Nick went to the academy bookstore and purchased a pack of multicolored chalks and then proceeded to his dorm, stopping at the cafeteria to have a meal of fried chicken, gravy, mash potatoes and vegetables. After his uneventful meal, Nick went straight to his room where he threw his backpack on his bed and spoke to Slade:
"Let's get my soul fixed as soon as possible, I still have to return the space band that I am using to store Sahashi's corpse."
Slade replied:
[I will be placing the outline for the formation that you are going to be using among your thoughts. Ensure that you draw the symbols correctly as there can be no deviation if the repairing process is to work. The mystical language used in the formation is a rather complex and dangerous one so don't bother trying to decipher it or you will hurt yourself, literally. Any questions?]
Nick thought for a moment.
"Since I'm now a scholar in soul magic, should I be able to use a similar formation to deal with the tampering that was done to my soul?"
[Theoretically, yes, but you don't have such a formation, you don't know how to invent one as creating formations is a vast field in its own right and you may have some understanding of soul magic but without enough experience, trying to undo the workings of a Regular Magician at your rank is a dream.]
"Ha, ha. I was only speaking in terms of possibilities, you're right. I'll start drawing the formation now."
Nick spent the next three hours carefully drawing the formation that would supposedly repair his soul. The mystical language that the formation was based on was indeed completely unknown to Nick and the arrangement of the symbols did appear complex so there were many times that Nick had to erase them and then draw them over again. After three hours, he finally had a circular formation made of symbols that seemed right.
"Why do these formations look like the magic circles that I saw in TV shows that I used to watch, even the formation used during the end of year exam looked like a magic circle? Do all formations look like this?"
[Not necessarily. I don't know anything about 'TV shows' but formations are usually created to the tastes and biases of the inventor so any similarities are probably a coincidence.]
[Alright, kid, now that you're done drawing the laws, we can get to the next step. Most formations need some sort of magical base in order to work such as items filled with magic or magical laws or an environment or living mass with those laws and/or magic. The formation is like a catalyst but we need elements for some kind of reaction. One of the elements we are going to use is you and the other will be the corpse of the Rank 6 Hero Magician that is filled with laws related to soul magic. Take out the corpse from your soul band and place it in the center of the formation.]
Nick did as Slade said, taking out Sahashi Miyamoto's corpse and placing it at the center of the formation. The formation had a radius of about two meters and was situated in Nick's living/bedroom but since the only furniture that Nick had to speak of was a bed and a desk, the formation was drawn without obstruction.
[Now sit beside the corpse and start chanting the words that I'm about to place in your thoughts. As I mentioned before, the process of repairing your soul is going to hurt but you cannot stop during the process because failure would likely have dire consequences for you. Do you understand?]
Nick swallowed some saliva and replied:
"Yes, I understand."
Nick took a seat beside the corpse and crossed his legs for comfort; he started chanting a passage in the same mystical language that made up the formation, Slade having translated the symbols into English letters and placing them into Nick's thoughts. The moment Nick started chanting, the formation lit up all around him; after a few minutes, small bluish lights in the shape of spheres started emerging from the skin and flesh of the corpse beside Nick and flowing into Nick through his own skin. At first, Nick didn't feel any change then gradually, a feeling of discomfort developed as more spheres of light flowed into his body; the scene looked like a gathering of fireflies. After about one hour, Nick started to feel real pain, like the kind that you would get from a sore muscle but he felt it all over his body; Nick gritted his teeth and started chanting in his mind which still kept the formation going.
After three more hours, Nick's entire body felt sore, in addition to that, his abdomen felt like it was hovering over a medium flame, being slowly roasted. Nick didn't know how much more he could take but he gritted his teeth and continued chanting internally. At some point, unbeknownst to Nick, because he was so distracted by the pain, a black substance began oozing from his pores as a foul, sulfur like smell filled his dorm room. Nick endured the pain and the stench for another two hours before the pain receded and the spheres of light were now fully absorbed into his body. The light of the formation faded and Nick was left in darkness as it was already night time.
"I did it."
Nick whispered these words weakly as he fell backwards onto the floor, becoming unconscious covered in a blackish filth. Nick lied on the floor, unconscious for all of the next day until he woke up in the middle of the night. He got up off of the floor and checked his phone for the time.
