Nico walked carefully toward the direction of Junior's paw until he was able to sense something.

He stopped and lowered to the ground. It was difficult to sense a manabeast who wants to remain hidden. If there was no movement, there would be no vibration on the ground. Nico could easily locate a manabeast in the dark, but it was difficult during the day. He could only rely on training his own senses. It was difficult to sense shadow symbols far away, but Nico could tell when there were strong clusters.

Nico then signaled two numbers to Jack. He raised one finger and then two fingers. There was one manabeast 20 m away.

Jack nodded to confirm he understood the message.

Jack grabbed his bow from his back and carefully unmounted.

Nico lightly stepped out of the cart and Jack tied the rein to the nearest tree.

Jack and Nico steadily separated and walked closer to the target in a V formation. Nico took his spear and pointed it to one particular bush.

Jack prepared his arrow. Nico gave him a countdown with his hand.

By the time Nico enclosed his fist, Jack released his arrow.

Nico charged toward the prey.

The manabeast roared painfully, with the arrow dislodged right in its right eye. Nico saw its head peeking out and thrust his spear directly into its left eye and through the brain.

The manabeast squirmed once and dropped to the ground.

"Nice shot!"

"You ended it pretty quickly." Jack walked closer to inspect the beast. "It's a manatiger!"

Manatiger had strong defense, for it to be knocked down in two hits was quite a feat.

"Your spear thrust is scary." Jack saw the sorry state of the manatiger skull.

"How were you able to shoot it in the left eye when it is hidden?" asked Nico.

"Just based on the bushes it was hiding in. I've assumed it weighs 350 lb and around four foot high. Before they prowl to hunt, they like to take a low position, so I target it lower hoping to hit the face. Otherwise, it will hit the body."

Jack hunted with his father and uncle, so he too knew the importance of preserving the body.

They hauled the carcass onto the cart and continued further.

They caught two more manabeasts.

As they rode on, they stopped before a small crevice. Nico felt an ominous presence. He knelt on the ground and touched the muddy surface. Junior and Snowy shivered and cowered closer to Nico.

"Anything good?" Jack whispered.

Nico shook his head. "I think we should head back."

Jack looked at the cart. They had enough for the horse to carry back, and agreed to head back.

On the way back, Nico and Jack encountered one more manabeast.

Congratulation, Kill 200 Manabeasts Task Complete.

Nico used the Roulette Coupon and received a recipe for Holy Oak Wand.

Nico looked through his task box.

Tasks:

*New* Plant and Harvest 1 Manafruit. 0/1. Reward: System Reward.

Kill 5 Manabeast Terrors. 0/5. Reward: Roulette Coupon.

Create 5 Alchemy Pills. 0/5. Reward: Roulette Coupon.

Manafruit? Nico wondered about it, he had never encountered a tree with manacore.

Once they were out of the forest area, Nico took the reins again. This time, he was comfortable enough to converse with Jack on the basics of combat.

Some students can't learn from just reading. They memorize information better when it was orated and taught directly. Although Jack regularly made appointments to learn with his professor, his roommates were always there and a good source of information.

People were likely to memorize a conversation from a friend than a passage from a book.

Once back, Nico and Jack divided the manacores and turned in the carcasses for Academy Points. Carcasses were prized by the Academy for experiments and raw materials. Although they also preferred manacores, very few people were willing to trade in manacores.

When they returned to their dorm, Jack bragged to Ashe.

"You spent most of the morning in Arango Forest and collected only 3000 APs?" Ashe stated, still looking at his book.

"It sounded like this bookworm thinks he can do better?" Jack retorted.

"I only need to join up with a tanker, and can probably get 5000 APs in the morning."

"Hm, I'm curious if you're more than just talk, how about a match?"

Nico was also curious to see how a magician like Ashe would fight. There were spars between blue robed magicians in the Student Hall Training Center, but their magic was barely considered magic.

"With you?"

"No way, between you and Nico," Jack suggested.

"Me?" Nico was in the middle of feeding manacores to Junior and Snowy when his name was mentioned.

Vincent interest piqued. Everyone looked at Nico.

"Sure, I guess," Nico agreed.

In the student hall, they registered for a battle court. While they waited for their turn, Anya showed up.

"How in the world do you know we are here?" Asked Jack. "You're not stalking us?"

"Why are you so rude to a lady?" Asked Ashe. "Hello Miss Anya, are you interested in officiating the match?"

