The Shadow Prince's Ascent, a fantastical story of a forgotten ducal son rising to save the world from catastrophe.
You'd think it'd be a popular novel, but that was far from reality.
It had only a handful of readers till the very end.
I kind of looked up to the author. The ability to not ever give up. To keep going at it no matter what.
1288 chapters,
it was a relatively average amount of chapters for an entire novel.
Some chinese novels even reach over ten thousand chapters.
Now that very same shadow prince, I had diligently followed was right before my eyes.
He had features like Belle's, deep black hair like an empty abyss, and piercing golden eyes that seemed to dim unlike Belle's.
He was handsome like an idol, with pristine snowy skin and a face that seemed chiseled by the gods, drawing crowds and people towards him with utter ease.
His hand had a small silver ring adorned in some fancy pattern with that hand he held a matching but plain silver sword.
His hair was damp, and his clothes were soaked in water adding to the ambience he gave off.
A dark, off-putting, yet captivatingly mysterious aura.
'Ah...'
"Who are you?"
He said his voice low and concise.
"Ah, Henry this is a guest that Cale and Lucas brought."
Belle suddenly explained easing the tension.
The mana around him felt off as if it was telling me to "stay away"
and yet I was fascinated by him.
How couldn't I?
It's the damn protagonist I've read for years.
His ups and downs, his relationships and friends, his losses and wins.
We were in the kitchen, the chefs diligently cooking food for us.
Cale wanted to surprise Belle, so she left a little after
leaving me and Henry sitting alone.
He never put his sword away for even a moment instead it leaned against his chair.
"Do you not have a sheathe for that?"
"No"
He plainly said while a servant gave me a glass of coffee and him a protein shake.
"Here let me borrow that ring for a moment."
He paused looking at me like a hawk, analyzing and observing me, and yet I stretched out my hand.
'He'll give it to me because of "Instinct." A completely annoying skill.'
Without saying a word, he placed the ring in the palm of my hand.
With my finger, I wove a magic circle imprinting it in the very design of the ring.
[Continuous Magic Circle]
[Space Magic: Pocket]
I handed him back the ring, a storage ring that I create is at the same level as high-quality brands.
"What's your name?"
'Got him.'
Henry only asked for the names of people he found useful; it was a simple habit he developed.
"Lucien, Lucien Polstrey."
"You remind me of someone..."
"It's my eyes, right?"
"Yeah."
I knew exactly who he was talking about, his childhood friend and future heroine.
My self-proclaimed rival, Lily Feliehn.
I still remembered little blurbs from the novel and that's how I knew, he was talking about my eyes.
———
Her eyes glistened with curiosity as she played with those circles of wind magic.
'She must love magic.'
Henry thought to himself longingly watching Lily's face full of child-like wonder.
'I wish I was magic.'
———
'Truly the thoughts of a loner.'
You know, he kinda reminded me of myself.
A servant put a dish before Henry,
Chicken, steak, eggs, and a couple of vegetables.
'What a protein addict.'
"May I get another glass of coffee?"
I asked a nearby servant; it seemed I wasn't any better.
***
"Hey, can you teach me teleportation?"
"Oh, me too."
Two idiots and a princess knocked on my door in the middle of the night asking me to teach them.
'Guess it can be practice.'
I still recall my end goal after the end of the novel, to become a professor at Novius Academy.
"Fine."
And just like that the four of us were out on the training grounds the knights used.
"We have a training room we could use instead of this place."
'Damn rich kids.'
And just like that the four of us were instead in a large empty white room.
"I'll assume what you guys want is a "Flicker" or a "Blink" since actual teleportation would be near impossible for you guys."
For those without affinities to a certain magic type learning even basic spells like teleportation can be tough and even then, it probably won't even be right.
They all nodded in agreement as I thought about how to do this.
"Give me a moment."
'This could work maybe.'
I closed my eyes and started trying to feel it,
the axis of space itself.
[Flicker]
I tried manifesting a spell with the name Flicker, but it fell short.
When manifesting a spell, the concept has to be different than something else.
In essence "Flicker" is just "Short-Range Teleportation".
"Ugh..."
'Guess I'll have to try something else.'
I saw the three of them looking at me anticipatingly and after a few moments I finally got it.
[Movement Technique Creation: Fail]
"Hah..."
I tried again going through the steps once again.
Step 1: Use mana to feel the space psions in well space.
Space psions are abundant and can be almost found everywhere.
Step 2: Use mana to manipulate the space psions to drag you across the axis of space.
For me, it was relatively easy because I was adept with using and controlling space psions.
[Movement Technique Creation: Flicker]
'I'm lucky that went well. I would've been awkward if I couldn't do it.'
I inwardly sighed in relief as it only took four tries to create the technique.
I asked Belle if I could have an empty skill book and after a few moments, a servant came to me with one.
[Imprint]
The word "Flicker" etched across the small book and previously the book filled with pages became only two pages.
"Learn this"
I chucked the book at the three of them and they looked through it checking the contents.
"You really are a monster, an absolute monster."
Cale said as he was utterly impressed with the technique I just created.
"I'm in Advanced Mana and Spell Mechanics 2 and even this seems far out of my reach."
Belle commented also looking at the whole two pages.
"That's our Lucien for ya."
'These guys are all dumb as rock.'
But they did make me realize something,
we all needed to be stronger.
If we wanted to face this world, we'd have to get stronger and fast.
For the rest of the night, I began trying to develop new spells whilst giving them pointers on the movement technique.