spell but one I already had at that time. In this case, the chant would be 'Oh sword of magic I beseech thee to heed my call. Orbit!' I whispered that 5 times then I saw a notification pop up at the side of my head. 'Spellsword has been added to your been added to your arsenal.' Short form 'Spellsword'.
Costs 91 mana.
Genma's Thunderbolt: A spell that shot a homing thunderbolt. 'The God of Thunder invokes the Lightning's radiance!' It was really cringy saying these lines, even though I was just whispering them. Short form 'Thunderbolt'.
Costs 52 mana.
Star Meteor: It was a spell that would call a giant meteorite out of the sky and descend upon my enemies. I couldn't actually use it now but I wanted to keep it in my arsenal when I could. 'The stars align, the end is nigh. Now come God meteor.' Instead of sounding cringy, it sounded really cool to use. But sadly I needed to be a 9th circle magician to use it and there was only one in the entire continent. Even if I could I wouldn't make this a short form, it just sounded way too cool.
Costs 702 mana.
Ice Unbroken: Would conjure ice swords to destroy your foe and then create an ice prison around them, then shatter the prison to deal extremely high damage. 'First comes a snowflake, then a torrential blizzard. Now freeze!' Short form 'Ice Storm.', shatter prompt 'Shatter'.
Costs 113 mana.
Frostflame: This will light a frostflame in your hand. 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, violence only breeds more of the same, so come together in my hand frost and flame!' This ability was actually useless in combat because the cold and heat would cancel out any damage. But it would cause insurmountable pain, the feeling of being extremely cold and extremely hot at the same time would simulate your skin being melted and frozen simultaneously but since those two forces opposed each other it wouldn't do any actual damage. Short form 'Frostflame'.
Costs 45 mana
Dark Strings. Will create strings of dark to entrap your foes. 'Ropes of the deep. Come! Drag my foes into the eternal darkness.' Short form 'Dark Chain'.
Costs 60 mana
Silent Neutralisation: Neutralises magic of anyone more than one circle lower than you. 'Magic this below me does not deserve to be cast, now stop your foolishness cretin.' Short form 'Neutralise'. Costs 30 mana.
And finally.
Celestial Boulder: Creates a giant boulder that will split into pieces upon impact and home on your target. 'Even a little stone can become a great boulder and a boulder to little stones. A boulder can devastate but so can a thousand little stones, now be devastated!' Short form 'Celestial Boulder'. Costs 80 mana.
Those were all the spells I could remember. Having 5 circles gave me an extreme boost to my mana capacity and magic power. My mana capacity basically doubled and my magic power increased by around 1.5x. My mana capacity was now at 661 and my magic power was at 102, it would help me use these higher-tier spells that I'm supposed to use at this point, but it slightly lowered my strength and speed. Now I needed to gather some information, so back to the tavern I went.
I sat down and listened to the surrounding conversation. Then I saw two cloaked people sitting down at the table next to me. I could hear everything they were saying.
'Have we messed up the entrance exam successfully and planted the spies?'
'Yes we have, but only the class A spy got in successfully.'
'Good, how many people were killed in the exam and is the advisor we planted still alive.'
'3 people were killed and 1 was incapacitated.'
'The plan is going smoothly, glory to Effervescent.' Effervescent was a criminal organisation that you'd deal with at the end of your third year, they were a deadly organisation and was one of the hardest parts of the game. But to think they made their move this early!
I needed to deal with them soon. But I had to wait for my moment to strike. But who is the spy? There was a spy in the original game, but it is never revealed who it is. It could be anyone from class A, I had to keep my sights on all of them. I went back to the dorm rooms.
'Please marry me!' I saw someone standing outside the dorm rooms.
'You are the first son of Duke Lyness am I correct?' It was that girl I saw earlier in the exam who was very adept at using ice magic.
'Yes I am indeed the first son of Duke Lyness, I am in awe of your beauty Ms Hyetta. Please marry me.' It seemed that the first son of Duke Lyness whose name escapes me but Hyetta was a daughter of Marquis Carillen. She was an excellent battle mage who specialised in pure ice damage. I never used her though because she wasn't suited to my playstyle.
'I can't believe someone as low as you would even dare to suggest that. Get out of my sight.' That guy was pissed you could tell it. He raised his hand and started gathering mana in that hand. It was time for me to step in.
'Neutralise.' The mana that started to gather in his hand dispersed. He was visibly annoyed.
'How dare you! You dare mock me? The first son of Duke Lyness!' He was preparing to cast more spells. 'Oh Flame Goddess bring me victory!' He shot multiple fireballs at me. I dodged out of way. It wasn't too difficult because his aim was sloppy and I had my Enhanced Senses talent.
'Dark Chain!' I bound him with my chains. He was stuck in place. I lit up a flame in my hand. 'Are you sure you would like to fight with me? The 2nd son of Duke Xander?' I let him go.
'It's you! You'll regret this Mordred!' He ran away like a coward. When I looked around for Hyetta she was already gone.
Not even a thank you? You gotta be kidding me. I sighed. It was getting late, the moon was high in the sky. I need some sleep I'm tired. When I got back though Edgar was sitting on the couch in the lounge. I figured it would be a good opportunity to become friends with him. Edgar was the gentle giant sort of character so it was actually really easy to make friends with him.
'Hey, Edgar.' He looked surprised that I was talking to him first.
'Hi Mordred, congrats on your number 2 place.'
'Thanks! Congratulations to you too! I hear you're really strong and can take a hit! Hope to get to know you better!' I smiled and extended my hand, he was a bit taken aback at first but also smiled and shook my hand.'
'I'm looking forward to working together with you too Mordred!'
I went back into my room. Glad that situation is finished. Alright, class will be starting tomorrow. I have two swordsmanship classes, one magic theory class and one magic application class. One exciting thing that happened was that when I increased myself to 5 circles my mana capacity had almost doubled. It would enable me to use higher tier spells than earlier. It would make sure that I would absolutely crush the competition.
I was still worried about Vitori's ring that was living rent-free on my index finger, but it couldn't do much harm, after all my endurance was rock bottom anyways. I wonder if I could use that red aura Leon could? Wait, what happened to Leon? I passed out so I didn't know. Shit, he could still be roaming around killing people. I started panicking. What if he's killed, people? No way, he couldn't recover that fast right? I mean I destroyed him, oh fuck. For some reason, I was only thinking about it now. Well, I hope it just blows over and no one gets hurt.