After an hour or two of fiddling with my circles, the only thing I could deduce was that my null magic circle has something missing or is incomplete but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. Frustrated with the lack of progress I decided to come at the problem from a different angle since my null magic circle won't be cooperating any time soon I decided to just not use it for now. Instead, I focused on releasing magic from my second seal since the mana coming from that circle seems to be stable and man did it make a large difference, well it's still hard to manipulate the mana but at least it's not collapsing for no reason so it could be considered progress.
Afterwards, I got a bit bored of doing mana exercises so instead, I fell in line with Marshall.
"Say Junior have we met before, I feel like before." To my question, Marshall hit me with a deadpan.
"Seriously you don't recognise me, like at all? Dude, I'm Cassie's cousin from her father's side, I was there at most of her birthdays."
Feeling embarrassed I give a weak smile while I try to remember, but to be honest I'm bad at remembering faces so it's no surprise that I forget about him.
"You forgot about me, didn't you?"
"Nooo I didn't forget you, it's just I briefly couldn't recognise since you've become such a strapping young buck." But as I say that I think I have faint memories of seeing him before, but you can't blame me for not remembering as most of Cassie's ilk weren't too fond of me so I limited my exposure to them.
However, Marshall gave me an unbelieving stare that said 'you forgot didn't you'. In an attempt to ease the tension I ask Marshall,
"Don't you dare doubt me Mars I remember you, seriously. I am a man that stands by his ambiguous." Marshall's face softened since I called him by his preferred nickname,
"It's okay little buddy, I don't blame you if you don't."
"Little buddy? Dude, you're barely a quart taller than me,"
"And don't you ever forget it" Marshall finished a loud laugh. The journey continued with light banter between me, Marshall, Stella and Mighty I even seen Helen smile a small bit under her hood. The caravan kept moving until nighttime where we set up camp. As the carriages stop I saw some of the workers step out of the back of some of the carriages and then start setting up camp. It was about 40 minutes until they started serving food for everyone which was an alright tasting stew but it was nothing to write home about.
I finished eating and left the group saying I needed to do my business and went into the forest. The reason for this is to test a theory that I'm cooking up. I look around making sure that no one could see me and I concentrate on summoning my mana. I make sure only my secondary circle is releasing mana and not my null circle. With mana circulating I summon my shield and seeing that appears without a hitch confirmed my theory. My innate ability that I have is related to my secondary circle, not my null circle which means I was wrong about the nature of my magic all this time, my innate ability is not null magic at all but magic of a different elemental leaning, it seems I need to go to a library to see what it could be, as I have no idea at the moment.
So, in conclusion, one of my circles is slightly defective and I don't have a solution to fix it, but at least I have identified the problem which is better than nothing. As I made my way back to camp I felt a chill go down my back so I look around quickly to see if anything was there but it turned out to be nothing, unfortunately, my gut doesn't agree with that statement as it was telling me something smells fishy or maybe it was the haddock I had earlier. Cautiously I made my back to camp and saw that people were either went to bed or staying up to keep watch.
Knowing today I didn't I have to keep watch tonight I just went straight to bed so I found a comfortable looking bush and went straight to the dream world.
Days went by in the same boring routine from dusk till dawn, no bandits, no magical beasts, no grand plots. It was just walking, some jokes and more walking, which really put a dampener on the whole 'life of adventure' idea. In this time I got on better terms with Stella, Marshall and Mighty. I found out that Stella and Mighty aren't from Dorwell but were friends with Marshall from when they were young and decided to form a party when they awakened which I thought was pretty cool. Apparently Mighty was from a small coastal town down south that faced the Blue Divide, an enormous expanse of water that separates the landmasses. Not else is much known about this ocean other than the legend that it leads to 'The Edge of the World' but that was a fisherman tale that caught on somehow despite how mad it sounds. Alternatively, Stella is from the northwest and lived near to the Spine of the World which is an extremely treacherous mountain range that is rumoured to have valleys that go as deep as the mountains go high. It was also fraught with danger but is full of rare ores which is why a large population of dwarves live there. As we talked they even told me some of their adventuring stories which were much more exciting than the one we're on now but they assured me that all missions start out boring and they either finish boring or with an experience of a lifetime. During this time even Helen opened up a bit as she mostly listened to the stories with me but didn't say much.
Helen was an interesting person I think. She kept up the whole mysterious stranger get up even now but she even got put up with me for night watch so I got to know that she's been in the 'Game' for a year however I'm pretty sure she's not human but one of the different races from how she holds a bit of contempt to everyone else and has a completely different aura than anyone else but I didn't inquire as she's wearing a hood for a reason and I don't want to be that guy.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
One thing I did get out of Helen was some mana mastery advice and she led me through some of the exercises which led my overall control to shoot up as I had someone to lead me through it. I can now complete basic manipulation but I still have a long way to go as Helen has mad control over her mana as when she demonstrated led to my mouth falling wide open. However, I still have no idea on how to fix my circle and was too scared to ask anyone to not reveal my second circle.
Last but not least I didn't get punched in the face by the scary dude, which is a plus I guess.
As of right now, we made it to the first town. We were supposed to stay there for a day while the caravan restocks on supplies and allow the Bison's to rest. We all scattered after we went into the town and were told to meet at the gate tomorrow at noon. I decided to go hit the library to see if have any information about circles.
Walking through the town I saw although it was pretty small, it has a cosy vibe around it and people had an aura of contentedness around them. Feeling invigorated by the mood I decided to take the scenic route instead as I meandered through the town and took in the sights. While walking, I saw a bustling market and decided to check it out.
