Chapter 10: Spell Circuits

Enya sat in her chair with a grumpy expression on her face. Her arms were crossed tightly, and she glared off to the side, refusing to look at the mocking glow of her status screen that floated in front of her.

Innate Class: Visionary

Unlock conditions: Shatter a spell circuit and reactivate it while analyzing the nature of the mana before it dissipates.

She held a disdainful look on her face as she pouted. She had already broken and reformed the circuit, yet the status screen wouldn’t give her the class she wanted.

“Stupid class—who wants you anyway,” she muttered with a humph.

Pell, who was holding a pillow and standing in front of the table before her, let out a sigh. He had come in a few minutes ago to give Enya her sleeping pillow, only to see that Enya was talking and insulting her status screen. Calling it ‘dumb’, ‘stupid’ and ‘useless’. Coincidentally, those were the same words he would have used to describe the noble he hated back on the first layer. Well, maybe a bit more… unsavory flairs to go along with them.

“Alright,” Pell began, his voice weary, “you said you checked your innate class and its unlock conditions. You tried to meet them, and you succeeded, but the status screen isn’t giving you the class?”

“Yeah. I did exactly what it wanted, and it still won’t give it to me,” Enya replied, her tone laced with indignation.

Pell nodded slowly, tucking the pillow under his left arm. He placed his right hand on the table, tapping his fingers in thought. “So, the conditions were to break a spell circuit, any kind of circuit, and then remake it before the mana disappears?”

“Yeah,” Enya confirmed, her voice impatient.

“Did you…are you sure you actually did all the conditions? Correctly?” he asked, incredulous that she managed to pull it off in the mere few hours he was gone.

Pell had gone back to the shop after some light patrolling to gather some items to bring back to the study. This included a few cans of preserved food, some water, and Enya’s sleeping pillow. These were all items he had on himself when he first raided the dungeon. It was a general rule to always bring camping and survival gear when raiding a dungeon, as you never know what might happen.

Enya, with an annoyed expression, looked back towards Pell. “Yeah. Look over there. I broke the spell circuit and used my mana to light it up again,” she said, pointing toward the altar at the corner of the room.

Pell followed her gesture, eyes landing on the altar. It looked exactly as it always had, glowing softly, serenely, and unperturbed. “Okay. So you broke the circuit, which I assume you mean you stopped the mana from flowing throughout it. And then you poured your internal mana into the engraving to activate the spell again?” Pell asked.

“Yep,” she said indifferently.

Pell continued to tap his finger on the table. “Did you… fully comprehend and analyze what had happened?” he asked slowly. “As in… you know exactly what happened before, during, and after? Analyze usually means more than just ‘seeing’ something happen, you know.”

Enya stared at Pell. Several seconds of silence passed. The only sound that echoed the room was the sound of Pell’s finger hitting table.

“Ye-yeah. I-I did,” she said, looking off to the side again. She lowered her head slightly and crossed her arms tighter. She saw the circuit break. That much was obvious to her. Did the explosion reveal more than she could notice? The screen had told her to ‘analyze’ it. Did some special effect take place? Or perhaps a certain process or logic that she needed to comprehend?

Pell could clearly see the girl blushing in embarrassment. This was why he hated dealing with children. So unreliable, so prone to committing blunders.

Turning his gaze back to the altar, Pell began to think about the significance of what Enya had done. It’s impressive how this girl could already break and reform a spell circuit on her own. Although these altars have circuits engraved into the marble to assist with the formation, it’s still impressive she was able to do it in such a short amount of time.

Pell wasn’t a magician by any stretch. His life revolved around trade, bartering goods, and making deals, not weaving spells or manipulating mana. He knew just enough about magic to get by—the basics that common knowledge would dictate. Circuits were formed using mana, and once filled—they activated. That was about the extent of his magical knowledge. Anything more nuanced or intricate was beyond him, reserved for those who actually practiced magic daily.

