Observing the slowly moving wooden pieces, Auran made his way closer and gave a slight tap on the surface of the wood, pushing it forward with a tiny bit of force. The movement of the wood increased slightly, although it seemed only one-tenth of the force Auran had applied had managed to push it forward, increasing its speed by an extremely small amount. Even that speed was reduced further as the wooden piece approached the circle.
Auran moved his hand again and tried to increase the speed of the wood piece. He was extremely curious about the effect of the spell he had just cast. But by then, the floating magic circle had begun to dim, and within a minute, it slowly disappeared into the space. The transparent, flowing, water-like substance that had emerged from the circle also vanished in an instant.
Thunk!
After the magic circle disappeared, the wooden pieces fell to the ground and rolled away.
"It disappeared… what was the cause of this?"
Although he was the one who had drawn the circle and cast the spell, Auran still did not fully understand the complex knowledge behind what he had done. He had merely followed the guidance that had flowed into his mind.
Sitting back on the only thing he could sit on in his room—his bed—Auran calmed his restless mind and thought.
"Okay, let's understand this carefully."
Then he closed his eyes and tried to reach for the book he felt existed within his mind.
In his imagination, Auran saw the blue-covered book and flipped to the first page. As he did, he heard a voice in his head—the same one he remembered hearing when the book first attached itself to him.
[Detected: the owner has come into contact with the flow of time and used it to cast the first basic spell.]
[Attempt to access the First Book of Time has been detected. Because the owner has met the conditions, permission granted. Generating first page: The Basic Spells of Time.]
Auran's head filled with information—all the contents written on the first page of his mental notebook. They weren't the things he had read in the book before. Somehow, after being absorbed into his body, the book's contents had changed, with additional information now added. Now titled "First Basic Spell", the first page included exactly that: the most basic spell a time wizard could use. It was information Auran had learned from the notebook, and he hadn't known these spells were considered basic spells of a time magus until now.
Seeing the list of spells come into view, Auran felt overwhelmed.
The Path of Time... it's truly incredible.
Although there were only four spells listed, each one was remarkably effective—much like the delay spell he had cast before, which was one of these five basic spells.
After seeing the spells, Auran's curiosity and excitement reached its peak, and he soon turned to the second page see what more there is.
[Please excel in the first basic spell before accessing the second page.]
A sound reached his ears, and no matter how hard Auran tried, he was unable to turn past the first page.
"Seems I have to learn and master the basic spell to advance forward. Fair enough."
While getting comfortable above his bed, Auran prepared to read through the basic spells once again. He needed to learn them as quickly as possible so he could turn to the second page.
But before he closed his eyes, his gaze fell upon his room, which was still in the same messy state as yesterday.
"This won't do."
It had been acceptable for him to ignore the mess during the first few hours because of his mental struggle, but now that he had found a way forward—and perhaps because the pressure that had weighed on him the most had faded away—and with his head now clean, he felt uncomfortable leaving the room in such a disordered state any longer.
After that, he got up from his bed and started to clean up his room. The basic spells he had learned from other fields helped him a lot with this task.
He cast a spell from the air magic field, which caused objects with less weight to float slightly above the ground. Then he used
Phew!
At the end, when the room was clean, Auran stood in the center, looking satisfyingly at the refreshed atmosphere.
Then he went outside. It was morning, and all the other students who had comfortably slept through the night had woken up and were starting to head to their classes.
When Auran stepped out of his room, he had only one thought in his mind—to get his breakfast. With that mindset, he walked on, ignoring some of the students' ridiculing gazes.
"Look, it's the stagnant water."
"Isn't that the senior who's in his fourth year?"
"No, no, I heard it's his fifth year."
"How shameful. If he can't develop a theory, he should just drop out. He's a disgrace to our Malckoy family name."
Those words passed by Auran's ears like a flowing wind. If it had been him before discovering the new notebook, he would have felt deeply depressed hearing those remarks. But now, he had a clear path ahead, and he was confident that he could rise above those ridiculing gazes very soon.
After passing through the corridor, he arrived at the cafeteria and bought a meal for himself before returning to his room.
Most would eat their breakfast with friends in the cafeteria, but Auran didn't have anyone at the academy he was close to. Only a few, like Henry, could be considered his friends—but Aurun typically kept even them at arm's length.
After breakfast, it was usually time for lectures in the academy. Auran only occasionally attended these. After years of hearing the same lessons, he had memorized everything they had to offer, and he only attended because of the academy's rules.
But today, he had already decided not to attend any lectures.