After having a free lunch at the Heaven Hotel, Carla told Nick that she would be happy to take on all of his logistics, legal, accounting and security concerns using the General Beast Store indefinitely for a total of fifteen percent of the profits made from selling the Soul Healing scrolls and Nick agreed to it since he would be too busy himself to handle all of those concerns. Therefore, he decided that The Magic Scroll Company would outsource all aspects of its operations except manufacturing.
Carla said that she would email him the relevant contract in the coming days and that they would talk often, his initial point of contact becoming her instead of Marshall. Nick said that he was fine with that and the afternoon was going well until Carla said:
"Oh, and I would appreciate it if you told me the details every time that you make a deal with Britney, that is, if we are going to continue to work together."
Nick put on a confused expression and responded:
"Britney who?"
Carla chuckled and squinted her eyes:
"Don't play dumb, Nick. You and Britney made a deal that she would buy you an assortment of space path and blade path spells in exchange for the possibility of your future business, isn't that correct?"
Nick shrugged his shoulders with a plain expression:
"How did you find out?"
"Did you really think that I wasn't keeping track of that girl's every action? Don't worry, I am not mad and I don't care how you use her but we need to set some ground rules for the benefit of our relationship, okay."
Nick remained quiet, waiting for Carla to speak, which she did in a moment:
"First, do not have sex with any of my relatives, second, do not make backdoor deals with my relatives, that should have gone without saying but since you are young, I will ignore it this time and finally, if you want help with something magic related, I want you to come to me first and I will try to the best of my ability within reason to help you and the only thing that I am asking for in return is honesty during our interactions."
Nick subtly squinted his eyes when Carla said the last part; although it seemed like a sweet notion on the surface, Nick felt that this was her way of exercising a subtle control over him and he did not like that.
(Sigh, she is being unreasonable again but what can I do. Since she's already wrapped up in my business, It would be difficult to cut her out without serious repercussions. This is because I am still too weak.)
Nick quietly clenched his right fist under the table but replied with politeness:
"Sure thing Carla, is there anything else?"
Carla held up her hand and a small mass of darkness emerged from it and faded away leaving behind what seemed to be a memory pill like the one that Nick had used at the auction venue.
"This contains the space and blade path spells that you were seeking. They are mostly rank 2 basic grade spells, nothing of real note but you don't find top tier spells like you would cabbage at a market. They cost me £1,000,000,000 in all and I'll email you a receipt from the Ministry of Magic later."
Nick looked pleased that he had gotten what he wanted so quickly and replied:
"I'll reimburse you the money when I get the receipt."
Carla smiled at seeing Nick's overly cautious nature on display and nodded her head.
"Forward me the details whenever you need sloths delivered to your building or you need scrolls delivered to customers. I will be giving the rest of my contacts your email and phone number so they can communicate with you directly. Also, after word spreads, expect an increase in the volume of orders."
Nick nodded and both him and Carla proceeded to leave the Heaven Hotel after which Carla gave Nick a ride to his building and they said their goodbyes. Nick looked at Carla's car as it drove into the distance and remarked with semi-cold eyes:
"That woman sure is something..."
Slade asked eerily:
[Are you going to deal with her in the future?]
Nick stayed quiet for a while and then responded:
"...That's a must."
Nick entered his building.
...............
One month later...
Nick sat and waited on the combat field where his usual combat class was to take place with his sword in hand and a transport briefcase at his side; class would begin in ten minutes and all of the other students had not arrived yet. Nick had spent the past month doing what he usually did which included going to combat class, meditating, producing his Beast Capture and Soul Healing scrolls and studying magic.
After his battle against Seth Teller, Nick realized that he needed to take learning combat more seriously which included not only becoming more dedicated to his sword training but also reviewing the line up of spells that he often used in battle. Up until now he had just been using whatever spells he had found to be cool and strong without considering how well they complemented each other or if he was covering all of his bases with the spells. For example, Seth made him realize that having a proper healing spell was important as well as a good movement spell.
Nick did have Blink for movement but he realized that it consumed too much magic energy to be used consecutively which left holes in his battle strategies. He also realized that he lacked advanced grade spells that could change the course of the battle when he found himself in a tight spot. Although he had Retrieve Soul and Malevolent Shrine, the former was not suitable for combat and Nick did not want to use the latter openly because of its suspicious origin and overly dark nature. While Slade's inheritance had advanced grade spells, Nick had spent too little time cultivating his soul and he therefore could not use them.
