[A/N: I will be calling Seth, Silas from now on since that’s his new name.]

According to the book Silas was reading, magic could not be used until the person awakened their core, and since Silas had done exactly that, his next step was to either learn magic or cultivate.

The main use of cultivating was to break down and expel the impurities from the core. The more impurities you expel, the stronger your core becomes and the more refined it is.

At the same time, the stronger your core becomes, the higher tier of magic you can cast due to the fact that your mana pool increases significantly every time you reach the next mana core level.

The mana core is split into 8 different stages.

Onyx, Garnet, Topaz, Amethyst, Sapphire, Emerald, Ruby, and Diamond. The diamond core was considered a myth among most awakened, and there hadn’t been a record of a diamond core in the last 500 years.

Nevertheless, each stage of the mana core is further divided into three categories: Dull, Solid, and Pristine.

And that’s where magic circles came in. Magic circles were split into ascending tiers of spells. The weakest and simplest spells were tier 1, while the strongest were at tier 6.

However, according to a few books he had found in the basement, there was also a seventh tier; however, no one below the diamond core had ever used it before.

On the same note, tier 7 spells were said to be capable of changing literal continents. Their power was so great that maps would have to be re-drawn due to the continent-level devastation that they caused.

They were so powerful that they were even dubbed the “apocalypse tier of spells.”

However, Silas had no time for mythology and all the crap. Those were things that he could think about when he went into education.

‘Does this world even have schools? My sister never seems to go to school, but she’s only 4 years old so that is to be expected.’ Silas thought while stroking his chin and looking at the book in front of him.

He could see his parents peaking at him from the crack in the door, giggling like children from the other side whenever they saw their baby stroking his chin.

‘They probably think I don’t realize… Probably? They definitely think I don’t realize. I have to remember that I am a baby now.’ Silas thought, and he wasn’t wrong.

His parents and grandmother found it weird that Silas was into books so early on in life, but they didn’t stop him even though they thought he couldn’t read.

“Lochras, do you think he’s going to become a mage in the future?” Silas’ mother asked while looking at her husband.

“Really? When did warriors grow from muscle heads to professors and philosophers? My baby is intelligent and is more than capable of becoming a powerful mage.” She crossed her arms and harrumphed.

“Muscle heads?! Lady you married a knight, and even though you practically called him stupid, let me remind you that I’m the one doing all the paperwork that keeps this house afloat!” Lochras sneered.

“Oh really? Let me remind you who puts food on the table!” Rhea snorted.

“Me! I’m the only one working!”

“Oh really?” Rhea glared at him before her face softened into a smile.

A smile that did not reach her eyes…

“U-Uh… R-Rhea… Please don’t hurt me.” Lochras cowered.

“Oh don’t worry, unlike you I don’t use muscles to fix all the problems in my house… But if I was you, I’d thoroughly check your next meal. I little birdy told me that it might be filled with a few cockroaches that just happened to live in our attic.” Rhea patted her husband on the shoulder and walked away with the same smile as before.

‘And that’s why I didn’t get married.’ Silas thought, his body covered in a cold sweat as he imagined himself eating a sandwich, unaware that it had been filled with cockroaches and spider parts.

‘Ugh… Spiders…’ Silas shivered before continuing his book from where he had left off.

It took him a few days to read all the chapters about spell casting and magic circles, but in the end, he believed he understood most of it.

Humans were unlike magical beasts.

First off, all humans had affinities they were attuned to, and that was the first area where Silas found himself slightly confused.

First off, even though only 1 out of 100 humans awakened, there were set limitations in place for those who did awaken, and those came in the main elemental schools of magic.

Those elements were earth, fire, water, and air. However, they did break down further into sub-elements like metal, lightning, ice, and spirit.

Of course, were people who were referred to as diviners, capable of producing healing spells. They believed that a diviner’s power came from some kind of higher being, but of course, Silas knew that wasn’t true…

After all, healing magic was just a product of the life equation, created from one out of the hundreds of thousands of runes that formed the life equation itself.

However, the problem that arose was the fact that humans only usually awakened one or two elements, with a very small few awakening three elements. Awakening four elements was unprecedented in the history of this world, and possibly having healing capabilities on top of that was the stuff of children’s tales.

He didn’t know why he had so many affinities, but he had a feeling that awakening an element literally referred to as ‘mana,’ must have been the work of the green energy that coursed through him and created his mana channels for him.

‘Oh crap… I should probably limit myself to two elements then. Using three would put too much attention on me, especially when I’m so weak, and using four would be the same as writing “kill me” on my forehead, taking a picture of it, and broadcasting it to the entire planet.’ Silas sighed before returning his attention to creating spells.

Since his parents weren’t watching him anymore, he raised his finger and began tracing something in the air.

‘If my knowledge is correct, creating a spell is essentially just creating runes in a certain pattern, and the patterns humans chose were magic circles and runes since they’re pretty easy to understand.’ He thought while closing his eyes and channeling mana to his index finger.

Slowly, he traced out a large circle that was a little smaller than he was. However, he quickly moved his finger inside the circle, making another circle that was the size of his head instead.

‘In the smaller circle should go the rune that represents the element I’m going to use-‘ He traced out a rune that he remembered from the book.

‘And the outer circle should be split into four sections, each section controlling an aspect of the spell I’m creating… It’s essentially the control panel.’ Silas quickly created a horizontal and verticle line across the large circle, both lines cutting off whenever they overlapped with the smaller circle with the elemental rune in it.

His finger moved quickly, tracing 4 runes into the 4 sections.

‘Since humans don’t create their spells out of instinct like magical beasts, they have to use magic through runes instead…’ Silas thought while opening his eyes.

He saw a dark grey circle before him, the color of the circle representing the color of his mana core. However, the rune in the middle of the spell was blue, and it seemed like it was trying to change the color of the circles and runes inside them, but every time it tried, it was quickly pushed back by Silas’ mana.

‘Why the hell is that happening?’ Silas thought while all the dead game developers nodded alongside him, remembering their days of creating code to discover that it somehow created a glitch that simply didn’t make sense.

Concentrating momentarily, he closed his eyes again and imagined the water element.

The sound of the rain from his previous life entered his mind. He could almost hear it… He could hear the rain, the rivers, and ocean tides, and the river of blood dripping from his ha-…

Then a spark was created.

The mana inside his channels was constantly powering the circle, yet when he started imagining the water element, a spark was created inside his core, turning his mana slightly blue before it entered his magic circle.

The magic circle instantly became ocean blue, and before Silas could fully open his eyes and realize that he had succeeded, he felt his mana being siphoned out of his core at a dramatic rate while a water sphere slowly formed before the circle that was now twice as large as before.

‘Holy sh*t, I did it!’

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