The jet of flame shot straight toward Rune’s chest.

Morel, who was standing beside him, jolted. He raised his right hand, and a glassy, spherical shield instantly enveloped Rune.

Rune’s eyes widened. He jabbed his left index finger upward.

The moment the Flaming Arrow was about to strike the Mage, it stopped short, hovering in mid-air.

Rune then blew gently, and the flame was extinguished.

"What was that all about? Have your skills gotten that rusty?" Morel glanced back at Colin and waved his hand, causing the strange, spherical shield to vanish.

He then complained to Rune, "Stop with these weird tests. If you blow up this coffee shop, the City Guard won’t let us off the hook."

Rune didn’t answer. After carefully examining the rings on his hand, he sighed in relief. "It’s a good thing my Defense Ring and Counterattack Ring didn’t trigger. Otherwise, that would have been a real problem."

Hearing this, Colin gulped.

’He really couldn’t imagine what kind of power the counterattack Magic on a Magic Professor would have.’

Rune looked at Colin and asked, "When did you learn how to cast?"

"A few months ago, I suppose."

"A few months? Was it really just a few months ago? Hmm... It must be because of that Elf Ring." Rune nodded, then asked, "What Magic System do you plan to study?"

"I don’t know," Colin answered honestly.

"Are you familiar with the Magic Systems? That’s basic knowledge you should have."

Colin replied, "I do, I just don’t know which one I should study."

The Magic of this world is divided into eight systems based on function and principle: the Evocation System, the Abjuration System, the Curse Magic System, the Illusion System, the Necromancy System, the Enchantment System, the Prophetic System, and the Transmutation System.

Most of the Magic Colin had learned so far was from the Evocation System, which specialized in creating elemental energy to Damage enemies.

In addition, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter was from the Enchantment System, and the Object Positioning Skill was from the Prophetic System.

’Colin didn’t know which school the Magic from his Task Log rewards would belong to, so he had no clear direction in his studies. He just focused on practicality, learning whatever was useful.’

"Tell you what. Start by auditing some classes. Once you have a better understanding of Magic, you can take your time deciding. You’re not quite familiar with it yet, after all. You can go to a class this afternoon."

After saying this, Rune took out a few pieces of paper with class schedules written on them.

He snapped his fingers again, and the papers immediately floated in front of Colin before landing on the table.

Colin collected the schedules and said quietly, "Alright, thank you very much."

"See? I told you so," Morel said, finishing his coffee. "You should have just recruited someone like him directly. That practical training class last time was completely redundant."

"This Black Tower Master isn’t someone who can be swayed with just a few words," Rune grumbled to Morel. "She detests incompetent people. If Colin hadn’t performed fairly well in that last practical training class, I wouldn’t be here at all right now."

The so-called Black Tower Master was the one in charge of the Black Tower.

The person holding this position was the equivalent of the dean of the Black Tower Academy, the commander-in-chief of the Gray Squad, and the manager of the City Guard. Essentially, the Black Tower Master had the final say in all matters within Thousand Masts City.

’Hearing it put that way, the last practical training class must have been a test.’

’It was a good thing I didn’t treat it carelessly back then. Seriously preparing for and teaching the class really did have its benefits,’ Colin thought, feeling secretly fortunate.

"Lastly, congratulations on becoming an auditing student of the Black Tower. I hope you find your own path soon."

Rune said, "Well, I have to get back to my research. The Isolation Magic here will last for another five minutes, so feel free to keep talking if there’s anything else you want to discuss."

Morel waved his hand. "See you later, old friend."

With that said, Rune downed the coffee in front of him and strode out of the coffee shop.

"So now you can study at the Black Tower," Morel said to Colin. "And you don’t have to pay tuition, though you’ll still have to pay for your own learning materials."

"Thanks, Morel," Colin said.

"Edwin helped you get this chance, so make sure you thank him for it."

Colin said, "That may be true, but I don’t believe you didn’t help at all."

"Just a little, for Edwin’s sake."

With that, Morel’s smile vanished, and he said seriously, "Also, I need to give you some advice.

When you’re at the Black Tower, don’t meet alone with Mages you aren’t familiar with. And except for people you trust completely, don’t tell any other Mages about Silent or your Dwarf friends."

"Aren’t the Mages in the Black Tower trustworthy?"

"That’s not it."

Hearing this, Colin breathed a sigh of relief.

"It’s that the vast majority of Mages in the world can’t be trusted."

The next sentence left Colin momentarily speechless. Morel said with some emotion, "In the beginning, Mages researched Magic to make life more convenient and create new things.

But as time went on, more and more Mages began researching Magic for the sole purpose of... well, researching more Magic. And that’s not a good thing. Sometimes, you can’t tell whether a Mage who’s advancing by leaps and bounds is just hardworking, or if they have a Demon, another kind of Demon, or something even worse backing them.

Honestly, Colin, if Edwin weren’t so confident in you, there’d probably be at least one Gray Squad team investigating you by now."

Colin nodded and said, "I’ll remember that."

"The rest is up to you. I still have to help Edwin with his work today." Morel clapped Colin on the shoulder and walked out of the shop, whistling a tune.

Colin rested for a moment before carefully studying the class schedule.

Most of the courses on the schedule Rune had given him were on the basics of Magic, with the vast majority being courses offered to apprentices.

He glanced at it and noticed there was a class that morning: *Research and Exploration of Magic*.

After a moment’s thought, Colin quickly grabbed the distilled liquor he’d bought and hurried back to his apartment.

He rushed all the way back to his room, where he rummaged around on his desk and picked up his notebook.

While he was at it, he washed the Antiseptic Oil off the bear gallbladder and threw it into the distilled liquor to soak.

However, since there wasn’t a culture of infusing liquor with animal tissues in this region, most people used things like herbs or fruit.

Some beverages called "Bear Claw Wine" were actually just mead, so named because Hunters liked to use the sweet drink to lure wild bears in the wilderness.

’Colin didn’t actually know what he was doing. He only thought of infusing it because he’d heard it was a thing in his past life.’

Once he had finished, he grabbed his things and ran toward the Black Tower.