When Valar woke up, his eyes were filled with tears. He did not know the reason, but he had definitely been crying.

  Perhaps because of his already emotional state, the boy found himself distracted during the morning. He spent a good half hour just peoplewatching from his window, defaulting to his favourite pastime from his iron rank days. Listen to me, “Iron rank days…” I’ve been at bronze rank for a couple of days, and I’m starting to think like an old codger already!

  Eventually, after his attention span reached its untimely end, Valar went to grab some breakfast. Zeke was right there to share the meal with him, although his eyes still carried a hint of worry. Valar tried his best to put the young man’s mind at ease, but it was hard to tell if he was successful with the abstract mage.

  After breakfast, Valar returned to his new favourite place: The library.

  Strangely enough, once he returned to the quiet, warm place and immersed himself in literature, Valar found the constant pain in his core receding further back. He let out a small sigh, feeling the comfortable fabric of the chair hugging his form. This is nice.

  His day in the library was spent researching bronze rank life magic spells and familiarizing himself with the corresponding runes. He didn’t start actually training any of them, as the young mage’s intention was to more so get used to the general feeling of the runes instead. Besides, starting with anything else than his keystone—the bronze rank rune of life—would’ve been quite stupid. Every spell had life as its keystone, so training anything else would be wasted time compared to it.

  For the rune of life, he was pretty sure he wanted to get tutoring before he started fumbling on his own. Even though his soul ached to train and strengthen himself, starting with such a complex working without any kind of guidance would be inefficient even in a best-case scenario. Valar’s work wouldn’t be exactly wasted—just terribly misused. He didn’t want to misuse his time when he could be training!

  The day rolled by fast. He took his break from studying to get lunch, returning to the library as fast as he could. His current topic—spell theory of body enhancement—was simply too interesting to waste his time!

  Zeke still held him up, although he had to give up on any kind of normal discussion in favor of Valar’s new interest. “So the life mana flows to each part of your body through your bloodstream? What’s the difference to Fortify?”

  “Oh, it’s a big one!” Valar’s tone rose and his hands started moving as he explained. “As a spell, Fortify isn’t even really body enhancement at all! It strengthens the outermost layer of the target’s skin with life magic, but it never really burrows deeper into the body. It works on willing targets because the caster doesn’t need to know basically anything about them. A true body enhancement spell—something like Aspect of the Tortoise—circulates life magic throughout the caster’s body, amplifying their physical attributes much more comprehensively!”

  “Why not just cast Aspect of the Tortoise on your teammate then? It seems like a much better spell,” Zeke asked.

  “You can’t,” Valar nodded to himself like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Well, you can, but that would require aura supremacy, and if you wanted your target to actually live, you’d have to adjust the spell to fit their body pretty much perfectly.”

  “Huh?”

  “As opposed to Fortify, which is a purely positive effect, body enhancement spells are customized spells that can cause real harm to the target. Even a well-cast body enhancement spell can malfunction if the runes and visualization aren’t adjusted for the spell’s target, or so the book said,” Valar shrugged. “Body enhancement is hard!”

  “I’m guessing that means that if you do it right, they can be pretty powerful?”

  At that moment, the boy didn’t need orange eyes to look menacing. His grin was plenty on its own. “Indeed, they can…”

  …

  The rest of the week blazed by as Valar spent his time cooped up in the library. Livira greeted him warmly each morning, raising his mood instantly. The woman was a saint when he tried to find information, and she helped him with a growing smile on her face. The librarian was glad to see a frequent face among the crowd, and it showed.

  “I can store your books behind my desk, you know?” Livira asked on the 4th day evening.

  Valar was just about to return his books to the shelves, but froze mid-step. “Wait, you can do that? I thought that it was against the rules?”

  The old woman waved her hand dismissively. “It kind of is, but it kind of isn’t. Besides, I’m the one who enforces the rules in this section of the library. Who’s going to come and scold me?”

  “The headmaster, maybe?”

  “Hah,” Livira let out a derisive laugh. “That old codger wouldn’t dare! Besides, he wouldn’t lower himself to the bronze rank section anyways!”

  Even though Valar was somewhat confused by the old lady’s response, he wisely kept his mouth shut. The peak gold rank sound mage was temperamental to the maximum, and he didn’t want to be the target of her ire. Not in a thousand years…

  Livira’s helpfulness made Valar’s schoolwork significantly easier during the following weekend. Instead of having to wander around the library, he received his books as soon as he walked in. That left him more time for reading.

  Valar managed to come to a significant amount of conclusions at the end of 6th day. First of all, he had finally found a good candidate for a multi-target spell: Healing Glade.

