Magus Reborn

6. First Circle

Kai had mixed feelings while he took the stairs to reach his room.

There were a lot of questions in his head and lots of things to do. From the Mana Weaver to the debt, there were problems to solve, but first of all, he needed to awaken his Mana heart. Without it, he was weak and severely limited in what he could do.

The last time he had gone through awakening was decades back and back then, his master had guided him step by step as it was the tradition, but he could easily achieve it on his own with years of experience.

As soon as he entered his room, he saw Claire reaching the upper shelves that were in the corner of the room and wiping the dust off with a cloth.

She looked to be done with the rest of the room and at that, she had done a marvellous job.

The blood stains that were scattered on the floor were no longer there. The black filth that Kai spit was completely cleaned. He looked around the room and smiled. As he scanned the room, he saw the buckets of dirty water that stayed on the side.

Compared to how messy it looked before, everything was squeaky clean.

She must have been focused to not notice him, so he cleared his throat to let her know he was inside.

Claire swiftly turned around and looked at him.

Kai simply nodded with a satisfied face. "Good job," he said and gave one final look to the room.

Claire nodded in return. "It’s all done, Lord Arzan. If you need anything more, let me know." She quickly collected the cloth in her hand and moved towards the opposite room to lift the bucket.

Kai watched as she lifted the bucket full of water with shaky hands and turned around to leave the room.

Before she could leave, his voice stopped her.

"There is something. Claire, can you stand guard outside and make sure I’m not disturbed? I don’t want anyone to knock on my door for the next hour," Kai asked. If he got disturbed during the awakening, he might just make a mistake.

Since he was already relying on Claire, he might as well use her as a primary maid.

"Okay, I will be right outside."

She said and with the heavy load of things in both of her hands, she walked through the opened doors and closed them after putting the bucket down.

Now alone, Kai took one last look at the room.

He walked to the middle of the room and sat on the floor. Right where the ritual was done before, but the evidence of any ritual was long gone.

A part of him wanted to keep it up to study more, but the risk of anyone seeing it like Claire was too high. He could simply look for similar symbols later on.

As soon as he settled on the floor, he inhaled deeply. The pure mana-filled air filled his nostrils, and lungs, and then, found its way to his Mana heart.

Gradually, his focus on his Mana heart grew. He could sense how filled his Mana heart was compared to last night.

He knew that there was no better time to attempt an awakening.

As he took his next breath in, he closed his eyes and let his mind wander to his internal organs. Each breath filled his organs with mana and Kai almost lost himself in the sensation, before pulling himself back.

Regulating his mana through the Mana heart, he noticed something.

Although Arzan was mostly useless, his Mana heart was at a higher level than average.

After reaching the first circle, it could easily generate 12x mana compared to an average human. The normal was 10x, so it was pretty much a big advantage.

Such cores were hard to come by and he had the potential to at least be a Savant level Mage one day if he had worked hard and not died in an unfortunate accident.

The Mana heart was even higher than what he had in his previous life. No wonder he was a Duke’s son. Nobles usually marry skilled Mages among themselves, so it would pass in their bloodline.

After all, a Mage son was highly likely to be a Mage too.

He briefly wondered whether the poisoning had been someone fearing Arzan’s talent as a mage, but he dismissed it.

It wasn’t time to think about such things.

Arzan was considerably late to awaken his Mana heart. Normally, Mages would start their training at the age of fifteen years old.

Still, the level of his Mana heart would make up for the lost time. With Kai’s experience and spells, he knew of, he could even reach the second circle in the next few months and gain a better understanding of what elements suit his new body.

Though, he didn’t know the level of Mages of this era. It would still be a time when spells were less developed, so he wondered about how they operated.

Deciding to give a visit to this Mage Actra, Kai thought back to the time he had awakened.

"Aha!" He looked at the logs of wood that burnt with fire. Kai’s eyes glimpsed with happiness as he realised that he was no longer a Non-Mage.

He could slowly develop his circles to become a Magus again.

But before that, he had things to do.

Standing up from where he was, he rubbed his hands in his tunic. The warmth of the room already got under his skin, making him feel cosy. The fireplace looked much alive, and Kai’s inner emotions were just as similar.

After taking a good look at the simple spell he cast, he was satisfied.

He needed to let Claire know that she didn’t need to guard the door anymore. With a confident stride, Kai walked out of the room.

Creak!

Kai stepped outside his door.

"Claire-" As soon as he was about to tell her she could leave, he saw her. On the floor. She lay unconscious.

Initially, he wondered if there was some sort of an attack again, but he soon understood what had happened. He sighed.

Claire must’ve stayed too close to the door that he had accidentally pulled in her mana as well to awaken his core.

***

The window of the library cast a dim sunlight over the neatly arranged shelves.

The library wasn’t extensive, but it had a few various subjects that Kai was interested in— History and Geography.

Both could help him get a better understanding of the city.

Kai stood among the rows, his fingers tracing the titles of different books. His brow furrowed ever so slightly, being in the depth of his thoughts.

His mind continuously raged the questions about how he was going to deal with the massive debt that hung around their heads for the time being. It was going to be a pain.

The thought itself made him want to run away and simply focus on attaining more power, but it didn’t feel right.

Moreover, the advantage of using his powers as a noble and a lord lingered in his mind. If he solved this one problem, he could use it to get more funding for his projects.

Fundings were always necessary for what he had in mind and this was the easiest way to get it.

Kai observed Claire’s assistance from afar. She was in deep thought as she continued to pick a few books from the shelf. She turned to look at the back cover page and the front and then shifted it to the other stack she had built.

He had ordered her to find a few history books.

Though, now that he thought about it, he had no idea whether Claire was even literate.

Shaking his head, he looked at her.

"Claire," Kai called her name. She quickly turned around with another book still in her hand. "How are the people living in the city these days?"

She handed the book over to Kai and took time to think about his question. She paused but replied, "The cold bites everyone, my lord. In my neighbourhood, one man succumbed to the harsh winter. Aside from that, the food is short during this time of the year. From what I’ve heard here and there, a lot of people are planning to migrate. Some even went already."

Kai thought of what she said for a moment. The winter was the biggest problem for the people. It had always been for centuries. Even in his time, winter hadn’t been particularly nice, especially with Snow Fiends and Ice Wyverns coming out from their slumber.

"Then why not use Heat stones? Is it because they’re a bit costly? I believe that a collective effort can afford larger ones that a whole street can use. People might find some relief."

He let his thoughts out but soon halted as he saw Claire’s perplexed look.

Her frown deepened as Kai stopped talking and she said, "I’m not familiar with Heat stones. I haven’t heard of them before. Do they alleviate colds?" Her weird look made Kai blink his eyes.

"Never heard about stones that emit warmth? People use it to stay warm, especially during winter."

Claire’s eyes fell back onto Kai. The look on her face stayed right where it was. She had no idea what that meant or how that was used. Kai was sure of it.

"I have never heard of such a thing-"

"People just endure the weather apart from fireplaces?" Kai questioned back. He was, too, confused with what she was saying.

Claire nodded, giving an unfortunate smile.

It was then that he realised that the Heat stones hadn’t been invented yet. Even if they were, they weren’t as widespread.