To The border 4

Leonard woke up with most of his fatigue gone, it felt like he did nothing at all yesterday when he strained his entire being.

"I can see it!"

Leonard's hope was soaring high, he could see the border city. He started stretching to warm up. He wanted to get there as fast as possible.

"Now where is he…"

Leonard's eyes narrowed, and his sight scoured around trying to find an arthropod. The campsite is cleaned up, everything has been packed up.

"Where…"

Leonard shrugged if Zhar'kerut decided to leave without him then that was going to be complicated. He had a suspicion that it was another test for him to finish. He would be damned if he was left alone.

The dungeon floor monsters are no joke, to the dungeon standards he might be as well an infant in terms of strength. He has no chance of competing in both magic and strength.

He decided to stay put, relearning back the technicality of Transmutation, and taking notes if he found something worthy of change. His patience turned to reward him.

Zhar'kerut appeared out of thin air with nothing but bright blue light as a presentation, in his hands he was holding several parchment papers with drawings.

"Oh good, you're still alive."

Zhar'kerut tutted Leonard and shoved the parchment to him. Leonard accepted the parchment and looked at the drawings. They were magic circles.

"Memorise all of these within the remainder of our walk."

Leonard looked at them, there are two ways of invoking magic, magic circles and vocal chanting. Leonard is adept at chanting, after all, you can chant whilst vocally saying it mentally and the magic will still be invoked.

Though at the cost of half the effect and cost twice the mana, the magic will still be invoked. Leonard barely touched the subject of magic circles.

"Uhm… Ziquir?"

"I will hear no complaints." Zhar'kerut cut him off.

Leonard was confused and left thinking. He never touched the subject of magic circles because it's bothersome, it's easier to remember landscapes and words rather than intricately patterned objects.

If you went into a waterfall you will certainly focus on the waterfall, the land you stand on and the lake beneath the waterfall. You don't remember the trees, the rocks beneath the lake and how wet the rocks are on the land near the lake.

Magic circles would certainly make you remember every line, and every line is a strand of intent. Every single thing within the magic circle requires someone to memorise the entire landscape instead of just remembering the waterfall.

It's something that makes everyone crazy, touching the subject of magic circles is only for geniuses. However, Leonard, who has the system, could bypass that. The problem is that he doesn't have enough points.

"Even the system regards Magic circles as a high-class subject."

Of course, there's a reason why magic circles are so demanding for brain space. Almost everyone who handles magic circles has the most complex cognitive structure.

A study showed in recent years that magic circle casters are more efficient in mana handling and efficacy rather than vocal chanters. The only thing that sets the two apart is the qualitative quantity.

It's more powerful than vocal chanting. Even if the mage who just remembered the whole magic circle and cast it without invoking the circle is much more powerful than vocal chanting.

Leonard stared at Zhar'kerut, Leonard could not guess what was up with his mind. Magic circles are much more complex. If vocal chanting makes you a linguistic singer, magic circles make you an architectural artist that cuts no corners.

Leonard walked along Zhar'kerut, he started memorising the magic circles. He could not cheat his way with this one, not that he did anyways. Memorising magic circles would probably make him much stronger.

After all, a lot of things depend on magic circles in modern society, Leonard also has something in his hands that surpasses value, so letting this opportunity just because he is not fit would be stupid.

Though he had that in mind, he already looks like he has been on an arduous journey, his eyes darting everywhere and his expressions are on full display without control.

"H-how… how the fuck… "

The magic circle is much more complex than he thought, the base was a thick circle, another within it was a smaller circle with 5 lines drawn symmetrically into a Pentagon, and a circle was finally drawn inside it.

Every line circle has an intent for burn, fiery, control, and order. Every time he tries to make sense of the circle his mind turns back to the first circle he has been staring at till his eyes start shedding tears just to keep his eyes moist.

Zhar'kerut even grabbed the parchment back.

"Hey, you old fart give it back!"

"Oh, I certainly did not expect you to be filled with madness just from a fireball…"

Zhar'kerut looked unconcerned but he did look inconvenienced. He was just testing Leonard to see what would be his reaction. Turns out he was getting deeper and deeper, trying to make sense of everything about the circle.

He tested Leonard simply because he wanted to see what path he was taking. Some would think that the circle would not make any sense, some would give up because it's hard to comprehend, and there are like the ones with Leonard.

They wanted to make sense of everything, to take everything out of its root. Once they surmised they aren't getting anywhere they'll go mad. Most of the time people who go mad from studying circles are scholars. However, Leonard is still a child.

"Give it!" Leonard hysterically demanded.

But it seems Zhar'kerut underestimated Leonard with his thirst for knowledge. He had to cast a spell to knock him out to a torpor.

"It seems I have to calibrate this circle."

Zhar'kerut shook his head, it seems that Zhar'kerut should've made the circle a little bit easier. There are levels for magic circles, he probably forgot his depth of understanding when it comes to circles and gave Leonard the hardest ones.

Though he won't admit that, he just believed that since Leonard had the drive to make himself better, Zhar'kerut thought that he just had a chance, is all.