Nick already had four space path spells that he was familiar with which were intermediate apprentice grade spells that adjusted their power based on his rank and they included: Blink, Half A Kilometer, Rumbling Pillar and Clear Space.
Nick spent the next two hours finding three additional space path spells that he would use when he was in public and they were rank 2 intermediate grade spells, namely: Exchange Space, Expand Space and Reverse Space.
Exchange Space allowed Nick to switch his location with an object or a living being that was within ten meters of him, however the heavier the target and the more magic that was imbued into the target, the greater the magic energy that was required to use this spell.
Expand Space was able to temporarily alter the space around him within a ten meter radius by doubling the distance needed to traverse a certain length of space (distance) before the spell was activated. This spell cost 1,000 magical units per activation and only lasted 30 seconds, its downside being that he was also affected by the spell.
Reverse Space allowed Nick to reverse the direction that an object or person was facing within five meters of himself. This spell required 1,500 magical units per activation but would fail if its target was in anyway physically in contact or connected to Nick.
(These spells seem pretty cool but they don't have the effect of causing damage directly which doesn't surprise me. No one in their right mind would just hand out combat space path spells so easily and Andre mentioned that the methods in this inheritance were easily obtainable by the people within his realm. It seems that Rumbling Pillar is the only spell in this inheritance that does direct damage but that is enough for now.)
Space path was no doubt powerful and versatile but spells and methods related to this path were not freely available and were usually only accessible through large organizations and clans despite the rarity of individuals who had a high affinity for space path on Grand Earth.
Nick decided that he would practice his space path spells everyday to get accustomed to them in addition to working on Copy and so cultivating his soul would have to wait.
Nick remained at his desk for the rest of the day working on Copy and when it became night time he spent about two hours practising his space path spells before doing two hours of meditation. After which he went to bed exhausted. Nick did this everyday up to the morning that his new school year began.
.............
"My name is Thompson Varrow and I'm sure that most of you would have met or heard about me in your first year..."
Nick stood in the crowd of students as Thompson Varrow, one of Richter Order Academy's combat specialists introduced himself. He was a tall, burly man who was a Regular Magician; Nick had seen him in action once during his first combat class and was impressed with how he easily 'broke' a student's spell. Nick looked around and spotted Marcia standing at the far left end of the crowd, paying rapt attention to Varrow's words.
(She came after all. I've got to say, having someone do what I tell them so easily feels sort of weird, like I should be suspicious about it.)
Slade commented:
[If you weren't suspicious, I'd consider you an idiot. At the very least that woman clearly wants to have some association with you, so she is putting in the effort. Just make sure that she does not become close enough to you to do us harm and you can make as much use of her as you want.]
(Sigh, that was the plan.)
Nick did not like the thought of just using someone but he was not naive and knew that making use of other people's efforts was necessary in some aspects of life which he was still inexperienced with so his goal in interacting with Marcia was to gain some experience in that regard.
(It's not like she's not getting anything out of it, she'll definitely benefit from discussing about magic with me .)
Nick stopped looking around and paid attention to what Varrow was saying.
"...I don't want to waste any time so just pick a partner and begin sparring with each other so that I can get an idea of where each of you are at in terms of fighting proficiency."
Nick nodded his head in understanding.
(Clearly, teaching random stuff to Magicians who have different temperaments, powers and potential would be a waste of time so he is trying to use a targeted approach, learning what our individual potential is so that he can teach accordingly.)
Nick walked through the crowd and made himself known to Marcia.
"Are you ready to spar, Marcia?"
"Oh, hey Nick, I still think that you would benefit more from sparring with someone else that is stronger."
Nick raised his right eyebrow and said:
"Even so, won't you benefit from sparring with me If I am stronger than you so what's the use in turning me down? You said that you wanted to be a decent Magician, right? Well, being a Magician will probably involve a lot of fighting so we should just put in the effort and not think too much about anything else."
Marcia felt that Nick was right but she was not particularly confident in her combat capabilities because during the last end of year exam, most of her wary dog kills came from the efforts of her team-mates and she rarely fought by herself. Although she wanted to get stronger, she did not want to embarrass herself. Nick looked at Marcia's hesitation and visibly sighed.
"Fine, if you don't want to spar, I'll find someone else with some guts."
Nick turned around curtly and pretended as if he was leaving to find a sparring partner. Marcia bit her lip and then said with her voice slightly raised:
"I have guts."