  Honestly, the spell was pretty boring. It was a simple area-of-effect healing spell that utilized a large amount of life mana to heal nearby allies relatively quickly. Its range was only around 3 or so meters, it was deviously complex, and its efficiency was pretty low, but at least it was powerful. When he mastered the spell’s bronze rank version, he would be able to heal his whole team to full health in only a minute or two.

  The spell’s complexity was an issue, sure, and its efficiency made it horrible for extended fights, but Valar couldn’t really get anything better, could he? The spell worked on semi-critical damage like deep wounds and such, and as many of the other spells didn’t, he wasn’t left with much choice. This’ll have to do. It’s definitely not ideal, but at least it doesn’t suck like the other spells!

  So… I’ll have to learn Forest’s Aid for single-target healing, Berserker's Regeneration for self-healing, Healing Glade for multi-target healing and at least Aspect of the Tortoise for body enhancement. As for the last spell… I have no fucking clue.

  One thing was clear: Valar wanted to learn one of the two remaining body enhancement spells. This time the problem wasn’t with lots of shitty choices, however.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  Both Aspect of the Ursa and Aspect of the Panther were quite frankly amazing spells, and he would’ve preferably learned both before continuing his adventures. Unfortunately, that would delay the end of his semester so much that he essentially needed to make a choice before he started working on body enhancement as a whole. That’s fine. I’m going to start with the rune of life again anyway, and that’ll at least take a couple weeks, if not a month.

  Even that estimation was a pretty optimistic one. Bronze rank students usually only learned their keystone rune after a couple months of studying, as it was quite a bit more complex than its iron rank version. He was putting a lot of trust in his own ability to learn.

  One week. Then I can start learning my runes. Just one week…

  Tomorrow, it’s tournament time.

  …

  Valar was not particularly excited about the coming tournament. In that regard, the person sitting opposite him in the private breakfast area was his polar opposite.

  “Today’s schedule includes a visiting fire mage from Thornton!” Zeke shouted over the clammer of the crowd around them.

  “Fire mage from Thornton?” Valar raised one eyebrow in surprise. “Is he part of the Thorn house?”

  “Yes, he is! I’ve heard the Thorns are really strong fire mages. It should be an interesting fight, to say the least!”

  Valar just shook his head, looking around the stadium. Based on the little information he had heard from Carla, he was pretty sure that the situation with house Thorn wasn’t as simple, but Zeke didn’t need to know his friend’s family business.

  The stadium they were flooding into was surprisingly big. Valar was pretty sure that there was no spatial expansion at play, but that was hard to believe when he had seen the construction site just a week prior. The sheer amount of smooth stone, molded into seating for the audience, was quite astonishing.

  “The earth mages of the academy really outdid themselves,” Valar said. “This stadium will probably fit over ten thousand people.”

  “Closer to twenty thousand, actually,” Zeke responded. “The tournament really is a big event, even for a city like Rhondell.”

  Finding their seats took some time. Even though Valar had been adventuring for a short while, he was no good at navigation. Zeke was no better, but luckily, some others were.

  “Over here!” A familiar voice echoed down, reaching Valar’s bronze rank ears. Elizabeth?

  The young woman was waving her hand from a couple rows up. Her red hair was buffeted by the fall wind, as was the hem of her mage’s robe.

  The young scion of house Wendir had cast her first fire spell during the month Valar was adventuring, so she had received access to mage’s robes well beforehand. She wore a thin coat over it, however, as the fall was becoming quite chilly.

  Elina and Helen were wearing similar clothes, although the robes underneath their coats were of course different. Helen was wearing yet another frivolous variation of the silver rank mage’s robe, whereas Elina didn't have the right to own one just yet. She had opted for a pair of wide pants—more often used by adventurers and commoners than nobles—instead.

  “Come, come; The festivities are starting soon!” Elizabeth beckoned Valar and his friend over. “We brought you guys some pillows for your seats too!”

  Huh? The young fire mage hadn’t been lying. Looking around at all the other seats, Valar noticed what Elizabeth was talking about. The seats were made from stone, so lots of people had brought their own pillows and blankets for their own comfort. Valar and Zeke hadn’t had a clue about things like that, so they had brought just themselves.

  “Thank you!” Zeke grinned as he plopped himself down on one of the pillows, leaving Valar room to sit next to Elizabeth. “You managed to save us from a lot of discomfort. I had no idea that the stadium lacked such luxuries!”

  “The VIP seats would’ve had lots of luxury…” Elina muttered. “This academy is ruled by cheapskates!”

  “You know what,” Helen sighed. “I’m in complete agreement on that, daughter of mine.”

  Despite the noble ladies’ vocal displeasure, Valar didn’t think their seats were half bad. Sure, they were just stone seats of pretty brutalist design, but what could’ve they expected? The whole stadium had been built in a week, for gods’ sake!

