Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover

The bookstore was called Golden Tree Books. It was located in the market district and would only be an hour's trip from the academy. I planned to head there on the weekend, so for now I would focus on raising my combat abilities. I didn't know what would happen to me if I was caught snooping around the book store, but I wanted to try being prepared.

Because of that, I spent the entire class diligently practicing my Ball of Light spell, but obviously I didn't make any progress yet. However I did feel that this was helping me learn to control my mana better. Mixed with the practice my gas mask gave me, I hoped to make some progress by the weekend, and I was hopeful.

The concept of the ball of light was easy to understand, I felt that once I got the mana control down, I would actually have a good chance at getting the spell down.

When the class ended, we went onto our next class which was combat studies, and we were taken to the forest on the West side of campus. The woods were just behind the school buildings.

'I didn't know we would have classes back here. I guess fighting in forests might be more common than I would think.'

The Combat Studies class was a class dedicated to learning valuable survival skills, and small skirmish tactics. Today's class was a survival game. The instructor was a smaller woman, about 5 foot 2, who had a bow on her back.

She was an experienced hunter, along with a famous archer in the kingdom, so she was simply destroying us in the survival game. The goal of the students was simply to learn how to hide and move stealthily in the forest.

I was caught almost immediately.

Even though I didn't get much practice learning how to be stealthy, I got more time to practice my magic, which was still valuable to me. While the others struggled to resist the terrifying archer, I sat under a tree and listened to their scared screams. The group of kids who were out began to grow quickly.

The final student to be left standing was a girl with vibrant green eyes. Her name was Ellen Heinrichs. She was the daughter of Marquis Heinrichs, and was talented with using Plant magic.

She grew a tree around herself, which allowed her to hide for the longest, but the teacher somehow heard her breathing.

For coming first, she was given extra points for the day, and smiled happily as she had come out on top of today's class.

The entire 'hunt' only took 20 minutes in total, but the teacher still let us leave early. The students excitedly began talking and grabbing their bags to leave. As I raised myself off the ground to leave, I suddenly felt a hand land on my shoulder, roughly preventing me from leaving.

I turned slightly and saw Alan sneering at me. I looked around and noticed that Redzigan was still standing nearby, which was probably why Alan wasn't acting out aggressively.

Leaving close to me, he whispered.

"Follow me to the bathrooms, bastard."

I thought for a moment, before leaning closer as well.

However instead of whispering, I quickly pulled my mask down and exhaled a large cloud of gas into Alan's face.

Caught off guard, he accidentally inhaled the gas, before trying to cough it out. However my poison wasn't for show only. He quickly lost the strength in his legs, and desperately grabbed the hem of my shirt to hold himself up.

Eventually his hands lost their strength, and he fully collapsed. Looking down at him for a moment, I ruthlessly stomped on his face, and walked away. Leaving him on the ground of the forest.

As I turned around I made eye contact with Redzigan, who glanced at Alan on the ground, then back at me.

"Is it life threatening?"

I shook my head.

"Hm... Leave him then. Let him learn a lesson from letting his guard down."

She turned and walked away. Surprised, I unknowingly let out a smile, I got the feeling I could get along with Redzigan. Looking back, I saw Alan fully passed out on the ground, with blood dripping out of his nose. I knew with this, our feud would only get worse from here, and I would need to be prepared for greater retaliation.

However now that he knew I had poison, he might be afraid of even getting close to me, which could create a weakness that I could exploit in a fight.

Feeling refreshed, I decided I would go into a private training room, and spar with dummies. I didn't know anything about proper technique, but I didn't have time to learn much. Instead I hoped to make up for it with experience. Once I entered the training room, I selected to fight a single sparring dummy for now, and turned the dummy's settings to the lowest difficulty.

I soon found out that the lowest difficulty was not even where I was at. The dummy attacked me with it's bare hands and feet, but it still decimated me. The first time we clashed the dummy simply ran at me and threw a punch. I wasn't prepared for that level of simple aggression, and was promptly punched in the face for my lack of preparation.

My goal for today was to learn how to evade attacks, rather than attacking, but I felt it was more important in the long run.

After a few hours of training I had a quick dinner before heading back to my dorm for the night. After showering I fell asleep in record time. The accumulated stress for the day had built up quickly, but to say I felt satisfied was an understatement. The week quickly passed by and I was feeling increasingly happy about my progress.

****

It was Friday night, and instead of my regular training after school, I had headed back to my dorm to shower before changing into casual clothes. 

I quietly left the campus as I made my way towards the city. My destination was of course Golden Tree Books.

It was an hour before I arrived in the market district, however once there it was fairly easy to find the bookstore. The store had a large tree designed around the door, with the canopy being a sign with the words 'Golden Tree' on it.

