"And... that should do it."

  He closed his eyes to bask and relish in the feeling of achieving victory over the finicky addition he implanted into his grimoire, and the ensuing troubleshooting that followed. Had it been, functionally, anyone else, they would have been stumped for years to come, forced to regale the thing like a chronicle or codex of unknown knowledge.

  Although the pride of his victory felt great, Inkaro figured it wouldn't last much longer, given the other feeling slowly clambering its way over his currently reining emotion: Boredom. A boredom that always reared its insufferable head any second the grimoire maker's mind was at rest.

  He found it utterly repulsive. Any time he found himself not tinkering on a grimoire was nothing short of torture for his psyche.

  Hardly any time had passed since the completion of whatever afront to grimoire syntax etiquette he'd penned into existence before a booming, shrill of a roar erupted from a little up overhead.

  Inkaro could only sigh.

  Filled with a sense of contentment, he closed the highly specialised grimoire: it is a grey fur book that emits colourless particles when shaken. The book's shape is that of two triangles that the tips of have intersected to create a small square. The book also has a golden trimming all around its edges, and a glowing purple and silver ring made of dust circling the square created by the triangles.

  A large shadow loomed overhead, forcing yet another sigh out of him.

  At hearing the distinct sound of a set of off-beat nashing teeth overhead, his options were abruptly limited and restricted to a single choice; if he allowed his mode of transport to continue unobstructed, the guy knew he'd get an earful from Lizu should he allow such valuable grimoire-making material to get away. Doing so gradually as to not stoke Nuenala from her beauty sleep, Inkaro commanded his mana dish, with a light tap of his finger against its rim, to slow it to a stop.

  "Keep it down, if you would so kindly? They're sleeping," Inkaro said, speaking with a tone so gentle and relaxed it bordered on psychopathic, given the imminent threat he presented himself before. Registering the bizarre reaction, the creature descended from the fluffy-looking clouds above to investigate what manner of creature would dare challenge it.

  Some sort of large, functionally translucent, wyvern-like creature hung right above the trio, its non-existent breath bearing down on Nuenala particularly so. The attention caused her to grumble in her sleep, rolling over in the process of her face scrunching up in disdain.

  "Making me repeat myself how uns-"

  A harsh burst of wind, under the force of the large and glistening creature's spanning wings. Almost like it personally targeted him, the mana manifestation's unintentional wind attack swooshed right overhead of the sleeping girl and struck Inkaro right in the back, knocking him cleanly off the mana dish.

  Inkaro remained in his sitting position as he tumbled towards the ground, wondering why Lizu's serious-sounding tone was more effective than his own.

  But he didn't linger on that thought for long; instead, he returned to his current obstacle.

  "...a dragon-sized wyvern? And a striped one at that; Lizu mentioned these ones are native to Ru-Thal. So, for one to be all the way on the opposite side of the planet, it can only mean it's a mana manifestation. Although its translucent state should've made that more than apparent."

  Pausing for a second, he thought it over. Inkaro only just registered the true nature of the thing trying to attack him, and he failed to stifle a sneaky smirk. "Heh, even I'd be mad at myself for letting something like this get away."

  Almost like it had gained sentience from it, the mana manifestation snapped its false head around the side of the mana dish as it sensed Inkaro's surging mana reserves. In a blast of wind, the monster rushed around the mana dish and dive-bombed right for the falling guy. Only once it was out of sight did Nuenala shoot up from her sleep, snapping her head around in a groggy daze before flopping back to her side. She went back to sleep like a pro. With that display of her being herself, she utterly missed the lack of any Inkaro on the mana dish and that the thing had stopped moving entirely.

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  The monster barrelled straight for him, assured in its superiority against anything that used mana as a direct attack. Sadly for it, its blind faith in its immunity to mana attacks only served to entertain Inkaro as colourless and glowing grimoire syntax formed around him. Travelling around him in a spinning dance, the syntax affixed themselves together in a chain behind the guy's head and combined into a floating ring that matched his head in size.

