Chapter 13: Preparations

Alright, quick note here:

I wasn't able to write anything since I was in the hospital. Having surgeries and being forced to stay in one place without moving wasn't comfortable for sure.

I probably will be good for now, but I have to gatch up with school material and well, go to school

This will make me unable to write regularly every day, as such, I will write 1 or 2 chapters every week. [Depends on school]

I hope you will understand, why I wasn't writing for about 4 weeks.

Thank you.

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******

It was 6 am.

Harlow was challenged to a duel by a member of the Red Tower.

The reason for it was the so-called "Dishonouring the Red Tower."

Well, earlier he defeated Ruprecht, one of the strongest of his year in Red Tower.

Honestly, for Harlow, it was both a lucky and unlucky situation.

He could've learned more magic in his free time after Duel, learning Magic for him was the same as becoming more powerful.

However, after learning few spells it wasn't like in shounen, that he became an instant a very powerful person.

Well, he was powerful, but there were plenty of people that were stronger them him.

An example was Empire's Full-time mages and Elite Squad of Marques.

Well, that was that.

Harlow had 4 hours till Duel, it was quite a lot.

During this time, Harlow could prepare himself for battle.

Unlike Ruprecht, that was starting at Red Tower, it was obvious that he wasn't the same.

Harlow heard almost every student's name that entered Red Tower

If his predictions were accurate, then the Student was already in 3rd or even 4th grade.

It meant that it was a real opponent, and the battle won't be a walk in the park.

Even if he had a great pool of mana, it was nothing compared to a skilled mage that could use his spells efficiently.

It meant, that Long-Range battles would be the only defence, at least in his thoughts.

He had to take advantage of him having a sword license.

CQB would be the best for him, against long-range mages, no matter what arguments you pull out, it's true.

"How do I prepare for the duel tho?"

Harlow had a dilemma about how he could prepare. Even if he was an ex-military commander, he only prepared potential plans, equipment etc.

However, this was different.

This battle would heavily rely on Magic Combat.

He obviously had all the equipment ready, he had the Sword and his Kimono.

"I think I am prepared..." He said while slowly sighing. "However, what do I do in my free time?" He added after a moment.

He was happy about having Free Time later, however, he didn't have anything to do right now.

"Hmmm... Maybe I will practise magic?"

As he said that, in his right hand, a Flame appeared.

Harlow looked at the Flame for few seconds, and nodded and said.

"Yes, it will be a good idea."

However, practising in his room would be dangerous, it's not hard to tell what would happen with magic if it went out of control for some reason.

Magical Phenomen.

It happen when someone's mana went out of control of either: Not being able to control it or just pulling too much mana into the spell.

It was dangerous, the biggest Magicial Phenomen that happen in the history of the world, teleported around 500,000 people on the Trorari continent, the continent controlled by demons and beast-humans hybrids. It was not hard to understand, that those people were enslaved and till today, not many of them returned to Europa.

Well, it was the biggest, what was average, was a small mana explosion that happen. For humans it was dangerous, since their body was sensitive to mana, meanwhile for demons and other creatures based on mana flow instead of blood, it was nothing dangerous.

"I may not be in danger, but people near my room will be...."

Then training ground it is.

Training ground right now would be the only option available.

Harlow thought, that he could control magic perfectly, looking at his first duel, however, even professionalists may lose control.

It was obvious, even the "sage" or better known as Human Demon Lord made the biggest Magicial Phenomen.

"If I made a magical phenomenon, who knows what will happen with my mana pool..."

As he said that, he had left his room and went to the training room. It wasn't a long trip, from his room it was at a max of 5 minutes.

On the training ground, there were a few people, however, this was not his concern.

The room was made out of Adamantantium, an almost unbreakable rock, only 8th+ level magic could break it, Adamantantium also absorbed mana, which was out of control. Humans don't know the logic behind it, due to the lack of 8th level mages in the research field, well, there are none of them.

'Thought what should I practise?"

There were a lot of things he could try.

He could simply form new spells [By forming two spells into one], it wasn't impossible, at least on his level. There were a lot of spells that he could form, with his modern knowledge, maybe some, that didn't even exist in this world.

The second option would've been mana manipulation practice, with would improve his manipulation and aim.

Third, and the last option would've been simply learning new spells from books, the most boring thing he could do right now.

Out of these options, forming new spells would be the best.

Not only he would have more spells in his arsenal, but also he would improve his mana manipulation with the practice of these spells.

'New spells, huh. It sounds easy, but it's hard to do.'

Having mana manipulation helped him in the process since Harlow didn't have to use runes nor chants to form magic spells, however, he didn't know how to form a new spell without runes or chants.

Before, he just remembered the runes and chants via albedo, and that's all he needed, with mana manipulation his brain/albedo could do the chant or rune instead of him, it is a way faster process.

...

Few moments have passed.

Harlow in these moments talked with Albedo about forming a spell, to his surprise, it was nothing hard, as long as he understood the rune language.

And that was the problem, he does not understand it.

