Glenn panted as he rested his head against the quarry's warm marble ground. Sahro chuckled nervously beside him, still lying on his face.

"Haha...We flew away that time..." The Black Heir pushed himself off the ground, stumbling on his feet as he struggled to recover his senses. Glenn soon copied him, dusting off his clothes and naked chest. He quickly gave up and muttered a Mundare to clean himself, but a spark of Mana and a pang in his chest informed him that his body was practically empty of Mana as of now.

"...Not the hardest fight in my life, but certainly the one that scared the most shit out of me," muttered the young men, glancing at the surrounding destruction they caused. The wall where the golem was previously hiding was completely collapsed, reduced to a pile of white rubble, while the creature itself had blown itself up to smithereens. Glenn's eyes widened and his heart missed a beat as he suddenly realized.

"No..." He whispered, holding his head in horror. Sahro looked at him, before following his gaze and staring at the ash covering the white marble. The confusion on his face was soon replaced by deep despair.

"I...Curses!" Sahro swore through his teeth, clenching his fist in anger. Glenn fell to his knee in front of the rubble, his arms hanging by his side.

"My money..." He barely managed to say, his eyes looking for any Blumar leftover from the explosion.

But, sadly for the two of them, the Blumar Golem had effectively managed to get rid of every single piece of his body, making all of this precious Blumar disappear in its self-implosion. The young men exchanged a glance and sighed simultaneously. Glenn stood with difficulty, a deep grief anchored in his heart as he dragged his feet back in the camp's direction. Sahro followed him with a similarly dispirited expression, not even sparing a look at the mess they had made of this part of the quarry.

"...Fuck my life," Glenn spat to the side. This was the worst time investment he had made until now, even if he somehow succeeded in finding a new way to use his Gravity Manipulation spell. That stuff will surely need some additional training so he doesn't end up almost accidentally killing himself again by flying and crashing hard against the ground.

'Way too dangerous for my taste...'

Diamanes sneered into Glenn's mind without adding anything. The young man's eyelids twitched and the corner of his lips curved upward slightly.

Alright, it was a bit thrilling. But just a bit. Not something he wanted ever to repeat. Not at all. Cough.

The two young men forced themselves to walk back to the camp and were so concentrated on making sure they wouldn't collapse from exhaustion that they missed a dark-robed figure dancing weirdly on top of one of the untouched marble walls.

Glenn and Sahro managed to drag themselves back to the camp without meeting any obstacles, maybe a lucky event, or simply the calm before the storm. The fact was that even if they met a single golem, there were chances they would have to fight with their lives on the line with how much energy they expended on the Three-Eyed Blumar Golem. Glenn was still feeling his chest tighten in pain from time to time, while Sahro's legs kept on shaking uncontrollably as if he had just done the most intense leg day of his life.

The young man smiled silently as he imagined his friend squatting his life away in a gym, before shaking his head dejectedly.

'I doubt they have squat presses in this world. Heh, does the concept of gyms even exist here?' Glenn's thoughts trailed off as the sun finally left his spot, leaving it for the twin moons to hang in. The camp was exactly as they left it, Javier standing watch on top of the highest marble wall calmly.

'Is there even a single time you've seen him something else but calm?' Diamanes jested, making his host shrug.

I'm pretty sure he's so devoid of emotion that his state can't be described as calm. He's more like a...I don't know, a rock? It's just that he doesn't feel things, I guess,' Glenn theorized, summoning the upper part of his clothes with a simple thought. The night was probably going to be cold, and there was a good chance he'd take the first shift. It would be for the best if he could avoid catching a cold.

Reed approached him with a half-curious and half-angry expression.

"Glenn—Sir, respectfully, where did you go? The men, and mostly the workers, were scared to death when they realized that two-thirds of our fighting power just left without a word!" The mercenary moved his arms frantically.

"I can't stress enough how important you or Sir Sahro's presence is to us! We, no, you need to come and..."

Glenn used his pinky to scratch the inside of his ear, before staring straight into Reed's eyes. The mercenary stopped talking and looked back confusedly. Glenn took the most serious face and tone he could and licked his lips.

"Reed, don't tell this to anyone, but we left to fight the most dangerous enemy of the quarry. An absolute demon that could have crushed this whole camp. We barely won by combining our forces with Sahro, and that was thanks to a gamble on my side," Glenn explained with a secretive voice, squinting as if to find any people spying on his conversation. Diamanes laughed loudly in his host's mind.

