It was noon, and the warm sunlight shined upon the land. People in Geldern were running around, going about their day as usual.

With long strides, Gerald went straight to the Headmaster Orin's office at the Magic Academy. He figured the old man could provide him with more details about the so-called Combat Arts.

At first, Orin Gezor was somewhat surprised, as he thought that Combat Arts were common knowledge. Even if not many people knew them, their existence was no secret. Still, he took his time and explained what he knew as best he could.

He said, "Combat Arts are like you would expect, a form of magic. However, differently from the Combat Magic spells, they were not newly created by us."

As he saw Gerald listening to him with interest, he cleared his throat and continued, saying, "As you know, many artifacts were found in the past millennia. Many of them were written in ancient Elven language and we cannot fully translate them yet."

"However, some of them seemed to be copied much later, maybe in the hope of preserving them, and because the language was changing, we were able to translate some of them. Many of them contained records of history and it's those that helped us understand what the world was like before the Dark Ages."

"Did you also find Combat Arts magic in there?" Gerald jumped in with a question.

"Well yes, we did…" answered Headmaster Orin, "But they were too advanced and we couldn't understand them even when they were translated. I think we just lack a piece of the puzzle to unlock their secrets… Anyways that's beside the point."

"What I wanted to tell you is that among all of that, we found some old fighting techniques, that were supposed to strengthen your physical body. Unfortunately, they were also way out of our league, and we couldn't make use of them."

Gerald nodded in understanding and said, "That's a shame. I can imagine their creators would be dispirited if they knew their life's work would be lost in the river of time."

Orin's lips lifted in a slight smile as he said, "That might not be so."

"Oh?"

"Although we are indeed unable to make use of the original, many brilliant people tried to adapt those techniques to make them functional once more. The Unmoving Boulder, for example, was adapted from a technique called Stone Body Iron Heart. According to our calculations, it should be something like a top High-grade spell."

The Headmaster continued to explain as best he could. The Stone Body Iron Heart could supposedly make your entire body as hard as a rock and your organs as tough as iron. Apart from the unknown spell-casting method, there was also a high requirement for Mana.

It was not just a simple Mana requirement at the beginning, like other easy spells Gerald came to know. For its operation, it required a constant supply of Mana directly from the body of the user. It could not make use of any external source of energy.

Gerald frowned at the mention of it. It appeared that internal Mana was somehow different from that inside of Elemental stones gathered from animals. Luckily he already had a way to increase his internal Mana, although it would probably take him a while to do so. At least he had some hope.

What came as a surprise to him, however, was that there was an even stronger spell above Stone Body Iron Heart. It was called Iron Body Diamond Heart. It was a grade higher and the estimates placed it somewhere at the top of Elite-grade spells.

Elite was the highest grade for spells that humans were aware of. And even that was already in the realms of legend. No human could cast a magic spell like that and stay alive after it. Actually, no human could even cast it. They would all die before succeeding.

To cast an Elite-grade spell, the mental load had to be distributed across at least twenty real Mages. A 'mage' was different from a Mage. Normal people used the word 'mage' to describe all those who fought using magic. However, a Mage was a title for someone who could singlehandedly cast High-grade spells. And people like that were rare.

Anyhow, the Unmoving Boulder spell was just a Novice-grade adaptation. Although it was not bad, per se, it wasn't something amazing either.

"If you want to know more, you can check in the library under the Ancient Magic section. Most of the documents are damaged in one way or another so there probably won't be much to see," said Headmaster Orin. "If you have any further questions just pay me a visit."

Gerald was happy to hear that and so he expressed his thanks and then went to check out the library.

In accordance with what Headmaster told him, he quickly found what he was searching for. He found many old books and painted animal skins, that contained the advanced Combat Arts.

Unfortunately, even though he was able to understand the contents, he just couldn't understand the deeper meaning. Some parts were also missing or they were too damaged to be read. After more than a few hours of research, Gerald finally gave up.

He felt like he was missing an important part, a key to unlocking the truth behind the spells. An understanding that illuded him for the moment. He also had to make a Stone Bolt spellbook for Kerius, in case his family decided to trade.

And so he left the Academy and went to buy a few notebooks and some ink.

He didn't start with writing the spellbook right away, instead, he wrote down all his new discoveries of magic spells, potions, and magic in general.

He did not write down any recipes or instructions for spells. He just wrote his hypothesis on the workings of this new energy called Mana. Also, he wrote about his discoveries about Elements and the ability of matter manipulation.

He was writing it down for his personal use. Although his memory was extremely good, he would still forget some details over time.

As he was writing this it suddenly hit him. The ability to manipulate Elements was basically just Telekinesis. Or was it Psykocinesis? The definitions were so similar that Gerald wasn't sure.

Now he also started to wonder, if he could eventually manipulate all forms of matter. He was already quite good at manipulating Water at a molecular level and controlling Earth at a more grand scale.

He suddenly wanted to try to manipulate water in bigger amounts, to see if he could extend Telekinesis to large amounts of liquid as well.

He took a cup of water and imbued it with his own Mana. Then he tried lifting it up all at once. The amount of water was not much, however, it felt like he was trying to lift it with a sieve.

When he lifted up a rock, he could hold it at one end and it would still float. Water, however, was completely different. After many tries, he discovered that his mind was not in the right place.

To manipulate Water Element he needed to completely incase the liquid inside his control, not giving it an option to drain out of his imaginary container. The more he tried, the worse the results were. It was also really taxing on his mind.

Gerald rubbed his temples in frustration and said, "That's enough for today, I have other things to do. Maybe I'll get an idea on how to solve this problem, later."

He took out another notebook and started writing about the Stone Bolt spell. At the beginning of the book, he made an extensive and at the same time simplified description of the primal forces in the universe.

He had to make it so, otherwise, people probably wouldn't be able to understand the later parts of the spell.

Even with the shortened and simplified version, the spellbook still came to be over thirty pages long, including the spell itself. That came to be because he wrote it in the easiest and most simple language he possibly could. There were a lot of explanations and examples as well as pictures to make it easier for the reader.

Time quickly passed and it was already late at night when Gerald finished. He was just about to go to sleep when he heard light knocks on the door. Although he thought it was weird, he still went to check who was disturbing him this late.

Surprisingly, it was Luna who came knocking. Gerald didn't know what was going on, so he asked, "Can I help you?"

"I'm sorry for disturbing you this late Gerald, but I was told it's an emergency…" Luna said apologetically.

Gerald lifted his hand to stop her apologizing and said, "It's okay, don't worry about it. Tell me; what's going on?"

"Actually, I don't know. Kerius came and said he had to talk to you, and that it was an emergency."

'Kerius, huh? I really hope he didn't come this late just for the book. Also, what's the emergency?' Gerald thought to himself and followed Luna to the hall.

It was a pretty quiet night and there were only a few people left in the Guildhall. Torches and oil lamps threw some light on the otherwise dark room.

Gerald found Kerius sitting on a bench next to a wall, nervously looking around. He immediately knew something was wrong, but he still went to meet him.

"Kerius, good… evening, I guess. Whatcha got for me?"