Christian and his group walked toward this world of mirrors, everyone tied together by a rope that bound them at the waist. The last thing they needed was to separate just as they reached close to the test's end zone. Unfortunately, Christian's efforts were useless. As soon as he entered the area, he found himself alone, with numerous mirrors around him.

He pointed his wand while looking around. He tried calling out the name of his team, but his voice just echoed in the mirror, making the entire situation even eerier.

'Alright, let's calm down and have faith in the others,' Christian told himself. He saw there was a path among all these mirrors, so he slowly headed in its direction. As soon as Christian approached the nearest mirror, something changed, and he immediately pointed his wand.

However, nothing jumped out or attacked him. Instead, he saw himself. Christian saw a version of himself at a funeral crying, with his aunts and uncles trying to reassure him. He focused on seeing the name on the grave: it was his mother.

The mirror image reminded him of the timeline he first travelled to. He thought it was odd, but continued moving forward. The next mirror also changed, showing him another alternate version of himself. It was the same funeral, except this time, he was the one who was dead, and his mother and family were crying.

'That's not ominous at all,' Christian thought. He exhaled to clear his mind of these complicated thoughts and continued forward. This entire area was focused on showing him alternate futures of himself, and somehow, they were all horrible outcomes.

He saw his mother spending the rest of her life searching for him, but she died in a ruin, with despair in her eyes. He saw himself dying in an experiment while trying to return home. He saw himself dying in a foreign world, full of regrets that he could not return home.

He saw that he had returned home, but it was not his home. He saw a future in which he and his mother tried to save his father, but failed miserably. He saw a timeline in which his father returned home, but he soon became mad and killed his mother and aunts, and Christian had to put him down.

Christian saw many possibilities for how his life could go, and they were all negative. He had to control himself and not allow these images to get to him. Luckily, he was firm-willed, focused, and could effectively regulate his emotions. Regardless, when he saw the light at the end of the mirror path, he rushed out.

He immediately found himself back in the starting area, where all participants had been mass teleported. His team was already out, sitting on the dirty ground. However, this was not as important as the fact that everybody looked like they had experienced a challenging battle.

"What happened to you guys?"

"Did you trounce your mirror clone? I guess I should expect this from you," Xin'er commented. Christian noticed some burning marks on her clothes.

"No, something is not adding up. If it was an easy fight, why did it take so long?" Kallista asked, with her clothes and hair disheveled.

"I didn't fight anyone," Christian said truthfully.

"You didn't? Then, what were you doing?" Lucretia demanded. Her clothes and hair had sword cuts, and her hair contained dirt.

"My test was more of a spiritual one. It's complicated." The group looked at each other. It appeared something had happened, and Christian did not want to talk about it, making the situation slightly awkward. Luckily, someone approached them, distracting everybody.

A young man in his mid-20s, with brown hair, wore a black wizard's robe with a badge that read: Official Wizard Markus Delentus.

"It seems you have the right number of people," Overseer Markus said. "But I still need to check your identification card. It also appears you require medical treatment." He turned his head and yelled, "Silus, this team needs you."

Christian summoned the card from his bag and handed the rest to his team. Markus gave him a look before tapping his red wand on the card. A screen manifested before him like a hologram, but sadly, no one besides Markus could read the content.

"Hmm? It says your team should have an extra member — a Menes Abubakar — where is he?"

"Here," Christian said as he summoned Menes' frozen body.

"Is he alive?" Markus said, looking at Menes' state. He took a moment before yelling, "Silus, hurry up."

"I'm coming," responded another young man in his 20s, wearing a green magical robe and a badge, but his badge featured the Rod of Asclepius as its symbol.

"Look at this?" Markus said, pointing to Menes.

Silus was immediately intrigued and immediately analyzed Menes' state. He moved his wand over his body while muttering a few incantations. "Is this a make-shift suspended death spell? It's an interesting premise to use low temperatures to safeguard the body and to utilize life energy to preserve all other internal functions.

"Who did this?"

"I did," Christian said.

Silus looked at him. The first thing he thought about was how young the latter was. "You may have a knack for the path of a healer. You should consider mentoring under Master Apos."

"I will."

Silus nodded. "I need you to unfreeze the patient to understand what kind of injury he sustained."

"He wasn't injured."

"Then, what warranted such treatment?"

Christian was momentarily quiet. "He was suffering from blue powder withdrawal."

Silus's body paused as soon as he heard these words, and Christian noticed this subtle change. "Is something the matter?"

"If what you say is true, then this is beyond my healing capabilities. We'll need a better healer to look at him."

"Wait, you said he's addicted to blue powder?" Markus asked.

"Yes."

"That complicates things."

"How so?"

"Our rules forbid the use of blue powder, and anyone discovered using it will be disqualified."

"Hold on," Lucretia said with a raised voice. She stood up from the floor and asked while staring intensely into Markus' eyes: "Are you suggesting we will also be disqualified?"

Markus did not answer her.

