Reborn as the Archmage's Rival
Chapter 30: The Breath of Old Magic

Chapter 30: The Breath of Old Magic

He leaned back in the seat of the study alcove, the soft glow from the floating lantern suspended above him casting gentle shadows across the stacks of books piled around his desk. Most of the room was quiet, but the faint rustle of pages and the occasional creak of wood brought a comfortable hum. A breeze drifted through the open window, carrying a hint of moonlight and cool night air—just enough to stir the edges of the parchment in front of him.

He flipped the page of the volume titled Winds of the Arcane and sighed. So much theory, but barely any practical guidance. Wind magic, it seemed, was treated more like a concept than a craft: admired, romanticized, misunderstood. He tapped his finger on a line about vortex blades, then dropped the bookmark in frustration. He closed the book and reached for Elemental Theory: Aether and Beyond. References to the elemental body felt almost conspiratorial—dusted-off notes tucked in footnotes, quick mentions as if they’d been thrown in at the last second. He found one such note in an old war chronicle: "Ghost-Walker," they’d called this rare mage who vanished with the wind before every strike landed. Instinct, not invocation.

"Not all elements wish to be tamed. Wind may grant you movement, but it rarely stays still long enough to be studied. Those who house it within must learn to move with it—not against it." He scoffed and underlined that last part twice. That felt like a nod to his moment in the training room, when his body fled before his mind could tell it to.

He tapped another volume: Breathcraft: A Scholar’s Journey. Section after section sighed with poetic description, but gave nothing on technical structure—nothing that said step one, step two, step three. Instead, it laid out grand philosophies: unity with air, surrendering to the currents. He closed the book with a thud. Poetic, sure. But he needed method.

The candlelight flickered, illuminating the stacks—old and new scrolls, mage-crafted diagrams, and books he’d only just begun to skim. He realized the system hadn’t given him instruction for elemental evolution. It only rewarded him when he’d earned it. He shook his head. "Of course it didn’t," he muttered into the hush. "It gave me the power—I need to build the path."

He closed his eyes for a moment, breathing. If the system couldn’t teach him, he had to take the reins. Take control. He surveyed the titles scattered on the desk and felt a surge of determination.

Because yes, he was the author. He knew the magic system inside and out—the spells he’d written, the magic mechanics he’d laid out years ago. Wind might not have been a family specialty, but he was the one who’d given Darius his power. Now he just had to recall what that meant when he was writing it.

He opened his eyes and pulled out a blank sheet of parchment. Beneath his lamp, he began to write systematically:

Vortex Grip — gather air around hand, create suction field: disarm, unbalance, pull in mana attacks.

Slipstream Reflex — channel wind aorund muscles and joints; reduce reaction time, increase evasion.

Gale Lance — condensed, linear wind spike; deeper penetration through armor or shields.

Vacuum Pulse — short radius air collapse, disrupt spell projectiles before they form.

Channeling Breeze Form — lightweight stance that enhances mana fluidity, reduces fatigue.

He paused, pencil hovering. Each of these ideas was present in his notes—some written for minor adversaries in his novel, others for background characters. Now, they might be a literal edge in a duel. Spellcraft had always been theory for him; now it would be real.

He went on:

Wind Cloak — a thin aura of swirling wind that disrupts targeting spells: laser beams, guided magic.

Tempest Surge — combining wind with elemental spells; spin-fire spells in vortex for increased width/damage.

Zephyr Step — a sort of micro-teleport: step on a current of wind to shift ten feet instantly.

His pencil raced, writing more as thought sped his hand. He tested each name in his mind, tasting how each would feel—its mana usage, its effect, its potential weaknesses. He had to test them—had to build these spells based on elemental theory and instinct rather than a system prompt.

He paused, chest tight. Wind wasn’t something you mastered with brute force. It was flowing, unpredictable. It bent around obstacles. It dissappeared, reformed. He felt that in his elemental body now: I can’t fight with it. I need to let it cooperate. His challenge was integrating these spells into the flow he’d accidentally triggered.

He scribbled a quick idea in the margin: Require invocation, but the form is semi-autonomous—designed to follow elemental cues rather than a rigid pattern.

He leaned back, hands flexing. The wind draft from the window intensified microseconds each time he wrote a new idea. His system hadn’t given him the spell for vacuum pulse. It had given him the starting point, the structure. He’d have to build the rest.

He closed his eyes and pictured each spell, trying to feel the shape in his mind: hand moving for wind cloak, slapping the ground for Zephyr step, sweeping gestures for gale lance. He tested the mana threading memory: if he let the threads flow—to invite mana connection rather than force it—the spells he’d built in his head rippled with clarity. And they faintly glowed in his mind’s eye, humming with possibility.

He opened his eyes and wrote the bullet, Mana threading integration required, under each spell concept.

He tapped his fist to his pen: Focus on defense and misdirection first—no assassinations, not yet.

But even then, the roster ballooned, because being an author meant never running out of ideas. He’d written entire cities powered by wind crystals; cults of high priests whose disciples wore elemental robes that sang in storms. His mind was already drafting cool combinations he’d casually dropped in footnotes long before. Everything from Stormcaller’s Ward, a wind field that bounced projectile spells back, to Gale Dancer Footfall, a mobility buff that trail-crossed currents and blurred the user’s image.

