“What? How? When? What?” Viran spat out in a clumsy manner.

He had only been gone for a few minutes and he did hear a big noise while on his way back, but he hadn’t really thought of it at the time. Viran was considerably stupified as he gazed on the discoursed room in front of him. The room was now considerably more open than ever before, besides the obvious wooden stakes that were plunged into the walls and ground.

Slowly Viran picks himself off the ground and pats off the dirt on his clothes. His feet begin to cautiously take him further into the library. With all of the bookcases gone the room itself was completely empty.

Very quickly Viran goes through door to door looking for someone or something that had destroyed the library. Nothing was found inside his home.

"Hahh… What's the point." Viran spoke to himself. "I can't even tell the guards either, not like they'd even believe me."

Back in the library Viran spends the rest of the day without dinner and working to clean the destroyed library. Viran was frowning at the chaos within and how it was still a mystery that eluded him.

The time slips through Viran's fingers quickly as he spends his time in confinement. It had already been days since the library incident yet it had already completely been forgotten by the young boy.

Viran's increased knowledge concerning magic as a whole had already taken great strides and he could see large progress on his first spell, one made through his own very hard work. Having to make a spell on his own was unheard of in the world of magic, but his circumstances eliminated any chance of him being able to acquire any new spells. In the Empire books were more readily available to the public and in big cities there was a large amount of spellbooks that allowed young magic users to learn many spells. But, the publicly available spellbooks are prone to deficiencies compared to the spellbooks held by Noble Families and Great Magic Users. Usually a Noble Family would hire the best tutor they can afford, and then personally teach them the spells that the Family has held for years. This the most sought after inheritance in any Noble Family, spells were hard to create after all and good spells even harder.

The spells held by the greatest organizations, the most prestigious families, and novel magic users aren’t so easily copied down onto paper either. Having to describe the magic flowing through a person’s body was a troubling thing to do after all. The roots of every person are different after all and it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence where less talented individuals would take years to learn the spells that were given to them. Still, even despite the strenuous process of actually learning the spell not many copies are ever made of the spell. The powerful spells that are handed down to disciples and the next generation are a trump card that could not be let out, having those spells be known would give potential enemies room to snuff them out.

Though the Empire was largely quiet and peaceful on the surface, the underworld underneath the glamor revealed a dark world. A dark world full of deceit, treachery, and malice where crime was rampant and organizations worked in their dealings. The only people that were allowed in such a world were only those of power, but even those with power fall.

Standing in the cleaned library, the area in front of Viran was clean of any items. Viran’s palms began to sweat increasingly, his forehead began to heat up. As he fixed his posture forward, his feet gripped the floorboards. Feeling the warm feeling in his gut, he can feel his body become increasingly light- yet resilient towards any force.

“Resilient Hold.” A single utterance left his lips.

A feeling of euphoria began to spread into his every being as his feet stamp down with a force never felt before. The sheer force put upon the wood underneath him makes the ground crack with a force- yet the floorboards still held strong. Instantly blasting himself away Viran felt a sense of accomplishment with this spell, though it was only a normal agility spell. But the feeling of accomplishment was still there with Viran, he had just made his very first spell simply from scratch. Delving deeper into his own feelings of grandeur, Viran began to feel even lighter.

It was at this point and time Viran realized he was in mid air flipping forward.

While Viran had a momentary loss of concentration he had tripped over himself in a laughable manner. That split second of losing himself had immediately shown the after effects. While Viran’s body flipped through the air in a full rotation twice his body hit the wall shaking the entire room. After the first impact, another followed immediately afterward as Viran slid down onto his head as his legs fell with him.

No words were needed to be uttered by Viran, nor could they be uttered as Viran began to sob to himself as he laid there. Though the noise was large enough to be heard even by the guards standing outside of the door, no one came in to check on Viran.

Aftering having a muffled cry to himself, Viran staggered to his feet and placed his hand over his head and he felt a warm substance. Taking his hand away he saw a warm red color dying parts of his hand; blood. Viran held his head as he walked over to the table he had been at before; drops of blood falling onto the book as he walked by.

