It was Raze's second day of being in the academy, and he was seated in his room, head down, facing a book — the book on mana recovery. He hadn't seen his roommate yet, as for some reason, the dude never came to the room the previous day, so Raze had the place to himself.

He was engrossed in the book; it explained that mana existed constantly around everyone. The body was built to naturally form mana through a slow process in the core, assisted by the environment.

But the recovery rate could be heavily increased using a specialized breathing technique that allowed you to use the nose passage to take in huge amounts of mana along with air. It increased mana recovery and allowed for longer casting time.

The only issue with it was that it wasn't sustainable over a long time. The mage would need to take a full rest after a month or so to actually recover.

After gaining the basic logic and understanding of the technique, Raze shut his eyes and took a deep breath. It took only a few seconds before he could already sense the mana.

"Take a deep breath, targeting the mana," he muttered before drawing a deep breath. The mana rushed through his nostrils, instantly feeling invigorating. It was like he was being washed with something extremely cool from the inside.

It passed through his mana veins and then got into the core to be stored for when he needed it. The feeling was almost addictive. Raze sat there, eyes closed, taking deep breaths for over an hour, filling his mana core up to the brim.

SLAM!

The door of the room suddenly swung open, followed by a loud laugh and a cheerful giggle. Raze's eyes shot open, his gaze locked on the door. His eyes met with a young boy about his age, dark brown hair and a handsome face, with his hands wrapped around the waist of a girl their age as well. She had dark hair and a pale complexion; her body was so small that his hands wrapped around her easily.

Raze knew a loli kink when he saw it, and this dude had found the closest thing to it.

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" the boy barked, letting go of the girl and rushing in with blind rage. But when he got close and saw the face of who was seated there, he froze, subconsciously taking a step back and pointing.

"You—you are that Raze Grimhold," the boy said.

"So? What's wrong with that?" Raze asked. He got up on his feet. "Whatever acts you two were just about to commit, go ahead, but keep it off my side of the room or I'll break something when I come back." Raze's eyes drifted down to the lower half of the boy, making his spine crawl.

As Raze walked out, he noticed that the girl kept staring at him. She didn't say a word, even after he walked past, but she looked at him until the boy shut the door and then grabbed her by the waist.

"Come on, let's get started," he said.

"Wait, is he your roommate?" she asked.

"Uhm, yeah, seems like it. But he won't be around most of the time. Recall he wasn't here for a full week," the boy said. For some reason, there was a frown on her face, but she quickly wiped it off and replaced it with a smile.

After Raze left the dorm, he decided to head to one of the training rooms the academy had. Why? It was time he finally practiced how to cast a gate. Learning teleportation was fun and all, but the main reason he started learning was because he wanted to be able to return home whenever he wanted.

Ribest was his workshop, his sanctuary, and he had neglected it for so long. Now he wanted to find a way back so that he could continue his development.

He got into the training rooms, they were built for intense fighting and spell casting. No one really regulated them, so anyone could use a free one. He shut the door and then walked in. It was an empty space with a marble floor.

Standing at one point of the room, he looked at the other and began remembering the details of making a gate as he had read a while back.

Unlike teleportation, to make a gate, he had to visualize the place. This worked better if you had a great memory. Raze already had that, so he didn't need to worry.

You had to visualize the place, the location, and everything you could possibly know about it; then you would be able to open a gate to that specific place.

Much like teleportation, it had its own risks. If the gate was a little bit wonky, you would die. If the mana distribution was bad, you would die. If there was a space disturbance near the gate, it could lead to death or severe injuries. These were the risks that Raze was about to face. He shut his eyes and then visualized the end of the room as he had already taken it into memory.

And like with teleportation, he used his mana to grab hold of space, ripping it apart and then instantly using mana to seal the edges of the tear, creating a portal.

He opened his eyes, excited to see that it had worked, but when he looked ahead for the second one, he discovered it was on the ceiling halfway through the intended distance.

"Sigh, this is gonna be a long one," he muttered before stopping the gate and trying again. Try after try, he got closer and closer. His mana ran out, and he used the breathing technique before going on.

Until finally, after about a hundred tries, he got the perfect gate at the other side. Joy filled him as he watched the gate. With a smile on his face, he walked in and walked out through the other gate.

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