Two months later.
.......
Nick was standing in his room at 4 am on a Monday morning sweating and panting after doing a few reps of pushups. Nick turned to a mirror that he had on the door of his closet and looked at the progress he had made with his physique. He had been doing reps of pushups for about two years now and even though he did not start with a good foundation, being barely able to get decent food to feed himself when he was living with his grandaunt, his arm muscles were now fairly developed. So were his chest and shoulder muscles and based on how easy it was becoming to do his daily exercises, his upper body strength had increased by at at least 30 percent. Nick knew how big of a deal that was, assuming that he had average strength for a male his age, that means that his physical strength was now 30 percent above the average male; that's a significant improvement. Nick looked at his toned upper body and felt satisfied. He went to the bathroom to take a shower and when he was finished he got dressed and sat at his desk to think about his progress in the last two months.
(The last two months sure have been difficult. I've only managed to complete half of my goals and I have only made slight progress in becoming a rank two Apprentice Magician. I heard from Marsha that every one else in the top ranks of our year has become a rank 2 Apprentice Magician including herself while I'm the odd one out, still being stuck at rank one.)
In the past two months, Nick tried to modify his first three spells so that he could cast them himself instead of using scrolls but he failed in that regard. Apparently the complexity involved in creating a spell cast by an actual Magician was many times more difficult than creating a spell used via a scroll for various reasons that Nick did not yet fully understand. Since his understanding of rule magic had increased, he was also better able to appraise those spells and the results disappointed him. The laws used to create the spells were so full of 'holes' that it was embarrassing, he could see them and he was only a rank one Apprentice Magician with limited training. Although his spells looked great when they were activated with a scroll, they were actually not that powerful; if not for the fact that Don Bartholomew did not have a way to protect against rule magic and was most likely ignorant of it, Nick would have definitely lost during the last exam. Using the scrolls against an experienced Apprentice Magician would definitely lead to him losing. To modify the spells into better versions that he could cast himself would be the same as creating different spells so Nick abandoned that project and decided to work on creating a spell based on the inspiration that he got during his soul state after interacting with Big.
Two weeks ago he was successful in creating an initial version of his new spell using the inspiration he had gotten from his soul state. It was like he had someone subtly guiding him as to what to do at the really important parts where he needed to theorize how the spell would work in order to establish realistic conclusions. Nick had written the spell's last laws last night after two weeks of continuous improvements and modifications. He would go out to test it in a few hours. His named his new spell 'Big'.
The other thing that he had to be concerned about was the agreement that he had with Marsha. Creating a magic scroll using the translation was easier than Nick thought it would be, probably because he had so much practice with using Valteese in the past year. Nick took up a magic scroll at the side of his desk and moved towards a covered up cage in a corner of his room. The cage was small, probably less than four feet in height and about two feet in width. Nick took the cloth off from over the cage which revealed a small bird standing on a perch inside the cage. Nick didn't bother opening the cage because the magic scroll he was holding worked based on space magic. Nick unfurled the scroll and willed, the laws on the scroll started moving around until they formed a small cage. The bird inside Nick's cage then disappeared and the image of a bird drawn in ink appeared inside the cage on the scroll.
"Success?"
Nick willed again and this time the scroll crumbled. The bird appeared in midair flapping its wings and moving around the room. Nick looked at it and scratched his head.
(How am I supposed to catch it now? releasing the bird inside my room was really stupid...sigh.)
Nick was glad that at least the scroll worked. That was not the only benefit that Nick got from creating it; Nick could feel the magic energy that radiated from the scroll.
"So that was space magic. When we were teleported during the mid-year exam, I did not feel any magic energy during the whole process, probably because I did not have a mindscape yet. Space magic is pretty interesting. Ideally one could cast spells hitting targets no matter the distance or objects between them. Too bad that persons with a high enough affinity with it are rare. Come, to think of it, do you even need a high affinity with a type of magic energy to practice it? Probably not, but doing so without the affinity would probably be difficult."
(Hmmm...I should give learning a type of magic that people have a rare affinity for but is still known a chance? I have to admit that the difficulty in doing so is what makes it enticing.)