"I slept for more than eighteen hours and my mind still feels weak. What the hell is that smell?"
After his mind cleared a little, Nick realized that there was an unbearable stench all over his room, distinct from the smell of the black filth that his body was covered with. Nick looked over at the corpse in his room and felt suspicious.
"Is that thing rotting?"
Slade answered his question:
[Yes it is. It was preserved mostly by the power of its own laws but since those laws were transferred to you, it became just another quickly rotting corpse. You should get rid of it quickly before it attracts pests.]
Nick tapped on the corpse with his space band and it disappeared. He proceeded to open a window to let the stench out and then went to the bathroom to take a shower. Nick didn't worry about the black filth that may have fell on the floor as the room had a self cleaning function. Nick got out of the shower and tried to get a feel for his situation but did not notice any obvious change.
He tore a piece of paper from his note book and used his spell, Big, on it and the paper grew double its size.
"At the very least, I can perform spells again."
Nick said that with a smile and then got dressed and left his room for the cafeteria since he had not eaten in one whole day. The cafeteria was almost empty at night but that was alright with Nick. He ordered a meal of baked chicken and pasta and after getting a hold of his food, he moved towards the corner of the cafeteria where he was planning to eat his meal. Some ten meters from his destination, Nick had a thought:
(I actually know a spell that can get me to my destination in an instant.)
When Nick had made his deal with Andre Reigns, he not only received an aptitude for space magic but also basically an encyclopedia on space magic and over two dozen spells seared into his mind that he could recall when he wanted. Nick thought for some time and realized that there was a rank 2 spell recorded in his mind that would have the effect of teleporting him over a short distance called 'Blink'. Nick placed his tray of food on a nearby table and remained standing while thinking about the laws of the spell that were in Valteese.
(Hmmm...this shouldn't be all that complicated to cast. The spell's description does indicate that it has a high consumption rate at 4500 magical units per cast for a rank 2 Apprentice Magician and it could only transport the Magician a maximum of fifteen meters.)
Nick spent ten minutes thinking about the spell and then decided to make an attempt at casting it. Nick picked up his tray of food and then started forming the laws for Blink in his mindscape, however, when he was two thirds finished, he made a mistake in forming one of the symbols and the laws collapsed, resulting in him having a coughing fit and a line of blood slowly coming from his mouth. The few other people in the cafeteria took notice of Nick's circumstance and recognizing the signs of magic energy being exuded from him and Nick's coughing fit, they assumed that he had failed to cast a spell and simply ignored him.
(One more time.)
Nick started forming the laws for Blink within his mindscape once again and this time after careful attention to detail, he completely formed the laws of the spell and cast it. In an instant, Nick moved eight meters from his position to near the place that he was aiming for but at a cost of most of his magic energy; Nick sensed that he did not have much magic energy in his magic sea left.
(What consumption? Even if this is a rank 2 spell, I was only able to barely cast it and teleport a decent distance because of the advantage of my special mindscape having an extremely high magic holding capacity. Does space magic generally take this much magic energy to use successfully?)
Slade answered his question:
[Some types of spells require more magic energy to cast than others and spells that result in some kind of teleportation generally require much more magic energy than other spells of the same rank. The type of magic doesn't necessarily have to be space magic for that to apply.]
Nick silently nodded his head in understanding and as he was about to finally move to his table, he could feel eyes burning holes in the back of his head. Nick turned around to see that the few other students that were in the cafeteria were staring at him. Nick understood why, an aptitude for space magic was one of those rare affinities on Grand Earth and so not many people practiced it freely and the ones that did were almost always backed by some organization or large Magician family. Space Magicians were rare and based on the magic energy that Nick exuded while casting the spell, the spell was definitely of high quality. Only a Space Magician would use high quality space spells; not many people personally knew such Magicians so when the students witnessed Blink in action, they were surprised and became curious as to who Nick was and that was why they were staring at him.
Nick decided to ignore the stares and took a seat in order to enjoy his now lukewarm meal. While he was eating, a tall young man with a wide smile and curly red hair came over to Nick's table and spoke loudly with a carefree tone:
"Hey man, why don't you and I have a spar!"