《On a Blank Canvas》


 Chapter 1: Death & Transmigration

    On the roof of an old apartment building, a boy looking to be around 90 to 100 kg in weight and around 19 years old in age was leaning against the railing at the edge of the building, looking down at the streets below, his eyes mostly calm with a hint of annoyance with a slight frown on his face.


    He sighed before turning around putting his back against the railing and looking to the sky with a resigned look of acceptance, the old and rusty railing slightly creaking at his weight.


    "The world ain''t a very nice place most of the time..."


    He was recently fired from his job at a fast food joint, due to being framed on stealing around 500$ from the cash register, the staff was gathered and searched of their belongings to see if the any of them had stolen it, all agreeing that no one in this day and age would have around 500$ in cash with them.


    He had thought that he was all in the clear and had casually opened his bag with his belongings, only to find the exact 500$ in his bag.


    Despite that being the case, he was still calm and a bit amused that someone actually tried to frame him on stealing the money, as he knew he was not well liked in amongst the staff for being unattractive and unsociable.


    He went on to explain to his colleagues who were looking at him with scorn when they saw the 500$ in his bag, that he wouldn''t be stupid enough to actually put the 500$ in his bag and that someone was trying to frame him.


    At first, they started to believe what he said, before a popular member of the staff, a handsome teenager stated that no one would be stupid enough to frame him so poorly and that this was what he planned from the start in case he got caught.


    He wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the claim as he tried to open his mouth to counter his accusation, before seeing that the rest of the staff started to believe the handsome teenager.


    And then leading to the present, he was fired from the job with the "compensation" that the staff members wouldn''t report him to the police for his act of theft.


    Though it wouldn''t be that hard to get another job, just the experience itself left a bad taste in his mouth, and he didn''t care too much for his image in the first place, whether or not someone spoke badly about him or showed open disgust or rejection towards him.


    Now after being fired from this job, he''d have to find a new one, and not because he had nothing else to do during the school break, it was because he didn''t attend school in the first place since around 3 years ago, and the fact he broke all ties he had to his family.


    He had never known his parents all his life, being told they died of an accident shortly after he was born, being brought up by his only relatives, his uncle, and his uncle¡¯s wife.


    They were both awful caretakers and parents, they more or less hated children as they never had their own, and they never cared about him in the slightest, only instilling into him what was right and wrong, buying him only necessities such as clothes, books and whatever he said he needed and was reasonable, and a weekly allowance that increased as he grew older.


    Thought they were never really kind or caring, they were neither strict and allowed him to do whatever he wanted, not even bothering to know about his grades in school.


    In the beginning, the lack of love or care didn''t really affect him as he had the positivity of a young child, the lack of strict discipline beyond simple rules had assured that he had a more or less normal childhood.


    He wasn''t the smartest of students and only had average grades with the exception of mathematics, as he had always liked the way maths fit together like a puzzle, and that all he had to do was put the pieces together.


    Though as he became older, he drifted into playing online games and reading novels online, his grades slowly dropping, and his physique getting worse from the constant unbalanced meals, as he had to order food online for dinner, and chose whatever he wanted to eat during breakfast and lunch using his generous allowance.


    Then at the age of 16, he decided that all he needed in life was a wifi connection, a computer, and all the basic living necessities and moved out of the house of his uncle and his wife, they had agreed to provide him with money monthly for a year and would cut all ties with him, as he moved out together with the things he bought with the allowance he¡¯s saved over the years, including his computer.


    He had quickly found a cheap apartment to live in, already having its own bed and small kitchen, he had quickly arranged his things and set up his computer on the table he brought with him.


    He had then quickly found a job and his life was more or less secured at that in time.


    During the three years since then, he had only changed jobs thrice due to them being slightly better than the other, such as having fewer work hours to a similar pay or being closer to his apartment.


    Hee thought back on his life until now, putting more weight upon the railing as it creaked louder. It was quite laid back and uneventful, with no ups or downs as he never formed close relationships with others, possibly because of the lack of affection he had received in his childhood, making it harder to create close relationships as he grew older, forcing himself to indulge in games and novels.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    He let out one last large sigh as he tried to push off the railing to stand straight up...


    CREEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAK... SNAP


    And then he fell backward, failing to grab onto anything as he starting falling towards the ground, his face changed from surprise from the lack of support from the railing to fear as he finally noticed that he falling backward onto nothing but air, and then disbelief and regret as he was quickly falling towards the ground, and then immense sadness, knowing that his life was at its end, tears falling together with him as he suddenly hit...


    ---


    "Shit! I''m late!"


    A figure sprinted along a pavement at a speed that professional sprinters on earth would look at in disbelief, the figure was a man in his mid 20s wearing office attire with a tie and all, a look of panic on his face, his feet touching the ground every 8 meters or so, and a small impact was made everytime his feet hit the ground, the bystanders adeptly avoiding the man, or jumping to the side before he accidentally crashed into them, some the bystanders being middle-aged men and women, who would seem like such an action would require some amounts of luck or skill, though it showed on their faces rather than surprise or fright that they were almost hit by the speeding man, they showed disapproval and shook their heads as they continued on their way.


    The man named Clive continued to sprint for another kilometer or so before checking watch on his wrist, the watch was literally only a thin blue disk floating above his wrist as it showed the time to be 9:45 AM, he had to be at work at 10:00 AM and if he continued at this pace he would reach around 10:05 AM.


    Though being late for 5 minutes seems to be moderately acceptable, he had already been late around 8 times this month for around 10-20 minutes each time and that his salary would be temporarily reduced for the month if he was late another time.


    "I can''t afford to have my pay cut... damn! I knew I shouldn''t have drunk so much yesterday... I''m blaming Javen for making me drink so much if my pay gets cut."


    Clive started to look around to see if he could find another way to work, spotting an alleyway by the side, though he was unsure whether or not the way was faster or not.


    "Gah!! who cares? Even if it takes an extra hour to get there, it would make no difference to my reduced salary!!"


    As he shouted that out, he quickly sprinted into the alleyway, the impact when he started sprinting again being larger than the previous times, though the ground stayed perfectly undamaged.


    He quickly sprinting past piles of trash and dumpsters changing alleyways every intersection, going to the left then to the right constantly, after about 30 or so turns and sprinting across 8 roads in between, he stopped to look at his watch once again, showing 9:55 AM, still quite far away from his workplace, the "shortcut" actually much longer than his normal route as he predicted.


    "Aaah... my money.."


    Clive slumped down to his knees, his head facing the ground, as he punched the ground with his fist, making a small impact and collapsing a trash pile just a few meters behind him.


    He sighed and went to stand up and slowly made his way out the alleyway, before stopping as he spotted a figure laying on the ground a few dozen meters away in front of him.


    He quickly came forward to find a fat boy, that he assumed was around 17-20, unconscious and laying on a pile of trash, his clothes were tasteless, wearing a pair of slippers and shorts, with a plain black t-shirt


    He wasn''t dirty or smelled like garbage like normal homeless people, except for the trash beneath him. It seemed like someone had left him here, though he wasn''t injured in the slightest nor did he have a bump on his head.


    Clive thought of another way he could''ve become unconscious and agreed with himself that it seemed reasonable, before deciding to bring the boy to a nearby hospital, despite his lack of injuries.


    He noticed he could use this as an alibi for why he was late for work and he wouldn''t get his pay cut!


    Quickly taking out his phone and messaging his superior that he had found an unconscious boy on the way to work and was taking him to the hospital. Though what his superior didn''t know was that Clive would''ve been late anyways even if he had not found the boy.


    After sending the message he quickly bent down and placed his hands underneath the boy, channeling energy into his arms as he picked the boy up effortlessly and placed him on his shoulder, and then only holding him by his thicks legs with one arm.


    Satisfied and happy that his pay wasn''t getting cut, he started to sprint of the alleyway, albeit much slower than his previous frantic pace as he went to the nearby hospital.


    ---


    The door of a hospital dorm opened, and coming inside was a nurse pushing a gurney with a patient lying atop it.


    "Whats the problem?" Another nurse inside the room had asked as she was preparing some medicine on a table.


    "Found in an alleyway unconscious, no visible wounds on the body nor any signs of blunt force trauma, and he was drained of Vaes with only a little left when he was found, we first thought it was caused by a spell but scans show no external spells have affected him or been affecting him for at least 48 hours with our most accurate scanner."


    "And he had no Vaes left too? How is that possible!! still being unconscious for at least 48 hours after the effect of the spell that had affected him had ended and also not restoring his Vaes in that time span as well?" The nurse asked, confused on the impossibility of the situation.


    The other nurse shrugged, also unable to come up with a conclusion.


    "The most viable explanation was that our scanner was unable to detect a spell that was used in the span of fewer than 12 hours, assuming his rate of Vaes recovery was that slow."


    "That''s still quite improbable..."


    "Well, even if it is, he''s in your hands now Anne, maybe some further scans would help you understand what happened to him?"


    Anne shook her head, knowing if the scanner failed to find anything, she wouldn''t be able to do much either, taking the gurney off the other nurse as she nodded and exited the room.


    Anne went to the side of the gurney, as she placed her hands above the patient''s body, a whitish energy left her palms as it slowly came downwards, engulfing the body of the patient, and lifting him off the gurney as she slowly guided his body onto a free bed, letting the energy disperse and using it again to cover his body with a bedsheet.


    She pulled up a stool and sat beside his bed, as she sent out a wave of invisible energy to pass through his body, doing this around five times before stopping.


    She furrowed her brows, finding out that he had no injuries whatsoever even internally, and his Vaes was calmy being restored, no fluctuations or abnormalities, even his brain only showed a lack of activity, as if he was only sleeping.


    Though as a professional she knew the lack of activity in his brain was due unconsiousness rather than fatigue or voluntary sleep.


    ---


    ...


    Did I die?


    ...


    So this is death, just darkness huh.. and softness on my back.


    back?


    So... I''m on a bed...


    Aaah... that''s great, I didn''t die...


    Though at that height I was sure that I was dead...


    I''ll thank whatever god made the miracle of my survival, I''m still not finished with living I tell you! Still haven''t found out what happened in the next episode of that anime I was watching, Heh, humor after you almost died is really lame, isn''t it?


    Whatever, I don''t feel any pain anywhere on my body, I should''ve sustained major injuries and might even be a cripple for life, but at least I''m alive, they must''ve pumped a lot of anesthetic and painkillers into me, or whatever it is they put into patient in order to reduce the pain, but.. I still feel... something deep within me... though it doesn''t feel painful, I just know it wasn''t there before...


    Well, I should open my eyes and see where I am, wonder where the nearest hospital was, never really checked before... is that thing floating?!?


    As he opened his eyes, he saw Anne operating what looked like a tablet with her fingers as it was floating in the air, being held up by a translucent whitish energy, the same one she used to carry him onto the bed.


    Was I sleeping for such a long time we''ve invented hover technology?!?

 Chapter 2: Starting to Paint

    It seemed like patient 3092 had finally woken up, A whole 2 days after he was brought in, and is most certainly the easiest patient I''d taken care off since i started working as a nurse, only requiring me to temporarily borrow a Magic Nutrition Injector to provide him with nutrition and life-force while he was comatose.


    A brilliant invention that collected Vaes from the surroundings and converted it into Life-Attribute magic that "injected" into a person body to sustain them, but unable to heal any wounds like normal Life-Attribute magic.


    Now let''s see his reaction... shocked, he must still be suffering from whatever was done to him or is unable to believe he was brought to a hospital in time, though if he was actually unfound, he would have woken up from his coma two days later and would have just been starving.


    Maybe he assumed something horrible must''ve happened to him, either way, I''ll have to ask some basic information from him as no one had filed a police report of a missing person.


    Anne stood up from the stool, the floating tablet moving under her arm like it had a mind of its own before the faint glow it emitted had disappeared.


    "Hello sir, do not worry, you are in a safe environment, someone had found you unconscious, totally uninjured, and drained of Vaes in an alleyway just beside Halled Road, do you remember anything from before you became unconscious?"


    ---


    Hover technology... but I don''t feel any older? or maybe its one of those scenarios that my mental age don''t match with my physical age due to a long-term coma?!


    Oh? the nurse stood up and the hover-tablet had floated under her arm, wow! Is it programmed to do that?


    Ah? Unconscious? pretty sure if someone fell from the top of a building and survived they''d have some sort of mental ailments from the pain alone, now that I think of it, I don''t remember feeling any pain when I hit the ground... maybe my brain removed the memory as some sort of a failsafe? well, at least I won''t have any lasting traumas just from feeling the pain alone.


    ...


    what?


    totally... uninjured?


    Is this a joke? Even though I''d like to think the nurse was joking but when i looked down at my body and tried to move my limbs... they were totally fine.


    Before I had any time to think of how I not only survived falling from a building and sustaining zero injuries, the nurse had stated something I had no knowledge on, drained of... Vaes? Was that a new medical term they invented after how many years I''ve been unconscious? But checking upon my body once again, and touching my face, I can tell that nothing has changed about me at all, pretty sure that would be the case for middle-aged people but I''m.. or was 19 when I almost died.


    "Nurse.." It seemed like my voice didn''t change, "how long have I been unconscious?"


    "In the hospital? Two days, we still are unsure of the definite period of time you were unconscious outside, though we can assume it was lesser than the amount of time it would take for someone to die by starvation and or dehydration."


    So it seemed his theory that he had slept for years was false, and that he was still indeed 19 years old. That still doesn''t explain how we have hover-tablets... but some things are more important currently.


    Should he say that he fell off a building? It didn''t seem like they knew about that, but... wait... they found him in an alleyway? Beside Halled Road? He knew the road his apartment building was beside was called Benryl Road, not Halled, and that he was falling onto Benryl Road and not into an alleyway... Had someone dragged his body to an alleyway by Halled Road and left him there? But for what reason? Coupled with the fact that he suffered no injuries is also one of the things that boggled his mind.


    For now, he''d just say he didn''t remember, even if he was caught lying, well, unless it would send him to jail, he''d be sure, to tell the truth by then.


    "I... don''t have any memories of them before then... the latest memory I had was... leaving home... to find for work." He struggled to make thinking of a believable alibi sound like he was trying to pull on his latest memory.


    A flash of disappointment appeared on Anne''s face before returning to her usual soft demeanor, so as to come off as calming to patients.


    "I see... Then could you tell me your name, sir? you had no personal belonging when you were found"


    No.. WAIT, MY WALLET, MY PHONE...


    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!


    Someone must''ve nicked me while i was unconscious...


    Grrrr, when I get out of here and..


    ...


    Name?


    My name... my name? what.. was my name?


    Had I forgotten my name? Searching through my memories, all the times'' someone had said my name or it was written somewhere is just... Blank, like nothing, existed there in the first place..


    "J-John.. m-my name is John.." I decided to use a fake name for now, before the silence stretched on for too long.


    "Mr. John, well authorities haven''t actually been informed of the incident regarding yourself and since you are already awake, and very much healthy, it would be better if you were to report the incident to them yourself, assuming you''d like to be released? But if not you are still welcome to stay five more days at the hospital" Though her tone seemed kind and calming, he was able to sense that she hinting that he should leave as soon as possible, taking no offense to it as he knew he was as healthy as someone who almost died could be.


    "Ah yes, do I need to do any paperwork or anything? or can i just exit the building straight away?"


    "Just some minor paperwork before you go, Mr. John"


    The paperwork was just filling in some personal information and signing some documents, where he had put in a fake believable address and someone other fake information, including the name "John Harold" as his full name, before quickly exiting the building and briskly walking far away from the hospital.Stolen story; please report.


    After a couple of minutes of walking and thinking of the all the strange unexplainable things that have happened in what he thought was a relatively short amount of time, he slowed down his pace before looking up and around him, seeing if he could recognize his location.


    Only to be stumped by what he saw, flying cars and floating advertisement signs all around, some of them looking like holograms, and looking down, everyone had some sort of strange gadget with them, some were even flying above him!


    Some people had holograms that came out of a device on their wrist, others had blue glowing symbols floating beside their ears and in front of their mouth, as they talked, the people flying above were literally using hoverboards! or had a what looked like a flying Tron Bike, with glowing symbols all around it.


    The information that he just made him stand in place, annoying those who were walking in front and behind him as they walking around him, He was also unsure how he missed everything as he was escaping from the hospital''s vicinity.


    He just noticed that he didn''t think the hospital was out of place because he had never been to one before and didn''t know what was normal in a hospital, and the fact that his mind was mostly occupied on his current situation and was unable to really focus on his surroundings


    As he tried getting his brain working again, he started to walk once more, taking in the sights around him, as someone who has read novels and watched anime all his life, he''s seen his fair share of sci-fi cities and what shocked him was the fact that one existed and he was standing in it.


    After more or less accepting the fact that a sci-fi city existed and enjoyed the sights around him like a tourist on vacation, he had already come up with some a definite theory on what had happened to him. And the proof was literally all around him, He had transmigrated to another world.


    ---


    After looking around the city and asking for some directions, he was able to locate a library, and just like the city, the library had sci-fi things all around, with floating ladders and flying platforms transporting book from place to place.


    He had taken a seat at a table deeper into the library, where he would just be surrounded by bookshelves and books, and nothing else.


    So... I transmigrated huh? Let''s see... Accidental dea.. well... i don''t actually know if I died or not, but I''m pretty sure falling of that rooftop triggered me into coming here, so check.


    Next, suddenly appearing in a foreign world, check.


    now... having the advantage to thrive and survive in the world, such as a cheat ability, a Goldfinger, a system, or having knowledge of the modern world.


    Pretty sure any knowledge I have from my world is kinda useless, so... a cheat ability? no? I can''t really feel.. feel? I feel.. that same feeling I felt when I awoke, of something deep within me, I first thought it was related to my "injuries" but it seems like this is my cheat? How do I call upon it.. well let''s try what all protagonists do when they have a power deep within them that they want to use or see.


    I try clearing my mind of everything but the will to see the power deep within me, struggling to visualize it... Actually, no, it was actually really easy, and what I see deep within me is...


    ...


    Blank?


    Again?


    Like my name...


    Though I''m not very upset that i lost my name, just having no name is a problem itself and kinda makes me feel lesser than human, because what kind of person has no name?


    But again onto my power, It was literally blank, not that i had no power, i know something is there and i can clearly sense its presence within me, but... it''s literally like finding a box and opening it, only to find nothing inside, though the box exists, or finding a folded up note and unfolding it, only for it to be a folded up paper with nothing written on it, or... A blank canvas, yes..


    My power feels like a blank canvas.. empty yet existent, and i have some sort of idea of what my power is... what do you do on a canvas? You fill it up, with whatever you could think of, but mostly paint.. though i feel for some reason my canvas was able to accept more than just paint.


    So I "painted" it with something that would be able to complete two tasks,


    Al


    I painted it with my new name, thus filling in my blank name and gilling in my blank canvas.


    The moment I did, the name Al kept reverberating within my mind, over and over, not painfully so, but with a strong intent and purpose, like no matter how many times you bang my head against the floor, I would never forget my new name, Al.


    Wow... man, I didn''t really know what to expect, but its like i''ve had this name my entire life, well in a more realistic sense I mean, because the origin of this name would be my online handle i''ve had since I was 10.


    At that age, i was already semi-hooked onto online games, and names that were in another language seemed cool to me, so i tried finding out what white in latin was, because white is my favorite color, i always thought white was such a clean and pure color compared to the rest, and the possibilities things that are white can become.


    I found a lot of latin words related to white, and a lot of them started with "Al"


    so I decided to use that as my official name online, whether it be on an online game or forum , I always stuck to the name Al.


    Even before my new name became imprinted onto my mind, I already had quite a bit of affection for the name, as I''ve never been called by my real name much before, and the times that I''ve it been called, had always lacked affection, and was always used just to gain my attention.


    Well, this canvas won''t fill itself, what else can I paint onto it? Lets try... a favorite quote of mine.


    When you hit rock bottom, the only way is up.


    Just like my name, the quote resounded in my mind as if I was the one who created the wuote in the first place, but it didn''t imprint onto my mind like my name, makes sense, names are always the thing that are imprinted onto sapient beings, so as to be seen as an individual.


    Now thinking over the quote in my head... I notice something amazing, it seems like i''m able to perfectly dissect it, and put it together again without any mental effort whatsoever, as in... if you told me to write it backwards, count how many of each alphabet are inside of it, or even scramble up all the letters and ask me to find it within a mess of other anagrams, I would be able to do it effortlessly and in an instant.


