"Choose one of the undead incantations and try it." The principal commanded. Adam didn't hesitate. He'd been waiting for this.
The book was sleek and ordinary, not what you'd expect from a sinister element like "undead".
He scanned the table of contents for a defensive spell and found it. Bone Shield. Perfect.
He flipped to the page, dense with text, history, and spell variants.
At the top of it all stood the incantation.
Adam whispered the incantation, heart pounding… nothing. A twinge of frustration prickled his chest, fists clenching.
"Words alone aren't enough. You have to push your intention into them. To force the world to obey."
The principal's advice made something click in Adam's mind.
With renewed clarity, he tried again.
This time, he wasn't just saying the words. He was willing them.
In that moment, he felt a connection to the world, like he could feel the air near him as if it were his skin.
So he muttered.
"The dead rest, their bones forgotten." Something changed. He could feel a tug at his soul, like a thread being pulled from a yarn ball.
"By my will, rise once more," the drawn ether began to shape in a circle a meter in diameter in front of him.
"Become my shield." As his incantation concluded, the shield materialized - a ring of mismatched bones, a skull grinning at its center.
It hovered, waiting for an attack, and the principal obliged. BOOM...
The shield exploded into a hail of bone shards. For a moment, they hung suspended - pale and weightless - before unraveling into cold wisps of ether.
A flick of her wrist - the air cracked like thunder. The next thing Adam knew, the shield was dust, the echo of the impact still ringing in his bones.
"Not bad for a first cast. Try learning another spell until we wait for the next student to come."
Adam, mouth agape, didn't hesitate, but his mind was in turmoil. 'Another student?' The words stung. So it wasn't just him - not special after all. The spark in his chest flickered, then hardened into resolve.
The thought vanished as he buried himself in the next spell.
He was just able to memorize the chant as the elevator opened again, revealing a youth with familiar red eyes.
Stepping out of the elevator, Mark saluted with a slight bow. "Good morning principal."
"Were you able to imbue any spell?" This would determine Mark's talent and whether it was worth investing in him.
Seeing Adam, Mark's lips curled, wanting to brag about his talent.
"Two already. Gear Shield in my arm… Over-Ratio in my leg." Adam's grin widened, like he'd just pulled a rabbit from a hat.
He didn't mention the real reason - the hours spent tuning his prosthetics, or the passive that made it all easier. No point. Let him think it was raw talent.
Of course, the principal knew about these things; still, to be able to imbue two spells in one day was very impressive, and this clearly marked him as a talent.
'Good.' She thought, but the faint curl at her lip betrayed approval.
"Now you two spar." The best way to make talents grow has always been to make them face opponents similar in strength to them. And that was exactly what she had planned to do.
She'd meant to make them spar later, but two spells each? That changed things.
As for Adam, once you cast a successful chant, it just becomes a matter of text memorization.
Seeing how they were reluctant about it, she decided to hammer the last nail in the coffin.
"Don't hold back," Irene said, voice icy. "I'll step in if necessary."
Without the possibility to retort, they went into position, facing each other with about five meters of distance between them.
Adam flexed his fingers, the chill of ether clinging to his skin. His heart pounded - not from fear, but anticipation.
"Start." Her cold voice declared the start of their spar.
Adam stepped back and muttered the chant for bone shard volley.
A dozen bone splinters hovered, ready to shoot.
"Over-Ratio" Mark had spells of his own to make use of; his leg glowed faintly with a metal sheen, exploding into motion, propelling him forward.
Splinters streaked toward him. "Gear shield." The arm shortened, now barely reaching his elbow. Gears unfolded outward, locking into a spinning shield.
Mark dashed through the bone splinters with his shield, the shards cracked against metal, the sound like teeth scraping glass.
Arm snapping back, his leg swung at Adam.
Anticipating it, Adam already casted bone shield.
He took this opportunity to retreat. The kick was stopped, the cracked shield stood for a second before crumbling and fading into wisps of ether.
They circled, shields clashing, attacks blocked - a tense stalemate. Every failed strike tightened the knot of adrenaline in Adam's chest.
Adam ducked behind his shield as splinters streaked toward Mark. "Eve… any ideas?" he shouted in his mind over the clatter, hoping for a hint mid-battle.
The splinters arced toward Mark, slicing the air. Adam's pulse hammered in his ears.
Eve's teasing waited until the moment the dust settled.
"Never fought a day in my life, so no." Her voice piped, playful.
'Tsk, think Adam... Think.' A light bulb turned on inside his head.
The shield shattered. Vanished. 'Because I didn't will the bones to stay!' Adam muttered, reforming it with renewed focus - success! A grin cracked across his face.
His little test succeeded, draining him of ether to sustain the bones.
This left Irene pleasantly surprised. 'I see, not a one-trick pony after all.' The stunt Adam just pulled raised his value in Irene's eyes.
Adam's shields were cracking faster now. Every block meant more ether wasted. All Mark had to do was outlast him.
'Time to end this.' Adam's voice was calm - too calm, each word cutting through the tension like a blade. "Even broken, your will persists. Rise once more - I grant you a chance to fight."
The shards on the floor trembled, bone clicking against stone. Then, as if tugged by invisible strings, they lifted - dozens of them.
Mark's gears spun up. Too late. Two shards glanced off the metal, three shattered on impact - another sliced across his forearm, drawing a hiss of pain. His eyes widened. A trap.
Adam lifted his hand, the shards converging at his gesture. "It's over."
For a heartbeat, time held. Then a cold rush swept the room - frost blooming midair, weaving a net of ice that froze the shards in place.. The impact never came.
Mark froze, breath ragged. Across from him, Adam's expression hadn't changed - steady, calculating - but his hands trembled slightly from the ether drain.
"Enough." Irene's voice cracked through the air, colder than the barrier that bloomed in its wake.
She had intervened before blood could be drawn.
The barrier dissipated, bone splinters falling to the ground and dissipating.
Now, Adam and Mark were facing the principal.
"Mark." He froze like a child caught red-handed by his parents.
"You chose a good combination of spells. But you are not attentive enough to your environment. That's why you lost."
"Adam." Now it was Adam's turn to freeze. "Good spell combination. Great thinking. Impressive for a first fight. But don't get complacent. That's how people are killed."
She kept giving the two some advice and highlighted their mistakes.
"Mark. I don't have the qualifications to teach you. Go to the elevator. It will lead you to a more suitable teacher for you."
He gave Adam one last look, its meaning clear. "Sorry to leave you alone with her, but no can do." And darted away to the elevator.
"Any questions about spells?"
"Y-yes, why do the pieces of the bone shield disappear if I don't will them to remain?"
"They're gone because they completed what you told them to do. You wanted defense, not persistence." Adam nodded, having confirmed his theory.
"Do you have any more questions?"
"Y-yes... but they're not about spells."
"Ask away."
"When I first put on the watch, it said my ether flow is abnormal. Why is that?"
"Hmmm... Let me check." Irene put a hand on his head and closed her eyes. "Don't resist."
Adam felt like something was trying to intrude on his soul. His instincts told him to resist. Reason won over instinct, and he let it happen.
Irene's hand rested on his head. "Ah, your two manifestations are confusing it. Nothing dangerous, just… unusual."
"Oh! And I bumped into a strange man. He wasn't there one second, then he was. Like he'd stepped out of thin air. Could that be… an artifact?"
Irene's expression hardened. "Where?"