THE SIMULATION HAS ENDED.
Neon colored words appeared in front of Nick as the space warped, revealing a room with four white colored walls. Nick dropped to the floor, lying on his back while panting.
(That battle was absolutely thrilling. If I hadn't thought to use one of my knives in a defensive manner, I probably would have lost. Speaking of my knives where are the ones that I dropped?)
Nick looked around but only saw his two briefcases in one of the corners of the room along with his backpack that he usually carried everywhere with him. Nick rested for ten minutes then left the room to speak with the clerk.
"During my simulation, I used some throwing knives to win the battle. I didn't see them in my room after the simulation ended, so where are they?"
The clerk looked at Nick and spoke:
"Give me a moment, let me check our records."
The clerk spent a minute on his computer looking through the building's electronic records and then addressed Nick's concerns:
"It seems that your knives were magically altered during your simulation and the overseers decided to not have them remain in the room once the simulation ended because they did not recognize the spell that you used to alter the knives. The knives are currently being stored in the building's storage area but considering how they've been altered, they will be scrapped if you do not request them back. Do you want them back?"
Nick thought for a moment:
(I used Big on those knives and since I have no way currently of reducing their size back to their original, I should just let them be scrapped and buy some more knives when I leave this building.)
"No need, scrap them. I want my next simulation to have a different terrain, also, if you could give me Apprentice Magicians with different attack patterns and combat formations, I would like that to be done."
The clerk nodded his head and spent about a minute to input Nick's request into his computer.
"Your request was approved. Please re-enter room 21 to start the simulation."
Nick smiled lightly and turned around, walking towards room 21. When he entered and closed the door behind him, the space warped and he found himself within a well lit cavern lined with sharp mud colored rocks. Nick held the shoulder straps of his vest, looking at the scenery.
(This place looks pretty nice. I don't see any enemies but there are clearly many places to hide. I count thirteen columns made of rock in this cavern, stretching from the floor to the ceiling. There is also a pool of water at the upper left corner of the cavern. I should take the initiative to actively check my surroundings.)
Nick walked towards one of the thirteen columns trying to get a better understanding of his surroundings. When he reached within 10 meters of the column, a pillar of rock was launched at high speed towards Nick's position. Nick dodge by jumping to the side; because of his experience in the last simulation, Nick was becoming accustomed to dodging without falling onto the ground. As soon as Nick's feet touched the ground, he ran fifteen meters away from the columns and collected himself. He looked at the pillar that had jutted out toward him and swallowed his own saliva. The pillar of stone pierce the ground at a point that would have definitely resulted in Nick being impaled if he had not dodge the attack.
(Who launched that attack?)
Nick couldn't see the Magicians that launched the attack but he knew that he should stay away from the columns unless he wanted to be skewered. Suddenly, from behind Nick there was a rumbling sound. Nick looked on with horror as crescent shaped portions of the ground violently jutted out two meters into the air in sequence while coming towards him. The effect of this spell was so wide that there was no way that Nick could dodge this attack by running to the side without the risk of getting caught up in its aftermath so he was forced to run forward towards the thirteen columns again. When he reached within eight meters of a column, his position was such that he could see each column's rocky surface clearly; the earth that was jutting out from the ground ferociously a moment ago suddenly ceased moving and the area became quiet but as soon as Nick felt relieved and took a step forward, all thirteen columns launched a spiked pillar made of stone towards his position. All thirteen pillars of stone approached Nick at high speed.
"What the fuck?"
Nick acted quickly and stuck one of his knives into the ground.
(Big.)
The knife expanded in all directions becoming a thick steel structure firmly rooted into the ground.
TING TING TING TING...
As the spike pillars hit the now enlarged knife, the impact created sounds that intimidated Nick but each pillar was blocked, preventing them from reaching his position. Nick looked at his enlarge knife and could see cracks spreading through it.
(Hmmm...I didn't notice before but when my knife extends through the ground, it's like it does so with almost no resistance. I think I understand the phenomenon, from my experiences thus far I can tell that must be a characteristic of rule magic. It alters physical laws to ensure that its own laws take effect as if the new circumstances are exactly as they should be. That explains why when I move with my knives and use Big on them, my momentum and acceleration isn't slowed even though the weight and the mass of the knives change; that's probably because if those physical quantities suddenly had an effect on the circumstances, they might inhibit the growth of my knife as I've directed.)