    I would have claimed that my canvas was able to give me a supreme memory, but it was much more than that, I don''t know if others with amazing memories were able to dissect the information they have as I did, but i''m pretty sure no matter how much I would have memorized the quote before, I would take more time than an instant to do all those things I claimed I was be able to do currently.


    Okay.. lets try something more complicated then.


    I stood up from my seat, looking at a nearby clock and seeing that only about 10 minutes have passed since i''ve sat down, much less than what i thought.


    I went around the library and found the section for children around grade school, and picked up a book that seemed like it would take around 30min or so to read through.


    I went back to the same seat, and opened up the book, before i started reading i tried to command myself that everyword i read on the book would be painted onto the canvas at the same time.


    After reading the first sentence, i was able to see that it worked with no problems, the exact sentence now on my canvas below my name and quote.


    Around 10 minutes into the book, i realized that all the things i''ve read in the past 10 minutes was still perfectly in my memory, as if i''ve only read them a few moments ago, not only that, it felt exactly like the quote as in i would be able to perfectly dissect every part of it.


    I decided to complete the book before contemplating on my findings.


    After another 20 minutes i had finished reading the book and now... i can literally remember each and every detail, i could even tell you the number of words and characters in each page, and which sentence was one which page, or even the count of a certain word in the entire book.


    Haha!! This is amazing!! Its even better than being the author of the book!! It kinda feels like a priest who''s been reading the bible all his life, actually, if were to read the entire bible right now, i''m sure that i would be able to remember every single detail inside of it!!


    And im sure there''s more to my canvas than just this!!

 Chapter 3: Learning About Magic

    After a bit more experimentation, i was able to edit and add anything and everything on my canvas, kinda like typing on a text file, i just had to think of what i wanted to add and it would appear there instantly, the only reason the information on the book i read appeared slowly, was because i had no prior knowledge on it.


    I tried just spewing a lot of novel names and anime names i knew and it my canvas was filled with them in under a minute, a lot of the time was just used to recall the name.


    I also tried just filling my canvas with information that seemed like i would forget them after a while or things I''d take a long time to recall slowly, such as math formulas i remember from school, some elements, and other mundane stuff to see if can also remember them with perfect accuracy.


    After that, i noticed how cluttered and messy my canvas was, well since i can just feel everything on my canvas rather than look at it, my imagination did picture it like a giant white rectangle just filled with text.


    It felt just like a typing a document... Where i could add and remove text at will, and just leave it there, anytime i needed any information from it, i could just call it into focus and it would be there in literally an instant.


    Only about another 10 minutes have passed since I''ve started experimenting because there is no lag between what i want to do with the canvas at all.


    Seeing as how it was similar to txt file or document... I wonder if i could create... Folders,


    the computer folders you use to organize all your files.


    I was too focused on just adding text onto my canvas, i didn''t even try to see if anything else could be done, so while experimenting i tried "drawing" a little bunny in the corner, and it looked exactly like how i pictured it!


    You know those times you have this amazing image in your brain but when you draw it out it looks like shit? That''s the exact image of the rabbit that is now on my canvas! Well obviously since it was sent directly from my brain it would be more accurate than my drawing skills.


    On to those folders... I tried imagining a folder icon appearing on my canvas with the ability to store... anything, anything that the canvas can store of course.


    [Folder]


    And there it was.


    Let''s see... I imagined all the text excluding my name and quote to enter the folder, and they disappeared in an instant. Wow, easier than expected.


    I willed the folder to open and unlike a computer folder that overlayed and covered everything else, it was like i could see two canvases at the same time! One with my name, quote, and folder, and one with all the text i put on there.


    Though it felt much cleaner, the text was still everywhere, but if i could make a folder... Whats stopping me from making a txt file?


    Thus I imagined a lot of txt files, one for the book i read and a whole load more for the relative information i dumped, their only purpose was to store text.


    [Mystery of the lake]


    [Anime Titles]


    [Novel Titles]


    [Math Formuals]


    ....


    Ahh... nice and clean, going back to my canvas'' capabilities, it obviously pulls on the knowledge that i can remember because in order draw onto it, I''d have to imagine what to draw, and i can''t draw what i can''t remember.


    That would mean that in order for me to become a genius solely using the memory capabilities of my canvas, I''d have to read all the relevant books... one by one.


    During my experimentation, i tried reading a book that was in French, and while i was able to perfectly remember the text, i was unable to understand any of it and i more or less just copy pasted some French from the book onto the canvas.


    Actually. I haven''t checked about anything related to this world in the slightest... Being too busy messing with my newfound ability, though i say that, only an hour has passed since I''ve entered the library, and it just only passed noon, so i still have a lot of time to research before having to sleep in an alleyway.


    I had looked around the library taking note off all the subjects and book topic that each lane of bookshelves represented, being surprised and elated when i found a lane labeled "Magic"


    I had assumed all the amazing things i saw was due to advanced technology but was actually a combination of magic and technology!! Though a famous quote did say any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and to me and a lot of novels i read, magic was created due to the presence of tangible energy that was used and researched by sapient lifeforms to be used as a tool.


    I had entered the lane with excitement, searching around and picked up a relatively thin book titled, "Introductions to magic".


    With such a simple and understandable title like that, i excitedly sat down on a nearby table and opened the book to read it.


    The content of the book had met up to my expectations and was seriously unlike a brief or vague description of what magic is like in most works of fiction, further solidifying that i was in another world, it had explained that since the big bang, which was also a theory in this world, an ever-present energy was everywhere in the world, permeating and changing everything around us, living and non-living.


    This energy was called Vaes, the same term that the nurse used, and that all living things had Vaes that had slowly seeped into them, not there originally, so living things would still be able to live normally if the Vaes in the atmosphere were to suddenly all disappear, but after millions of generations, living things have evolved to easily merge with and absorb Vaes and use it to their advantage, Vaes changing the DNA and internal structure of many living things since the beginning, giving them amazing abilities they were able to passively use or actively call upon.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    And it had given humans the ability to perceive and shape it, allowing us to draw upon the Vaes that within our body.


    Magic had always been perceived in novels and fiction on earth as either something with complex formulas and rituals, or just imagining what you want to happen, but the book explained how both methods were possible for it, one method not being better than the other but having their own distinct advantages.


    The method of imagining called upon your image of the spell and your will, as well as a unique and vivid perception of the world, and was mostly used by children who had great imagination and had only just recently entered the world, and those who have experienced a lot of different and unique things in their life, magic was totally affected by the state of your mind and thus emotions would also affect it in great ways, and some have attempted to become stronger by using their emotions and the method of imagining to strengthen their magic. Though it wouldn''t on those who rarely expressed or felt emotion. This method was powerful but lacking in complexity, anyone was able to use it easily, but it was also very hard to master.


    The method of formulas was for those with a detailed understanding of the world, those who relied on the rules of science or mathematics, as they believed if Vaes was part of the world, it also followed the rules of the universe, despite its capabilities that seem to break the rules.


    This method was used by those who depended on stability and rules, as well as those who studied the world and wanted to apply rules and formulas to it. Majority of schools teach that method of magic as it was easier to teach and separate into different levels of advancement but without a good mind one wouldn''t be able to go far using it, thus only geniuses were able to reach the highest tiers of magic using this method.


    The book had described that in order to use magic, you had to first perceive the existence of Vaes inside your body through meditation, a clear state of mind and achieving a semi-conscious state with little distractions as it the perception of magic or Vaes was equal to another sense entirely.


    It had stated that those talented in magic, had great imagination or unique perception of the world was able to perceive their inner Vaes easily and in about less than an hour to less than three hours when they started meditating without external help, whereas normally it would take at minimum 8-16 hours with external help and guidance, and even days or weeks without any guidance in this day and age.


    In the far past, the average person would also take weeks to perceive magic with help, providing evidence that today''s average person had a greater talent for magic than previous generations.


    This had greatly disappointed me for a moment before remembering that i had an amazing power...but i had no idea how it would help me in this situation.


    But... It didn''t hurt to try right?


    Hmm... Let''s try making a mana..err... Vaes bar, like in RPGs, I imagine a rectangular bar with the purpose was to store Vaes...


    I had imagined it to appear just below my name and quote, appearing with no problems, now let''s see if it actually works...


    I imagined the Vaes bar being able to absorb the Vaes within my body and fill it up... but another problem was how much the bar able to store... well let''s try it first.


    After making the changes I immediately felt something moving and draining from my body with movements that I was able to feel, I also saw a strip of blue appear on the Vaes bar, signifying it had worked.


    With the feeling of a strange energy moving through my body, I hurriedly closed my eyes and focused on the movement of the energy, feeling it move through me as it slowly filled up my Vaes bar.


    After like a minute or so of focusing on that movement, i felt as if i entered a state of sleep, but was still conscious enough that i could wake up at any time, this must''ve been what the book meant by semi-consciousness.


    When i had felt that i was able to feel the movement of the energy without conscious effort, i had willed myself to awaken from my semi-conscious state, looking at the time and seeing that around one hour had passed since i created my Vaes bar and had started to meditate.


    I was a little happy that i was technically in the realm of talented in magic, technically as i had some help from my canvas, though that wasn''t what i planned as i originally wanted to just use my canvas to draw Vaes from instead of my body.


    I looked at my canvas and it seemed like the Vaes bar had filled around 4/5 of the total, though i still don''t know how much it had stored... the Vaes in my body was constantly being drained of Vaes as i could feel, just wisps of Vaes entering then disappearing to what i assume was the Vaes bar in my canvas.


    Huh... i thought i would feel more excited after being able to perceive magic flowing within me, but to me, it felt like i was able to perceive Vaes since i was born... was this how it always felt to those who had recently achieved magic perception?


    No... it must be because i had stored Vaes within my canvas that was able to make me become extremely familiar with everything on it. That must''ve helped me while i was meditating or i bet i would''ve been meditating here for at least 8 hours, luckily that had not happened...


    I went back to continue reading the book on introduction to magic and the next subject was literally stating a lot of the elements and types of magic invented and or discovered throughout history, the ones that everyone knew and had appeared in stories of magic everywhere were


    Fire


    Water


    Air


    Earth


    No surprise there, and there were much much more, especially in the field of formula magic where almost anything was possible, the ones stated in the book were just the most common ones and it seemed there were hundreds and hundreds of types, just stating the ones here we had...


    Nature, Darkness, Metal, Light, Life, Summoning, Contract, Ice, Soul, Neutral, Flesh... and many more,


    there were even some weird ones like Soap and Party magic...


    After that, it had begun explaining how to perform your first spell, stating that it was going to teach the method taught to young children which were imagining magic as it was the easiest, it had recommended having a visual representation or even a real representation when starting off as it was able to supplement your imagination and made the image much clearer, though did state not to depend on it entirely as it had to come from your imagination in the first place after all.


    Just below the instructions was a picture of a realistic campfire, obviously for anyone who was too lazy to look for another reference. Since i was one of those lazy people i had looked at the picture and formed in the image in my head, imagining a similar flame appearing on my open palm... and forgetting that the Vaes in my body was still being drained into my Vaes bar, it seemed like it was almost full.


    I had imagined the Vaes inside the bar draining out back into my body and the feeling of draining had reversed and i felt Vaes fill my body, draining the bar exactly 1/10 of the total as i was perfectly familiar with everything on my canvas. Wait, was that it? did that mean that the Vaes bar was able to hold exactly 10 times that of my bodies capacity?


    Once again i felt how amazing my canvas was and swore to utilize it as much as possible!

 Chapter 4: Even More Functions

    I tried once again imagining a small flame appearing on my hand with reference to the picture, with Vaes need now flowing within me and reducing the rate of which my Vaes bar absorbed my mana to be around the same or lesser than that of my Vaes regeneration, as i didn''t know the exact rate of it.


    Feeling the flowing motion of Vaes and directing it to concentrate and seep out of my hand, i was able to see a yellow light, as small as a bead, appear and slowly get bigger.


    I continued to keep it up, following my instincts, as i directed my Vaes towards the small light, slowly growing bigger until it took on a red tint and started having a semblance of a flame.


    It was now around the size of a tennis ball, flickering like a real flame and giving off small amount of heat.


    Amazing... for the first time in my life, i never been this amazed that i was able to do such an extraordinary thing.


    As i checked my remaining Vaes in my body it seemed like it had drained around 1/10 of the way from just maintaining the small flame for a minute, even with the increased capacity in my Vaes bar i knew it was still really pathetic.


    I wasn''t discouraged as the book had said that through continuous use, training and studying one would be able to increase their Vaes capacity and reduce the amount of Vaes they used when performing a spell along with increasing their Vaes regeneration, as well as the fact that the Vaes consumption of the imagining method was disgustingly higher than that of the formula method, especially at the beginners stage.


    In the next 30 minutes, i had done around 15 or more beginner imagining spells that the book had explained how to imagine and do, from water to wind to even darkness and light.


    The consumption of some spells was much higher than the others and i had to draw upon another 2/10 of the Vaes bar, even if the current amount of Vaes i was able to use currently was low, it was more than enough to practice with.


    After that, the book had stated that the methods for training in the imagining method was vague and highly differed between people, as everyone had their own perspective of the world, thus it stated that we had to find out how to train it on our own and that it would no longer teach the imagining method from this point on.


    That was perfectly fine by me since I''ve never thought myself to have an amazing perspective of the world regardless of how many novels and anime I''ve seen and read.


    The book stated it would start to teach me how to do the same spells as before but using the formula method.


    But upon looking at the fireball spell and the explanation that followed on how to perform it using the formula method, it had reminded me exactly of chemistry, physics, and advanced mathematics...


    Of course, it would be... why did i assume it would be something else? I should have already guessed that the formula method involved using the rules that humans had discovered and applied to the world, such as rules of science and mathematics, would be directly applied to how to effectively use magic and have complex spells just like in some novels I''ve read...


    I can also assume that the average person today would have an amazingly high IQ compared to the people on earth just from the fact that this is a sci-fi world, mixed with magic, and so such complicated formulas may just be like elementary school level for them.


    Since that was the case i decided not to even attempt the spells for now and try to increase the amount of knowledge stored inside my canvas as it was the only thing i could do.


    The only problem was that I''d have to read a massive amount of books and carefully at that as reading it quickly would leave an incomplete copy in my canvas, due to my brain not processing each and every word.


    I wasn''t in a mood for reading anymore and decided to experiment more with my canvas.


    I was thinking that since i was able to create things like separate spaces for a better organization such as my folders and txt files, and especially my Vaes bar, that i would be able to create more functional things. There was one thing in particular that i remembered having multiple capabilities and was, in my opinion, the most amazing thing invented in my world.


    Smartphones


    Smartphones have literally anything you could ask for from a dictionary to a map, a clock, a phone, a flashlight, a calculator, everything!! And it fits perfectly in your pocket.


    So i decided to imitate things from a Smartphone and add it to my canvas.


    I imagined a digital clock that showed the date and time, a quick search through some children''s books and a quick peek outside at the giant virtual clock with the date outside the library confirmed to me that it was currently 3305, 8th of Palinary, Doranday 3:46 PM.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    This world had the same time as earth with 24 hours, 60 minutes and seconds, 365 days a year, but instead of 12 months, there were 13 Months. Palinary was the 6th month and each month had 28 days exactly, with 7 days a week, Doranday being the 3rd day of the week.


    So there was 28*13=364 days plus one day where everyone took a day off, making it 365 days, in the event of a leap year everyone in the world had two days off instead. There was still two days per week that were weekends of course.


    Really convenient if you ask me, and it seemed like the whole world adopted this around 150 years ago, i never found out who had named the new month but i didn''t really care.


    I had imagined my digital clock with date that it would tick up by one every second and that every 60 seconds made the minutes increase by one and had the seconds reset to 0, and that every 60 minutes it made the hours increase by one and had imagined that until the year would increase by one every 365 days, and i didn''t forget the leap year.


    [ 3:46:47 PM, Doranday, 8th Palinary, 3305 ]


    The moment the clock had appeared, i felt every second go by unconsciously in my mind and knew that i had achieved a perfect sense of time and that i would never lose track of time ever again.


    I really need to expand my vocabulary but all i can say is amazing!! Though i had set a goal to make my canvas similar to a Smartphone, you had to consciously use the functions in a smartphone, like looking at the clock when you wanted to know the time, but my canvas is more like a computer implant in my brain and every new function would directly affect it!


    I immediately began making a calculator, imagining all the numbers and the operations and rules of mathematics, though all it had was the basic four operations and some others that i had remembered didn''t mean that i couldn''t just learn more later fron some books.


    As it formed in my canvas i had immediately tried it out with nine by nine digit multiplication and had successfully calculated it immediately, making me realize another ability my canvas gave me, an extremely high speed of thought, as with enough time i would have been able to complete the calculation. Even with other people with amazing or perfect memory would need time to recall everything but is typically much faster at remembering it than the average person.


    There is also another thing i realized, what was the difference between calculating in my brain and on my canvas? My brain had information on how to do it, while my canvas didn''t. If i had not imagined all the numbers and operations to appear on my calculator, i would have been unable to calculate with my canvas as it didn''t have any information related to mathematics to pull from, same with imagining that my calculator followed the rules of mathematics that i had understood.


    I''m pretty sure if anyone without any understanding of mathematics tried to make a calculator, they would fail as they didn''t know how numbers and operations work.


    The next one was I had imagined was a camera and i hadn''t even considered imagining pictures onto my canvas at all and had tried it on what i saw in front of me, perfectly appearing on my canvas. Even while closing my eyes or turning my head, i was able to perfectly see each and every detail of the picture as if i was looking at it, i even was able to zoom in anywhere on it.


    If i could do a picture why couldn''t i do a video with things moving and sounds?


    Imagining my camera was able to take a video i had slowly looked around the library while snapping my fingers beside my ears a few times for around 10 seconds while imagining it to be copied onto my canvas like how the words on the book would be slowly copied over as i read them.


    Just like the picture, the video had perfectly recorded all i saw and heard and not only that, i was also able to pause it and zoom in anywhere at any time unlike real memories where you''d just have a vague image in your head when trying to remember something.


    Thinking deeper into it, my canvas was like another brain that was connected to my real one without any information at all, and unlike a normal brain, it perfectly stored all of its information without any loss or leakage over time.


    After that, i decided to add to my text folder everything i could remember of my previous life, as muxh as i could recall, starting from my life story to all the technical knowledge i had to the plots, chapters, and episodes i had remembered of my favorite animes, mangas and novels.


    I even made two separate folders inside the text folder with one containing text and the other containing images and videos of memories in my life.


    Though it was possible to create images and video using purely my memories, all of them were not perfect with far memories being very vague and vivid and only slightly recognizable in video and image and others just being slightly warped due to being unable to remember all the details.


    An image of my favorite anime character i had imagined for example didn''t feel as if it was perfect representation of her but it seemed like that was as much as i could remember.


    Like the feeling of thinking you had forgotten something but not knowing what it is.


    ---


    Sometime later i had experimented more and had created a recorder that was able to record sound only and was able to amplify the volume and slow down or speed up. I tested the same thing with videos and i was able to change the speed of it as well.


    Though i do realize that even without a camera amd recorder i would be able to just imagine images, sounds and videos just fine but they help remind me of my canvases capabilities.


    I even tried record while i was moving my head around quickly and it had no problems, even while pausing when i was moving, the image displayed had little to no blur while it would almost always blur if you suddenly pointed a camera a different direction, though i haven''t what would happen if i spun around really fast and recorded that.


    Taking a picture of a books page while the words were still readable was amazing as i was able to copy over all the words i recognized on the image, which was all of them, and memorize them it in an instant, which took less than a second in total, literally increasing my reading speed over a hundred times.


    Even if i shook the book i was able to record a video and pause it and then transfer the words, but if i shook it too fast it the words would still blur even if i paused it.


    If the words were too far away i wouldn''t be able to recognize and copy them and obviously covering them would make me unable to copy them either.


    I noticed that exactly 15 minutes have passed since my clock was created making it two minutes past 4 and sitting inside this library this whole time is actually quite boring and decided to go outside, i may be able to gain some inspiration to further improve my canvas.

 Chapter 5: Incident & Information

    Upon stepping out of the library, the noise of the city suddenly assaulted my ears, making me wince.


    It just came out of nowhere, there must have been a magic sound barrier surrounding the library.


    Taking my time to look at my surroundings, it came to me that most of the sci-fi things i saw were made through magic and technology.


    From the hologram screens people were using to


    the taxis hovering off the ground. Not for one moment since i arrived have i thought that this was a dream.


    The streets and the air was less busy than this morning but still considerably packed. Since i had no clue about anything in this city i decided to just wander around and go where i thought was interesting.