He also realized that he was subtly holding himself back by trying as much as possible to use only his space path methods in public which was hampering his growth. With all of this in mind, Nick had decided that not only would he not limit himself to using only his space path spells in public but he would try as much as possible to increase the quality of the spells he learnt and used going forward, making sure that they complemented each other within reason and did not result in faults in his defense or movement.
Class finally began at 9 am with the rest of the students finally arriving and Varrow also arrived at that time appearing with a strong wind as his body turned from formless to solid, revealing himself wearing his usual brown leather combat attire. He spoke with authority:
"Two days from now will be the start of your mid year exams and this will be your final combat class until it is over. As you would of already been notified, the details of your exam will be revealed tomorrow in one of the academy's assembly halls. You have been in my class for half a year and now I want to see the fruits of my labor and so today every one will spar pair by pair and show me that I have not been wasting my time, that includes you too Nick. Who will be going first?"
Nick walked to the front of the group with his sword and transport briefcase and said:
"Sir Varrow, I have a better idea."
Varrow frowned at Nick's words but let him continue with what he was doing. Nick threw his transport briefcase onto the ground and opened it, revealing a large sum of money. Varrow raised both of his eyebrows at the sight and all of the other students went into a commotion, however, Nick raised his voice above theirs:
"This briefcase contains £50,000,000. I want to battle with each and every one of you one by one and whoever is able to defeat me first will obtain this money. How about that?"
The students whispered:
"Has Nick gone crazy? He wants to battle all of us, hmph, just because he has some decent spells and some sword skills, he is trying to bite off more than he can chew."
"That's exactly what he is doing. Were did he get so much money, anyway? I heard that he was just a poor nobody."
"Weren't you here when Marsha Cassidy made that commotion a month ago? Apparently Nick has some sort of business."
"If he wants to gift me his money, then I will gladly take it."
...
Varrow laughed at the scene that was going on in front of him.
(To think that this young man is willing to use such methods to incite these students. Fine, I won't interfere.)
Varrow stood at the side and after he finished laughing, he quietly waited for the show to unfold. Everyone took his silence as assent to Nick's actions. Nick looked at Varrow, then at the other students and then asked:
"Who is first?"
Kevin Stalwart stepped forward and declared:
"Nick, your actions are too outrageous and your method too unsightly. I will do our class justice by teaching you some decorum and respect for trying to bribe us with money."
Although Kevin said this, he eyed the money in the briefcase with undeniable interest. Although most of the students of Richter Order Academy came from fairly well off families, that did not mean that they had endless resources at their disposal and in many cases, progress with their magic cultivation required a certain amount of money and so to the students, having £50,000,000 to spend was just too attractive an opportunity to pass up.
Nick said in response:
"Then let's not waste any time."
(Blink.)
Nick disappeared and reappeared twelve meters away from the rest of the students and waited for Kevin to come at him. Kevin ran to the area within ten meters of Nick and cast his advanced grade spell immediately:
(Light of the Three Musketeers)
Three, three meter tall figures of blue light resembling humans in medieval style battle amour appeared and stood at Kevin's sides and front. Nick raised his right eyebrow in response:
(Oh, he has improved. Those figures of light didn't have battle armour when I fought him before.)
Kevin then used another spell:
(Glory Wall)
A cylindrical pillar of intense yellow light surrounded only Kevin's body and shot up into the skies, beyond the clouds. All of the other students except Nick gasped at the wondrous sight; it was like a scene from a movie where the hero was about to make an epic final attack against the villain.
Nick shook his head in disappointment. He could tell that the second light path spell was a rank 2 basic grade spell from the intensity of the magic energy that gathered around it; in recent times after reviewing dozens of the spells that Carla had given him, Nick gained a better understanding of the differences between basic, intermediate and advanced grade spells. That spell, although it looked amazing, just looked amazing and wasn't anything special.
(Spell creation is so interesting, depending on how the laws for the spell are designed, even a rank one basic grade spell could be made to look as destructive as an atomic bomb without having any real effect. That light barrier is probably a defensive measure but if Kevin thinks that will protect him, he is sorely mistaken.)
(Blink.)
Nick disappeared and reappeared two meters in front of the three figures of blue light and they reacted immediately by lunging at Nick, looking like they were ready to tear him apart. Nick gripped his sword tightly with his right hand and cast his spell:
(Reinforce With Soul.)
A translucent miasma covered his sword's blade, increasing its sharpness and hardness by at least a large degree. Nick took a firm stance with feet apart and as the warriors of light were about to pounce on him, he positioned the tip of his sword near to his left shoulder and then swung the sword quickly in a horizontal line, casting a spell:
(Cleave.)