Viran fumbled through his things until he finally finds wraps of cloth and he begins to wrap it multiple times over his head. After his work was done Viran felt like he had done a good enough job to stop the bleeding… The only problem now is that he had used almost all of the cloth on just a little wound on his head and the wrapping he did was too tight.

But that wasn’t on Viran’s mind, there were too many things to do now.

Viran was finally able to make his very own spell after weeks of effort due to sheer luck, and having the right information. Before his first success Viran was wrought with wounds from accidental discharges. Sometimes his skin would begin to harden too much, sometimes he would instead become slower, and there was a time when his legs became engulfed in a wisp of smoke. The cause of this was, of course, the lack of a core element to his spell.

Through his studying, Viran learned one of the most important parts of a spell that he was missing completely; the lack of an element. A spell created needed a core element in order to create itself. Whether it be air, fire, or mana a core element was needed in order for the spell to manifest itself correctly. Mana itself was like a moldable clay, it can fill in the gaps of things or be made into something completely else entirely. When a person’s mana begins to make its way through the roots of a person, the mana begins its process of turning into a completely new element to begin the actual process of the spell. But in Viran’s case, the mana that he was funnelling through his roots began to switch elements at a moments notice changing the effects of the spell and posing a risk to his well being. Were Viran to do the same thing with a more complex spell, it would be likely he would erupt in flames or die or break the bones in his body.

The making of a spell was not to be trifled with.

In order to increase his speed exponentially, Viran took the approach of increasing his muscle density and resilience. He used large amounts of mana to fill in the gaps of his entire body whether they be his muscles, tendons, or veins; they all needed to be strong enough to resist the force of running at such a high force and speed. The spell that was developed solely by Viran focused primarily on the legs in order to increase his speed, but as his mana supply increased he may be able to increase the effectiveness of the spell into something more. Something that will increase his entire body’s strength twice fold, or even more.

To come up with a spell, Viran had taken inspiration from the ambrosias he had once heard from Sir Renault. Whereas an ambrosia is able to permanently affect the body and make an entire mortal body to new heights, Viran’s own spell was dependent on his mana and his own concentration.

Viran’s spell itself had flaws as well that he would need to fix over the coming years. His mana supply would always be a problem, and due to this a long time use of the spell would quickly drain his mana supply. He would likely only have a minute and a half use of the spell. Second, Viran's spell’s main priority was in making his speed increase. His entire body was affected in order to allow him to survive the sudden increase in speed and thus his entire body would be stronger and more resilient to attack overall. But the increase wasn’t all that much as it was his legs that were affected the most out of his entire body. The only spell he has would only significantly increase his speed and agility, but the firepower and defense it provided was minimal at best.

Even with these deficients though, the spell was a success for Viran. As he got more used to the spell Viran would be able to use the spell at a moments notice, and with an instant acceleration as well. Not to mention the minimal side effects the spell has as well, some spells would put pressure on the body for its usage but that was nonexistent for Viran.

In a chair along the side of a table, Viran sat motionlessly. His mind was engrossed in his spell, already he was determining the pros and cons. Though Viran didn’t know when or how he would be able to use his newly made spell, or anything else for that matter, he knew that before he decided to do anything for himself he would need to hold enough power.

Again, the same words echo within his mind. Viran knew now that he must take action. He had already spent years alone, suffering, and he hadn’t realized just how much of a cruel state he was in. Viran had finally found out that the only answer for him now was action. The action that he needed at that moment in order to find himself in a better state, was violence.

Viran looked up at the window, revealing a bright moon cascading large swatches of light into the library. The bright, full moon was the warning to Viran. A warning that there would only be less than a month left until the Week of Unity and his birthday.

Viran sat up and reached forward grabbing Sir Leonard’s book. Holding it closely to his chest, Viran walked off to end the night. A feeling of warmth came was felt by Viran, emanating from the clean book.