Instead of directly entering, I decided to walk around the street, taking note of the people who came and went from the store.

An hour passed and I decided to follow someone who left the store. I had noticed that the majority of people who came to the store were youths, even people in the uniform of the Academy of Stars. I followed behind a couple of girls for a few minutes, before speeding up and stopping them.

"Excuse me!"

Turning their heads, they thankfully didn't seem to recognize me as their expressions didn't change when they saw me.

"I saw you leaving the Golden Tree bookstore, I was wondering if you could tell me if it is a good place to look tomes or if that was just gossip I heard."

Having heard my reasoning for stopping them, they visibly relaxed, even letting out a pair of sighs. However they quickly smiled and answered me.

"The bookstore is nice and they have a few tomes, however they are nothing special nor are the prices that much better than other places."

Confused, I asked.

"Then why go there?"

"Ah, that's because they don't discriminate against commoners! Usually to buy a spell tome you need to have some connections, or be a noble, however Golden Tree doesn't require any of that. Also..."

It was at this point that she became visibly nervous, looking around back and forth before leaning close to me.

"They said not to say anything, but you seem nice. There was this guy in a robe who approached us and told us about the book store. He said he would buy us both a tome for free, if we would just take his book and please read it at least once."

At this point her friend chimed in.

"Since tomes usually cost over 25 gold by themselves, we figured we would take him up on his offer, and surprisingly after buying us the tomes we wanted he handed us his book before leaving. He didn't ask anything else."

Feeling like that was incredibly suspicious, I tried to be casual. So I smiled brightly, and asked them in a quiet voice.

"That sounds great! Can you tell me where I can find the guy who made you the offer? Perhaps he is helping out struggling students, I could use the free tome."

Feeling comfortable, and perhaps sympathizing with a poor student, they quickly told me where they had met the man. After which they walked away and continued exploring the market on their day off.

I turned around, heading back the way I came, but my destination wasn't the bookstore. After a few minutes of walking, I arrived outside a medium sized building with a simple glass door at the front. Stepping inside, I was quickly greeted. 

"Welcome to Trust Bonds and Loans! Are you here looking for a loan?"

Putting on an innocent smile I replied.

"Yes."

****

After less than an hour of talking, I had actually secured myself a small loan of 100 gold, which to put simply was a decent amount. The average family would only make 50 silver a week. 100 silver equaled 1 gold, while 100 copper would equal 1 silver. A loan of 100 gold was around four years of a commoner's income. However for nobles it was a fairly insignificant amount.

But I wasn't receiving support from my family, so the loan ended up being a fortune for me. The agreement wasn't actually that bad either, with decent interest rates, and a small minimum monthly deposit I could realistically pay it off within three years or less depending on how hard I worked.

Having signed the agreement, I had the money wired to my account and I was out of there. As I was leaving I walked without any real destination, but I made sure to leave the store loudly. Thanking them from the open door and waving with a stupid grin on my face.

Without even walking ten feet, I was approached by a man in a robe, who had his face hidden completely.

Reacting like anyone would, I slightly raised my guard and looked at the man suspiciously.

He raised his hands to show me he had nothing, he chuckled and began talking.

"Whoa there big guy, I come in peace."

I lowered my guard, but not fully.

"Okay... What do you want... If it's about the loan I just took out, forget it, it's already in the bank. Even if you beat me I won't give it to you, it's too much money."

"Hahaha, kid, 'too much money' depends on the person... Actually, I am here to promote a new book of mine, along with helping some poor students like yourself out."

Finally letting my guard down fully, I acted interested.

"What do you mean by helping..."

From under the hood, I saw a small smile form on the man's face.

****

Back in my dorm room I sat on my couch looking at two book on my coffee table. I was in deep contemplation. 

"Should I read the book he gave me? I am worried it might be hexed or there is some sort of brainwashing magic cast on it. I really don't know enough of this world, and this is definitely possible. Otherwise why would they spend so much money just to get people to take the book?"

The other side of the argument, I might not find any clues if I didn't read it. I struggled with the decision, but I ultimately decided that my life was more important than the RP. Without opening the book, I stuffed it into my bag, and headed towards the faculty building on the North end of campus.

Although it was late, I knew teachers would usually be in their offices late into the day, even on a Friday. Once I arrived at the building I simply followed the signs until I arrived at the 1st year homeroom teachers. Looking around, I finally found who I was looking for, and she saw me too.

I walked over to their desk, and sat down in a small chair.

"What did you need so bad you came to see me instead of enjoying your weekend?"

