Merlin sat on his bed in the ward, once again being calmed by Kim Minji’s humidifier as she rested her head on the frame of his bed, having dozed off.

  She had rushed into the ward teary-eyed, berating herself for not realizing that her friends were engaging in a battle for survival, and that Merlin had almost killed himself. As her self-imposed punishment, she was going to, apparently, spend every waking moment of her free time tending to him.

  Merlin loved the company, but he really hoped she would take a breather. She’d been coming to his ward for two days now, and he was slowly getting worried that she might just end up falling sick and having a bed of hers very soon.

  He sighed as he brushed off a strand of hair that fell over her eyes. She had been squirming and moaning, making known how uncomfortable she was, and he couldn’t just watch her. He then stood up from his bed and covered her with his bnket before heading to the window and gazing up at the moon hanging in the sky.

  The climax of the battle with Nikoi had seen Cohort Spearhead earning a combined hundred cohort points, with Merlin receiving fifty, and Chima and Hakyun receiving twenty-five each. Nora had earned twenty-five points for Dragon Eye as well, but it didn’t help close the gap between the two Cohorts now. Not like that mattered.

  Nikoi, on the other hand, had fifty points deducted from him for his actions; however, he won fifty back for having saved Merlin’s life, so Cohort Starveil neither suffered any setbacks nor success.

  The points had been assigned by Professor Jung as the headmaster was on leave to make sure Nikoi got the best treatment possible. And, of course, learn about all that had happened.

  As for the rest of them…

  Chima and Hakyun had been discharged from the ward already, allowed to head back to the dorm, and Nora was no different. Their injuries had been quickly resolved with the advanced magical technology the Academy possessed. Merlin, on the other hand, needed a bit more time for his mana to fully recover.

  It had come as a bit of a shock when Professor Jung had expined to him what exactly had happened. That his mana had been gravely injured. Such a thing had never happened in Singurity Mage to Kieran—well, how could it, when the protagonist was such a powerhouse—so Merlin hadn’t been expecting it to be a possibility.

  He leaned onto the frame of the window.

  My mana is basically me, huh? He pressed his lips together as his mind flew back to his findings when he had attuned to his mana a little bit a few days back. Well, if it’s me then it has an identity, doesn’t it? Merlin chuckled, trying to lighten his mood. But he knew well enough that the identity his mana was missing wasn’t something as simple as he was making it out to be.

  He had told Professor Jung about his findings with his mana when she had been expining how he had been brought back to life, and after being shocked that he had begun dabbling in mana attunement already—a second year’s course—she had told him that it was feasible that his findings were based on the possibility that the Hex of every Mage was the identity of their mana, like the name one was given at birth.

  Well, all besides the mana of Deficient Mages. They were born without enough mana to be able to attune with a Hex in the first pce; so basically, that meant their mana had no identity.

  However, the truth was that she didn’t know much about that. Deficient Mages were yet to be fully explored, and she had only made her theory based on what he had said.

  She had gone ahead to mention that if there were anyone in the world of Mages who could give him all the answers to his questions, they would be the Circle of Mages.

  Merlin had had no idea who they were, and Professor Jung had told him that they were simply like a board that oversaw the workings of the Mages in the world. Every single detail about Mages that was being used in the world now had been, and was being, signed off by them.

  Although, they had felt that researching Deficient Mages on the same level as the other Mages was a bit of a stretch, as all they had been met with countless times was the fact that Deficient Mages couldn’t live up to the other Mages. As a result, they pulled their finances from researching Deficient Mages, focusing them on more important things.

  Apparently, if they kept researching Deficient Mages, their findings would only keep hurting the Mages.

  Merlin honestly understood that line of thought, but, regardless, he thought that the Circle of Mages were rather shrewd. They had not done what they did because they cared about the Deficient Mages, it was solely because they wanted to make sure they spent as little as possible upon Mages that were rather useless to them.

  They were selfish liars.

