The Nightmare Wizard
Chapter 95: A Walk Through the School (3)

Chapter 95: Chapter 95: A Walk Through the School (3)

Aurus’s letter and gifts took William by surprise. He hadn’t expected Aurus to go to such lengths to help him. He wasn’t sure how difficult it would be to obtain those points, but he didn’t rule out that it might have been all of Aurus’s savings. Although he should have felt happy, a premonition kept gnawing at his mind, as if something was wrong, though he couldn’t pinpoint what.

When he finished reading, he looked up at Lía and Neri, who were staring at him in silence.

"Sorry, I was just checking the prize details," William said.

"How enviable! I’ve barely managed to reach Level 2. Level 5 is reserved only for those who have made valuable contributions and have also reached Rank 3. In the entire academy, there are fewer than 5 people with that privilege, congratulations!" Neri’s words sounded quite sincere, as if she herself had achieved the feat. Throughout her life, she had seen all kinds of people, so she had a sharp sense for recognizing hypocrisy, but Neri didn’t exude that feeling; instead, she seemed very genuine when she spoke. Besides, no one asked him how he had achieved it, so William preferred not to say anything and keep it a secret for now.

The group entered the library, and from the moment they stepped inside, they could see endless shelves filled with books.

"This is just Level 0, also called the Ground Floor. All new apprentices have access to this level so they can study the fundamentals during their first year. In general, apart from studying in classes, it’s almost certain that you’ll be living in this building. Level 0 has all the theoretical magic fundamentals and some basic spells for you to learn. Level 1 has simple spells that are categorized as harmless, like condensing water or making sparks—spells that serve no other purpose than training and understanding them. Level 2 already has true spells like Fireball or Water Sphere. Each level increases the difficulty of the spells and the theories behind them. There are also books on botany, alchemy, engraving, runes, forging, among others; meaning, whatever you want to know, there’s surely a book here about that topic. Normally, on each floor, you’ll find this book, which is a directory of how the books are distributed, and your collars also have a description of each area."

The amount of information they observed was incredibly vast, so much so that it seemed endless, as if they were standing in a sea of information and they were just a tiny drop in the entire ocean.

Neri instructed them to follow her and said, "Now I’ll take you to the second place where you’ll spend most of your time outside of classes: the Practice Hall. In this place, you can use the spells you’ve learned without harming others, which is why most of the time, all students are here training. Right now, it’s probably empty since it was vacation, and apprentices were allowed to return home to rest. Today, in a few hours, this place will turn chaotic with everyone trying to get back to the academy at the same time."

The three arrived at the Practice Hall. Unlike the library, it wasn’t small and spacious; instead, it was very large, like four football stadiums joined together. In the center, there were multiple mannequins, or archery practice targets. There were also different types of targets that varied in size, some as small as a thumb’s diameter. The hall seemed reinforced; everything looked very sturdy; it was certainly not easy to destroy.

"Let me give you a demonstration, Electric Claw!" With a flick of her hand, a small ray shot out like a snake until it impacted the mannequin. The explosion was noisy, sending the mannequin flying. As if by magic, the mannequin returned to its place, and its wounds began to heal rapidly. "This place has regeneration runes, so nothing happens no matter how much damage you do, but you must be careful. If you ever surpass the mage level and come here, you can destroy things, and you’ll be charged for them. As far as I understand, mages train in another place, so perhaps we’ll know more about that later."

After hearing Neri’s words, William became curious about his own strength and unleashed a Fireball that directly impacted another mannequin, causing an explosion and sending it flying. The mannequin immediately returned to its position. A new notification sounded on William’s collar, showing all the information about the spell he had just cast.

Fireball Spell

* Mastery: Expert

* Casting Time: 0.65 seconds

* Damage: 27.5

All the information about his spell was displayed neatly on his collar, sending a small shiver down William’s spine. This information was dangerous. William had been on the verge of imbuing his spell with nightmare energy, and this would have made the explosion’s power several times more violent. If the collar detected anomalies, he was sure the next thing he’d see would be a bunch of mages asking questions, and in the worst-case scenario, he’d be locked in a laboratory, being thoroughly examined inside and out, literally.

"Surprised? This hall connects directly to your collar and sends you your statistics, allowing you to improve your skills quickly by correcting what’s wrong. It’s quite useful, as it’s not just about ’feeling’ as the professors say, but you have data to back up your assumptions, isn’t that amazing?"

Neri looked quite excited because it was a great help for novices like her, but for William, who had Angel, it was redundant and even dangerous, as he didn’t know who could see his information, no matter how he thought about it, the advantages didn’t outweigh the dangers of being supervised every day, at all hours, by an unknown entity from a distance and perhaps with a gun pointed at his head all the time.

He felt increasingly anxious to take control of the device and modify it, but this would take some time, as it was like a kindergarten student dreaming of hacking the Pentagon.