Jasmine stared at her reflection in the mirror. She has chin-length blonde hair, which she wears swept back with a headband, a long fringe over the right side of her face, covering her eye. Sharp yellow eyes that were in a constant glare.
Due to her looks, people tended to avoid her. Even if that somehow didn’t, they will when they find out she was the student of a king-ranked mage. And Jasmine preferred it that way. The less attention she got, the better.
“Still nothing?” Alliah, the single person in the world who was probably in the same situation as her, asked.
Jasmine shook her head. “I told you. Nobody wou-” Jasmine was interrupted by a notification informing her that someone accepted her commission on the board.
Alliah gave her a smug grin.
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Two days. That’s how long it took Lucas to fix all twenty artifacts. It would have been done sooner if reviewing his work didn’t require him to wait overnight for the results. Anyways, now that he had the freedom to do what he wanted, Lucas focused on earning as much merit points that he could.
Repairing more artifacts and doing commissions, Lucas did everything to gather merit points. By the end of his first week, Lucas gathered exactly four hundred merit points through hard work alone.
“Welcome to the merit point exchange center. How may I help you?” the woman at the counter asked.
“By any chance, is there a mana cultivation method available?” Lucas inquired.
“I’m sorry, but we’re not allowed to provide such products to unregistered mages without proper approval,” the receptionist replied, somehow already knowing that Lucas wasn’t a mage.
Lucas sighed. “I understand.”
“May I ask why you wish to acquire a mana cultivation method?” the receptionist asked.
“I was told that even if I wasn’t a mage, I could still cultivate and gain access to a mana pocket,” Lucas answered honestly.
The receptionist nodded. “If you simply wish to gain access to your mana pocket, you may use that machine,” the receptionist gestured to a large atm machine.
“I beg your pardon?”
“That machine lets you store and take out items from your mana pocket,” the receptionist revealed.
“May I try it?” Lucas said excitedly.
“Of course,” the receptionist smiled and led Lucas to the machine. “All you need to do is place your hand on this orb and inject some mana,” the receptionist instructed.
Lucas placed his right hand on the blue crystal orb and allowed what little mana he had into the orb.
“A small empty space should appear within your mind, and all you need to do is picture the item you wish to store or withdraw,” the receptionist explained.
The image of a small storage appeared within his mind, but to Lucas’s confusion, it wasn’t empty. There was something small inside and when Lucas tried digging through to find what it was, he was surprised to find an item that he had forgotten about.
Percival’s monster core.
“Uhm... thank you very much,” Lucas bowed at the receptionist.
“It was my pleasure to be of assistance,” the receptionist replied with a smile before heading back to the counter.
Before Lucas let go of the orb, he took out Percival’s core, placing it in the hand hidden in his pocket.
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Fredrick Limestrow, the leading expert in golem magic within the military and one of the three king-ranked mages in the military.
“Leona, you better have a good reason for disturbing me during my coffee break,” Fredrick said as he poured a freshly brewed pot of coffee into his mug.
“I apologize, but this is urgent,” Leona showed the video of Lucas summoning Percival.
Fredrick raised an eyebrow. “A young man using outdated golem magic to recreate the body of a monster core,” Fredrick answered like it was common knowledge. “As for the material he used, it’s called Biozonite, a material that replicates anything. In this case, the black tar-like substance that composed the real Percival’s body.”
“Biozonite? If such a material existed, how come I've never heard of it?” Leona asked.
Fredrick held up three fingers as he added sugar to his coffee. “It’s rare, hard to work with, and trash.”
“Then how did he use such a material to create a golem capable of killing a Marquis-ranked mage with ease?”
“Truthfully, I’m very impressed by the young man. Impressed enough for me to forgive you interrupting my precious time with my coffee,” Fredrick took a very audible sip from his mug. “As for what he did, it was more like repairing than actually using golem magic. The magic circle on his back only served as a medium for something else that I don’t know.”
Leona just rubbed her forehead in frustration. Looking on the bright side, at least she found out something. “Thank you for your time general,” Leona bowed.