He’d heard the stories, though. Tales and rumors that whispered in the streets of prodigious students in magic academies, those who mastered their mana and formed their first spell within weeks, sometimes even days. Families would boast about their genius children who could control mana with ease after just a week of training. But this little girl? She had managed to do it within a few hours. What did that make her? Although, her amnesia might have allowed her to cheat in some regard. Did this even count as being a genius?

“Alright princess, get up from your chair and let me see you do it again. I want to see how exactly you were able to reform the spell,” Pell said, as he moved over to the nearest altar.

"Okay," Enya said as she bounced off the chair and walked toward the altar. She crouched down, placing her finger on the spell circuit, while Pell stood behind her, closely watching. Enya closed her eyes, focusing on the flowing mana. She channeled the mana within her, pushing it outward to block the circuit’s flow. After a few seconds, the circuit ruptured, sending a small wave of mana outward. Even though she had done this before, Enya still flinched at the sudden, albeit minor, explosion.

“Hmm, I see, I see,” Pell said, nodding to himself.

Pell… had no idea what he was looking at. Enya crouched down, put her finger on the spell circuit, and then, after a few seconds, the circuit sparked and fizzled out. The light on the altar vanished, but it didn’t seem like Enya had done much. Pell knew the basic theory behind spells, but since he’d never really used magic before, this was all foreign to him.

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Pell coughed to cover his uncertainty. “Good job. That’s… um, the correct way to break the circuit. By using your finger, you were able to disrupt the circuit itself.”

Enya looked up at Pell. “Uh, well, I used the mana inside me to stop the mana inside the circuit from flowing, not my finger.”

“Ah, yes, well—obviously, that is what I meant. You used your own mana to… send it out through your finger as a medium to stop the flow in the altar,” he added, turning his head slightly to avoid her gaze. His eyes drifted back to the altar as Enya placed her finger back on the circuit.

Enya focused her mana once again, channeling it into the altar, reconnecting the mana flow, and looping it all over again. In one second, she reignited the spell, letting the light on the altar reappear.

Pell observed her closely. She really could break and reform a spell circuit with ease. Did this mean she had an exceptional aptitude for mana control? Or was this just a fluke, something that seemed impressive but might not mean much in the grand scheme of things? Pell wasn’t entirely sure.

“Well,” he began, “it looks like it takes you around two to three seconds to refill the mana in the circuit. If the mana dissipates in about two seconds, maybe one and a half, then you’ll need to analyze it pretty quickly.”

“Did you notice anything when it exploded? Or do you know how I can analyze it faster?” Enya asked, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

Pell shrugged slightly. “No, and practice. Probably.”

Enya sighed, her body slumping in disappointment. That wasn’t the answer she had hoped for. She secretly wished Pell knew some sort of shortcut.

Pell’s eyes narrowed slightly as he spoke. “How’s the progress on the necromancy books? I know awakening your innate class is important and all—not sure what 'Visionary' really is, never heard of it—but you should be focusing on the books. I doubt your Visionary class will have the skills that would help in slaying monsters, unlike necromancy.”

Enya stood up and dusted off her garment that had brushed the ground. “I think I’m on chapter 3 of the book right now. I had to reread the first two chapters a few times. So now, I think I’m on… the 2nd, no, 3rd—review of the chapter now?”

“Good. Make sure you keep reading them. Those books are your priority, remember that,” Pell said, a smile forming on his face. “It’s dirty and gloomy down here in the dungeon. I’m sure you also want to leave and explore the surface and go on adventures like the heroes in your stories, right?”

Enya looked at Pell, her eyes brightening a bit. “Yeah, I do. There’s not much down here besides you, the skeletons, and the zombies that keep getting eaten by Mr. Rat,” she replied.

“Exactly. So make sure you finish and get the necromancy class as fast as you can. Getting the class is only the first step—you’ll also need to fight some monsters and level up,” Pell advised.

“You can work on your Visionary class when you need to take a break, but just make sure it doesn’t interfere with your study time.”

Enya's status screen opened in front of her, along with a soft ping! inside her mind.

Party Notification: Pell wishes to invite you to his party "Pell's Party."

[Accept/Decline]

“I just sent you a party request. Go ahead and accept it. This'll let us keep track of each other's status, mana, and other things like that,” Pell explained.

