A wry smile appeared on her face. “A spell, huh? I almost fot you’re a mage too, sidering you rarely use magic. But yes, I’d appreciate it if you used ohanks.”

  At her request, Mikael cast the spell on her. Instantly, all the sweat and grime from their fight vanished, and her disheveled hair returo its usual state—long, silky bck strands with a braid looping just above her ears.

  Amelia was impressed by the practicality of the spell. As a warrior, she had never paid much attention to the mage path since she could only use aura, not mana. For that reason, she hadn’t seen much point in learning about magic.

  After this brief exge, the two parted ways—Amelia heading back to her dorm to rest, while Mikael made his way to the library to finally begin iing magito his fighting style.

  After a short walk, Mikael arrived at the library. There, he saw Lyra in a familiar zy position, just like the first time he had seen her. She was resting her head on the ter at the ter of the library, a book open in front of her as she read leisurely.

  “Lyra?”

  Hearing the familiar voice, she raised her head. A small smile unknowingly made its way onto her face as she said, “Hi Mikael, good to see you. Are you here for some books?”

  “Yeah, I also have these books to return.” As he finished speaking, two books appeared on the ter, promptio s them before typing something into a nearby puter.

  He tinued, “I’m also ied in that book you mentioned a while ago—the one about bining the mage and warrior paths.”

  A thoughtful expression appeared on her face before she said, “Ah, you mean this one!” She pulled a book from behind the ter and pced it in front of him.

  Mikael picked up the book, giving it a cursnce before turning his attention back to Lyra. “You know,” he said with a teasing smile, “if I didn’t know aer, I’d say you’ve been keeping this book hidden just for me.”

  She tilted her head slightly, seemingly puzzled by his words. “Yeah, I did keep it for you. I thought it was iing, and knowing that my friend wao read it someday, I decided to leave it here.” Her i expressio no room for doubt.

  ‘A friend,’ he mused internally, watg her carefully. Her siy firmed his thoughts. ‘Yep, she clearly sees me as just a friend. For now, at least. But how do I ge that? That’s the real challenge. sidering how antisocial she is, it’s going to be tough.’

  ‘This isn’t like Amelia, where we share on ground, and we gradually became closer as we sparred. And I’m still not experienced enough to navigate these things properly. Flirting—I’m starting to get the hang of that—but shifting the dynamic with this clueless girl? That’s a whole other level.’

  He snapped out of his thoughts and asked, “Are there any other books you’d reend on this subject?”

  She pondered for a few seds before replying, “No, sorry. The fusion of the mage and warrior paths isn’t a popur topic because of how rare dual-type talents are. I don’t know if there are any other books in the library that cover this subject, but even if there aren’t, this book should be quite iing for you. I’ve read it myself, and I definitely reend it.”

  “Alright, I’ll start with this one and see if it helps. I’ll e back ter a you know what I think.”

  She nodded, and they pleted the necessary procedures for him to borrow the book. After saying their goodbyes, he exited the library.

  ‘The fact that she talked to me and even seemed happy to see me is proof enough that she appreciates me—especially sidering how antisocial she is. But how to take it further… that’s the real question,’ he thought, sighing inwardly as he struggled to find a solution.

  ‘Let’s focus on training for now. I’ll figure it out ter,’ he decided, res to the legendary art of procrastination.

  After a short, rexing walk where he deliberately avoided thinking about Lyra and his “problem,” he arrived at his dormitory. Unlog the building, and then his room, he stepped into his personal space. Onside, he sat on the coud opehe book.

  He began reading at an impressive pace, flipping through the pages so quickly that, to an observer, it would seem as though he was merely skimming. In truth, he was abs the tents effortlessly. His extraordinary mental capacity, bolstered by his 500 Intelligeat, allowed him to process information far faster than an ordinary human. Even though the Intelligeat wasn’t linear like other attributes, his mind operated at airely different level.

  Thanks to this, he fihe book in no time. Rising from the couch with new insights on how to bine magid aura, he pced the book oable aered his training room, ready for an intense session aimed at growing stronger.

  Just as he was about to begin his session, he remembered Kiara, Amelia, and Lyra. He made a strange face for a moment, thinking, ‘The three women I’m c all have hat end in a...’ He shrugged, not really ed about it. ‘It’s just a ce.’

  He the a message to Kiara through the Records, letting her know that he might be a little te for their weekly ‘date.’ Afterward, he pulled out his iPhone, where he had Amelia and Lyra in his tacts, ahem both a message. He informed them that he would be in his dorm for a while, training and w on iing mana into his fighting style.

  With these matters settled, his mind cleared, and he focused entirely on his training. ‘First, let’s work on upgrading my movement teique. Right now, it’s basically just running, which leaves a lot of room for improvement. My attack power is solid thanks to Bde Tempest, but my movement speed is still mediocre. If I face a strong enemy, like the assassi by Wernon, I won’t have a reliable way to escape. It’ll iably turn into a kill-or-be-killed situation.’

