“Follow the numbers,” Emily mutters, trying to process the message. “Whiumbers? Page numbers?”

  She flips back through the diary from the start, notio each quote age it was on.

  Fourteen, twenty-six, thirty-two, forty-one, sixty-five, sixty-six, y-eight, one hundred and fifteen. Okay, let’s see where these lead me.

  The bird on her head flickers to life, fpping its wings and quickly rising to the gap the diary has left in the shelves above.

  “Start where you found me,” she mutters as the bird starts flying to the right, ting books. “These birds are so useful. I should remember to give Jules a kiss for reminding me about them. Maybe I modify them to use thermal vision too to make scouting easier on our expedition.”

  Emily gets up and follows beh the bird as it goes. She quickly finds the fourteenth book along, a random study on the element of fire, and pulls it from the shelf. It drops into her waiting hand below, but Emily barely notices. Instead, her attention is taken by the glowing purple rune revealed on the shelf beh.

  Oh? Spatial runes?

  She quickly sends another bird back to the diary’s inal position, and finds a simir rune now glowing in pce. A grin grows on her face as she turns her focus back to the first bird and tinues ting along.

  Book after book, Emily plucks them from the shelves, revealing glowing runes beh. After reag the end of the row, she moves to the shelf below and tinues ting, but when she pulls out what she hopes is the fifth book in the sequehere isn’t a rune underh.

  “Tsk,” she clicks her tongue, seeing the rune in the diary’s space vanish as well. “Shit. I o reset it.”

  Unwilling to wait for the books to return to the shelves on their own, which she’s found they do after ten minutes when removed from the shelves manually, she walks over to where the spiders are sat on the floor and uses them to carry the books bato pce. After they are all repced, she pulls them out in ain.

  This time, when Emily reaches the end of the row, she drops down a shelf and moves along the length of the row to tinue ting from the far left. This time when she pulls out the fifth book, she sees a rune light up beh.

  “Nice!”

  She keeps going, following the sequence. Soon she reaches the st book. Standing directly below it, her bird plucks it from the shelf, and the ruh pulses. The shelf rumbles, and Emily steps away, watg as a crack appears before her. The shelf spins in on itself, folding into the space behind it and opening up to reveal a swirling purple mass of mana, emanating pressure aabilising space around it.

  “Woah!” Emily’s eyes open wide as she feels the space around her quiver uhe influence of what she presumes to be a portal. “Where do you lead?”

  A curious glint fshes in her eyes, but she holds herself back. Before stepping into the unknown, Emily recalls her scouts, deactivating them and curling them bato balls of metal. She pces them all ba her ste poud pulls out The Clock, holding it firm in her hand as she approaches the shimmering air.

  She reaches out with her spatial awareness, feeling the dizzying maelstrom of space overwhelming her as she gets closer.

  Oh? Is this a fourth circle spell?

  She frowns and gives up trying to uand the spell, instead reag forward and pushing her empty hand through. Her arm vanishes up to the elbow. When she pulls it back, it es out unharmed, so she takes a deep breath and steps into the unknown.

  Her vision shifts as she passes through the portal, and her eyes are blinded by light. Emily flinches in surprise and looks around the small space she finds herself in. The room is only a few metres across, with intricate murals c the walls. The ceiling is only a few metres high, with several glistening light crystals illuminating the room.

  In the tre stands a plinth, holding a small, purple book covered in gold embellishments. Emily takes in the room, finding her eyes being drawn to the walls instead of the book. She approaches the wall closest to the portal, finding writing at the base, underh an image of two men standing side by side on a castle wall overlooking an army charging towards them with swords and shields.

  ‘Gaius Longaeva and Arthur Modo at the battle of Herder’s Keep.’

  “Arthur Modo... The first king of Modo,” she mutters, realisation washing over her.

  So it’s the diary of the first king’s childhood friend. No wo was sidered A grade. But who is Gaius?

  She walks along the wall, taking in a glorified depi of Arthur and Gaius rising to the top of the Rostan Empire and being the Emperor’s sword and shield, before heading a coup to topple the ime. The st few images show Gaius and Arthur stood above The Dome and i’s castle respectively.