Nick turned around immediately and replied:
"Then stop wasting time and let's spar already. Show me those fire spells of yours."
Marcia nodded her head and moved towards an area at a decent distance from the other students; Nick followed her and eventually, they both stood five meters apart, facing each other. The other students noticed their situation as they were all slow in forming pairs to spar, wanting the others to reveal their methods first, so they turned to look at Nick and Marcia, hoping to see a good show.
The combat classes were held in a large, well maintained, grassy field located beside a gymnasium used for special training. The sun was high in the sky and shining brightly as flocks of birds flew above the academy campus. The students whispered among themselves to get a better understanding of the situation:
"Who are those two people?"
"I think I know. One of them is Marcia Dunn, I've seen her hanging around Don Bartholomew a few times. The other guy...I think his name is Nick Capitol, he placed ninth during the end of year exam."
"Really, that high, that probably means that he has some decent skills, right? This might be a good show."
...
The other students waited for Nick and Marcia to start their spar with slight expectations based on Nick's apparent rank.
Marcia spoke:
"It looks like you're famous."
Nick shook his head.
"More like infamous. I've heard people refer to me as a hermit more than once. Anyway, ignore the spectators and begin."
Marcia nodded and raised her hand, positioning it in front of her chest at which point she summoned a soccer ball sized fireball. She then bent her elbow and threw the fireball forward with relatively quick speed, the same speed as a baseball pitcher would use to throw a baseball.
Someone from the crowd spoke and because everyone was quietly watching the spar, they all heard him:
"That's the rank 2 Fire Pitch spell, since that Nick guy is so close to her, he'll no doubt get hit with it if he doesn't have a defensive spell or a good movement spell."
Everyone in the crowd silently agreed and watched on.
The fireball came quick but as soon as it reached within a meter of Nick it appeared to stall at that distance and then moved at a snail's pace.
(Half A Kilometer.)
Nick used his space path spell to separate himself and the fireball by 500 meters so from the perspective of everyone else, the fireball speared to have slowed its movement drastically. Nick nodded his head when seeing his spell's effectiveness.
(That fireball is just not quick enough. Half A Kilometer might not have been effective if Marcia had used a light path or a sound path spell but unfortunately, she didn't. My spell consumes 800 magical units per second so lets' see how long that fireball lasts.)
Nick stood in place and watched the spell slowly move towards him for six seconds while Marcia also watched with a frown on her face.
(Nick wasn't lying, he really does use space magic, how do I counter this exactly?)
While thinking of a counter, at the end of the six seconds, Marcia's spell fizzled out as the fireball shrunk to a spark and disappeared. Nick, still standing in his spot looked at Marcia tauntingly and said:
"You'll have to do better than that if you want to make it here."
The students at the side went into a small uproar when the saw the scene unfold.
"Nick Capitol uses space magic? Does anyone know what spell he used?"
"How would we know that? Everyone knows that a high space magic affinity is rare and no one bothers learning space spells because they are far more expensive than other types of magic spells. I don't even personally know one other person in our year who even uses space magic."
"Nick Capitol...If I'm remembering correctly, my family gave me a list of the new students at the start of the first year and I looked through it. Nick Capitol was definitely included in the section for people who had no magical background or private financial support. How did he get that spell?"
...
Nick ignored the chatter and waited for Marcia's next move. Marcia became nervous, although Nick's execution of his spell was simple and plain, it's effect that made her spell worthless gave her a significant psychological blow.
(I can't give up, even if he is strong, that doesn't mean that I can't hurt him.)
Marcia clapped her hands together and then drew them apart at a length of 0.8 meters, revealing a sword completely made of flames and then she grasped it and ran towards Nick. Nick stood firmly in his spot with his feet apart, ready to counter the approaching Marsha.
(Half A Kilometer is only effective against ranged attacks, did she deduce that or is her reaction to my spell just pure luck?)
Nick thought for a moment before deciding:
(It does not matter.)
Marcia arrived in front of Nick and slashed down with her flame sword.
(Why is he just waiting to be hit by my Flame Blade?...)
As she thought this, her sword slashed down hard, hitting the ground and leaving a two meter stretch of land charred black from the heat and impact of her attack but Nick was no where to be seen.
(Huh? Aren't I looking at the spot that I ran here from. Why am I facing it now, where is Nick?)
Nick stood a few inches behind Marcia after using his spell, Reverse Space, to change her facing position to the opposite of what it was supposed to be, causing her to completely miss the target of her strike, him.
