“You’ve stabilized a lot. You can be discharged now.”
The school nurse’s gentle smile carried a subtle sense of relief. Was it the satisfaction of sending off a student who had recovered?
No way.
I almost frowned but stopped myself. I hardened my face and feigned indifference.
“Thank you for all your help.”
“Sure. Don’t get hurt again.”
As I nodded and stepped out of the nurse’s office, I heard a quiet sigh from behind. It was obvious who it was meant for…it was me, of course.
Adel Bliss.
When I first saw the name on the school uniform tag, I brushed it off. But now, a creeping suspicion was taking hold.
The nurse’s attitude.
The older sister Camilla Bliss who had come late at night.
I’ve got a bad feeling… no, a terrible feeling…
And that suspicion soon turned into certainty.
While walking through the academy garden on my way back to the dorm, a group of students clustered together looked at me and started whispering.
– Hey, that’s Adel Bliss, right?
– Yeah, who else would look that creepy?
– He’s out of the infirmary? I thought he’d fake it again.
– Man. At this point, was he ever actually sick? He’s nothing like his sister.
– Sister? Oh, you mean Camilla Bliss in second year?
– Yeah. The genius swordswoman who’s said to come once in a century! Don’t you know her?
…As the story unfolds, there are often characters who recall the past.
They’ll say things like, “There was such an incident,” or “I regret not stepping in sooner.” That kind of inner monologue.
The bullying incident at the academy… Was Adel Bliss the victim?
If that were true, it’d be the worst-case scenario.
Adel Bliss was nothing more than a device meant to help other characters mature later on.
And that meant I might have no way of knowing what kind of talent lay dormant in this body I now inhabited, or what events he went through before dying at the hands of his own sister.
“……”
Of course, it was too early to give up.
I still had a few things I could rely on, so I lifted my head and kept walking.
– …How arrogant.
– He’s in the magic department and can’t even control basic mana.
– Seriously? No way.
I ignored the whispers around me and eventually arrived at the dormitory.
A secluded building standing quietly against a backdrop of peaceful woods.
The dorms of Tane Academy, the setting in the early stages of the game “Empire of Kohonbach”.
And among them, the lowest-tier building.
“Herein Hall.”
I never thought I’d actually step foot into a place I’d only seen in CG scenes.
I clicked my tongue and continued walking.
***
[Adel Bliss]
Health: 3
Mana: 19
Talent: 11
Stamina: 2
Perseverance: 9
Intelligence: 17
◆ Unique Trait: Shape Transformation
View details (+)
“……Phew.”
As soon as I entered the room, I found a mirror and let out a sigh of relief.
Until now, I hadn’t seen a single mirror and didn’t even know whether I could access the status window.
Now that I’d confirmed that fragments of the game system still remained within me, I could at least breathe a little easier.
In a situation where even my own sister turned her back on me and I had no one to rely on, I’d at least found a guidepost.
“Well, that’s that… ‘Shape Transformation’, huh?”
After checking the character status screen, I finally understood why people were whispering about Adel Bliss.
The comment that I “couldn’t even control basic mana.”
Well. That made sense, in a way.
There was a setting in the game that stated that shape transformation-type mages had a fundamentally different flow of mana compared to ordinary people.
Unlike most mages who complete their spells externally, these individuals had mana waves that naturally flowed inward. Toward their own bodies.
The direction of mana flow itself was the exact opposite of the norm.
Because of that, they had to learn a completely different method of spellcasting, one that didn’t rely on the standard practice of rotating magic circles.
Without doing so, even the most basic spells wouldn’t function properly.
This only gets revealed in the middle of the game, though.
The truth came to light thanks to a character named Heinel Shifter.
A genius mage from the Magic Tower. She was infamous for her eccentric behavior, and her research into the shape transformation trait was part of that pattern.
I clearly remembered one of her lines:
– If someone has mana sensitivity but can’t use magic? That makes no sense. If they were a chimpanzee, sure. But a person? Come on.
I let out a small laugh. She was the kind of character whose blunt remarks hid a surprising amount of empathy. That’s what made her so appealing.