    ---


    Al had wandered around and had left the central part of the city and entering a part that seemed to have entered a residential area with apartment buildings, malls, and shops. The people on the streets wore more casual clothing, with some of them in school uniforms.


    Entering a nearby mall, the shops inside didn''t differ much from what he was used to with only a couple shops he was unfamiliar with relating magic.


    Walking around the mall he had spotted multiple restaurants and fast food chains, the smell coming from them was more fragrant than anything he had smelled before, very sure that the cuisine in this world was multiple times higher than that of his previous one.


    He had stood outside a fast food chain that was similar to the one he worked at before, just taking peeks at the burgers that people ate, looking nothing like the overpriced and average tasting ones in his world. He had not eaten for since he had left the hospital and the nutrients he was fed there was only enough to sustain him and not fill him up.


    "Even if i had my wallet i wouldn''t be able to do anything..."


    He decided to have his next priority after improving his canvas and learning more magic to be finding a job to be able to sustain himself, if he was able to find one and rent an apartment room cheaply, his state of living wouldn''t be much different from before, except that he had no computer or smartphone.


    ---


    "Hey Ren, look at that guy standing outside of GaiaBurgers, he''s just been standing there and looking inside, with an expression like he hasn''t eaten for days."


    A group of three with two guys and a girl, wearing high-quality school uniforms were walking around the mall until one of them, a brown-haired guy, slightly shorter than the other, with a condescending look on his slightly handsome face had spotted Al.


    Upon a closer look, everyone had steered clear of their path for some reason, a huge radius of empty space just surrounded them.


    "And why should i care Harcio? I was able to scan that he''s had little to no experience with magic, his Vaes capacity not even be as much as a normal eight-year-old. He must have come from a backwater village outside the city to work here and he''s had to eat scraps up until now." Harcio''s companion, Ren, had replied without emotion, with only a hint of annoyance.


    Ren had fiery red hair, taller than Harcio and giving off a cold expression on his face as if he didn''t care to put anything unworthy into his vision. His uniform wasn''t able to hide his well-built body, every step he took was well calculated and had little to no unnecessary waste of energy.


    "He doesn''t seem to notice us coming towards him at all, poor guy... another victim for Ren then." The girl with them had giggled after contributing to the conversation, she was quite pretty with big blue eyes, white hair and an ample chest.


    She seemed quite nice and friendly when you first meet her, though those who knew her longer would tell you otherwise.


    "Even if he doesn''t know of me, i won''t tolerate anyone getting in the way of my path, whether it''s my path to get stronger or the path i am walking."


    ---


    "Next time... Wait for me, burgers..." Al mumbled to himself as a declaration before he decided to continue on his way, his first salary in this world reserved to buy a burger at GaiaBurgers.


    Before he had started walking again, he noticed everyone around him moving away at a much faster pace, a lot of them looking in his direction with pity and others giving glances behind him.


    Reading a lot of novels he knew that he was in trouble, sweat going down his face as he feared what would happen if he turned around, deciding that he would just casually walk into the crowd that had moved away from him.


    As he started walking forward with a slightly faster speed than normal, the crowd had moved away faster than he was moving. Away from what was approaching behind him rather than himself.


    "Shit..." He cursed under his breath, as much as he wanted to run, he knew that wasn''t a good idea. He increased his pace and turned to his right to change his direction, hoping that whatever was behind him just walked past and ignored him.


    As he took his first step to his right, he felt a strong force on his back, the closest thing he could relate it with was like someone shoving him with the strength of fifty men.


    His feet left the ground as his body flew across the mall, people nimbly getting out of the way as he hit a pillar and fell onto the ground face flat.


    "Hmph" Ren gave a glance filled with scorn towards Al and continued on his way, as if nothing had happened, his companions laughing a little before following.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    F-fuck... My Ev-everything hurts...


    Al slowly pushed himself off the ground, the majority of the impact only affected his torso but he still struggled to push himself up.


    Pushing himself up into a sitting position laying his back against the pillar he had hit, and coughing heavily, thankfully with no blood.


    "Uggh..." After his coughing fit resided he gave a small groan feeling a lot of pain at the front of his torso, being "shoved" didn''t really feel painful but instead hitting the pillar had contributed to most of his injuries and pain.


    "You alright there boy? The sound you made when you hit that pillar was akin to a slab of meat being slapped onto a hard surface, how much did that tenderize ya?" An aged man with gray hair, turning white at some area was bending down in front of Al smirking while he was massaging his stomach.


    He was wearing a pair of flip flops together with some shorts and a sleeveless white shirt, though his face looked like he was between his 50s to 60s, his body looked like it was at its peak with obvious muscles on his arms and legs, his abs showing through his shirt.


    Ignoring the man for a moment, Al closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, he never expected to be attacked on his first day in this world. To be more accurate, the first day he was awake.


    He already knew with magic in this world that there was fighting involved but assumed no one would randomly attack you unless you were in a place where you''d most likely be attacked, like in a bad neighbourhood, slums or in most places in a cultivation world.


    Bad joke, it''s just the protagonist that gets attacked almost everywhere. Though thinking about it, he was already qualified to be called a protagonist.


    Being sent to another world.


    Having a strange power no one else has or a big advantage.


    Being attacked randomly.


    Though for the third criteria the protagonist would win almost all the time...


    "Wh..who attacked me?" He asked as he actually never set his eyes upon his attacker, wanting to at least know their status, since no one had acted upon his actions as if it never happened.


    "Attacked you? For that person, he doesn''t even consider you human, forget him considering you to be worthy of his attack."


    The man had replied casually still with a slight grin on his face, his tone making it seems like he had only stated a fact.


    "That little push isn''t worthy to even called an attack, believe me, just scanning you can tell me that even his weakest attack would have killed you."


    He wasn''t discouraged or frightened upon hearing so, just thankful that he was spared from being killed.


    Though he had been.. "attacked" he felt no fear nor anger towards the other party, only fearing for his life when he had flown through the air.


    Al had always been quite lacking in emotions throughout his life, slowly becoming more and more emotionless as he grew older.


    He can emotions like happiness and sadness but has never felt them strongly or for long periods of time.


    Like if he lost 50$, he would get


    depressed for a short moment before the feeling disappeared and he felt like it had never happened.


    He believed that once something negative had happened there was no point feeling bad for it as nothing would change.


    Though it was different with good things, the happiest he had been in his previous world would be during his childhood when he still learning about the world and had friends of the same age to play with, and that time he had received a legendary drop from a boss he had killed with his guild in a game, due to everyone agreeing that he was the biggest contributor to the battle and that they would''ve lost without him.


    He had never traveled nor had close friends, never experienced going on a holiday or had ever indulged in luxurious things such as a fancy hotel or expensive food, so he''d never experienced joy beyond reading novels, watching anime and playing games.


    Though he didn''t feel strongly about getting revenge, if he had the opportunity and it wasn''t much of a hassle to complete he''d do it and feel happy afterward, like in games where he gets player killed, he would get annoyed but wouldn''t hate the other player, but if a chance presented itself where he could kill them back he would do so.


    "You still haven''t told me who they were"


    The old man narrowed his eyes, the corner of his lips going up a little more, noticing how calm Al was despite just being thrown into the air and getting injured.


    "His name is Reneld Boralis and he''s a student at Noraxia Academy, i can tell you ain''t from here so I''ll tell you what that means, the Boralis family is one of the most prominent noble families in Farrina City, with all noble families having long histories going back at least a century and even a couple millennia for some of the top ones."


    "The Boralis family has had around 800 years of history and while it is not one of the top six families in the city, it''s one that has recently sprung up in strength in the past few years. Though that''s mainly because of the status Reneld managed to gain the Noraxia Academy"


    "Noraxia Academy is one the most prestigious and famous magic schools in the world, being in the top three, which position you ask? Well, no one knows as no one is capable enough to judge those schools in the slightest. Farrina City thrives mostly due to the academy as people all over the world move here to have a chance to recruit students from the academy, even the ones who failed to graduate as even those people can easily dominate the masses and even the best students from top magic schools."


    "I can tell that you never heard of these school before so I''ll inform you that the minimum amount of years you have to study at Noraxia to graduate is four years, with seven years being the maximum and you''d be kicked out and thus failing to graduate. sixty percent of students there fail to graduate and thirty percent needed to take six to below seven years, those who took five years to graduate are around nine percent, and the rest of the geniuses took four years."


    "Wait... why are you telling me all this? And i don''t know how him being part of the academy allows him to.. injure me without consequences, and I''m sure even nobles have to follow the law." A look of confusion was on his face as he didn''t really expect to be given so much information.


    "I just thought you''d appreciate the information kid." He gave him a huge grin, "Also nobles have the ability to evade the law to some extent depending on their status and power, but since Reneld is now a student at Noraxia and a top student at that, he basically is untouchable by the law beyond some heavy laws like murder, mass theft and some other really bad ones. He can get away with even seriously injuring you or crippling you for life with no one being able to do anything."


    So that''s how it is... a world where status and strength can dominate others... well to some extent, at least it doesn''t seem as bad as dog eat dog cultivation worlds where strength determines everything.


    "Can someone at my age apply to enter?"


    "Anyone who can pass the entrance exam from age six to thirty can enter Noraxia Academy." The man was not surprised that such a fat and weak looking boy had asked if he was able to join the Academy, nodding his head at him in approval as if he predicted he would ask that.


    "Here drink this, don''t worry about the cost, for me, it cost nothing. Your internal injuries would be healed after a short while." He tossed a small glass bottle the size of a thumb at Al as he almost failed to catch it. Looking down at the bottle with a glowing yellow liquid.


    As he looked up again he saw that the man had gone, so without thinking too deeply into it, he had opened the bottle and drank all of the contents in one go, tasted like melon.


    Standing up from the pillar he had felt his body warm up and his internal pain had subsided a little.


    He decided that his lack of knowledge about this city and this world, in general, was the cause of that incident happening.


    He decided to go back to the library and read more books no matter how long it took him, though his mind camera would help speed up the process.


    His next goal was to enter Noraxia Academy

 Chapter 6: Study Time

    I had left the mall and went straight back to the library, my canvas clock telling me it was past 6 PM.


    The moment i entered the library it was already almost 7 PM, so i wasted no time and began selecting beginner magic books from the aisles.


    Going back to the table i used the magic book i had read was still there so i decided to use it as well, I started slowly flipping through the books as i recorded a video with my mind, as it copied over into my canvas and into a video folder i created, making sure all the words were visible and taking around 1.5 to 2 seconds to flip each page.


    I had ten beginner magic books averaging around 100 to 300 pages. Checking the number of pages each book had, there were 1957 pages total and my mind calculated that i would take around 25 to 33 minutes to finish flipping through all these books.


    Not stopping recording for one moment i had completed flipping through all those books by 7:38 PM and all the information on the video had already been transferred into my canvas as text, being processed in an instant.


    I was still unable to understand most of the magic formulas, but some of the books had actually explained how some of the formulas worked as well as gave me more information on how to improve casting magic using the imagining method. They also had information on how to decrease the use of Vaes as well as how to efficiently increase my Vaes capacity.


    Information with large similarities that they had explained were able to be easily mixed together by myself as i had perfect memory of each and every word, allowing me to cross-reference information between the books as well as create my own explanations by combining and filtering out specific information from the books.


    I didn''t stop there as i returned all the books i read into a nearby book deposit, mentally apologizing to the librarian who had to organize it all, of librarians, still do that. I had gone straight to the science and mathematics sections and picked 15 books each, making sure they aren''t too difficult to understand at first and mostly didn''t need much prior knowledge to the subjects.


    I had to make a few trips to carry all the books to my table as i immediately started recording again, the books this time were much thicker as they were filled with examples and exercises.


    When i had noticed that exactly one hour had passed since i had started flipping through the books, my enthusiasm had started to fade noticing that i still have over half the books to flip through...


    But i had already recorded a lot of mathematics books and hadn''t started on the science ones yet and the prior magic formulas i was unable to understand made perfect sense now, i had also upgraded my calculator to do more advanced calculations by applying the new rules i had learned, going beyond just the basic four operations.


    I tried searching through all my information for a spell that was able to increase my speed of "reading". There was only one spell that was close to what i was looking for... Scan


    The Scan spell was a neutral attribute spell that did exactly as it said, it scanned a target, whether living or non-living. Though it didn''t give you the stats or attributes of whatever you scanned like in rpgs or system novels, it gavw you information based on your own informatin that you had, like a doctor using scan would be able to find out the internal injuries of a patient or if he had a disease.


    A scientist would be able to use scan during his experiments and see if anything was going wrong with it. An engineer scanning a machine could tell if any of its parts were faulty or not in proper working condition. The average person using scan would at most be able to tell roughly the Vaes capacity of a person they scanned and the amount of Vaes in their body in relation to their max capacity.


    Seasoned soldiers and old mages would be able to tell the general strength and potential of a person using scan, as experience and wisdom counted as information to the scan spell.


    The spell was totally harmless towards the one being scanned and is also one of the few spells that are unable to be blocked or distrupted, even the strongest of mages would be unable to prevent anyone from scanning them.


    Thus everyone had given up on researching how to block or distrupt it and everyone who used magic to fight subconsciously acknowledges that their opponent would be able to know the amount of Vaes they have.


    It was also because of the fact that those who used scan in battle focused training their battle magic insteado of studying something else to make their scan spell useful in battle.


    Some people had spent a portion of their time studying the human body so that they would be able to pinpoint weaknesses on an opponents body, though it wasn''t that amazing and was only useful to those who fought using melee.


    It was literally the perfect spell for me as i would be able to memorize any information using my canvas which seemed to have no limit currently.


    I was able to easily use Scan and had tested it on the table, Scan had perfectly measured the dimensions of the table and nothing more, obviously due to the large amount of information i had on mathematics.


    After doing so, i tried scanning the book i hadn''t completed flipping through and it took much longer than scanning the table as i wanted to scan each and every word inside of the book.


    Though it scanning it took longer than the table which only took three seconds, the book with around 300 pages was scanned for around thirty seconds, where i would have taken 4 to 6 minutes before, and my wrist would''ve become sore.


    I wonder why people haven''t tried scanning books before? I have seen people in this library and they were reading the books normally. Maybe it had something to do with my canvas?


    Al was correct in guessing that he was able to read books by scanning them due to his canvas, as normal people scanning a book would be unable to just dump the information it gave them into their brain, the most they would be able to do was to scan a page and read it in their mind with only a small boost in reading speed.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Thus scanning books was mostly used for copying machines and old scholars that have been reading books all their lives and were able to scan multiple pages at once, reading at around 2-3 times their normal reading speed.


    With each book being scanned between thirty seconds to a minute, the remaining 20 books were read in under 20 minutes.


    The time had already reached 9:05 PM when i was finished, i saw that the library closed at 12 midnight and opened again at 8 AM.


    The remaining mathematics books and science books i read had improved my scan spell and scanning the table again had provided the elemental composition of the material it was made out of, along with some other miscellaneous information.


    Scanning my own body, i was able to vaguely pinpoint some of my organs and body parts, thinking that i should read more books on medicine and biology if i wanted scanning myself to be useful.


    I had used the remaining three hours to scan some history books, law books as well as a mix of more mathematics, science, medicine and magic books. Of course, making sure that the information i had currently was enough to understand the contents of the book i selected, i was able to scan around 10 history books and 5 law books, along with the rest of the books i scanned in three hours amounting to a total of 207 books.


    Well, i left ten minutes before midnight and the once busy city was still quite lit up and filled with people, though it was actually quite peaceful compared to this afternoon and morning.


    The information i had gained from those history books had made me come to the conclusion that this world was a parallel version of earth, with evidence that their theorized shape of Pangaea was exactly the same as the one on earth, i knew the shape of the Pangaea as one of the maps in an MMORPG was based off of it.


    Their Pangaea had broken off very differently and thus affecting how humans distributed themselves and discovered resources, there were also continents on this earth, with three land masses being the territory of the current superpower countries, Ganion being the closest equivalent to America, Jiana being closest to China, and Melosis seeming to be a mix of Russia and Europe.


    The law books had informed me that i was currently in Ganion and a huge chunk of the books touched upon laws pertaining magic, they were quite complicated as magic was as vast and unexplored as the universe.


    I already noticed that a lot of spells could be applied to multiple laws and that there were even laws specifically for one spell.


    And to be honest, after understanding the purpose of each law for magic and cross referencing it to the information i had processed from all the magic books. I was already able to come up with a ton loopholes, proving how lacking the law was in regards to magic, or to be more accurate how uncontrollable and diverse magic was.


    Like most countries with a large area, resources and personnel were only concentrated in certain places, thus there were still small towns, undeveloped cities and even villages in Ganion, so it was not uncommon that a person didn''t exist in any documentation or data as they would''ve been born in a village.


    These kind of people were able to register for identification cards and documentation in cities or towns and from that point become part of the countries database.


    I won''t bother talking about illegal immigrants since i don''t care.


    This piece of information was a huge gain for me as i finally had a sense of direction to go in this world.


    Checking my internal clock, it was already 12:47 AM, my thoughts had wandered, thinking of what to do tomorrow as well as how i would enjoy my life in this world, leading me to a residential section in the city.


    Going into a nearby alleyway, it was filled with garbage and smelled horrible. Though it wasn''t much of a problem.


    I channeled my Vaes, with much more efficiency than when i had first attempted it, into my hands and formulating a spell matrix using the complicated formulas i had learned.


    Pointing my palm towards the garbage, a green wave of energy pulsed out of it as all organic trash had been vaporized leaving only the dumpsters and inorganic trash behind.


    The spell i had used was called clean and was able to destroy organic mass that had become spoilt, decomposed or separated from the main source.


    It was unable to hurt human or animals though as our cells had a natural magic protection that had formed after countless generations of being exposed to Vaes and using magic, thus weak spells that affected organic matter were useless against us.


    It was very helpful for cleaning things though, but few people used it as it was very complicated to learn and had few uses beyond cleaning and thus it was an unpopular but useful spell.


    I seriously can''t believe how much effort the person who invented the spell had put in just to be able to clean with magic, the formula was more complicated and complex than a few other battle spells.


    Walking into the now clean alleyway, i cast another spell called telekinesis that was a common spell people used to move and carry things, the vaes cost increasing with how long you used it and how heavy the item you were carrying was.


    Using it to move the trash scattered around into the nearby dumpster, all slowly floating into it with a whitish aura sounding them, i was actually using a more complex version of telekinesis that allowed you to move multiple items at once.


    The thing about formula spells were that like a real formulas, you had to input specific variables and use them differently depending on the situation and desired outcome, so no two casting of a spell was exactly the same process, as you had to memorize the formula first and know how to input the variables depending on the situation, like lifting different weights using telekinesis needed the caster to change the variables they used in the formula.


    There were spells that was able to vary in power depending on how much Vaes you pumped into them and also changed how difficult it was to control the spell, and spells which could not change in power needed a specific amount of Vaes to be used, and attempting to pump more into them was most of the time not possible due to how the formula was written,


    Though this didn''t apply to imagining spells as all of them can vary in power, the limit being much higher than formula spells as too much Vaes in most formula spells made them go out of control.


    Lying down by a wall, i used another spell called Numbing that your numbed tactile senses as well as any pain discomfort in your body, making it seem like i was in a comfortable lying position on a soft bed, i made it so that it would last around 8 hours but it would automatically be dispelled upon any sudden pain inflicted onto my body.


    I also cast a spell called deafen to reduce my hearing unless something exploded or someone shouted into my ears i would be unable to hear anything.


    Though it may seem like i was seriously making myself defenseless i had cast an alarm barrier where i was so that when whatever i set it to react to, it would send me an alarm straight to my brain, and also wake me up, i also cast a modifier spell on my barrier that was able to reduce its presence and be harder to detect, though any sufficiently skilled mage would be able to easily bypass or ignore my safeguards, i don''t think anyone like that had any reason to attack or rob a random guy sleeping in an alleyway.


    Despite all the amazing things I''ve learned from scanning books making me well versed into mathematics and science, as well as magic, where I''m confident that i have already surpassed the knowledge and ability of high school students in those areas, i was unable to feel too excited or impressed by it as my ability made it so all the knowledge i had memorized felt like i had known it all my life, so i was just slightly happy from all my learning.


    Just noticing that less than a day had gone by since i had woken up but the large amount of information i had processed made it feel like days or even weeks had gone by, especially how i gave my brain no break the whole time as i was thinking of so many things due to my current circumstances and my new ability.


    I cast a sleep spell upon myself so that i would be able to get some rest, knowing that if i tried sleeping normally i would just be thinking of millions of things.


