It was hard to concentrate when people were around.

  Quill had already tried earlier to study below in the main hall, accompanying Haref and Rhena in their stupor, but the noise was too much to bear. He left earlier and excused himself.

  He shifted over the bed, sitting with legs crossed and arms relaxed by his side. In the darkness of his own room, there was nothing but the passing of the cool air and the gentle breeze, accompanied by the crickets.

  This was more in line with what he was used to.

  Quill picked a book he grabbed from the main hall earlier, the title ‘Simple Against Complex’ carved right onto the cover. He didn't really need it for what he was about to do, but it was better to reanchor his foundations than rely solely on his memories.

  He rolled through the pages, his eyes drifting into focus.

  The very basics of Mana Manipulation involved the propagation of an Aspect into the world. Different Aspects had different natures and properties, and to that extent, a mage must be able to pull that nature from the Aspect, applying it as an effect.

  That was how all Simple Spells worked. Black Application was the ability to apply the property of Black onto any physical entity that you could touch with a hand. Black Reversal was the same, but it used the inverse property of Black instead.

  White Ball and White Sphere were the manifestations of ‘form’ for the White Aspect. In the same way Black Application and Reversal manifested the properties of decay, White Ball and White Sphere manifested the properties of creation through form.

  That was the difference between Simple Spells and Complex Spells.

  Simple Spells were just an extension of raw mana, while Complex Spells added more to the innate properties of raw mana. White Ball was a Simple Spell that used White Aspect’s innate property of creation, compared to the golden elf’s Fire Wisp, a spell that extended Red Aspect's innate property of destruction.

  Aside from this, you could always tell apart a Simple Spell from a Complex Spell by looking at the length and makeup of their commands and Scripts.

  Quill raised a hand, writing Scripts in the air before conjuring a White Ball above his palm. To create change and extend the use of the White Ball, turning a Simple Spell into a Complex Spell, he needed to apply and extend the creation property of White. This was the up and down process of trying and failing to create a Complex Spell.

  Quill clenched his palm around the White Ball, closing it tightly before he then willed it to deform into a shapeless object. The solid inside his fist melted, turning into a liquid stone substance, before he then commanded it to move and contort into a different shape. Instead of a ball, he willed it into a small rod.

  The liquid contorted around itself before flattening, extending out over two ends as if pulled by two opposing forces and forming into a vague representation of a stick. It then hardened back into shape, now retaining its solid form.

  Quill stared at the stick in his hand. If he were to be honest, it was nothing that he could have been proud of. The stick itself was deformed and bent, smaller in size on one end compared to the other. Still, it was one step closer to his goal of Golemancy, creating summons made entirely of White mana.

  The fact that the stick held its shape was a good sign.

  Quill sighed before he then dematerialized the stick. It was good progress, but he still needed to find a way to make solidified White flexible. It would take a while longer before he could actually bring life to these immaterial objects.

  He shelved the project for tonight. He still had something else he needed to do. He turned and wrote another set of Scripts, copying symbols from his Black Application Script and applying them to the White Aspect. Unlike his feverish goal of creating life, adding White Application and White Reversal to his arsenal were simple enough.

  Quill pressed against the air, subjecting the emptiness itself as the object to be affected by the properties of the White Aspect before he then pushed, allowing the nature of the White Aspect to affect it.

  At once, a warm heat lingered over his palm. What followed was a blinding light flashing in the air right in front of him, sweeping over the darkness and drowning his vision in endless white. Quill then paused the spell short, allowing his eyes time to recover.

  That was White Application applied to the air.

  The White Aspect holds creation’s heat and light. It was interesting how the property of White mana behaved when it was applied to the air. In the case of the Black Aspect, it only produced a smell in the air that Quill could only describe as spoiled milk and burnt wood.

  What if he tried White Application on a solid object? At once, Quill grabbed the closest thing he could find, a pillow, before he once again drew the Scripts for White Application. There was the same heat and light, but when his palm pressed against the pillow, it didn't seem to burn or do anything, no matter how heavy he pressed onto it.

  Quill nodded before he then turned to the Register in his index, applying a small amount of mana over the magic ring. A set of texts greeted him.

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  Quill then stared again at the pillow. He then applied a revised Script of Black Reversal using White Aspect, culminating in .

  At once, an overwhelming feeling of cold then lingered in his palm, creeping past his skin like severe frostbite before latching onto the surface of the pillow. As soon as it did, the pillow then dried and stiffened, as if the cold had frozen the object before it then crumbled to dust and shattered into ashes.

  From the name itself, Reversal was the opposite of Application. If the White Aspect holds the nature of creation, then the inverse of that would be destruction and non-existence. That was why the pillow had disintegrated into dust, projecting a property similar to Red Application.

