Elemental Cats

Although Toz and the cats dived into the descriptions and labels of the grimoire to try and understand the base of how they used mana, the descriptions were rarely more than a few sentences. And since the names of the spells were also quite simple, Toz and the cats didn't waste much time on each grimoire.

Toz and the cats mostly read each grimoire's description until they understood the spell and the spell's use and purpose. They would try and comprehend the workings of the spell's mana later, when they had more time and freedom. Toz and the cats were still trying to find at least one exceptional grimoire, after all.

The receptionist hadn't mentioned a time limit of any kind, but Toz doubted that the tent was open for business without stopping. Well, the receptionist did sleep on the job, so maybe it was open for business more than Toz thought. But in that case, it meant that there would be another customer before long, which would wake up the sleeping receptionist.

That in itself wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but Toz didn't think that the receptionist would appreciate them spending so much time in the back room if there was another customer waiting for him inside the shop.

Toz also wanted to find what they came looking for as quickly as possible. If they really did find a grimoire on the same level as the one Hassandra him, it would be better to begin studying it as soon as possible in the hopes that the one who got it could use it during the upcoming battles.

And the sooner they were done reading through all the grimoires' descriptions, the sooner they could begin experimenting with their own magic. Toz was especially keen on trying to reach the level of fire magic he couldn't reach during his prison break. If he could, it was sure to bring his combat strength and offensive might to incredible heights that his relatively low level would hide.

If he could learn the spell hassandra got him in addition to that, Toz was almost sure he could at least land a hit on Yill. Or perhaps another transcendent that was weaker. Yeah, that would be easier.

However, as soon as that thought struck him, Toz realized he was letting his progress get to his head. He was still at the sixth level. And he was already thinking about successfully landing a blow on a transcendent, someone four levels above him. And that was without taking into consideration the nigh-unfathomable divide between the mortal levels and the transcendent level.

He had indeed gotten stronger than he was when Yill turned him and the cats into icicles, but Toz hadn't grown so far that he could confidently compete with the power Yill had shown. Not to mention how she had likely held back a lot of her strength so that she didn't injure anyone or trigger the effects of the Transcendent's Pledge.

Even if Toz mastered the spell and made a breakthrough in his understanding of fire, enough so that his standard use of fire magic was on the same level as a spell, Toz didn't think he could win against Yill. He had to break through to the high levels, at least. But even that probably wasn't enough.

Toz shook his head to try and get rid of the final dregs of overinflated confidence and any stray thoughts as he refocused on the grimoires in front of and around him.

Making progress with his magic was good, but progressing too fast and too much could easily lead to a skewed perception of his strength when compared to the rest of the universe.

Toz was worried that he was still misjudging his strength, but he was relieved that he had realized it when he was reading about grimoires and thinking about his future. And not when he was fighting or right about to initiate a fight.

If he thought he could beat someone that he could barely even touch the shins of and acted upon that belief, he would only put himself and the cats in harm's way.

Thankfully, he had realized it before something bad happened, and Toz promised himself that he would stay neutral regarding his future advancements in magic. He wouldn't underestimate himself since that could lead to just as much trouble, and he wouldn't get rid of his confidence in himself. That was one of the things that made him Toz, after all.

However, he would try and keep an eye out for how his self-perception changed. If he got overconfident once, it could happen again.

After getting his thoughts in order, Toz returned his focus to the grimoires.

He and the cats had gone through the names and descriptions of a lot of the books, but there was still an incredible number of them left. And all of them were beginning to get a little mentally tired from reading and actively trying to understand the spells' purpose and function.

But Toz and the cats weren't going to take any breaks until they were done or until they found something extraordinary that wasn't just weird but useful as well.

Fortunately, the odds of them finding something rose with each shelf they went through. At least as long as they worked under the assumption that there was something to find. However, Toz's intuition told him that there was something within the back room, and his intuition was rarely wrong, if ever.

Toz and the cats continued looking through the grimoires. At first, since they drew inspiration from the strange and obscure spells they found, they didn't lose much motivation. But as time went on and they still didn't find anything, they slowly became demoralized.

That was when Toz noticed something.

Nil hadn't moved on from the grimoire in front of him for quite a while. Since his head was lowered and Toz could see his eyes, he first thought that Nil had fallen asleep. He had personally felt the urge to close his eyes and rest his eyelids for a few minutes, so he didn't blame Nil.

But when Toz looked closer, he noticed that Nil was wide awake, and his eyes blazed as he read and re-read the description on the grimoire on the floor in front of him.

And above the description was one word. Garden.