4 1st circle
The sun had already set, casting the hospital room in dim light while Hans remained confined to his bed. But that was when a not-particularly tall, middle-aged man with sparse hair entered the room.
The man was dressed sharply in a formal black suit that didn't seem to match his demeanor.
He took a seat beside Hans's bed and addressed in a rather rude tone, "Hey, lucky guy, just know that you aren't worthy of this. Tch, it hurts my mind thinking that someone as young as you is receiving so much money without even doing anything… But, I can't ignore her words."
"Here, take this," saying that, the man gave him a card, but clearly seemed reluctant to let go of his grip on the card as Hans accepted it.
Once given the reward as ordered, the man continued, "There's fifty thousand on this card; they said it's the bounty obtained through the bodies of the killed monsters."
"It should've been a little bit higher, but many of them were beyond saving. Ugh! I still have goosebumps. It was definitely the work of a monster."
Hearing this, Hans's face turned pale as he subconsciously started sweating.
Meanwhile, noticing this, the man continued, "Ah.. you don't have to worry about it. It's not like you're in any trouble because of someone else's deeds."
Then with a mocking tone, the man continued, "Also, your hospital bills have already been settled, so there's no need to fret about it."
After the exchange and the man's departure, Hans lay in the uncomfortable bed, gazing out of the open window at the illuminated cityscape.
"Fifty thousand huh? Just for a single day."
He then mused inwardly, 'It should cover their hospital expenses for a couple of months, and I ought to start saving to pay off my debts'.
'If it weren't for the fact that the health care here is decent, I would've left this country ages ago. They demand over twenty thousand dollars every month. I had to sell the old house and even so, for the past eight months I've been forced to take a loan.'
"But what choice did I have? Let them die? No way!"
"Now I have the chance to earn enough money... but I shouldn't get too greedy. After all, just a single misstep could lead me to death. If I don't pay the hospital, they'd probably kick them out, basically killing them."
"My priority is to get stronger. My only advantage is my high wisdom, leading to a high mana pool, but I couldn't use it at all in the last battle due to my lack of spells.
However now…"
As he said that, Hans swung his hand in the air and manifested a book, written on its cover was the title: "Fireball"
"I should start by learning this," Hans was determined.
{Tier-0 Spell: Fireball.
Magic spells can be devised in various elements, such as fire. Fireball is the most basic spell of the fire path, the first thing one needs to do to activate a spell is…}
With that, for the next few hours, Hans's entire focus was solely locked on the spell, from the online sources he had understood that even the most basic spells would take a few days to comprehend.
But in the middle of the night, while repeating the same process over and over again…
{Fireball}! Hans muttered confidently, attempting it once again.
And this time, all of a sudden, a lump of fire manifested on top of his right palm as it floated.
Initially, the fire was rampant and unyielding, but as Hans repeated the process many times, it gradually became warmer and much tamer.
According to the book he had, this signaled the increase of his mastery over the skill, and indeed, when Hans felt that his mastery over the spell couldn't get any better, the book he had received disappeared, followed by a window popping up before his eyes.
[ Congratulations on comprehending the tier-0 fireball tome, due to the effect of the skill {Knowledge Hunger}, you have been rewarded with 10 wisdom points. ]
[ Skill Name: Fireball Skill Tier: 0 ]
After all the hard work, Hans was completely exhausted, so he drifted into sleep as soon as his eyelids closed.
As he woke up the next morning, he was discharged from the hospital and returned home.
After taking a shower and changing his clothes, Hans lay on the bed, relaxing every single tense muscle of his body while breathing through his mouth and thinking.
"In theory, once a mage reaches level 10, they're supposed to receive a book containing the method to create their first circle. However, considering the message I received from the system which implied that I could advance upon attaining the required wisdom stat, I doubt that I will receive my tome after hitting level 10."
"But I need to focus, that's the first thing I have to do."
"Secondly, the mana circles are akin to rings encircling the mage's heart. I will need to channel mana around my heart and establish a stable structure for those rings."
"And thirdly, I must set the rings to spin around the heart."
That's all the information he could find online.
"Even though these basic stages seem relatively straightforward, each person has their own system-given method, so no one actually attempts to create a circle of their own. But I have to do it!"
