Noah entered Training Hall 16, the usual hall that Cecilia used to train him and the rest of his group.

This time, entry was free. The cost would be carried by Professor Cecilia.

Closing the door behind him, he walked forward until he was standing in the middle of the hall.

Reaching into his spatial ring, he retrieved the first spell he wanted to master. Since he was starting from the least difficult, he was holding the spell parchment for the F-rank Frigid Hunger.

After studying the spell formation for a few minutes, he stretched his hand, and began forming it. A minute later, the complete spell formation clicked into space.

Noah grinned at the sight. That was the power of S-rank magic control.

He cast the spell, and the spell formation disappeared in a muffled flash of light.

The temperature around him dropped, and a thin layer of frost appeared on his shirt. He smiled at it, the spell parchment in his left hand crumbling to dust, the energy inside it spent.

Nodding to himself, he reached inside his spatial ring and retrieved the next spell. The B-rank Eternal Cradle. With it, he would be able to drain the life out of anything in a radius around him. Of course, he wouldn't be affected by the energy.

Maybe it was because of the work he had put into memorizing Devour, but it only took ten minutes for him to have all the glyphs and curves of the spell formation stored in his head.

He raised his palm in front of him, and began forming the spell formation. It was surprisingly easier than he thought. Still hard, but it was easy.

Devour had taken him an hour to cast for the first time, but maybe that was because he was new to it. With the way Eternal Cradle was going, he might be able to master the spell in just 20 minutes.

And so he worked, his focus fixed on the spell. Time passed by slowly, and by the time he had the complete spell formation gleaming above his hand, thirty minutes had passed.

"Phew!" He sighed, wiping the sweat off his brow with his left forearm.

The spell formation was beautiful, shimmering above his palm with a glowing off-white color.

Taking a deep breath, he cast the spell. The formation disappeared in a muffled flash of light, and... nothing happened.

Noah blinked, looking around the room. "What?"

The spell parchment in his left hand crumbled to dust, signifying he had cast the spell, but nothing had happened. He hadn't seen any waves or energy in the air.

He summoned the spell formation above his palm again, this time taking a single second, since the spell was now imprinted on his soul.

He cast it again, and nothing happened. No waves, no nothing.

'Wait a minute.' He blinked at his palm. Why was he expecting something to happen?

It was a wave of death. If he could feel it, he would be dying, or dead. Besides, it was a hunger spell. Some of them didn't emit waves of visible energy.

Exactly like Frigid Hunger. When he'd cast the spell, all he had seen was the effect. The temperature dropping, and frost appearing on his shirt. But he hadn't seen any energy.

The same was true of Eternal Cradle. He'll only see the effect as it drains the life of a living being trapped within its radius.

That meant he couldn't use the spell on anything he didn't want dead. Which meant he needed to find a monolith as fast as possible.

In there, he'll test all his new spells.

Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out the next spell in line. The A-rank Null Stride.

While Aegis of Hades was also an A-rank spell, Noah knew he needed Null Stride more. This was an A-rank spell, and he had no idea how long it would take him to master.

It might very well end up being the last spell he'd learn today. Learning it wouldn't be a waste, since it would increase his mobility.

Besides, he was starting to get cooped up in the academy. He'd only been to the capital once, and on the free day a few days ago, he hadn't gotten a chance to go.

He could wait till the seventh day to leave just like the rest of the students, but that was not the point. Null Stride also meant he'd be able to sneak out to monoliths too when he found a suitable one.

With a grin at the prospect of attending classes during the day, and getting farming for spells during the night, he held up the spell parchment.

If the spell formation for Eternal Cradle was like trying to fit a cockroach through the eye of a needle, the spell formation for Null Stride was like trying to fit a rat through the eye of a needle.

It was several times more difficult.

Just memorizing the lines alone was a hurdle he had no idea if he could cross. After fifteen minutes, he still didn't have it all down.

It was like trying to hold water in a basket. He just couldn't hold the entire image of the spell formation in his mind's eye.

A few minutes later, he sighed, realizing he was getting nowhere. The information just refused to stay in his brain. The lines of the spell formation blended together with the formations he'd already memorized, and he couldn't pull it together in one coherent circle.

So, he stopped trying.

He simply stared at the parchment before him, taking a seat on the sand of the training hall. He eventually looked away, and began drawing spell formations on the ground.

As he drew, he realized something. He was drawing the formations from the inside out. He'd started with the central glyph, then began drawing the lines, then filling the holes in it with the necessary symbols and curves.

What if he memorized the spell formation in the same way?

He quickly cleaned the spell formations he'd drawn in the sand, picking up the spell parchment.

His eyes traced the Null Stride spell formation, starting from the middle glyph. Slowly but surely, the spell formation began to slot into place in his mind.

He grinned, giddy, and time passed. Twenty minutes later, he emerged from his state of intense focus, a complete spell formation swimming in his mind.

"I did it..." He said, as if he couldn't believe it. "I did it!"

He cheered, pumping his fist. But this was merely the easy stage. Just as it wasn't easy to form a B-rank spell formation, this was A-rank. It would be even harder.

And with his S-rank magic control, it would take him more than a few tries to master the spell.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes. He spent a minute simply breathing in and out, putting himself in the right mental state.

When he opened them, his orange eyes glowed as mana surged through his body. He raised a palm, and quickly sank himself into the act of forming the spell.

He sat there, trying and failing, and little by little, night slowly approached.

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