Chapter 3

Vito was running as fast as he could, but he was a mere human child. There was no way he could sprint faster than the wolves. They were rapidly approaching him. Suddenly, he heard an extremely loud roar from inside of the forest and he saw wolves stopping the chase.

He continued running for a while, but very soon he got out of breath and fell on the ground. He had never been running for so long and after such sprinting for that long he was completely unable of moving. Vito was laying prone on the ground, breathing heavily. He turned his head and saw a strange wolf-like figure approaching him. It was a werewolf. Vito wanted to scream, but he couldn't.

'I surely didn't expect my life to end so quickly.' he thought.

"No need to worry kiddo, I am not here to hurt you. But I want to warn you that you are better not to play out in the wild alone. Next time I may not be there to help you."

"Who are you?" Vito wheezed.

"Just a werewolf. We don't hurt humans." the wolfish figure said grinning.

Vito didn't trust this blatant lie. And started thinking how to save his life.

"Look, what is it over there?" Vito said with mock surprise.

"Nice try." werewolf said and came closer with saliva dropping from his chin.

Vito had taken out his pocket knife as fast as he could and stuck it in werewolf's leg. He started running away from the creature again. It was much easier now despite his exhaustion. He hid in the bushes and started making a spell quickly. He pointed the scroll at werewolf, who was limping in his direction. Vito poured his mana in the scroll and a stone resembling a bullet darted towards werewolf's chest at such a high speed that the projectile was just a blur to his eye. The bullet pierced the creature's chest and passed right through, spattering the surrounding trees with blood. It was severely wounded, but still alive.

"Argh, come here you little bitch!" the creature let out a moan and sweared.

"Fuck off, stupid dog." Vito said and cast one more spell, which depleted all his mana left. This time it was a big stone the size of a human head. Werewolf tried to dodge, but both his reaction and body movements were too slow. The projectile ripped the creature's head off and continued moving along with it.

Beheaded werewolf fell on the ground lifeless.

"Phew, looks like I am going to survive this day." Vito said.

He heard wolf's roar again as those three wolves came back after the death of werewolf.

"Or not."

'I feel a surge of strength again, is it a new level up or old, I wonder? I hope new, otherwise I am dead.'

He decided to make one more spell in the hope that a new level up refilled his internal storage of mana. He drew another spell while running and tried activating it.

"Fuck, I am dead" he said.

Vito had lost his hope of surviving, but he didn't stop running. Thankfully he was at the edge of the forest already. After a minute, which felt like an eternity to him, wolves stopped the chase.

(half an hour later)

It was noon when he returned to the library.

"What happened to you, my boy?" Raul asked.

"It is nothing serious. I tested the rune of levitation on myself and fell on the ground."

Old librarian was staring at Vito waiting for an honest reply.

"Okay okay. That's not all. But I didn't lie about testing the rune. Long story short, I got attacked by wolves and then by a werewolf."

"How did you survive such an encounter?" Raul asked with a shocked expression on his face.

"I don't know for sure. For some reason werewolf stopped wolves from attacking me and I killed him with a spell, alas they attacked me again immediately after his death. After that I ran to the city and thankfully I didn't meet anyone else."

"Now I believe you. That what I was talking about when advised you not to go alone in the woods. On the other hand, Andrea wouldn't be much of a helper in such a situation. So you better stay away from it, no matter if you are alone or not."

"Look on the bright side, I'll have stories to tell my kids in the future."

"If you do that again, you are risking not living long enough to have kids at all."

"I will be more careful next time, I promise."

"I hope so."

After listening to old man's lectures and having a lunch, he decided to have a nap, so as to get rid off exhaustion after spending so much energy and wasting all his mana. It was late already, so immediately after having a nap and dinner he went to sleep again.

next day, when Vito woke up,he noticed the absence of his travel bag. After making sure that it wasn't anywhere near him, he panicked.

"Shit! What am I gonna do without my pencil?"

"Watch your tongue, young man! I won't tolerate swearing in my library."

"Ahem, I am sorry Raul."

"You better be."

Vito let out a heavy sigh and was thinking about what to do, when suddenly Treatise drew his attention.

"How could I forget? The book must have known the answer all along!"

He concentrated on the problem at hand and opened the book.

"Ink-free spell-making. For those in need, there is a way to make spells using solely your mana. To do so, you need to concentrate on the symbols the symbols that you want to use and with the effort of will pour mana into non-existing runes so as to materialize them in the air. After that use this spell like any other spell written on the paper." Vito read the title and paragraph itself.

"Wow, that's exactly what I lacked right now! I need to test it out."

"I need something harmless, so as not to damage the library. What should I choose? I guess a bundle of magical light is a perfect fit."

"Okay, how do I do it again? Concentrate and pour mana?"

Vito tried so hard that even tightened his muscles.

"This is harder than I expected."