'Haha, and the worst of it is that you're not even lying! Hahaha!'

Reed's face changed to an understanding one, and he bowed slightly his head.

"I...I'm sorry Sir Glenn," said the mercenary in a more respectful tone, "...I never could have guessed there was such a strong enemy in this quarry. Should I prepare the convoy for leaving?" He asked with his arms clamped behind him. Glenn shook his head and waved dismissively.

"Nah, don't worry. We took care of the big bad boy, the rest should only be small golems like the one Sahro brought back a little earlier in the day. That's nothing too dangerous to us, and I bet Javier could take care of such a golem wave by himself. Right, Javier?" He said the last sentence a little louder while looking at the perched Pale Son, who only replied with a silent and empty gaze. Glenn smacked his lips together and nodded.

"See?"

Reed moved his head up and down hesitantly, before frowning.

"I'm sorry, Sir, but do you mind telling me what kind of opponent you fought so we can recognize what we need to flee away from?" He asked curiously. Glenn rubbed his chin and leaned forward with a hardened face.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"That thing was..." His tone grew grave, so much that Reed gulped at the heaviness Glenn exuded. The mercenary could see the burning flames of despair in the Fixer's eyes as he thought back to that terrible opponent.

"...Just pray you won't ever meet it, or it will punish you with the worst fate that one can ask for," Glenn finally said gravely, turning his head away with his fists tightly clenched. Reed huffed, fear encroaching on his throat.

"...What kind of demon was that thing for you to say that?" He whispered, flinching when he saw Glenn's sharp gaze look back at him. The young man drew a small breath and grimaced painfully.

"...The worst kind. Trust me," Glenn walked away, his shoulders heavy with the burden he bore. Diamanes was dying from laughter inside his mind, so much that if he could have rolled himself on the ground, he would have.

'HHAHAHAHA!!! "The worst kind"! HAHAHAHA!!! Is it truly that painful to lose all of this Blumar? You're exaggerating!' The entity mocked without restraint, but Glenn ignored him as he thought back to all of that potential money now lost.

'...Is that how Monsieur Maron felt? Shit, I feel like that when I lost money that I didn't even earn yet, how worse was it for that merchant who invested his life savings in Palancar?' Glenn sighed and threw a sympathetic gaze at Maron's carriage, still closed and sealed off to any exterior influence.

His chest tightened once more with pain, making him trip on his feet. He held himself on the nearest wall, breathing slowly in a poor attempt to calm his sufferings, without much success. Glenn hurriedly chose a relatively discreet spot and sat cross-legged, immediately immersing in Meditation. The Circles surrounding his Mana Heart were still spinning quite fast, continuously drawing Mana in, Mana which then leaked out of his body somehow.

'It seemed like that leak is causing the pain...But where the hell is all of this Mana going?' Glenn couldn't help but wonder, clenching his teeth through the pain and following the trail of Mana. The energy was leaving his body, only to be gathered back in his Mana Heart in a vicious circle where barely any 'fresh' Mana entered his system. Glenn's brows furrowed as he tried to patch the leak, but a searing pain in his chest immediately discouraged him from doing so.

But when the young man thought back to all of that debt he could have paid off and that freedom he could have earned back, the pain in his chest disappeared, replaced by even greater despair.

'You're ridiculous...'

'Shut up! My soul bleeds a little more when I think back to how much money I've lost! Had I not taken on Maron's cursed job, I would have already saved Giselle's grandson, beat up the Baron, and earned the Black Heir's support to destroy this cursed Thorn's Church! Don't you see how important money is, here?' Glenn burst forth at Diamanes, making the Diamanes laugh even louder.

'Uhh, nah, sorry. Should have just been transmigrated into a rich body like your mate Exan there, heh. I even dare to say, skill issue, bro,' Diamanes sneered as his presence became faint in Glenn's mind. Fuming, the young man pushed through the pain at the pure strength of his will and spite, forcefully blocking the Mana leak.

'Skill issue...I'll show you skill issues, you bastard!'

The Mana, unable to leave Glenn's body, kept on accumulating inside his Mana Heart, soon filling back to the brim as the Circles accelerated without stopping. Glenn's face paled as he failed to slow the Circles down, too focused already on stopping the leak. Had Glenn been able to observe his body from outside like how Javier was currently doing, he would have witnessed his veins filling with the overflowing Mana, lighting up with a pulsing mystical blue light.

