Thanks to the video games I’ve played, anime I’ve watched, and novels I’ve read, I have an abundant supply of ideas on what I could conjure during a fight.

  An endless rain of swords.

  Beams of varying sizes.

  A giant stone fist descending like a meteor.

  Mr. Blonde’s golden orbs that seemingly have a mind of their own.

  Stone walls that appear out of nowhere for defense.

  Despite all of that, I haven’t attacked any of the cardboard targets I’ve set up.

  Pondering what my arsenal should be, I thought back to my recent near-death experiences.

  As I replayed them in my mind, I thought of characters with abilities that would let them avoid meeting such fates. People with inhuman reflexes, such as various speedsters or Spider-Man.

  Characters with autonomous defensive abilities that block, divert, reflect, or move the person out of harm’s way.

  Or characters with such extremely inhuman intuitions that they’d attack the would-be assailant before they could even get a hit in. One example would be a henchman moving a muscle, only for the character to instinctively pull out their gun and shoot the henchman in the arm with muscle movements faster than the eye could see.

  That would require an unfathomable amount of experience.

  As I thought about what abilities would be nice, a question arose.

  Couldn’t I just give myself these abilities?

  It’s Imagination Manifestation, so the answer should automatically be yes. The thing is, forces I can’t comprehend might be included in these abilities.

  For example, the Speedster has a ‘speed force’ that autonomously protects the world from how fast they’re running. Because if a Speedster existed in real life, the consequences would be cataclysmic.

  A more viable mental image would be the world around me slowing down instead of becoming so incomprehensibly fast that I can just beat everyone. Besides, what if, when I imagine myself as a speedster, I believe I’m moving faster than everyone else, but I’m just subconsciously slowing down the world around me, and what if I’m only slowing down the world around me over a limited radius? It’d still be easy to get caught off guard by someone outside that range.

  And I still haven’t figured out the exact purpose of this school. From what I’ve seen, it’s meant to train people wielding magical abilities. With that in mind, I shouldn’t be afraid to conjure whatever object or ability I want and show off as much as possible.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I’ve already shown what I can do to my summoner, Mr. Blonde, Ms. Grey, and the old man. They appeared surprised that I could make what I wanted, but their reactions differed. The former 3 were definitely astonished, but the latter’s reactions told me my never-before-seen power makes me that much more of a threat, even shouting and pointing that staff at me.

  If Mr. Blonde wasn’t there… would I still be alive?

  Simply put, I don’t know what the limits are on magic here. If I plan on becoming stronger, I shouldn’t be hasty to grow so fast that I’m immediately deemed a threat instead of an ally.

  I looked toward my untouched cardboard targets.

  What looks like believable magic?

  I’ve seen vines, water, wind, and fire. From what I saw, the strength of an element is dependent on a user’s control and creativity with that element. Water should be dominant over fire, but whatever that guy did made the water mage cower at the sight of him. As for the wind and vine mages, it’s possible she could win against him if she attacked faster and forced the vine to play defensively. Honestly, I was rooting for the wind mage for that fight.

  If that’s true, then type advantages are meaningless if you can make your element strong enough.

  I haven’t seen someone look like they wielded two elements. Even Mr. Blonde, who can wield those golden orbs, appears to be unable to utilize anything past that.

  What would his element be considered anyway? Gold? Light?

  As for that old man, there’s too little to be able to discern the nature of his abilities. Probably wind, since I didn’t see the attack.

  Hmm…

  I’ll have to figure out this world’s magic system. Since I’ll become another student, it’s best if I just silently observe to increase my understanding.

  The 4 cardboard targets stood as silent witnesses to my thoughts. In the end, none of them received an attack, so I quietly dissipated them.

  Sounds of murmurs leaked through the doors. Students must be leaving their classes now.

  I’ll have to check on my summoner.

  I left through the smaller door I entered and walked back to my dorm room.

  …

  Tomorrow will be my first day attending classes. Although I don’t like it, I don’t really have a choice.

  So far, I’ve been walking around in whatever outfit I felt like wearing. Nothing too extravagant, but outfits I imagined would look stylish enough for a casual outing. My criteria for these outfits are anything that would look good in a fashion magazine or promotional artwork featuring characters from a story’s franchise, dressed in outfits that aren’t their canonical or well-known outfits.

  Although… I still got weird looks from passerby students. Perhaps it's because my clothes aren’t what people usually wear in this world. If only I could consult someone about this world’s fashion trends.

  Though if I did ask, I would likely get a crash course on what looks stylish in this world instead of what people usually wear.

  Thankfully, I have the school uniforms, so I likely wouldn’t get interrogated about where I got my clothes.

  Eventually, I turned a corner to see the array of 10 statues. Surprisingly, someone was standing there. It was a girl in the school’s uniform. She had strikingly blue hair. If I had to describe it, it’d be electrical blue cotton candy

  Judging by her gaze, she seemed deep in thought.

  I followed her gaze, and it didn’t seem like it was fixed on any statue. Just the lowest shelf that the bottom 3 statues stood on. I wonder what she’s thinking about.

  She noticed my presence and faced me.

  I silently waved, greeting her.

  She didn’t seem to mind my presence, but I saw her eyes glance at my outfit before turning back to the statues.

  Is my outfit that unusual?

  Not wanting to dwell on it any further, I stepped out of the building and walked toward the dorms.

  I needed to be prepared because tomorrow, everything will change.