He read the page a few more times in the hope of understanding how to do it, but page didn't contain anything new, so he started trying again. After a several failures he gave up and decided to ask book for another tip.

"If you are stuck, try imagining those symbols to be empty vials before activating them." Vito read a tip that the book gave him.

"Wait, since when are you talking to me directly instead of pretending to be a treatise?" Vito asked, but instead of answering the question, the book made the text float and change again.

'I am starting to think that the book has its own mind.'

Vito tried to do as the books said. He imagined the magic circle that he wanted to create to be a vessel and poured mana in it.

The spell activated as usual and a bundle of light appeared in the air.

"Looks like talking to the book helps you to do magic?" Raul said with a chuckle.

"What? I didn't... oh well..."

Raul started laughing heartily.

"It doesn't matter, my child. I am glad that you are finally making progress after being stuck at a beginner's level for so long. Congratulations."

"Thanks, I am glad as well."

"You have a great future, I can clearly see it."

"How can you so sure?"

"It's very simple, I'm speaking from experience."

"I hope that you are right."

After having a dinner and playing a little with librarian's cat Vito continued practicing his skills of ink-free spell casting. It was not easy at first, but the more he practiced the easier it became and the faster he could draw his spells in the air.

'Making spells without paper is good, but is demanding a lot of focus. I still doubt that I can use this method in battle.'

'On the other hand, drawing usual spells isn't an opportunity during battle as well. But in theory this method can be used in battle. I need to practice more and check it out.'

'I think I can try ink-free spell casting while fighting with Andrea using only wooden swords and harmless magic.'

After making a decision, Vito left the library and headed to his friend's house in the hope that he will be free this time.

Half an hour later Vito and Andrea were walking towards the very same clearing. Vito told his friend about everything that happened. "Who could have guessed that I would need to use my willpower in order to get what I want from the Treatise. It actually an extremely useful book. It knows how to solve every problem!"

"Can you ask it how to get more revenue from trading?" Andrea asked.

"I don't know. Let's check it out right now."

'How to get more revenue.' Vito focused and opened the book.

"The Great Scripture doesn't answer foolish questions concerning pitiful deeds of mortals. As goes the name it answers only those questions about the structure of the world itself." Vito read aloud what was written on the book's page.

"Looks like your book isn't as smart as you say it to be." Andrea said with a chuckle.

"Who cares about revenue? It can tell you how to do magic without equipment, it knows all existing magic symbols and who knows what else it can tell me about." Vito blurted out.

"Okay okay, calm down. So, what did you want to do today?"

"Do you remember what I told you about the werewolf?"

"Yeah, why?"

"After I lost my travel bag the Treatise told me how to draw magic circles in the air, without pencil and paper. It is amazing method, but it has a great flaw - it demands a lot of concentration. So I am afraid that if I get attacked again, I won't be able to defend myself. That's why I wanted to have some practice casting spells in combat."

While Vito was explaining everything to his friend they came to the clearing and started training

"Let's start with slow and simple fight. Imagine that you are playing with your sister." Vito said.

Andrea dealt slow, weak and easily predictable blows.

One try, one more and more, and more. None of them were successful.

"Is that even possible?!" Vito shouted.

"Maybe you should try doing it at the same time with something simple?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Like walking, talking or both."

"Oh, I great idea actually. I should have thought of that myself."

'Talking and casting. It shouldn't be hard, right?' Vito thought.

He started repeating the same phrase "I am talking" over and over again and casting the simplest spell among all known to him - a small and slowly moving stone.

His spell worked this time.

"Finally!"

"Congratulations, now try talking to me and casting at the same time."

"Good idea. What can we talk about... Did your family's shop earn a lot yesterday?"

Vito was trying to focus on two actions at the same time.

"Yeah, there are always a lot of profit in this month." Andrea said.

Vito had several unsuccessful attempts.

"It's hard to cast and talk instead of repeating the same phrase."

After a few more attempts a little stone flew away in the forest.

"Phew, I think we can stop for now. I am tired of talking about nothing."

"Same here."

The next exercise Vito did, was running away from Andrea and drawing magic circles simultaneously. The main obstacle was Vito's little amount of physical energy. Besides being tired from sprinting often, Vito had no other difficulties during this exercise.

(one month later (month of fire))

Like its predecessor, the month of fire got its name for a reason. Just as the month of life passed, so did the jubilation of life. The god of fire came to replace it, accompanied by a scorching sun and heat that was barely bearable for most. The foliage and grass turned yellow because of the drought. The only ones who didn't notice the god of fire's arrival were desert dwellers, as deserts' temperature was unbearable all year round.

But Vito was trying to ignore the heat of the summer. He was practicing non-stop since the day he discovered ink-free spell casting and it was not in vain. Now it was possible for him to do that while reading, running, talking and even in mid-battle. As he was closer to mastering this technique he was more willing to start learning something new.