"It's a draw?" Anya declared with a bit of hesitation.

Anya had watched the match carefully. Nico kicked into Ashe's body aura at the same moment Ashe's fireball reached Nico. She didn't look at the cuffs, but it was close enough to declare a draw.

"It's a draw," Vincent also concluded.

Ashe and Nico both shrugged and then shook hands.

"You have just learned force barrier, so I'm surprised it took me several tries to break it," Ashe stated truthfully. If it had been anyone else, their barrier would already shattered after his first spell.

"You as well. I've seen a couple of interesting spells in other spars, but this is the first time I've seen someone fight without relying on a partner," Nico commented back.

Ashe shrugged, he was used to fighting alone.

"I didn't expect the spells to curve like that."

"Magic manipulation requires a lot of practice."

"Whew, that was interesting." Jack patted Ashe in the back. "You're better than I thought."

Ashe glared at Jack, who backed away.

"Take it as a compliment buddy!"

"Hands off, I'm not your buddy."

Ashe and Jack continued bickered.

Vincent looked to Nico. "That's not your full strength, isn't it?"

This guy... Nico looked at Vincent with a bewildered expression. "Of course not, it's just a spar, and I'm more cautious since I've never been up against a magician before. Ashe didn't fight with his full strength either."

Vincent nodded.

"How would you do against Ashe?" Nico asked.

"Probably the same as you."

Nico chuckled. "You remind me of my brother."

"You have a brother?" Vincent wondered.

"I mean, sort of like a sworn brother." Nico forgot he didn't have any siblings in this world. "Sometimes, I can't tell what is in his head."

Vincent smiled. "You as well..."

Nico smiled cheekily.

Jack hovered around Nico and Vincent and then dragged their necks toward the exit. "I'm hungry, let's go to Killo!"

****

Later that night, Nico returned to Arango Forest with Snowy and Junior. He wasn't used to the darkness, but Snowy and Junior could see well in the dark and retrace their path.

Arango Forest was different at night. Hunters were cautious in the daytime, but they needed to be on constant alert at night. Manabeasts were more active at night, and hunted in pack. A single misstep could lead to death.

Nico followed the sound of Snowy and Junior footsteps, only stopping once in awhile to use Minko's vision to survey the area and gather more unusual manaherbs. He brushed against the twigs and branches as he plowed through the Arango densely covered floor.

Snowy led the way while Junior sniffed out for danger. Nico spent a lot of time in Lindan Peak training the twins. Snowy was better with directions. She could easily memorize her way around any location she had been to once.

Junior had a sharper sense. Once he was able to differentiate the differences between blood, metal and humans, he made a good subst.i.tute for a scout.

Junior sensed something, and sniffled twice to make sure. He jumped on top of Nico's head and tapped three times with his fluffy paws.

A lick indicated humans, a nibble indicated trap and a tap indicated manabeast. Three taps meant a lot of manabeasts.

Junior could sniff out things within 200 meters. Nico could only sense half of that. Unfortunately, Junior couldn't tell how many and the exact location, just a general direction.

Nico avoided all the manabeasts. He didn't have time to deal with them.

Once in the clear, Nico used Minko's vision again. Shadow symbols cl.u.s.tered around a manaherb to the far right of him. Nico snapped lightly, Junior and Snowy stopped and followed Nico. Nico felt his way toward the source of the cl.u.s.ter. Under the forest canopy, not a single speckle of light from the stars and moon could be seen.

As he closed in on the manaherb, he used Minko's vision again to check his progress. The manaherb was only three steps away.

Nico began casting a light spell.

Nico used Saturn's ring to gather light shadow symbols nearby, and began forming circular structures. His light spell created by Saturn's ring was weaker than Minko, but he didn't need too much light. Furthermore, it could attract unwanted attention.

After a minute, the structure of the shadow symbols mirrored that of candlelight, Nico cast a light spell, creating a marble sized ball of light that floated on top of his head. The dimly-lit ball cast a small shadow within a small area of the forest. His MP lowered by one.

Nico experimentation with Magic was limited to light and wind in the beginning, as they were the safest to experiment with.

In the brisk early spring of Rinlin Village before he entered the academy, Nico had spent a lot of time gathering data on light and wind spell. It was easy to collect wind data for the spell, but most of the natural daylight couldn't be a.n.a.lyzed with Minko's vision, just a bit of light from twilight.

Nico focused on the candle in his room, as it had the least complex light shadow structure. After understanding the structure, he attempted to cast a candlelight spell.

As he sat before the mouth of the river between the farm and Rinlin, he faced the moonlit lake and gathered the various light shadows with Minko. Minko moved swiftly around to gather the various light shadows. Minko's travel range at level 29 was approximately 3 meters around Nico.

Once the shadow symbols were collected and formed, Nico released the spell. His MP dropped by one, but nothing happened. Nico's order for the shadow symbols was incorrect. Nico reordered the shadow symbols several times. After a week of experimentation, he finally got the correct order.

A small marble sized ball of light appeared, generating only half the light of a regular candlelight. After casting the same spell a couple of times, Nico realized that the spell didn't need to be directly in contact with his body like mana force. Instead, Nico could create the light ball anywhere within Minko's range. Minko could also move the light where ever Nico needed it to be.

Nico's light lasted for 5 minutes. Every time it began to disperse, Nico had to will the magic to continue at the expense of an additional MP. With the shadow symbols formula already set, the shadow symbols automatically gathered within Minko's reach. Nico could continuously cast the light spell until he was out of MP. Nico readjusted the numbers of shadow symbols until the light matched the amount of light released by a candlestick. Nico wasn't able to create anything bigger or more intense.

After experimenting all he could with the light spell he called Candlelight, Nico experimented with wind spells.