Chapter 2 (2/2)

Walking up to Grant’s bed, he swung his hand at Grant’s handsome face. The slap landed heavily on Grant’s face with a resounding smack.

That was for the original Link. This Grant had often picked on the original Link. Once, he had even pulled a prank that caused Link to break an arm.

Grant’s father was a duke, so the young man had chosen to suffer in silence. But the Link now would never do that.

With that slap, Grant woke up, startled, and jumped up from the bed. Pressing a hand to his cheek, he looked around, yelling, “What’s going on? What’s going on?”

He was still hazy from sleep, not fully understanding the situation.

During all this, he relaxed his grip on the wand in his hand.

Quickly, Link snatched the intricately-made wand from him. Then, he lifted an arm. Before Grant managed to get a grasp of what was going on, a karate-chop landed heavily on the back of his neck.

Grant’s eyes rolled back and he fell back onto his bed, unconscious.

He had no idea of what had just happened.

Link had the wand!

Link admired the wand in his hand. It was 15 inches long, with rings of magic-imbued gold inlaid along its length. Tiny magic runes had been engraved throughout the wand, a new moon embellishing its tip.

A virtual box appeared beside the wand as he admired it. Glowing text flashed through the box.

New Moon Wand

Quality: Fine

Effect: Offensive spells gain +20% power

(Note: Coming of age gift from Duke Gridan to his second son, Grant)

Link smiled. The God of Light made this gaming system really well. It has a true audio-visual feel to it, he thought.

He had gotten the New Moon Wand. Taking out his pocket watch, it was now 9:50, he still had forty minutes left. There was more than enough time. He walked out of the room and placed the tip of the New Moon Wand against the door lock. Activate—The Magician’s Hand.

With another click, the bolt of the lock was destroyed. With the wand, The Magician’s Hand had become much more powerful! No one would be able to open the door now, whether from the inside or from the outside. Even if Grant woke up halfway, he would have to find a different way to get out of the room.

In another forty minutes, no one in the academy would care about anyone else’s affairs.

He had the wand. That was the first step.

Link made his way to the first floor of the Apprentice’s Dorm. On the first floor, there were a few display cabinets. One of them contained a magic bracelet called The Band of Protection. It was a low-level magic item. The one who wore it could use the Level-2 defensive spell, Guarding Barrier.

Link had to have it.

During this period, because of the low Mana density, there were less powerful people around as compared to the future. A Level-2 defensive spell was already considered to be very strong. Used well, it might even save his life.

As the war progressed, powerful forces clashing caused dimensional cracks to appear across the Firuman Continent. As a result, the Mana density of the world would increase, and along with it, the number of combatants. By then, Level-2 Spells wouldn’t do much at all.

But his problem now was that a fully-fledged Magician lived on the first floor—Madame Fairfax. This kind old lady was a Level-1 Magician who was also the dorm supervisor.

She was a light sleeper and woke up at the slightest noise. It would be much more difficult to steal the bangle with her there. But Link had a plan.

He walked towards the stairs, but his footsteps paused before another door. Sentimental feelings welled up within him.

Link blinked. The young man’s memories replayed in his head.

The Apprentice’s Dorm was a mixed dorm. An Apprentice called Celine, a commoner, lived in the room. She studied in the Magic Academy on a full scholarship thanks to her exceptional talent in magic. Within just three months, she had mastered three Level-0 Spells. Her future was bright and unfettered.

According to his memories, Celine was a very beautiful girl. Even without makeup, she was the uncontested first beauty of the Magic Academy. But that wasn’t the reason for his feelings. It was because she had been a great help to the original Link. When Grant had broken his arm, Celine had helped to look after him for more than a month, giving the excuse that she held some responsibility in the incident.

Link was introverted and had almost no self-confidence. He had virtually no friends in the academy. He easily developed strong feelings for Celine within that month.

“Haha. Kid, is she your puppy love?” Link chuckled softly to himself.

He wasn’t willing to stick his nose in. He would be lucky just to make it out on his own. With one more person, the danger he faced would increase exponentially.

Turning to leave, he took a step, then a second, and then a third. On the fourth step, he froze.

He found that the sentimental feelings within him had become much stronger, so much so that he could no longer go on ignoring them.

“Fine, fine. Since it’s your last wish, I’ll do it. After all, I did take over your body.”

It was inexplicable. But when Link made that promise, those feelings vanished. He felt lighter, as if a burden had been lifted from his chest.

Link knew that the original owner of his body had disappeared forever.

What a besotted fool, Link thought, shaking his head.

He would take this Celine away, but not now. Now, he had to steal… no, take The Band of Protection.