Surviving the Magic Academy With Just Intelligence Stats

Ambrose expanded his spatial awareness to its maximum capacity, pushing the boundaries of his ability until it encompassed the entire restricted archives. The mental strain was considerable, like stretching a muscle far beyond its intended limit, but the young Rothschild heir paid little heed to the building pressure behind his temples. His consciousness mapped every tome, manuscript, and scroll within the vast library space as he methodically searched for anything extraordinary—books with unusual auras, texts radiating distinctive magical signatures, or volumes containing hidden enchantments.

Time slipped by as his mental net cast wider and deeper. Disappointment began to settle into his thoughts as each shelf yielded nothing special. Had he overestimated the library's significance? Were the restricted archives merely a collection of advanced but ultimately mundane texts?

Just as his resolve began to waver, something peculiar caught his attention. His spatial awareness, which had naturally extended downward, encountered an anomaly—a void where solid earth should have been. Ambrose's eyes widened as the realization crystallized in his mind.

"That's..." he whispered, his voice trailing off as he processed the discovery.

Below the restricted archives lay another chamber—a hidden room that the spatial awareness revealed in perfect detail. Unlike the official library spaces, this concealed repository contained books that radiated subtle but distinct magical energies. Each volume seemed to pulse with unique enchantments, faint but unmistakable to his enhanced perception.

Ambrose's heart quickened with excitement. This, finally, was what he had been searching for—a true treasure trove hidden beneath the academy's official knowledge base. He recalled using the elevator earlier and noted there had been no button indicating a lower level. Was this chamber deliberately concealed by the academy's administration? A secret archive known only to select faculty members?

Such questions were useless as he didn't care if the academy chose to hide this collection. It was their fault for not being thorough enough, now, he was going to take whatever was in there for himself. With a slight smile playing across his lips, Ambrose activated his [Blink] ability.

The world blurred momentarily as space folded around him. In the next instant, he materialized within the hidden chamber, his sudden appearance disturbing nothing but dust motes that danced in the stale air. No one in the restricted archives above had noticed his disappearance—each scholar too absorbed in their own pursuits to register his vanishing act.

Upon arrival, Ambrose immediately recognized the mental fatigue that had accumulated throughout the day. His mental strength reserves had dipped dangerously low from the extensive use of his spatial awareness and teleportation abilities. Prudence dictated a period of recovery before exploration.

Finding a clear space between towering bookshelves, Ambrose lowered himself to the floor and assumed a lotus meditation posture. He closed his eyes, focusing inward to engage his mental recovery skills. The process proved mercifully efficient; what might have taken hours for others required only minutes for him, thanks to his many mental strength recovery abilities.

As his mental energy gradually replenished, Ambrose maintained perfect stillness, his breathing measured and controlled. When he judged his reserves sufficiently restored, he slowly opened his eyes—and immediately froze in confusion.

A soft, ethereal light illuminated the space before him, though he had detected no light sources within the chamber during his initial scan. As his vision focused, the source became apparent—a girl stood directly in front of him, her entire form radiating a gentle luminescence that cast strange shadows across the dusty room.

She appeared to be approximately his height, clad in what looked like the standard Crono Academy first-year uniform. But something about her presence struck Ambrose as fundamentally wrong—he had thoroughly scanned this space before teleporting, and it had been completely empty.

Without hesitation, Ambrose activated [Blink] again, instantly transporting himself several meters away. His back pressed against a wall as he assessed the situation, mind racing through possibilities. His enhanced perception should have detected anyone in the vicinity, regardless of concealment methods. Even with his guard temporarily lowered during meditation, his natural awareness would have alerted him to someone approaching so closely.

The girl was a little surprised by his sudden disappearance but she quickly calmed herself. Her luminous form sank directly into the floor, as though the solid surface offered no more resistance than water. Before Ambrose could process this, her hands emerged from the wall behind him, followed by her head and upper body. With ethereal grace, she wrapped her arms around him from behind, resting her chin on his shoulder.

