Overlapping layers of thick, leafy branches stretching from trees tall and short, young and old, canopied overhead. The boughs knitted together a second sky that obstructed all light of the night above an aligned group of uniformed individuals.

  Vesper Reign forest had gotten its name from its ever-shadowed state, according to Maira. Also according to her, the forest apparently was a realm overflowing with mana and spirit. Alira wouldn’t know that with her Lower Bronze Mana Affinity, the lowest qualified ranking, only barely better than Null.

  She stared down the dark green abyss deeper in the forest, away from the lighted area where she stood. Spirit, maybe. It looked home to dozens of ghosts—souls lost to the trees and bodies quietly devoured by their roots. She would hate to be here alone without any handy-dandy light butterflies brightening the surroundings. The golden, fluttering light sources were working overtime to make it look more magical and less haunted.

  Spirit Familiars. They worked like an equitable buff for mages, giving Blessings that granted temporary boosts to push the mage past their bottlenecks.

  Alira would get herself one to help with her good-for-nothing mana affinity if she wasn’t the type to get attached to pets very easily. After all, unlike equipment in games, Spirit Familiars were living beings with emotions, intelligence, and purpose. Not to mention most of them took the forms of adorable little creatures. It’d break her heart when she had to leave them behind.

  She didn’t really need to become stronger anyway, not when she was practically immortal. Alia reached out her hand towards one of the butterflies swimming across the air in front of her.

  So pretty.

  “Miss Ravon, pay attention or leave.”

  A clear, silvery voice with undoubtable boyishness, one that did nothing to undermine the owner’s authority, called out.

  “Yes, Professor Sigor.” Alira retracted her hand at light speed and bent her head toward the voice. “My apologies.”

  She met the eyes—well, the direction—of the professor, a young boy with old-man-white hair and pointy ears. His eyes hid behind a blindfold that matched the flowy, navy-blue scarf wrapped around his neck. Even with the fabric in the way, Alira felt his gaze heavy on her. The professor was young in appearance, around twelve-ish in human standard, and he was young for an Elf, his age rumored to not have yet become three-digit long.

  Alira steeled herself to actually listen to today’s practical magic lecture despite her utter disinterest. Professor Sigor was the opposite in every way of the magic theoretical professor—he said nothing except the main points he had to deliver.

  She needed to look like she was paying attention until the end of the class. Today was the day. She had lives to save and an artifact to snatch. At the corner of her eyes, she could see Raine doing a much better job at being an attentive student than she was.

  Today was their first practical lecture, which they would have once per week. This week was for magic. Next would be alchemy, and the week after that would return to magic, continuing in that pattern until the end of year one. This forest was where the magic practical test and the event would take place in the next practical session, two weeks from now.

  The plan was to stop it before it had the chance to happen. The forest was completely off-limits to students outside class time. That meant this was her only chance. She had one shot—right after class.

  Unfortunately, it meant she had to survive the class first.

  “Alright, sit down, touch grass, connect with nature,” Professor Sigor said. “I want you to figure out your first element before today’s class ends. All I ask for is one small clue. Figure out what’s most compatible with you. Give heed to your calling. If you can’t do that here in this mana-drowned forest, I recommend you drop out and not take up space in my next class.”

  Alira sat down with a plop, feeling damp grass under her skirt. Like the majority here, she had performed zero magic unless literally transmigrating into a different world counted.

  Of course, there were geniuses. Maria and Raine were two special cookies in the class, having already determined their first elements—spatial and water, respectively. That meant they had already formed their first circle and passed rank ten.

  Compared to those ranked a big, fat zero like Alira, they were the sky. But if they stood next to actual mages—the duke, for one, who was at least rank two hundred something—they were just pupae still learning to weave their cocoons.

  “Raine, Maria, and Frostil. Come forward,” Professor Sigor said. He gestured for the three to sit on the ground with their back facing him.

  Alira glanced to see the third person special enough to be called along with the protagonist: a white-eyed elf. Since their name hadn’t shown up in the novel, they were probably not an important character—just another student who would have died in this very forest if the plot remained unchanged.

  “I’m not sitting on the ground,” Frostil said as Raine and Maria took a seat on the ground.