"Sure." Anya agreed. She then looked at Jack. "I'm in the student hall association. In other words, I work here."

Jack ignored her and walked toward the court.

The court was one of several smaller courts within the Student Hall provided to students for training. Each court was protected by an array. There were several other groups sparring and practicing in the other courts.

"I'm ready. Are you ready?" Ashe stood impatiently on the right side and looked at Nico.

Nico stretched on the left side of the court while Vincent, Jack, and their pets watched from the rear.

"Yep, ready." Nico thumbed up.

Nico and Ashe both wore the black battle indicator cuffs they had loaned from the student hall.

Anya walked to the center. "All right, first to have their force barrier or body aura broken loses. On the count of three. 1, 2, 3!"

Anya leapt out of the court as the round began.

Without warning, three fireballs shot toward Nico. Nico dodged to the right to avoid the first fireball. The 2nd fireball closed in on Nico and singed his left sleeves. Nico leaped back, barely escaping the third shot.

That was close. Nico crouched on the ground and examined the magician staff Ashe was holding, it was known as the Trifire Magician Staff.

Magician greatest weakest was casting time, but they had other means to attack such as talisman and Magician wands or staffs. Talismans were single use items, and while they were extremely useful, it was wasteful to use in spars. Magician wands were capable of casting spells, and the preferred method for a first attack. However, it needed time to recharge.

"That's too cheap!" Jack cried out from the side. "If I have a weapon like that, I would be a strong magician too!"

"Magical weapons need time to recharge, the stronger the spell, the more time the magician needs to concentrate their energy into the staff," Anya explained. "If you were paying attention, you could see the fireballs shooting out from the staff head. The staff head is the point where the magician's aura is connected to. A cultivator like you could probably puff out hot air, but not a fireball as strong as Ashe, not to mention three consecutive fireballs."

Ashe recharged the wand on his left, he was already preparing the next attack.

Nico rushed toward Ashe and thrust using Gale Force. The spear drilled into an invisible barrier. The body aura cracked, but Ashe jumped back before it could be destroyed and cast three blades of ice.

Nico flipped back to dodge the blades. The third blades boomeranged from the back and to hit Nico from the side. Nico bent down, barely avoiding the blade.

"Damn it! Why didn't anyone warn me about magic spells?!" Nico shouted. "Can magic spell curve like that?"

"Amateur magicians can't, but good magicians can bend their spells," stated Anya. "Otherwise, magicians might as well just use talisman that only has a single trajectory."

Nico thought about it, it did make sense. Talismans were like a beginner billiard players and magicians were like professionals with their various trick shots.

Nico threw the spear directly at Ashe and dashed forward, he needed to close in.

The spear collided with an invisible barrier, but again Ashe backed away before it did further damage to his body aura.

Right as Nico was about to punch directly at the barrier, Ashe whacked his staff toward Nico's head.

S***! Nico leaned to the left.

He concentrated the mana force into his right leg, and kicked toward Ashe.

Ashe pointed his staff toward Nico, and the wand shot out a fireball.

Ping!

Nico noticed his battle indicator cuff had turned to white.

Well, that sucks, Nico thought.

Jack looked at Nico's battle indicator cuff and then Ashe's, which had also turned white. "Damn it! Whose cuffs turned white first?!"

"It's a draw?" Anya declared with a bit of hesitation.

Anya had watched the match carefully. Nico kicked into Ashe's body aura at the same moment Ashe's fireball reached Nico. She didn't look at the cuffs, but it was close enough to declare a draw.

"It's a draw," Vincent also concluded.

Ashe and Nico both shrugged and then shook hands.

"You have just learned force barrier, so I'm surprised it took me several tries to break it," Ashe stated truthfully. If it had been anyone else, their barrier would already shattered after his first spell.

"You as well. I've seen a couple of interesting spells in other spars, but this is the first time I've seen someone fight without relying on a partner," Nico commented back.

Ashe shrugged, he was used to fighting alone.

"I didn't expect the spells to curve like that."

"Magic manipulation requires a lot of practice."

"Whew, that was interesting." Jack patted Ashe in the back. "You're better than I thought."

Ashe glared at Jack, who backed away.

"Take it as a compliment buddy!"

"Hands off, I'm not your buddy."

Ashe and Jack continued bickered.

Vincent looked to Nico. "That's not your full strength, isn't it?"

This guy... Nico looked at Vincent with a bewildered expression. "Of course not, it's just a spar, and I'm more cautious since I've never been up against a magician before. Ashe didn't fight with his full strength either."