Albedo compared to Harlow, understood the rune language. It was her original language.

However, no matter, how many times they tried to enforce the knowledge into Harlow's brain via Albedo, it was impossible.

His race and level made him unable to learn it.

'I am stuck...'

Right now, instead of forming new spells, he could only merge spells in action.

Merging spells wasn't easy even for high-ranking mages. Simply doing two spells at once was hard enough, even if it was level 0 or 1 spell. But controlling them after chanting them, was even harder.

This means, that he will need to have more control over mana manipulation.

And so, Harlow started to practise merging spells. At first, it wasn't easy, he was improving, everyone in the room was seeing it.

But in the end, he couldn't merge spells.

According to Albedo, it would have taken at least 3 months for him, to merge spells. Which was very fast anyway, normally mages take up to 3 months just learning how to make two spells at once, and another 8 months on how to merge spells.

It was 8:30 am.

Still, an hour and a half were left.

A lot of time was still left for Harlow to have a duel.

Right now, he has run out of ideas, on how to train and prepare, he used everything that came up to his mind until now.

Harlow did not know how to prepare in this new world before the battle, it was completely different from his old world.

Just preparing his muscles for battle wasn't enough, and thing such as camouflage was useless against mages, especially in duels, where you couldn't hide anywhere.

Nor did the weapon give him any kind of advantage, he had a sword, not the railgun assault rifle he had in his world.

Sword vs Magic.

It was obvious what will win in most of the situations.

'Wait, there was some kind of alchemy that could put magic on the sword, right?'

It was true, but Harlow have forgotten that he hadn't learnt it.

People around him were looking at him weirdly as if they were looking at an idiot.

Harlow was trying multiple things in order to put magic on his sword... None of them actually worked.

He tried everything that came up to his mind, even the things from his world.

Nothing happens.

But, he managed to manifest something, that he didn't know he could.

He manifested uranium and other atoms.

He wasn't dumb enough, to keep manifesting them or to add more uranium, it would've simply made an explosion.

However, manifesting uranium was a big discovery, it meant that elements from his world, worked here too.

But it didn't help him with the 'alchemy'.

He was stuck.

*******

While Harlow and Konrad were preparing for the duel, the Tower Administrators had a meeting, including the principal.

"You all know, why we are here." The Administrator of the white tower said.

"Yes, we do." Red tower Administrator responded.

Others just nodded, agreeing that everyone knew what was going on.

"Monsters are appearing, but in larger groups... if this continues, we will need to do a summoning... also, my spies told me that it is very likely, that the 10 demon lords are behind it..."

Everyone's face was already bland, however, after hearing those words, they became white as snow.

Ten demon lords or sometimes called 'The Ten Great Pillars of The World'. They were the creatures, that were the strongest, that nature doesn't apply to, and is just a checklist. They were creatures that already broke past demi-god level, and became god themselves, being able to manipulate the world.

They were just toying with the humans, they could annihilate the humans quite easily.

However, having humans was simply just profitable for them, humans had invented many fun things which was the main reason, why they were still alive.

If they planned to invade humans, that meant that it would've caused great disaster to humanity unless the Hero is summoned, but it was costly, at least 10,000 sacrifices were needed, and it was only needed for small-hero summoning, which was a low-level hero.

"Damnit!" Suddenly Katherineke, the Administrator of the blue tower said.

If Katherineke was afraid, then it was a real deal, she was known for not being afraid of even the White Tower Administrator, who was deemed to be the strongest among everyone in the room.

"We should decide right now, on what we should tell the emperor...." The principal said.

"That's true, but it's not that easy!" Balthaser said.

Everyone nodded.

Their decision could affect millions of lives.

"I-i have an idea!" Tyleke said, and quickly added afterwards: "Maybe, we should invite the Marques here? It would be way easier if he had him on our side... Then the emperor would look at it with serious eyes."

Everyone looked at Tyleke with serious eyes.

Involving Marques in this would've been definitely a good idea, but if the Marques made propaganda out of it, then his power in the tower would've risen, and in no time, he would've gained enough power to be the principal.

He was known for his scam deals and his lust for power.

"However... This may decide about even whole humanity."

"I agree with you Heinz, this decision with deciding, whenever we survive or not, the low-level monsters are at least 50 levels, it's already high... god, then imagine what are the high-level monsters..."

Everyone in the room went silent.

Their bland face, turned even blander, to the point of some of them being very close to losing consciousness.

Everyone nodded. It was an obvious decision for everyone, they couldn't risk humanity, just because they want more power.

******

It was already 10 am, Harlow for the rest of his time just practised spells, and learned some new in the meantime, it made him at least able to defend himself more in long-range battle.

He was not ready, however, what he could do? Being kicked out of the school was out of option, at least for now. He wanted to at least be 8th ranked magician.

He have already entered the arena, it was more huge than he remembered it last time, but it was just his eyes.

Everyone was cheering since everyone liked the action, especially the duels between factions.

"Now then, shall we start?"