"You want me to be your friend, of course." Chris nearly screamed in joy.
'I cannot believe it, I've been trying to make a friend all this while a....."
Bla bla bla
With that, Zain made his first friend. It was quite easier than he expected, for the fact that he thought of Chris to one who is unapproachable.
From books he read, flame mages always are a pain in the butt. When we talk of arrogant, proud, name it, thaey are the one, but they are as well backed with power.
Even upon all these qualities, when they become friends with someone, they always turn out to be loyal, which was why Zain decided to try his luck and unexpectedly, it favored him.
So, before we make our friendship official, I have a question to ask.
Zain placed his hand on his chin, wondering what Chris had to ask. "Go on."
"What is your magic and what level are you at?"
"Hey, that's two questions," Zain argued. "Not fair. Anyway, I have the magic of elements, and for my level... I still haven't learned how to even sense the magic."
"So it's level 0, I guess."
"Yeah, more like that," Zain agreed.
"We won't be hanging around much. I am planning to make connections with powerful people who can help me get stronger and maybe gain some connections outside the school – not weak people who won't benefit me in any way," Chris explained.
"Oh, that makes sense, I guess," Zain agreed with a forced smile, trying to hide his disappointment.
"You may leave now. We'll hang out later." With that said, Chris raised his book upward covering his face and started reading again like he was earlier before Zain came.
***
"That's one half-failed attempt, damn you all," Zain cursed. "Wherever I go, I keep seeing reason to get stronger."
As Zain walked through the street close to his dorm, he just couldn't keep his frustration in.
"Screw you all! Screw you, damn unreasonable mages, screw this world!"
"I thought I'll live my happily ever after in the world I dream about, in the mage world but the this."
"What disappointment is worse than this?"
"I'll get stronger, I'll get stronger, and reject you all, you useless creatures." Zain screamed to the sky as he knelt at the empty street.
"I'll learn my magic and screw the..."
Zain paused as he stared at his wrist, glowing. The stat sticker is activating something.
Suddenly, a holographic display of floating letters came into his view, being projected by his stat sticker.
The heading read 'store'. Following the was 'books.'
The first book title his eyes met made him remember what he read from the Lowaling book.
- the school is always watching.
"They heard what I said, every word I said, the administrators of the school. The school is truly watching."
Looking at the holographic display, Zain observed the first set of books.
- Citadel of fire
- Citadel of earth
- Citadel of water
- Citadel of air
"Whoever brought up this book knows my magic, I am surprised."
"Citadel of fire!" Zain called out and it obeyed; more information about the fire magic popped out.
[Analyzing]
[Interpreting command]
[Citadel of fire: this is a book that contains all the basic information a fire mage needs in order to evolve from the basic rank 0 to the common rank 1.]
[Purchase amount: 1,000 points]
"Now this is interesting, but I unfortunately cannot purchase this for the time being. But damn, I truly can get stronger."
"This will teach me right from how to connect with my core to how to master my connection to the level where I can freely use magic."
"I can get stronger, I just need to gain some of these points."
"Now, how do I gain these points?"
"How can I gain these points?" Zain questioned, half expecting an answer which eventually came.
[The following ways are how to gain points in the Lowaling academy]
[1: partaking in class activity]
"Answering questions in class, showing potential, hard work, and talent in the classroom towards what is being taught to you by the teacher helps you gain stat point because the teacher gifts students points whenever they are impressed."
[2: killing beasts]
"During bi-weekly tests that will be conducted by the school, every beast killed during that period will help you gain points."
"These are the two most effective ways to gain points in the school."
"So this is how it is then," Zain slowly rose up from the ground.
"Now that I think of it, why do I feel so emotionally weak? This is literally my first day of school and here I am, sulking."
"Sulking for being weak, sulking for not making friends." A forced grin appeared on his face.
"My journey barely even began!"
Moving through the empty streets, Zain finally arrived at his dorm.
"This useless room," Zain cursed, but suddenly, his eyes lit up in realization. "This might prove quite handy."
"The school has a library that provides a ton of completely free books with different purposes. How come I never thought of this?"
"Among all those books, I can end up finding out something that can help me in combat. No, I'll definitely find one."
"That library is jam-packed with shelves filled with books that will definitely help me."
Zain turned around, staring behind him. "I better hurry, I don't know how long the library is open for. I'll hate to go there late and miss today's opportunity."
Running back towards where he was coming from, Zain was deep in thought. "It's already evening, clearly past 4. I need to hurry."
Although Zain still doesn't know the exact direction of the library, he still got there pretty fast before it was dark. The school truly is a massive one, and for the fact that Zain managed to get there by this time, he was fast.
Darting into the library through the big wide-open doors, Zain's eyes scanned through the interior of the building.
It is a wide and spacious room that is filled with doors at the beginning, five doors by the left and another five directly facing them making it seem like a wide passage.
"I have no time to bother about these d..." Zain paused as he slowly turned towards the first door by the right. Above it lies a small wooden flat tab that stated what the purpose of it.
Its purpose is 'reading.'
"This is where I found Chris reading when I first got here. So it was the room's purpose after all."
Shifting his gaze, he looked at the next room which had 'fiction-based book search.'
And then the third door, which had 'nonfiction-based book search.'
Then the fourth one read, 'history book search,' and then the last one which read: 'combat-based book search.'
"Just what I was looking for," Zain smirked. "My room is quite spacious, spacious enough for me to establish my mini training ground inside of it."
"All I need is to temporarily get a book from this library and learn it. Maybe with this, I won't need to purchase any book with points."
Zain remembered for sure one fact about the library he learned from the Lowaling book, "the library presses no charge, everything is free."