Chapter 8: The Library of Auroria.

Six days have passed since his meeting with the old man and the start of his training. Armand has been training and understanding his own power, fighting the earth colossus relentlessly since the start of his training without defeating him so far. He tires less every day, however, and manages to hold his own against the colossus, still using stratagems and saving himself even more.

This morning, he returned to fight the golem under the watchful eye of the master, who controlled him without sparing his apprentice. This time, Armand seems more confident and is determined to end this training session, which he considers too long.

"I'm ready, Master," he exclaims, determined.

A smile spreads across the old man's beard as the golem reforms as usual. The training begins and Armand lunges towards the mud monster, which is also charging towards him. He performs a slide on the grass, passing under the huge silhouette, his eyes turning indigo, he brushes the air with his hand before straightening up behind his adversary.

The golem pivots, but Armand is already far away with his bluish eyes increasing his speed, he stops once well away from him and starts caressing the air again while turning indigo once more. The titan charges again and prepares to strike a blow. Once at a good distance, he launches his fist towards Armand, but the latter sees it coming and dodges it by leaping backwards.

He smiled as he fell into his trap and just before the creature's fist crashed to the ground, a smoking portal appeared where Armand had grazed the air with his hand. The golem's fist bursts through this portal and emerges through another, previously opened during Armand's slide. Unbalanced, the golem collapses to its knees, its fist hurled skywards on the other side.

Armand, meanwhile, doesn't waste a moment and seizes this brief opportunity. His eyes take on an orange glow as he clasps his hands together, one covering the other as he concentrates the surrounding magic before pulling them apart, creating a rope of orange magic emerging from his hands. He jumps up, concentrating the magic on his supporting foot, and passes over the golem, wrapping the rope around its neck and then its limbs. He then creates a stake and passes the rope around it before pounding it into the ground with force.

"This time I'm going to finish it right now!"

His aura blazes red, as he concentrates an enormous amount of magic in his fist and rushes towards the lacerated golem. The creature tries to defend itself with an earthen rampart, but Armand anticipates it and, with a brief shift to indigo, opens a portal, before reverting to red to conserve his accumulated strength.

He crosses the portal and appears in the one where the colossus' body is blocked, he's at point-blank range and with a powerful blow to the face, he pulverizes the golem's head and upper body, then taking advantage of its fall, he brings down his reinforced foot on the creature's lower parts, which also break. The golem's body disintegrates into mere earth, and Armand collapses, panting with a smile on his lips before letting out a cry of joy.

The master comes to join him, deactivating his barrier and clapping his hands to congratulate him as Armand rises to his feet.

"Well done! What progress compared to previous days! I haven't managed to touch you once, that's remarkable, my boy!"

"Thank you. I thought up this strategy all night. But if the golem's earth hadn't been so resistant, it probably wouldn't have worked."

"True, but I have to admit that you've quickly learned to harness your orange aura. You manage to materialize objects with such ease, whereas most mages need a lot of training and concentration to be able to create with pure magic so quickly," the master said, congratulating him.

Two days ago, during a training session with the master after yet another failure against the golem, he had been asking Armand during these sessions to be constantly in his orange state unless he asked him to be in another particular color, to see how the aura would react during these training sessions and finally learn about his power. It was therefore a training session on the creation of objects or forms modeled with pure magic.

After explaining how to do it, the master suggested that Armand try it, and asked him to create a simple cube. He expected him to fail, but surprisingly, Armand quickly succeeded in creating a cube that had the particularity of being orange. It was from here that they understood how the aura worked, allowing Armand to easily materialize anything he could imagine, within the limits of what was possible.

Although this magic wasn't as exceptional as his other powers, which were fairly basic, it nevertheless gave him a creative facility rivaling that of experts in the field. This ability considerably enriched his range of powers, offering enough variety to compensate for the absence of catalysts.

He had now mastered six of the seven he possessed, but although he had made progress, he was still unable to even release his purple aura, which always made him suffer at every attempt, the master suggesting that he ignore it for the time being.

Back to the present, and after a well-deserved meal following his training, the master fetches something from a briefcase he didn't possess a few days ago. He extracts two tunics and presents them to Armand, comfortably seated on a chair in the dining room. The first, a gray training suit adorned with black abstract motifs, which he says is the same in all magician schools to standardize the apprentices' styles for easy recognition, while the second is green and dotted with floral motifs and bears the emblem of an red bird very similar to Pica, Armand thinks to himself. He's right, because it's the master's apprentice tunic, to show that he's the old man's pupil.

