"Come on, Sebastian, think!"
He shouted to himself, voice edged with panic and adrenaline, as another fireball screamed through the air toward him. It collided with the towering bookshelf behind which he'd taken cover, exploding with a deafening boom. Flames and smoke curled outward, but—miraculously—the shelf held. Only a few books tumbled free, bouncing harmlessly around him.
"Whoever built this thing—props. I owe you one."
He muttered breathlessly, eyes wide as he stared at the scorched but still-standing structure. Without hesitation, he sprinted toward a nearby cluster of even taller, sturdier-looking bookcases, slipping into the maze-like shadows they offered.
"Okay… so let's get things straight. I have a wand and a spellbook. The spellbook's empty. The library is filled—no, overflowing—with books."
He paused mid-thought, heart pounding. Then a realization clicked.
Wait…
The gears in his mind started turning, thoughts shifting from panicked to hyper-focused. He scanned the endless shelves, the scattered volumes on the floor, the floating tomes drifting through the air like leaves in a storm.
The key material is here. Books. And there's a lot of them.
Oh my god, why didn't I think of this before!?
Eyes lighting up, Sebastian dropped to one knee and snatched up one of the fallen books—choosing the one with the most elaborate, arcane-looking cover. With a flick of his wrist, he cracked it open, expecting revelation.
It's… blank??
His eyebrows shot up in disbelief. But before he could unleash a dramatic whine about the absurdity of it all, his spellbook pulsed in his peripheral vision. A radiant glow enveloped the book in his hands as it disintegrated into glittering dust, funneling into the air and fusing into the pages of his own tome. Glowing lines of text etched themselves across its surface in elegant, shifting script.
[Spell Unlocked: Earth Wall]
[Mana +50]
Sebastian's eyes sparkled, his grin spreading with manic delight as the system notification chimed.
"Talk about convenient!"
He cackled, but was cut short as another fireball blasted toward him, this one finally punching a hole clean through the bookshelf and roaring past his head—so close he felt the heat sear across his cheek.
Time to move!
Sebastian didn't hesitate. He gripped his wand and jabbed it toward the breach. A pulse of magic surged through him, and with a grunt, he summoned a solid wall of stone where the explosion had torn through. The energy drained from him in a noticeable rush—like something primal being siphoned from his bones.
"So mana works just like energy here… got it."
He thought quickly, ducking behind the newly conjured wall. No time to rest. He reached for more books, yanking them off shelves and snatching them from the floor as fast as he could.
"One… two… three…"
One after another, the spellbook absorbed them, converting each into raw mana and new spells. The glow around the book intensified, humming with mounting power. Sebastian's pace accelerated—half-mad with excitement, ducking explosions, rubble, and flying pages as he hoarded knowledge like a manic scholar in a fantasy apocalypse.
Occasionally, shards of broken stone from nearby impacts struck his head, but he hardly flinched. His grin only grew.
"Twenty!"
[Milestone Reached: 20% Mana Usage Reduction Passive (Unlocked)]
The system chime was like music to his ears. He barely glanced at the covers now—no longer caring if they were flashy or plain. Each book was fuel. Each page, a step closer to overwhelming power.
It was the beginning of something dangerous.
The start of uncontrollable magic being handed to a man who had lost everything—and perhaps the most unhinged person in the world to ever receive it.