Nick considered it for a while and decided to put those thoughts to the back of his mind for now. Nick picked up his phone and called Marsha Cassidy. The phone rung for a while and then the call went through.
"Hello Marsha, this is Nick. I've completed the scrolls for the storage spell. I guarantee their quality and I can sell you two for 20,000 pounds sterling each. So what do you think?"
Marsha could be heard cheering after Nick spoke.
"I new you could do it Nick, also you don't have to say your name every time you call me. You do know that i have caller ID, right? Anyway, I agree on the price but I'm busy doing something right now since the end of year exam is just two days away so could you bring the scrolls to my dorm room please?"
Normally Nick wouldn't want to go to Marsha's dorm room but the allure of 40,000 pounds cancelled out his common sense.
(I've never even seen so much money before and she's just going to spend that much on two scrolls. Sure enough, comparisons between persons are odious.)
"Fine, I'll bring the scrolls to your dorm room. Just give me the name of the building and the room number. I have other things to do as well so we should make this a quick transaction."
Marsha sounded pleased at Nick's agreement.
"It's the Merry Weather dorm, room 6. The dorm is near the entrance to the academy so you shouldn't have much trouble finding it. Oh, and since I'm busy, I'll leave the door unlocked for you. Just enter when you get there and close the door behind you."
Nick felt a little weird about that arrangement but ignored his feelings because he just wanted to get the money.
"Alright."
Nick assented and hung up the phone. Nick didn't want to waste anymore time since he still had to test out his new spell and like Marsha said, the exam was only two weeks away. Nick got dressed and left his room to go to the cafeteria. He bought a chocolate covered donut, eating it while walking and headed to the Mary Weather dorm. He arrived there twenty minutes later and after asking around he found out the location of the elevator which he took to the first floor. The hallway of the first floor was quiet and Nick did not see anyone so he simply walked up to the door that had a big '6' engraved on it and was painted in purple. Nick knocked on the door but received no answer; there seemed to be music playing inside. Nick remembered what Marsha said and decided to enter on his own. The door was unlocked so he turned the knob and it opened; he went inside and closed the door behind him thinking:
(This is all for the sake of the 40,000 pounds. Let's get this over with.)
Nick walked into the living room/bedroom that all the dorm rooms had and instantly regretted it. On the bed he saw Marsha and another girl in a compromising position. The other woman had long red hair, white skin and was naked; she was bent over moaning on the bed in a way that allowed Nick to see her from behind. Marsha was naked along with the other woman and was bent over behind the woman with her head between the woman's legs licking her vagina. Nick looked on for about ten seconds before shouting:
"What the fuck Marsha!"
Marsha and the other woman was alerted and both jumped up. The other woman seemed surprised and quickly tried to get dressed.
"Hold it!"
Exclaimed Marsha motioning the other woman to stop what she was doing.
"I'm not done yet so you should just go into the bathroom to wash up for round two."
The other woman complied with Marsha's words and went into the bathroom, closing the door. Marsha turned the music off and looked at Nick, still naked and spoke:
"Not bad, right? That woman is one of the bottom rankers and has been trying to gain my favor, trying to get protection for the upcoming exam. She came over to do some chores for me and I made an offer she couldn't refuse. That's all there is to this."
Nick looked at Marsha in the eye, feeling awkward because she was naked and spoke grudgingly:
"This is what you meant by being busy? That's messed up Marsha. You left the door unlocked so that I would walk in on you guys didn't you? Are you a pervert?"
Marsha laughed at Nick while putting on a robe she took up from the floor.
"Ha, Ha, man you are so uptight. I didn't think that I'd bother doing this but I've been stressed recently and needed a release so I took the initiative. Anyway, You have the scrolls right, just place them on the table; text me your banking info and I'll make the transfer."
Nick couldn't be bothered to argue with Marsha. Nick thought that she was such an earnest and clumsy woman before even though she was a little calculating but looks are clearly deceiving. Nick placed two scrolls on the table in the corner of the room and sent his banking information to Marsha via text. Marsha took only a few seconds to make the transfer. When Nick saw the money in his account, he couldn't help but internally rejoice despite the weirdness of his current situation. Marsha looked at Nick and spoke:
"I'll use the scrolls later. Since I know you wouldn't lie to me about their quality, I won't bother asking you to demonstrate them and also I can easily feel the space magic coming from them anyway. Just like I said the last time we met, in the future when my grandfather sends me scrolls, I'll let you examine them if you are willing to recreate them and sell me a few copies of the new scrolls."
