The God of Magic: Archmage Academy (OP, LitRPG)

Testing day had finally arrived. With the exception of him and Mori, each of their exams would take place at the same time, which he found strange. Could the academy really spare so many teachers when they were needed to oversee the final exams of hundreds of other students? He supposed that wasn’t something he needed to worry about. He was only a student, after all. Mori’s test had already started. Milim, Samara, and Ilm would be starting soon. They’d all walked together, but they’d already dropped off Ilm and Samara at their testing rooms. Milim’s testing room was the furthest away from the dorm rooms, so naturally, she was the last he had to say goodbye to.

She paced nervously in front of a training room designed for third and fourth-year student combat classes. Milim’s test would admittedly be the most dangerous of the three. Professor Ladia’s mastery over illusion magic was extremely honed. If she got into Milim’s head without her realizing, then the test could end before it truly began. She would have to lay down defenses quickly and be vigilant. “It’s okay, Milim. You’re going to pass. I know it.”

Milim paused and turned to look at him. “But what if I don’t?”

Sen walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “You will.” She seemed more confident before. Were these last-minute nerves, or was something else going on? “Is everything okay? Are you just nervous?”

Milim bit her lip. “Orttha promised he would come wish me luck before my exam. I haven’t been able to stop by and see him since we’ve been training, but I didn’t think he’d just forget.” 

Sen frowned at that. “With everything going on, he might’ve had something come up. You’ve got this. After you pass, you can go tell him in person.”

“You’re right. Thank you, Sen.” She turned to look at the door behind her. “Well, I suppose I should get to it. Good luck on your exam too,” she said. She walked toward the door and took a deep breath before turning the knob.

“You’re going to do great, Milim,” Sen said, offering one last bit of encouragement before she entered. 

Sen had an hour before his test, so he thought he’d go check on Orttha. Despite his assurances, he found it hard to believe Orttha would simply forget to come check on a girl who was essentially an adopted daughter to him. Mori’s defenses would pick up on any potential invaders, so it was unlikely to be another invasion or anything like that. The explanation should be perfectly reasonable. But Sen was past the point of taking chances. He would lay eyes on the man and make sure everything was okay, just to be safe. After all, the old librarian had kept his secret and had proven himself a worthy ally in Harpis Castle. A simple check-in was the least Sen could do for him. 

He reached the library after a short stroll and found its doors open. A quick scan with his magic senses told him the library was empty. Most students were probably getting ready for their exam slot, or currently testing, and the fourth-years were all off training for their graduation duels later in the month. Of course, the scan should’ve revealed Orttha, at the very least. But he could be in the special library. Sen looked around, just to visually confirm no one was around, and then wrapped Encapsulation around himself. 

“Float Maxima!” He jumped to the second floor of the library in a single movement. The door to the special library was closed, of course. He’d have to knock and hope Orttha was inside if he wanted access. But what did surprise him was the book sitting there on the ground. 

Sen frowned. Even in the middle of an emergency in Harpis Castle, the old librarian had fussed at Dasai for mishandling books. There wasn’t any way he’d just leave a book on the ground. Sen walked up and picked it up. The book had a magical weight to it. He flipped it over and read the title. A book on gardening. That was…interesting. But everyone had their hobbies. 

At least he might think that if he couldn’t sense the power hidden within.

“Reveal Illusion Maxim.”

A sick feeling grew as his suspicion proved correct. It was the journal of hybrid stats. Orttha’s most prized possession. In other words, it was the last book he would ever leave sitting around on the library floor. If this were here, something had happened.

Something serious.

 He felt an odd sensation wash over him. Someone was watching him. He wasn’t sure how long they’d been watching, but he could sense their eyes on him now. Sen didn’t want to give away his suspicions, so he played along. He casually held the book in his arms and shook his head. He made a show of looking around for the books’ home. Sen chose a bookshelf at random and approached it, pretending to search for the spot it belonged. He brushed two other books to the side and slipped the book between them, discreetly opening a temporal portal in the back of the bookshelf. The book of hybrid stats fell inside. It was too valuable to leave out here for anyone to find. 

With that done, he pretended to take notice of another book and pulled it off the shelf. He pretended to read it aloud as he cast a series of spells. 

“Appearance Impasse. Silent Sphere. Maintain Externa. Invisibility Maxim.”

In an instant, he stepped out of the illusion he’d created. An illusory copy of himself stood there reading the book as invisibility masked his real body. The feeling that someone was watching him faded. Their attention was on his copy now. That was good; now he could track them. For their sake, Orttha better be okay. He wouldn’t be merciful if someone had hurt the old man. 

“Tutor, can you help me find them?”

[Track Request: Locate the one responsible for the tracking spell.]

Sen tilted his head. “You haven’t been able to do that in a while.”

[Integration with this time is improving. I can’t promise I’ll be as accurate as I was in the past, but I should be able to point you in the right direction. Down.]

Sen vaulted over the railing and descended to the floor below. 

[Down.]