"Why make two different tunics?" Armand asked.

"Well, for formal occasions, you have to wear the tunic representative of your 'school'. However, you'll usually wear the gray one, which is very easy to replace in case of damage, unlike mine, which costs a lot more. Yesterday, while you were training alone I went to declare the fact that I have an apprentice and so I received this gray outfit."

"Declare? Is there a need to do that here?" He questions.

"Better yes, it would be illegal training otherwise. Besides, it'll make things easier for you, like access to certain places and the possibility of doing certain missions or special events," the old man explains to him.

Armand takes them and looks at them more closely, thanking the old man. The master stoops to put on his leather shoes and walks out of the house, turning to Armand and telling him to put on the gray outfit and leave. Armand gets up and rushes to his room, where he lays the outfits on the bed and quickly puts on the gray one, followed by his mittens, so as not to keep the master waiting. He then leaves the room, returns to the dining room and finally goes through the front door.

The master seems to want to go somewhere, and once they've passed the building site that leads to the house, the fence surrounding the property that had blocked Armand the first time reforms behind them. The old man waves to Pica, who lands on the fence, and they set off in the direction of downtown Auroria.

"If you don't mind my asking, master, where are we going?"

"To the city library."

Armand wonders as he continues to walk beside him as they cross the shopping street he'd taken at the very beginning; nothing has changed, it's just as noisy and lively, filled with good smells. He then asks him why he wants to go to the library.

"This library is filled with very old books each containing a particular technique, I'd like you to choose one and commit to learning the technique of your choice," Master Kaka explained.

"Could I take whatever I wanted?!"

"Of course not, I remind you that you already have a specialization thanks to your power, so you'll only be able to choose techniques using pure magic. Furthermore, if my memory doesn't play tricks on me, some books are not borrowable by novices. Worse still, I'm even forbidden access to certain books reserved for the nobility or the imperial guard."

"I see... ."

They continue to traverse the city as they talk, the streets becoming quieter and quieter and the urbanism of the buildings and lanes becoming more modern. Armand marveled at the steam-powered vehicles on the streets, the contrast with the lower part of the city is impressive, he thought. The master invites Armand to come in and take his time to make his choice, while he goes to the nearby market for some shopping.

They part, and Armand enters the hall of the building, whose interior is as sumptuous as its exterior, offering a generous space adorned with gold leaf and magnificent paintings. His attire enables him to pass through the reception area unhindered, and after passing through a final doorway, he enters the library. The place is much bigger than he had imagined, and the abundance of books is staggering. A member of staff at reception approaches him and points out the shelves dedicated to magic.

"Welcome sir to the library of Auroria. By the look of your attire, you appear to be here to pick up some magic-related books?" Asked the receptionist.

"Yes!"

"Good, please follow the path to your right and you'll find what you're looking for straight away."

Armand thanked him and explored the place, heading for the shelves he'd been shown. Arriving at his destination, he is overwhelmed by the choice, attracted by many books, even if some, related to specific specializations, are inaccessible to him. Nevertheless, he is captivated by the diversity of techniques. As he wanders through the aisles, he notices that the book labels have changed color: they used to be white, now they're blue, and further on, he even spots some yellow ones. He deduces that these are the books mentioned by his master, those to which he is not entitled. Driven by curiosity, he examines one of them, entitled "Magic Gourd", which has a yellow label, and grabs it anyway.

But, to his surprise, the book seems sealed and refuses to open. Glancing around, he realizes he's alone, then stares back at the book, his eyes turning yellow to perceive the magical flow around him. He discovers that dense magic envelops the book, and as he observes the others, he notices the same phenomenon, including those labeled white. He assumes it's a device that prevents the books from being read before they're borrowed.

However, he spots a thin magic thread linking the book to a huge chandelier illuminating the room, suggesting that the security of the books is linked to the chandelier. Suddenly, a guard spots Armand holding the book and calls out to him, startling him.

"Young man! Put that book back immediately! You don't have permission to borrow it, it's reserved for high-ranking imperial guards and nobility," exclaimed the guard.