Nick nodded in agreement. Marsha gave a bright smile and spoke:
"Now that business is out of the way, why don't you help yourself to that girl in the bathroom as a favor from me? Don't worry, we already have an agreement in place so she'll comply with whatever you want, just don't play too much with her butt and she's fine with anything. Ha, ha."
Nick looked at Marsha chuckling after what she just said and sighed internally.
(Sigh...apparently people that come from wealthy families seem to have varying perverseness about them. Well, that's none of my business. I just have to remember to be careful when interacting with other students and no more meeting with other students inside their dorm rooms or I might end up like that girl in the bathroom. As for Marsha's suggestion of using that girl...I'll pass. I've got to say, to a virgin like me it's really tempting but I'm definitely not going to go along with what Marsha wants.)
"I'll pass. Call me when you have other scrolls."
Nick turned around to leave and Marsha waved him goodbye.
"See you later, my new best friend."
When Nick left the room, Marsha locked the door and punched it. There was a loud thud.
"That faggot refused my offer. Hmph, putting on airs because he has some skills. If he had done what I wanted him to, I could have used the opportunity to fuck him myself and use my new enchanting tool to make him a 'little' more compliant. I won't rush things again. I'll definitely make that guy into one of my useful little tools."
Marsha looked at the bathroom door and shouted:
"Get out here bitch. I'm stressed out again, I'll be making use of all your holes this time."
........
Nick had left the Mary Weather dorm and headed to one of the academy's magical combat buildings. These were buildings where magic was used to simulate combat situations such as monster attacks and human conflicts. Apprentice Magicians occasionally used them to practice their spell casting. Nick got to the arena like building and went inside. There were apparently many rooms for use to accommodate the academy's large population of Magicians. Nick went up to the male clerk and spoke:
"I would like a room outfitted with a large monster and rocky terrain, please."
The clerk did something on his computer and responded:
"No problem sir, please go to room 21 for the simulation. You have to scan your ID card at the door to unlock it."
Nick nodded his head and went to room 21. He scanned his student ID at the door and entered the room at which point the door closed behind him. The scene in front of Nick appeared to be that of a large valley with rocks all around. Nick walked around for a few minutes before he heard a loud noise approaching from above. Nick looked up to see a large hairy body falling from the sky onto the hard valley floor at which point a lot of dust was raised into the air. Nick used the opportunity to find an elevated position where he could see the supposed monster clearly. There were paths carved into the valley wall leading to platforms protruding from the walls that Nick could use to stand on so he ran up one of those paths and found his way onto a high platform. Looking down, Nick saw the largest rat he had ever seen in his life. It had to weigh several tonnes, it had sharp looking yellow teeth and all of its four long limbs were outfitted with razor sharp claws that cut the stone ground when it moved. Nick's heart skipped a beat when the giant rat looked up towards him.
(Good thing that this is just a simulation, huh?)
Nick picked up a small pebble and jumped off the platform, going down towards the rat. The giant rat looked at Nick falling, staying still waiting for Nick to come to him. Nick held the pebble out in front of him and whispered:
"Big."
A set of laws glowing with brick red light appeared in midair within Nick's mindscape and his blue sea of magic became turbulent decreasing at a visible rate. Nick clearly intended to use a massive amount of magic energy on this spell. Nick let go of the pebble in his hand and as he was about a dozen meters from the rat, the pebble started growing to an enormous size, within a second the small pebble had become the size of one quarter of the valley, falling quickly and heavily on the rat. The large stone fell with a heavy thud and there was a splat, popping sound that could be heard shortly after that.
SIMULATION ENDED
Were the large neon colored letters that appeared in front of Nick as he continued his descent.
(Oh, shit. I forgot to think about how I was going to land.)
As Nick was going to fall harshly on the stone that he had enlarged, the space inside the valley warped causing him to appear standing on the ground within a normal white walled room.
(Oh, space magic again. I never get tired of seeing it.)