  Since the young men had taken quite a while to find their seats, Valar didn’t have to wait for long until something started happening. Once the stadium was packed full of people and the sun reached its zenith, a single man appeared in the middle of the wide circular arena. Gideon Folren, the headmaster and an onyx rank time mage, raised one of his hands to quiet the mass of spectators.

  He coughed politely, the sound echoing to every inch of the stadium. It wasn’t exactly loud, but it did carry well. “Welcome, all! I see we’ve gathered quite a crowd to witness this quaint tournament of ours.”

  Quaint, my ass. This tournament is huge!

  Completely ignoring the wave of chatter and laughter provoked by his own comment, the headmaster continued. “As you all probably know, this is the royal academy’s bronze rank tournament, held yearly for the past three decades or so. This particular event is one that I’m quite proud of, as it gives our young talented students a chance to bare their claws in front of the public for perhaps the first time in their life. Some falter, while others thrive. But most importantly, there has to be a winner. Will that winner be a noble of the great houses or a lowly commoner? Will they wield the elements or something completely different? Those questions and more can only be answered by one thing: Bloodshed!

  PLEASE WELCOME OUR STUDENTS AND COMBATANTS TO THE ARENA, AND SHOW THEM HOW EXCITED YOU ARE!”

  With that, students started appearing on the arena grounds one by one.

  “Sophia Dalton!”

  The first to appear, a scion of house Dalton and an earth mage, was met with roaring applause. She remained cool, giving the crowd a small wave and blowing a kiss. That only brought more applause, matched by whistles and shouts of encouragement.

  “Eron Rigel!”

  The second student to appear, a thin man radiating an aura of space magic, received almost as much applause as Sophia, although his status as a commoner made some nobles clap less fervently. The Wendirs next to him only clapped harder, although Valar suspected that it was more the result of them not liking the Dalton scion than adoring the commoner space mage.

  The names only kept coming, as did the applause. With some, it was raucous, with others, it was more subdued. Still, every student combatant got to bask in the limelight, smiling and waving to the crowd of onlookers.

  Speaking of the crowd, it was formed from an interesting mix of demographics. Students, members of nobility, adventurers and everything in between could be found spectating the festivities. Even commoners were, well, common!

  “What’s the price of the tickets?” Valar asked. “I assumed they were expensive, but seeing the amount of common folk like me hanging around, they can’t be anything that bad, right?”

  “Around a silver per day for one person,” Helen answered from his left. “The price is kept artificially low, as the academy really doesn’t need that much money, and the publicity from regular citygoers is important.”

  “That’s still not cheap cheap,” Valar muttered. “A little under a day’s salary for a regular worker. Considering they bring their families, I’d assume it’s a pretty big expense for a normal family.”

  Helen raised an eyebrow. “I never thought about that… The events we usually go to are much, much more expensive, so I kind of just assumed that this was cheap.”

  “Mom, your nobility is showing,” Elina grumbled. “You should go out more…”

  “And let you go out and party as well, I assume?” the girl’s mother grinned. “Forget that!”

  All in all, just about one hundred students would be fighting in the tournament. The names kept coming, and Valar found himself getting more and more bored. I don’t recognize a single-.

  “Harrison Thorn!”

  A muscular, brown haired man, resembling a certain someone he knew, appeared in the arena. His arrival was met with a veritable boom of applause, as the crowd went wild.

  “And there’s the most likely candidate for the top spot,” Elizabeth sighed. “Gods damned Thorns…”

  Harrison Thorn was a man of average height, but the same couldn’t be said about his physique. For a bronze rank student still in his teenage years, his rippling muscles looked almost unnatural. He was wearing a mage’s robe, modified to ease his movements during hand-to-hand combat. It was split into wide pants and a sleeveless robe, making him stand out from the crowd. The young man’s brown hair was slicked back and his expression was stony.

  Unlike most of the other combatants, he didn’t wave to the onlookers. The man stood with his back straight and arms at his sides, unmoving. One thing was clear, however: Harrison was a fire mage, through and through.

  The Thorn family scion’s aura blazed with reds and oranges, looking like it wanted to burn and consume every single student around him. To Valar, it looked much more natural than the other fire mages on the stage. He’s strong…

  “The top spot? How so?” He turned to Elizabeth with a questioning look.

  “His sister won the whole thing last year…” Elizabeth practically growled. “She rolled over the entire competition like it was a walk in the park!”

  She wouldn’t have…

  “What was the name of this sister of his, if I may ask?”

  Elizabeth scoffed, her voice full of derision. “Her name? It was Carla Thorn, although I don’t think I heard it once after the first day of last year’s tournament. From there, she gained a new nickname: The Ice Queen.”

  A wide grin spread on Valar’s lips. “Ice queen, eh? I’ve got pretty scary teammates, don’t I?”