Redzigan was in her chair looking at me with slight suspicion, and her arms crossed. Her legs were also dangerously crossed, however I reeled my wandering eyes back to their place, as I might end up dying for a peak.

*Cough*

"I wanted to ask your opinion on something, Ms. Redzigan."

I reached into my bag, and pulled out the book the suspicious man gave me earlier.

"I went to that bookstore you mentioned earlier, but I was approached by a guy in a robe. He offered to buy me a spell tome, and in exchange he wanted me to read this book at least once. He said he was an aspiring author, but I felt that wasn't enough of a reason to buy a stranger an expensive spell tome."

I laid the book on her desk, and she looked at me for a moment. The aura of a teacher was completely gone, and instead there was a very serious expression on her face. She uncrossed her arms and leaned over to inspect the book. It seemed that she had decided that I wasn't up to anything.

Without opening the book, she simply placed her hand on it's cover, and closed her eyes for a moment.

After a while, she opened her eyes and had a serious expression. Looking back at me, she crossed her arms again.

"You need to tell me everything that happened."

****

An old man with all white hair, and a well groomed beard, was flipping the pages of a book set on the large desk in front of him. On the other side of the desk was Ms. Redzigan, with a serious expression.

"Hmm... It's a dormant spell, but the final effect is hard to tell from just this. However it can't be good. From the things you told me, it seems that certain people are being targeted. Specifically youths. Hm... Who did you say brought this to you?"

"Gideon Alabaster, sir."

"Alabaster?"

The old man laughed when he heard who it was.

"Haha, that kid is scarier than I thought."

Confused, Redzigan asked.

"What do you mean by that, headmaster?"

"Redzigan... He's a noble... Why would he need a loan? Even if he didn't have any personal funds, he has everything paid for here at the academy, why would he need that much money?"

Shaking his head, the headmaster took off his glasses and stroked his white beard.

"Take Mr. Alabaster to investigate the bookstore further tomorrow. I feel he will be valuable to the investigation."

"Yes sir, I'll take my leave now."

Redzigan lightly bowed to the headmaster, and quietly left the office. The headmaster stood up after she left, and walked to the window. A faintly perceptible aura began to radiate from him.

"Mess with my students... You don't know your place. Let me remind you. Simon."

A figure stepped out of the shadows. The darkness hugged onto their form, draping over their shoulders like a cloak, slowly the figure broke free from the shadows.

A tall man in a butler uniform and glasses bowed to the headmaster.

"What can I do for you, Headmaster?"

"I want you to investigate the business around the Golden Tree bookstore. There is someone preying on youths, and distributing a book with a suspicious spell on it. I want to know what the Golden Tree has to do with it."

"I will act out your orders without fail."

Sinking into the ground, the man in the butler suit disappeared, and the headmaster was standing at the window looking solemnly out towards the city.

"Something is coming to the city. If the students safety is at stake I will have to send them home... I pray that they find the truth behind this incident."

****

I was walking alongside Ms. Redzigan, reading the spell tome I had gotten yesterday, while we were on our way to the market district.

Redzigan glanced over at me, before talking.

"At least you got something useful yesterday. Poison Bolt is the bread and butter of your ranged combat. With practice you can learn to cast it incredibly quickly."

I nodded in agreement.

"The spell is definitely useful. This book is a bit difficult to understand though."

"Mmm. It gets easier with practice. Continue practicing Ball of Light when you can, and you'll see your general skill improve. As your mana pool grows, controlling that much power will grow increasingly more difficult, but the process is the same with all spells."

It was then that something clicked in my mind.

'For spells like Poison Bolt and Ball of Light the crucial thing is getting the mana to change to do what I want it to do. In this case, I follow every step the same until the final step.'

I stopped in place, and tried to test out my theory. I channeled the mana from my core towards my hand. Once there, I forced the mana to condense into the shape of a bolt. To make it easier for myself, I imagined a crossbow bolt, and formed my mana into that shape. Surprisingly it felt really easy, and I found myself at the final step of the spell.

Manifesting my will with my mana. I closed my eyes, and imagined that the bolt held my poison attribute. The bolt would quickly eat away at a target's vitality. At least that is what the book said.

Feeling my mana rapidly drain, then stop, I opened my eyes to the amazing sight of a bright green crossbow bolt floating in the air above my outstretched hands. Smiling, I looked at Redzigan, but was taken aback by her expression.

A clear look of shock was plastered on her face.

"H-How did you... Didn't you say Monday was the first time you used a spell?"

"Huh? Uh.. Yes?"

I realized at this moment that perhaps I had a bit of talent?

After overcoming her initial shock, Redzigan began to explain different things to me about mana control and giving me tips to help better manifest my will. I happily listened to her advice as we rapidly approached the book store.