    My eyelids became heavier as i put up no resistance and my vision went black, with final thoughts of what the next day would bring, and how much more i would learn about this world.

 Chapter 7: Magic Status

    The night had passed uneventfully, the neighborhood is safer than i had first assumed, that or he was just lucky.


    The spells i had used last night had actually used most of my Vaes, as my capacity not including my Vaes bar was currently comparable to a normal seven-year-old, though it would grow at a much faster pace as i was able to understand some methods on how to increase my Vaes capacity faster.


    Also, not only would my Vaes bar help me contain more Vaes, it would actually help me increase my bodies actual capacity even without the method as normally one had to increase their capacity by draining their Vaes and my Vaes bar absorbing the Vaes from my body seemed to count.


    I could feel my capacity grow larger as any changes at this point in time were very noticeable, even if my Vaes bar had capped, as it currently was, having had recovered all my Vaes throughout the night.


    I cast a Body strengthening spell that was able to be varied in power onto myself, making it drain it was faster than it could regenerate, and once my Vaes was almost drained i would change its strength to be just under my Vaes regeneration rate.


    Controlling these spells and their outputs were quite easy as i was able to perfectly cast them due to my perfect memory and fake familiarity of the magic formulas and Vaes which was a side effect from the Vaes bar.


    The fake familiarity was referring to how i felt all the knowledge and Vaes inside my canvas was something i had known closely for all my life.


    Normally people have a hard time even formulating their first spell due to being unable to control the flow of their Vaes, even though they had already gained a perception of it.


    If i had decided not to create my Vaes bar, not only would it have taken forever for me to perceive Vaes, i would have had to slowly practice controlling my Vaes like normal people.


    Walking out of the alleyway, with my magic capacity, the body strengthening spell would only last for around a few minutes at this level of Vaes usage before i had to reduce it.


    I had to be extra careful when taking my steps as i was unused to the power i felt surging within me, never really being physically fit or strong before, even a few minutes of jogging would tire me normally.


    I headed straight to the heart of the city, where i was yesterday, where i knew i could find the administration building where i could get my identification.


    After walking for a few minutes and controlling each and every step, i had felt my Vaes almost hit the bottom as i reduced the strength of my spell, though i didn''t feel as i did before, i felt like i wouldn''t get tired even if i walked for hours.


    Using up your Vaes while it was nearly empty with a spell that continuously drained it was actually normal for increasing your Vaes capacity but was only able to be efficiently done while meditating as most people wouldn''t want to be drained of Vaes throughout the day as they would want and need to use their Vaes and magic for other things.


    Some books even gave examples of nobles and rich families giving their children Vaes potions while doing Vaes capacity train so that they could drain more Vaes as the amount of Vaes you had drained was also related to increasing your capacity.


    I had no problems on needing Vaes to do other things as i could just pull some from my Vaes bar and stop my spell to let it take over in draining my Vaes.


    After some time, i had reached the administration building after asking for some directions, going straight in and asking where i should go to get some identification.


    ---


    "-and be sure to update your magic status at the relevant station" A tired voice had spoken out, getting a nod in reply from a teenage girl with excitement in her eyes, going off to find the station the voice had mentioned.


    A skinny man with messy black hair and a small stubble was seated behind a counter in the administration office, was the receptionist of the identification station where people went to get their identification cards replaced, change some of their information or get new identification cards.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Can''t believe Derek had called in sick, making the boss call me back from my paid leave¡­


    He was currently just staring off into space, not even bothering to look at anyone who had business at his station, as he didn''t need to, only needing to look at his documents and fill them in as they answered his questions.


    Taking a quick glance at the next person in line, he saw a fat and unattractive young man, looking like he had never done any hard labor or exercised his whole life, before looking down at his documents again and proceeded with his questioning.


    "Your service needed?"


    "Getting new identification."


    He had looked up from his documents and gave the young man a confused look, as he was pretty sure out of all the things he was there to do, it wasn''t getting!new identification.


    Most males that had asked to get new identification were from villages where the only work was hard work and labor, thus most of them were fit and healthy, and even just assuming that it was a poor village, they would just be skinny, he had never thought someone as fat as this young man would be possible from a village, or maybe he was from somewhere else? A rich and thriving village?


    He didn''t think much into it as he pressed a button and a scanner above the counter had released a red light that scanned the entire body of the young man, his reaction to it only being of slight interest.


    "Do not be alarmed, the scanner is just scanning your DNA and comparing it to our countries database to make sure you are not currently in our system.


    We do not use facial identification to track your existence as people in this age can change massively in a short period of time and due to the existence of magic that could change your physical appearance, so we track your DNA instead.


    Though we still require your facial identification in case of your involvement in any crimes, so make sure to update your picture at this station every year or when you''ve had massive permanent changes to your physical appearance."


    "Okay, got it"


    "Now please answer my questions pertaining to yourself truthfully"


    "Name"


    "Al"


    Al had already checked that it was alright not having a surname in the law books, so he decided not to bother creating a fake one.


    "Age"


    "Nineteen"


    "Date of birth"


    Though he had not previously converted his date of birth into this worlds date, he was able to easily convert it using his calculator in an instant, his new date of birth smoothly flowing out of his mouth as if he had known it his entire life.


    After a couple more back and forth question and answer,


    the receptionist had reached his hand towards a machine behind him and grabbed a card that it had created, handing it over to him.


    Checking the card over, it was a shiny blue that showed his name, date of birth, gender. Together with some strange symbols that the law book had explained to a have similar usage to bar and QR codes, there was also a combination of Ganions main languages numbers and letters.


    The internationally spoken language in the world was called Olidon and was almost exactly the same as English, he had not read any language books yet but he already knew from the history books that a lot of languages from his world still existed while did not and some new ones were put in its place.


    "Congratulations on becoming an official citizen of Ganion and Farrina City, we hope you can contribute to society and help us grow¡­and be sure to update your magic status at the relevant station.." The receptionist had said with only a slight hint of positivity, only because he was finally done helping Al get his identification card.


    Nodding as he went straight to the station labeled "magic status station" which was just a door with a muscular looking man outside of it, he kept his new card in his pocket and queued up at the massively long queue of around twenty people.


    The line moving up at a weird pace as sometimes only one person would be allowed to enter the room and other times when five people would be allowed at once, the timing between moving up the line was around three to five minutes.


    Around five people had already joined the queue behind him after five minutes and there was no annoyance or impatience seen on any of the people in line, and he knew exactly why.


    The magic status of a person was the representation of the abilities, expertise and general raw power such as Vaes capacity, regeneration, and control.


    It went up in tier and level with your privileges and social status in society increasing as it increased, the reason why it was called magic status.


    The tiers being,


    -Grandmaster


    -Master


    -Platinum


    -Gold


    -Silver


    -Bronze


    -Copper


    With Copper Tier having 10 levels from Copper I to X, and each subsequent Tier having one lesser level, Grandmaster tier only going from Grandmaster I to IV, this magic status was universal and your status would be kept wherever you went and was much more important than a citizenship or identification of any kind.


    Around 80% of the people in this world only ever reach between Copper V to Bronze V in their lifetime as the grading of magic status is extremely strict and difficult, only 15% of people in the world reached Silver III and the rest of the tiers would be untouched by them except for the extremely talented people, where hard work meant almost nothing.


    This was all mentioned in one of the magic books i had scanned, as well as one of the law books as the amount of social power the magic status gives that 5 % of people heavily affects the law.


    I was three people away from entering as the guard had asked five people in the line including me to get our IDs out as he scanned it with a portable scanner, then asked us all to go in.


    Entering the room, it was totally white with the door closing behind us, blended in so well as if a door never existed there in the first place.


    For now, let''s aim for Bronze VII shall we?

 Chapter 8: Evaluation

    After a few moments standing inside, with everyone including myself giving each other some space, a monotone female voice had echoed into the room.


    "Welcome to the Magic Status Evaluation test, as all of you are Copper X and below you shall be evaluated as a group."


    "If you surpass Copper X at any time during this evaluation we will be sure to evaluate you individually and with more detailed tests from that point onwards."


    "Your Vaes capacities have been evaluated and we shall reveal the relative ranking and capacity to you now."


    A floating blue screen had appeared in front of me shortly after, stating that my Vaes capacity was 84% lower than average for my age in Farrina City, 73% lower in the whole of Ganion, and around 60% lower than the speculated average Vaes capacity in the world for my age.


    It also stated that my Vaes capacity was 3% lower than the capacity on an average 12-year-old in Farrina City, Which was actually not so bad considering the amount of time i had been exposed to Vaes.


    My Vaes capacity grade was also stated as E-, with the grades going from G- to S+


    Your Vaes capacity does increase as you age, and like having a talent for magic, some people had their Vaes capacity increase at an extreme rate without the need to train and just getting older.


    Most people couldn''t depend on their Vaes capacity "talent" though as it usually grew at around 1% of the total every year.


    Looking around me, the others seemed to be staring into space but i knew they were also checking their results, i was able to see their expressions though.


    One guy had a disappointed expression on his face, two having quite a neutral expression and a girl with a big smile on her face.


    I had already taken a picture of the information and it was stored in my canvas, the blue screen disappearing a short while after.


    "Next up, we shall now be evaluating your Vaes control through a series of multiple tests, please read the instructions for each test carefully"


    After the voice was done talking, a white pedestal had risen up in front of each person from the ground where a hand shaped blue outline had appeared on the surface of the pedestals.


    We had all taken the hint and placed our hands on our pedestals as blue cubes had appeared for each of us.


    "These tests will give points on your control, ability to complete the tasks, and speed.


    But do attempt to focus on control more as you will get penalties if you fail to complete the criteria or task."


    ---


    After a series of multiple tests involving Vaes control, too many for me to remember, Well¡­ there were exactly 26, the voice had started talking again saying that the results would be revealed shortly.


    The tests weren''t too complicated and focused on doing miscellaneous tasks such as moving through a maze or drawing a picture, though it was only able to be done by controlling the Vaes within each of the tests.


    I had zero difficulties for all of the tests and had done most of them almost perfectly, though for the others it was a different story, all of them having a face of concentration throughout the entirety of the tests.


    When the blue screen had appeared once again, my results had shown that my Vaes control had a grade of A+, which i had only seen during a few of my elementary school homework and tests.


    I was quite satisfied with the results, as i didn''t feel like my control could get any better than it already was, but obviously, i was wrong as i had not even reached S- grade, though i knew with a bit more time and effort that i would reach it soon.


    Vaes control was something very hard to improve on as it mostly relied on talent and experience, with even talented mages having a hard time improving their Vaes control.


    80% of people in the world had a Vaes control lower than E+ grade, and the other 19% would only be able to reach B, and let it be known that each and every grade was exponentially harder to reach than the previous one.


    This was also applied to Vaes capacity, as 80% of people in the world would reach C and 15% percent would be able to reach A-, showing just how much more difficult it was to improve Vaes control.


    "Congratulations to Al for reaching Bronze III at this point in time, Sir Al shall now be treated to a personal evaluation in a separate room"


    When the voice had spoken once again the instant the Blue screen had disappeared, i had assumed it was going to explain the next area of testing and i was completely wrong.


    Everyone in the room had a look of shock on their face as they faced themselves in my direction, i was only slightly surprised as i guessed it was due to my Vaes Control grade being so high.


    A door shaped hole had appeared on a wall by the side of the room, wasting no time as i walked through it into a similar but smaller white room, with a white sofa chair in the middle.


    The advantages and better treatment were already being applied i see, happy to have evidence on how seriously this magic status is taken.


    Upon sitting on the sofa and leaning back into it, a more emotive and lively female voice had started to echo in the room.


    "Congratulations on reaching the Bronze tier, you shall be re-evaluated for your Vaes capacity and control to better analyze it for your benefit."


    Almost the same thing had happened as in the other room, with a larger blue screen appearing in front of me showing me my results on Vaes capacity, having much more relative data and being more detailed.


    It had stated that i had 1348 units of Vaes, each unit of Vaes being equivalent to a single use of the most basic formula spell that was usually the first formula spell taught to students, the lighter spell.


    The lighter spell did exactly as it stated, which was to produce a small flame the size of a lighter for around five seconds. It was a static spell in which you could not change anything about it at all, using the same amount of Vaes each time no matter how efficiently you had controlled your Vaes.


    The formula is extremely inflexible as well as there was literally no variables you had to input at all thus it always used the exact amount of Vaes no matter the person and always being active for exactly five seconds, with the exact same strength, thus making it the perfect unit for Vaes.


    Thus, i was able to technically the lighter spell 1348 times if my Vaes didn''t regenerate, but it was actually 1348 times 11 times as i still had my Vaes bar that was able to store 10 times more Vaes than my actual Vaes capacity.


    It was actually not the first time i had heard of this unit of measurement, as it was mentioned in almost all of the magic books i had scanned. It was not relevant to me as i wasn''t able to measure my Vaes capacity as the books had stated it was only able to be accurately measured using machines.


    So people usually had magic-tech accessories like necklaces or wristbands that were able to keep track of their Vaes capacity, as without them you had to rely on your Vaes perception to vaguely understand how much Vaes was needed for a spell or roughly how much was used.


    Though the ones average people used had an accuracy of up to 20 units of Vaes.


    I had changed my Vaes bar so that it stated that it had 13480 units of Vaes as its total capacity currently and that 1 unit of Vaes was equivalent of one usage of the lighter spell, now whenever i used the Vaes in my Vaes bar or its capacity had increased, the numbers would change accordingly.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Currently, my Vaes bar was at 13480/13480 as i had not started using any spells yet and my strength boost spell was still continuously draining my Vaes.


    The voice had stated that a few more Vaes control tests were needed to be done and so i did them, the results being mostly the same with more detail and no unit of measurement for it.


    After that, i had done magic perception tests with my grade only being a C despite my fake familiarity with Vaes.


    Although i had said Vaes Control was the most difficult area in magic to train, i was referring to areas that were useful, and magic perception was mostly used to know how your rough Vaes capacity or current amount of Vaes in your body, or any similar uses.


    Vaes perception was 100 times more difficult to train than Vaes control so no one really bothers and due to the existence of the previously mentioned magi-tech accessories, no one had bothered to train it and even those who were talented in it didn''t have many advantages.


    It was rumored people with A+ and above for magic perception were able to accurately calculate their Vaes usage, current amount of Vaes and capacity to an accuracy of 1 to 0.1 units of Vaes, and that they could sense the movement of Vaes and general Vaes usage and capacity of another person without the use of the scan spell.


    The next thing involved evaluating my Vaes regeneration and i already knew how to "cheat" in this one. I had done as the voice said and deactivated my strength boost spell, letting my Vaes regenerate naturally, but also letting my Vaes bar transfer Vaes into my body at a rate of 150 units of Vaes per minute.


    I was able to calculate that i regenerated 22 units of Vaes per minute normally thus bringing the rate to 177 units of Vaes per minute.


    I did remember i that i had filled 4/5ths of my Vaes bar in an hour while i was beginning to perceive magic, which was around 100+ units of Vaes per minute.


    Magic books had explained though that during the perception of magic and Vaes, your body would absorb Vaes from the atmosphere at an amazing rate, though it was quite useless as most people wouldn''t have had used their Vaes or any magic at all before that point in time.


    I was actually able to just instantly fill my body with Vaes from my Vaes bar, but i knew doing that would make my grade Surpass S+ rank and i didn''t want anyone investigating me more than they already would from my superior Vaes control grade.


    The grade i had gotten for Vaes regeneration was a C-, which was okay for me as i could just slowly increase the output of my Vaes bar during future magic status evaluations.


    The next evaluation was casting actual spells, with the voice stating that i should do any and all spell i knew. Static spells were to be the only cast once, Variable spells to be cast twice, which is as powerful as i could without going out of control and as weak as i could.


    Spells that needed a target or to be cast on an object like telekinesis or clean, the room would provide me with them.


    I had cast around 300 spells, which was a low number as i was able to cast around 1000+ spells stated in the books i had scanned, but the average person could only cast and remember 50~ spells or so while Gold and above mages knew around 150+.


    The voice had also previously stated that points would be given the more efficiently i cast each spell in terms of Vaes usage, power, and control. High tier spells, complicated spells and powerful spells that were able to be cast would also highly contribute to points, so, i had cast a few dozens of those to bump up my points.


    My results turned out to be really good with my minimum spell efficiency to be 70%, maximum 95% for simple spells and an average of 80% efficiency.


    There were three areas for spells that had individual levels and were calculated together to form a Spell ability rank.


    I received Lvl 7 for spell diversity, Lvl 4 spell quantity, Lvl 6 spell quality with a max level of 12, spell diversity and quantity being relative to one another, so with a higher quantity of spells, the harder it is to raise spell diversity.


    The importance and weightage for each area was very different though, diversity having 15% weightage, quantity 10% weightage and quality having 75% weightage, so even if you had a very high level of spell diversity and quantity, someone with a level or two higher than you in spell quality but has an awful spell diversity and quantity level would get around the same or higher grade than you.


    The grade that i had gotten was a C as the "high tier spells" in the library books were not that powerful


    I already knew that the really powerful and high tier spells wouldn''t be in a library book and were strictly kept and hoarded by noble families, the military, magic scholars and high tier mages, and prestigious magic schools like Noraxia Academy.


    "Congratulations Sir Al for completing your magic status evaluation, your final magic tier is Silver I and thus are in the top 10% of the world, enjoy your status and privileges from this point onwards, please collect your newly modified Identification card at the identification station."


    The evaluation had finally ended and i even surpassed my original goal by a long shot, this would be the first time in my entire life that i was ever in the top percentage for something significant, feelings of accomplishment, joy and excitement washed through my body as my lips rose into a faint smile, my outer feelings as subdued as ever.


    A doorway had opened up behind me, and upon exiting it, i noticed that it was the same way i had come in and that despite my inner clock telling me that around an hour had passed since i entered the room, the clocks outside the room had shown that only five minutes had passed since i entered.


    Obviously, an advanced time spell was being applied in those rooms to speed up the time inside of it. Not only that, everyone in my vicinity was giving me looks of reverence and respect, a few of them walking up to me and congratulating me on my achievement.


    I had noticed that on multiple screens inside the building, it had shown my face and was announcing that there was a new Silver tiered mage in the country.


    It was actually quite an amazing thing to reach Silver tier so it was not strange that it would be announced to whoever was around at the time.


    I actually felt quite awkward on how everyone''s view of me had changed massively in the span of five minutes in the real world, as before i did notice that beyond outright ignoring my existence, more than a couple of people had given me looks of disgust or scorn which was not uncommon for me.


    But now the very same people were looking at me with respect in their eyes, and those who had first assumed i was a nobody and looked at me with scorn, their faces were now filled with shock and embarrassment that they had previously looked down on me.


    I went back to the same counter where i had gotten my identification card made and the same receptionist was still there, looking as dead as ever. He didn''t seem to have noticed the announcement as he probably heard it a lot of times already and didn''t care much.


    ---


    Ahhh¡­ when is my shift going to be over?... Well, it would end at 7 PM which is still hours and hours away and I''m slowly getting more and more annoyed that i had to come back during my off time¡­


    Another Silver tier had been "born" apparently, its the fourth one this month, probably another noble as only those rich bastards would have the resources and talent to groom a person like that.


    ...Huh? Why did they let that guy cut the queue? Wait¡­ isn''t this the same village boy that needed a new identification an hour ago?


    Why is he here again?


    Getting his new card? What? Wait a moment¡­


    Looking down at the Silver Card in his hand that he had picked up from the machine by reflex after hearing the new Silver Tier Mage announcement.


    It had shown the exact picture and details of the boy in front of him that he had just newly made an identification card for an hour ago, which now showed in the new Magic Status row that he was a Silver I Tier Mage¡­


    Huh?!? How did this random fat kid that had never gotten identified for 19 years of his life be a Silver Tier Mage???


    It was unbelievable!! No one else knew that he had just gotten his identification an hour ago so instead of absolute shock and confusion they only showed respect and reverence.


    "Umm... Is that my card there?" The same young man that he had gotten a shock over had spoken, pointing towards the card in his hand.


    Slightly panicked that he had just ignored a Silver Tier Mage he could only hope he didn''t use the power and status that he had recently gained to make his life worst.


    "Y-yes!! Here you go, sir! S-sorry for the delay." He replied back immediately no longer sitting down on his chair or using his usual monotone voice, sounding more enthusiastic but a bit panicky with a bit of shock mixed into it.


    Holding the card with two hands and respectfully offering the card to the young man. He had shown a slightly amused expression and bitter smile seeing the massive change in attitude from him, made sense, anyone would be amused if someone did a 360 in their behavior towards you after increasing in status.


