Jennifer leafed through the dusty pages of the old tome, scanning for any mention of interesting spells. With a thud she closed the tome, sighing as she set it down atop her growing pile.

“Still nothing?” Livian asked as he went through his own set of books. Jennifer shook her head, picking up another one, this one with movement focused spells set. Jennifer had been in the library for three hours now, trying to find glass affinity spells in the massive assortment of books collected within the Academy's library.

She'd asked the librarian if there were any glass focused spells that could be useful in combat. But the old man had tapped his nose, saying it was a find it yourself thing. Like some cryptic old story, where the book would find you and not the other way around. It was ridiculous.

But with how Fate mana works, perhaps it's not that ridiculous. Still sounds dumb though.

Idly, she glanced at Livian as he sat nearby, going through a stack of tomes they'd picked out. She was allotted three spells from the library. She'd been worried she'd have a hard time choosing.

“I think I have something,” Livian said excitedly as he pushed the tome towards her. Jennifer quirked an eyebrow, not too optimistic on her chances as it had taken her the better part of three hours to find the other two spells, getting one so soon afterwards would be tremendous luck.

A peek at the old tome revealed the spell information, carefully printed with magical ink to prevent making it transferable to students.

Spell Name: Glass Spikes

Type: Glass/Piercing

Tier: 2

Spell Duration: Nill

Summon spikes of glass with a cutting edge that can tear through flesh and grab onto skin to deal lasting bleeding damage. Finer control allows the user to create jagged edges along the spikes making them latch onto the target.

Jennifer turned towards Livian with wide eyes as the boy smiled back with a proud look on his face, grinning from ear to ear. Both of them analysed the spell contents, as Jennifer tried to recreate the half formed matrix presented on the page.

“[Lesser Arcane Analysis]” Jennifer murmured as the spell broke down further into simple components. An image of what it would look like when cast, forming in her mind.

Jennifer winced, imagining using the spell on a living creature. Painful, and gory. Not exactly a preferable choice. But it'll be a powerful addition to my spell base, for sure.

“It’s a potent spell,” Jennifer said, turning towards Livan who sat examining the spell as well. The boy nodded absently as he turned towards her, a thoughtful look on his face.

“Undoubtedly so, I think this will put you quite high in combat capability, even among second years. If you can learn to use this and your other two spells properly,” Livian said, excitement flashing in his eyes.

Jennifer nodded at the boy, closing the book and separating it from the pile. “I sure hope so. I need as much firepower as I can get,” she replied, picking the pile of books up.

“I’m definitely curious about how my spells can interact with yours. Light and Glass affinity sound quite compatible to me. Mine isn’t as rare as yours, but it still isn’t very common. Maybe we can even come up with a dual affinity linked spell!” Livian said, his voice rising in pitch till it was just an excited squeal by the end of it.

Jennifer smiled at the boy, the excitement infecting her as well. She loved working with spells, analysing their combinations, thinking over spell components and trying to come up with new innovative ways to use them. It had been what she used to do before the first month had happened, it was what she wanted to do when she got to the Academy as well.

Her smile slipped as the memory of the last two months returned to her. She pushed down a sigh, turning around as she was about to return the tomes when Livian stood up, grabbing half of them from her pile.

“I’ll help,” he said with a smile. Jennifer internally rolled her eyes, but didn’t refuse the boy. She would’ve noticed had he been flirting with her, Rumina may call her dense but she wasn’t that dense. Romantic interest was the first thought she’d had with how Livian had repeatedly approached her, and the way he had shuffled awkwardly at her gaze. Yet a bit more thought had revealed something else entirely.

He behaves the same way I did, when talking with a Mage I admired.

The thought had sounded ridiculous to her. Someone admiring her was a notion as ridiculous as a Dwarf not knowing what ale was. But the more she'd thought about it and studied his actions, the more her suspicions had been confirmed.

It had led her to thinking about how she looked from an outsider’s perspective. Young first year student. I’m a year younger than the age of registration as well. Rare affinity. Able to hold my own against a class of second years. No family name given. I totally look like a prodigal mage from some hidden gifted family of mages sent to earn my position, don’t I?

Jennifer turned towards Livian, walking beside her. He gave her a curious glance at her sudden pause, but continued to walk ahead without stopping.

“When do you plan to go to the dungeon?” Jennifer asked, as she started returning the tomes to their shelves.

“End of this week, so five days. Are you fine with that?”

End of this week will be about halfway through the month. Still plenty of time for the invasion, I haven’t mentioned anything, so it should happen the same as the first time around.

“Yeah, I don’t have any problem with the weekend. Though we’ll probably need some gear,” Jennifer added.

