Into the rabbit hole

"Ron, do you have any textbooks?" Noah looked at the guy up and down and then at the shelf that was like a heap of rubbish.

He could see a couple more books stashed inside though he couldn't tell what category they would belong to.

Seeing the guy, he wouldn't be too surprised if these were also under the entertainment category.

"Ya. They are there. Help yourself." Ron muttered absentmindedly, his face still buried in his special books.

Noah smiled and walked over to take a look. Luckily, they were indeed textbooks. One was 'Mana Theory' and the other was a history book.

"You don't have anything else?" Noah frowned.

"What? Dude! You are disturbing me!" Ron scowled. "No, why are you asking me about textbooks? All our courses are online. Those two are something my dad shoved into my bags."

"Right. Right." Noah smiled bitterly. He needed to really get one of these phones.

But for now… he started turning the pages to see if there was by chance anything about magic spells in these two.

He sat down on the chair next to the bunk beds and turned the pages of the book end to end.

The first one 'mana theory' only talked about mana usage, mana circulation, physical enhancement using mana, and mana core formation. There wasn't anything about spells per se.

"Hmmm…" Noah put the book down and took the other unlikely one next. It didn't look like there would be any spells in a history book. Still, he looked anyways.

And surprisingly his efforts did not go to waste. There, near the end section of the book, the author talked about the evolution of magic circles using an example of a tier 3 spell.

Fire tentacles.

"Oh! So this is a magic circle?" Noah's eyes widened as he keenly paid attention to the circle and the complicated patterns and archaic circles written around the circle.

He suddenly felt cheated. Even though he finally found a magic spell, it was too complicated for him to learn.

"I guess I should start with tier 0 spells?" He stared at the mish-mash of strange patterns. "Yup, there is no point in trying to memorize this."

He decided and took his hand to flip to the next page when unexpectedly a notification popped up.

[Ding. Quest: Learn a tier 0 or above magic spell]

[Ding. Quest is completed]

[Ding. You have received 100 experience points]

[Ding. New Quest Available]

Once again, something was flashing in front of him.

Noah opened and closed his mouth speechlessly staring at these pop-ups. "This is what they meant by learning?" He scratched his head and looked confused.

The next second, he accepted it and moved on, clicking the new quest available. He didn't want to get bogged down by these details. He wanted to get to the bottom of this system thing.

[Ding. Quest: Learn a tier 0 or above magic spell]

[Ding. Reward: 100 experience points]

"Huh? The same quest again?" Noah frowned. He then quickly flitted through the pages of the book again to see if there was by chance another spell.

"Come on. Come on. Daddy needs one more circle!"

His eyes looked out for the familiar circle as he went through the dozens of pages. As it was a history book, the thing was quite thick.

But soon, he did stumble onto another spell and this time it was a tier 5 spell to boot.

Earthquake!

Noah had a strange feeling as soon as he saw this circle. It was intimidating. It was domineering.

He didn't think that something scribbled on a book could have this sort of effect.

It was as if he was staring into something far greater than what was presented on the mere sheets of the book.

"What the hell?" He gulped. He closed his eyes, shook his head, and looked at the damn thing again.

If the earlier tier 3 spell was complicated, then this could only be called a complete mess.

The entire thing was in utter chaos. There were probably millions of small details etched on this single circle.

Forget about him, how could anyone learn such a thing?! It was simply humanly impossible!

He stared at the thing for a few more minutes, staring at it as if he was admiring a beautiful painting.

It might as well be one for him. There was no way he was going to be able to learn it and the notification as well probably won't pop out.

Nevertheless, he looked at it from top to bottom once and was about to turn the page when once again the familiar notification chimed in.

[Ding. Quest: Learn a tier 0 or above magic spell]

[Ding. Quest is completed]

[Ding. You have received 100 experience points]

[Ding. New Quest Available]

Noah gulped. Just what in the name of hell was going on? Even if there was a system and in some twisted magical way he was able to level up and such, how could it be so easy?

This was what Noah was worried about the most. Back in his world, there was no such thing as a free lunch and he was pretty sure, there wasn't any here too.

So he would feel a lot more at ease if things were actually a bit more difficult and not this easy because if they were really this easy, then the price he might have to pay for them might be…

He let out a deep breath and once again opened the new quest that was now available.

[Ding. Quest: Learn a tier 0 or above magic spell]

[Ding. Reward: 100 experience points]