    ---


    Progress is amazing, isn''t it? I mean a little more than an hour ago i was just a nobody in this world and now i was a highly respected mage with a status much higher than most people would ever have in their entire lives!


    I had already left the administration building but not before the receptionist had explained a few functions my new identification card had, it was able to send out a sort of signal to anyone around that it was a Silver Tier card, meaning that whoever was in possession of that card was a Silver Tier mage.


    This would allow those who had the relevant status to avoid being treated badly and instead would allow you to have preferential treatment in a lot of places.


    Of course, you are able to turn of this signal but have the risk of being mistreated, and you would be unable to file a case against those who mistreated you in relation to your actual status as you had not turned on the signal for your card to prevent such situations from occurring.


    It was also imprinted with your DNA and acted like a magnet towards your body, so you would never lose it, and if your card is beyond the vicinity of your person of a hundred-meter-radius, it would self-destruct instantly.


    You were able to get a new card 10 times for free in case of self-destruction before you had to pay to get a new one.


    What should the next thing on my agenda be?


    Seeing how its already been more than 24 hours since I''ve eaten, i think i should get a job.


    Because if the harshness of this world doesn''t kill me, my hunger will.


    *Stomach Groaning Noises*

 Chapter 9: Jobs & More Reading

    Having left the administration building, i was strolling leisurely on the sidewalk to gather my thoughts.


    I had noticed that despite people not looking at me with reverence, they had all seemed to notice the signal my new card was giving off, as i was able to feel it as well.


    People around had given me a lot of personal space to walk, forming a sort of invisible barrier of a certain radius around me, as if recognizing my status.


    It was sort of like in the mall as the person who had injured me approached from behind, and everyone had moved further and further away as he came closer.


    The currency used in Ganion was called a Rode, with cash and coin still being used in this age but almost all transactions were done virtually, with a lot of places not accepting cash.


    That being the case, i went straight to a nearby bank to register for an account. The process went quite smoothly and was completed in under five minutes due to my Silver status, the staff seemingly treating me with much more care and respect than normal customers.


    I had gotten a card and even gotten a 3000 Rode loan with a 3.5% interest per year. They had explained that it as the privilege of Silver status to be able to loan any amount lower than your allowed allowance per year.


    My allowance was actually 100,000 Rode for my status but i knew it was extremely excessive to even loan more than 10,000 Rode and just settled to loan 3000.


    The value of one Rode was not much different from one US dollar, but i knew that in this world the difference between the rich and poor was at least ten times more pronounced than on earth.


    Obviously, a lot of products would be tailored to the poorest of the poor and the riches of the rich.


    This unexpected development and influx of money didn''t change my decision to get a job, and i was pretty sure that Noraxia Academy students had some sort of allowance given to them.


    ---


    "GaiaBurgers¡­ finally¡­ I can get a taste!"


    Of course, i had gone straight to the same mall to keep my promise to spend my first amount of money on GaiaBurgers. Though it was literally just yesterday that i had made the promise to myself, the earlier i could get a taste of those amazing smelling burgers, the better!


    I was already standing outside of the same place as yesterday, doing the same thing i had done yesterday but less conspicuously, the fact that i was attacked here not bothering me at all.


    I can''t believe how thankful i was for my Silver status than right now, as i had not needed to wait in line to order, and they had immediately started to prepare my order.


    They were no one there that was visibly annoyed at this happening, knowing that i was had a Silver status.


    I had gone for the biggest and juiciest looking burger called the Galaxy burger with fries and a drink, i had gotten a table for myself and in the next few minutes, a member of staff had personally brought my food over on a tray.


    The burger was absolutely enormous, but not looking over packed with stuff or looking like it would fall over.


    It was exactly like those burgers seen on ads that were very obviously photoshopped.


    Not wanting to torture myself further, i had picked up the burger and taken a huge bite of it. Immediately, i was able to taste the juices of the patty flow into my mouth, as well as the melted cheese and crisp vegetable.


    Delicious!! Spectacular!! Absolutely amazing!!!


    Literally the best burger i had ever tasted in my entire life, the fries and drink also being on another level, but the burger was still the main attraction.


    It had actually cost me 70 Rodes but i didn''t hesitate to buy it as i still had a lot of money, and i knew i wouldn''t regret buying it.


    I had no problems finishing the entire thing as i had cast a spell that was able to increase the rate of digestion as well as increase the efficiency at which my body absorbed the nutrients, resulting in lesser waste product produced.


    It was quite an essential spell for those we needed a huge amount of energy like bodybuilders, close combat mages, and soldiers, it was also helpful to foodies as they could eat much more than they normally could.


    After that, i had gone to look for a job recruiter, and by the time i had found one, it had already hit noon.


    I was not too sure of the variety of jobs in this world due to the existence of magic, and that i had not scanned any books on anything relating to jobs as of yet.


    Looking at the wide variety of jobs available at the job recruiter, where the requirements also needed you to have experience and ability to cast certain set of spells, or spells that met a certain criteria, I knew that i had to pick something simply despite my wide array of spells and extremely good efficiency of casting with them.


    Just based on the spell requirements, there were also other requirements in terms of job experience and few that required zero job experience and just knowing how to cast a few spells which had an awful pay.


    I had decided to settle for what i was familiar with instead, which was working in a fast food chain.


    When i was looking through the list of fast food chains that had an opening, i noticed that the exact same GaiaBurgers i had just eaten at had an opening and had a generous salary compared to the other chains.


    The requirements were having a high index of learning, above Bronze II in status as well having experience with certain high tier spells that was explained to be needed while cooking, no work experience required.


    Those were some pretty high requirements just to work in a fast food joint. No wonder their food tastes so good!


    Upon choosing to apply for GaiaBurgers, the recruiter had me perform some tests to see if i was able to do the stated spells, or if my spells met the specified criteria.


    As well as measuring the efficiency of my spells to see if it met the minimum efficiency required, as spell efficiency revealed how much experience you had with a spell or how good you are at casting it.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The minimum efficiency needed for a spell to be deemed as successfully cast varies from 30-50% for most spells, higher tier spells needing 60% minimum.


    Thinking that my business at the job recruiter was done, i had started to head for the exit before the recruiter had called out to me and asked politely if i could wait for a couple minutes.


    Though a little confused by the requests, i wouldn''t lose much by waiting a few more minutes for whatever he was going to do and decided to sit at the waiting area at the entrance of the building.


    After a few minutes, the recruiter had walked out from deeper inside the building and had informed me that my application had been approved and that i was hired, telling me that i should start tomorrow at 6:00 AM


    I was already used to power my status had brought me and was very confident that i would be hired, but i had never expected that just a few minutes after i had applied for the job that i would be hired.


    Actually, thinking back on it, the recruiter had never asked me for my mobile number. It must''ve been because he already knew that i would be hired in the span of a few minutes and didn''t bother asking me.


    That''s actually really convenient for me as i didn''t have my phone anymore, and even if it did, i don''t think it would work in this world.


    My next task was to use my time to increase my abilities and overall strength, how? By scanning more books at the library.


    ---


    I had left the job recruiter for real this after that and went to buy a cheap magic-tech accessory that functioned just like a smartphone, able to make calls, browse the internet and be linked with my bank account to be able to pay money.


    It was already hundreds of times more advanced than the smartphone i had which was actually a recent model in my old world though.


    After that had spent the entire rest of my day just scanning the books in the library, only pausing for an hour to eat dinner at a pizza place with amazing cheese pizzas.


    While also scanning more mathematics, magic and science books, i had also scanned a wide assortment of genres and topics that i was either interested in or i had thought would be useful.


    Some of the things i found interesting were topics like the wildlife in this world, and as expected, due to Vaes in the atmosphere the animals had mutated into monstrous looking beasts, but human still easily dominated at the top of food chain.


    Topics like programming i had an interest in and also thought it would be useful. Upon reading a few beginner programming books, i had noticed how useful programming could be for my magic, as the method to cast spells was very similar to how programming worked.


    Scanning a lot of programming books after realizing the fact, i was able to improve my understanding of magic and how to increase the efficiency of my spells by applying my programming knowledge.


    I had scanned language books, fiction books, business books, books on finance, books on investing. An awful lot of books that had caught my eye.


    Not just one book per topic, i usually read at minimum a dozen books per topic and subject so that my understanding of it is substantial enough that i could be considered to have "dabbled" in it when people ask me about them.


    With a large amount of information filling my canvas¡­ It was actually quite annoying trying to organize it into files and all, and so i decided to just create a sort of "Google" App that had similar functionalities as google, i would input what information i wanted and the app would give it to me.


    [Library]


    I had named it the app "Library", visualizing the icon as an old school kind of library you see in movies.


    Now any and all information i insert into my canvas would be stored in the library, including videos and images.


    I had also scanned a series of books called "linking everything in the world" which taught you how everything in the world was linked, from the relation of magic, science, and technology to relation of society to people.


    Even the relation between the different species of birds was not left out from its hundreds of books covering different types of relations.


    They had claimed at the start of every book that the relationship between everything in the world did not flow in a straight line with a start and finish. The Universe was like a spider web that''s linked each and everything in it together.


    Every single book i scanned had linked bits of information inside of my library, information which i had first assumed had nothing to do with each other had blended into one another after reading a few books.


    Each book in the series was extremely lengthy with thick pages and tightly packed small font, taking me around 2-3 minutes to scan each book.


    I had only scanned around 70 books of the series as i realized it was nearing 12, the series still had hundreds of books left, having its own little corner in the library.


    I had not randomly read different books in the series but actively searched for books pertaining to the relationship between magic, science, technology, and mathematics.


    Those books had greatly solidified my understanding of the relationship between those topics and made me feel as if i was one step closer to finding out the truth of the Universe¡­


    You never really notice how powerful the knowledge within books are as you could never dream to be able to remember it all¡­


    But enough of that, after i had decided to end my "reading" session there, i didn''t sleep in the alleyway but had gotten a room at a cheap hotel, setting my wrist device to wake me up at 5:00 AM, using a spell that improved the efficiency of sleep on myself and then a sleeping spell to finish it off.


    ---


    The next day, i had gone straight to the mall without stopping for breakfast, applying a sanitize spell on my clothes and a bath spell on my body.


    The sanitize spell had the ability to clean clothes and remove their stench from being worn for long periods of time.


    The shower spell was just like the name, it cleans a person''s body to the point that its as if they had just take a bath.


    Arriving at GaiaBurgers with still a lot of time to spare, Al saw that people were already busy preparing ingredients and tidying up the store before it opened.


    "Hey, you the new hire? Come over and help us over here!"


    A gruff looking man had called out towards Al, while he was setting some things on the nearby counter in the kitchen.


    Al had come over as he was asked to help lighten the workload by doing some heavy labor, carrying what seemed to be fresh ingredients into the kitchen, doing it quite easily using the telekenisis spell.


    The events afterward were Al being trained and taught on the job, as the same gruff looking man had explained his duties of being one of the chefs, teaching him which spells to use for certain situations or circumstances to create the desired outcome of their signature burgers.


    He had not failed or wasted ingredients and thought he did quite a good job cooking the burgers until he was told that what he cooked didn''t meet the minimum requirement and had been tossed out.


    He was informed that all the tossed out food would be recycled as fertilizer so it didn''t go to waste, making him feel a little better.


    After a few hours of business, Al had gotten the hang of it, meeting the minimum burger requirements around 90% of the time.


    Due to being put straight to work the moment he had arrived, he had only noticed after the rush had died down that no one in the staff had treated him like how people usually had treated him due to having Silver status.


    They just treated him like a normal co-worker, actually better than a normal co-worker as they would give tips and advice to him, and didn''t hesitate to help him out when he needed it, unlike his co-workers in his previous job.


    This must be another reason why burgers here are so good, which due to the amazingly cohesive, efficient and helpful members of staff.


    Each and every staff member a vital part of the team, who are also flexible as there was no confusion or panic amongst them when an unexpected situation occurred, also able to easily integrate me into the team and make me feel welcome.


    I was working quite hard when i first came to make a good impression and also because it was my first job in this world, but now i worked even harder so that i could contribute a little more to the team that would function perfectly fine without him.


    Upon asking why such an amazing team of people needed a new hire, they had explained that they wanted to distribute the workload more evenly in order to increase the efficiency of the shop.


    They had praised me for being able to easily work together with them on the first day which was not what they had originally expected, but they had no complaints and were quite happy actually.


    I promised to them that i would work as hard as i had today, and promised it to myself as well, leaving my shift at 12 PM as i had the morning shift, having free lunch there and going back to the library to scan even more books.

 Chapter 10: The Four Trials

    A month had passed since i had started working, always getting off work in the afternoon and heading straight to the library to scan books.


    I spend eight hours minimum per day to scan the books in the library, which lets me scan around 300 to 400 books per day which may seem like i would have read all the books in the library by now.


    I had asked the librarian how many books the library had and the how many pages an average book had in this library. The reply i got was that there were more than thirty thousand books in this library as it had over ten floors.


    I didn''t even know there were multiple floors to this library as i thought it was an office that was above it and not more of the library, and i had only been scanning books on the first floor.


    She had also said that the average book in this library had 450 pages meaning around 45 seconds to scan the book.


    It was actually quite a relief that there so much more books as i had worried that i would run out of them far too soon.


    I''ve not only been scanning books as after a few days of work, i had scanned a lot of health books and exercise books that explained the best way to keep in shape and efficiency exercise, as well as which spells were useful in improving the efficiency of exercise.


    I had gotten a gym membership, exercising two hours a day with absolute discipline, though at first, it was tiring and boring. Spells and Magic had helped to make it easier though, and the knowledge from the books were helpful in telling me what to focus on to get fit.


    Without spells helping me such as one called Human Machine, which made your brain and body think only about doing a repetitive task and nothing else, i would have given up very early on.


    I had also gotten myself a rented apartment like in my old world and was able to get quite a decent one with low rent due to my Silver status.


    I had been experimenting with my canvas a lot during this month as well by using the knowledge from the books and just some ideas i had. Most of them were really bad and not very useful, but some of my ideas had improved my canvas and myself immensely.


    I had a problem of needing to remember to take a video or an image of something i wanted to remember, and i thought, why can''t i just make myself remember everything?


    This had prompted me to create a live video like streamers or the news did, permanently recording everything.


    Everything didn''t only mean recording only vision and sound, but everything from pain to taste, to emotions and even how to felt to cast a spell and control Vaes.


    This was purely an accident as i had imagined the live video not just to record what i saw and heard, but just stated that i wanted it to "record everything".


    I had only discovered this when i wanted to test that i was able to do everything in the live video as i could in a normal one, which was pause, zoom in, increase volume and rewind.


    Obviously, you couldn''t look into the future.


    While i was testing rewinding to see if everything was there, i had stopped at a time when i was eating my lunch at GaiaBurger after my shift had ended as i wanted to have another one.


    When i had played the scene of me eating the burger, the moment my self in the memory had taken a bite, i had literally tasted the exact same burger as i had then, even feeling the texture in my mouth.


    I didn''t feel much from my tactile senses as there weren''t as sensitive as taste buds.


    After that, i had tested my memories multiple times and recorded all the things my live video was able to record.


    I can now proudly say that i have perfect recall, as before i had to recall the information that was recorded in my canvas and was unable to for anything that i didn''t deem as important information as i had not inserted it into my canvas.


    Since i now had a live video of every second of my life, i was able to use the live video as my own vision and made it have functions like a robot did, with like an overlay that scanned for targets or the status of the system functionalities.


    Well not exactly like that but my "vision" was now able to accurately measure anything within it and even "predict" the outcome of moving object using my knowledge of physics and mathematics.


    Like i was able to know close to the exact distant something was away from me, or how fast something was going by comparing the distance it had traveled in a span of time.


    I was even able to predict which way a coin landed with 70% accuracy, the other 30% percent was mostly due to the other variables i was able to calculate, like wind strength.


    You could say i was able to create a scenario with different variables and the like and choose the best outcome, but it was quite bad, due to my awful comprehension of the relationship of the relevant things needed to create a real-life scenario.


    I need to explain that despite scanning thousands of books by now, my understanding and comprehension of them are on average from 50% to 90%, I''ve mentioned this before but memorizing something over and over again won''t make me understand it, and the series on the relationship of everything in the world was very hard to understand fully.


    The most i could understand in a certain book in the series was 60% of it, the lowest being 5% which was related to complicated theories.


    That was also the reason why i had also been reading fiction books as they would expose me to different ways of thinking from different kinds of authors, and their unique ideas that were shown in their writing.


    Those fiction books would allow me to see the world slightly differently that i would have seen it previously. I knew it was true as i had experienced this after reading lots and lots of novels in my old world.


    Imagine me become wise just by reading thousands of fiction books written by thousands of uniquely different people who viewed the world in slightly different light from others.


    I had also tried scanning the internet, and that was an utter and total failure. The way my wrist device worked was by projecting a holographic interactive screen which also came with a holographic keyboard.


    The problem wasn''t that i was unable to scan the holographic screen as i was able to do it quite easily, the problem was that my scan only recorded the information on the screen which i knew was only a display.


    If i wanted to learn stuff on the internet, I''d have to do my old method of reading, which was flipping through pages, on in this case scrolling through the information.


    I had also been doing research on Noraxia Academy on the internet and their website, their website didn''t explain much on what their "Entrance Examination" entailed.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    There were only two days a year in which you could take their "Entrance Examination", on the first day of both the 2nd and 8th month.


    Today was the 13th day of the 7th month which left me with only 15 days to prepare.


    Before even researching on the Academy, I already knew the entrance exam wouldn''t just be some written tests or even just testing magic ability, and doing some research outside of their website i was right.


    Sources online stated that there were four trials to overcome in the examination in order to enroll in Noraxia Academy.


    The Culling


    Escape the Maze


    Survival of the fittest


    Battle Royale


    The examination was not based on points but purely based on whether you had passed or failed a trial, failing a trial would disqualify you from continuing the examination.


    There were around 2000-6000 students in Noraxia Academy depending on the year, I''ll later explain why the range was so big.


    Close to 100 thousand people would participate in the Examination twice every year, 40% of them being from Farrina city and the rest from all over the world.


    Farrina city had a population of 10 million people, and although the number of people participating was a huge amount, i was sure that around a million people in Farrina city alone would try to be enrolled in Noraxia Academy if the chances of death in the first trial wasn''t so high.


    The first trial, "The Culling" had a death rate of 75% and a failure rate of 95% including all deaths.


    Before i explain what trial entailed, let me explain the location of the Academy, Noraxia Academy was not located inside of Farrina City but actually around 150 Km away from it.


    Between them was the wilderness filled with forests, plains, and hills. And in the wilderness was exactly as you thought, powerful beasts that had grown by absorbing Vaes which were actually considered as wild animals in this world.


    Even though these powerful beasts were considered as wild animals, even the weakest wild beasts could kill dozens of the average people in this world. As humans came to rely on technology and automation, and thus had easier lives.


    And while it is true that people are much more talented in magic than generations ago, their drive to improve their magic through training, study and battle had dwindled due to magic having turned into something anyone could do.


    Long ago people who could use magic were not in the majority, anyone who was given the chance to study and train in magic had cherished their chance and thanked the gods for giving them this opportunity, every single mage back then being an extremely hard and diligent worker.


    Whereas the animals in the wild had grown stronger and stronger every generation due to the rule of the jungle where only the strong survived, unlike in the human world where even the weakest of people could live.


    While it was true that humans were at the top of the food chain, it was actually due to our powerful weaponry, intelligence and the small percentage of powerful and talented mages that protected the rest of the population.


    the disparity of power in this world was exactly like in a lot of novels i had read in my previous world...


    Going back on topic, the reason i had explained all of this was due to the fact that "The Culling" trial made all examinees travel from the City to the Academy within 24 hours.


    the rules were that any form of transportation, technology, weaponry or tools were banned and you were only allowed to bring yourself, and your clothes. The rules didn''t even allow you to bring food along or even the simplest of watches that functioned using gears.


    Anyone who was unable to reach the Academy within 24 hours was disqualified, obviously including those who had died. It was confirmed that even if you were disqualified, as long as you reached the Academy, they would send you back to the city safely with no charges.


    This first trial was obviously to "cull" the majority of the participants, and the additional high chance of death deterring even more to participate, it seemed like this not always the first trial, as long ago it seemed like the first trial of the Academy had no chance of death and too many people participated every year.


    This forced the Academy to create a new trial that deterred many from even thinking of participating in it.


    The next three trials were all in virtual reality and thus there was zero chance of death.


