Plans For The Future

When Daneel stopped the display, Kellor staggered to a chair nearby and sat down clumsily. He seemed to be unable to control his emotions as he let the tears flow.

Daneel let the man let it all out. In his expression, he could see years and years of bottling up grievances and regrets. The sheer amount of pain reflected in that expression made his heart lurch, and he felt happy that he had chosen to trust this man.

After a few minutes, Kellor finally controlled himself and looked up at Daneel with a smile on his face.

"I apologize for the outburst of emotions. Its just that... I was a commoner myself, before my master saw the potential in me and trained me to be the next court mage. At that time, the King was not this bloodline-obsessed man. I was trained while being extolled the values of fair treatment and kindness.

Only a few years after I became court mage, the kind King was betrayed and the throne was usurped. I had already made a magical vow to follow the king's orders, because that was mandatory when one is selected to be trained as a court mage. Of course, then, it was stated that the King would release the court mage from his vow when a successor was trained."

Anger and frustration morphed his face as he continued, recalling all of the memories that he had kept locked away.

"I could only watch when the walls were built, separating the nobility and the commoners. I could only watch as innocent men, women and children fell prey to the sons and daughters of the King. I could only watch when dutiful soldiers who were ready to give their life for the kingdom were ashamed and kicked out mercilessly because they hurt a noble's ego.

"I could only keep watching and wish I could gouge my eyes out."

He stood up from the chair and clasped Daneel's shoulders, as the tears vanished from his face and were replaced by a triumphant smile.

"Finally, I have found the one I have been waiting for. And with Gold Comprehension to boot! The heavens have finally blessed my Kingdom with some good luck!

"Tell me, what do you need in the academy? I'll make sure its awarded to you as the gift for winning the assessment."

Daneel also felt happy as he saw his ally already show his value.

"Most importantly, I need full access to the library. And, I need access to the lower grades in the academy. And lastly, I want to choose a master who will let me do whatever I want.", he said, listing the wishes that he had long decided upon.

Masters were typically chosen in the second year of the academy, after one showed their talent in the First Year Assessment. Although everyone had the same classes in the first year, from the second year they would choose a focus and a master to study that focus with.

The student's schedule would be decided by the Master, and they had no say in the matter unless they were dissatisfied with the teaching and chose to change their master. Masters were paid handsomely for each student successfully trained, and thus reputation was most important to them as this would mean that they could have many students under their wing.

"Its decided then. You will be given full, unrestricted access to the whole academy except for the secret section of the library which even I can't access. Only the King and the Grand Court Mage, who exists hidden from everyone's knowledge, can access whatever is placed inside there. As for the master, there is someone I trained for a brief time who is currently a teacher at the academy. I don't know how if we can trust him fully, but I will instruct him to let you do whatever you want."

He sighed as he spoke of this man.

"He was once one of the geniuses in the academy, shining brighter than anyone else. But, he chose to go against the King and was punished in the most painful way possible. Now, he passes his days as if waiting for death. His story is not mine to tell though, so I will stop here."

Daneel nodded while he rejoiced inside. Unrestricted access to the academy! This was exactly what he had been seeking for so long.

"I will visit again when the Grand Court Mage diverts his gaze. Be careful in whatever you do, and ..."

Kellor's body flickered as his voice stopped mid-way. Puzzled, Daneel stretched out his arm to find that he was already gone and that there was only an after image left. It seemed that the Grand Court Mage must have been done entertaining his friends.

Taking a deep breath, Daneel sat back down on his bed and reflected on everything that Kellor had said. There was only one question that he had wanted to ask: whether this Grand Court Mage could see everything he did.

"System, how does their surveillance work? The Court Mage saved me from the spy from Axelor, but he didn't see me when I used the disguise tool. Was I just lucky?", he asked, hoping that he could find an answer.

[Negative. For wide area surveillance, mages use a spell which notifies them whenever abnormal magic fluctuations occur in the area. To stop too many notifications from inundating the mage's mind, only instances where the level of the magic used far exceeds the level of the surrounding individuals are brought to the mage's attention. Also, high-level mages can be tracked using the fluctuations sent out naturally by their Mageroot. It is possible that this is what the Court Mage was referring to, as this requires active concentration from whoever is casting the spell.]

Daneel heaved a sigh of relief after hearing this. Now, he only needed to worry about the TriCobra Society.

But first, his hands itched as he knew that he had a ton of EXP waiting to be used.

On opening the system store, he rushed to the book with "Parallel Processing-1" and instantly bought it.

After doing so, he immediately closed the store because he did not want to peruse leisurely and become tempted to buy some other tool. He wanted to save the points for a rainy day. There was no way he would ever take another loan especially considering the black-hearted interest rate.

[Purchase made and tool ready to deploy. Thank you for shopping with the system!

Remaining EXP: 1350]

Excited, he immediately deployed the tool and cast both the fireball spell and the lightning spell at the same time.

Typically, a mage needed to connect with the particles using their mageroot and pull and push them to get the result they wished for. As for Daneel, the year of using the Mageroot Development Technique-1 by the system allowed him to develop his Mageroot to Gold Comprehension. This meant that he could directly control the particles with a thought.

Although the number of particles he could control was limited, the speed was astonishing. What others with Red Comprehension needed a minute or more to do, he could do in a second. And this applied to all particles, not just a specific type like others focused on.

Of course, he could also command the system to use a technique, but he had found that this took longer than when he did it himself. He could cast simpler spells like fire, earth, wind and ice instantly, but spells like lightning and space needed the system's intervention to be cast quickly and accurately. Although he could also cast them, he just needed a little more time due to the inherent complexity. This could be shortened with more practice.

A tiny fireball the size of a marble appeared on the palm of his hand as he commanded the system to use the fireball technique after also communicating the size. Then, he used the tool to cast a tiny lightning bolt at the same spot.

BOOOM

An explosion woke everyone in the house, making them wonder what had happened.

As Daneel's parents rushed up to his room after seeing that there was smoke coming from above, they saw a kid blackened with soot coughing as he tried to put out the fire in his hair.