  ‘Teically, I do have an escape optiora by the Records, which lets me leave this world entirely. But it requires me to remain immobile for five minutes. In a real fight, five seds be fatal, so five minutes? Fet it.

  ‘Yeah, this is a problem I o fix. I have ahough—it’s not perfect, but it should work for now. The pn is to use fire magider my feet to create small explosions and use the momentum to drastically increase my movement speed. I refi ter, but this is a good starting point.’

  With the idea in mind, he began his training. Summoning his mana, he focused on fire mana and made small fmes appear before him, feeling the warmth envelop his body. It didn’t take long to realize something crucial: he wasn’t immuo his owhat was bad, especially sidering his new movement teique was essentially creating explosions under his feet…

  trolling the small fmes, he directed them toward his feet but stopped mid-motion. He suddenly remembered he still had his shoes on. Creating explosions while wearing shoes wasn’t the smartest idea—they’d take damage. Sure, his uniform had self-repairing entments, but it wasn’t invincible. Enough damage would rehe clothing useless. With a sigh, he removed his shoes, ready to proceed.

  He then positiohe small fmes near his feet, but feeling the heat, he quickly surrounded his body with his aura cloak. However, he soon realized that while the aura cloak protected him from burns, it also prevehe fmes from making the required tact with his body to be effective.

  He pohe issue for a moment before adjusting the properties of his aura cloak. He modified it to allow mana imbued with his unique signature to pass harmlessly through the cloak without causing damage.

  Both mana and aura carry an energy signature uo their user, much like a fingerprint. By adjusting the properties of his aura cloak, he ehat he could still be from its enhas while allowing his own mana to i directly with his body. Unfortunately, he wasn’t pletely immuo his own mana. While his body had some degree of resista wasn’t enough to fully protect him, meaning he would still feel some damage from creating explosioh his feet.

  With this adjustment plete, he pced small fmes under each foot. The burniion was immediate, but he ig and ahe fmes to implode while positioning his feet.

  “Boom.”

  A small explosion echoed through the room as he ropelled a meter into the air and slightly forward before nding ba the ground.

  Notig that the test artially successful, he gained more fiden his approad pressed on.

  This time, he eled fire-attributed mana through his body, direg it under his feet. “Boom.”

  Another explosio him fain, but now he had slightly better trol over his movements and the strength of the bst, allowing him to aim more accurately.

  He tinued his trials, repeating the process several times. However, as he persisted, the burning pain in his feet increased, and his soles turned a vivid red. Realizing he couldn’t sustain this without causing harm, he paused to brainstorm a solution.

  After some trial and error, he finally found a way to mitigate the damage. By coating his feet with a yer of fire-attributed mana before creating the explosion, he mao protect them from direct tact with the bst. This method preserved the momentum geed by the explosions while signifitly redug the damage to his feet.

  Although the process was plex—requiring him to simultaneously create a protective mana film and trigger an explosion in the same spot—his exceptional trol, high intelligeat of 500, and mage talent allowed him to make rapid progress. It wasn’t long before he could sistently produce explosions under his feet while keeping them shielded from harm.

  Unsatisfied with just this initial success, he tio train, gradually refining his teique and increasing his speed.

  “Boom. Boom. Boom.”

  Explosions reverberated through the room as he zipped around like a blur. Each time his feet touched the ground, small detonations propelled him forward, drastically enhang his movement speed.

  “Boom!”

  A slightly overpowered explosion caused him to lose his bance, sending him stumbling into a nearby wall.

  “Argh,” he groaned, gripping his head in pain as he pushed himself back up. Without hesitation, he resumed his training, determio master the teique.

  Time passed as he trained, pletely immersed in his efforts, fetting everything else and even skipping his csses. He used his bracelet to check his student schedule and firmed that he didn’t have another exam until a month after the dungeon exploration with Amelia. With this reassurance, he focused entirely on his training, ing to attend any csses.

  ***

  Mikael moved quickly around the room, small explosions sounding from beh his feet. Using these bursts, he accelerated and began to move across the room, not only on the ground but also running up the walls and making small jumps off the ceiling.

  “Boom, boom, boom.”

  The explosions echoed for some time before he stopped a himself fall to the ground, a happy smile on his face.

  He checked the time on his bracelet and was surprised. ‘Damn, it’s been just over aire day since I started training? I didn’t even notice time passing. What’s really overpowered, though, is that in one day I created a eique. The increased INT stat and my new mage talent w together are truly ridiculous.’

  He fell onto his back with a tent smile, then raised his hand as if to touch the ceiling while thinking, ‘I should be able to evolve my footwork skill nht?’