After getting the quest, the party headed toward the training ground to meet Amber, who was there to train Arad.
"Arad, are you ready?" She waved her hand, calling him in.
Aella looked at him, "We will wait here." She, Jack, and Lydia sat on the fence as Arad walked into the training ground.
When the adventurer there saw him walk in, they rushed out as fast as they could. "He's here!"
Arad stopped, looking at them, "What happened?"
"We will watch. This is going to be fun." One of the adventurers said, rushing to find his spot on the fence, "News about you fighting alongside Alcott and wrestling werewolves are hotter than your flames."
"Hurry, go bring some snacks!" An adventurer yelled.
"Am I some kind of show?" Arad sighed, approaching Amber. "You are getting a decent fan base. You put shame on us higher adventurers for being so lackluster." Amber sighed.
"Adventuring isn't about how strong you are. It's about how reliable you are. I bet I don't even match people in my rank in reliability." Arad replied, cracking his neck.
"You're good with words for a kid." She smiled, "Did you buy any spell books, or will we use 0-tier?" Amber asked with a smile.
Arad reached under his coat, pulling out the spellbook he got from the dungeon. "Where did you pull that out?" Amber asked.
"Doesn't matter." He handed the tome to her, "I found it in a dungeon. Can you decipher some of the spells in it?"
At that moment, both Arad and Amber felt a sharp bloodlust that only remained for a moment. "What was that?" Arad looked at the crowd.
Amber looked around, "I know all the spells in the book. Sor now, can you give it to the guild?" She asked, "This book belongs to a sorcerer named Jeremy who disappeared in the dungeon you escaped."
Arad sighed, "Fine, I don't need a spellbook anyway." He waved his hands.
"That isn't true. You can learn a spell or two without a spellbook, but once you start having tens of spells, it becomes a necessity." She explained.
"Then I will buy an empty one later. You will teach me the spells here, right?" Arad stared at her.
Amber took the book from his hand and walked toward her bag at the edge of the training ground. From it, she pulled her spell book. "Nina!" She shouted.
"What?" Nina rushed toward her, "This is Jeremy's spell book, you know what to do with it." Amber said.
Nina nodded, taking the book into the guild.
As Nina walked across the hallway, a shadowy figure appeared behind her, swinging a blade at her face.
GRWA! In the blink of an eye, Nina opened her mouth and put the blade in half.
The attacker stared at his sword, shocked.
"Care you tell me what are you doing?" Nina said, blood dripping from her lips. With each step, her muscles bulged, and her voice got deeper.
"I want the last page of that book before it reaches inspection." The attacker took his hood staring at Nina, "It's you!" Nina looked surprised for a moment, switching to her regular smile.
"Yes, I can't let that page leak out." The woman attacking her replied.
Nina opened the book, looking at the last page. "Oh! My, this is troublesome, but you can have it." Nina tore the page, giving it to the woman.
"You accepted faster than I thought." The woman's said.
"The mistakes of a single person shouldn't carry to his whole family. Let his deeds get buried with him." Nina said, turning around to leave.
"Wait, just what are you?" The woman asked.
"Me?" Nina looked at her with a smile, "A retired barbarian working as a receptionist, nothing more." Nina then left, and the woman disappeared after collecting the shards of her broken blade. On them, she noticed the marks of Nina's teeth stamped on the steel.
"Monster." She looked into the darkness.
In the training ground, Amber stretched her arms.
"Let's start with [Bonfire], the only 0-tier spell in the book that you don't know." Amber smiled, pointing her staff at a piece of wood.
"Most of the fire spells are known to create flame at your skin. And then flung it forward." She fired a [Firebolt]
"Is this different," Arad asked while staring at her hand.
"It is one of the few spells that can ignite things remotely." Amber pointed at the piece of wood, again, [Bonfire] And it ignited.
"Can I set people's clothes ablaze?" Arad asked.
"Depends on the target and their magic density. You might be able to ignite a fighter of lower level than you, but forget about wizards and sorcerers." Amber smiled, "This spell is mostly used as a distraction and against carriages."
Arad looked at his hand, [Bonefire] the wood ignited again.
"Nicely done." Amber smiled, "Now, let's go for the 1-tier spells. And let's see if you can learn them."
With a grin, she opened her hand and asked Arad to move away, "This is my specialty."
[Flamecloak] VA-VOOM Her body burst into flames from head to toe, creating a towering pillar of fire reaching the sky at the initial ignition. "We mages hate getting in close combat. This spell is designed so we can get some space." She smiled.
"No one wants a hug from a blazing fireball." Arad said, closing his eyes, "So it's just like firefist and firekick, but I need to cover my whole body."
[Flamecloak] VA-VOOM But at that moment, Arad felt his boy slowly getting weaker. PUFF! "What was that?"
"The spell was consuming your mana. You have to keep that in mind when using spells from the 1-tier or higher. Flame cloak cost 2MP per second." She explained.
"How much damage does it do?" Arad asked, looking at his hands. "This might be a strong spell if I paired it with firekick and firefist."
"The damage is decent, from 2~24 at the first level and refinement. At the third level and refinement, it will deal a whopping 18~72."
[Flamecloak][Level 1][Refinement 1][2MP/second]: 2~24/second.
[Flamecloak][Level 1][Refinement 2][2MP/second]: 4~24/second.
[Flamecloak][Level 1][Refinement 3][2MP/second]: 6~24/second.
[Flamecloak][Level 2][Refinement 1][2MP/second]: 4~48/second.
[Flamecloak][Level 2][Refinement 2][2MP/second]: 8~48/second.
[Flamecloak][Level 2][Refinement 3][2MP/second]: 12~48/second.
[Flamecloak][Level 3][Refinement 1][2MP/second]: 6~72/second.
[Flamecloak][Level 3][Refinement 2][2MP/second]: 12~72/second.
[Flamecloak][Level 3][Refinement 3][2MP/second]: 18~72/second.
"So the mana consumption doesn't increase?"
"Of course, it won't. Spell levels and refinements are your mastery over the magic. The magic won't cost more when it becomes more efficient." Amber replied with a serious face.
Arad smiled, grabbing his staff, "I understand. I better use the best I can all the time."
Amber nodded, "That's it. You will be wasting damage otherwise." She then looked toward the adventurers. "Can someone of you brink us two dummies?"
Hearing her, "Two adventurers rushed into the guild."
"Why dummies?" Arad asked.
"It's better to use a target for the next one. It has a strange side effect." Amber replied.
After waiting a bit, the dummies were ready.
Amber pointed her staff at one of them, [Flamethrower] VA-VOM! A gust of flame escaped her hand, blasting the target with something akin to a water stream. But from fire.
After just a few moments, the flames started splashing around, "When the fire burns a hole in the target, it starts splashing around, so be careful to not hit your allies." With a gentle move, she waved her hand and stopped the spell.
Arad opened his palm and pointed at his target, "I will need to explain the spell beforehand, so..." Amber was about to start explaining when a gust of fire exploded from Arad's hand, scorching the target.
"I can use it. Just firefist but with stronger flames." Arad said with a passive face