The instructor walked toward Aiden when he noticed a new face in the training hall.
"Greetings to you. I’m Morgan, the training instructor," he said warmly.
Morgan noticed that Aiden didn’t have a badge on his uniform, so he knew Aiden was an Academy mage and assumed he had come to practice creating his first spells.
Aiden, however, had been studying him from head to toe, scrutinizing his overall figure.
The instructor continued, "I guess you’re here to create your first spell. I can show—"
"Hold on," Aiden said, raising his index finger slightly. "I think you’re just the right fit. Sir instructor, permit me to practice a spell using you."
Morgan had a puzzled expression, wondering what Aiden was talking about, but he simply nodded, curious to see what the Academy mage meant.
One of the difficulties with transformation spells was that you could only change your appearance to match someone who had at least a similar height and body structure as the caster.
This made the spell situational, and additionally, it couldn’t be used to transform into animals or other creatures. Any transformation used to shift forms into other creatures had to be a form of Origin Magic.
Aiden took another look at the man, then when he was sure he had memorized his appearance correctly, he closed his eyes. He pictured the instructor in his mind and whispered, "Transform."
Just like that, Aiden’s form changed entirely to look like Morgan. The only difference between them now was that one "Morgan" wore the Ravens Grave uniform while the other was in his regular attire.
Morgan was taken aback. "Transformation?" he said, then looked at Aiden’s uniform again to make sure he hadn’t missed seeing a badge before asking, "Aren’t you an Academy mage? How do you know a spell this difficult?"
Aiden undid the spell and smiled. "Following the right instructions."
But transformation was a very hard supplementary spell, even for accomplished mages.
"Is this your first time?" Morgan asked, still surprised.
Aiden nodded, and Morgan looked at him again with a puzzled expression.
"That is absolutely genius," Morgan commended, then laughed and said, "That was rather daring, using me as your first example."
He added jokingly, "What if I go commit some bad act, then frame you and say you transformed into me?"
Morgan laughed some more.
Aiden smiled awkwardly, but then he noticed Morgan was wearing a ring on his ring finger, which meant he was married. The thought of a retort came to his mind: "And I can just as easily find and sleep with your wife using your face."
However, he didn’t voice what he was thinking. Instead, he smiled, and then a silly idea came to his mind. He asked the system with his thoughts: "System, if I sleep with this man’s wife, do I complete the permanent quest?"
A screen appeared in front of him that only he could see: [Technically, yes]
A devious smile appeared on Aiden’s face at that moment, considering the very possibility. Though he shook his head the next second as if letting the idea go, then said in his mind, "I still have some decency."
The instructor looked at him strangely, and Aiden immediately focused up.
Morgan then said to him, "I don’t think you need my help with anything if you can use transformation, so I’ll be going now."
"Wait, there’s one more," Aiden quickly replied.
Morgan, who was just about to turn away, stopped and said, "Alright, what’s this one?"
Aiden then stretched his hand toward Morgan’s shoulder, and the moment his palm came in contact with it, he whispered, "Immobilis."
Instantly, Morgan stopped moving; not even his eye sockets tilted the slightest bit.
This was another master-level spell where the user could stop an object or even a person by forcing their mana upon the target’s body. It worked through physical contact.
Aiden quickly undid the spell after confirming that it worked, but Morgan was looking pretty angry now.
"My apologies. I probably should have told you first," Aiden said.
Morgan said nothing for a few moments except stare at Aiden with an annoyed look, then he asked in a somber tone, "What is your name?"
"Aiden," he replied.
"And you’re new to the Academy?" Morgan asked.
"Yes," Aiden replied simply.
"Hmm..." Morgan muttered, before turning and walking away without saying anything else.
He was both annoyed and embarrassed, especially given that an Academy mage had just used a spell on him that he, as an instructor, couldn’t break out of. Thankfully, people hadn’t noticed. The instructor had been standing directly in front of Aiden, and given the corner where they both stood, anyone who had looked in their direction would only have seen the instructor’s back.
"Well, I would probably be mad too if someone did that to me," Aiden whispered to himself as he watched the instructor leave.
At this point, Aiden was certain the invisibility spell would work as well, so he didn’t bother trying it out.
The system notification appeared before him:
[Special Quest: Learn a supplementary spell → Complete]
[+5 Available Stats Points]
[You have gained +2000xp]
[Bonus Reward granted: +1000xp]
He smiled looking at the screen, knowing there was still one more quest to deal with—the Side Quest that required him to create two magic techniques.
The first idea that came to his head was a fireball, but that was already a copied spell. Moreover, he thought, "I think it’s a bit redundant retaining a fireball spell when I am originally a fire mage. I should have that removed too."
Then an idea came to him. "What if I make an even better fireball?" he said to himself.
He closed his eyes and stretched out his hand, then conjured flames into a ball that floated over his right palm. His eyes remained closed as he made sure to envision the spell properly.
Suddenly, the ball of flames expanded slightly with more mana being poured into it. Then it expanded again, and at this point, people had started paying attention to him.
One mage said to the girl beside him, "Is it just me, or did this place just get hotter?" He wiped his forehead to clean off the sweat.
The girl turned to him, sweating as well, and said, "It’s that boy’s magic."
The fire kept expanding, and when the instructor noticed how hot the room was getting with everyone sweating, he said nothing yet, wanting to see how far this intriguing mage could go.
The fire kept expanding, and now it was becoming dangerous for everyone around.
"What is this magic power?" someone said.
Then, right at that moment, the flame technique broke every logic.