Mystic Arts Dual System

Chapter 3

The voice didn’t come from outside. It wasn’t one of the priests, rather it came from inside his mind.

A pulse of power surged from Merlin’s chest. The flames erupted outward, blowing out every candle and rune in the chamber. The shockwave sent all three priests crashing backward.

High Priest Anselm slammed into the wall with a grunt. The guards shielded their eyes. Merlin stood, untouched. The golden fire around him dimmed, leaving only faint trails of light.

He gasped. His heartbeat thundered in his ears.

[New Ability Gained: "Darklight Channel (Locked)]

[New Objective: Master dual magic in secret before your next public spell test.]

“What… is that?” Merlin whispered, his voice raspy as he looked around, but priests didn't hear what he heard.

Anselm staggered to his feet, his eyes never leaving Merlin. "That wasn’t fire… that was acceptance. The flames didn't reject you."

One of the priests whispered, "He's not cursed. He’s... something else."

"Something the Academy isn’t prepared to handle," Anselm muttered.

Merlin remained silent. His fingers flexed as if feeling the echo of the fire still within him. His blood no longer beat with fear.

Instead—Anselm turned. "This incident must not be spoken of. Not until the Grandmasters determine what he is. Take him to the observation wing. No contact with others."

The guards hesitated. Merlin narrowed his eyes. "Am I to be imprisoned now? For surviving?"

Anselm met his gaze. "You're not cursed, Merlin. But you're not ordinary either. We don't know what you are. Until we do... caution is necessary."

As the guards approached, Merlin clenched his fists.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION — CLASSIFIED]

[Beware: Exposure of your anomaly will trigger expulsion and spiritual investigation.]

[Survival Protocol]

An hour later, Merlin sat on a reinforced stone bench in a chamber lined with glowing glyphs—wards against spiritual tampering.

The Headmaster himself, Grandmaster Thalos, entered as he walked slowly.

His white robes carried golden embroidery woven with light threads. Beside him were two professors and Anselm.

Merlin stood. Thalos examined him closely. “You’re sure the Rite was properly conducted?” he asked the priests.

“Yes, Headmaster,” Anselm said. “By the book. And the results were unlike anything we’ve seen.”

Thalos stepped closer. “Let me see.”

With two fingers, he touched Merlin’s sternum. A pale blue light emerged. His body tingled. Thalos’s eyes widened slightly.

“There’s no corruption,” the headmaster said. “His soul-thread is intact. And the Light responds to him, though strangely.”

Professor Halden, a grizzled veteran of fire magic, frowned. “Then he’s not a darkborn?”

“No,” Thalos said. “But his Light isn’t of a known pattern. It’s... braided. Layered. And something else coils beneath it. Not evil. Not pure.”

“A hybrid?” the younger professor asked.

Thalos glanced at Merlin. “Possibly. But not one born of tampering. I suspect a divine influence.”

Anselm nodded slowly. “Then what should we do with him?”

Thalos turned to Merlin. “You’ll return to your dormitory. No classes for the next two days. We’ll be observing you. Quietly. I advise you not to share what occurred.”

Merlin nodded. “Understood.”

***********

Merlin walked alone across the stone path connecting the chapel tower to the eastern dormitory wing.

The moonlight silvered the ivy-covered stones, students stared as he passed. His blood-stained shirt.

Once in his room, he sat on the edge of his bunk, arms limp at his sides.

“Mystic Arts System,” he whispered. “What are you?”

But yet no reply.

“Darklight Channel... Dual Affinity... Why me?” Still there was silence.

He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. Was he even supposed to be here? All his life, he had been mocked for being weak in Light.

A soft chime echoed in his head.

[New Quest Alert: Sneak into the Scriptorium and retrieve scrolls on forbidden dual-magic theory.]

[Objective: Understand your powers before your next test.]

Merlin sat up sharply. “Location marked: Scriptorium – Restricted Tier.”

