The library was empty. Everyone was still outside, too tired from watching the competition. The mistress guarding the library eyed Vega pointedly. He bowed and mouthed apologies and went straight to the second floor.
The stairs were located just behind the desk, where the mistress was. Vega glanced at the unassuming door next to it and remembered the formations that made him hallucinate and showed his talent in the elements.
Even before reaching the second floor, he had to go through a formation. After he scanned his medal and the formation allowed him through, he passed it and shuddered. The hair on his body stood up at the temperature difference. Somehow, more mountains meant a colder area.
The second floor had fewer books compared to the ones on the first floor. Even the shelves were not as tall, and he could overlook the other side of the shelves.
He flipped some books closest to him, frowned, and put them back. He thought that gods and goddesses were nonexistent in the magical world of adepts. But from the looks of it, the adepts believed a divinity existed and was so special that they put the books about it on the second floor.
More fairytales. One book was actually titled "The Fairy Kingdoms."
After browsing the first shelves and not finding anything he needed, he went straight to the alcoves on the far back of the second floor. Browsing the list of spells from the special information crystal, he saw several useful spells with a tremendous amount of points needed.
Compared to the first floor, where all the spells are free, high-level apprentices were expected to do a lot of missions to contribute to the academy. In exchange, the academy can give you more knowledge to advance. No wonder when he was stranded on the shipwreck, Mistress Vin looked forward to giving him away, hoping he had some talents for her points.
After browsing through the spells, Vega made sure to note all the spells names to browse at a later date. Of course, being one of the academies focusing on water elements, several hundred three-dimensional spells showed up, showing how versatile the water element was.
After reading the spells carefully, he used the points he gained from winning his first competition. Luckily, it was enough for only one of the cheapest spells. He chose another water elemental spell to gain an advantage in the second round of competition.
The spell would give him the edge over his enemy by creating and summoning water from the air around him and using it as his weapon. The problem with getting water from the obvious source, his pouch, is that the enemy could see where the water was coming from, which is why his air blade gave him the better advantage when fighting the enemy head-on.
In his room, the bigger space was unusual for him. He already replaced the bed with the furnishings he bought from the west, but he felt the room was still lacking something. Opening the back door, he saw the lake reflecting the trees and the whole area around them.
After sitting down on the comfortable pillow, he took out the spell scroll and studied the models drawn on the paper. The model had three different parts scattered around the pages. He needed to completely memorize the models in his mind and tried to change the models around to create different three-dimensional models.
After making sure he had the first image clear in his mind, he moved the model around to figure out what was different about it. This one looked a little crooked to the right, and when he started to turn it around, he saw different sides of the spell model.
He did the same with the second and third pictures, making sure to keep everything in his mind. After the image swirled, he had to combine them in the correct order; otherwise, the image would break apart and he would have had to start from the beginning.
On the first try, it cracked and gave him a backlash, making his head hurt. The second time, he managed to combine two models together, but he lost his concentration, and the backlash appeared again. Remembering his mentor's words carefully, he willed his heart into a state of stillness to stop any distraction.
After he put all the models together, the wind swirled around him and condensed the humidity, turning it into several ice particles that got absorbed inside his body.
####
On the grand platform, the competition almost started. Luckily, he had his medal and was being led to the highest platform, where his mentor had sat before. Unfortunately, his mentor didn't come. Looking around, he didn't see any elders sitting in their own place.
He waved toward Philip and mouthed, Where are their mentors? Philip shrugged and shook his head. Something felt wrong. He was normally too ignorant of what happened around him, but not this time.
The competition is supposed to be very famous, and no one will miss watching it. Normally even the misters and mistresses would try to find any apprentices they would pick to be their apprentices. But on the second platform, which was supposed to be reserved for the adepts, it was also empty.
Only Mister Grondor floated around above the platform and, with a booming voice, welcomed them for the second round of competition.
"You have to gather as many magic stones as you can. Everything is allowed. Remember, the winner will be decided on the third day. If you don't go back then, you will be disqualified."
Vega was shocked upon hearing the rules. It was basically testing their ability to use their knowledge to battle creatures or even his own friends. The worst thing would be if the polished or even flawless high-level apprentices ambushed him; he would be as good as dead.
Together, all the winners from the previous round gathered around the academy's gate and readied themselves to hide. Everyone had one tiny, clear ball floating around their heads. A sigil to watch their movements around the forests.
