104 Finally a Clue
The day had been fruitful to Arthur and Philip. Both learned tier 1 spells. Philip with his Thorns spell, and Arthur with some basic fire spells such as Fireball, Ember, Blazing, etc.
They were back in their dorm, tired of all the practice. Arthur was not done for the night. He left the dorm, looking for a remote place to test his theory.
It was all dark, yet he could see it perfectly.
“If this works, I’ll become the greatest mage there is.” Arthur thought.
The theory he had in mind was to use the sunlight energy he absorbed for his Dragon Fire Body, and try to enhance his other fire spells.
He moved his hand, channeling one of his newly gained spells, Fireball. It was only but a tier 1 spell, but the moment Arthur tried to use his sunlight energy, more circles appeared.
One, two, three… six circles. The simple tier 1 Fireball increased 5 tiers when using that energy.
What would happen when he cast a higher tier spell and add that energy? Will it break the boundaries of humans? It certainly would, as Arthur was not a human himself.
Arthur did not cast the spell to test its strength, though. A tier 6 spell was something scary, and it would alarm everyone on the island, and maybe hurt people if they were careless.
“I should return to patrol.”
The job he had as president of the magic academy was to protect his students and find the culprit behind the killings. Arthur teleported back to his office, changing both clothes and his facial features.
When he stepped outside, it was Matilda who was doing the patrol, just like they talked about at that reunion.
“Mr. President, hi. I’m the responsible for today’s patrol. It is a good thing you’re here because I need to talk with you.” Matilda said.
Whatever she wanted to talk about wasn’t something good.
“Hi, Matilda. How can I help you?” Arthur said, putting both of his hands behind his back, acting like a wise person listening to its disciples.
“You know I’m taking care of the library, right? So, I noticed a few books about general spells and time-space magic vanished.”
At first, it seemed Matilda would not add something Arthur did not know about, but there was more.
“When I discovered that, I thought to myself, why not do a complete inventory of the books to see if something else is missing, and it was? Was? A book called Magical Rituals: The Complete Guide is missing,”
“I don’t know if you plan to search for it. I just thought the president should know. Anyway, I’ll be going to my patrol. See you later.” Matilda said and left.
Arthur stood there, thinking if that had something to do with the mysterious werewolf and the missing blood from that victim.
“Magical rituals, huh?”
The next step was to find whoever stole that book, but how would they do that? Arthur himself stole a few, and no one found him yet.
Matilda accepted the job as the chief librarian after Lucy was dead. Before that, Harmony, Jane, and Wisa took care of the library only in their spare time. It wouldn’t be strange if the library was open with no one taking care of it.
They were careless, thinking that no student would steal or do something as horrible as killing. Arthur also did not want to think that was the case, but all led to it.
Arthur had the idea of using his authority to look up all students and their belongings. But the killer was not stupid. It returned to cover up its tracks, and it wouldn’t do something as careless as leaving the stolen book inside its room.
Also, if a search liked that happened, students would wonder the reason behind it. Even if Arthur said it was just a precaution about the missing student, they would link that to ‘one student kidnapped Lucy, and questions would be asked.
It would be total chaos if they knew Lucy was dead.
“I can’t do that. The killer will know I know it stole a book, and that I’m close. This is not a pleasant situation.”
All these things had to wait, and Arthur did his patrol around the school perimeter, looking for something suspicious. None, nothing.
A dead end, and if things kept that way, someone could end up dead, just like Lucy.
Arthur returned to his office, sat on his comfy chair, and entered a deep thought. The killer was acting like a shadow, someone that was right in front of their eyes, yet no one could see it.
“I’ll turn into a shadow myself. Let’s see if this killer hides from me.”
He got up and went to that secret room inside the mansion where the magic array was, as well as some other prohibited books for the students.
The same magical book that had the Myriad of Faces also had tons of other stealth spells, such as illusions, a higher tier invisibility, and one that instantly caught Arthur’s attention, a shape shifting spell.
“Shape shifting? How would the werewolf react if another one appeared in Odemore?” Arthur had an evil smile as he left the secret room with that book in his hands.
~~~~
In the following week, Arthur had mastered a few of the spells he wanted, and the practical classes began.
They only had alchemy classes three times a week, which meant it would take longer to advance. Matilda was a new teacher, and was also taking care of the library, so she couldn’t teach every day.
Arthur also changed a few things in Odemore. The recreation area was finished, so he set 2 days off for the students. Although most students still practiced magic even on their day off.
Another change was the stars Arthur made using a black material similar to an obsidian. Wisa had told him that in all kingdoms in the land, the mages wore those on their chests to show their status.
A 1st circle mage had one star, 2nd circle mage 2 stars, and so on. That was a way of making the students work harder to achieve more.
Now, there wasn’t news about the killer even after Arthur talked with the teachers that took care of the library before Matilda, as he looked for the person who stole that book.
But during the middle of the night, Arthur saw something suspicious.