'Shit, I'm going to explode, aren't I?' Glenn panicked as he tried to split his mind in two, focusing half of it on the leak and the other on slowing the two gray runic Circles. Stretching his resources so thin earned him a searing pain in his chest as he lost entire control of his Circles and failed to keep on stopping the leak. His muscles bulged forward and his skin reddened violently to give him a look that would probably be trendy among lobsters.

'...Heh, seems like you get what's coming for you,' Diamanes sneered as his voice faded away, drowned under the raging Mana. Glenn's mind raced as he tried to find a solution.

'Fuck, fuck, I...I need to direct the Mana somehow!'

Glenn gritted his teeth and did his best to ignore the pain the leak caused in his chest as he redirected the Mana to flow back into his body without leaving through the leak. There were noticeable losses, but he couldn't bother with that at all right now. Glenn's mind suddenly sharpened as he glimpsed accidentally at the three runic words mainly composing his current two Circles.

'Gather...' His eyes shot back to the Mana filling his Mana Heart and more to the brim.

'I need to...process it!' Glenn's gaze lit up as he imagined a funnel to redirect the Mana, making the exit extremely small. The Mana rushed in by itself, flooding the funnel as a thin stream of Mana shot out powerfully from its end. The young man frowned, dismissing the idea of the funnel as the Mana poured out too fast for him to control.

'This isn't the way... I need to process it into a more controllable shape—Cough!'

Glenn coughed out blood in the real world and he barely managed to remain in his Meditation.

'I don't have much time!' The looming threat of death hung above Glenn's head as he struggled painfully. He clasped his hands together to form a cup-like shape and willed the Mana to go through it, forcing a perpetual flow in motion. It wasn't the best solution he could visualize, but since the funnel didn't work, he'd just have to use his actual body to act like it. The Mana rushed through the triangle before circling back, starting to form an actual working cycle. Glenn began to smile as the pain in his chest finally stabilized, leaving him with a slight breathing room.

'Okay, it's gathering well, and I don't know if it's processing, but it's certainly doing something. Shit, those things would have been a hundred times easier had I had a proper teacher... I swear that I'll talk with the old man as soon as I'm back in King's Rise,' He thought as he kept his focus on maintaining the cycle. The Mana road was sending pulses of energy through his body, shaking his concentration and destabilizing the fragile balance of the whole system.

'The last touch...Amplify...Amplify...Amplify with what? How?' Glenn racked his brains desperately, his back covered in sweat.

'I can't let it grow stronger or I'll lose control, so that can't be it. Shit, why is all of this stuff so cryptic?!?'

Suddenly, like the light at the end of the tunnel, the memory of him creating his Second Circle surged back in his memory. It had happened much more naturally, in a less controlled environment than how he previously was. Perhaps the right and safest choice was to let the Third Circle form naturally, but Glenn had lost that right by receiving Onnea's help and overusing Overload.

Natural growth had to be discarded for precise, well, kind-of-precise manipulation, since in reality, he had no idea if what he was doing was going to work.

'I created Implosion using the attribute of my Mana Heart, the first essence of Astral Sorcery. Amplify...'

Glenn watched the Circles' spinning speed increase, his thoughts slowing down as the answer dawned on him.

'Gather the Mana...Process it into a Circle...'

The young man drew a deep breath as the Mana swirled around him, his veins glowing brightly in the night with magical energy. The light of the twin moons shone on his face as he sat on the now-cold marble, watched over by the countless stars in the sky.

'Amplify it with your essence...Astral Sorcery!' Glenn's eyes shot open and he clenched his teeth as he forcefully infused the mystical power of the Magellanic Clouds into the creation of his Third Circle. The flow of Mana sped up crazily, making his body shake with powerful tremors. The young man's eyes bulged as he restrained a scream of pain, his entire being concentrated on his objective.

The ring of Mana solidified, devoid of any color but darkness, until scattered lights suddenly lit up inside the empty void, coloring it into a myriad of colors as if formed a belt of stars. The two grey, runic Circles suddenly shivered, losing their color as they changed into similar rings of stars, shedding their old skin away. A breath of fresh air entered Glenn's lungs as the Mana finally settled into a permanently stable shape.

"Gasp, I...Hah...Damn..." Glenn's head leaned against the marble wall as exhaustion took over his body. Darkness encroached on his mind, but Glenn could only see the Magellanic Clouds in his Mana Heart growing, surrounded by three, bright rings of stars.

Glenn, breakthrough to the True Initiate realm.

Specialty - Astral Sorcery.