“Oh? I mean, I have my gear. But if you don’t have any, then I can get you set up as well.”

“No, I’m fine. I was planning to get some gear anyways,” Jennifer said. No need to ask for too many favours.

The two of them returned to their desk, having put away the tomes and Jennifer took a seat as she flipped through the three tomes, taking another look at the spells she'd picked. Or been led to.

Stupid library with its stupid system.

Spell Name: Glass Storm

Type: Glass

Tier: 2

Spell Duration: 5 to 60 seconds

Create and launch a storm of slashing glass shards that can cut and slash through creatures, launching them away from the user. Finer control can allow a smaller area of effect, causing a concentrated whirlpool of glass capable of tearing hard leather apart.

Spell Name: Mirror’s Eye

Type: Glass/Divination

Tier: 2

Spell Duration: Nil

Bind glass surfaces to create summonable mirrors that can serve as an alternate eye, providing a scouting option. The spell will only extend as far as the user’s mana threshold will allow it to.

All three of them would add to her overall combat ability, allowing her to diversify her base and handle different situations more easily. Her [Enchanted Glass Creation] could also be combined with the spells for added boosts, although using any higher tier enchantments on her spells seemed impossible at the moment.

“Do you want to try out the spells now?” Livian asked as he returned from having put his half of the tomes back in place.

Jennifer returned a blank look towards Livian, and the boy laughed. “Of course you do, I’m dumb for even asking. The training halls are open for use. And with no first years around, they should be empty as well.”

I don’t mind the why or how as long as I get to try these spells out.

“Sure, I need to register the spells first though,” Jennifer said.

Livian nodded as she picked up the spell books. A brief stop at the desk had her using up her spell slots, as the spells were registered to her. Jennifer picked up the three spell crystals, a yellow color marking all of them as tier two.

She walked out with Livian, stuffing the spell crystals in her pocket as they made their way to one of the training halls.

“By the way, How many tier-2 spells can you cast?” Livian asked, looking at her as he walked with his arms folded behind his back.

“Two for now. Five by the end of this week. Or so I’m hoping.”

“That’s quite impressive for a first year. In fact, I’m pretty sure only Vinowa has more than five tier two spells. But then I also saw her with a green spell crystal so she also has a tier three spell. And she’s not exactly normal,” Livian paused as he eyed Jennifer. “I guess you aren't exactly normal either,” Livian added, and Jennifer simply shrugged in reply.

In more ways than you'd think.

They walked ahead in silence, Jennifer absently trying to pick at the wards to see how they worked. The spells were just complex enough to be unresponsive to her intrusions, yet loose enough to make it possible to do so in the first place.

Has to be another test of some kind. Break open the wards to find a hidden room or something. This place is ancient so I'd be surprised if it didn’t have a dozen or so hidden rooms around the vicinity.

“You probably shouldn't try to break into the wards so openly. Or at all, it’s a trap. Most second years fall for it, trying to break into the ward only to discover it just teleports them to the rooftop for their efforts,” Livian said and Jennifer snapped her intrusions.

“Who made that? A tier-4 spell for a prank?” Jennifer asked Livian, incredulously eyeing the wards.

“Mages,” he replied with a huff, “Their reputation for playing sophisticated pranks is not for no reason. Although this particular one is a well known. Only first years don’t know it, and every year at least one of them tries to break inside. And then they're promptly thrown onto the top of the building, where they sit for an hour or so before being retrieved by one of the mages. Technically, I'm not supposed to tell you, since that's part of the game. But this year's already pretty weird. At least it's harmless for the most part, I’ve heard of much worse.”

“I don’t think I want to know,” Jennifer said, swearing to never randomly chase any magical formations in the academy again.

The awkward silence ended as they entered the training facility, the room almost identical to the one where she'd given her test. The mana resistance wards turned on with a quiet thrum as the two of them entered.

“So, how’re we doing this?” Jennifer asked as Livian walked further ahead in the training hall before he turned around. A crystal appeared in his hand, glowing slightly with a red color.

“I’ve got a [Shield] lune stone, I’ll use it and you can try your spells on it.” Livian said, as a bright shield formed in front of his eyes.

Jennifer nodded, taking out a crystal as she held it in her hand. A single pulse of mana revealed the contents, presenting a spell matrix in her mind. Jennifer walked through the components, strings of mana weaving themselves together as she formed the spell. She poured her mana into the spell, forming the base of the matrix as she held her hand out.

Glass Storm.

Tens of shards of glass formed in front of her in a rotating whirlpool as her mana spilled through. A sharp explosion of wind sent the shards flying off as the spell matrix crumbled, dissipating into nothing.

