The Gigolo System in the Academy of Magic-Chapter 15: Kira’s Sudden Interest

James decided to try the perception enhancing potion tonight at Selena's house. Maybe he can use it to quickly improve his skills.

Right now he could start using the [Shadow Manipulation] ability quite easily, but the other two skills...

[Shadow Step: Traverse quickly through the world of shadows]

[Shadow Space: A small space hidden inside the user's shadow]

He could feel that these two abilities were an extension of the Abyss Walker's basic ability to manipulate shadows. But they both used a huge amount of mana, especially [Shadow Step]. Right now, he wasn't at full mana capacity so everything else would have to wait.

James quickly showered and got ready and then headed to his first lesson. Runes.

Runic magic was very important to a mage not just because it allowed for permanent magic to exist such as teleportation circles, alchemical products, arrays etc., but also because it was fundamentally important to mid-level mages.

A low level mage dealt with mana to use spells, but when you became a level 4 mage your mana would crystallise and become a mana crystal. Then instead of learning spells, you would have to engrave them into your mana crystal. This was a special method that allowed the mage to use spells with very low cost.

Of course there was a limit to the number of spells an individual could engrave, this was also why bloodline abilities were important. Because it gave mages another way to use powerful special abilities for a low cost.

Don't look at how much mana it took for him to use [Shadow Manipulation], if this was just a normal spell it would have been impossible for him to use it unless he was a level 3 mage with thousands of mana.

Right now he had 300 mana which was greater than the highest level 1 mage. He could be classified as a low to mid level 2 mage, perhaps only Ryan Everheart was stronger than him in the first year.

When James entered the classroom for Runes, he immediately attracted everyone's attention, including the professor. Professor Meridith was an old lady who had been a teacher at Ainsworth for almost a hundred years. Though she was also a noble she didn't treat him any different.

But this time the old lady had a frown on her face, then she shook her head.

James walked over to an empty chair while listening to the voices around him carefully.

"His aura is stronger? What happened?"

"Do you think he advanced?"

"How is that possible? This loser has been an apprentice for so long, why would he suddenly advance?"

"Actually I heard yesterday he was called to Professor Selena's office, everyone says she was going to finally expel him!"

"You don't think..."

"Yeah he probably took a Level Breaking Potion, look at how unstable he looks."

"What an idiot!"

These conversations kept happening throughout the classroom. James was sure that if Ryan and his cronies were in the same class they would be laughing openly at him right now.

Good.

After a while everyone became quiet again and the lesson began. They were examining a level 1 rune used on lighting devices in class. The professor would judge their progress by looking at the effectiveness of their runes.

Professor Meredith walked through the large classroom while looking at people's work. Most of the time she would just take a glance and shake her head, but when she reached a certain girl's desk she stopped for a long time with admiration in her eyes.

"Well done Kira."

The professor looked at the beautiful girl with raven hair and smiled. She was a commoner and therefore would not have been exposed to subjects like Runes before. The fact that she could do this well meant she was very talented.

"Thank you professor." Kira Nocturne had an expressionless face but she still replied politely.

James was sitting quite close so he could see this interaction clearly.

He admitted that before he was a little jealous of Kira. After all they were both commoners, how come she was so much better than him?

But yesterday, when he realised that she was actually a noble and was hiding her identity all his thoughts disappeared. Noble or commoner it didn't matter to him, clearly she was harbouring a conspiracy.

Still, she didn't bother him - she even had the highest favorability out of all his classmates - so he ignored her. Of course, if she could be useful he wouldn't mind getting involved...

James was wondering whether this classmate of his had an older sister or mother or something when he felt someone behind him.

"Woodrow? Hmmn not bad. Keep it up."

Professor Meredith only glanced at his work for a few moments and said a few words before leaving but it was more than enough to get his classmates whispering.

Actually James had felt it yesterday as well, the runes which would have previously given him headaches became simple and easy to understand. He knew he could go even further but right now he didn't want to stand out.

James was tinkering away when he felt a gaze. He looked up to see Kira scrutinizing him.

He put on a nervous expression but his mind was wandering. What is it? Is it because I'm too handsome?

After James had his protagonist moment, he lowered his head and a cold look flashed by his eyes.

Then throughout the next few lessons he could occasionally feel Kira glancing at him. This continued until combat practice in the afternoon. Professor Selena hadn't arrived yet so everyone was waiting around talking in groups.

James was by himself in the corner of the crowd looking at the dark shadows drawn on the ground by the giant clouds above.

Suddenly there was a shadow in front of him.

"I'll train with you."

Everyone stopped what they were doing. Their attention was all focused on the two people or more specifically the beautiful raven haired girl.