    The second trial was "Escape the Maze" and it entailed the examinees being trapped in a giant maze that had multiple floors, puzzles, and obstacles that could only be passed using a specific set of spells, a specific attribute and a large assortment of things pertaining to magic.


    There were even enemies that had a very specific weakness in order to defeat them, and some obstacles even needed you to have a high Vaes control or perception.


    This trial tested you versatility with magic, and teamwork as most people would form groups with each person having a specific specialty or strength.


    The maze was different every Examination thus no one was able to study and prepare for it.


    The third trial was "Survival of the fittest" which dumped each examinee in a randomized location with thousands of powerful monsters all around, and their goal was to survive.


    The location was different every Exam and was exactly the same for each person as they were all on the same map. Some previous locations included the moon, an abandoned city, an alien forest, and even the sky, where you could walk on clouds while you fought cloud monsters.


    When i say on the same map, i mean individually as this trial tested your ability to survive in the wild with only magic, as well as your ability to fight with magic.


    Many people had thought that this trial was very similar to the first one, which it actually was, but was hundreds of times harder.


    The fourth trial, "Battle Royale" was the most difficult and easiest trial amongst the four, depending on the year.


    This was because "Battle Royale" involved all of the examinees being dumped onto a battlefield and fighting each other, and it wasn''t only the remaining examinees that would fight, it would also include all of the previously disqualified examinees.


    This was because in the rules of the battle royale when a disqualified examinee dealt the final blow to a qualifying examinee and killed them, they would instantly become a qualifying examinee and have a chance to enroll again.


    This was also one of the reasons those who failed the first trial would still choose to go towards the Academy even if they were closer to the city. There were also some who would purposely fail the first trial in order to skip to the last one. The Academy had countered this by making the qualifying examinees 300% stronger than they were in real life during the trial.


    Though this had made the last trial extremely difficult for the disqualified examinees, it had been able to filter out the extremely talented people in the group, mostly those who had failed at the second or third trial.


    Any qualifying examinee that dies in the trial would be immediately disqualified and would be unable to rejoin the battle royale, this was the same for disqualified examinees that had been killed.


    Only if they survived until the end though, as other people could still kill them and become a new qualifying examinee.


    if a qualifying examinee killed any examinee, they would get a number of Rax points that was the invented currency inside of Noraxia Academy which was able to buy you all sorts of weapons, consumables, lessons for special classes, rare spell books and a lot of other amazing stuff.


    Everyone who would successfully enroll would get 500 Rax points minimum as a starting capital.


    This information was revealed by multiple students enrolled in Noraxia and it wasn''t considered top secret.


    I had imagined a simple table that explained to me how killing others in the battle royale worked and how much points you received.


    Disqualified Examinee: DE


    Qualifying Examinee: QE


    DE -kill-> QE : DE becomes QE , 1000 Rax points


    DE -kill-> DE : 4 Rax point per person gained upon becoming a QE


    QE -kill-> DE : 3 Rax points per person


    QE -kill-> QE : 100 Rax points per person


    Each year, people with different abilities and differing levels of strength would appear, causing the results of the battle royal to be very different every Examination since there were two a year.


    During one year, the results of the battle royale left only 50 qualifying examinees, another year had around 400 disqualified examinees turn into qualifying ones during the battle, and 300 of them had survived till the end and had successfully enrolled.


    While the majority of this information was from students and examinees, a big chunk of it was just from people talking and discussing it online, as the Examination was actually broadcasted all over the world like it was the world cup or the Olympics.


    The first trial would be broadcasted live using magi-tech drones, while the second and fourth trials could be easily captured using computers as it was in real time and in virtual reality.


    The third trial actually needed to be recorded as the trial took a maximum of seven days per examinee in virtual reality, but only took one day in real life as time was sped up during the trial using time attribute magic.


    Of course what was showed on tv wouldn''t be the full seven days, but clips of popular examinees during their best moments, intense battles, and also clips of popular female examinees when they were sleeping, along with a second or two of the other examinees.


    I was pumped upon finding out all of this information, my expectations for the entrance examination of a school in another world was enormously exceeded.


    These next two weeks would be used for me to train my body and fighting abilities.


    I was determined not only to enroll at the Academy but also be one of the top examinees during all of the trials.


    Let the training commence!!

 Chapter 11: Major Changes

    97.. 98.. 99.. 100


    A hundred reps of 30kg weights in five minutes, another day of physical training completed.


    My daily training wasn''t consistent and changed daily depending on which part of my body i thought needed more training.


    Following the information from a lot of human biology and exercises books, as well as scanning books from the "Linking Everything in the Universe" series on the relationship of the human body and exercise.


    There were actually still thousands of books in the series on the other floor of the library and i had found those books there.


    From the perspective of an amateur, it may look like i was just training my body at random, but professional would be able to tell after a while that my daily training had a complicated pattern to it that equally trained all parts of the body.


    Today was no different i had done multiple different exercises in a differing span of time, some taking just a few minutes and some around half an hour, totaling to two hours of training a day.


    And it was high-intensity training every day, how i was able to cope being a former NEET, who had a job? Spells and magic, as well as high energy supplements.


    The endurance spell, for example, made it so that my body efficiently utilized the energy in my body, making my energy last around two to three times more than usual.


    It kept the strain and pain of doing exercise and didn''t improve your strength in any way only making you able to last longer.


    Of course, I''m not like those cultivation novel protagonists that can withstand immense amounts of pain while training, nor was i like normal people who exercise and had to put up with some pain.


    I had numbed the pain i felt instead with magic, and made sure that i didn''t push too far past my limits in order not to hurt my body.


    The scan spell was useful for this as over the month of nonstop scanning, i had sufficient knowledge on the human body to be able to effectively use scan on myself.


    I could get the information of where all my energy is being put into as well as how much work each of my muscles was doing as well as their current state during my exercise.


    And while you''ll tell me that I''d still have to put a lot of effort into actually doing to exercises and put up with the fatigue. I had actually modified the Human Machine spell to make me partly conscious.


    The Human Machine spell as previously mentioned allowed a person to do repetitive tasks by putting them in a largely unconscious state where little brain power was used and they would be like a machine that followed a set of commands and repeated it over and over.


    I had modified the spell so that i was able to change the commands and actions that my body would follow while the spell was in effect, as usually, you''d have to prepare the actions clearly inside your mind before you cast it and left it to run.


    My modification also allowed me to stop the spell at any time whereas normally you''d have to set an amount of time the spell would go for before stopping, or have someone break it for you.


    That was one way i had avoided using any effort to exercise.


    Fatigue was solved also by numbing it with a spell, though it wasn''t really needed as the combination of the digestion spell, the endurance spell, and the high energy supplements.


    I had used the digestion spell while eating my first burger in this world.


    "Hey, Al! You finished for today? Good work!! Before you leave could you cast human machine on me for an hour? The treadmill is my least favorite exercise¡­"


    A buff man with bright blonde hair and a goatee had called out me. His name was Clive and was regular at this gym, we had become friends a few days after i had joined the gym.


    Back then i was still fat and sweaty and although i didn''t mind the state of my body, it didn''t mean i liked it.


    No one at the gym had scorned me or made fun of me trying to get into shape.


    They were actually all very encouraging and told me not to give up and that i would get my "dream body" very soon.


    They must''ve seen a lot of people like that had wanted to get into shape but gave up halfway through.


    Many of them even used their time to spot me or give me advice on what i should exercise.


    Most of their advice i had already known or wasn''t in line with what i wanted to do, but i had learned quite of few things that weren''t from the books but from their personal experience and had gladly applied it to my training.


    "You''ve been asking me this for the last four days, isn''t that the reason you''ve left the treadmill for last?.."


    "Haha!¡­ It''s not like i was keeping it a secret, and it''s not a major problem is it?"


    "No¡­ but if you can''t even do the spell yourself it''d be better if you didn''t rely on someone who could, the only reason i rely on the spell is that I''m the one whos casting it"


    "Don''t worry about that! I''m disciplined enough to not rely on something, you should know that my motto is to do it yourself if no one else can!"


    "And since that''s the case, if someone else can do it you''d not bother to try?"


    "Haha! You got it!"


    I gave a bitter smile and shook my head towards his reply, before casting the spell onto him.


    I had no worries that he didn''t have the actions he wanted to do on his mind as i knew that it was always on his mind.


    Clive had immediately shut up while his eyes clouded over, but still had a smile on his face as if he was having a nice dream.


    He had started to run on the treadmill immediately starting with a high speed.


    Al started heading for the exit in quick haste as he didn''t want other people to "take advantage" of him and his spell.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Before heading out the door, he noticed another buff man with black hair and looked much older, curling a weight while doing some "paperwork" on a floating screen.


    "Hey General, I''m heading out"


    "hmm?" Looking up from the screen but continuing to curl the weight.


    "On the dot every time eh? If you were to train for an additional two more hours everyday imagine how much more buff you could be" He shook his head as he looked Al.


    "In the first place you already know that i don''t want to get buff, well not to the extent that i would need to have my clothes be a couple sizes bigger like before."


    "That''s the cycle of training! Lose the useless fat and gain in muscle! Its the reason i recommend those who started to train while they were still flabby to keep their clothes as they would be able to wear''em later."


    "If you hadn''t taken those supplements or that unique training method of yours, you''d be popping out in all the right places"


    The supplements General had mentioned referred to ones that were able to increase the efficiency of gaining muscles as well as compressing them to become denser instead of becoming large and bulky.


    My training method also made it so that my muscles grew stronger and denser while not increasing much in size.


    My previously fat body had become lean and you''d only really notice my muscles without much clothing as with clothes i just looked like i had an average build.


    I wasn''t like the hulk with bulging muscles nor did it look like i had much muscle at all. Looking in a mirror previously, i had thought that my build looked exactly like the majority of harem anime protagonists, just a plain body, even from afar with no clothing.


    My face had lost its fat too, and i never had skin problems like pimples as i made sure even in my previous life that i had good hygiene.


    Sad to say but a sweaty fat guy isn''t really as popular compared to a sweaty hot guy.


    I couldn''t really help with the sweat back then as all fat guys sweated a lot.


    I noticed that i looked a lot like how i was when i was younger, back then i was quite cute and handsome kid, pretty sure a lot of older girls in my school or the playground doted on me a lot.


    General put down his weight as he leaned forwards on the counter. He eyed Al as his eyes narrowed, a slight grin coming onto his face.


    "So, how confident are you in passing the... "Exam"?"


    "Huh?" A look of confusion flashed on my face, before remembering the closest thing to an "Exam" at this point in time.


    "The¡­ Noraxia Academy "Entrance Examination"?"


    "Yes boy! You think it was something else?"


    "But why are you asking? And how''d you guess that i was participating?"


    "Instincts, and with a Silver VII status, it''d be disappointed and would''ve dragged your ass to the starting location if had told me you weren''t participating."


    My Silver VII status was gained just a few days ago when i had a revaluation and had been bumped up in status.


    My Vaes capacity had increased by two grades from E- to C- now having around 265% the Vaes capacity that an average person would have in their lifetime.


    People would have their Vaes capacity increase naturally throughout their lives by just growing older, but the rate at which it grew would slow down at around 18 to 25 years old by around 8 to 15 times.


    Any normal methods of increasing capacity such as meditation, draining your Vaes, or always using your Vaes when it is near the bottom became extremely nonprofitable.


    The only reason my capacity grew so much was that i had assumed that it wanted to grow to the point that it had matched my age.


    When i first came to this world, when i was still unconscious in an alleyway, i can confidently say that my Vaes capacity was non-existent, and just a day or two later, it had grown to the point it was the equivalent to an average 12-year-old.


    Though an actual 12-year-old would take twelve years to have that much Vaes.


    It was also because i was able to gain some methods to train my capacity as fast or even faster than before, and even be effective after i had reached the age range at which normal people could no longer increase their capacity.


    My Vaes control grade had remained unchanged at A+ but the information had stated that i had improved in it by 15% since last time.


    It seemed like S grade was as difficult to get as i had first assumed.


    Vaes perception had improved from C to C+, though i knew it wouldn''t be increasing anytime soon as my Vaes perception waa on the verge of reaching C+.


    I knew because the first time i had seen a 97% beside my grade and now it was 0%, sadly though, i wasn''t able to see this for my A+ grade Vaea control.


    My Vaes regeneration had naturally increased, together with my training to 78 units of Vaes per minute, my Vaes bar contributing 200 units per minute to a total of 278.


    That had gotten me a C+ which i was happy with as i didn''t want my actual grade to be too different due to my "cheating"


    For the spell evaluation, i had gone for broke and cast around a thousand spells, on purpose mind you and had gotten Lvl 9 for spell diversity, Lvl 7 for spell quantity and had not changed from my previous Lvl 6 spell quality.


    I badly needed more powerful spells as the ones in the library didn''t increase much, even on the higher floors.


    I assumed that higher floors in the library meant better stuff but i was proven wrong¡­


    My grade came out to be B, which can be heavily attributed to my spell diversity and quantity.


    Most mages below Master status would only have around Lvl 4 spell diversity and Lvl 3 Spell quantity at most as they wanted to focus on a specific area of spells.


    All of these grades added up, well i didn''t really know how the grades added up, but they contributed to getting me to Silver VII status.


    My new status didn''t change too much but i was pretty sure i had more freedom to do things?


    All i had noticed that had changed was that i could loan more money from the bank, up to 700,000 Rodes a year, still with interest and that people treated me like over 20 times more respectfully than before, well from my perspective.


    My co-workers at GaiaBurgers and people at the gym still treated me the same as before, just congratulating me for my achievement happily and glad that they knew such a talented person.


    "Even at Copper, I''d still participate in the Exam no matter what"


    "You mean just the status right? Not the rank in strength, because if you were any less than Silver III and told me you were going to participate, I''d have dragged you back."


    "Well yeah, i meant status wise, I''m not hotheaded unlike other people my age"


    "Ha!" General slammed his palm against the table as his grin grew wider


    "Ain''t that load of shit, your eyes hold a determination and calmness unlike any other person your age I''d never seen if it wasn''t for what you looked like a month ago i would''ve thought you''d had a terribly rough life."


    I smiled bitterly at the thought of me having a hard life, while it didn''t have many ups or down, didn''t mean i had a neutral feeling for it.


    I had actually hated living the way i lived and wanted to be just like those protagonists in the novels, manga, and anime I''ve watched and read.


    Many say its a stupid dream and i was just escaping reality, and it was true, i actually agreed that i was escaping reality as i didn''t want to live in it.


    Not this reality at least, not being suicidal in the slightest and making the best of the world by indulging myself in entertainment.


    I never played things like FPS shooters, Action games or Puzzle games.


    I always played games that had a story to it, like MMORPGs that was like another world where millions of stories could be made, it was the reason i love anime, novels, and mangas.


    All of them had a story and almost all of them were much more interesting than the life i had.


    Every time i read a novel or watched an anime, whether my favorite character died or when something that would invoke a certain feeling in me would occur, i would never hold onto those feelings for long as i knew it wasn''t real.


    I think i had brought this way of looking at things into real life as nothing really fazed me anymore.


    Not for very long at least.


    Even now, though i had already confirmed that this was real life, to the extent i could confirm it, i knew that subconsciously in the back of my mind even before coming into this world, I had treated every time i saw as if it was a story playing and wasn''t real.


    "I''m calm.. because i feel safe? Most people usually feel calm when their life is going smoothly, i think... And my determination from wanting to enroll in Noraxia"


    I tried making some bullshit as i didn''t really know how to explain those.


    General had raised a brow, not knowing why Al even bothered to give a half-assed reply.


    "Well, in any case, make sure you don''t die in the first trial, and make sure to watch your back!


    A lot of nobles participating use some dirty tricks to further lessen the competition during the trial"


    Nodding without taking too much note about it, whatever they had up their sleeves i was sure i could handle.


    Heading out the gym''s door as i headed towards my next location, my first lesson learning battle techniques.


    On the way to becoming stronger once again.

 Chapter 12: Training Begins

    I had gotten a personal trainer to teach me battle techniques, the basics of fighting and just anything they could teach me in relation to combat.


    They also had the ability to teach combat using magic, in melee and ranged combat.


    It wasn''t very cheap and i had only booked them for two weeks.


    I had to loan out more from the bank to even afford them for those two weeks.


    I had found them online after searching for people that were able to teach almost all forms of combat.


    After messaging with them online, they had agreed to teach me for two weeks with a price of 10,000 Rodes and nothing less.


    At first i had thought that this was a scam as they didn''t really tell me much while i was talking to them online, but with my status, i was able to find out that they were legit and actually had a good reputation.


    The price was also good for its price, though my sources did admit it that it was quite pricey.


    Arriving at the location they had told me to meet them, i had just gone to the address they had told me and it seemed to be at an abandoned building in a rougher part of the city.


    I didn''t straight away assume that i was at the wrong location as the theme of a mysterious trainer seemed to fit with it.


    They had not revealed their age, face or gender, not even knowing what they sound like.


    Walking into the building, i had casted several protection spells onto myself, as well as spells that enhanced my senses and my strengthen my body.


    I wasn''t assuming for a second that nothing would happen inside of the abandoned building.


    Using scan on my surroundings like a radar, a new function i had modified my scan spell to become after combining some elements of another spell that utilized Vaes perception to find enemies in a certain radius of the caster.


    It was a crude spell and didn''t work well with those with low Vaes perception, and it was easily blocked.


    But the highly intrusive nature of the scan spell, wanting to find out all it can about its target, had mixed very well with that spell.


    I was only able combine the two spells due my high understanding and knowledge of magic, as well as reading books explaining relationship of spells to one another from the LEITU (Linking Everything In The Universe) series.


    The LEITU series has seriously been extremely helpful in helping me to understand the relationship between things and thus makes me better utilize my new found knowledge and power.


    Amongst the silence, i had felt my modified scan spell react to something.


    A miniscule displacement of air, a small difference in temperature, subtle signs of something moving.


    All these signs came from a certain area, the information being gained from my scan. Though I''ve said before that the scan spell is unblockable, Any heavy modification of it made it vulnerable to defensive measures.


    Though that was the case, just the slight differences in the area was more than enough to confirm that someone was there, in the corner of the ceiling.


    Turning my head to look in that direction, which was really stupid of me, as i only realized after that i had not only revealed that i was aware of their presence, i also revealed that i knew of their exact location.


    I leaped back the moment i noticed as white spears made of Vaes had pierced the floor i was just standing on a moment ago.


    My heart beat faster in my chest, but my mind was still relatively calm, thinking whether i should strike back.


    Sending out my "radar scan", which is the new name of my modified scan spell, it had reacted to something directly behind me.


    My instincts telling me that an attack was coming and thinking that i wouldn''t be able to dodge in time i had cast multiple shield spells concentrated on my back to defend it.


    I had felt a powerful force hit my shields and breaking through most of them. I rolled foward at that moment to escape from the attack before it broke through all my shields.


    Rolling into a standing position, i turned around and had cast "flashbang" that blinded everyone in a radius around the point of impact with a blinding light, including the caster.


    I was unaffected as i had cast darkness shield around my eyes and immediately dispelled it.


    The moment i had dispelled my shield, i saw a young girl around the age of 15 just a step away from stabbing me with a magic rapier, squinting a little as the light had slightly blinded her.


    I didn''t have much time to think about that information, casting a shield that had the effect of dispersing and slowing down magic weapons.


    It was a very specific spell and was quite useless as not many people use magic weapons, and there were much easier ways to fight against them than learning a specific spell that was also quite complicated.


    It was the perfect thing for the current situation though.


    As her rapier touched my newly formed shield half a second later, it had started to disperse into magic particles and had massively slowed down.


    A look of surprise flashed on her face, her previous expression being one of absolute coldness as if i didn''t mean anything in her eyes.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    Taking action while she was distracted, i had cast "piercing fists" onto my hands which increased the piercing power of my unarmed attacks, useful against physical and magical shields.


    It was a variable spell and i had taken advantage of my massive Vaes capacity due to my Vaes bar, it was no longer just 10 times larger my actual Vaes capacity but 13 times larger.


    I came to the conclusion that the bigger my original Vaes capacity, the higher the multiplier on my Vaes bar.


    I also had cast "Skull Crusher" on my head, being the only location on me that i could cast it.


    "Skull Crusher" was a spell i had learned from a book filled with weird melee spells that all had names of wrestling moves or names that a wrestler would actually have.


    It had the effect of increasing the defense of the head immensely, being almost as hard as steel and increase the weight of the head around ten times.


    This was to support the real effect which was to increase the bashing force and speed of the head, similar to spells that increased punching or kicking power.


