Ur glanced down at his fist, then up at the fist of a certain unreliable little old man.
After a moment of silent comparison, he quietly stepped into the Fairy Tail guild's library. Today, Ur wasn't planning on taking any missions.
Sure, making money was important. But what he had in mind right now was just as critical.
In the world of Fairy Tail, magic wasn't some rare or sacred treasure. Aside from certain extremely rare or unique types of magic, the most common spells were commodities—freely bought and sold. If you wanted to learn magic, all you had to do was head to a magic shop.
Of course, that only applied if you had the money.
And for Ur at the moment, that was a massive hurdle.
Thankfully, he had one advantage now. He was officially a member of Fairy Tail. There was quite a bit of magic archived in Fairy Tail's library, and most of it was freely available to guild members. As long as you were part of the guild, you could study and borrow to your heart's content.
Sounds generous, right?
In reality, the restriction hardly mattered because learning magic wasn't easy.
Most mages in this world only studied one kind of magic their whole lives. Because even mastering one could take a lifetime.
People only had so much talent and energy to spare. So, someone is trying to learn multiple types of magic? Unless they were either insane or inhumanly gifted, no one would even think about it.
Okay, fine.
Maybe you could add "cheaters with systems" to that list, too.
Ur himself had a D-Class affinity in water magic. If he had relied solely on that natural ability, becoming a powerful mage might not have been impossible. But Ur had always been a very realistic person.
Still, what he lacked, his system made up for.
The Lava Body passive gave him an affinity with both earth and rock magic.
He wasn't sure how high his affinity for those elements had become. But he had a strong feeling it wasn't worse than his original water affinity.
The guild library was almost always empty.
Let's be honest. Looking at that chaotic bunch in Fairy Tail, none of them were exactly the studious type.
So when Ur walked in, he wasn't surprised to find the room nearly deserted.
There was only one other person there.
She was a petite, blue-haired girl.
Had Ur not recognized her face, he'd have never guessed she was roughly the same age as him.
At the moment, she was standing on her tiptoes, stretching as far as she could to reach a book on the top shelf. Seeing this, Ur silently walked over, grabbed the book she was trying to reach, and handed it to her.
"Were you trying to get this one?"
"Ah… thank you!" The girl looked up in surprise, then quickly took the book with both hands, cheeks slightly flushed.
"No problem," Ur smiled. "I'm Ur. Just joined the guild recently."
"I'm Levy." Her voice was barely audible.
If the room hadn't been this quiet, Ur might not have even heard her. The Levy in front of him felt quite different from the one in his memories.
Physically, she looked the same.
But personality-wise? The Levy he remembered was gentle and introverted, sure. But not this shy.
Then again, this was four years before the timeline he knew. So it made sense.
After chatting briefly with Levy, Ur began browsing the shelves for the books he needed.
Learning a magic spell wasn't as simple as flipping through a book and mimicking what was written.
Magic required a solid foundation in magical theory. Even drawing a basic magic circle required calculations using magical formulas.
If Ur wanted to study earth magic, he'd need more than just the main spellbook. He'd also need at least two or three theoretical references to support the learning process.
The basic magic books were easy to find. The guild library had them sorted and categorized pretty clearly.
But the theoretical books?
Not so easy.
There were too many, and Ur didn't know which ones were useful.
"Um… if you're looking for something, I can help…" A timid voice came from behind him just as he scratched his head in frustration.
Hearing it, Ur's eyes lit up.
That's right!
How could I forget this genius was right here!?
Levy may have looked young and unassuming, and her combat power wasn't anything special. But she was a bookworm extraordinaire! If Ur remembered correctly, her favorite hobby was reading, especially ancient texts.
Even her magic revolved around letters and runes. A true academic prodigy.
"Then I'll leave it to you!"
Ur quickly explained the kind of books he was looking for.
In less than a minute, the required materials were stacked neatly in front of him.
"Thanks a ton!"
"You're welcome…" Levy murmured, going back to her usual bashful self.
Ur hadn't gone straight for any high-level magic books. With his current strength and control, he simply couldn't handle them. Besides, even if he tried, whether he could even understand them was another question.
Not everyone was like that red-haired old man, who picked super high-tier spells as his starter magic.
Ur chose three basic earth spells and one low-tier magic offensive spell to begin his training.
They would serve as his introduction to earth magic and a way to test the affinity granted by Lava Body.