Geometric Mage: First Spell, Circle

Rick had always wanted to be special. But who has not?

Lian himself wanted nothing more than to awaken and become a Mage. He was lucky—not only did he awaken mana, but also a system, something that made him unique.

Unlike Lian, Rick had not been as fortunate. His family had disowned him because of his elemental affinity.

Shadow.

An uncommon element, or rather, extremely rare.

He was not the only one in the world with such an affinity, but within the academy, or rather, within the entire Ironridge Kingdom, there was no one like him.

This should have made him happy. Many people desire to be unique. And Rick was happy.

But his family, the Morticus, did not want to tarnish their reputation with a boy like him.

After disowning him, they sent him to the Grimreach Academy, where he grew up alone. He had no friends, loved to joke around all the time, and his power stagnated.

But it was not entirely his fault. It was also because of his shadow element affinity.

Unfortunately, due to the exclusivity of this element, there was not much information available, and the little that existed did not seem particularly… exciting.

Shadow-related spells could be considered more supportive, but even then, they were a lower level of support compared to any other element.

Rick closed his eyes, thinking about himself, his family… Lian.

He was his only friend. He had helped him against Marcus and his team, and Rick had repaid him by throwing away his artifact.

It was unforgivable.

But his talent was limited; he could not help him in any way. He could only ask around for information, which he had done, but without any results.

That Plammer, or whatever his name was, did not exist. No one had ever seen him.

Rick's eyes grew redder. He wanted revenge!

Not revenge against others, but against himself. He wanted to kill that weak, helpless boy who could only laugh and joke, and replace him with a real man capable of protecting those he cared about.

Something began to emanate from his body as sinister thoughts filled his mind.

A dark mist started forming around him, light but dense, moving like a slow wave. His mana began to boil within him, and the mist continued to emanate, covering his entire body.

"Huh?"

A strange sensation enveloped his body at that moment.

He felt… different, invisible.

The mist continued to emanate, and with it, the mana consumption in his body increased. But Rick seemed to register none of this as his mind focused on the feeling of invisibility.

His eyes, reddened by blood, began to glow within the dark mist.

Thump—

The mist vanished like smoke as Rick's body collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

His eyes were closed, his arms at his sides. He seemed unconscious. However, one thing was visible in his expression.

Blood dripped from his eyes, painting a terrifying, cruel, and malicious grin on his lips.

---

After a few hours, in the Rune Forge—

A sigh left Lian's lips as he stood up from the ground. "I should buy a meditation cushion… I cannot spend hours with my butt on stone." He muttered with an ironic smile as he massaged his backside.

Lian headed toward the workbench. He had set aside the ten Bronze 5 rune sets to give to Torin; now he could focus on creating an enchantment.

Torin was locked in his room. It seemed he had a lot of work to do today.

"I still have some Bronze 1 rune sets; let us start with those." He said as he prepared the materials.

Positioning himself at an available workbench, Lian took a Runic Tablet with a Bronze 1 rune set, a Runic Stylus, and a Runic Seal from his spatial ring.

"All that is left is to try again. I am not the newbie I was before—"

A deep breath was all it took to focus completely.

The Runic Seal was on the workbench, while the Runic Stylus glowed faintly in his hands.

With a thought, mana flowed from his body. The primary rune was successfully grasped and placed on the Runic Seal with speed.

The energy was slowly leaking, a sign that the rune could not stay in that state for long.

"Now, the first button—" Lian pressed the key on the side of the tool, and a layer of mana covered the primary rune.

A faint crimson red glow illuminated everything. Lian had decided to try again using the same element as his first time, as well as the same secondary and tertiary runes.

They were not the standard ones used for melee weapons, but an enchantment designed to launch fireballs, meant for mages' weapons.

Without wasting more time, Lian's mana gently and precisely grasped the secondary rune, placing it on the mana layer of the Runic Seal.

With determination, the boy brought the Runic Stylus to the secondary rune. The moment he did, it began to glow intensely as the mana layer beneath it started to thin.

"Now all that is left is to find the center of the primary rune and apply the hole in the mana layer…"

Mana flowed from his meridians to his fingers, entering effortlessly into the Runic Stylus, then into the Runic Seal. All this to calculate the center of the primary rune.

"There it is!"

After just one minute, Lian managed to precisely identify the center of the primary rune, and through the Runic Stylus, he applied a hole in the mana layer at that exact point.

The secondary rune began to glow and pulse intensely, a sign of a complete fusion success.

"The first step, the easiest one, is done." Lian did not celebrate immediately. From the previous experience, he had learned that the real challenge began now.

Without wasting time on further reflections, Lian clicked the second button on the edge of the disk.

Another thin layer of mana separated the secondary rune from the third layer, where the tertiary rune would soon settle.

With care, Lian brought the tertiary rune to the third layer of the disk.