"I... I didn't know, please excuse me!"

Armand puts the book down again, while the guard looks in his direction to keep an eye on him. He runs his finger along the length of the book's edge, before heading back to the aisle of white books adapted for him. As he walks through the library, he wonders at the simplicity of the title of a technique ranked among the most prestigious. Time flies, and soon two hours have passed since his arrival.

He finally opts for a white book, which seems to have a technique for creating blades of magic. Although unenthusiastic, he recognizes that the options for pure magic adapted to his power are limited. Back at the reception desk, no one checks on him; instead, he simply walks through an enchanted portal that seems to be analyzing his book. As his book is common, he can leave the premises without any problem. He finds that the book opens as soon as he passes through the library door, just as he had expected.

The master hasn't returned yet, so Armand seizes the opportunity to get away from the library and prying eyes. He takes refuge in an alleyway and, with a wave of his hand, strokes the air with his finger, while his eyes are tinged indigo since he put down the book. He then opens a very light smoking portal he's made, linked to another portal he'd made beforehand when he caressed the book's edge.

After making sure the way is clear, he discreetly steals the book from the library. The book also opens once outside, and he hurriedly swaps the labels and deposits the old white book in the place of the stolen one, then closes his portal. He leans against the wall, sliding to the floor, and lets out a sigh of relief.

"It's wrong, but it's for the greater good, I think...," he murmured.

He hides the book under his belt, passing it off as the one he's supposed to have borrowed, and leaves the alley to await the old man's return. Ten minutes later, he returned with four bags full of food and utensils. Armand helps him by taking three bags, and they continue on their way home. The master notices the book under the belt of Armand's tunic and asks him.

"So, have you found a book to your liking?" the master asks him.

Armand lets out a nervous laugh, aware that he can't hide the contents.

"I took some time seeing all that was in the library but not much interested me so I took this one, out of spite we'll say."

He puts down a bag to free his hand and takes out the book, which he presents to his master, who grabs it and flips through the pages with one hand.

"A magic gourd? It sounds complex, I'm surprised such a technique is accessible to an apprentice. But given your orange state, you should be able to do it, I think," the old man thinks aloud.

He closes the book without asking any more questions, and they continue on their way. Armand asks how this gourd could be useful, and the old man replies that it seems to be able to pump out the surrounding magic until it is saturated. Then, when destroyed by its user, it releases the accumulated magic, which can prove crucial in a magic-draining battle, offering a decisive advantage in such a circumstance.

As they approach the lower part of town, they hear a crowd of well-dressed people in the distance, gathered around an opulent, plump man standing on a crate overlooking the crowd. Behind him, Armand can make out cages containing chained individuals.

"''Hear, my good people! Here are the most robust and vigorous slaves that the Silver Fortress has to offer! I'm Saukel, the fortress's official merchant! I guarantee top quality! These criminals will be yours, exclusively yours, if the price suits you, of course!" exclaimed the slave trader.

Armand observed the scene from a distance, standing still as the master continued on his way, paying no attention to the commotion. However, a cage concealed under a sheet caught his eye, and Saukel came to hold it firmly. He continued to speak loudly to captivate the audience gathered in the street.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, excellence among excellence! The most precious possessions of the fortress!"

With a quick movement, he removed the sheet, revealing two figures chained from head to toe. One was an impressively muscular man in his forties, his dark skin dotted with scars on his bare torso. The other appeared to be a young woman in her twenties, wrapped in a black hooded cloak hiding her face and hair. Her pale skin was marked with scratches.

The crowd of nobles cheering the merchant aroused Armand's deep disgust, causing him to drop the bags he was carrying. His fists began to tremble, a reddish aura beginning to emanate from him and his eyes, as he seemed to lose his temper at the scene. The master, coming up behind him, tapped him lightly on the head with his book.

"Don't do anything stupid, Armand. Let's move on," murmured the master.

"Don't you see what this repulsive man has been proclaiming just now?! He's reduced them to mere objects! Do you tolerate this, master?!" asked Armand, in an annoyed tone.

"Of course not, but one thoughtless move from you and you'll find yourself with Primis's imperial guard hunting you. Stay calm, my boy, let's go home."

Armand took one last look at the crowd, closed his eyes for a moment, then picked up his bags to accompany the old man back to their home.

End of chapter 8.