"The rule was that all our teammates needed to be alive. He's alive, isn't he?" she asked him, pointing her fingers at him. "Isn't he?"

"He is, but —"

"No buts. And, isn't it your job to discover whether he was on blue powder before the test? Why do we have to suffer for your dereliction of duty?"

"It's not that simple."

"It is to me," Lucretia snapped back immediately.

"This…is beyond my responsibility. I will contact my superior to make a decision." Markus rushed to the side and summoned a tennis-ball-size orb. His voice then trailed off with the wind as he communicated with someone.

"In that case, I'll take him to the Treatment Hall," Silus said, not wanting to get involved in this matter. He knew the power of the Metalus Clan, or the subtle political connection between the library and the Blood Crest families.

"Don't forget my team's treatment," Christian reminded.

"Oh, right," Silus observed their injuries and checked on them by waving his wand over their bodies as the tip released a green light. "Your injuries are minor, so this should not take much effort. However, let's be safe." He was looking at Lucretia from the corner of his eye when uttering the last part.

Silus took a small bottle of potion and removed the lid. He pointed his wand at the tube's hole and uttered: Sanatio Pluvia." A few milliliters of the potion flew from the flask and transformed into a small cloud above the team's head, raining a green liquid.

The effect was immediate. Wherever the rain touched, the injuries—whether they were cuts, burns, or other kinds—instantly healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. Even their hair seemed to be more luscious than before.

Christian's eyes lit up after seeing this spell, as it reminded him of his mother's tribal magic. 'Sanatio Pluvia — Healing Rain. It's an interesting spell,' he thought. Now that he knew the incantation, he could calculate the wand movement to learn the spell. As long as it did not require an [Intent], Christian could say with confidence that he had learned a spell used for group healing. More importantly, it's a spell that also uses tribal magic theory.

"All good," Silus said with a smile. He secretly ensured Lucretia was back to full health, meaning he could leave peacefully, and if needed, he could argue that he had done his part and not get into trouble.

"One more thing," Christian said, making Silus' lips twitch. Christian noticed his expression, but he ignored him before explaining Kallista's situation.

"You're joking, right?" Silus said, looking at him incredulously.

"Do you think I would joke about something like that?" Christian replied seriously. "I just want to ensure there is nothing wrong with her."

Silus frowned. "If that's true, I envy your mind that can think of using Transfiguration in such a manner. However, your story is not adding up."

"What do you mean?" Christian knew he was telling the truth, so why did this man insinuate he was lying?

"The only way to explain her situation is that you accidentally altered her, but when you reversed the process, something went wrong, and she inherited a part of the transformed creature. Forget how a young child like you could use Alteration Magic, the chances of this Veela inheriting a positive quality of the Acromontula instead of a deformed aspect are astronomically low."

"But I'm not lying. They can testify as witnesses," Christian pointed to his team. Silus looked at them, focusing on Lucretia.

"He's not lying," she said, and Xin'er nodded.

"Is that so?" Silus approached Kallista and checked her body for the second time with his wand. "Physically, she is fine. Well, as far as my capabilities go. So, if you're telling the truth, you may need to see a more capable healer."

"No need," Kallista said.

"But —"

"I'm fine."

Christian looked at her, and after seeing her eyes, he decided to insist no longer.

"Is that everything, or can I take my leave?' Silus asked.

"That's everything."

"Good." Silus took Menes away, leaving the team to wait for Markus to deliver the library's decision. Christian used this opportunity to ask the burning question he wanted to:

"Xin'er, do you know what Alteration Magic is?"

"Hmm, oh, Alteration is an advanced form of Transfiguration. It allows wizards to perfectly transform into magical animals and divine beasts, even inheriting their magical abilities."

Christian was immediately intrigued. "In other words, a transformation that works on a genetic level. It would be interesting to be able to mold my genetic information. However, that raises an important question: does regular transfiguration not affect the genes?

"That can't be it. The reason transfiguration is so dangerous is that it's easy to get stuck in another form. If the gene does change, how could the transformation remain permanent? One day, I should observe the difference in the molecular structure of transfigured creatures."

Christian took a moment to write Entry 37 in his mind. He would wait later to write it down in his notebook.

"Does he get like that often?" Kallista asked.

"It happened a few times during the test," Lucretia nodded.

"I can now understand why he's so powerful," she commented.

"Sorry about that," Christian apologized. "I can't help it when these inspirations come over me."

"We understand," Kallista nodded.

"You should be careful. My mother told me that Alteration is one of the most dangerous types of magic to study. If you don't have a capable teacher, you'll more likely be stuck as one creature. Or worse, turn into half-human and half-beast, "Xin'er warned.

"Believe me when I say that I understand," Christian replied seriously. He's curious, but also careful. His mother has warned him too many times about the danger of magic.

"Good."

Now that Christian's curiosity was quenched, the group chatted for a few minutes, waiting for Markus' return. Luckily, they did not have to wait for long.