  Quill noted his findings with a pen and paper. There were so few books on White mana here in Haref’s house, and so he had to save his thoughts for a later date when he could eventually go back to the library. He needed to compare and contrast his observations with actual books.

  Quill stretched a grin, staring at the texts right in front of him. His arsenal of spells was slowly growing with each day passing. It was still a long way to go, but now that he had learned the basics of White mana, he would have an easier time learning Complex Spells down the line.

  Quill frowned at the sight of his spells, the status condition following his Black Application and Reversal. As a mage grew in power and knowledge, the spells would also grow with him. This was a natural side effect of a stronger Core, allowing the maintenance of more complex spells, but the ‘locked’ status of his Black spells meant that they could only remain at their base level.

  Quill had a few theories as to why, but it was most probably because the Black mana didn't come from a Core by itself. It was only a byproduct of the crack on his White Core, something that evaded his understanding for the week he had been in this body.

  There should be a way to unlock the Black Aspect, but Quill was still lost on how to do so exactly.

  Quill turned to the door.

  “Wake up.” It was Rhena on the other side. “Food’s already waiting at the table.”

  Quill blinked before he turned to the window. He thought he’d only been staying up for an hour–but the Amber sun was already shining through the glass pane.

  “Don’t tell me he's still sleeping?” Rhena’s muted voice was only lost in the air while Quill stared at the pile of dust on the floor, the pillow now reduced to nothing but ashes. How would he explain this to Haref?

  Quill scooted over the bed, reaching down onto the pile before he then started a series of Scripts. One more experiment, and he would join them downstairs.

  “Seriously, what are you doing?” Another knock broke his train of thought. “I’m going to count up to three, and you better bewhen I open this door

  Quill stopped mid-cast. “I’m awake.”

  Quill cursed under his breath before opening the door, finding Rhena on the other side staring at him with those piercing white eyes of hers. She pulled an eyebrow, staring at the pile of dust inside the room, before she then shrugged and led him downstairs.

  Yereth and Haref sat by the table, the smell of bread, eggs, and strips of meat filling the morning air. Quill forgot that he hadn't even eaten anything since yesterday, and his mouth was already watering by the time he and Rhena arrived at their chairs.

  “Were you able to get enough sleep, young mage?” Haref hummed as he picked bacon from a plate.

  “I was… studying.” Quill picked everything else before dropping them to his plate. “I’ve learned Application and Reversal for my Aspect.“

  Haref coughed. “You just started yesterday on that.”

  “Yes.”

  Quill piled his plate with nothing but the meat and eggs, leaving the green vegetables for the others. He could stomach potatoes and carrots, but soggy greens were too much even for a lich. He dove right into the food, finishing in only a few moments before pouring himself some water.

  He then brought up the topic of the City Watch again. The rest of the morning was spent on the table, knocking out bad solutions and trying to come up with better courses of action, but Haref had already given him his answer before.

  He needed to go under the protection of the academy.

  Specifically, Quill needed the Circle to give him the resources required to appeal against his charges. To do that, he needed to pass the examinations to the academy, and even if he was a gray elf from Gren, he would be going to the academy under Haref's name. Once he was a Circle mage, the city would take his word seriously then.

  The City Watch had jurisdiction over the city and its people as a government body, but the academy had internal autonomy because it was an institution directly serving under the name of the Circle of Mages.

  The Circle was an organization entirely separate from the Westlands’ empires, one that rose to power because of the need for guilds and mages as a whole. The current system of magehood couldn't function without their magic academies, and that was all the more reason why Quill had to pass the exams to the academy.

  By borrowing the influence and name of the Circle, he–and by extension Yereth–would be given a chance at a fair trial if the City Watch were to continue pursuing him.

  In the end, Quill only needed to continue with what he’d already been trying to achieve for the past week. To grow in power and rise through the ranks, he had to swallow his pride for now and join the very organization that was hunting him down for centuries.

  Quill was going to become a Circle mage.

  “You look better now.” Quill turned to Yereth beside him. The bruises and wounds on her body were mostly gone now.

  “All thanks to me, of course.” Rhena stood up before picking up the leftovers on the table. “You’re not the only one–I’ve also been practicing for the upcoming exams.”

  Quill turned to Haref.

  “She didn't tell you?” Haref poured himself a glass of orange juice. “She's one of my apprentices, same as you.”

  Rhena shrugged through her wolf hair before she then started to the kitchen along with Yereth.

  “Oh right, I almost forgot.” Haref stood up before starting towards one of the bookshelves. He then pulled a book from the shelves before turning back to Quill, dropping it to his lap. “Here’s the one you were looking for.”

  “This will help, thank you.” Quill nodded before taking the book. There wasn't much on the topic of White magic in this household, but the next best thing was this book right in his hand. ‘On the Craft of Elemental Constructs.’ That was the title carved on the hardbound.

  With this, he could finally start making his first White Aspect Construct.

  Thanks for reading!