Back then, I’d thought the game’s writer had done a brilliant job with her dialogue…
Or maybe they just modeled her after someone real.
In any case, the game referred to “shape transformers” as Shifters, named after her.
And the term itself “Shifter” which meant someone who deceives or tricks, fit surprisingly well.
Shape transformation isn’t a bad trait to have.
I nodded to myself and felt reassured.
I knew information that a character originally from this world wouldn’t have access to yet.
How to use magic as a Shifter. And—
There’s even a few tricks only Shifters can pull off. That one strategy that never loses in short-term fights.
What a relief. I was no longer a character who could benefit from the main storyline, but at least I could prepare myself.
“Alright.”
Now that things had come to this, there was only one thing I had to do first.
I needed magic.
To shake off the label of being a talentless failure that had been stuck on me.
And for that, I needed to go to the library.
I had to read a magic book. One that explained the structure of spells.
So I could flip the structure of the spell and learn it.
“……”
I swallowed a sigh and left the dorm.
It had only been two days since I was dragged into this world, and yet it already demanded an exhausting amount of action from me.
Still, what choice did I have?
If I wanted to survive, I had to move.
***
Among the three academies in the Empire, Tane Academy was regarded as second to none in terms of prestige.
Its library was massive, as if to prove that reputation.
On one wall, water flowed from a jar held by a small statue of a woman, filling another jar at the base.
Maybe it was a circulation system using magic.
“Is no one here?”
Now that I think about it, this facility probably didn’t get many visitors to begin with.
After all, if it was an old book or magic text required for class, you could always access it from the dorm.
In that case, no need to worry about others.
I didn’t bother lowering my footsteps and walked straight to the shelves, scanning through the catalog.
[Magic Missile: Spell Circle Disassembly–Recombination]
[Structure of Torch Spells and Flame Color Changes by Catalyst]
[Basics of Water Stream Magic]
.
.
.
“Hmm.”
Wasn’t there anything titled just Magic Missile, Fireball…? Something that simply explained the spell and showed its structure?
“Nothing, huh.”
Well, it’s not like I ever opened a magic book in the game anyway.
I shrugged and pulled out about ten books at once.
If I looked carefully, I was bound to find a section on spell structure.
As long as I could see the structure, I could modify the formula to suit myself.
◆ View Details (-)
.
.
.
–Spell Structure Modification
(Caution! Consumes NP.)
In reality, I didn’t know the first thing about magic, but thanks to the game system, this was possible.
It was a bit of a waste to spend NP, but this wasn’t the time to be frugal.
Either way, even if I returned to the real world, it was nothing more than in-game currency. No more, no less.
◆ Total NP Owned: 162,380 NP
A hundred sixty thousand, huh.
Changing the structure of one spell consumed about 10,000 NP.
Simple math said I could acquire 16 spells… assuming they were low-level spells, that is.
There’s no point learning low-level ones when I won’t even use them later.
I nodded and picked up a book. Basics of Water Stream Magic? Whatever.
I flipped through the pages without much care.
Ding.
[A modifiable spell structure has been detected.]
– Modifiable Spell Structure: Clean
– Would you like to acquire it?
“Clean? That’s pretty useless… Wait.”
It was a completely worthless spell in the game. But what about in real life?
“I’ll learn it.”
Ding.
[A modifiable spell structure has been detected.]
– Modifiable Spell Structure: Clay
– Would you like to acquire it?
“…Learn it.”
Ding.
[A modifiable spell structure has been detected.]
– Modifiable Spell Structure: Aureus
– Would you like to acquire it?
“Oh. A 4th-circle spell.”
Beep—
[Acquisition failed. (Insufficient mana.)]
“Damn it. Save and put it on hold.”
And just like that, time passed.
Drip, drip…
The water flowing from the statue in the library corner was gradually weakening.
Once the water stopped, it meant the library was about to close.
[A modifiable spell structure has been detected.]
– Modifiable Spell Structure: Lightning Pick
– Would you like to acquire it?
“Of course.”
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