  “I see. So Gaius was the founder of The ant.” Nodding to herself, Emily turns to finally approach the book.

  She checks the smooth, white stone plinth below first, looking for any magical traps. Only after finding no magical traces on the plinth, other than a preservation spell, does she reach out and pick up the book. It’s small and thin, with what looks like only ten or so pages within the rich, purple leather binding. The gold etg draws attractive patterns, but doesn’t give Emily any hint of the book’s tent.

  Gently, she flips to the first page and reads.

  Well done on pleting my test. Whether through luck or intelligence, you have met my minimum qualification.

  I am Gaius Longaeva: founder of The ant and fourth circle mage. I leave behind this book with my at of the first to fourth circle in hopes that someone else will break the shackles and rise to the fifth circle.

  I don’t know if the fifth circle really exists. But I want to believe.

  Emily grins happily as she turns the page.

  Perfect! An at of the assion to fourth circle is more than I could have hoped for.

  Her smile only grows as she flips through the pages, making rag Gaius’ observations and paring them to her own. After twenty minutes of careful parison, Emily ys down the book while giving her densed notes o look over.

  First circle: Fully awaken magical senses. Small mana pool. Weak, mostly tact, spells.

  Sed circle: Small mana poe and power increase.

  Third circle: Moderate mana pool. Passive regeion and power increase. Vast improvement in the Spellweave.

  Fourth circle: Large mana poe and power increase. Start developing subscious use of magic. Perfe of the human form.

  “I o kill fourth circle mages if I’m to bee one, so uanding their power is crucial. It looks like the biggest problems will be subscious casting and the raw pap. If I ’t kill them quickly, they’ll cast defensive spells and there’s a ce I won’t be able to break through them. Looks like making the Whisper was worth it,” she mutters, smiling at the thought of her on sitting ie belt while turning back to the portal. “Thanks, Gaius. If you’re still alive, I’ll e give my thanks properly once I’m fifth circle.”

  Emily activates The Clock, returning to the m of the day before.

  ***

  Emily finds herself sitting on the floor in the library, with all of her meical scouts still sc the stacks. She recalls all of them, pg them bato her ste poud leaves the library.

  Instead of heading to her room, Emily decides to take advantage of havi a reset point in the m and heads to the information hub. She approaches a ter, waiting for the mage in front of her to finish buying some magic crystals.

  “Hello, how I help you?” the clerk behind the ter asks.

  “I’d like to buy some third circle spells,” Emily says with a smile.

  “I’m sorry. We only sell third circle spells to third circle mages.”

  “Oh? Why do you think I’m not third circle?” Emily asks with a raised brow.

  “You only have a bronze crest,” the clerk answers curtly, clearly unimpressed by Emily’s questioning. “No family keeps a mage in The Dome as a vassal after they reach third circle. They either bring them in closer to the family, or the mage separates to form their own house. Now, please either purchase something else or move along so I serve someone else.”

  I see. So most families will try to deepen their retionship with a newly risen third circle vassal mage to stop them leaving. I guess he specified in The Dome because of families like the Mandragos, who keep third circle mages as vassals ierritories.

  A small sneer parts Emily’s lips at the thought as she projects the pressure of her circles outwards, letting her dense mahe air arouhe clerk and a few nearby mages gasp and look at her with shock.

  “I’m so sorry,” the clerk scrambles to apologise, dipping his head towards Emily.

  “It’s fine. I’m newly asded. Now, I buy some third circle spells please?”

  “Yes, of course! One moment, I have your name please?” the clerk asks while grabbing his database access crystal.

  “Emily Coldstone.”

  He starts slightly at her name, a reaily easily spots.

  Oh? Does he know me? Has my name spread that much outside of my csses?

  Chug internally, she waits as he closes his eyes and ss through the information The ant has saved on her. Having asked her cssmate and nighttime clerk, Anka, how the clerks’ crystals work, Emily watches curiously as he ss a bank of information about the mages within The ant: including everything from their pleted missions and points given in csses, to their elements and past purchases.