  “Suit yourself,” Professor Sigor replied. “You can stand the entire time and do your best to focus.”

  No doubt all three were about to get some special treatment. A glare, what felt like one beneath the blindfold, from the professor turned curious glances away.

  “Everyone else, eyes shut at once. Focus on the mana around. Feel it. Shape it. It’s easy enough that even a pupa can do it.”

  Alira reluctantly closed her eyes. Professor Sigor wasn’t exactly the best at telling how exactly they were supposed to do this magic thing. She tried to sense whatever this mana was, and it felt like trying to hold mist. She only had the slightest gist it was there when she concentrated, and only because she’d been told it was.

  There was something unusual in the air. A crisp freshness. A certain feeling. Similar to the one she’d felt not on her skin but deep in her soul on those trips to rural areas, to her father’s hometown village, she used to have annually. Trips that became rarer as she grew older. Even rarer when her older brother left to study abroad, and she began spending her free days working part-time.

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  Something refreshingly cool one moment, sticky-hot the next. It was more than just the environment. It was a sense of being. Though it could also just be the placebo effect or her mind playing tricks on her.

  How do you shape what might not even be there?

  Alira blamed her terrible mana affinity. The damned goddess wanted her to save the world and proceeded to equip her with a wooden sword.

  Squeezing her eyes tighter, she tried to look like she was at least doing something. Feel it. Shape it. It seemed she wasn’t as good as a pupa. Magic sucks.

  Her messed-up attention span added to her struggle. She forcefully summoned the last drops of her concentration, imagining all the unseeable mana flowing into her like liquid gold—liquid gold she could sell to fulfil one of her lifelong dreams of being rich enough to be someone’s sugar mommy.

  Just then, a sharp sting shot through her heart as slithering phantom stream seeped into her being. Pressure mounted on her. It was almost hard to inhale. There was air, but she couldn’t draw it into her lungs.

  Hmph—.

  Alira coughed, trying to expel whatever was blocking her windpipe. Except coughing only made it rush in, like it had found an entrance. What kind of element was this? Certainly not water, despite feeling ‘liquidy’. This wasn’t the relaxing, cooling sensation Raine had described.

  She could feel it but couldn't tell what the element actually was. It was like a shapeless blob, bouncing from one hand to another, a gooey chunk of slime but way heavier.

  Describe. Right. I have an aspect that’s literally all about describing things.

  Alira had never used Narrate on herself before. Somehow it had never occurred to her that she, like everyone else here, was just a character in a Scene that could be narrated. She used Narrate, and the runes showed up in her mind just when she was about to open her eyes.

  [ Sweat drips off Alira Ravon’s tensed brows despite the forest’s cool breath. What felt like a formless weighted blanket buries her beneath it. Thick. Heavy. She’s sinking into its sluggish heat. In her struggle, she fails to register the sudden brightness even as the glow burns into her eyelids. The overwhelming warmth, one just barely bearable, slides off her skin, smooth like living, breathing silk. ]

  Heavy, bright, and smooth. Then something snapped.

  Her eyes flicked open without her meaning to do so. The Judgement scroll unfolded before her without her request.

  ※ You have reached a deeper understanding of Staywes. ※

  Professor Sigor stood directly in her line of sight; seemingly just standing behind the three students who all had their eyes shut.

  He spared a glance in Alira’s way, nodding in confirmation.

  That...was alright? She had a vague clue what her element was, but she didn’t actually know what it was. She noticed a few other students who had their eyes open. Did they manage to form a connection with their first element? Did they know what it was exactly or were they lost just like her?

  [This Mage of Staywes asks for Judgement,] Alira whispered so as not to distract other students who were still trying. A silver scroll emerged to unroll before her.

  ※

  Character Name [Alira Ravon]

  Mage Ranking [2]

  Mana Affinity [Lower Bronze]

  Elements []

  ※

  She had risen two rankings, but everything else remained the same. Still no circle formed. She had barely managed to touch an element, whichever it was. She was slightly curious, but it didn’t matter.

  All was well as long as she didn’t get kicked out of the class early.