“Well, I probably should’ve expected it wouldn’t work on the first try,” Livian said, the shield flickering out.

Jennifer took a deep breath, focusing on the image of the spell matrix and its intended purpose, holding both in her mind at once. The mana spun out at her command, interweaving, then coming together and collapsing into another useless pile of threads that dispersed before she could cast the spell.

It had been a while since she’d failed a spell so spectacularly. It irritated her, unreasonably, but still felt like a failure.

“Maybe the most complex one isn’t the best to start with,” she mused. Mirror’s Eye might not be the most useful in a fight, but it was based on principles she already knew.

Mending the mirror back home was similar enough. Creating a mirror couldn’t be that much harder, I don’t think.

She built the spell matrix the way she would a mana bolt in stasis, holding the power steady and unmoving as she wove the intent of the spell into the binding of the surface. The mirror itself formed and hovered before her like any uncast spell would. But the eye part did not. She felt no connection to the mirror, beyond that of any spell, and closing her eyes or focusing on the backing spell provided no third vision point.

At least it didn’t destabilize. But it was equally useless, so she dispersed it herself. Another attempt yielded equally disconnected results. She wished she had the books to look over again. Maybe she’d forgotten something. That shouldn’t be possible, with the spell showing up in her list, but she’d done enough magic in non-standard ways not to have complete faith in the system and its ideas of what worked and what didn’t.

Always room for flirting around the boundaries of system spells to customize them.

Although, perhaps in this case, trying to follow the standard mana channeling method would be better. Attempted modifications did make things more likely to explode or collapse. Jen reluctantly turned back to the third and easiest of the three spells.

Glass spikes, at their core, were only a fancy shaped version of her existing glass blades spells.

I guess technically they come from completely different origins. Wind Blades is a shaping spell, Glass spikes are conjurations. Glass blades is... I’m not sure. A combination of some kind.

Surely, making the edge jagged and its nature intended to grab hold of something rather than slicing through completely wouldn’t be that hard.

But after a further half hour of frustrated efforts, she decided that affinity based spells weren't as simple as they sounded. Basic spells may be fluid enough to accept her revisions easily but the more advanced tier 2 spells resisted her efforts. The glass mana felt different, heavier. It flowed slowly, took more coaxing to bend into the strands she needed it to, and the continuous effort frustrated Jennifer a lot more than she’d like.

“Maybe we should try sparring?” Livian proposed. “It would give us a better sense of where we stand. And it might help you relax.”

Jennifer wasn’t sure if she’d ever thought battle could be more relaxing than practicing new spells, but right now a chance to burn off her frustration might actually help.

She nodded. “You go first?”

Livian smiled, eager to demonstrate his abilities. He started with a dazzling wave of flickering colour and energies, like fire and water and the rainbow-sheen of oil on clouds. The effect disoriented her, making it hard to see him clearly beyond the dancing beads.

“[LuneStone: Guard] Jennifer whispered and waited, ready to cast a mana bolt or glass blade at a moment’s notice, but curious to see what else he had to offer.

His next attack came as an orb of fire. But not fire. Not exactly. It rippled and seemed to draw in the foggy wisps of energy still forming a haze in the air between them. She dodged to the side, the missile moving slower than any normal fire attack, and something hit her shield in a splash of prismatic liquid.

“Haha! It’s been almost a year since anyone fell for that trick!” Livian cackled with glee. And Jennifer frowned, the liquid flashing brightly around her as it radiated heat.

Agile Wind.

Jennifer shot off, the guard spell flickering out and the smile on Livian’s face slipped slightly. His expression turned focused as he tracked her movements, and she sensed another spell being woven.

Jennifer created five bolts of mana, making full use of her expanded mana pool as she shot them off in five directions. Quickly she enchanted the bolts with a simple tracking matrix, let them curve around Livian as they chased him running through the chamber.

A metallic device of some kind formed in front of Livian’s arms. A cube with indents and runes forming a continuous almost spherical surface across its borders. The device lit up in a show of colors as a circle of runes flashed in the air around it.

Jennifer’s eyes widened as the device started to suck in massive amounts of mana, a bright beam forming at its core. Hurriedly, she shot towards Livian.

“Oh, I won’t let you!” Livian shouted back as bolts formed of light shot at her. Jennifer summoned a thin layer of glass onto her body, forming multiple layers of thick floating armor around her body. The bolts impacted the glass, most of them dissipating away as the glass absorbed the impact while she dodged the rest.

Livian jumped back as Jennifer closed in. A blood dagger flew around her as she sent it shooting towards Livian, charging it with her mana.