Vega just got back from the forest, but he had to go back there to gather magic stones from the creatures and bring them back to the academy for the sake of the competition. He felt bad for the creatures in the forest, being surrounded by around twenty apprentices in total.
Hopefully, he was lucky enough to get one of the rare magic stones from the creatures in the forest. When the bell rang, the apprentices looked at each other and ran, hiding inside the forest.
Vega ran inside while swatting the leaves left and right. He heard the sounds from the apprentices, who went deeper inside the forest to look for their first prey.
With his non-existent muscle, Vega climbed on top of the trees with the help of the platform made of ice he summoned under his feet. He created a platform and controlled them to be used as stairs, making it easier for him to reach the top of the branches.
On top of the tree, he looked around and jumped to the closest branches. And went deeper faster than the other apprentices. Of course, some apprentices had their spells to improve their speeds, but their sights were limited because of the trees around them.
Vega jumped from one tree to another. With the help of the ice platform, it made it easier for him to move around like he was moving on the ground.
A chittering sound stopped him from moving further. He hid behind the huge truck and let his spells get ready.
A vine struck him from the top, but he used his air blade to cut the vine from reaching him. The chittering sound grew louder, and now three vines struck him together from different angles. Waving his hand around, the vines split.
He finally saw the assailants: three three-eyed monkeys eyed him from different trees. They are still low-level creatures, but being surrounded was still difficult for him. Whistling, he made the two monkeys look dizzy, and their eyes moved around looking confused.
Vega summoned one ice spear and aimed it toward one of the monkeys, who focused its three eyes on him, looking at him menacingly. The monkey moved fast and dodged his spear, making it crash toward the tree behind the monkey.
It hissed and lounged, approaching him with its tail striking the trunk, summoning another vine, and striking Vega on the head. The tail moved too fast, and Vega felt the ringing in his ears.
Summoning another ice platform, he jumped toward another branch while creating two ice needles and striking the monkey hard. One missed and struck the confused monkey behind him. The other needle curled upward and stabbed the first monkey in the head.
Luckily, the monkeys weren't comparable with the squirrels and the boars, but in turn, their speed made up for their lack of defense. They two monkeys shrieked louder, waking up their friend, who was still dizzy from the sound Vega had made previously.
He had to finish the fight quickly. Now three monkeys were glaring at him menacingly, showing their sharp teeth. Their eyes turned red, and Vega felt the strong fluctuation around the mana around him.
The three-eyed monkeys had one special attack that combined their mana together, creating a stronger attack. Vega took out a hidden sigil and controlled the effect around his barrage of ice needles. The sigils were powerful and hid all traces of spells around him.
Thirty ice needles in total were not an easy feat. He felt his stomach churn, making him dizzy. With his last control over the spells, he shot the invisible needles toward each monkey, shooting them around their heads.
The three eyes on their heads were a huge target. With their focus on their spells, the monkeys didn't realize something was shooting toward them fast. With ten needles stabbing their eyes together, the monkey fell from the trees with their head ruined.
Vega went down the trunk and saw the unsightly view around the forest floor. The corpses of the monkeys littered the ground, their heads missing from their bodies. The fall broke their strong limbs, making them lie on the ground in a weird position.
He took out a knife from his ring and used the cold metal to slice the monkey's belly open. After feeling the soft organs around his first monkey, he didn't find any stones and moved toward another one of his victims.
The second monkey didn't have any magic stones; even after their insides were brought out, he didn't find any magic stones from the second monkey. Luckily, on the third monkey, while Vega was groping around the belly, he felt something solid and hard and took it out.
The purple stone was only as small as his nail. A magic stone is totally different from magic crystals. While magic crystals had pure mana contained inside, the magic stones were the source of their mana condensing into the creature's body.
The problem was, most of the time, a creature would just die, releasing all their mana toward their surroundings and depleting their stones. So magic stones were really rare. Only in the right condition could one find an intact magic stone inside a creature's stomach.
While Vega observed the magic stone in his hand, someone snuck behind the trees, eyeing the purple magic stone with greed. He twirled his hand, summoning a flaming spear, and shot it toward the squatting apprentice.
Vega felt the air around him change and didn't manage to dodge the flaming spear completely. The fire seared his sides, making him smell like burning meat. Grimacing from the pain, Vega looked where the attack came from and shouted, "Who?"