7 First Encounter

"Ray Burton, Magic Student, 17"

Ray quickly passed his magic card that showed his identity.

"Yes, thank you."

The librarian, Ismelda, was a granny faithful to the academy since she was born to work here and trained for it. But death was coming near for her kind and sympathetic soul, out of the kindness of the academy's heart, which amounts little to none, they gave her the position as the Librarian of the Zero Vatican. It was custom for him to show his magic card even though Ismelda would allow him to enter anyways since he would forget occasionally.

Theories were usually posted by graduates and a tradition for the academy to accumulate books from their graduates. The highest level magician that hailed from Moire was a meager Level 5 whereas the capital, Solreach, was capable of producing Level 6 magicians without a sweat and a Level 8 being called the Legend of Solreach, even able to offend the Sun Emperor.

'What book should I read?'

He valued the thoughts of others and their studies on many subjects that couldn't go finished. He even began making plausible solutions to much theories, with his great mind hindered by his talents.

'Magical Standard Temporal Research by the Magic Scholar Laura Gantrif. High Magic and All of Its Roots by the Level 5 Magician Turner Banks of the great Desmonian Kingdom. Or the Paradoxical Magical Writings by Barney Williams of the far Porokan...'

These were all unnoticed magical scholars of their times and were highly valued from their past and former empires. But now due to the separation of powers, many scholars became unappreciated and unknown in recent years. They were the greatest thinkers who always thought outside the box when it was absolutely unnecessary and each studies was great to look and read for. Ray had a clearance card of the lowest level since with his low aptitude of mana, which would hinder his times, he was only admitted to the Ivorywood Vault. He had read countless books over the years at an astonishing rate, his foundation of magic was reinforced with each book he read but with no mana or talent, he couldn't build off of it.

Reading such profound theories made most of the books unreadable and useful as tinder which helped him broaden his understanding. A training room or study room was always present in a library with all their tiers. Of course coming from the Zero Vatican, they had a low tier one at best.

He entered in fear of ruining the books of great geniuses that he tried to use magic once more, knowing his magic was all gone, it was worth a try to see if it was an illusion or not.

he entered the secluded room built with anti-magic material and runic circles that reinforced its durability and gave it the ability of self repair.

The mana density was trapped by the anti-magic material which proved it to be a good place to train in such areas. He tried casting the Level 0 Magic, Ignite, which allowed one to set aflame for a long time. A minor explosion came out instead, signs of failure from the explosion which left his face covered in soot. He cleaned it off and slouched back to his chair. He was ready to accept his fate as it is as all hope was lost. But something caught his eye before he could go through with suicide.

A red crimson like slime was slowly crawling with its body oozing a red trail towards him.

'Am I hallucinating?'

This so happened to be in front of Ismelda, oblivious to the fact such an entity found itself in the magic academy in the first place. But at the moment he went into eye contact with the blob, it furthered its agenda and moved quickly towards him. It even pounced and latched on to his face!

"AHH?!"

He tried getting it off as Ismelda witnessed the whole scene.

"Are you alright dear?"

'Alright? Do you not see this?!'

It was entering through his pores and the openings of his head, his ears the first to be filled. It began penetrating through his body. The moment he regained the ability to see in a red color hue as the slime fully entered his body, he went unconscious.

Ismelda witnessed everything from him screaming and writhing in agony.

She just thought it was sleep deprivation. Her apathetic nature shown just a bit.

"Ah..What am I doing here?"

She looked around and forgot her course of action, she looked left and right, not bothering to look down. She head back to her sleeping quarters as it was time for her afternoon nap.

'Ah..I haven't seen that young man yet, he could just let himself in..'

But the very man she mentioned was there indeed, just limp on the floor.

-

His consciousness was still active. He was witnessing strange things in his magic channel and some acupuncture points that allow one to accumulate and accept mana in the surrounding. But all of that was not present in his conscious realm.

'What is this?'

ray was witnessing everything through a white bright body witnessing the changes.

He saw the infiltration of the crimson red slowly sleep into the channel and covering the walls to be of the exact color. The acupuncture point formed once more at the spot he believed it to be, the Heart, Head, and Stomach. The most important would be the heart as it had specific functions to allow one's frequency of mana and magic scales. but what was odd was, the stomach channel was growing bigger, even larger than his head and heart.

'This phenomenon....only happens in beasts. Oh my god, what is happening to my body?'

At the same time, images of a foreign environment was flooding his head. Too much information was coming for standard humans but with his talent, he was able to endure it. Also that it came out short as a halt.

'Who is this...Jake?'

Everything was happening way too fast and the memories and the red hue magic channel. A message board opened itself.

[Welcome to the Tutorial! I am Peioa! God of Rebirth! Witness my power!]

[Cut things short, you can eat anything that has magic and you will gain its properties significant to that of the object! Such as books, you will gain the ability to utilize it!]

[I am quite short on time so toodles!]

The God which reminded him of a teenage boy dissipated into nothingness.

'...'

He was speechless. What was that? But at the moment he began questioning such existence he woke up.