He kept writing, a spiral of ideas that expanded across the parchment like a wind vortex itself.

And that was when he heard a soft rumble from the hallway—the distant steps of late students, or security. The world outside the alcove had begun to stir again. He glanced at the stack of books beside him: footnotes on elemental body, historical references, diagrams on the bond between wind and physical form.

He drew them closer and began to rewrite his new ideas with cleaner ink, grouping them into offense, defense, utility, movement.

His heart thudded with every line: Reality picks up what the system won’t teach you.

He looked up at his window again, moonlight sprinkling over his writing. He closed his eyes and noticed the wind drifting through—cool, fleeting, purposeful. Wind magic isn’t just a tool. It’s a conversation.

He felt the gravity of the night press in: he was locked in a race, not just to learn these spells for exams, but maybe to defy the fate he’d written for Darius himself. If he could master wind magic—prove his instinct wasn’t weakness—he could survive.

He drew a slow breath through his nose, scanning the parchment: each name, each short note was now fuel. He tapped the table.

But the real work began tomorrow—with Glyph runes, layered wind constructs, maybe even a bind-loop of vortex grip into mirror cloak. The first step was visualizing the spells in his mind; the second step was practice. System or no system, he had to do it himself.

He stared down at his inked spell roster and whispered, "It’s not just about surviving. It’s about leading the breeze."

And for the first time since waking up in this world, he felt his heart beat with something close to hope.

The soft creak of the door behind him made his head snap up.

Kai poked his head into the room, his curls messy like he’d just rolled out of bed—despite it being deep into the evening—and his eyes still sharp even in the dim study light. He glanced around before spotting Ethan at the far table, surrounded by parchment, half-open tomes, and the faint flicker of wind from the open window.

"There you are," Kai said, stepping in. "I thought you’d gotten yourself lost in the bathhouse or something."

Ethan blinked, slightly dazed from the whirlwind of notes in front of him. "What? Oh. No. Just... figured I’d get ahead on some research."

Kai leaned against the nearby bookshelf, folding his arms as he took in the sight. "You missed dinner."

Ethan offered a sheepish smile. "Didn’t even realize."

"You always realize," Kai said with a smirk, then nodded to the stacks. "So, what’s got you buried alive this time? You switching majors to poetry or something?"

Ethan laughed under his breath. "Not quite."

Kai walked over and peered at the parchment covered in scribbles, diagrams, and spell names—some familiar, others entirely made-up by Ethan just hours ago. His brow rose slightly.

"Damn. That’s a lot of wind magic."

Ethan scratched the back of his head. "I guess I’m... figuring some stuff out. Trying to understand the element better. See if it can actually be my thing."

Kai’s brow quirked. "You thinking about specializations already?"

Ethan shrugged. "More like... wondering if I even have one."

Kai pulled out the chair across from him and dropped into it with a soft thud. "That’s a lot to stress over on week two, you know."

"I know," Ethan said quickly. "But I’m... behind. You and Aiden—hell, half our year already know their affinities."

Kai was quiet for a second, then leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. "You want to know how I ended up with earth magic?"

Ethan looked up. "I’d actually love to."

Kai cracked a grin. "Well, it’s not a dramatic story, but... I grew up on a farm. A pretty small one. Every day I’d help my parents—tilling the ground, shifting stones, building trenches, moving stuff. Magic wasn’t some distant mystery. It was a tool. And the first time I managed to move a whole pile of rock without touching it... I just knew. Earth didn’t scare me. It made sense. Solid. Reliable."

Ethan watched him, fascinated by how casually Kai spoke about something Ethan had only ever romanticized in fiction.

"I still had to train like hell," Kai added. "At first, all I could do was push stuff around. But once I got the hang of it... it became like an extension of me. You ever stand with your feet in the dirt and just feel the world breathing beneath you?"

Ethan smiled faintly. "I think the wind version of that just messes up dorm rooms."

Kai snorted. "Sounds about right."

They fell into a companionable silence for a few moments, the pages of Ethan’s notes fluttering gently with the breeze.

"I think what you’re doing is smart," Kai said eventually, nodding toward the roster of ideas. "You’re not trying to rush into someone else’s magic. You’re learning your own way. That’s more than most of us do."

Ethan looked down at his scribbles. "Do you think... wind magic can actually be strong enough to go toe-to-toe with someone like Luc—like the top of our year?"

Kai leaned back, thoughtful. "Any magic can be strong enough. It depends on how you use it. Earth magic? Solid and heavy. Great for defense. But it’s slow. Wind? It’s fast, flexible, unpredictable. And half of strength in battle is surprise."

Ethan nodded slowly. He’d written that. In some form or another, he’d penned that idea into a dozen different characters over the years. But now it wasn’t a theory—it was something he had to live.

Kai got up, brushing invisible dust from his pants. "Anyway, I figured you’d be up here. Thought I’d check in before I crash. You planning on staying up all night with the air spirits, or..."

"I’ll be down in a bit," Ethan said with a smile. "Thanks, Kai."

Kai shrugged. "Don’t mention it. Just don’t float off or something."

He left with that and Ethan, once again alone, looked down at the last spell name he’d written: Zephyr Step.

He tapped it twice with his pen, and the breeze from the window nudged the edges of his parchment.

"Unpredictable," he said to himself.

And maybe... just what he needed.

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