Everyone began standing up, and Asher and Amelia did as well.
"You can go back. I'm going to train with Damian," Amelia said, turning to leave.
Asher headed towards the exit as well, but they each took a different path.
Amelia was on her way to meet Damian on the Ground Floor of the Ranker's Dorm, and she was thinking about Alyssa's performance.
"She is strong," Amelia muttered.
Of everyone present there, only Amelia's mind lingered on Alyssa's performance. The reason for this was their team meeting, where Alyssa had also been present.
Throughout the entire meeting, Alyssa had barely responded to anyone. Most of the time, it was Venessa who asked her things.
Back then, Amelia had thought that perhaps it was Alyssa's background or her scars that made her behave in such a manner.
But she hadn't thought that Alyssa was that strong.
"Her elemental combination is powerful," Amelia muttered.
She remembered asking what elements Alyssa felt comfortable using.
Alyssa's response was just Ice Element and Gravity Magic, which surprised others. Most people with a Space Element affinity would often choose to learn other elements instead.
This caused Amelia to be a bit skeptical about Alyssa's potential.
"It's only until this exam, so it will be fine," Amelia recalled what Sylvie had told her when they arrived at the World Academy.
"Make sure that Asher stays away from that girl," Sylvie instructed Amelia.
"But Mom, why do you think he will listen to me? You should ask Damian instead," Amelia retorted, hugging her pillow.
It was nighttime, and Sylvie was spending some time with Amelia, who would soon depart for the World Academy.
Unlike Asher, she hadn't seen her daughter much as Amelia was studying outside of Somaria.
"I asked him first, before you," Sylvie said, struggling to hold back her laughter.
"Mom, don't make fun of me," Amelia exclaimed, throwing her pillow.
"Okay, sweetie. But listen, I don't want any harm to come to your reputations, okay?" Sylvie said as she used her mana to place the pillow back on the bed.
They talked a lot more, and Sylvie didn't bring up that topic again.
"Yeah, it's better to have her on our team," Amelia muttered, remembering the way Alyssa fought in the Representative Tournament.
Alyssa didn't care about her own well-being, overusing her mana despite having a weak body.
There was a reason most students, even seniors, didn't challenge Alyssa to a duel.
Many people began calling her crazy due to her fighting style. They didn't want to spar or duel with such a person.
"I should train harder," Amelia said to herself.
She felt that her progress had slowed down slightly.
This insecurity arose from the monstrous talent that Asher exhibited.
The rankings of everyone besides the top 3 were quite close, but the difference of all the rankers from the Rank 1 was huge.
This was the last test before the final part of the Mid-Term Examination, and many students were training intensively for it.
A similar atmosphere pervaded all three years, except for the Fourth Year, which didn't have any sort of examination.
Apart from the Final Exam, they had no exams until the end of the year.
Asher was on his way to the Great Library to learn more about other spells that could assist him.
Originally, he had planned to use this time to enhance his swordsmanship, but seeing that his progress was advancing with his increased knowledge about Mage Art, he decided to spend his time in the library.
Since the month was about to end, it made more sense for him to spend his time reading those books.
Upon entering the Great Library, he noticed that it wasn't crowded with students. Most of them were busy training for the exams.
Even Mage course students would spend this time training, as learning from books was a lengthy process.
Not everyone was like Asher, capable of reading a book and understanding the meaning and thoughts behind it.
And if they did, they needed to spend a significant amount of time restructuring the spell to suit them.
"You're back again?" The old man outside the restricted section asked.
"Is there a problem?" Asher asked.
"Not really, but there will be a few professors inside, so you might run into them," he reminded Asher, as this was a time when most professors had some extra time to continue their research.
"I don't mind," Asher replied as he went inside.
The section he was intending to visit probably wouldn't have any professors in it anyway.
He planned to read some books in the Space Element Section of the Restricted Area of the Great Library.
This was the only place that housed spells deemed too dangerous or forbidden because they could harm the caster.
However, considering that some professors might want to research them, the World Academy placed such books in the Restricted Section.
Upon entering the Space Element section, Asher noticed that there weren't many books there.
Unlike the previous sections he visited, this one didn't have half the number of books.
"I don't need to read this," Asher noted, seeing that many books were about the principles of the teleportation gate.
He didn't want to read those books.
"This should be fine for now," Asher decided, picking up two books related to his area of interest.
Though his movement art was quite fast, Asher wanted to learn the Tier 2 Blink Spell to expand his combat abilities.
"I should find that spell in these books," Asher mused, glancing at the titles of the books.
Rather than books, they were stored research papers from a deceased Space Element Mage who had researched these spells.
Most of the work present here was like these two books.
Asher turned the pages, going through the theories and spells mentioned in the books.
Each of those spells was complex, and even the author mentioned how harmful using them could be.
Despite knowing that they would die in the process of their research, Space Mages still proceeded.
[Host's Magic Mastery is increasing]
A single notification popped up as Asher continued reading through the pages for hours on end.
After 30 hours, Asher was still engrossed in those two books.
In his mind, he was reconstructing those spells to suit him.
But the mana usage of those spells was quite high. Even for the current him, executing more than ten Tier 2 Blink Spells would have cost more than half of his mana.
This was also considering that his Sword Art required a significant amount of mana as well, as did his aura.
Ping!
Asher stopped reading as he received a notification on his ID Bracelet.
<Announcement! First-Year Students gather your teams and appear at the Portal Gate assigned to your team the day after tomorrow.>
"This should be enough," Asher said, closing the books and standing up.
Walking back to the place from where he had picked the books, he checked his ID Bracelet for any additional notifications.
Aside from frequent messages from Damian, he hadn't received any news from Tom in the past couple of days.
"They should have started the mission," Asher recalled Tom's last message.
Asher decided to leave the Great Library and return to the Ranker's Dorm.
He had studied enough so he was planning to spend the rest of his time training his mana.
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