Sen tilted his head. “This is the bottom floor of the academy. I can’t go any lower.” He frowned, staring at the ground. Was that true? He supposed Brightsail Academy could have a basement of some kind, but he’d never really thought about it. If it did, how would he access it? He could blow through the floor, of course, but that was extreme. There was a chance Orttha had simply dropped the book in a hurry to go somewhere. Sure, it was unlikely, but people make mistakes. He wouldn’t leave this situation to chance, but he wasn’t ready to tear the school apart quite yet. “Is there another direction you can give me? A path, perhaps, to get below this level?”

Tutor was silent for a moment. [This way.]

Sen’s attention was pulled deeper into the library. Far to the right of the library’s grand entrance. He moved. His illusion would keep the watcher’s attention for a while longer, at least. If they got bored, they’d simply stop observing. His actions were silent, and he was invisible to both the human eye and magical senses for now. The spells could be dispelled if he encountered powerful enough barriers, or some magician with enough power blindly cast a spell that dispelled any of his own. But that was unlikely. So he moved confidently through the library and spoke with Tutor freely. 

Following Tutor’s instructions, he turned into the space between two bookshelves. The space was wide enough for several people to browse back to back comfortably, and the shelves ended at the wall. Sen looked around. Was Tutor struggling? He’d said he wouldn’t be as accurate, but if he was off by this much, then Sen wouldn’t be able to rely on his directions. “Maybe I will have to blow a hole through the floor.”

[There.]

Sen tilted his head. Tutor was leading him toward the wall at the end of the bookshelves. He walked forward and ran his magic senses over as he approached. To his surprise, there was something. He closed his eyes and focused. 

A faint magic aura. So faint that even his advanced senses had scarcely noticed it. The tracking spell embedded within Tutor was one of his strongest, but Tutor’s innate abilities had really brought its true potential out. The aura gave off a number of impressions. Several types of magic were all entwined together in an advanced spell that Sen knew he needed to navigate carefully. A magic barrier, a stealth spell, and an alarm if interfered with. Each of the spells was entwined in such a way that interacting with one would affect them all. The only way to disable them without alerting whoever had placed them here would be to do so all at once. 

He severed the flow of magic in his hand and placed it on the wall. He couldn’t prod at the spell with his mana. For now, he simply needed to read and understand it. Like a blind man navigating with his other senses, Sen began to read. 

The barrier was like a wave. Its strength ebbed and flowed like the tide. It was designed to reinforce the other spells at intervals, backing away when powerful people approached to hide its presence. Surging when it had the power to win a contest of willpower outright. It was a cowardly but effective barrier. Taking only fights it could win. Fights its opponents wouldn’t even notice.

The stealth spell took advantage of the fact that it hid in plain sight. It was like a towering tree in a forest of towering trees. Its effectiveness lay in the fact that it could conserve its power. Only when someone turned their gaze here did it need to exhaust any energy. It did so even now. Sen felt the urge to move to a different aisle. The book he was looking for was probably over there instead. A quick scan of the books around him made it clear that the spell had manipulated the people who had arranged them. It looked as if the librarians had placed the world’s most uninteresting books in the world on this aisle. So whatever this spell was, it was powerful enough to affect even Orttha and his assistants. Any student who came down this aisle looking for a book would quickly leave. The forest was effective at hiding the tree.

The alert spell was a pond full of starving fish. Tossing a small pebble into it would cause a school of them to rise to the surface, ready to consume whatever was being offered. The slightest hint of outside magic would alert the spell’s creator. Sen would need to sever the connection in less than a second if he wanted to move forward without letting anyone know. 

For most, that would be impossible. But Sen could stand in the ocean and waves would break against him. He would not be moved back. His mana was like an unyielding fortress with open gates. He would confuse the barrier. Presenting strengths and weaknesses together. The resulting clash would destroy it, leaving it unsure how to react.

His mana was like the blade of a master swordsman. If he could not find which tree to cut, he would cut them all. If the stealth spell sought to replicate its environment, changing the environment rapidly would expose its weak spot. 

His mana was like a ghostly fishing net. He would cast it into the pond, and it would sink through the fish when they rose to eat. Once they were ensnared, he would give it form and yank them from the water.

He’d do so in less than a second.

Sen opened his eyes. “Ethereal Blades Maxim. Shifting Strength Maxim. Mana through Mana Maxim.” 

In either direction, magical blades flew forward and cut a long stretch of the library wall. The stealth spell reacted, embedding a scratch on itself to match its surroundings. The tree revealed itself. 

His shifting spell gave the impression of a powerful person and a weak person all at once. The barrier groaned, rapidly expanding and contracting to match the aura of power that was changing constantly. It strained at the act. 

Mana flowed through the barrier passively. Mana was all around them; it was only natural that the alarm wouldn’t trigger just because natural magic or excess mana moved through it. The mana had no intentions behind it. Until it did. Sen formed the net. The alarm triggered, and as the signal went out, it ran into his magical blockade. The magic’s scream started and died, captured before it could reach its master.

Mana Aggression wrapped around his fist, and he punched the scratch in the wall at the same time his shifting strength presented weakness. The barrier and stealth spells broke as one. The wall crumbled, revealing a passageway. 

Sen sighed. “I suppose I should’ve just made a hole in the ground after all.” 

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