Nick quickly placed his right index and middle finger on Marcia's lower back and cast his spell:
(Rumbling Pillar.)
Before she could turn around, Marcia felt a painful jolt at her lower back and unconsciously released her Flame Blade spell and fell to the ground in shock. She was now in so much pain that she could hardly move or speak so she lied in front of Nick's feet appearing to gasp for air.
Nick looked down while scratching the back of his head.
(Wasn't that a bit too easy? I made sure to use the minimum of 200 magical units to cast the spell and I only activated it for one second, how comes she seems so hurt?)
Slade spoke with an amused tone:
[This child is laughably weak in terms of her understanding and control of magic. If this is your academy's standards, then this place might as well be a breeding ground for cannon fodder.]
Nick did not reply to Slade because he would not be able to refute him based on Marcia's performance. Nick was about to help her up when the thought that he might of seriously hurt her popped into his mind so he called to Thompson Varrow who had been watching the spar from afar.
"Sir Varrow, can you do something for Marcia here, like some kind of healing, I don't know if my spell did any real damage to her bones?"
Varrow walked over quickly and stooped to examine Marcia who was on the ground but after a minute, he stood up and shook his head.
"There is nothing physically wrong with her except some pain, she's just in shock after you jolted her spinal chord. just let her lie here for a while, she'll be fine."
Nick nodded his head.
"That's good."
The other students watched the exchange, not knowing how to react to what they saw.
"What did he do that caused Marcia to be on the ground in such a pathetic state."
"I think that he poked her back."
"Does back poking count as magic?"
"Ha, ha. I guess on this occasion it does. That was a very lame match up, that Marcia has no chops."
"Are you sure, she scored within the top three hundred within our year? That Nick Capitol might just be too strong."
"Hmph, if I could use space magic, I'd be that strong too."
While the students were guessing on how Nick took Marcia down, Thompson Varrow spoke to Nick with a rare smile:
"You controlled your strength very nicely. You seem fairly capable in combat, why have I only seen you in one of my classes once before?"
Nick shrugged his shoulders and answered:
"I've been busy learning about magic, Sir Varrow. Combat training wasn't a priority in my first year."
Varrow asked:
"What about now?"
"I'm very interested to learn more about it, I especially would like to train with some kind of weapon because I don't have many attack methods to make use of."
Varrow nodded in understanding.
"In my experience, except for blood path and sword path, people with rare affinities always had problems getting a hold of good attack methods due to the spells being expensive or inaccessible to them so learning to use a weapon would be very useful to you. Stay after class and I will give you some advice if you'd like."
Nick replied without much of a change in his expression:
"That would be very much appreciated, Sir Varrow."
Varrow nodded his head and turned to the rest of the class, speaking harshly:
"You people have been staring for an awfully long time at other people's business, start forming pairs and begin sparring or get the hell out of my class!"
A reprimand from a Regular Magician was very intimidating for the youths and so they did as instructed and were soon focused on their own spars. Varrow stooped to look at Marcia again and whispered some words to her before going to observe the other students.
Nick stepped close to Marcia and asked:
"How long are you going to lie on the ground for?"
Marcia replied:
"Long enough for this embarrassment to go away."
Nick rolled his eyes at Marcia, she was clearly fine. He then turned his attention to the other students and tried to take note of the methods that they used. Nick saw many kinds of spells being used which included: lightning, fire, ice, metal, and light spells. Although there were all of these varieties, Nick had a general opinion of the student's combat abilities after watching twenty minutes worth of sparring.
(Their combat capabilities are so weak, how could this be? I hadn't started taking combat seriously until about three months ago and even I'm not this bad. What's going on?)
[Why are you surprised. From what I've observed, your society focuses on raising its children without the influence of magic so it shouldn't be surprising that their combat ability is so poor. They lack killer instincts that people in my world would get from hunting magic beasts and training their magic powers at a young age. You gained much experience from your exploration of that last realm so that explains the difference between you and them.]
(You're right.)
Nick watched from the sidelines for the rest of the class and waited until it was over and all the students including Marcia had left. Nick then took the initiative to speak with Thompson Varrow about combat training:
"You mentioned that you wanted to train with a weapon, young man, which is a whole different beast than practising magic alone. What kind of weapon are you interested in?"
Nick stood in his spot silently for a while, thinking about the times that he used knives during combat like they were swords and then he thought of his own affinity with blade magic and concluded that using some kind of sword was the right thing to do.
"I would like to train with the sword, Sir Varrow."