"Attention! We are entering the Enchanted forest, so be very cautious!" The sect master shouted.

Finally, a new area! Me and the legion have been trekking through a forest for... I'm not too sure how long (probably hours). I wasn't sure how much the area was about to change since all I saw were the same plant and animal types, but it would be nice to have a change in scenery. Right to my left was Pewjack, a convenient encyclopedia for my use.

"Hey Pew, what is this place?"

"Wait what? You have no idea?" Pewjack seemed shocked at my ignorance. "Haven't you heard the stories of the monsters that roam here?"

"Nope."

"Seriously?" He sighed. "To put it simply, there are strong monsters roaming here due to the abundance of natural mana here. You'll probably see one of them soon."

As if to emphasis on the part about monsters, a huge snail (taller than most of the trees in the area) slid into view. Dozens of students screamed at the sight (I was totally not one of them). Before you go wondering why powerful mages would be so immature to fear bugs, let me explain. This FREAKING snail was even taller than some of the shorter trees around the area, standing around four metres tall. It shook it's ridiculously large mouth, greyish goop like saliva dripping out in huge globs. It was no surprise that many of the students readied their spells, ready to launch deadly volleys of magic at it.

"STOP!" The sect master yelled. "Don't cast any spells, the snail is a herbivore and will only attack when provoked!"

Sure enough, the snail had no interest in meaty morsels before it. It docilely chomped onto the canopy of a nearby tree, making a horridly loud crunching sound as the wood splintered and broke. The legion quickly left from the snail despite how "harmless" it was, but I couldn't blame them (mostly because I was anxious to get away from it too).

Afterwards, our trip through the Enchanted Forest went surprisingly smooth. Most of the large monsters didn't have much interest in us and the sect master and elders took care of them if they did. One student did get badly injured though; it was Rice (hah). Apparently, when she got too excited and took the lead, she fell into a "Carnivorous Pit Plant" (Pewjack told me what it was when I asked) and the elders had to bail her out. Many parts of her skin unprotected by her armour were now scarred badly, making her freak out (I felt a little satisfied but felt guilty afterwards). The sect master readily assured her that there was a nearby city, Yaolus that was reputed to have many powerful healers.

And that's how we ended up in Yaolus.

Nothing left to do, most of the other students just mucked around, buying tasty food and window shopping or something. Honestly, I wasn't sure. I didn't pay that much attention to them so these were just guesses. What I first thought of to do was to find a bookstore somewhere that I could learn more spells. But I had no idea where the nearest one even was.

Wait a second, isn't that Griaugh munching on a sandwich?

"Hey Griaugh, mind helping me find a bookstore? I’m looking for spellbooks to read.”

"Oh! No problem, just let me finish this first." He answered, continuing to eat. I sat down next to him, watching as he ate his food. I must have been looking a little wistful or something, since he offered me a spare sandwich. Not one to refuse a free lunch (peasant habits), I wolfed down the delicious sandwich.

"Whoa, you must have been hungry, huh?" Griaugh raised an eyebrow as he continued to slowly savour his treat. I actually wasn't that hungry, but it was just a habit I had to finish my food quickly. Now that I finished my meal, there was nothing to fo but wait for him to finish. I was even tempted to try my luck and ask for another, but I felt like that was pushing it too far.

"Ah, that was satisfying!" Griaugh pat his stomach. "Give me a second."

His eyes went void black like back in Iodious, and he started groping the air again. Random passerbys were freaked out yet again, most of them veering around him (I did too since I didn't want to be groped by him by accident).

Soon, I was lead by him into a fancy looking bookstore. It was really big, and had many, many shelves decking the area. I think there might have even been a hundred of them, but I'm not too sure. There were were signboards attached to the top of each of the shelves labeled with tags such as Fictional Tales, Spatial Spells and more as well, allowing easy navigation to a books one would want to read. I already liked the place a lot from this alone. It was not unlike a library as well, with people milling around and picking up random books.

I was about to fully to walk through the Fiction category, when the label on the spine of one of the books caught my eye, 'Herald's Tale'. That legend was here even in this place? I wondered if I was actually still in the same country, unlike what I originally thought. The spoken and written language being the same attested to that as well. I could ask someone to confirm it, but I think it'd be very embarrassing to have to ask someone what country I was in.

I slid the book out of it's shelf, examining it. The cover was different from what I recalled, but that wasn't a surprise.

"Weren't you were looking for spellbooks?" Griaugh asked quizzically.

"Yeah, I was. It's just nostalgia." I flipped through to a random page.

"You can buy it again to reread it again if you want." Griaugh offered. "I know you don't have money, but I can help you buy that."

Oh shit. Somehow, I forgot yet again that my currency couldn't be used here. It was a good thing I still had Griaugh as my "saving grace". As I read the first few words of the tale, I realised something was off. It was written in a completely different manner and in a different style, obviously by a different author. That was somewhat strange.

"Sure, why not?" I answered. Since he's going to pay for it, I might as well take it, right?

I took the book off the shelf and walked off, continuing my search for spells. It didn't take long either, the nearest one right next to the 'Fiction' shelf, labelled 'Miscellaneous Spells'. That was strange. Why would a spell be considered miscellaneous instead of an elemental category?

"Great choice Alan! I've learnt many useful spells from the miscellaneous sections too!” Griaugh beamed as he gave a thumbs up.

Huh. Griaugh could learn those despite his element being light? I wondered if these spells were somehow usable by all elemental users.

"Griaugh, are these spells able to be used by anyone?"

"What?" Griaugh seemed shocked. "Of course not! You need to be compatible with the spell first!"

"So, you do need an element of the same type to learn the spell?" I questioned.

"Noooo! Didn't you learn that in-" He paused. "Ah, I forgot. Uh, basically these spells don't have elements to them, but not everyone can learn them. I have no idea how that is or why though."

"So it's a hit and miss when you buy these spell to learn?"

"Yeah, kinda I guess." Griaugh scratched his head. "Refunds are still not allowed despite that."

"Huh." I looked through the spells. There were a huge variety of spells, ranging from 'Platonic Entrapment Escape' to 'Sound Ninja', a ridiculous variety of mostly "useless" spells with few interesting ones. The one that caught my eye the most was 'Sound Ninja', since I recalled Griaugh making use of it.

"Nice choice there! I'm not sure if you are compatible with it like me, but it's a great spell if it works." Griaugh exclaimed.

"Yeah, I think this is the one for me." I said, stacking the spellbook on 'Herald's Tale'. With a turn, I prepared to head to the counter when something made me stop in my tracks. It- No, she. She was standing right in front of a shelf, curiously gawking at random books. She was the girl with the golden hair I saw back in the abyss!