[Magic Skills Details]
Grade: Ordinary Magician
Specialized Field: Elements
Common Magic:
܀ Fast Casting Level 4
܀ Mana Sense Level 5
Fire Element Magic:
܀ Ignite Level 10
Wind Element Magic:
܀ Wind Blade Level 10
Spirit-type Magic:
܀ Spirit Resonance Level 3
܀ Spirit Understanding Level 3
"Gasp, gasp…"
Completely exhausted, I dropped down to the ground.
It had been two hours since Phase 1 started. My proficiency in spirit-type skills rose as I captured and defeated Spirit Stigmatas and Elemental Traces around the library.
I wiped off my sweat and felt a sense of satisfaction rise as I looked at my skills window. This would enable me to imbue spirit magic into my arrows. A breakthrough in terms of my combat power.
"Ahh! But seriously… this is way too hard."
I had been diligently training, but there were still some dangerous moments because of the wind that kept pushing me away.
I looked around. It seemed I had already cleared all the spirits wandering around the library. All that was left were traces of my continuous use of Wind Blade, and the burnt debris lying around from using Ignite. But if I waited a bit, I knew new spirits would eventually come.
"Phew… I need to get Spirit Resonance as close to level 10 as possible. That way, I can even sign a contract with a spirit… If I don't do it now, there'll never be a better opportunity again. So let's keep working hard. Alright!"
I couldn't waste this golden opportunity.
"Ugh… phew… not yet. I haven't reached my limit yet…"
The key to training was pushing myself to the limit. Wasn't that a known fact to anyone who lifted even just a little bit at the gym?
This wasn't the time to be lazy. I needed to keep pushing myself to the extreme until there wasn't a single drop of strength left in my body. Surely, doing that much would bring me a significant stat change.
Oh, I saw a bunch of new spirits approaching. I got up, filled with renewed fighting spirit. This wasn't an opportunity that would come by easily. It was time to train and train again until the moment I didn't have an ounce of energy left.
"I can still do more…! I can do it…!"
****
The phrase 'rags to riches' wasn't enough to fully explain the miracle that was Ziggs's life.
The barbaric grasslands up north were a place that the empire had no rule over. It was a place where one constantly worries about their potential death every day. Ziggs was a descendant of the nomadic people who resided in these lands.
By the time he had grown enough, he was already separated from his family. He didn't know when or why he was abandoned, or if he would ever be capable of reintroducing himself back to the company of others.
Rather than learning how to read, Ziggs learned how to cut the throat of a deer. Rather than learning how to purchase things from stores, he learned how to procure supplies from roadside corpses. His life was closer to that of an animal than to a human being.
"Ziggs, you're like a wolf that walks on two feet."
Ziggs reflexively nodded his head at Elka's words the first time they met.
The reason why she said that was obvious. The first time they met, Ziggs had a filthy appearance as he dragged an elk's corpse behind him, his shaggy hair hanging down his face.
Elka was the only one who knew how different his current neat and tidy appearance was from how he was before.
But the reason why Ziggs nodded then was not just because of his shabby appearance.
Their first meeting was but a distant story now. The civilized world moved much faster than Ziggs had expected, so much so that he could no longer remember what his life in the grasslands was like, back when his every day was the same.
When Elka's archaeologist father discovered Ziggs's talent in magic. When they brought him to their mansion. The first time he had a proper meal of warm soup and bread. When he learned the rules of civilization, step by step. When he first used elemental magic to pull out an old tree in the mansion's garden. When he got admitted into Sylvania with Elka. And even the day they walked together to the entrance examination.
Even these passing memories of his life were becoming a distant past.
However, there were some memories that would come to mind whenever he looked up at the sky.
"Ziggs, you're like a wolf that walks on two feet."
He had been living in the vast grasslands. He had eaten the bodies of animals found on the side of the road and had protected himself with the magic he had awakened alone. He had fallen asleep under the moon…
He was a baby wolf that had been abandoned by the pack.
Ziggs had no choice but to reflexively nod at Elka's words.
Thinking back on it, he had lived a very lonely life.
The day he first met Elka, Ziggs realized what loneliness was.
That was a very old story now.
"Gasp, gasp…"
The date had already changed. It wasn't until way past midnight when Ziggs finally arrived at the library.
Fluid Spirits and low-ranking spirits were no match for Ziggs, but they were constantly rushing towards him, causing his Vitality to wear down as he ran and used mana to defeat them at the same time.
He would've arrived much later if he fought Lortelle.
In this situation, when every second and every minute mattered, he felt grateful to Princess Pheonia for stopping Lortelle.
He would have to eventually repay the favor, but paying the price for what he did would have to wait for now.
"Gasp… gasp… phew…"
Contrary to what he expected, it was completely quiet around the library.
The annoying spirits that ganged up and attacked him all the way here were nowhere to be found.
However, he found traces left behind.
"This, this is…"
Analyzing the situation using traces left in the environment was not uncommon for Ziggs, who had a strong sense of survival.
There were traces of magic all around the entrance of the library. The cutting marks all over the floor and benches must have come from Wind Blade, and the burnt marks on the empty floor and walls were signs of Ignite.
Ziggs calmly looked around.
It was quiet around the library, like usual. It was like nothing had happened despite the disaster that was taking place at the Student Center. The library, located on a small hill, was still completely in place.
The traces of fighting started at the entrance of the library all the way to the outskirts of the district. This wasn't a simple defensive battle protecting the base, but a sign showing someone had deliberately beaten all the spirits circling around the area.
There were even footprints at the exact same spot several times. They seemed to have secured the safety of the library like a guard.
Whoever it was had beaten all the spirits around the library.
But it didn't matter who it was who left these traces. Ziggs quickly rushed inside the library to find Elka. Through the large wooden doors was a lobby with an elaborate corridor extending to both sides.
