Elemental Cats

?The back room that felt and looked older than it really was wasn't as brightly lit as the store, but it was still bright enough for Toz to make out the labels on the grimoires and read their descriptions without trouble. Though thanks to his refinement and the bond with the cats, Toz had excellent vision even in the dark, so it would have mattered even if there weren't any lights in the room.

The cats accompanied Toz as he walked among the shelves, slowly grazing all the grimoires with his eyes.

He quickly realized that a lot of the grimoires were duplicates and contained spells that were about as useful as Hugo's Dance. But he wasn't dissuaded. He knew even before they entered the back room that it was very unlikely they would find something like the grimoire Hassandra got for him at once. If anything, they would probably have to rummage through all the grimoires before they found something interesting.

However, Toz's instincts were telling him that there really was something hidden within the back room, so even if it took a little longer, he looked at each and every grimoire. The grimoire he got from Hassandra didn't sound that amazing just by reading its name. Even after reading its description, it still didn't sound that incredible. It wasn't until after Toz had read what the spell did and understood what it could mean that he realized the spell's potential.

And since what they were looking for and hoping to discover might be similar, Toz read the description attached to every grimoire in case the spell's potential was hidden behind a weird name.

Although being so thorough took more than expected, Toz didn't mind it at all. The cats didn't, either, since it was entertaining reading about grimoires with weird names and spells and then guessing what kind of mage had created them.

However, Toz only partook in the cats' guessing game now and then since he was focused on the grimoires. The reason he didn't care about the time it took was that all the spells, no matter how obscure or seemingly useless, were all examples of how one could use advanced magic. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐𝘰𝑚

A fire spell didn't only have to be how to create and conjure fire in a certain way before siccing it on a target. It could also be how to steal fire from someone else or get rid of fire. There were also several spells that focused on beauty. One didn't have to use fire to attack or defend since it could also be used for displays of exceptional control or as entertainment.

However, spells that didn't increase a mage's offensive power were more than useless in the middle of a war since it would take time from practicing useful spells, which would put the mage further behind the enemies or allies they fought against or alongside in the war.

Learning a new spell, especially one that concentrated on the intricacies of wielding fire, would undoubtedly increase a mage's control over mana and fire. But not enough to increase their offensive might when compared to an attack spell.

So the back room was filled with grimoires that were generally useless, but also those who were useless when it came to the ways of combat. Toz wouldn't usually consider buying such spells since his life was filled with a lot of action and fighting, but they used mana and magic in a way that differed from offensive spells.

And that solving that difference could help Toz cross the wall that he encountered while he burned down his jail cell.

When Toz melted the walls of his cell using fire magic, he used his mana vision to come close to bringing out the true nature of fire mana, which was something he could only do with a spell, usually. However, no matter how hard he tried, he hadn't succeeded, possibly because he didn't have a deep enough understanding of fire.

However, he could deepen his understanding of fire magic by inspecting the various uses of fire, of which the grimoires filling up the back room were examples.

Toz naturally couldn't open or read the grimoires since that would use up the magic stored in them. But reading the names and descriptions told him the end goal in the spell and mana usage. With enough experience and practice, he could probably reverse engineer some of the simpler spells, even without knowing the proper method.

Perhaps not at the moment, even with fire, the element he knew best, but Toz was quite confident that even just trying to do that would help him deepen his understanding of how fire worked.

After a while, the cats also realized the benefits of what Toz were doing, and they also began inspecting each and every grimoire of the same attribute as themselves. Since Toz had six elements, he had more to look through than the cats. Though, there were only grimoires of metal, darkness, fire, and lightning.

But Toz didn't consider it fortunate that he didn't have even more grimoires that he could inspect. If anything, it was a shame since it was space and void that he wanted to find a more varied usage for when it came to his attributes and magic.

However, since there weren't any space and void grimoires, there was one cat that was a little left out. Asilean. But since Lucy wasn't with them, he worked with Toz to compile a record of what the darkness grimoires were and what kind of spells they contained.

Lucy might not need it, but it was the least they could do for him since he was working hard while the others were taking it easy and shopping. And, for Toz, at least, writing down what the darkness spells were and their descriptions helped him understand them further.

Although Toz and the four cats had originally entered the back room in the search of one or more grimoires similar to the one Hassandra gave Toz, they had instead begun inspecting each and every grimoire to deepen their understanding and knowledge of magic. But since finding a special grimoire like that wasn't even a guarantee, none of them minded the delay.

Not even the receptionist since it allowed him to take a blissful break. After he got absorbed in the grimoires on the shelves, Toz completely forgot about the receptionist and annoying him.