Geometric Mage: First Spell, Circle

Lian listened silently to the boy's words. It's a scam! he thought, doing some quick calculations.

"I know, I know." Torin rolled his eyes. "You're probably thinking it's a scam, but think about it. If the simple task of extracting runes from Mana Cores has such a high failure rate, what about the next steps? Don't look at me; creating an artifact isn't easy.

It takes luck, as well as experience. As for creating a Runic Seal, thus the enchantment, that requires technique and precision. Experience is the key to success!"

Listening to Torin's words, Lian finally understood why artifacts were so expensive.

The two continued talking for a while about the artifact, with Torin explaining to Lian how to make it work, recharge it, and other things.

"Good, now get back to work! It's still early; you have a lot to do, and so do I." Torin grabbed Lian by the shoulder before dragging him out of the room.

"Don't forget you still owe me five sets of runes! For this time, their rank doesn't matter. Just know that next time you won't get a Bronze 4 artifact with Bronze 3 runes, at least not with just ten sets."

Torin's shouts echoed in the main hall, his attitude reverting to its earlier gruffness, but a hint of warmth could be detected in them.

Now they were no longer strangers; Torin had acknowledged Lian's abilities, or at least, he was investing in him.

Several hours had passed, and Lian was exhausted but happy. With an average of six runes per hour, Lian had managed to turn all the Mana Cores into rune sets. Fortunately, scattered around the hall were dozens of Runic Tablets; otherwise, Lian would have had to stop. He couldn't place the runes anywhere else.

Alright, now how should I handle this… Lian was thinking about what to say to Torin. He couldn't claim to have turned all the Mana Cores into runes; that would be absurd. Besides, Torin wouldn't even believe him.

I should just give him enough to settle the debt. That should be enough…

Lian approached Torin's door. During the hours spent in the hall, he had heard several shouts of frustration, but also of joy. It was quite strange, but Lian didn't think much of it.

Knock- Knock-

After knocking on the door, Lian stepped back, waiting for Torin to open it. He couldn't barge in, or he'd disturb him.

"Come in." Torin's voice had changed. It had lost the warmth it had shown a few hours earlier. Without thinking too much, Lian entered the room.

"What the—"

Dust swirled furiously everywhere, weapons were scattered all over, the walls were even dirtier than before, and the boy's tattered robe had become even more worn and torn.

"What is it?" Without turning, Torin continued to stare intently at the sword in his hands. Unlike Lian's sword, which radiated power, this one looked like a poorly made piece of metal.

"I came to deliver the other rune sets." Reading the tense atmosphere, Lian avoided further angering the boy. With a gesture of his hand, five Runic Tablets emerged from his spatial ring, appearing in the air and illuminating the room with various colors before gently settling on the workbench.

"Good." Torin nodded, his gaze unwavering as he shot Lian a sidelong glance. "You can go now. That's enough for today; you'll continue tomorrow."

His voice left no room for objections. Lian simply nodded, thanking him again for the artifact, before leaving and closing the door behind him.

"Damn it, another failure. That guy was very lucky. I didn't expect to succeed in creating the artifact with him around."

Torin hadn't stopped working. He continued creating matrices on swords and inserting enchantments, but he had only succeeded nine times out of twenty. He was slightly frustrated, but it was still a good result.

"Having an affinity for runes and taking on this job can become very frustrating—" Torin paused for a second.

He had glanced distractedly at the Runic Tablets Lian had left, only to notice that only three of them were Bronze 3. "I can't believe it; he managed to create a Bronze 4 set and a Bronze 5 set too? He must have used a lot of mana potions… all this just to repay me better?"

A slight sigh left his lips. "Maybe I should be less hard on him… after all, he seems to be a real talent. Too bad, he'll find out the hard way how tough a Rune Master's life can be."

With these words, Torin sat in a lotus position and began practicing a breathing technique, useful for relaxing and clearing his mind, before continuing his work. He couldn't afford the luxury of resting like Lian; the times were too dark to think about such things.

Meanwhile, Lian had left the Rune Forge. He felt truly exhausted, his mana at an all-time low despite taking time to rest and meditate.

"I can't wait to take a shower—" he said with a sigh after sniffing himself a bit. He had sweated too much, his robe was dirty in several spots, and his hair was messier than usual. "Maybe I should buy something to tie my hair… I can't stand this lock in front of my eyes anymore." Lian continued walking toward the dormitory. He wasn't in the condition to visit the shop, assuming it was even open at this hour…

The campus was empty, with only a few people seen hurriedly moving from one place to another. The sun was still high in the sky, and students were still in their classes attending lessons.

"Oh, now I remember—" Lian stopped abruptly, recalling something. "The dean told me to settle in a bit before choosing which class to attend. Honestly, from what Rick told me about them, they seem pretty boring. Only a few really interest me…"

Lian thought back to Rick's words. Among the interesting things were the lessons about monsters, where their anatomy, abilities, and weaknesses were studied, among many other things. Then there were the elemental magic lessons, where each student could focus on studying spells, how to perfect them, and much more.

There were many other courses, but Lian wasn't particularly interested in them.

The thing Lian wanted to do most of all was dedicate himself to becoming a true Rune Master.