Help me find a story book that was in my school's library. I read somewhere around 2015, it might have been in the library before that. It was an English author book. It has multiple volumes (at least 3 volumes). It's premise was that the normal/mundane human world was separated from the magic world and people were prohibited to cross over into either one. The magic world has a medieval Europe setting. The main character is magic apprentice, and he has 2 friends - a female friend and another male friend, all three currently attending a magic school. The male friend is the oldest and physically fit. The main character only had a mother who was an ordinary woman that lived in their village and he had to live in the magic school's dorm. His male friend was actually from the normal human world and he had kept that a secret all the time. During one of their vacation, they visited the main character's house and later visited a festival/carnival but were kidnapped by a group of Dwarfs while they were in the jungle. The Dwarfs in this world setting were a race of short, but powerful people and they lived underground and hostile towards humans. The Dwarves presented the 3 kids with 3 challenges and promised to let them go if they win in any 2 of them. The girl participated in the rope skipping challenge while the other male friend participated in an arm wrestling match with the Dwarf but lost. I don't remember what challenge the main character participated in. The couldn't win 2 challenges and were in danger. In the dire situation, the male friend revealed his secret and took out a handgun he had been hiding within his clothes. Everyone was shocked since weapons from the normal human world were strictly prohibited. He said he only wanted to bring his friends to safety even if it meant revealing his secret. They crawled through the tunnel to get back up to the surface while Dwarves chased them. They succeeded in escaping. Back to the academy, a group of senior magicians was sent for a surprise attack on the Dark Magician (not actually a Dark Magician but a strong Magician who turned to the dark side) but to everyone's surprise, he had set up the trap himself, in order to attack the now less guarded magic academy himself. He destroyed most of the magicians stationed at the magic academy and stole an important item from the safe treasury. It was implied or felt like that the Dark Magician might be the main character's father as they came face to face with each other at te end of the 1st volume during the attack on the school but he didn't harm the main character and simply went back. It was also implied that the Dark Magician was originally from the mundane human world and came to the magical world like the main character's friend. The Dark Magician was originally one of the best magician from the school itself but later became he major villain before the events of the book started. The 1st volume ended at that part and I haven't read any of the following volumes. There were other books kept alongside it like the Magic Mirror, The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet.   submitted by   /u/Sweaty-Supermarket97   to   r/whatsthatbook [link]   [comments]