Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 42 (Part 2)
Jito also reported that Cory was moving north. Rodin could sense Cory getting farther away.
‘See you again, my friend.’
He briefly looked at the spot where Cory had been. The wind felt particularly cold today.
At the entrance of the Advanced 3 Archive, he had a light conversation with the assistants. They talked about the weather and the current mood—unimportant matters.
But even from these conversations, there were things to glean.
The situation on the battlefield was worsening, the commissioners’ trips were frequent, and many instructors were contemplating quitting.
These were not immediately useful pieces of information. But someday, they might play a significant role.
After a few minutes of conversation, Rodin entered the Advanced 3 Archive.
‘I must finish my research by today.’
First, he moved a desk to the side and cleared the chairs. He drew a mana condensation magic circle on the spacious floor.
Since the day he received a lower mana stone from Cory, he drew the mana condensation magic circle every day upon arriving at the Advanced 3 Archive. He waited until enough mana had gathered and then trained the mana cultivation method within it.
The mana condensation magic circle significantly enhanced the efficiency of the cultivation method. While it wasn’t as effective as the mana cultivation room, it gathered much more mana than the natural state.
Considering the qualitative difference in mana, the mana condensation magic circle was better than the cultivation room. At least for Rodin, it was.
‘Today, I need to complete the image storage and printing magic.’
The downside of the mana condensation magic circle was that it took a long time to draw.
Even with Rodin’s skill, it took nearly five hours. With over 380 runes combined, this was his current limit.
He couldn’t just draw the mana condensation magic circle on the floor permanently either.
This wasn’t a personal space. If anyone from the commission or assistants came in and saw the mana condensation magic circle, they might get suspicious.
‘This is my treasure.’
Rodin had to combine nearly 8,000 runes to create the mana condensation magic circle. He wrung out every bit of knowledge he had and ran simulations in his mind thousands of times.
Even when the theoretically feasible magic circle didn’t work, he drew and erased it dozens of times. He even wasted three lower mana stones he received from Cory.
He didn’t want to hand over the painstakingly created magic circle to someone else.
No matter how troublesome it was, drawing the magic circle every morning and erasing it in the afternoon gave him peace of mind.
Instead, he was researching a new magic that could reduce this troublesome task.
Image storage and printing.
It was magic to memorize and draw the magic circle or a picture at once when needed. The research was almost complete now.
‘This method didn’t work. How about this?’
He combined new runes in his mind and chanted softly. The target of the magic was the magic circle he had just drawn.
“Image storage.”
Ssssh.
The mana that flowed from his hand scanned the magic circle drawn on the floor. There was no actual sound, but it seemed like he could hear a ssssh sound.
‘Did it work?’
Thinking of ‘shrink’ in his mind, he cast the magic on a notebook. He chanted different runes and completed the formula calculation.
Zzziik!
The magic circle was drawn on the notebook. It was about 90% similar to the magic circle on the floor.
‘The edges are cut off. There seems to be a problem with the range calculation.’
Looking at the magic circle on the floor, he cast the spell again.
The runes remained the same, but he slightly expanded the range in the formula calculation.
Ssssh.
He printed the stored magic onto the blank space in the notebook. Complex and dense runes and circles were drawn on the notebook.
‘Let’s see.’
He alternated between looking at the notebook and the floor to compare the magic circles. He meticulously examined every small stroke of the runes.
‘Got it.’
They were identical. He had successfully stored the mana condensation magic circle and printed it onto the notebook.
‘I can reduce some trouble now.’
He no longer had to waste five hours drawing the magic circle. Printing was only a 4th-circle magic, which wasn’t burdensome for Rodin.
‘This is enough for now. I still need to continue the follow-up research.’
The magic circles or pictures printed with the printing magic naturally disappeared after a few hours. They weren’t permanent.
For his current situation, it was an appropriate magic. Since he had to erase it every evening when he returned, it was more convenient for it to disappear naturally.
However, to use it in artifact production, it had to leave a permanent mark. If advanced printing became possible, it would be feasible to produce hundreds or thousands of artifacts daily.
‘Though I wouldn’t be able to make them without materials anyway.’
Knock, knock!
There was a knock at the door. When he checked the time, it was lunch.
He roughly covered the magic circle with the desk and opened the door. An assistant stood there with his meal.
“Thank you, Bran.”
“It’s my job. Enjoy your meal. You know the drill.”
“Yes. I’ll return it right away.”
The assistant left. The assistants knew nothing about magic, so even if they saw strange symbols on the floor, they wouldn’t react much.
After finishing his meal, he put the dishes outside. Then, he sat in the center of the mana condensation magic circle drawn on the floor.
‘Looks about right. Let’s begin.’
The mana condensation magic circle was a magic circle that gathered surrounding mana to increase mana density. The mana density in the center increased only if given enough time to gather mana.
Rodin trained the mana cultivation method, enjoying the dense mana.
Much more mana than in the natural state reacted to the runes and entered his body. The more mana entered, the more it was converted into magic power.
‘It’s still not as good as the cultivation room.’
However, for a magician, the mana condensation magic circle was better than the mana cultivation room. The nimble response and cleverness of mana were helpful in using magic.
On the other hand, it wasn’t for spirit summoners or knights.
For spirit summoners, magic power was merely an energy source for spirits to operate. Whether the magic power was responsive or clever made no difference.
The mana cultivation room, which could gather even a little more mana, was better for spirit summoner than the mana condensation magic circle.
Knights also only used aura for body reinforcement and aura emission. There was nothing to improve if the aura was clever.