Summoned with an SSS-Rank Portal Skill

Chapter 52 Magic Academy Exam (10) - The Truth

'What the fuck is this?' William thought as he got up from the bed.

The sound was too strange. He did his best to remain quiet so that he could hear it better—and not be heard. It came from one of the locked doors in Jinra's house. William stopped in front of it and waited. He wanted to hear the sound again, just to be sure.

Then, after a few minutes, the creepy sound came from the other side of the door once more. William heard scratching on the walls, followed by a muffled voice.

It gave him the creeps, so much so that he decided to return to the barn and try to sleep there. William didn't have the courage—or the reason—to open that door and see what was on the other side.

'I'll just wait until Jinra returns and ask him...' William thought.

The barn wasn't the best place to sleep, but it was better than being inside that house. He closed his eyes, and sleep came...

William returned to the present in Aethel, inside his temporary dorm room in the magic academy. He looked at the clock on the wall, seeing it was around 3 am.

With nothing better to do, he continued his training. The progress had been minimal, but that was expected with Magic Mind, an almost impossible spell to learn.

He managed to create a few runes and keep them 'alive' for a few seconds, not much different from what he had managed to do in Jinra's house. The only difference was an increase of one second before the runes disappeared.

When it was around 7 am, William left his dorm to meet the others, Altair included, to get breakfast in the same dining hall they had been in previously.

Every single exam participant was there, as well as some students. The students kept glancing at William.

He had become a kind of celebrity, but not in a good way. They all expected him to fail the test, to fail to learn the Magic Mind spell.

Altair, who had a chicken leg in his mouth so early in the morning, said, his voice almost impossible to understand with the amount of food stuffed inside, "Don't mind their looks, bro. You will succeed."

William smiled. "It's been how many days since you last ate?"

"S-Shut up!" Altair said, a small piece of chicken flying from his mouth.

Breakfast was one of the best parts of William's day. All he did during the rest of the day was practice the spell and endure the anxiety of not knowing if he would pass the exam. He imagined that every exam taker felt the same way, but at least they had easier spells to learn.

William returned to his room after breakfast and stayed there the entire day. He left his room two other times—to get lunch and dinner. The rest of the day was spent practicing the Magic Mind spell. When his Chrono Shift spell was off cooldown, he would use it again and practice more in Jinra's barn.

Yes, Jinra's barn. He didn't feel like returning to the house. William was even hunting his own food in the surrounding area to avoid the food stocked inside the house. The voice was just too creepy for him.

Following that routine, seven days passed. During the seventh day, as he was practicing inside the barn as always, Jinra returned. Jinra saw him in the barn and couldn't help but ask, "I am back, William. Did something happen?"

"We need to talk."

"Sure. Let's go inside and talk about it," Jinra said with a gentle smile.

William didn't want to go. "Look, I'll be brief. I heard some creepy sounds coming from one of your locked doors. It was as if a person was scratching the walls and murmuring. Can you explain?" Enjoy new chapters from empire

The first thing that came to William's mind was that Jinra was some kind of maniac who locked people in his basement. With everything that William had witnessed in his previous world and this one, it was more than possible.

Jinra, on the other hand, was relieved. "Oh, so that's what you heard? I thought it was something bad. Do you want to come with me and see what's behind the locked door?"

William pictured the two of them opening the door, and then Jinra tossing him inside. But considering he had his portal skill to escape if needed, William went along with it. "Sure, let's go."

Jinra had been kind to him, and he wanted to believe the old man wasn't a bad person. Once they were inside the house, Jinra placed his backpack on the table and went to the locked door where the noises came from.

"Is this the door?" Jinra asked.

William nodded, a shiver running down his spine as he recalled what happened that night.

Jinra opened the door, and the first thing they saw was a staircase leading down to some sort of basement. Before either of them said a word, Jinra went down. William followed close behind. What he saw down there was unexpected: a room stacked with various items.

"This is where I keep most of the stuff I got during my adventuring days, and even after that. What you heard came from this thing right here," Jinra said, stopping in front of a necklace locked behind glass panels.

"A necklace I got from a Lich. Its power is still a mystery to me, but I know it can cause those strange noises at night, trying to mess with your head. But it stopped for me after a week or so. Maybe it just gets tired, or my mental strength was too strong for it to influence," Jinra explained.

William sighed in relief. "Never would I have thought it was something like this, damn it. That shit scared me."

"I can imagine. I forgot to tell you about it since it's been so long since the last time this necklace tried anything. Anyway, come with me; I need to show you something," Jinra said, moving away from the necklace and going back up the stairs.

Before following him, William took a good look around to see the treasures hidden there, and then he followed Jinra, who locked the door again after they left.

Jinra moved to the table where the backpack was, and from it, he pulled out a lot of potions.

"I went to the city to speak with my friend, one of the best alchemists in the world. He made a few potions for me, and these potions should help you learn Magic Mind faster and more easily. It cost me a lot, but who cares? It's not like I have anything else to spend my money on."

The potions Jinra had varied in color, and when William looked at them, he could feel their power. They weren't ordinary potions that most alchemists could make. The ones Jinra brought were exceptional.

William was excited to try them. "So there aren't side effects with this method?"

"Uh, yes, but you can't take them all at once. Let's go gradually," Jinra warned him.

William grabbed the first potion—a reddish one—and drank it. A notification from the System appeared right after.