In an instant, all three figures of light were cut in half from their midsections and they dissipated; Kevin's spell was literally cut apart. Kevin who was standing within the light pillar looked on with a shocked expression.
(What the fuck just happened?)
Nick held his right shoulder with his left hand and proceeded to flex his right sword holding arm.
(Well, that worked better than I thought it would. I created Cleave after reviewing a lot of basic grade blade path spells and a few intermediate ones. It's really not much different from Sever except that I created it using Valteese but it works based on the same principles and has almost the same effect except that Cleave is a true blue blade path spell and its base strength is determined by the qualities of the blade used to cast it. The sword that I have is good but for it to achieve such a great effect, I used Reinforce With Soul on it before I cast Cleave. It's a good thing that blade path and soul path don't conflict much.)
(If I were to compare them, I'd say that Sever is a more flexible method because I don't need a blade to cast it but Cleave can be cast with more power and destructive force depending on the blade that I wield. The former is of the rule path and the latter is of the blade path so there are more pros and cons to consider.)
Nick stood in front of Kevin's great pillar of light but Kevin did not react even after Nick had cut through his light and enslavement path spell. Kevin just stood in one spot inside the pillar seeming to be waiting for something to happen. Nick wasn't interested in waiting so he went ahead to create a pillar of his own; Nick pointed his left index and middle finger at Kevin's light pillar and cast:
(Rumbling Pillar.)
A large amount of magic ice crystals floated up from the icy ground within Nick's mindscape and were consumed by the laws of Rumbling Pillar. The space around the light pillar warped, shook and twisted and eventually under the effects of Rumbling Pillar, Kevin's light pillar broke apart and Nick cancelled Rumbling Pillar before it crushed Kevin, however, as soon as the light pillar was destroyed, Kevin spewed out a few mouthfuls of blood and fell to the ground, obviously suffering from some kind of backlash.
Varrow shook his head slowly and transformed into a gust of wind, moving next to Kevin within a moment and casting a healing spell on him. He spoke out loud for the benefit of the class:
"The spell that Kevin used to create that pillar of light is called Glory Wall which is a common rank two basic grade defensive spell. It has fairly good defense but requires the caster to actively maintain it for a fixed period of time before it can be safely dispelled and therefore its forceful destruction means that the caster will suffer a heavy backlash."
Nick went into deep thought for a moment:
(Did this idiot think that he could protect himself behind that light wall while those three figures of light dealt with me. Kevin lost because he overestimated his first spell and underestimated me.)
Varrow only took a few seconds to heal Kevin who got up off of the ground and walked to the back of the crowd with an embarrassed expression. Nick did not pay anymore attention to him and asked openly:
"Who is next?"
............
At the end of combat class, everyone except Varrow and Nick left with a defeated and dispirited expression. Nick picked up his travel briefcase with the £50,000,000 and faced Varrow, asking:
"Are you satisfied with your students?"
Varrow sighed.
(The quality of this year's new second year students is really lacking. Nick managed to defeat many of them with one or two spells and most of them he defeated using the Waiting Viper or Menacing Crane sword techniques and not actual magic.)
"Hmph, don't get cocky. Those students still have much to learn and so do you."
Nick nodded and replied:
"I know."
Varrow raised his right eyebrow at Nick's forthright admittance:
(He at least has some self-awareness that he is still lacking in some areas, that's good.)
"Are you ready for another special exam?"
Nick half smiled and replied:
"Yeah...ready as I'll ever be. By any chance, do you know what form this special exam will take?"
Varrow rubbed his chin and thought for a moment:
(I'll do this kid a favor and see what happens.)
"You didn't hear this from me but all second years will be sent to a public realm for this test: the never ending battlefield."
Nick replied:
"A public realm, not private?"
Varrow replied:
"Private realms are owned by companies or individuals but public realms are the property of the country who gives access rights to it. That's all I'll say so the next time we meet you better have an interesting story to tell."
After saying that, Varrow transformed into a gust of wind and left the combat field.
"The never ending battlefield..."
Nick took out his smart phone and did an online search on that phrase and the results shocked him.
"A realm where visitors are basically immortal!"
.................
The next day, inside one of Richter Order Academy's assembly halls...
Xavier Gecko, the dean of Richter Order Academy, stood on the central stage in front of over a thousand second year students and spoke with authority:
"The second year mid-year exam will begin tomorrow and will take place within the British Government's never ending battlefield."
