Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 93 (Part 1)

This time, the spell was crafted with more focus than before. Utilizing his hand method, the potency had increased several times over.

A massive explosion erupted, louder and more intense than the first.

Kwooooom! Thud!

The ceiling shook. The walls trembled. Everything around them was shaking violently, and Rodin quickly turned his body around.

“Ugh.”

Sensing something off, Rodin hurriedly dashed outside.

Anticipating this, he had already cleared obstacles from the mine’s path. He sprinted out of the tunnel without any hindrance.

Huff, huff.

He glanced back at the entrance of the tunnel he had just escaped from.

Dust billowed out from inside the tunnel, like a giant dragon exhaling clouds of dust from its mouth.

“Made it out alive.”

He checked the entrance of the tunnel again. Besides the thick layers of dust that had accumulated, there were no significant changes.

“It didn’t collapse. Wind.”

He conjured a breeze to clear away the dust. Fortunately, the inside was still intact.

He carefully walked back inside. Just in case, he kept a defensive spell prepared in both hands.

“Hmm, did it get blocked inside?”

While the entrance was just dusty, after about twenty minutes of walking, he encountered numerous stone fragments. The deeper he went, the larger the stone debris became.

“Ah!”

What started as small stones gradually turned into boulders much larger than a human head. Some parts of the sides had collapsed as well.

Even so, it was possible to maneuver through them. The ground was a mess, so he conjured an additional light spell.

“Ah!”

After nearly an hour of progress, he arrived at a collapsed section not far from the place where he had shattered the wall.

“I could get through, but is it safe?”

There was a small gap beside him. It was just large enough for him to crawl through.

“Magic Hand.”

The Magic Hand took the form of an arm attached to the ground. It couldn’t fly high like other spells but was sometimes more convenient for lower spaces than Fly.

Most importantly, Magic Hand was a mere 2nd-circle spell. Unlike the 5th-circle Fly, it consumed less mana and was easier to cast.

Rodin used the Magic Hand to lift himself slightly and squeezed through the narrow gap. His body moved smoothly, almost as if he was flying.

He moved through the tight gap for about ten minutes. When he encountered a blockage, he summoned another Magic Hand to clear the way and moved forward.

“This is the place, right?”

Finally, he arrived at the spot where he had blasted through the wall with magic.

The floor was entirely destroyed, and beyond it lay an empty, rough terrain. After stepping into the area, he scanned his surroundings.

“It’s a door.”

Instead of being beside him, there was a large door-like structure below. He brushed away the dust with his foot, and the door’s shape became even more apparent.

The door was huge. It was nearly 2 meters wide and 4 meters tall. It was a door designed to open vertically for a specific purpose.

“Magic, huh.”

Strange engravings covered the door’s exterior, while intricate magical patterns adorned its interior.

“Hmm.”

He infused mana into the magical engravings inside the door, but the results were vague and unclear.

“Could it be?”

Rodin withdrew his mana and instead gathered the ambient mana, channeling it into the door’s interior. This time, the engraved magic became much clearer.

‘They used mana instead of magic power to inscribe the magic circle? So, it was possible after all.’

Rodin, too, could manipulate mana. He could use specific runes to produce effects similar to magic.

However, it was believed impossible to craft artifacts by shaping mana into the form of a magic circle. This was because the formula for stabilizing mana with runes had never been found.

‘So, this is how it’s done.’

From the magic circle, Rodin gained significant insight. Now that he understood the runes needed to stabilize mana, he could create artifacts using the same method.

‘This way, it can be used almost indefinitely. That’s why they chose to use mana in the first place.’

Magic power is processed energy, shaped through training, and doesn’t exist naturally.

‘Until now, I couldn’t use the mana from mana stones directly. I had to refine it into magic power and then embed it into an artifact.’

Because it was processed energy, artifacts made with infused magic power had a limited lifespan. Once the embedded power was exhausted, they became useless.

To address this, a magic circle for converting mana into magic power had to be added to the artifact. When using the artifact, it would draw in surrounding mana and convert it into magic power.

Without this magic circle, the artifact became a one-time-use item, but with it, the artifact could be used for a long time.

‘If mana could be used directly, the process would be simplified. The number of uses for an artifact would increase significantly.’

Rodin memorized the magic circle inscribed on the door and began analyzing its structure again.

It was a magic circle employing a novel approach that directly utilized mana. It took a long time to fully understand its structure and inner workings.

Grrrumble!

His stomach growled; he had long missed his mealtime. Ignoring the hunger, Rodin continued focusing on the magic circle.

“Sigh.”

After a long period of concentration, he deciphered the magic circle inscribed on the door.

“I can’t open it.”

The door contained multiple layers of spells, most of which were offensive.

Anyone attempting to force the door open or using an incorrect method would face a barrage of attacks like lightning, fire, and ice.

“Even a grand mage could die from a direct hit.”

The power behind each attack spell was immense. As a 5th-circle mage, Rodin couldn’t even hope to replicate them.

“It’s possible if I open it the right way, but it’s a shame.”

Besides the offensive spells, there were two security mechanisms.

One was a specific magic power pattern it required. If the door did not detect the desired pattern, the intruder would inevitably be hit by various attack spells.

“That’s not an issue. I can mimic it well enough.”

The real problem was the restriction that required the caster to be at the 7th-circle. In other words, even if one had the right magic power pattern, they would still be targeted by the door’s defenses unless they were a grand mage.

“I could fake one, but only up to a point.”

By gathering mana and tricking the door into thinking it was a single magic circle, he could appear to be a 6th-circle mage instead of his actual 5th-circle level.

But that still left him one circle short.

“I’ll have to come back once I reach the 6th-circle.”

Hyung_Otaku2

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