As Nick used his spell, he was gaining a better understanding of rule magic. Nick quickly ran away from his position to a position farthest at the left side of the room, making it awkward for half of the columns to attack him again with pillars of stone if they wanted to. Nick stopped as he reached the rocky cavern wall and looked at the rocky, stone columns. Nick wore a cold expression as he saw life like human figures made of stone jut out from the rocky columns looking at him, smiling at his pathetic state. Nick felt a chill go down his spine as looked at those figures. The next moment Nick felt a quaking on the wall; suddenly, the rock wall jutted out at several places, forming an enclosed space around Nick. Nick wasn't able to see what happened clearly before his vision turned dark but from the perspective of the stone figures attached to the rocky columns, a stone face emerged from the cavern wall, using its mouth to capture Nick; the stone face smiled as it moved the insides of its mouth to grind the person inside.
SIMULATION ENDED. A FATAL EVENT HAS OCCURRED.
When Nick's vision returned, he found himself sitting on the floor of the white walled room staring at the ceiling with a blank expression. Nick stayed in that position for about a minute before he clenched his fist and shouted:
"I'll fight them again until I beat those fuckers!"
..........
At around 5:30 pm Nick emerged from room 21 with a listless expression on his face. He had spent hours fighting in the same simulation but he had been killed over and over again. He did the same simulation about nine times before he ran out of throwing knives. Nick left the simulation building and made his way towards the weapons store.
(I lost in my last simulated battles because I don't yet have a versatile arsenal of spells. There is only so much that I can do with only one spell, Big, that I have not even had that much experience using. Sigh, that will have to be all the practice that I do for today. After the exam is over tomorrow, I should begin working on other spells to make my self stronger.)
Nick entered the weapon's store with his two brief cases and spoke to the clerk:
"I would like to buy another set of 100 throwing knives like the ones that I picked up this morning."
The clerk nodded and asked Nick for his student ID. Nick made a payment to the store using the academy's mobile app. The clerk made some changes to the store's records and after seeing Nick's electronic receipt, took one of Nick's transport briefcases and went through the door located a few meters behind his desk. While the clerk was gone, Nick took the opportunity to take off his vest and placed it into his other briefcase. The clerk returned five minutes later with his transport briefcase filled with 100 new throwing knives. With this purchase, Nick only had £10,000 left in his bank account.
(I need more money.)
Nick had that thought but wasn't sure how to earn more without Marsha yet so he threw the thought to the back of his mind. Nick thanked the clerk and then used the academy's app's map function to search for the directions to the animal store. That store was where he had gotten the bird that he had used to test his scroll on. Speaking of that bird, Nick had left it flying around in his room yesterday but when he returned home that evening, he found it dead in a corner of the room; it probably starved to death because Nick had forgotten to feed it. Nick threw its carcass out of his window, thinking:
(My bad birdy, but out of sight, out of mind.)
Nick made his way towards the animal store and when he entered he went directly to one of the three clerks at the counter and spoke:
"Good evening, I want to have a look at the dangerous animals that you sell in this store."
The clerk nodded his head and guided Nick through the door at the side of the room. They both walked through a tiled hallway until they got to a warehouse like room that was filled with cages and animals. The cages had various animals, from raccoons to honey badgers. Amidst all the growling, Nick walked to a cage and pointed at a sleeping animal, saying:
"This is the one that I want."
The clerk indifferently looked at the animal, then at Nick. A tablet computer suddenly appeared in his hands and after he checked the store's records, he spoke:
"This animal's price is £8,000. Let me remind you that all of our animals have spells cast on them and if they try to harm other students or staff within the academy grounds during a non-authorized battle, the animal will immediately die. Also, to have the animal transported, there will be an extra cost."
Nick paid the £8,000 to the store using the academy's app and showed the electronic receipt to the clerk. Nick said confidently:
"No need for your store to transport the animal."
Nick took out a scroll from his backpack; it was a copy of the same scroll that he used on the bird to store it yesterday. Nick unfurled the scroll and willed its activation. The laws on the scroll moved around on the page, forming a cage made of laws and in the next moment the large, burly animal inside the steel cage in front of Nick appeared in the scroll's cage looking like a drawing made of ink.
Nick looked at the trapped animal on his scroll and whispered.
"Gotta catch em all, Pokemon. Ha, ha."
The clerk looked at the spectacle with slightly wide opened eyes and asked:
"Sir, where did you get that scroll?"