Enya nodded and tapped "Accept" on the screen.

Party Notification: You have joined Pell's party "Pell's Party"

Kind of a boring name, Enya thought.

Pell walked back toward the door and opened it. “I’ll be back tomorrow. I left the pillow I brought at the side of the desk,” he added as he shut the door behind him and left.

With Pell gone, Enya returned to the desk and hopped onto the chair. She reopened the book and resumed reading, but the conditions of her innate class kept rattling in her mind. She kept glancing over at the altar in the corner.

Pell had said the Visionary class probably wouldn’t be useful for getting them out of the dungeon. But despite that, she still wanted to unlock it. It was so close, staring her right in the face—literally. The status screen hovered in front of her, taunting her with the unlock conditions. She kept closing and reopening the status screen, the message lingering in her mind.

Enya was about to turn to the next page of the book… but decided against it. She looked back at the altar with a determined expression. She had to get it.

image [https://i.imgur.com/ZiLMGqb.png]

Pell walked the hallways alone, a solitude he had grown accustomed to over the past four years since his death. The dungeon's cold, empty corridors offered little in the way of companionship—just mindless skeletons and sluggish zombies.

Enya had been a nuisance at first, with her endless questions and his efforts to teach her to read and speak. Yet, as annoying as it was, he didn’t dislike her. She was innocent, naïve even. He was using her as a means to his escape, but she accepted his guidance without question, believing necromancy to be a great class that would befit her. While necromantic magic was strong, it wasn’t particularly overwhelming—Elementalists, Magic Knights, and Witch Doctors were formidable in their own right. Very few classes were outright weak.

A boss monster was the last line of defense for a dungeon. Defeating the boss would grant access to the dungeon core—the heart that powered the dungeon. Upon reaching it, one had two options: destroy the core or take control of it. Technically, there was another choice: doing nothing.

Destroying a dungeon core would destabilize the dungeon, causing it to collapse within an hour. Destroying a dungeon core however, offered rewards: a significant boost in experience points, potential bonus loot, or titles. However, it would also make the dungeon permanently inaccessible, preventing others from challenging it. While not illegal, destroying a dungeon was generally frowned upon unless it was discovered by the party themselves. It was a “first come, first served” type mentality.

The other option was to claim ownership of the dungeon core. By claiming the core, one could manage various aspects of the dungeon: monster aggression, tactics, passageways, and whether monsters were hostile. Most official dungeons were of this type, owned and operated by adventurer guilds or city lords, and used primarily as farming grounds for experience and materials.

Pell knew what he was doing was wrong—utterly disgraceful and irredeemable. In this world, a person could only ever have one main class, and once it was chosen, there was no turning back. For both commoners and nobles, selecting a class was a momentous decision. Nobles, in particular, faced immense pressure. Resources were poured into noble children to ensure they obtained a class worthy of their status. Simple classes like farmer, florist, blacksmith, or chef were rarely acceptable for noble families. Instead, they favored classes that were at the very least practical, such as scholars, alchemists, enchanters, and holy knights.

Pell knew that by turning Enya into a necromancer, he was crippling her future. Whatever grand plan her family had for her would be shattered. She wouldn’t become a great noble figure but rather the black sheep—a dirty and despicable child who was tricked by a skeleton and became an abhorrent necromancer, a desecrater of death. He didn’t want this to happen, but he also didn’t want to be trapped in this dungeon for an eternity or die by its collapse. Blame it on the girl’s bad luck that she ended up in an undead dungeon with him.

If he made it out, he would apologize, then disappear. He just needed to find the right time. If anyone learned what he had done, death would be the least of his worries. Enya’s dress was not cheap, even by noble standards—she certainly had strong backing somewhere. If they discovered what he did, there would be no escaping his demise. He would have to find a way to change his appearance back to that of a human, possibly with a polymorph potion, so he could at least travel without a target on his back.

Perhaps he would regret his actions later. But not now. Right now, he needed to help the little girl. Right now, he just needed to keep up the image of a nice, kind, and caring skeleton merchant who only wants to help her.