When I arrived I saw that it was a general bazaar that had a little bit of everything. The first thing that caught my attention was a mouth-watering smell, like a bloodhound I tracked the scent to woman grilling meat on some skewers with what looks to be her sons. I order two skewers and continue to look around, I saw some nice clothes but they were a tad too expensive but I found a nice woollen hat and I decided to buy it and immediately equip it. I then saw a stall selling a collection of books and scrolls, walking up and looking through what's there. It was mainly just some odd scrolls on identifying volcanic herbs and other rather specific encyclopedias. However, I saw a small scroll that caught my attention, it was titled 'A Comprehensive Guide to Street Fighting and Fleeing'. Seeing such that it had such a compelling title how could I not buy it and it was pretty affordable at 1 silver and 40 copper. I continued to look around for a while longer but nothing seemed to catch my eyes so I decided to just go to the library.
After a short while and some backtracking, I found the library, when I went inside it was a pretty lively atmosphere as there were a lot of children milling about seems like it was the school was holding class here. Discounting the children, the library reflected the cosy and comfortable feeling that permeates throughout this town with oaken pillars, walls painted with plain colours and comfortable furniture. However, due to the surplus of children, the regular chars were pushed aside and in their place were large fluffy pillows which looked just as comfy. After a quick scan, I found the magic theory section, it was full knowledge that could be considered basic knowledge as it was available for anyone to read, the juicier tidbits were hidden within large institutes such as guilds, clans, academies and the such.
I picked up a book called 'Encyclopedia of Elements' and 'Identifying the Arcane' to see if either has any clue as to the nature of my second circle and I also picked out 'Understanding Circles' to see if it has any solutions to my null circle. With these books in hand, I made way to the seating area and set up camp on a large pillow. The class of children were all sat in front of the librarian who was reading a story to them all so they won't be disturbing me anytime soon.
For an hour I was looking through the encyclopedia to see if I can at least identify my element. The encyclopedia had a list of numerous elements and basic description, for instance, null magic specialised in utility spells that could be practised by everyone. There are lots of elements, the most commons were fire, earth, water and wind. However, there are more obscure elements that are derivative from the 4 main elements or completely separate such as poison, nature, lava and such. At first, I thought my circle was of the space element as the colour was similar however after I cross-checked it in 'Identifying the Arcane' and realised that it wasn't as the runes and patterns in my circle were different and it also had a slightly different colour. Space was a blue colour speckled with black whereas my circle was a bright blue with flecks of green so I went back to digging. After a good while has passed I found it. My circle was of the dimensional element which was derivative from the spacetime element. Spacetime is a really powerful element as it had many applications which would let the holder such an element live a relaxed life. My dimensional element was much more common in comparison but was still rare in it's own right, it mainly specializes in spells such as inventory, teleportation, mana containment, etc but this meant I wasn't compatible to the majority of spacetime spells and I would be lucky to find one that'll work with my circle. I also found out how my skill works as well, as it turns out I don't repair items instead I just rewind the time on them and return them to their original condition and I store them in my own personal space. This would be overpowered except for these skills to work they need to have restrictions on them and mine seemed to be that it only works on wearable equipment and weapons which explains why I couldn't absorb objects such as raw materials, food and coins. I even tried it on a rabbit at one point to test my luck but it just wasn't meant to be. Also, some extra information I found out was that my ability is more space-oriented rather than time which is why there's more blue in the colour of my circle than green. A crude way of explaining it but it's the best the books got.
Phew, that was a lot to take in but at least I know what my element is, however, it only gave rise to more questions such as why have I got a second circle, who were my parents that they had such a rare element and why did they leave? Many questions that would undoubtedly lead me down a rabbit hole filled with follow up questions.
Shaking these useless thoughts out of my head I go through the last book the only useful information I found was to pump mana into my circle to bring about improvements. This was common knowledge as the ways to improve circles and by proxy, their innate skills and talents were to use the skills extensively, repeatedly empty and refill mana to slowly increase mana capacity and meditate and slowly saturate the soul and, and as a consequence the circle, in mana. There are other more obscure ways but these are the established tried and true methods. All of these techniques would improve the capabilities of a mage. I guess I have no choice but to do as what the book said as I currently have no better ideas at hand.
Standing up I heard a cacophony of cracks and snaps within my body which felt heavenly. Looking around I saw the library was devoid of children and was back to a calm atmosphere. Staggering back to shelves, due to pins and needles in my legs, I put the books back to their original places. I was about to head towards the exit but something caught my eye instead, sitting at the table was a girl who was leaning on the table with her face in a book, it was obvious the girl was fast asleep. However that's not why I stopped, the reason was that I knew her, it was Helen! The hood of her cloak was pushed back, probably by accident while she was sleeping, which put her face in full face. Man her face was beautiful however that was not all as her skin had a purplish tint to it and her ears had a slight point to them, my god Helen was a drow. No wonder she always wore a disguise although there is no direct hatred between races anymore like in the past however stereotypes still persist and Helen would be a prime candidate for discrimination due to dark elves being known back in the day for affinity for assassinations especially against the human royalty.
Looking around and confirming no one around I rushed over and put her hood back on and roused her back to the land of the living. Groaning Helen sat up and let out a big yawn while some paper was attached to her face, dazedly she looked at me and we made eye contact for a couple of seconds before recognition returned to her eyes. Quickly she sprung into action by grabbing me by the neck and flipping me onto the ground. With a muffled thud I was slammed down and she mounted me. It would've been a compromising position that would make me blush except for the fact she held a knife to my neck.
"What did you see? Speak!" From the look in her eyes that if I didn't answer carefully I would pay for my carelessness with my life.
I gulped down and answered...