    That was the original version and i had modified it to be variable, increasing my heads weight by 30 times and also increasing the defense of my head as well as its bashing power.


    The Vaes cost of this spell even after i had increased its efficiency would be considered awful in normal battle situations, but with my large capacity and my enemy being infront of me, i had thought that the cost was perfect as it is.


    With these two spells i had punched forward with both hands clenched, feeling resistance as i hit her shield, but breaking through soon after.


    Grabbing hold of her forearms to hold her in place, and cocking my head back.


    She tried to break free of my grip as she saw what i was about to do.


    Her strength was ridiculous as had almost broken free of my grip, i had been using a body strengthening spell the entire time.


    Just as she had broken free of my grip, my head flashed forward towards her own, a heavy boom resounded as our heads made contact.


    She was sent flying and broken through a wall into another part of the building.


    Dispelling both spells i had used and jumping back, preparing for her to jump out from the hole in the wall.


    ¡­


    Did.. did i beat her?


    Wait no¡­ If i wasn''t wrong, she should''ve been the trainer i hired.


    She shouldn''t be so weak!


    Only ten seconds had passed since she first made a few move!


    "Caught me off guard there, well done~"


    A voice had spoken out from just beside me.


    "Oh Sh..!"


    A hand had touched my arm and i felt my body stop moving.


    I had been totally immobilized.


    Before i had time to try dispelling whatever was on me, the girl had sparta kicked me right on the side of my torso, sending me flying through the air and breaking through the wall adjacent to the other broken wall.


    "Uuughh¡­"


    Thankfully it was my shields that had taken the brunt of the force instead of my body.


    The girl giggled, suddenly appearing over me laying on the ground, my body in pain.


    That was the second time i''ve been sent flying in this world..


    "That was payback for what you did~ At first i was just gonna play around with you a little and give you back you''re money but it seemed like you''re worth to teach.


    I never would''ve believed that someone would ask for a trainer just two weeks before the Noraxia Examinations.


    You know a lot of people have kids just to train them to try getting into that Academy?"


    A hint of sadness had appeared on her face while stating that fact before being replaced with her cheeky grin


    I pushed myself up into until i was standing again, noticing i had gotten a few bruises and was bleeding a little, though a healing spell would be enough to fix them


    Casting a healing spell onto my body as my wounds healed at a supernatural rate, medicine nowadays was very heavy in magic, as magic was had always been the best thing for cheating death and living longer.


    I took a better look at the girl in front of me, a curious look on her face when i had cast my healing spell. She had bright blonde hair, big green eyes, and a petite body, though in a very slender shape inside of thin and skinny.


    She was wearing a jersey over her tank top, together with hot pants and sneakers. She would''ve looked like a total tomboy if her hair didn''t go down all the way to her waist.


    "I never mentioned anything about the exam, you must be my trainer then?"


    "Duh! You think a cute girl like me would want to attack some random dude in an abandoned building?"


    "And you think with the Exam being exactly two away, and someone who''d want battle training for those two weeks that people wouldn''t put two and two together?"


    She put her hands on her hips and lookes at me in fake anger, puffing out her cheeks as she spoke.


    "It wasn''t like i was trying to hide it in the first place"


    I shrugged my shoulders, i didn''t know why everyone kept associating me with participating in the exam, well only two people so far.


    "Since thats the case i could give you specific training just for the exam~ either we can squeeze it into what you wanted or switch it out without extra payment~"


    "Really?"


    "Yep! Just for another 10k~"


    "...don''t you have less time to teach me and be more rushed? Shouldn''t it be lesser?" though i had said that i didn''t mind paying another 10k.


    It was very obviously a scam and couldn''t help but bring it up.


    "Of course I''d work extra hard to teach you everything in a limited amount of time! So thats why it''s not any cheaper~"


    "if it was, i''d sue you for child labor~"


    She giggled again, before her expression into the same one she had when she had attacked me.


    "Now to stop wasting time¡­ You can transfer the 10k later into my account, training starts now."


    "Though you had gotten the jump on me when i had attacked you, it was only because i didn''t have much information on your abilities and was caught off guard"


    "If i were to fight you a second time, it wouldn''t be as easy as it was the first time"


    I highly doubted that in my mind, i had no specialization in spells and magic and could use all the spells i knew at my disposal, being able to use a totally different spell set every time i fought someone.


    "You obviously had detected me when you entered the building, and had immediately made the mistake to look in my direction, though from the way you immediately just back i can assume you had learned your mistake?"


    I nodded my head in confirmation.


    "Your next problem is that you used such a finishing blow kinda attack just a few seconds into the battle"


    "You should have instead whittled me down with weak but frequent attack and add moderately strong attack every so often to keep them on their feet"


    "You had also not followed up after you had successfully landed a heavy strike on me, and allowed me to get out of your sight and had focused all your attention to the last place you had seen me."


    All the points she made were very valid and it seemed like common sense now that she was stating them.


    This was literally my first fight in this world and actually the first time i had fought in my life.


    Seems like just reading those books on fighting and battle didn''t help much.


    "i didn''t even see any basic movement techniques or simply footwork!! You were just using raw strength and relying on spells!"


    "Just like spells, with power and complexity, fighting also involved a mix of power and technique!"


    "Without techniques, you would never be able to grow past being mediocre!! The reason why humans can trump over animals is due to our intelligence!"


    "Techniques can''t be forged without intelligence!"


    "I''ll make sure to drive each and every technique up until intermediate that i know into you in two days!"


    "You got that?!"


    She slapped my ass as she shouted at me, making me jump.


    Can''t believe my first butt slap was done by girl younger than me¡­


    "Wait.. I didn''t get your name.."


    "From this point on you shall call me Coach! Coach Alexa!! Got that maggyot!!"


    More like Sir Alexa..


    "What was that maggot!!"


    Another slap to my ass


    "I..I didn''t say anything!"


    "No, but my female instincts told me that you made fun of me internally, and for that go run a hundred laps around the building!! And use up all your Vaes!!"


    "Bu.."


    "Go now!!"


    I dodged outta the way before Alexa was able to slap my ass again, starting to do my laps around the building.


    This is going to be a long two weeks...

 Chapter 13: Specializing in Everything

    Two weeks had passed since the first day of training.


    And it was an intense two weeks, the first two days, Alexa had drilled all the basic and intermediate techniques into me like she had promised.


    From the majority of weapon techniques to unarmed to movement, all sort of techniques made solely for battle.


    Even movement techniques were first created to become more agile and quick on your feet during battle instead of being used to travel.


    Asking me to drain all my Vaes on the first day was because she wanted me to learn the techniques while i was at my weakest, which is totally drained of Vaes.


    Also asking me to keep a spell on that constantly drained my Vaes but didn''t help me physically or mentally in anyway, so that it wouldn''t regenerate.


    I did as she asked and had cast a spell that had increased the gravity acting on my body by two times,


    making my movements much slower and the amount of effort i need to make to move much higher.


    I needed to slowly increase it from x1 normal gravity to x2 normal gravity in the span of around 3 minutes to get used to it increasing.


    I would''ve felt a heavy force pushing down on all parts of my body otherwise if i increased in one go.


    Alexa didn''t seem to notice as i didn''t act much differently from before, only moving a little slower, as she was starting to demonstrate the techniques i was to learn.


    The method of having a more rigorous training by increasing the pressure on your body was a thing in this world just like in multiple novels where the protagonists would train the same way.


    My increase in pressure wasn''t as extreme as them though, i just felt like how i was before, slow and heavy with little energy and stamina.


    It wasn''t much of a problem for me before so why would it be a problem now?


    From that point, i had been using the spell on myself constantly which helped me train my body as well as my Vaes capacity from constantly draining it near the bottom.


    It made learning and doing the techniques harder to do perfectly and would have seriously increased the amount of time i needed to learn and master them if it wasn''t for my live video.


    My live video as previously mentioned had the accidental function of memorizing everything that i had experienced or done, from tastes to emotions to even how it felt to execute a technique.


    Every time my attempt to execute a technique was judged as better than the previous times, i would "replay" that memory onto my body and did it in real life over and over.


    This allowed me to become familiar with it and from that point use it a base on which i would make small changes to it to further improve my execution of the technique.


    The increased pressure on my body and the method to easily master techniques negated each other, preventing them from positively or negatively affecting my training speed.


    Even though that was the case, both of them helped me immensely.


    The pressure would help train my body and execution of the techniques as it would make it much harder to execute.


    And my live video as i said would allow me to improve upon the best execution of each technique.


    The training lasts eight hours a day from 2 PM to 10 PM.


    After she had drilled all the basics into me, we constantly sparred, with her using only a quarter of her strength and ability as she had claimed.


    From the start, i didn''t know what status she was as i had not felt the signal from anything.


    I didn''t even consider that she had a status lower than me and knew that she was definitely higher.


    Every time we sparred she would tell me to integrate the techniques i learned into the battle, telling me to go with my instincts on which to use and how to use them.


    I knew that she wanted me to find out which techniques i was good with and which i liked to form a sort of specialization of certain techniques and teach me from there.


    But i wasn''t going to do that¡­


    ---


    In this world, as in most worlds, i would assume, most people be specialized in a certain area, whether it was magic, science, sports, martial arts etcetera.. even in those areas you would be able to specialize.


    With magic you could be melee or ranged, specialize in a certain type of attributes like fire or light, and even specialize on being either a combat mage or a research mage.


    But for me, i was never particularly good at one thing, even the things i liked to do i wasn''t good at them.


    Like in MMORPGs, i didn''t like ones where you had to pick a specific class and only liked those that allowed you to do all of them.


    But even in those, the majority of players still chose to specialize as it was the best way to reach the top.


    Though my goals weren''t much different from them, which was to reach the top, i had never specialized and was a jack of all trades.


    I was actually a serious and hardcore player that i did grind a lot in the game, but i grinded for so many different things that i knew that if i had specialized.


    Just with my amount of grinding, i would be considered one of the top players.


    I would always be partied with players much lower level than me but can match me in certain areas.


    I was popular amongst the mid-level players as i could fill in any gaps in a party with my wide array abilities and skills, even being able to switch mid battle according to the scenarios.


    Like if i was acting as an archer, wearing light armor and dodging attacks, if our tank was taken down i would be able to immediately switch to heavy armor and a shield to take over.


    Every mid-level party had wanted me to do bosses and dungeons with them as even if the party had all its gaps filled if a gap opened up during battle i was able to fill it.


    A lot of players called me "One man party" kinda like one man army and some lower level players worshipped me when i had beaten several low-level bosses alone, as even high-level players need one or two more people to fill in their weaknesses.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Speaking of high-level players, I''m pretty sure my fame had spread in a different way, as no players at the same level as me or even those a bit below me wanted to party up.


    The difference between specialized high-level players and mid-level players is as you would guess, like day and night.


    The fact that i couldn''t grow much stronger as i increased my level and proficiency in all areas didn''t really deter me from playing further, as i knew that this was i had chosen.


    Let''s not forget the fact that high-level areas and bosses are untouchable by me as no now would want to party up with me, further stunting my growth.


    Even in the novels and anime i watched and read i didn''t limit myself to a specific genre. Though there were things i disliked and things i really liked, it didn''t stop me from trying more and more different things.


    I knew why i had not become like others, choosing only one path and following it all the way.


    It was because of my childhood, all children are new to the world and want to explore and do everything under the sun, before finding a few things they really like or are really good at and sticking with it for life.


    It was the same way that school worked, teaching a bit of everything to make you have common knowledge and finding out your strengths and weaknesses, and then choosing a career path based on those strengths and weaknesses.


    Though as i have said before, i never liked or disliked anything to a great degree nor was ever good or even that awful at anything.


    It seemed like my curiosity towards everything turned into having a near neutrality towards everything as i grew older.


    When i first awoke in this world and saw all the amazing things in the city, finding out about and learning magic, and even eating that amazing burger i felt a surge of emotions within me.


    I felt awe at the sight of the futuristic city, i felt excitement and thrill just reading the first book about magic, i felt bliss when i took the first bite out of that burger.


    And then i felt an absolute love for this world just a few days after i had first awoken.


    Even though my life seemed repetitive and boring, working, going to the gym and "reading" in the library, it was much better than my previous lifestyle.


    I held high hopes for my future and felt that i had achieved more in a few days in this world than my entire 19 years of living in my previous one.


    This was not only thanks to the world and also to my canvas that made it possible for me to achieve so many things in such a short span of time.


    Instead of walking on a single path to becoming stronger, I''m determined to walk on all paths that i can take.


    Actually¡­ that''s a kind of specialization in itself, the specialization of doing everything.


    ---


    With my will to never focus on one thing i had been using all the techniques taught to me to spar with Alexa.


    I made sure the first time we sparred that i used such a wide array of different techniques and different battle styles so she wasn''t able to pinpoint any specific pattern i was going for.


    The only pattern i had though was no pattern at all, using quick movement techniques to dodge her attacks and attacking back with frequent light blows.


    Then changing to defensive techniques and heavy blows, she also taught me multiple weapon techniques and i constantly switched weapons, from ranged to melee, from piercing attacks to blunt.


    This did disadvantage me since i wasn''t familiar with melding so many different techniques at the same time, totally unlike melding all the information in my canvas.


    It seems I''d have to practice more on that part.


    Alexa didn''t reprimand me for what i did and instead didn''t say much about it, only telling me what i had done wrong and how i could easily switch from technique to technique without disturbing the flow of the battle.


    Realizing that she had silently accepted my decision, the days after, she didn''t teach me a specific set of techniques but instead what seemed like everything she could remember.


    Though it seemed like she was much stricter than before as it seemed she never planned on teaching me so much in such a short span of time.


    The more we sparred over the two weeks the more i was able to meld different styles and techniques together and instead using everything i knew in one battle, i would pick a certain set of techniques to use and try melding together.


    Always changing the techniques i used every day and slowly creating different battle combinations for different scenarios.


    Alexa helped me silently by changing up her fighting style each day, on one day she was on full defensive and another day she would use her full strength but left multiple openings and didn''t take any defensive actions.


    The things she taught in order to prepare me for the Entrance Exam was catered to trials, explaining how in detail how each of the trials went and what to do and not to do.


    She explained that in the first, second and fourth trial that my biggest obstacles are the other examinees, everyone knew that the lesser people there are when they reached the fourth trial the easier it would be.


    That was the reason people usually tried knocking each other out of the race in the first and third trial.


    The fourth trial was self-explanatory as the more people you killed there the more benefits you would receive.


    She taught me multiple spells and techniques that would useful for the trials and had me practice and master them.


    Magic and spells were integrated into our sparring a little late into the training at around the 11th day, due to all the different techniques she had decided to teach me.


    If she had stuck with her plan with teaching me a specific set of techniques i knew that we would''ve started much earlier.


    Using magic while we sparred had increased the number of combinations of attacks and number of battle combinations making our spars more intense and required much higher attention to the pace of the battle as magic made things much more complicated.


    Though she seemed to be using much higher difficulty and quality spells compared to even my strongest spells, my immensely large library of spells had countless spells that could be used for very specific circumstances


    This made me extremely flexible, and in combination to my techniques and Vaes bar, i was able to dominate Alexa during our spars multiple times.


    I knew that this frustrated her, as i noticed that she had increased how much of her full abilities she used a few spars later.


    I didn''t mind, knowing that only when i fight a stronger opponent would i improve in ability and strength, the same reason why monsters lower level than you in games give less experience.


    ---


    The last day of my training, it had already way passed our agreed 8hrs of training a day and was already past


    1 AM.


    I was outside of the abandoned building, lying injured and bloodied amongst a pile of rubble.


    Alexa had decided to fight me one last time with her full strength, even promising to heal my injuries until i was in perfect shape for tomorrow incase that she had injured me too badly.


    Of course, since this was a real battle where we both used all that we got, i happily obliged.


    Our battle was three times longer than it usually was when we sparred and in the end, Alexa had caught me off guard after i had thought i had beaten her, just like the first time we met.


    There i was in the rubble, a bit of bitterness inside me as i had let my guard down and was beaten again.


    Though satisfaction was what i mostly felt, along with


    relief that the training was finally over.


    Alexa was standing over me again, her serious expression changing back to her cute wide smile like it was two weeks ago.


    "Hehe~ You almost got me! Much better than the first time, you even almost avoided my final attack!" her arms were crossed and she nodded in approval.


    "H-how c-close?" i struggled to speak as every part of my body hurt.


    "Hmm¡­ Just maybe another thirty more hits from you~" Alexa put her finger on cheek, tilting her head to the side while thinking.


    "So nowhere close.." I let out a bitter laugh, our whole battle had us exchange multiple blows with each other, the exact number times i did substantial damage to her was 37 times.


    The number of times we made contact, including blocks and exchanging blows was exactly 274 times.


    Standing up from my position, i wasn''t too badly injured and was able to heal myself easily, my internal injuries were more serious and would heal while i slept, together with a healing spell that had a long period of effect.


    "So off you go!" Alexa lifted her arm up and shook her hand in a shooing motion.


    "What, no congratulations, treating me to a meal or giving me some wise advice before i go?" It felt kinda bland that after these two weeks of training and sparring that our parting would so abrupt.


    "I mean you only have less than seven hours before the registration starts and don''t think that this is the last time we''re gonna meet"


    "Just make sure to pass the exam mister!! And get some rest!" She stuck out her tongue at me before turning around and walking in the other direction.


    Staring at her back for a few seconds before walking back myself, i suddenly heard a voice shout out to me.


    "And make sure not to forget to reconfigure yourself to your techniques!! Your body will be more flighty without that spell you used when you use your techniques so hurry and get used to it!!"


    Huh, it seemed like she did notice¡­ this entire time, including when we were sparring, i had been using the spell that increased the gravity acting on my body, except for our final battle when i had wanted to use my full strength.


    I did notice i wasn''t able to execute the techniques as perfectly and was always a little off. Seems like it''s exactly as she said.


    I had a small smile on my face the entire way home, happy that such a person had trained me these two weeks.


    I''m getting two massive burgers in the morning as a reward to myself for having survived.

 Chapter 14: Take Me There!

    In the alleyway in an unknown part of the city, was a group of youths, their age ranges being around 18 to 25 years old.


    There were five guys surrounding another two guys and a girl, a guy with the smaller group was unconscious and had severe burns and bruises scattered around his body, his clothes being torn and singed.


    A gentle yellow light was being washed over the unconscious guy''s body, barely healing his injuries, the light came from the trembling hands of the girl, with brown hair and hazel eyes, her face filled with fear and denial.


    Tears dripping from the corner of her eyes and dripping onto the prone body of the guy.


    "Oi oi oii, who said you could heal his sorry ass bitch?!"


    A well-built guy with the other group of five guys had shouted at the girl, making her flinch but not stop trying her best to heal her friend.


    "Calm down Fred, it seems like healing magic isn''t her strong suit so just how bout we let her try and heal him? When he eventually dies, she''d blame herself for not being good enough at healing magic, wouldn''t that be real funny?!"


    "Fuck!! Boss, you''re as cruel as ever ain''t ya?"


    One of the guys in the group had exclaimed while everyone else was laughing just imagining such a situation happening, and the high likelihood of it.


    "Bastards!" The last guy of the three group was standing in front of them, a blue dome surrounding the three of them as he seemed to struggle keeping it up.


    Something that wasn''t first mentioned was that four guys in the other group, besides the one they called boss were pounding upon the blue dome.


    One of them bashing it with as many attacks as he could with a metal rod, another hurling punch after punch into it, a small explosion occurred every time his fists met the surface of the dome.


    The other two were just shooting at it with futuristic looking pistols, energy beams being blasted from them.


    "Hey, could you just give up and let your shield down? I hate people who struggle despite not being able to change the outcome." The ''boss'' had said in a bored tone, tired of waiting for so long before they would kill the three people in the dome shield.


    "W-why¡­ Why did this happen.." The guy keeping the shield up was quickly losing Vaes, his shield was one that held up as long as he had Vaes, but it would, of course, be broken through by powerful attacks.


    He was nearing the end of his Vaes and had thought back to what lead them to this situation.


    They were three close friends from the same school, it was a popular school in their area as it was very focused in magic study along with the normal curriculum.


    It produced good students that were excellent in magic compared to a majority of other schools, their students magic status also being much higher than other on average, which also enticed parents to send them there.


    Magic status was a powerful thing to have as it seriously made your life much easier and gave you a lot of benefits in society.


    All it took to increase in status was to be better in magic, anyone could see the relation of schools that taught magic better than others and a social status that was calculated based on your magic ability.


    They were three who were lucky to have been enrolled the school and also had quite decent magic ability amongst the average person.