With that, Hans concentrated and started gathering his mana from all the parts of his body before regrouping it beside his heart. However, the mana was too much and impossible to compact, thwarting his attempts to construct the circles.
Not knowing what to do, Hans pushed the mana around the heart, completely bypassing the usual second phase, and commenced directly with the third phase.
The mana whirled frantically around the heart while Hans tried his best to maintain control. This swirling force created a dynamic force of attraction-repulsion akin to the gravitational interactions between the stars and planets and as the centrifugal force created by the spinning of the mana intensified, so did Hans's struggle to keep it under control.
With each passing moment, the strain became almost unbearable.
Just as Hans teetered on the brink of failure, the opposing force subsided, and the once uncontrollable mana morphed, taking the shape of a ring.
Instead of a typical mana circle, characterized by stationary mana with a rotating circle, Hans's creation was inverse: the circle remained still, but it was composed of rotating mana.
This unconventional formation granted easier and faster access to it, but of course, Hans still remained unaware of this fact.
Meanwhile, the bed was now drenched in sweat, while Hans gasped for breath as if he had just completed a marathon. Suddenly, a message appeared:
[ Congratulations on forming your first circle: You have gained 10 wisdom stats. From now on, you can learn 1st tier spells!]
[ Congratulations on becoming a true mage and forging your own path: You have gained 25 wisdom stats. Your mana affinity has increased. You can now cast spells one or more tiers lower than your level without needing to chant!]
[ You are the first true mage on earth: You have gained 25 wisdom stats. Your affinity with mana has increased. From now on, you can learn spells that are one tier above your level!]
[ Due to the effect of {Almighty Knowled…
]
A couple more windows popped up, but Hans's eyes remained fixated on just one message: 'Learning spells that are one tier above myself?'
"Crazy!" That was the only word that he managed to mutter at the time while barely able to articulate his astonishment.
'Also, true mage? Is that a reward I got from advancing without relying on the system's book? Or perhaps it's because I advanced through high wisdom rather than reaching level ten? Either way, I guess that settles it!'
"Status," he called in a hushed tone, almost whispering.
[ Current Status:] [ Name: Hans
Age:18
Class: Knowledge Seeker (UNKNOWN)
Title: None
Lvl: 5
Strength: 19
Agility: 19
Endurance: 19
Wisdom: 191
Class Skills:
-{Knowledge Hunger}
-{Almighty Knowledge}
-{Piercing Gaze}
Normal Skills:
-{Tier-0 Fireball}(NEW!) ]
"This is insane! I should have at least four times the wisdom of a normal tier-1 mage And considering the fact that I am able to cast spells one rank above myself, I should be as capable as a tier-2 mage."
However, stats and skills weren't the only aspects that determined the power of an awakened. Factors like mentality, experience, and decision-making also influenced the results of battles.
With that in mind, the Awakened Association, a company that rose during times of crisis to control and assist the awakened, decided to standardize the ranking based solely on combat power, the rankings were– G, F, E, D, C, B, A, and lastly S, from the weakest to the strongest.
Typically, these ranks ran parallel to the mage's circles.
An apprentice mage without a circle would be ranked G, limited to minor spells that could burn a little bit of grass or light a fire.
A mage with a first circle would be ranked F, capable of more substantial feats like causing grave burns or repel enemies with a gust of wind.
A mage with a second circle was ranked E, their spells capable of killing a normal person.
One with the third circle was ranked D. Spells from a mage of this rank would crack a brick wall, while mages with the fourth circle were ranked C, spells from them would most definitely destroy a cement wall.
As for mages in the fifth circle, who were ranked B, a casual spell from them could cause a massacre or create a crater in the ground.
Mage with the sixth circle was ranked A. This was the realm of natural disasters, a mage of this level could probably create a typhoon or summon a meteor.
Whereas a mage with a seventh circle, they were the most powerful and ranked as S. They were beyond disasters, there weren't many times anyone had seen them fight outside of the gates, nonetheless, their powers were comparable to that of nuclear weapons.
Normally, it wasn't possible for a country to have many of them, and the public would look at them as superheroes or movie stars.
"Even if my only spell is a tier 0 fireball, it should be enough to be categorized as rank E. However, if I were to get my hands on a tier two spell, considering the amount of mana and my affinity with it, I would probably be categorized around D-rank. At least that's what I think," Hans mused after thinking about it.
