The morning sun that had just fully risen above the Royal Astra Magic Academy warmed the white stone courtyard, reflecting golden sparkles from the main towers of the largest magic institution in the Astra Kingdom.
Campus activities resumed at a dynamic normal rhythm.
First-year students were seen bustling carrying thick book stacks toward lecture halls, while instructors prepared advanced practical materials for the new semester.
In her professor preparation room, Erin Arven stood before the old mahogany wooden bookshelf, tidying several parchment scrolls just returned by the administration council.
Although the dimensional crack threat at the northern border had been successfully resolved and peace recreated, Erin's mind was not entirely free from curiosity.
Ever since yesterday's familiarity night and her reflection in the class 101 classroom, one thing kept bothering her mind: the small wooden box legacy of her late mother stored in her desk drawer.
Inside that box, besides notes on *Spell Transfer* techniques, there was a small silver key carved with a labyrinth-shaped rune she had never found the keyhole for.
Erin reached for that wooden box from the drawer, opened it slowly, and took out the silver key emitting a silvery cold glow beneath the window light.
She looked at the rune carving shape on that key carefully.
The labyrinth pattern shape closely resembled the ancient architecture style used in the lower part of the old academy archives building—a restricted area known by senior professors as the Sealed Underground Library.
That place stored thousands of ancient manuscripts, ancestral era historical documents, and sealed forbidden magic experiment records not allowed to be accessed casually without direct permission from the Academy Principal or central council Grand Magister.
"Does this key have a connection with that underground archive?" Erin muttered softly to herself, her curiosity swelling further.
She knew entering the restricted area without official permission was a major academy rules violation.
Yet, as someone now bearing the blood legacy and power from her mother—and as a wizard who successfully saved the dimensional seal—Erin felt there was truth regarding her mana origin intentionally hidden in the darkest place in this academy.
Without wasting more time, Erin put that silver key into her dark blue robe pocket, straightened her appearance, then stepped out of the professor preparation room.
The academy corridor looked quite deserted because most students were attending outdoor magic practical classes in the eastern field with Professor Adrian.
Erin walked calmly along the side corridor of the main building, descending the circular stone stairs bringing her increasingly lower beneath ground surface.
The further she walked down, the surrounding air felt increasingly cold, damp, and smelled characteristically of old paper dust and underground moss.
The crystal lamp glow light on the wall hallway began dimming, replaced by the flame of blue illuminating magic torches installed periodically at every wet stone wall corner.
Finally, Erin's footsteps stopped before a tightly closed rusty giant iron gate.
That gate was decorated with heavy chains carved with high-level magic locking runes emitting a dim purple glow—absolute sign that the area behind that door was the Sealed Underground Library.
Erin took a deep breath, channeling a bit of pure mana to her fingertips, then touched the locking rune chain surface.
Instantly, a strange reaction occurred.
As Erin's fingertips touched the rune-carved iron, the locking chain vibrated slowly.
The purple glow that was previously dim suddenly turned bright blue, perfectly resonating with the unique mana frequency flowing inside Erin's body.
*Kliling... klik!*
With a heavy creaking sound echoing along the underground hallway, the magic locking chain released by itself, as if recognizing the rightful owner of the silver key now residing inside Erin's robe pocket.
The giant iron gate slowly opened wide, revealing a pitch-black hallway filled with ancient book shelves as high as stone ceilings.
Erin did not hesitate.
She stepped past the threshold, entering the underground library room untouched by sunlight for decades.
Once inside, the gate's creaking sound closed by itself behind her, isolating that place from the outside world.
Erin raised her right hand, creating a glowing blue light ball above her palm to illuminate the surrounding darkness.
The interior sight was astonishing.
Thousands of thick books with dusty monster skin covers were neatly arranged on ancient wooden shelves.
The smell of old paper and ancient magic chemical scents instantly wafted filling her sense of smell.
Erin began walking along narrow alleys between book shelves, observing ancient manuscript title labels written in the kingdom's ancient rune language.
Most books here discussed magic creation history, dimensional boundaries, and research notes on human mana core evolution.
However, Erin's purpose was not just reading ordinary history books.
She was looking for something more specific—something related to her mother's notes and the reason why her ability to use *Spell Transfer* had direct resonance with the northern dimensional cracks.
She walked deeper into the innermost part of that underground library, where old iron shelves were isolated by defense magic barrier circles that had weakened.
In the darkest room corner, there was a single marble stone reading table.
On that table lay a large black leather-bound book without a title, locked by a silver padlock whose keyhole shape matched the silver key inside Erin's pocket.
Erin's heart beat a bit faster.
She reached into her robe pocket, took out the labyrinth-carved silver key, and stepped approaching the marble reading table.
With hands slightly trembling due to curiosity mixed with anticipation, Erin inserted that silver key into the padlock keyhole on the large book.
*Klatik.*
The silver padlock opened with a single light turn.
Erin opened the book's black leather cover slowly.
Dust scattered into the air as the first book page opened beneath her blue magic light ball glow.
The handwriting she knew very well—her mother's handwriting—was listed neatly on the yellowish old parchment.
Yet, before Erin could read the first line of that page content, heavy footsteps suddenly echoed at the dark hallway end behind her, followed by the squeaking sound of the giant iron gate forced open.
"Who dares enter the Sealed Underground Library without permission?!" a man's firm, cold voice echoed sharply among the library stone walls.
Erin was startled, immediately closing the book before her and turning to face the sound source.
From the hallway darkness, a tall shadow figure with council honor robes stepped forward, revealing a face very familiar to Erin—Grand Magister Valen, standing with cold gray probing eyes and a mysterious smile at the corner of his lips.
"Turns out my guess was right, Professor Erin," Valen stated sharply, his voice echoing across the underground room space.
"You cannot hide your destiny forever behind this academy's walls."