  She scoffs to herself, knowing he has signed a magical tract forbidding him from using the access for his personal be, an agreement Emily see several methods to work around.

  “Nine elements,” the clerk mutters quietly in disbelief as he opens his eyes. “Sorry about that wait. I’ve firmed the elements you purchase from. However, I’m sorry to say, we only sell third circle spells for the four os.”

  “Tsk,” Emily clicks her tongue in frustration. “Really? How many of those do you sell?”

  “Only one of each,” the clerk offers apologetically, shying back from Emily’s scowl.

  I guess I’ll have to make most of my spells without references from now on.

  “Ah well. Give me all of them then please.”

  The clerk fli her request, looking as if he wants to crawl into a hole and hide.

  “What is it now?” Emily asks with a tired sigh.

  “I don’t believe you have enough points for that. Each third circle spell costs ohousand.”

  “Oh, that’s fine,” Emily says with relief. “That’s just one more rewind. Give me the fire and wind spells for now please.”

  The clerk looks slightly fused by her ent, but quickly moves to follow her request. He pces the payment sb before her, lettirawo thousand points and drainiockpile to near empty, before turning around and grabbing several items from the drawers behind him.

  He sets up a rge part on an inscribing artefact, pg several crystals in to set it up and burning the first spell into pce. He repeats this for the other spell before handing be parts to Emily.

  She thanks him and leaves, heading back to her room. Sitting down at her desk, she pces the two oversized scrolls in front of her and unfolds the first. As the crimson writing within is revealed, Emily’s eyes open wide in appreciation.

  “Woah! What a beautiful magic circle,” she mutters.

  The magic circle on the part is massive, with close to a hundred runes and dozens of intricately woven shapes slotting together to form a mass of colour. There are several equations written along the sides of the page: used for calg the corregles and sizes of the differeions of the circle that o be formed in three dimensions to work. The equations ge the circle based on several oddly specific variables, like the intended mana input, size, density, and even rotation of the spell.

  Fireball. Such a simple cept for such a plicated magic circle.

  Emily pores over the part, memorising every line, rune, aion as usual. After ten minutes, a system window pops into view.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  Spell memorised: Fireball

  [Fireball]

  [Circle:] Third

  [Cost:] 1500 Mana/cast

  [Description:] Summon a ball of fmes to wield at will.

  _____

  Emily looks up from the scroll with a smile.

  1500 mana is 300 less than bzing arrow. Ritual spells really are just ineffit attempts to replicate higher circle spells. I’ll have to rework the arrow into a proper third circle spell ter to keep using it.

  She shuts her eyes, fog on the new spell and casting it. Arana shoot from her body, f into a rotating orb of glowing e around her. Runes form in a twisting matrix as the crag e and white glow fills the room.

  Emily’s eyes flutter open as she fihe st calcution, pg a few runes into pd pulsing mana through the magic circle. The spell s, rotating and pressing, shrinking down and morphing into a burning orb of searing he and white fire h in front of Emily. The orb is the same size as Emily’s head, but the power pressed into the small, dense mana struct makes the air around it quiver.

  After admiring the spell for a few seds, Emily dismisses it, dispersing the gathered mana. She turns to the sed spell, unrolling the part and itting the tents to memory. Soon, with wind slicer added to her spellbook, she rewinds time again.

  ***

  Emily returns to her room again with two more spell scrolls held in her spatial pouch. As she sits down at her desk and pulls them out, she siders her drawstring ste pouch.

  “I upgrade you properly now that I’m third circle. I’ll have to work on something to let me carry all the supplies for our expedition. As much as I told Tom he’s io carry my bags, I’d rather have my supplies easily accessible for me,” Emily mumbles to herself before returning her focus to the scrolls.

  The first one is a water spell named cascade: a rge scale area denial attack spell. The sed is ah spell called tremor: the spell the wendigo, Rocco, used to cause small earthquakes iers.

  Hmm. They’re all attack spells. I guess I’ll have to work on my own defensive spells from scratch.

  “Now,” she mutters, gng down at her pouch-covered belt as she pulls out The Clock. “Let’s gather some data to improve you!”