    Gin, who was the one currently unconscious, a handsome, green haired boy. He had an outgoing and relaxed personality on the outside, being someone who you could have lots of fun with or just stay quiet and enjoy each others company with.


    Those who knew him closely would know that he had great ambitions, much greater than the average youth, he was extremely hard working and sufficiently talented in magic.


    He had been an honor student when he aced the entrance exams at the school and was admired by many students, and was very popular with both genders due to his looks and personality.


    He specialized in battle magic, using spells that increased his speed and rate of attack.


    He studied many spells and movement techniques to become faster, he a reputation of quickly taking out his opponents, and if they were too tanky to take out in short period of time, he''d whittle them down slowly while dodging all of their attacks.


    Early in his first year during an arcane battle lesson, which taught students how to fight using magic and taught battle spells, they were all grouped into threes at random and were to work together to beat of other teams in a sort of mini-tournament.


    Gin had been grouped together with a plain and dull looking boy with black hair and was slightly plump, together with a shy, white-haired girl with a petite frame.


    The boy was named Harry and the girl, Zeena.


    Harry was a fully defensive mage, as his talent and ability with offensive magic was horrendously bad. Since he didn''t have any talent for anything else, Harry fully focused on training his defensive ability and his hard work paid off as he was accepted into the school.


    Zeena instead was immensely talented in support magic, able to buff her allies with a multitude of spells, she also is very agile and can buff herself to avoid getting hit or attacked by others.


    Though her lack of talent with any type of healing magic made her focus on support spells that increased the survivability of her allies, such as increasing their resistance to certain attacks or their speed to dodge attacks.


    With the classic combination of offense, defense, and support, the trio became of the strongest teams amongst the first years.


    Though at first, the three stuck together only because they are such a good team, they slowly came closer together after fighting with each other and even training with each other for so long.


    Nearing their graduation, their chemistry was so strong you could mistake them for siblings despite being so different from each other.


    They had graduated at the top of their class and immediately decided to register for the Noraxia Academy Entrance Examination.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Well, they actually decided it two years ago, when they were starting to get used to each other''s quirks inside and outside of battle.


    The entrance exam wasn''t something you could just register online though, you had to register on the day itself, from 8-12, you had 4 hours to register.


    The area of the registration was at the edge of the city, as the trial did need you to go through the wilderness, and as it was the edge of the city, it was equivalent to the slums like in fantasy cities.


    It had crime everywhere, people begging on the streets, gangs, delinquents in every school, and dirty and run down buildings.


    No ordinary person from the inner city would be able to survive even a day inside the cities "slums" and even those who live there already won''t tell you its an easy life, no matter how long they''ve lived there.


    In this world, offensive magic is much easier to learn and control than defensive magic, as the saying goes, it takes a long time to build something up but an instant to destroy it.


    As defensive magic had more complicated formulas and theories behind it, those who specialized in it had a much harder time becoming stronger and growing.


    Offensive magic, on the other hand, could be as crude as picking up a pencil with telekinesis and stabbing someone with it.


    Thus the death rate of humans in the slums was much higher than how it normally is in the other world.


    With one person knowing just a bit of fire magic, he could murder tens or even hundreds of people.


    Normal people considered the "slums" to be another trial in the examination, and almost everyone considered registering to take it another trial in itself.


    The trio who had decided long ago that they would take the exam had to pass through the slums as well.


    They had not been cocky and always had their guard up while in the slums, ready to use their spells in an instant. Along the way, it seemed like they had gotten lost and had wandered into an alleyway.


    Then they were ambushed by four guys older than them, but while Harry and Zeena had been frozen in shock at the sudden ambush, Gin had already pushed them out of the way and had started to fight with all four guys.


    It was actually very easy for him to take them all on, as they were all too slow and couldn''t land a hit on him, he instead was striking at them every time he ran past and in a short while they all had been beaten to the ground.


    Even though Gin had beaten them all and Harry and Zeena had started to walk towards him after getting out of their shock and watching Gin take all of the young thugs by himself, he felt like that it shouldn''t have been so easy.


    And then he felt a rush of heat from above him, and instead of dodging out of the way, he had thrown his friends out of the way before a huge beam fire had crashed on top of him.


    The fire had condensed until it was human-sized and had started to throw around and beat up Gin, Gin not being able to retaliate at all as the fiery humanoid was much faster and stronger than him.


    After a few minutes of Gin being beaten to a pulp, the flaming figure had lifted Gin high into the air by his head, and the flames had receded a died down to reveal


    a young man, with red and yellow hair, a cruel and sadistic smile on his face as he looked upon Gins nearly lifeless body.


    Harry was filled with fear of seeing how their powerful and talented friend had been beaten so easily but also filled with rage.


    His rage overcame his fear and he had cast a shield over his body and had body slammed himself onto Gins assailant, causing him to be thrown back and drop Gin onto the ground.


    Since both Zeena and Harry were awful at offensive magic and didn''t think they could escape, Harry had cast his best shield around his friends, as a last resort, hoping that someone might come and help them.


    That was how they ended up in the current situation, Harry using all his vases to keep the shield up while their assailants bashed on his shield and Zeena trying desperately to save Gins life.


    They had already made a call to the authorities but Harry knew they wouldn''t get here in time.


    ''someone¡­ a-anyone!! Save us!!''


    ---


    Nom nom nom, mmmh~ no matter how many times i eat this burger, i never get tired of it, I''ve literally been eating it for almost every lunch since I''ve arrived in this world.


    Well ever since i started exercising it was actually a very good source of energy and was actually much healthier than burgers on earth due to the very high-quality ingredients.


    I''ve bought two like i promised myself and was currently walking to the location of the entrance exam, it at the edge of the city and thus i had to go through the more dangerous parts of the city.


    Eating my burger with both hands as i walked through the bad part of the city.


    Another wrapped burger was floating beside me, i planned to eat it right after this one and it was another flavor that i liked, it had bacon and barbecue sauce.


    I had turned off the signal on my card that notified everyone near me of my status as it felt like things would be more interesting without it, and i also felt the status wouldn''t be of much use in this part of the city.


    It was already 7:45 AM, 15 minutes before the registration starts but it lasted until 12 in the afternoon so i had plenty of time.


    As i was walking through the slums, i had sensed that an illusion had surrounded me, trying to lead me to a certain place.


    I didn''t act as if i had noticed but had not broken through it either, just using a spell that allowed me to see both the illusion and the real world around me, both overlapping on each other.


    I also had cast a spell that traced back the source of a spell, the direction, and location it was cast from, and not the caster itself.


    It was a useful spell in crimes as it still worked when the casters were no longer on the scene and also worked when the caster had not moved from their location.


    The spell had told him that the caster was on the roof of the building he had just passed, Al was already executing his plan of action


    ---


    This guy had no awareness at all! He was definitely a rich kid just looking at him,


    he was eating an expensive looking burger, totally unlike the junky food we have here.


    He had clean clothes that looked like there were made of high-quality materials, but it didn''t seem like he trained too much, looking too skinny from where I''m standing.


    I also couldn''t feel a signal that notified me of his status, so its either its gotta be


    low since it couldn''t reach me, only those with silver II status and above would have


    a high enough signal radius on their card that would reach me.


    The boss can handle Those below silver IV so I''ll send him his way.


    I''m sure he''s going to the entrance examination, because why else would someone go to this


    part of the city?


    Well, the employer won''t really care otherwise, unless i target someone who very obviously has no relation to the Noraxia Entrance Examination, like some older people who don''t


    qualify to participate.


    I''ve already captured him in my illusion and it looks like he didn''t even notice it, fucking dumbass! Even though the others who''ve I''ve caught were the same, he looked even more oblivious to his predicament, still chowing down on his burger.


    Another victim for the others guys and the boss, we''re gonna make a killing this time!


    We didn''t have much luck on the previous examination this year and didn''t have as much


    victims as today.


    Hahaha... that''s it you dumbass, walk straight into tha... Huh?? Where the hell did he go?!


    The victim of his illusion had suddenly disappeared when had blinked, he had just gone.


    Fuck!! Did they notice they were in an illusion and escaped??


    "Shit... can''t believe i let my victim escape from me..." He kicked a can off the roof, his face filled with annoyance and anger.


    "Don''t worry, I''m right here" A voice spoke out from behind him.


    "Huh?!" Turning around, he was met with a glowing white knife, that seemed to be made of Vaes, aimed straight at his face, just inches away from cutting him.


    Behind the weapon was the same person he had thought had escaped from his illusion, taking one last bite of his burger as he wiped his face with a wrist, before unwrapping the other one floating in the air and taking a bite of it.


    "H-how did you find me... and even get here so fast?! Did you use teleportation magic?!"


    The illusionist had put his hands up, not wanting to be stabbed in the face by the magic weapon, but still being courageous enough to ask Al questions.


    "Nope, it was illusion magic, i made you see an illusion of myself following your illusion, while the real me was leisurely heading towards your location, i tracked back the source of the spell by the way."


    The illusionists had his face contort from confusion to disbelief, and then become angry and bitter that he had actually been tricked by an illusion.


    "What are you gonna now? Turn me in? All I''ve done is make you go towards a certain location..."


    "Well, that location must have some interesting stuff if you wanted to lead me to it, so how about you take me there yourself?"

 Chapter 15: To Triumph over All Others

    His flashed with confusion, not knowing why Al wanted to go where he was leading him to, did he think that he could handle what was there? Ha! He knew that this kid that only had some talent in tracking and illusion magic wouldn''t be able to even slightly threaten his boss.


    He immediately changed to a neutral expression, not knowing whether a change in his emotions would change Al''s mind from going to the location.


    "Fine... I''ll bring you there, just don''t hurt me" On the outside, it seemed like he was reluctant and submissive, but he was laughing on the inside just thinking of the image of him being burnt to a crisp by his boss.


    The Illusionist didn''t have much ability in offensive magic and had to trick others with mind games and illusions to gain an advantage in battle.


    He was leading Al to the location which was the entrance of an alleyway and had slightly increased his pace as he neared it, Al didn''t seem to mind or notice, halfway through his second burger.


    When the Illusionist had taken a few more steps, he sprinted for the alleyway''s entrance where his and allies and his boss took ambushed his victims.


    "B-boss Kevin!! Help me! I got caught!" He stumbled into the alleyway from sprinting too fast, fearing that Al would have immediately tried to stab him as ran.


    He saw that his friends were busy trying to take down the shield of the fat kid who was part of the group of his previous victims, their boss, Kevin impatiently watching from behind.


    The dome shield was flickering and was turning a lighter color as if it would fade out of existence at any moment.


    Harry had a miniscule amount of Vaes remaining, guessing that he could only hold on for another minute. Upon hearing someone that wasn''t on their enemies side had come, he had a small hope that they were saved.


    "Jack! You got caught?"


    "Yes boss! The guy is just around the corner, he got out of my illusion and snuck up to me, and then asked me to lead him here!" Jack frantically spoke, not stopping his feet as he ran deeper into the alleyway.


    "Oh? Even after escaping, he still chose to come here? Sounds like someone troublesome, or someone with too many balls." Kevin laughed in scorn, not thinking that Al was anything more than "troublesome".


    Kevin started walking away from the dome shield, his lackeys also stopping their attacks and turned around to watch, but making sure the three behind them didn''t try to escape.


    Flames started to grow out from and cover Kevin''s body, Jack the illusionist had joined the lackeys and was patiently waiting for Al to come around the corner, exciting for what was to come.


    Kevin stopped a few meters away from the entrance, he put up his hand and aimed straight at the entrance with an open palm, the flames dancing around his body covered his hand as the flames seemed to condense on his open palm.


    A few silent moments had passed, Kevin still aiming at the entrance, Harry watch on nervously not daring to make a sound.


    Al had just rounded the corner and had entered the alleyway, with the same pace he had when he followed Jack here, there was no rush to his movements.


    Kevin didn''t waste any time as the flames on his palm started to burst out towards Al.


    Harry tried to warn Al of the incoming attack, thinking that he wouldn''t be able to dodge in time.


    "Watch out!"


    Before his words could reach him, the flames had already reached him as it continued to burst out at his location like a flamethrower, scorching the walls of the alleyway as ghe flames consumed Al.


    Jack laughed out in glee watching Al get burned alive, or he assumed he was being burned alive, the flames were too strong and he couldn''t see through it.


    Harry had turned away, not wanting to watch as another person became a victim of Kevin, Zeena couldn''t bare to watch as well, closing hef eyes shut as she just focused on healing Gin.


    The flames continued to wash over the area Al had stood on, and after a long ten seconds, he put his hand down and watched as the flames from his attack extinguish.


    He had used a powerful attack as he didn''t think his new opponent would be as weak as his other victims, thinking that at most he''d be a little stronger than himself.


    Expecting to at least see a scorched figure, or at most a charred corpse, he couldn''t believe what he saw as the flames extinguished.


    Al had been totally uninjured, not even a single burn or black mark on his body.


    He had not moved an inch since the start of Kevin''s fiery attack, his expression wasn''t much different than usual, he had the same slightly bored and neutral face.


    Al took two quick bites and finished his second burger,


    looking past Kevin and his lackeys that had a look of disbelief on their faces.


    He saw the group of three, Harry also with a look of disbelief, still holding up his shield. Zeena was equally surprised and had momentarily stopped her healing, before noticing and bringing her attention back to it.


    The burnt figure of Gin on the ground brought a small frown upon his nearly expressionless face.


    Al had suffered zero injuries as he had immediately cast multiple spells that countered fire and had defensive attributes since the combination of spells were specifically for defending that attack, it wouldn''t work as well for other attacks.


    Usually, you wouldn''t have enough time to cast all the spells as it would take some time, but Al had a high average spell efficiency which was inclusive of casting speed.


    For all people, you''d have to form the spell in your mind by remembering the formula, and for those who used the imagining method, they still had to concentrate on the image in their head to cast a strong spell.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Thus, it would take some few seconds for average people to cast a basic spell, and it was very hard to decrease your cast time unless you''ve cast the spell a great number of times to the point you''ve remembered it by heart.


    This notion of remembering it by heart applied to each and every single piece of information Al had on his canvas, and thus greatly increasing his cast time for each and every spell.


    It was actually more than remembering by heart for Al as he could instantly formulate the spell by pulling it from his canvas and thus further increasing his cast time.


    This allowed him to cast his multiple spells the instant before the flames reached him.


    But it was not only because of his fast cast speed that he had suffered no injuries, it was also due to the unique combination of spells he had cast.


    Normally people wouldn''t have combinations of spells that had a single task, but combinations that were able to achieve multiple but similar tasks.


    Like someone who focused on spells that pierced or broke through defenses, they would use different spells for different types of defenses.


    Al''s combination of spells to defend himself with was specifically for defending against fire spells that spread its damage over a period of time, which was perfect for flamethrowers.


    But that spell combination was useless against other attributes or a fire spell that dealt a huge amount of damage in one go, like a fireball.


    He was only able to achieve this due to his insanely high spell count that was much higher than the amount he used during his magic evaluation.


    His high spell count made it possible for him to counter every type of spell or attribute just by using spells or attributes that countered them.


    Though this wouldn''t work for mages much stronger than him as all his counters would just be ignored by the raw power of their spells or their great abilities and higher skill.


    He would definitely lose to someone who used pure raw offensive power, as only pure raw defensive power could counter that.


    Kevin didn''t stay shocked for long, turning himself into a human torch by covering his body with flames.


    He launched himself at Al, with great speed and power, his fiery arms grew in size as they struck down, aiming at Al.


    Al swiftly dodged out of the way using movement techniques and casting spells that increased his speed and reaction time.


    "Flaming avatar¡­ very useful for melee combatants that use fire magic, can increase their physical prowess multiple folds, which included defense, attack power and speed.


    Exponentially increasing Vaes usage the longer it was active, making it very useful for short battles or burst attacks, but awful for long term battles¡­" Al whispered to himself while he continued to dodge and retreat from the flaming figure, who burned everything in his path as he chased Al.


    All of his attacks either missing or was extinguished when they struck him, Al''s defensive spells still active as he also cast more defensive spells that protected against melee attacks.


    Al was dancing around all of his attacks, his movement techniques and spells allowed him to jump from wall to wall as Kevin seemed to be able to keep up, but still failing to actually hurt him.


    The group below watching the "battle" above were awestruck by their fast movements as their eyes couldn''t keep up with their pace of battle.


    Kevin''s lackeys had wanted to assist him but they could they wouldn''t be able to do much and would only be a burden.


    The two had taken their fight onto the roof of the building after they had gone higher and higher and run out of walls to leap off of.


    The open space on the roof had made it easier for Kevin to chase after Al, but it was the same for Al as he seemed to benefit much more from the open area compared to him.


    Al had shot off a couple of attack spells of different attributes and strengths at kevin, but the defensive boost his Flaming avatar spell gave him had rendered the attacks useless.


    It was this, for this reason, Al decided to go for the defensive approach, at lower levels offensive spells were actually much weaker than the equivalent defensive spells as defensive spells were much harder to learn and thus gave an advantage to those who used defensive magic in lower levels.


    But it was the opposite for higher levels as offensive magic became much more pronounced in power and though the complexity increased, it wasn''t even worth comparing it to how much more complex advanced defensive spells were.


    It takes those who were talented in defensive magic much longer time to improve than someone with a below average talent in offensive magic at higher levels.


    It was for this reason thst very little people in the higher tiers specialize in defensive magic, its either because they have changed their specialization or have not even reached that point.


    Only those extremely talented in defensive magic had any chance of surviving at higher levels.


    In short, if the two of them had fought when they were both stronger, it would be unlikely that Al''s defenses would be able to defend against the strength of Kevins attacks, normally.


    But Al wasn''t normal in the first place, the assumption was only assuming that Al improved his defensive capabilities at an average rate, but with the capabilities of his canvas, he would be able to improve at an alarming speed.


    And defensive users that wanted to reach the top actually tended to master and learn all-round defensive spells as it took too long to learn different defensive spells for different types of attacks.


    Specific defensive attacks were usually learned by those who wanted to cover their weaknesses like a fire specialist mage would learn spells that could defend against water spells.


    And as previously mentioned, Al had learned and memorized countless counters for specific attacks and spells, every single one of it stored on his canvas.


    "Why¡­ can''t¡­ I hurt you!!" Around twelve minutes had passed and Al was still running around on the roof avoiding or tanking Kevins attacks, it didn''t seem like his Vaes was going to run out anytime soon as his defenses still held strong, it didn''t seem like Al would mind dragging on this battle for another ten minutes.


    Kevin had started to show signs of slowing down, and Al felt like his attacks were starting to grow weaker, but this only caused Kevin to attack him at a faster rate, noticing that his spell had reached the point where the Vaes consumption was too much.


    He had already been using his Vaes since extremely early in the morning when his group had started to look for targets.


    A lot of people usually headed to the location the entrance exam twelve hours prior to the start, to gain a small head start, those who did these were the weak ones who had to depend on at the front of the line to register for the exam, the strong ones usually brute forced their way to be registered.


    He had only been using bursts of his Flaming avatar spell together with low costing fire spells to take care of the victims his lackeys couldn''t handle.


    Short bursts translated to less than five minutes of his Flaming avatar spell and any longer would be considered a waste of Vaes.


    He wasn''t able to switch his spell on and off like a light switch either, there was a five-minute cooldown between each use of the spell, meaning the cooldown would start when the spell was no longer active.


    "Able to use multiple types of attribute attack spells with decent power, specifically has a defensive counter for my physical fire attacks, you can even use spells that boost your speed and agility along with your ability to escape Jack''s illusion and find him at the same time¡­" Kevin muttered to himself while still desperately launching fruitless attacks at Al.


    "You''re¡­ an all-rounder? Hahaha!! No wonder you can use so many different spells! I admit that you currently have me on the losing side, but it wouldn''t be the case if we fought even just a few months later!" Kevin came to a conclusion, not stopping the intensity of his attacks as like he said, he was currently at a disadvantage especially with his Vaes being drained at a great rate.


    "All-rounders may be common in a normal society where those who focus to improve themselves on every front would be admired and seen as strong to normal people, but those who aim to climb higher know that only following one path would you be able to reach the top!"


    "That may be the case, but what would happen when an all-rounder reaches the top? Would they triumph over all others?" Al countered, his eyes held a glint of determination, his goal of becoming stronger on all fronts excited him, no matter how difficult it would be.


    He''d continue to broaden his horizons while deepening it at the same time, so he could see far and wide, unlike those who chose a single path and could only look straight ahead, and swearing not to become like those who could see all around them but are unable to see far ahead.