  As time went on in looming silence from students still struggling, the class approached its end. Alira finally began to feel the nerves creeping in.

  The first plot point of the novel was marked by one of the smaller branches of Mother Cult, cultists who called themselves the Retrievers, infiltrating the Academy with the objective to find the artifact—Two Soul. The very artifact that was the spine of the novel, Dual POV, after Raine managed to snatch it right out of their paws.

  The artifact was split into two: Hollowed Mirror and Shattered Fragments. The former was Raine’s half in the novel; the one he found right here in this forest.

  To obtain it, the Retrievers had set up a Lock: a type of spatial magic spell that sealed a region inside a separated domain that couldn’t be entered or broken from the outside. To break out of a Lock, the people within had to either have a higher ranking than the caster and overpowered the spell, or they must kill the mage to directly shatter their spell. Or the spell could be sabotaged before it kicked off.

  The spell was timed to activate during the test, when the professor would be observing from a distance. So there should be no real danger in what Alira and Raine were about to do. Just scrap the setup and grab the artifact from where she already knew it was.

  Still, it made her twitchy and fidgety, nonetheless. Like taking a final she couldn’t have been more prepared for. The task itself gave her cold feet more than the difficulty, not to mention the slight possibility of her or anyone else messing things up.

  A firm clap snapped Alira out of spiraling thoughts.

  “Time’s up. Johan. Adel. Amel. Rosaf. I’ll show you mercy and spare you from immediate fail since Flutter and Butter asked for it—say thanks to them. Keep trying,” Professor Sigor said. Then, noticing the confused who the heck are Flutter and Butter looks, he pointed at two specific butterflies scattered across, completely identical to literally any others.

  “Everyone else who passed, keep working to figure out what your elements are. The next practical class will be your first test. A minor one, but it counts towards your grades. Fail it, and farewell to your short-lived Academy life.”

  A wave of sharp gasps and suppressed groans filled the air. Alira began to understand the shockingly low graduation rate of the Academy. She had been here waiting for the Professor to evaluate and inform her which element she had a connection with—only to be told to figure it out herself, plus a test next session.

  If she didn’t already know about the test, she would have reacted the same as everyone else. This was literally their first week of study. Understandably, no one wanted to hear about a test already.

  Professor Sigor led the crowd out of the forest with little remorse for the stress he’d graced them with. Alira could worry about the test later. As they approached the edge of the forest, she turned toward Raine, who was already looking in her way.

  With a subtle nod to him, Alira approached Professor Sigor.

  “Sir, I think I left my book behind. Can I go pick it up? It’s the first gift from my father—”

  “Sure,” Professor Sigor agreed before she could finish. “If you don’t mind getting lost and spending the night here.”

  Raine stepped forward timely to join the two of them at the front. “How about I go with her, Sir? I want to absorb more mana, so the extra few minutes here will help. I have an artifact that can illuminate the way.”

  Professor Sigor tilted his head to the side, a swarm of butterflies gathering around him. He nodded, unknown whether to himself, to Raine, or to the butterflies.

  “Go.”

  Alira exchanged suspicious glances with Raine at how easily the professor obliged. Raine gave a subtle shrug before taking out his artifact: a necklace with a golden firefly-shaped locket. Pushing at its head spread the thin wings apart to reveal a blue gem. The gem cast a bluish glow bright enough to see a few steps ahead.

  This was the artifact that could light even in places where light itself was forbidden.

  Raine wrapped the necklace around his hand and pointed it forward, using the artifact like a small flashlight. With a dismissive wave from the professor, the two of them split from the group to retrace their steps to the clearing where the class had just taken place. From there, Alira’s destination was the hidden burrow somewhere to the east.

  She watched Raine’s sturdy, broad back ahead of her, her eyes narrowed in deep thought. The burrow was hers to explore. Meanwhile, she wanted to send Raine off to the spell site so that he could deal with it.

  Between the two of them, Raine was obviously the one who should figure out how to handle the Lock—genius first-circle mage and all. And, Alira was just a clueless little thing with zero experience in magic, let alone how to cancel a spell.

  Leave the artifact to me... I promise to take good care of you and groom you into the strongest alchemist in history.