Smile
The days after the tournament slipped by all too quickly, backing me up against the wall of departure. Small butterflies fluttered around my stomach whenever I thought of the approaching date, filling me with uneasy anticipation. With so little time left, I dove into training with renewed vigor. Since I had finally crossed the threshold of fifth-circle magic, my mana underwent a transformative expansion. The difference between circles was small at lower levels, so I hadn't noticed the difference before, but my body now overflowed with power. Each time a mage transcended tiers, their mana reciprocated and became much easier to increase for a small period of time. By the end of the second day after the tournament, I was capable of casting three fifth-circle spells back to back, provided I was okay with collapsing to the ground afterward. Selena certainly wasn't happy about that…