Her touch carried no physical weight—more like the memory of contact than actual pressure. She turned her face toward his, close enough that he should have felt her breath, yet there was nothing. Her eyes, luminous and strangely ageless, locked with his own.

"You can see me right?" she whispered, her voice simultaneously distant and intimate, like words carried on a breeze from another world.

…

Ambrose turned his head toward the spectral girl, studying her with calculated curiosity. Her embrace felt peculiar—present yet simultaneously insubstantial, like pressing against a cloud that somehow maintained its form. The sensation was soft but oddly spongy, as though her touch existed in a state between tangibility and nothingness.

He briefly considered activating [Blink] again to put distance between them, but reconsidered. If this encounter was the "event" he'd been hoping to discover—some hidden treasures or ancient knowledge—fleeing might squander a valuable opportunity. Besides, his teleportation ability remained at the ready should the situation turn threatening. Whatever this apparition was—artifact spirit, guardian, or something else entirely—it warranted investigation.

"What do you mean by 'see you'?" Ambrose asked, his tone measured and analytical.

The question seemed to excite the luminous figure. She detached herself from him completely, emerging fully from the wall to hover before him. Her feet never quite touched the ground as she circled him with childlike fascination, her ethereal glow casting shifting patterns across the chamber's shadowed bookshelves.

"You really can see me," she breathed, her voice tinged with wonder as she completed several orbits around him, examining him from every angle like a particularly fascinating specimen.

"Yeah, we've already established that I can see you," Ambrose replied dismissively, unimpressed by her evident surprise. He straightened his academy uniform with a casual gesture. "Now tell me who or what you are," he demanded, then glanced around at the hidden chamber, "and what this place is."

The floating girl's expression shifted to suspicion, her luminous features narrowing slightly. "How could you not know? This is the library," she stated as though it were the most obvious fact imaginable. With a small gesture toward herself, she added, "And I'm Claire, the librarian."

Ambrose arched an eyebrow skeptically. "Isn't the library supposed to be upstairs?"

His question triggered a visible change in Claire's demeanor. Her luminescence dimmed subtly as her gaze dropped toward the floor, shoulders slumping with a weight that seemed too substantial for her ethereal form.

"Who cares what it is," she murmured, her voice suddenly smaller, more fragile. "As long as there are books inside, it's a library." To demonstrate, she extended a hand toward a nearby shelf, attempting to run her fingers along the ancient spines—but her hand passed directly through the volumes as though they were nothing more than projections, or perhaps as though she herself lacked physical substance.

Ambrose observed her change in emotions, her reaction to his question about the library suggested emotional attachment, he wondered if she had a backstory. Enjoy new tales from My Virtual Library Empire

"Why is there no one here?" he asked deliberately, noticing how Claire's movement froze at his question. "With all these books here, why is no one reading them?" To emphasize his point, Ambrose selected a tome from the nearest shelf, leafing through several pages before closing it with an audible snap. "If no one is reading them, isn't it just a book storage?"

The question struck like a physical blow. Claire's entire form seemed to shudder, her luminescence flickering like a candle in a draft.

"No!" she cried out, hands clutching at the fabric of her spectral uniform dress, fingers digging into the material as though seeking an anchor. "It's a library," she insisted, her voice wavering with emotion. "I'm still here. I read the books." Her ethereal features contorted with what might have been the beginning of tears, though no actual moisture appeared. "So it's a library."

Ambrose just looked at her, with sudden decisiveness, he tossed the book he'd been holding directly at her.

Claire's hands instinctively rose to catch it, but the volume passed through her outstretched fingers as though through empty air, landing with a dull thud on the floor behind her.

"Oh, and how are you reading them?" Ambrose asked pointedly, his gaze never leaving her face. His voice lowered slightly as he spoke. "You... you're not human, are you?"