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Slumping down on his chair, Lucas took out the core and held up in front of him. He had thought the core was confiscated by the military after he lost consciousness. He didn't expect it to be inside his mana pocket, nor did he know how it got in there.
“I won-” Lucas didn’t get to finish as he realized he was no longer inside his office.
“Greetings human.”
Lucas stood up from his chair and turned towards the massive throne at the other side of the chamber. Sitting on the throne was Percival with his lance planted to the ground beside the throne.
“You can talk?”
“How observant of you,” Percival replied flatly.
“I don’t understand. Where am I?” Lucas spoke surprisingly calm despite being kidnapped.
“This place is my domain.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Then what am I doing here?”
Percival stood up from his throne and began approaching Lucas. The sounds of Percival’s footsteps echoed throughout the chamber. Lucas just stood where he was, frozen until the monster lord finally arrived before him.
Percival held up a hand, presenting what looked like an unfinished magic circle.
“What is that?” Lucas asked as he observed the magic circle.
“My body structure,” Percival revealed. “If you’re going to use my core for a golem, then I demand that you use my body, otherwise, I will not be able to perform to the best of my abilities.”
Lucas was at a loss for words. Not expecting for any of this happen, nor even considered the possibility of this happening.
When he finally gained the courage to reply, only one word managed to leave his lips. “Why?”
“I have already perished. Nothing will change that, but if I am going to be used. I want to perform at the best of my abilities,” Percival stated.
Lucas nodded and accepted the magic circle, and then in the blink of an eye, Lucas was back in his office.
“What the hell...”
He looked around in confusion then in his hands where a floating incomplete magic circle was.
“Damn...”
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Jasmine was growing annoyed for every minute that she needed to wait for the guy that accepted her commission. He wasn’t particularly late, but Jasmine had appeared fifteen minutes early and expected him to return the favor.
Instead, he appeared exactly on time.
“Are you miss Taruma?”
Jasmine raised an eyebrow as a guy around her age with black hair wearing a baggy sweater approached her. “Yes.”
“I’m the one that inquired about your commission.”
Jasmine raised an eyebrow. “I expected you to be older.”
He didn’t exactly look like an expert, nor old enough to be one, but it would pretty hypocritical of Jasmine to judge a person based on their appearance and age.
“Do we need to head somewhere for you to work?” Jasmine asked.
The guy just smiled. “We can do it here as long as you have the artifact,” the man replied with a smile.
“Uh huh,” Jasmine remained unsure about the man as she took out the artifact from her mana pocket.
If the man attempted to steal her artifact, she’d make sure to end him before he could even take a step out of the coffee shop.
Once Jasmine placed down the artifact on the table, the man began observing it. “Fascinating...” he muttered as he looked at the device. “The mana circuits were traced to form a magic circle and connected to several complicated runes that I don’t recognize.”
Jasmine barely understood what he was saying, and just when she thought he was about to give up, he pulls out a simple mana tracer. It didn’t even have an eraser. Her eyes twitched in annoyance as the man began tracing mana circuits on her artifact.
“You better ho-” Jasmine’s words died in her throat when her artifact came to life.
The orb began to glow with glowing discs appearing around it.
“That should work now,” the man said as he placed down the artifact. “Some of the mana circuits forming the magic circle were erased, so I just traced them back,” the man explained as if what he just did was easy. “Please sign here, so I could submit the completion of the commission.”
Jasmine stared at the paper the man was holding up. She suddenly reached out and grabbed the man by the neck. “How the fuck did you do this?!”
To her surprise, the man managed to pull himself out of her grip. The other customers in the coffee shop immediately reacted to the commotion. “I don’t know what to tell you miss. I just fixed your artifact.”
“You expect me to believe you fixed a unique grade artifact by just tracing a few lines!” Jasmine was about to cast a spell when she realized where they were and dispelled the magic circle.
The people around stared at them with wary gazes. Jasmine turned back to the man to see him looking at her with a mixture of disgust and shock. “If you don’t believe your artifact could fixed, why did you even put up a commission,” the man said as he swiped his mana tracer over her artifact.
