The air inside the tower didn't just smell old; it smelled expired. Like someone had left a pile of wet newspapers in a basement for a thousand years.
Alaric's "Light" spell was hovering over his shoulder like a glowing tennis ball. It was draining his mana—he could feel the "battery" in his chest slowly ticking down—but he didn't care. He was inside a literal Elven Wizard's tower. This was the kind of thing James Silver would have spent forty hours of gameplay trying to unlock.
"Alaric! If you don't come back to this field right now, I will personally—" Gina's voice was a muffled squeak behind the mithral doors.
"Can't hear you, Gina! Magic stuff!" Alaric yelled back, even though he knew she could probably hear him fine. He was seven; he was allowed to be a brat. Alaric pulled himself away from the threshold and down the long, winding stairs. What felt like a hour of transit ended abruptly, standing before the Tower's entrance.
Two doors, not wooden or iron, but something more.
Mithral, the thought came to James Silver, The Metal of Elves.
These doors were colossal, each one tall enough that even a grown man would have to crane his head to see the top let alone someone as small in stature as Alaric. And yet the thought lingered, how would someone of Alaric's stature open these great doors? Alaric approached slowly, the tiny sound of his boots on stone echoing softly in the alcove.
Alaric pressed palms against the cool Mithral, pushing in hope that these doors may give way. They did not. Then something else, a thought, was brought to mind. If physical force doesn't work then what about Magic? The only spell which he knew that may have a chance was of a sphere higher than his own. Alaric thoughtfully paused, then spoke, "I can only try."
Near the center seam of the doors, one of even height could easily make out a pair of jewels, one for each of the two doors. With these gemstones in his seven-year-old sight, Alaric concentrated intently whilst chanting, "Detect Magic."
Okay, James, think, he told himself. You're a Level 1 Dual-Stream caster with a tiny mana pool. You need a win.
"Knock!" shouted Alaric, half-expecting the spell to fizzle as it was above his sphere. It started at-first with the smallest budge but built up until both doors swung open, allowing access once more to the secrets within the ancient elven Wizard's Tower. Alaric had determined that the gemstones were magical items, but even he didn't expect they would allow him to cast a spere-level higher.
Alaric passed by the massive doors and looked at the room. It was a library, but a library built for people who were way taller than him. The shelves went up forever, disappearing into the dark. Books were everywhere—some half-rotten, some looking brand new. Not all able to be discerned, which proved a challenge.
He started walking down the aisles. Most of the titles were in that flowy Elvish script he couldn't read yet, but he was looking for something specific. In most RPGs, the "important" books usually had a different glow or a thicker binding.
He found a desk that had been smashed by a fallen piece of the ceiling. On top of it sat a single book bound in what looked like white dragonhide. It wasn't glowing, but when Alaric got close, the mana in his chest started to hum.
Specifically, the cold mana.
He reached up, grabbing the edge of the desk and hauling himself up. Being seven was a massive disadvantage for exploration. He finally swiped the book, and it was surprisingly heavy. On the cover was a symbol: a crescent moon with a sun inside it.
Bingo.
"Found you," he whispered.
Alaric quickly tucked the dragonhide book under his arm, sliding down and coming to stand alongside another lesser tome describing the magic items crafted by the ancient elven empire of old and their effects. Alaric quickly tucked the white dragonhide tome into his backpack, opening the newly-discovered tome to it's sixty-fourth page where it described the 'Spell Enhancing Gems of Kallach' which could raise one's sphere-level by a single degree.
That would explain my ability to cast the second-sphere spell Knock, thought James who had found it odd he could cast a second-sphere spell as a first-sphere magician. He quickly sequestered the second tome alongside the first in his backpack and continued along out of the study and into what appeared a treasure chamber.