There were gasps among the normal students who did not yet know of the venue of the exam. They knew that the British Government had discovered many peculiar realms that they did not allow any private interest to claim because of the realm's special effects and/or strategic resources. The never ending battlefield was one such realm. Xavier continued:
"This year, your exams will be conducted jointly with Raylam Priest Academy as an effort to mend the strained relationship between that academy and ours and the exam will be monitored by both academies as far as we are able. For those of you that do not know, the never ending battlefield is a high class realm that the British government has been trying to research for many years and has only explored within a few thousand kilometers of the entry point and has yet to come into contact with an advanced civilization. So how do we know that it is a high class realm?"
The students remained quiet in order to listen to Xavier's explanation because although everyone knew what the never ending battlefield was, only students from very influential families knew its details exactly.
"The first reason is because the British Government has discovered many signs that intelligent life-forms besides us from Grand Earth had gathered and settled within the never ending battlefield at one point and the second reason is the abundance of renewable resources that the never ending battlefield contains. The never ending battlefield has only been explored to a certain extent because of the dangers that appear after a particular distance is traveled within the battlefield which include regular magic beasts."
Nick nodded his head in understanding, he had already read up about magic beasts and knew that regular magic beasts were on a whole different level than apprentice magic beasts. So much so that a random rank 5 Traveler Magician will probably not be able to defeat a rank 5 magic beast by himself because of their magical defenses, powers and/or size which can be immense in comparison to one human's.
"With all of this in mind, you are to head to the entrance of the academy tomorrow morning for transport to the site of the gateway that leads to the realm. That is all."
Xavier dismissed the students and they all left the assembly hall, including Nick. Nick went back to his commercial building and sat in one of the large offices of the second floor, reading his emails on the computer. The academy had sent the details of the exam and Nick was reading through it thoroughly.
"The second year exam will be jointly conducted with Raylam Priest Academy and therefore the students of both schools will interact closely. Within the realm, there will be no direct monitoring of the students but any crimes committed will be investigated. The students will enter the realm at a starting point within a town settlement developed by the British government which will act as a rest point while within the realm. The students' objective during this exam will be to defeat as many other students and magical beasts as possible by the end of the exam. Each student will start off with a score of zero and will gain one point for each student that they 'kill' that does not already have a score, ten points for each rank 1 magic beast and thirty points for each rank 2 magic beasts that they kill. When a student kills another student with a score, half of that score will go to the killer."
Nick thought about these rules for a moment before saying:
"It looks like the academies are trying to nurture the students' combat abilities with this exam. The email says that helping to kill someone will not get you any points and that anyone killed will somehow be teleported back to the town in a revived state upon which they can continue the exam, thus the name of the realm: the never ending battlefield. The British government sometimes uses this realm to train soldiers and its own Magicians so the surroundings that have already been explored are relatively safe in terms of magic beasts for which the strongest should only be rank 2."
Nick read the last part of the email and was surprised to say the least.
"Five days on Grand Earth will be equivalent to five years within the realm and the exam will be hosted for ten days, Grand Earth time...."
"So the exam will last ten years. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Magicians aren't just scholars, they are supposed to be fighters and from what I've seen, the other students are greatly inept at fighting which means that this exam is meant to toughen them up. What a great way to do it. Ten years in a never ending battlefield..."
Soon, a knock came from Nick's door and he responded:
"Come in."
Following his response, a middle aged man dressed in dress pants and a long sleeved, buttoned up white shirt came in with a cart filled with dishes of meals, saying:
"Your supper is here, sir."
This was Nick's newly hired steward/chef/butler that he now gave the responsibility of making sure that the building was cleaned and maintained and that Nick was served meals when he was here; his name is Dewy Johnson and hiring him was easy, Nick just had to have an agency within the academy grounds find a decent person for the job and they sent him over for Nick to interview and hire him. Dewy had been on the job for two weeks already and had done well so far.
"Thanks Dewy, you can leave the tray here and go. Oh, and I'll be away from this place for about two weeks so see to it that everything is okay while I'm gone."
Dewy nodded his head and left. Nick smiled and began to eat the meals while watching a few motivational videos on his computer. Nick had much success in selling his scrolls which had made him over £6,000,000,000 in the past month. Nick had finally entered the ranks of billionaire by the age of twenty. Although the process was tough, it was worth it.
After he ate, Nick called Carla and told her about his exam and how he would not be able to manufacture anymore scrolls for the next two weeks. She said in understanding:
"Do well on your exam and we will talk when you get back."
Nick spent the rest of the day meditating and then went to sleep so that he would be well rested for tomorrow.