Her artifact immediately shut back down. The orb lost its glow and the magic discs vanished. After that, the man quickly walked out of the coffee shop.
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Lucas tossed his bag across the room before flopping down on his bed. Today had been a shitshow for him. He had left work early to go meet with the commissioner, only for it to turn out like that.
He just hoped it won’t turn into an issue that could affect his job.
Though, he did get something out of this. The mage who created the artifact had used mana circuits to form an actual magic circle supported by several different runes. It made him wonder if he could apply the same method to making a golem.
If he got the chance to study the artifact, he could have found a way to replicate it. But that was no longer possible given how the owner of the artifact was.
Since he wasn’t tired yet, he decided to get out of bed and try working on making a magic circle for his golem to get his mind off the recent event. Obviously, a normal magic circle won’t work for him since he couldn’t use mana to form spells, so he needed one that would operate by itself once placed on an artifact.
Using the same method used on the artifact he just worked on, Lucas decided to engrave a magic circle using circuits. But for that to work, Lucas needed a material that could take Percival’s form using the script given to him by the monster lord.
Lucas remembered the video.
He opened a drawer and dug through his stuff to find what he was looking for. “Got it!” Lucas held up Althea’s business card.
Normally, Lucas wouldn’t even consider calling someone, but there was something he needed to know. Dialing the number, Lucas waited patiently as the line rang.
“Hello, this is Althea from Waywood research institute.”
“Ms. Althea. It’s Lucas Atican.”
“Oh, how’s your time in the institute?” Althea asked.
“It’s going well Ms. Althea. I actually called to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
“You saw the video of the market incident, right?”
“Yes, the one where you summoned a monster lord as a golem,” Althea confirmed.
“I wanted to ask if you knew what the material that was used.”
Althea was silent for a moment, making Lucas worried that he won’t get an answer from her. But thankfully, that wasn’t the case. “I don’t know what exactly the tar-like material was, but the actual material was likely Biozonite.”
Lucas got confused, hearing a material that he had never known about. “Biozonite?”
“It’s a material that can replicate any other material in the world,” Althea revealed.
“Excuse me?” Lucas asked in disbelief. “Something like that existed?”
“I know what you’re thinking, but it’s actually considered trash,” Althea chuckled. “Biozonite can’t be identified from the material its replicating, so you won’t even be able to find it outside through normal means. Additionally, there’s no market for it, so the only way to get them is through luck.”
“Then how did I do it to create Percival?”
“Were you in control back then?” Althea asked.
“No?”
“Then what makes you think I would know?”
“Ah...”
Althea chuckled. “I’m just messing with you. They examined the magic circle in the video and found it was some sort of restoration magic. That’s all I know.”
“Thank you very much Ms. Althea.”
“You’re welcome,” Althea said before dropping the call on Lucas.
Lucas hummed. “I guess she was busy.”
Despite finding out the material he needed was impossible to get, Lucas wasn’t discouraged since he got a good idea on what to do.
Magic circles had five layers with each of them having a different purpose. At the center of the magic circle is always the signature of the maker. The next layer would be the function of the spell, whether it would be an elemental spell or healing spell. The third layer contains the form or structure of the spell. The fourth layer is where the process of how the spell works is placed. And finally, the last layer contains the extra details needed for the spell to function.
To get started on the magic circle, Lucas wrote his signature to symbolize the mana signature that would be used in the magic circle. Next, Lucas wrote the formula for restoration magic. After that, Lucas placed the script he got from Percival.
The script contained the third layer, fourth layer, and the fifth layer. The third layer contained Percival’s body structure. And the fourth layer contained the most important part of the spell.
“I knew it would be here,” Lucas smiled.
The fourth layer contained the script involving the gathering and manipulating the Biozonite to form the tar-like material that composed Percival’s body. Lastly, the fifth layer contained every detail on how Percival moved and used weapons.
Lucas smiled at the draft he made for his magic circle.
“Time to do some tests.”