Staffmanship.

I was currently standing in front of one of humanity's strongest mages. And also, my homeroom teacher, Professor William. He's almost 30 years old but looks around the age of 25. Handsome, prim and proper. It's almost as if he wasn't born, but created but some higher being...

"Samuel Francis. What is it that you want from this professor?", asked William in a calm and smooth tone.

'Damn... one of the strongest mages of humanity is no joke!', I thought.

"I'll get straight to the point, then, professor. I am in need of a certain 'Skill' that only a very high-level mage, such as yourself, can teach me... I believe you already know which skill I'm referring to, correct?"

"...The staffmanship skill..."

'spot on!'

"But of course, I won't be asking it for free, I have something I can offer in return for the skill."

William's lips curled up slightly to form a smirk.

"And what do you have to offer?"

"The crafting method of a never-before-seen talisman."

Silence filled the room for a few minutes.

William's smirk vanished and he fell deep into thought.

At first, he thought of laughing out loud and ridiculing me, but he quickly realised that it wasn't just some random kid telling him this. It was me, the guy who has Gravity Magic. A magic not even William knows anything about.

"What is this... talisman that you are talking about?", he asked.

'There it is!'

"The talisman's name is the 'Ring of Pestilence'. It provides immunity to most low to mid-level poisons and very high resistance to even the highest-level poisons."

William once again went quiet for a few seconds.

He was probably thinking about how that ring would be the perfect item to clear an A+ rank dungeon that had opened up near the academy. No hunter, not even William himself could clear the dungeon because of its environment. They would immediately get poisoned and a prolonged stay inside the dungeon could even prove to be fatal to even the highest-level hunters. This ring of Pestilence could prove to be the key to clearing the dungeon.

"... You're making a very bold claim, Mr Francis... How do I believe you?"

"I'll give you the methods and blueprints right now if you want me to. You can check it for yourself and determine if the ring works or not."

"I'll do just that then..."

'I knew this would happen so I prepared some sketches beforehand...', I thought as I brought out my tablet and opened a file in it.

I don't exactly know how the ring is created. Obviously. I only know the vague ideas and a few keywords the novel used to describe the workings of the ring. Also, it mentioned all of the ingredients required to make it as well. But that didn't really matter too much. William was a world-class mage. He was smart enough to get the idea of it. Afterwards, he could contact one of his subordinates to make an appointment with a metallurgist who will make the ring for him.

'But this deal seems a bit too in your favour, though...', I thought before speaking up again.

"If you would be so kind, I would like a ring like that for myself too, please."

William didn't hear my request though. He was way too engaged in the material I just gave him. He was making all kinds of gasps and widening his eyes frequently.

"... I won't ask you where you got this from, but I will tell you this - Thank you. Truly. This will help us hunters so much.", William finally broke out of his trance and thanked me for the ring's crafting recipe.

'Well, he's lying about the whole 'help us hunters' part. He could care less about other hunters. He's probably grateful to me because I trusted him enough to give the recipe to him, and no one else.'

"And about your second request... I'll make one ring for you as well."

"Thank you, professor. And what about the original request?"

"Of course, we'll start from tomorrow onwards. I'll be giving you lessons, but you'll have to practice on your own if you want to get the skill."

"Of course, professor. And thank you."

William nodded and I left his office.

'Phew! The presence of a high-level hunter is no joke whatsoever! That was nerve-wracking! I know he won't harm me, but I couldn't help but feel on edge!', I breathed out a sigh of relief.

My plan was to get the lessons from William and then practice with Evangeline. Practising with her will definitely prove to be crucial in building my base as a mage. Currently, my strength is very 'top heavy', meaning that I can't really improvise mid-fight at all, as was the case with the duel with Julian when he ignored the pain and launched straight at me.

All of my fights are pre-calculated to some extent. If there's even a slight deviance from my original plan, I put myself in grave danger. And I don't like that. Practising with a real mage, like Evangeline will help me to improvise mid-fight and at least give me the ability to run away when necessary.

'Just 2 more weeks left till the excursion arc...', I thought as I made my way back to my dorm.

'Also, having my gravity magic exposed means that I have got a pretty massive target on my back... I can't venture outside the school anymore...', I grumbled.

As I was getting refreshed from a shower, I thought of something.

'I wonder what Julian is doing right now... Also, my hypothesis of Julian and Sophia's relationship not progressing was very wrong... I had completely forgotten about Curtis, Sophia's toxic childhood friend... Haha, he was such a joke in the original novel... until he signed a contract with a demon, that is... He just got extremely annoying after that...', a train of thoughts kept running through my head as the cold water from the shower was hitting my face.

'*Sigh... I'm just a reader... not even a side character... why do I have to deal with so much all the time...?', I complained to myself about my stupid luck. I mean, why am I in this fictional world in the first place?! Who or what the hell sent me here?! What do they want?!

'I haven't even found a single clue yet...'

There's a lot of work to be done. A lot of goals to be accomplished and lastly, I have to keep getting stronger. If I want to live in this world, that is.