Merlin exhaled sharply through his nose and clenched his fists.

"Are you insane?" he whispered, glancing around the empty room as if someone might overhear. “Expulsion? After everything? Why would you give me that kind of task?"

No answer.He stood, pacing a short stretch of floor between the door and the window ledge.

His boots made soft scuffs against the stone, a lonely rhythm to match the knot of worry tightening in his chest.

He had no mentor. No powerful family. No fallback plan.

"Why would you want me to risk everything?" he asked aloud again, standing at the window now, staring at the moonlit campus.

His voice trembled. "You said... I need to master this magic in secret. But why the Scriptorium? Why a forbidden scroll? If I’m caught, I’ll be thrown out. And I don’t—"

His voice broke.“I don’t have anyone left.”

His mother had died when he was seven. It was as a result of a fever and the healers never came to rescue her.

His father had followed two winters later, crushed in a mining collapse. Since then, it had been years of begging, working odd jobs, surviving off scraps in forgotten towns.

The academy had been his miracle due to the recommendation he got for saving a dying noble child. And now this system or whatever it was dared ask him to gamble it all.

Still, the message didn’t vanish. The objective remained.

He turned away from the window and looked at the corner of the room where his satchel lay.

Old, patched leather. Inside it were his Initiate robes, a half-broken light glyph charm, and the tattered notebook he’d kept since arriving here.

He needed answers. If there was truly a scroll that explained dual-element mages... maybe that was the only way to understand what he was becoming.

“Damn it,” he muttered. “I accept.” The decision settled heavy in his chest. If he was going to break the rules, he would do it quietly.

Later, after the halls had emptied—Merlin pulled on a faded cloak enchanted with a weak veiling charm.

He’d borrowed it from the laundry tower. It wasn’t much, but it might keep eyes from lingering.

Keeping to the shadows, he made his way across the grounds and stopped before the west gate of the Scriptorium.

The sealed doors loomed tall, faint runes glowing along their surface.

Merlin raised his hand and pressed it to the entrance sigil.

It pushed back. “Unauthorized.”

[Identity: First-Year Initiate. Access denied to Restricted Tier.]

He closed his eyes and focused as shadows stirred behind him. The moment he gave up forcing the Light… the dark within him responded.

The sigils flickered. Then one—just one—turned black and vanished.

The door clicked. "I did it...I never knew that Dark Magic had the ability to unlock a light based device." Merlin slipped inside.

Most students believed the Scriptorium's Restricted Tier could only be accessed by pure Light-bearing mages. That was true on the surface.

But the shelves in that forgotten corner weren’t merely locked by holy glyphs. They were balanced by a principle few dared study: Resonant Opposition.

In ancient design, some locks were never meant to respond to Light alone — but to its inverse, its echo. They were made to reject falsity and nothing reveals falsehood like shadow.

Only a trace of darkness could trigger them. Which was why when Merlin’s Light aura failed the glyph test… the shadows around him stirred.

The Scriptorium was silent as a tomb. A hundred shelves lined the marble hall, each reinforced with magical binding

The Restricted Tier was deeper. He descended spiraling stairs into a vault-like chamber sealed behind more light-locked wards. He approached the archive shelf labeled: Anomalous Elemental Histories.

He reached out again, pushing a weak stream of Light magic into the sigil lock. It sputtered.

“Insufficient Sanctification Level.” Before he could pull back, the shadow pulsed again. The air darkened subtly as the runes didn’t resist this time as they rearranged.

Inside: one scroll wrapped in obsidian string, sealed with a dual-element sigil.

He reached out. The scroll warmed beneath his touch.

[Quest Complete.]

[Reward: Passive Skill Unlocked – “Silent Reading]

[System Alert: 10% Synchronization with Dark Affinity achieved.]

Merlin stared at the scroll. Its title burned slowly into view: “The Doctrine of Balance: Records of a Dual Mage.”