Vincent nodded.

"How would you do against Ashe?" Nico asked.

"Probably the same as you."

Nico chuckled. "You remind me of my brother."

"You have a brother?" Vincent wondered.

"I mean, sort of like a sworn brother." Nico forgot he didn't have any siblings in this world. "Sometimes, I can't tell what is in his head."

Vincent smiled. "You as well..."

Nico smiled cheekily.

Jack hovered around Nico and Vincent and then dragged their necks toward the exit. "I'm hungry, let's go to Killo!"

****

Later that night, Nico returned to Arango Forest with Snowy and Junior. He wasn't used to the darkness, but Snowy and Junior could see well in the dark and retrace their path.

Arango Forest was different at night. Hunters were cautious in the daytime, but they needed to be on constant alert at night. Manabeasts were more active at night, and hunted in pack. A single misstep could lead to death.

Nico followed the sound of Snowy and Junior footsteps, only stopping once in awhile to use Minko's vision to survey the area and gather more unusual manaherbs. He brushed against the twigs and branches as he plowed through the Arango densely covered floor.

Snowy led the way while Junior sniffed out for danger. Nico spent a lot of time in Lindan Peak training the twins. Snowy was better with directions. She could easily memorize her way around any location she had been to once.

Junior had a sharper sense. Once he was able to differentiate the differences between blood, metal and humans, he made a good substitute for a scout.

Junior sensed something, and sniffled twice to make sure. He jumped on top of Nico's head and tapped three times with his fluffy paws.

A lick indicated humans, a nibble indicated trap and a tap indicated manabeast. Three taps meant a lot of manabeasts.

Junior could sniff out things within 200 meters. Nico could only sense half of that. Unfortunately, Junior couldn't tell how many and the exact location, just a general direction.

Nico avoided all the manabeasts. He didn't have time to deal with them.

Once in the clear, Nico used Minko's vision again. Shadow symbols clustered around a manaherb to the far right of him. Nico snapped lightly, Junior and Snowy stopped and followed Nico. Nico felt his way toward the source of the cluster. Under the forest canopy, not a single speckle of light from the stars and moon could be seen.

As he closed in on the manaherb, he used Minko's vision again to check his progress. The manaherb was only three steps away.

Nico began casting a light spell.

Nico used Saturn's ring to gather light shadow symbols nearby, and began forming circular structures. His light spell created by Saturn's ring was weaker than Minko, but he didn't need too much light. Furthermore, it could attract unwanted attention.

After a minute, the structure of the shadow symbols mirrored that of candlelight, Nico cast a light spell, creating a marble sized ball of light that floated on top of his head. The dimly-lit ball cast a small shadow within a small area of the forest. His MP lowered by one.

Nico experimentation with Magic was limited to light and wind in the beginning, as they were the safest to experiment with.

In the brisk early spring of Rinlin Village before he entered the academy, Nico had spent a lot of time gathering data on light and wind spell. It was easy to collect wind data for the spell, but most of the natural daylight couldn't be analyzed with Minko's vision, just a bit of light from twilight.

Nico focused on the candle in his room, as it had the least complex light shadow structure. After understanding the structure, he attempted to cast a candlelight spell.

As he sat before the mouth of the river between the farm and Rinlin, he faced the moonlit lake and gathered the various light shadows with Minko. Minko moved swiftly around to gather the various light shadows. Minko's travel range at level 29 was approximately 3 meters around Nico.

Once the shadow symbols were collected and formed, Nico released the spell. His MP dropped by one, but nothing happened. Nico's order for the shadow symbols was incorrect. Nico reordered the shadow symbols several times. After a week of experimentation, he finally got the correct order.

A small marble sized ball of light appeared, generating only half the light of a regular candlelight. After casting the same spell a couple of times, Nico realized that the spell didn't need to be directly in contact with his body like mana force. Instead, Nico could create the light ball anywhere within Minko's range. Minko could also move the light where ever Nico needed it to be.

Nico's light lasted for 5 minutes. Every time it began to disperse, Nico had to will the magic to continue at the expense of an additional MP. With the shadow symbols formula already set, the shadow symbols automatically gathered within Minko's reach. Nico could continuously cast the light spell until he was out of MP. Nico readjusted the numbers of shadow symbols until the light matched the amount of light released by a candlestick. Nico wasn't able to create anything bigger or more intense.

After experimenting all he could with the light spell he called Candlelight, Nico experimented with wind spells.