Dozens of holographic windows and physical books spread open on the sturdy table. With my back rolling on the soft bean bag, I skimmed my eyes through the book in my hands. The ceiling light's bright beams crashed into my eyes, blocking my sight of the book, but that wasn't an issue since the book was useless anyway.

With a sigh, I closed the book and tossed it on the table before picking another book from the enormous pile beside me. My back rolled over to face the ceiling and the light now fell directly on the book that had switched positions with me. The pages flipped over and over to reveal nothing of worth, not a single line helped me out.

I tossed it away and then picked up another book, then another, then I read through some articles, in the end, I pushed myself back upright and grabbed my hair tight.

""GODDAMN, THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!""

My voice merged with another as it made its way past the rows and rows of bookshelves and tables.

Just which other miserable soul had found itself here, on the 34th floor of the library where there wasn't anything but useless books on code?

My ears had perked up to welcome the next set of voices, but the blues song that I had set as my ringtone played out instead.

“It's an unknown number?“

{Ghosts, host! A library this big must have taken a soul or two!}

“Possible, possible.“ I said as I received the call.

The beep sound rang out.

“Hello?“

“”H-holmes?“”

A high-pitched voice came from the watch, while a slightly lower-pitched voice rang out in the library.

I smirked and turned off the holo-pen on my desk before walking to the bookshelves on my right. Passing through the rows after rows of shelves labeled with dozens of different categories, I turned to the next seating spot in the library.

Two short tables were set next to each other with different beanbags, small armchairs, and comfortable stools circling them. A sight similar to the one I had just seen was replicated here with dozens of books sprawled out and dozens of holographic windows supervising them. And at the helm of the table, with her back toward me, was the only person who would call me Holmes.

Seeing as she hadn't noticed me yet, I tiptoed and sneaked behind her and tapped her shoulders.

“Hieek!“

Like a tingling current going down, the girl shuddered and let out a scared scream.

She turned her head back in a snap, the eyes hidden behind the cinder goggles wide with fear.

“Hey, Remy.“

“W-what the hell! Holmes, that was rude as hell!“ Remy snapped back.

I guess I had gotten a bit friendly with her after our last meeting in the class, was this much playfulness not good yet? I felt slightly bad for getting her upset.

On the other hand, Remy quickly gained her composure back and looked at me with a snobbish grin.

“Stuck?“ she asked.

“Sure am.“

“Loser.“

“Should you be saying that? Who just screamed 'this is impossible' huh?“

“You did.“

{That's not wrong. You did too}

“What are you stuck with?“ I asked. Ignoring the banter. I'm sorry, but I don't lose battles.

“Engraving the spell on the golem.“

“Implicitly?“

“Yes.“

“That's easy.“ I was done with that ages back. It was good to know she was taking the harder route too, anything else would have been disappointing.

“You?“

“Getting the golem to channel mana.“

“Internally?“ she asked, there was no way I was going the easy route either. Well, ignoring the more basic stuff like movement.

“Of course.“

“That's easy.“

Remy and I stared at each other. She pushed all the books on her desk aside and I rushed to the seat next to her. We both opened up our assignments and let the other take a look.

“Everythin's as I would do it,” she said while scrolling through my assignment.

“As you would!?“ I snapped back. “What the heck is up with this maneuverability and dexterity? This golem can fight with all this!“

“Aye. I work on easy things when stuck, see ya?“ Her words were coherent but her attention was not on me at all, she was focusing on the assignment instead.

I quickly skimmed through the various facets of her golem, from the structures, materials, and code. In the end, I checked the documents with the failed versions of her integrating the magic circle.

Unlike the easier option, we had both chosen to make the golem use a spell, like a person would, instead of simply infusing mana in a limited magic circle and creating a low output spell. It was similar to the difference between pure magic and skill-based abilities.

She was on the right track, but she failed to adjust and fine-tune the spell and its magic circle accordingly with the golem. Some of the materials were off too. These were things I wouldn't expect anyone but a mage to know.

Her technical skills were impeccable. Even better than mine.

{I don't understand a thing. What is all this? Are you sure you guys aren't writing random things you pulled out of your ass?}

How crude. I ignored the system's remarks and turned to Remy again. She adjusted her cinder goggles and 'hmm'ed

“Ya're pretty skilled, eh? Just got the flow and materials wrong.“

Remy gestured at me to lean closer and tapped away at my assignment, I quietly let her go on and observed her as she fixed up the golem. She explained exactly the things I was confused with and within 20 minutes we were done with my assignment.

"I-it's working..." My impressed mutters were met with an extremely smug smile from Remy, she nodded with crossed hands. I set my stuff aside and took over Remy's holopen.

She moved aside and looked over my shoulders as I fixed up her attempts as well, there wasn't much need for work here since she was already on the right path. After that, I told her how to individually adjust the magic circles for the type and build of the golem, since hers was much more flexible than mine, it was a little more complex.

"O-oh... Mine is working too!"

This time, it was my turn to cross my arms and wear a smug grin.

Remy looked over the assignments from top to bottom and turned to me. "Ay, aren't we pretty compatible? We go well together."

"Sure do."

{Host?}

What?

"Say," she said. "Wanna do it?"

"Do what?"

{It}

It?

"Work together for the special exams?"

{Oh, that...}

"Yeah, I definitely do."