And right there in the lobby was a familiar boy, lying with his back against a statue. His name came out of Ziggs's mouth.
"Ed Rothstaylor!"
A boy who was completely exhausted and was resting. A name that made Ziggs lose all reasoning.
Ziggs ran to him like a bullet.
"Eh? What. You."
Resting against a statue, he rose on one knee, supported by an elbow.
Ed Rothstaylor didn't look quite normal. His school uniform was torn and worn out. His body was a wreck, and his Vitality had completely depleted.
A boy who was completely exhausted and resting. A name that made Ziggs lose all reasoning.
He looked like he had been fighting to the extremes. But these were things Ziggs couldn't afford to pay attention to calmly.
"Elka! Where's Elka?"
"You… what are you doing here…?"
"Tell me where Elka is first!"
Ed frowned as he looked straight at Ziggs. In any case, he wouldn't be able to communicate with Ziggs right now, as Ziggs had completely lost his mind.
"Reading Room 3."
Ziggs ran to the reading room even before Ed could finish his answer. He had to secure Elka's safety right away.
He ran like crazy toward the end of the hallway, where a door labeled Reading Room 3 came into view.
But it had an unusual entrance. There were bookcases used as a barricade, and a blackout curtain was blocking it from view. Though simple, the reading room looked to be fortified.
Ziggs removed the curtains hanging from the door, opening it with such force that it broke the sliding door.
"Elka!"
Ziggs entered the room, yelling her name.
And just as he hoped for, Elka was there, safely lying on a desk. She was unconscious, however.
"Elka! Are you okay? Elka!"
Ziggs took a deep breath and observed Elka's condition.
She was breathing peacefully. Looking at her from head to toe, there was not a single scratch, and it didn't seem like she had been attacked by a spirit.
It felt as though black mud was persistently pushing down his throat.
"Haaa…!"
Ziggs collapsed into a chair, his whole body exhausted.
Elka Islan was safe.
That one fact felt like great salvation for the boy.
"Thank goodness… really… thank God."
He wiped his face for a while, Elka sleeping peacefully in front of him.
Five minutes passed by before Ziggs came back to his senses.
After his breathing had calmed down, and his Vitality had recovered back to some extent, his rational and logical mind began to return. Having confirmed Elka was safe, he was now able to judge the situation objectively.
Ziggs looked around the room.
The windows were completely covered by large bookshelves. A rampant spirit looking through the window wouldn't have been able to see inside, the view completely blocked.
And the blackout curtain hanging on the entrance. Since it was a doorway, it wouldn't have been a good idea to block it with a bookshelf like the windows. In a situation where you would need to run away, a bookshelf would only block your way out. Indeed, the blackout curtains were a good replacement for that.
It was a decision that showed a lot of skill and thought. Since there weren't enough blackout curtains, the door at the back was blocked by another bookshelf, and outside it was a simple wall of defense, in case there were spirits in the hallway.
It was set up in a way that any other entrance or exit other than the door nearest to Elka would have been dangerous.
"That's right, Elka. No matter how urgent the situation is, you were always calm and made the right decisions. Of course, it's not like I didn't already know that."
It wasn't that he didn't trust Elka; rather, he was so worried he couldn't bear it.
However, the more Ziggs thought about it, the more he realized something seemed strange. The reading rooms were barricaded with bookshelves outside. They were so big that even adult men wouldn't have been able to lift them properly.
It was hard to believe Elka did everything by herself. She was born weak, enough to even struggle to lift a hand ax.
Then the person who did all of this…
By the process of elimination, there was only one person who could have done it.
"That guy…?"
Come to think of it, he didn't realize this at first because he wasn't in his right mind, but Ed Rothstaylor was lying in the middle of the lobby, looking completely exhausted.
Ziggs heard he was an extremely cruel and selfish person, the biggest piece of trash there was, someone who had no problem backstabbing others.
But looking at this situation right now… it was all too strange.
The traces of a battle outside, and the simple fortress around the reading room to conceal an unconscious girl. On top of that, Ed's appearance looked like he dealt with all the spirits approaching the library to protect Elka.
The endless onslaught of spirits from the Student Center until here, where a boy was holding his legs together in the lobby, looking worn.
It wasn't difficult for Ziggs to figure it all out.
"But…"
As someone who lived in the wild, it was obvious to Ziggs what the best course of action would have been in this crisis situation.
It may sound cold and heartless, but in a situation such as this, Elka was nothing more than deadweight.
If you wanted to keep your own life and secure your own safety, the rational and logical way would have been to abandon Elka, or use her as bait and run away. Humans had no choice but to feel guilty for such acts, but humans in need also had no choice but to worry about their own survival.
Ziggs thought that someone like Ed Rothstaylor would have no problem doing such things without any sense of guilt.
That was why Ziggs lost sense of all reasoning and ran all the way here.
"That guy… There's no way."
Ziggs couldn't help but repeat the words again.
Ed Rothstaylor's reputation in the academy was already rock bottom. You wouldn't be able to find anyone who approved of him. Ziggs himself had seen that despicable side of him very clearly.
There was no way a single slice of selflessness could be in such a person. That was what Ziggs thought.
There is no way that there would be even a single piece of selflessness left in such a person. That's what he had thought.
"Don't panic when you wake up. And stay right here. Everything should be over before daybreak, so you should stay calm and block the entrance. And don't provoke the spirits. Always think about your own safety first, and don't hastily move about."
"..."
On the other hand, this was written on the blackboard.
Judging by the crooked letters, you could tell this was written in a hurry.
Even though he was in a hurry and was most likely busy, he brought a blackboard all the way here and set it up, and then wrote this message… it was easy to figure things out.
Ziggs was left with no choice but to sit for a while, staring off into space.