  I wonder what they think of me? Surely, they must have heard about my anti-magic already… Merlin sighed, well aware that the answers he sought out about himself as a Deficient Mage would only be found in their presence.

  The fact that they hadn’t come for him yet scared him, though. He had been parochial at the start, focusing on only the Academy, but now he could see that there was a world out there that was far beyond him. The people who had given Nikoi the drug, the dy in bck, and even the Circle of Mages. It was all so tiring.

  But the one that took center stage in his mind was what he had found out when he had come into contact with Nikoi’s mana, just before they could be fully absorbed by his.

  Merlin’s hand pressed down onto the frame of the window as he recalled feeling a bit of what Nikoi had felt, living the boy’s experience, and the weight that his own brother had dropped on his shoulders.

  How could you do that to your own brother, Professor Dmitri?

  Merlin’s chest tightened as a wave of anger washed over him. But he took a deep breath and calmed himself quickly.

  He was well aware that he should probably report what Professor Dmitri had done to the headmaster, but the fact that Nikoi had chosen to keep it secret even while he was suffering bothered him.

  Nikoi strongly believed he owed everything he was to Professor Dmitri, despite how he had been treated, and, as such, didn’t want to ruin his brother’s life. Merlin was unsure if he had the right to do something even Nikoi didn’t want to do.

  It was not his pce to come between brothers.

  Which was why he decided to wait. He would convince Nikoi to expose his brother’s involvement instead—that was if he hadn’t already to the headmaster. After all, the headmaster had been with Nikoi for the past few days now, wherever they were.

  But if Merlin was being honest, it seriously pissed him off, Professor Dmitri and the existence of such a drug both. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how many other Mages were going through what Nikoi was going through and leaning towards that drug for some closure. It was something that needed to be taken off the streets. Thankfully, the records of Nikoi’s movements were all present in the Academy’s system. The headmaster would no doubt head to Club Spiral to confront them.

  However, Merlin had an inkling that things wouldn’t go too well.

  Tsk… Let’s focus on that which went well for now, then…

  He pulled up the System he had been avoiding for the past two days now, as a consequence of being constantly huddled by visitors as well as wanting to rest. Then he focused on his growth from Nikoi’s battle, and was met with some crazy good numbers. After all, he had basically died and come back to life.

  [All Progress increased by 100%]

  [Progress to leveling up Strength: 6.75%/100%] → [6.75%/100%]

  [Progress to leveling up Agility: 13%/100%] → [13%/100%]

  [Progress to leveling up Intelligence: 50%/100%] → [50%/100%]

  [Progress to leveling up Perception: 16%/100%] → [16%/100%]

  [Progress to leveling up Resilience: 84%/100%] → [84%/100%]

  [Free Attribute Points received: 0] → [200]

  [Strength has leveled up!][Agility has leveled up!][Intelligence has leveled up!][Perception has leveled up!][Resilience has leveled up!]

  [Strength Level 13 → Level 14][Agility Level 17 → Level 18][Intelligence Level 10 → Level 11][Perception Level 9 → Level 10][Resilience Level 27 → Level 28]

  Merlin almost ughed at the sight of the words and the spike in numbers. It was the first time all his Attributes had leveled up at the same time.

  Maybe he should die more often.

  He shook his head and assigned all his free attribute points to Intelligence…

  [Assigning...]

  [Successful]

  [+200 Attribute Points have been assigned to Intelligence]

  [Progress to leveling up Intelligence: 50%/100%] → [50%/100%]

  [Intelligence has leveled up!]

  [Intelligence Level 11 → Level 12]

  Satisfied with his gains, Merlin nodded his head. He could feel that he was a lot more powerful than he had been just a minute ago, and he realized that he had to keep up this pace of growth. After all, he now knew what he had to do to make sure he never had to almost watch one of those close to him almost die. And to take that step, he needed to get a lot stronger. Which was why he made up his mind.

  As soon as the first term came to an end, he was going to head into his first dungeon.