A white shield formed around Livian, breaking the momentum of her blood dagger and Jennifer cursed as she noticed the cube beeping. Then it flared like a glaring sun. She jumped to the side, as a scorching ray shot towards her.

At the last second, Jennifer turned her glass armor towards the side where the beam was, the glass shattering instantly, as it’s edges shone brightly with mana. Yet the attack was dispersed by the glass.

Jennifer didn't waste time, turning her jump into a side roll as razor thin beams of colorful light continued barraging around her. Jennifer summoned multiple shards blocking the beams. She weaved her very own spell, a twin glass blade forming in her hand as the sound of glass shards ripping through air filled her ears.

Another strong beam shot at her, dividing into multiple smaller beams which then closed in from the sides. Jennifer let her mana circuits fill with Glass mana, the agile wind spell turning to glass as shards of mana rotated around her in a tornado.

An assortment of beams impacted her back, but she ignored the weak burning sensation from the spell and let the wind build to a burst of momentum. When he sent another array of light toward her, she kicked the ground, the wind lifting her off as she flew at Livian.

A hexagonal barrier of rainbow light blossomed in front of him as six more beams shot at her. Jennifer sucked in a deep breath, letting her spell manifest as a cross of two blades of glass formed in front of her. The wind howled as the blades shot off in a blink, flying across the room as they hit straight onto his shield. The spells collided as their matrices broke, merging together. Light spread through the area as an explosion of light and glass affinity mana blasted through.

Jennifer shut her [Enhanced Mana Sense] off, running into the explosion. Her mind churned, half-formed spells being discarded one after another, when all of a sudden something shifted in her mind. An idea formed. As Jennifer weaved a new spell, the threads stretched, pulling and twisting as a layer of glass affinity churned through her body.

Like gears turning, the matrix shifted its form, its exterior taking on a glass-like appearance as the bundle of mana threads collapsed into a singularity in her mind. Her instincts shouted as an impulse built in her mind, begging to be let loose.

Jennifer let her mana flow freely, the glass affinity escaping her hands as it covered their surroundings. Spikes of glass rose all around her, shooting forward to blanket the area with tiny spikes.

Jennifer felt excitement fill her as the spell shot towards Livian. An assortment of light beams bounced through the spikes, instantly crumbling them. But there were too many spikes, his attack only stopping a small handful. Jennifer felt the spell matrix dissolve as her control slipped, the glass crumbling as it started to fade back into mana.

Jennifer panted, turning up to look at Livian. The boy stood with his shield open in front of him. “I’m done,” she breathed out, taking in a deep breath as she tried to slow her heart rate.

“That was...something. I didn't expect you to be able to match me Jennifer. I’m scared to think what you’ll do when you master all these spells.”

“Thanks. I think I got something at the end there, with the spells. The spell matrix collapsed into a singular entity. I’m not sure how that works,” Jennifer said.

“It’s probably an affinity thing. My matrix turns into a hexagonal shape for the more potent spells. I think it’s due to the start of spell compounding at tier-3. You can have multiple matrices in each spell, and each singular matrix becomes a single spell component.”

Jennifer hummed, amused as she mentally inspected her new spells again. The sharp echoing of steps interrupted her as the gate to the chamber hall opened wide.

“Jennifer Laine?” Shariel, the gnome receptionist asked, her voice sharp and clipped. The woman quickly spotted Jennifer and she stormed in, her small stature making the movement almost comical.

“Kicking up a ruckus here are we? I don’t know what strings you pulled or whose favour you asked to get a Ranked-plate team member to come and teach you personally. But it worked. Congratulations Jennifer Laine, Nathaniel Serfield, member of Spear of Sun has agreed to teach you,” the woman said, handing her a stack of pages. Absently, Jenn heard the sound of Livian choking as she coughed, muffling her mouth as his gaze bore into her back.

Jennifer bent down to take the pages when Shariel grabbed her hand, whispering. “I don’t know who you are Jennifer, your background shows nothing. But I know the guild isn’t an institute the Academy wants involved in our business. So, for your sake, I hope you know what you're doing,” the gnome woman whispered, a warning tone in her voice. Then she let go and turned around, stomping away.

Jennifer quirked an eyebrow at the woman, before she looked at the documents in her hand, listing the details of her lessons. Jennifer smiled contently, satisfied that her plan to get Nathaniel to visit her had worked.

“Let’s continue,” Jennifer said, turning around smoothly as Livian spluttered, his mouth opening and closing like a fish a few times. Finally, with a sigh, the boy followed behind her.

Jennifer laughed as she continued her training with renewed focus. One step at a time.