  "Might as well test it out before Lizu forces me to teach it to her."

  From a fighting spirit born of an insatiable drive for grimoire-related knowledge, he channelled all his focus into the ring and subtly flicked his head upward, given that the ring formed near his head.

  For a second, nothing appeared to happen, other than the monster briefly flinching. Then, following a faint musical cracking noise, a faint line appeared right down the middle of the constricted mana cluster.

  After a weak, crystaline grumble, the mana manifestation's outershell split right along the faded line, ushering a torrent of mana in its gas form to come spilling out in a high-pitched whistle, like a kettle about to burst from overbearing pressure. In no time at all, the escaping pressure broke through the entirety of the intrusion before the monster's body snapped cleanly in half. Seeing the successful deployment of the spell, Inkaro proudly crossed his arms. His descent abruptly crawled to a stop when the engraved-covered mana ring pulsed a single time, signalling its influence over space.

  As the two halves shot past him from both sides, its football-sized crystalline core began to glisten a dazzling range of colours at receiving an audience from the still-rising sun. After following its trajectory, Inkaro raised a hand over his head and allowed the mana core shaped like a crown to make a gentle landing in his palm.

  "Hmm... Lizu said these grimoire materials require any unstable mana to be fixed before they're usable, but purification spells are some of the few magical fields that require having an affinity to pull off the spell. So I can't do it myself.".

  Inkaro blankly stared at the mana core as it unendingly vibrated in his palm. He could feel a faint numbness growing in his palm as he noticed the integrity of the invisible magic barrier coating his hand wain. He made a note of the reaction before stepping up the protection efforts.

  "Isolation Array."

  A thick cube of vaguely translucent solidified space snapped into reality and securely encased the mana core. He brought the cube to his face, peering into it with the utmost scrutiny and seeing how it didn't so much as tremble anymore with its access to ambient mana being cut off. "That should do it, until I can find someone to purify its unstable sections at least."

  "Inkaro, what are you doing down there! The entrance exam starts in two hours, so get your butt back up here and drive."

  Nuenala's groggy yells rang true, both in how it made his ears ring more than the mana manifestation had and in that she was absolutely right about how much time they had left. He swiftly snapped his free fingers and made the cube, along with its contents, disappear while teleporting himself back onto the mana dish.

  "You can teleport!!" Nuenala exclaimed in genuine shock that she almost found herself passing out when it drained all the energy she got from her nap.

  "I have to do the calculations to do it."

  "Fair enough."

  It was true. He did need to do the calculations to perform teleportation, especially for long-range teleporting; however, the part he omitted from his explanation was the simple fact his teacher had drilled all those calculations into his head to such an extent that Inkaro could perform them subconsciously. So now, he only needed to know the relative distance between himself and his intended location to teleport, which either meant visiting the place one time or having a map with his current/pin-point location on it.

  Not wanting his friend to get a chance to question his teleportation, Inkaro lightly knocked on his mana dish as he sat down. The dish once again sprang to life and hovered on its way. As the journey continued, a thought popped into the blacksmith girl's mind, her eyes lighting up even more brightly than a lightbulb. She swiftly buried her hands into the pockets of her hoodie, catching Inkaro's attention with the noise.

  Hearing all manner of dings, chings, and squeeks, Inkaro felt compelled to speak. "You should really refrain from putting some much stuff in those"

  After a lot of searching and ignoring Inkaro's comments, Nuenala managed to pry a large telescope from one of her pockets and swiftly pointed it over in Inkaro's direction. "Say, if you could see Solicrave through a telescope, could you teleport us there?"

  Feeling he owed her this much for all the teasing and headaches, Inkaro gracefully accepted the telescope and request as he stood up.

  "We'll see," Inkaro stated amusedly and optimistically before teleporting directly upwards, only to return seconds later, subsequently more soaked than when he left. "It's... too cloudy here."