Geometric Mage: First Spell, Circle

Inside his meditation room…

Lian was ready.

He did not have to do anything else but absorb the Bronze 5 Mana Pill and practice Geometric Meditation.

He breathed slowly.

"Why do I have a strange feeling?" He could not concentrate, his eyes half-open. "What could possibly go wrong?"

Sighing softly, Lian closed his eyes, trying to regulate his breathing.

With a flick of his hand, the Bronze 5 Mana Pill appeared in the air.

"Let us begin." Grasping it, Lian opened his mouth, swallowing it in a single bite.

A moment later…

An intense sensation of pleasure spread inside his body.

A satisfied sigh escaped his lips, but before he could completely relax and absorb the pill, a violent energy flooded his meridians, starting from the dantian.

"Shit, Rea was not lying when she said that a Bronze 4 cannot handle a Bronze 5 Mana Pill—"

He furrowed his brows, focusing on absorbing the violent mana slowly, letting it flow through his meridians and across his body.

Slowly, the violent energy stabilized, all thanks to the enormous amount of mana that his body possessed.

The credit also went to the formation of the Eight Trigrams he had used previously.

Thinking back, Lian could not wait to take another round inside, maybe even before breaking through to Bronze 5…

Meanwhile, Lian continued to absorb the mana. Each breath amplified the sensation of his dantian expanding to its very limit.

But then, a sharp pain pierced his chest.

"What…?" His body trembled, his arms stiffened. The mana, too vast, pressed against his inner walls like a raging river.

The dantian showed cracks, his physique unable to contain the energy. "No, what the hell?!" he shouted, sweat dripping down his forehead.

The dantian seemed to have reached its limit.

It could no longer contain the influx of Mana that the pill kept providing.

It was not like a Mana Overflow.

This was much worse.

At the same time, his body began to show signs of collapse.

His skin was crumbling, blood started seeping from his orifices, his vision blurred.

"Fuck, my dantian, my body! They cannot withstand all this mana, nobody ever told me about this!"

The same thing was happening as when he had eaten too much food filled with mana.

His body was too bloated, too full.

As if that was not enough, the Mana Pill kept pouring mana, worsening the situation every passing second.

"I must do something! Think, Lian, think."

This time, there was no principal to save him, but he doubted he could have anyway.

He had to manage on his own.

He stood up from the ground, heading toward the exit.

He wanted to ask for help, but he could not walk fast.

He barely managed to reach the side exit, the one leading to the garden where he had trained earlier. Staggering, he reached the door, but at that moment he fell to the ground, on his knees, exhausted.

"Am I really going to die like this?" A half-smile formed on his face, while the pain of his breaking body kept him awake.

He could not even scream, though he doubted anyone would have heard him.

Then, a thought.

"I must advance on my Knight path!"

It was only a fleeting thought, but it gave him enough energy to stand and try.

"Geometric Cultivation!"

An illusory circle appeared outside, in the garden where he had trained before.

The area was large enough to practice cultivation without problems, fortunately.

But the moment the circle appeared on the ground, the same sensation as in the past enveloped him.

A bottleneck.

Lian was stuck, walking along the circle would not allow him to break through to Steel 1.

"I am really fucked, then…" he collapsed onto the ground.

His body continued to crumble, the mana flooded him like a raging torrent.

His entire life flashed before his eyes, as happens to those who are about to die.

This is really the end, huh… he thought, coughing up a mouthful of blood.

His mother Elysa's meatballs.

His little sister Mira. He could hear her shouting Boom!

His first hunt with his father Torren against the Stone Bull.

His first kill.

The awakening of mana with the acquisition of the system, the use of magic.

The first Raid with Patrick, Sera, and Dax.

I wonder if Dax managed to reach Steel 1… he thought absentmindedly.

The arrival at the academy.

The unstable Gate in which he had been absorbed.

Meeting Seline and Freddy, facing powerful monsters.

Entering the Gate within a Gate, killing the golems.

Encountering a huge muscular elephant.

Fighting the Gargoyles and nearly dying against them.

Now that I think about it, it is not the first time I am about to die… he laughed weakly, blood dripping from his lips.

Fighting a sage, meeting Bibo.

Exiting the Gate, exploring the academy, meeting Rick…

Shit, I only hope he does not take it too hard— another mouthful of blood left his mouth. His eyelids threatened to close, but Lian knew.

If he closed his eyes, he would truly die.

He thought back to Rick, to the things they had done together.

Time seemed to slow down…

Now that I think about it, I have not even tried to extract a rune from the Shadow Mana Core…

At that moment, a memory crossed his mind, planting deep roots in his thoughts.

He had bought some Vital Cores. Lian had wanted to try to extract them, but he had forgotten. Or rather, he had pushed it aside, it had not been urgent.

The Vital Pill! The thought of the pill capable of enhancing the Vital Energy of his dantian, and consequently his body, made his eyes widen.

With the last energies remaining, Lian drew out the pill from his spatial ring.

It was one of the pills the principal had gifted him, along with all the other things inside.

I can also try to use the healing potions!

Joy filled Lian's tired and aching eyes.

Opening his mouth, the energy of the Steel 1 Vital Pill began to circulate in his body, reaching the dantian.

A pleasant warmth assaulted him, making him sigh weakly.

A moment later—

Sensing this new energy, Lian's body became a chaotic battlefield between two opposing energies.

Among the warnings written on the consumption of a Mana Pill or a Vital Pill, there was: "Do not absorb them at the same time."

Driven by frenzy, Lian drew a healing potion from his spatial ring, drinking it as if his life depended on it.