The stone walls of the Great Library felt colder than usual as Silas scribbled his seventeenth essay on "The Molecular Density of Frost Bolts." Around him, other students were dueling in the courtyard, their levels ticking up slowly, painfully, one experience point at a time. Silas was tired of being a Level 12 Initiate. He wanted the power of the Arch-Magi, and he wanted it tonight.
It was working. Silas watched in a trance as his level skyrocketed. Level 20. Level 50. Level 100. New spells flooded his mind—Fire Storm, Dragon’s Breath, Void Warp—powers he hadn't earned but now possessed. He felt like a god. But magic always has a price.
Silas found the coordinates: a crumbling tower at the very edge of the map, tucked behind an invisible wall of jagged rocks. Heart hammering against his ribs, he stood in the center of the tower and cast the forbidden sequence. “Aura... Multiplicas... Automata!” Suddenly, the air shimmered. His XP bar began to flicker. +1,000 XP +5,000 XP