4 Chapter 4 Magic Circuits

A lone eyebrow raised up on Rin's face. An expression of disbelief could be seen, as her eyes gazed all over my physical form.

"I don't think perverts can become Mages".

I rolled my eyes at the sudden attack but waved it off as my expression became more serious.

"I'm being serious here. I want to know if I can practice Magecraft".

"Why?".

I opened my mouth to speak, but stopped for a moment.

The reason why a person became a Mage was usually for self-benefit. The goals of most Mage Families was obviously to reach the Root and obtain a True Magic. The Third True Magic was the goal for the majority of Mages seeing as though the materialisation of the Soul provided the Magician with immortality.

Some Mages sought out Magecraft in order to become more powerful. These types of Mages didn't care for the wellbeing of other people and more often than not became Dead Apostles, or even opted to experiment on themselves in order to improve their own lifespan or magical powers.

Zouken was an obvious example of this.

But that wasn't what was being asked. Rin was asking why "I" wanted to be a Mage.

"..... Magecraft, in of itself is just a means to an end. For the time being at least, learning Magecraft would be useful in defending myself and whatnot..... But who knows, maybe in the future I might be able to figure out a way to help you get home or something? I brought you here, so the least I can do is help you go back, right?".

Rin avoided my gaze, the tips of her ears turning slightly red at my words.

Most tsundere's were weak to sincerity, seeing as though they couldn't be sincere themselves.

Rin tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, before regaining her flawlessly elegant expression.

"..... I'll examine your body to see if you possess Magic Circuits, but considering your age, they might've depreciated in quality. If you do possess Magic Circuits, I'll educate you on how to manipulate magical energy..... anything other than that, and I might need some sort of incentive in order to teach you.....".

Her eyes glanced at the Runestones in her hand. Her actions were so obvious that she made absolute sure I saw the sudden change in her gaze.

This girl..... was such a tsundere.

I smiled.

"In order to summon for objects I need Saint Quartz. It's kind of a rainbow looking crystal that is used as fuel to summon..... It's kind of like summoning a Heroic Spirit, although how catalysts may affect the summoning, I don't know".

Rin nodded.

"I see..... So for the time being at least, you don't have any Saint Quartz in your possession?".

"Yeah, it uses three per summon and I used thirty to summon you. Occasionally, there are times when the chances of summoning a certain type of Mystery is higher, and when I summoned you, there was a higher chance of summoning "Humans" than other types of Mysteries.....".

Rin frowned for a moment before turning to look at me. A queer expression could be seen on her face.

"Did you just say, that you could "summon" a "Mystery"?".

I nodded.

"Yeah, like "Noble Phantasms" or "Heroic Spirits" or even stuff like "Phantasmal Beasts". They all possess different Mysteries but it is possible for me to summon them, although the chances of them actually appearing are infinitesimal".

Rin's eyes widened.

"So you could summon actual Servants? Or even like other humans like me!?".

I nodded once more.

"Anything with a Mystery..... Oh, excluding True Magic and any Mystery that exceeds True Magic. I don't have a connection with the Root or anything so stuff like that is impossible.....".

The colour on Rin's face had completely vanished. She looked shocked, almost frightened by my words.

I didn't grow up in any Type Moon Worlds, so it was probably hard for me to understand just how rare and powerful some of the things I was talking about were.

From her perspective, she had just being summoned by a young man whose powers reach the same level as True Magic. In addition to summoning her, which was by accident, this young man had just told her it was possible to summon "Phantasmal Beasts" and "Heroic Spirits", Mysteries, that by themselves exceeded modern Magecraft by several tiers.

It made her slightly fearful being in front of such a person.

If it wasn't for the fact that his perverseness, while inappropriate, was slightly disarming, she might've tried to make a break for it already.

So long as he didn't actually force himself onto her, she didn't see any problem.

Making comments about her was one thing, but actually acting upon those comments was a completely different thing.

And besides..... it's not as though being complimented was a bad thing, right?

The tsundere let out a small "harrumph", before turning towards me and placing a hand on my back.

"I'm going to run my magical power through your own body to see whether or not you have Magic Circuits. If you do, it will hurt significantly seeing as though you would have spent the last seventeen or eighteen or so years with them completely inactive..... Is that alright?".

I nodded.

"..... Sign".

With a single word, I could feel a thrum of power flow outwards from Rin's body. With how close she was, and how she was positioned behind myself, she could have just as easily got a Gandr through my spine, crippling me outright before running away and escaping.

This act, in of itself was an act of sincerity.

When it came to tsundere's you had to be completely honest with them. Don't try and skirt around an issue or side-track yourself by talking about something else with them.

They themselves couldn't be honest with their feelings, so you had to take the first step.

.... Wait. Why was I treating this like some sort of dating sim?

This was real life for crying out loud!

"This might be a little-".

"Ow! Motherf-".

I bit my bottom lip unconsciously, trying to distract myself from the sensation of burning lava coursing through my veins.

The worst pain I had ever felt was when I was still in high school. I had fallen down some stairs and broke my leg in a way that caused the bone to stick out from my flesh. I didn't really want to sound like a wimp or anything, but I passed out after seeing the bone poke out from my leg.

The pain during the event was lessened greatly due to shock, however the aftermath was something that I never wished to feel again.

.... Didn't I just ask for this pain?

Despite my attention being sole placed on the burning sensation I could feel throughout my entire body, I could still hear Rin's voice ring out from behind me.

"Well, good news is, is that you do in fact possess Magic Circuits, an enormous amount in fact. Bad news is, is that despite the quantity, their overall quality is relatively low in comparison to the actual number you possess..... If we were in my old world, you might be accepted into the Clock Tower if you curried favour with some of the established Mage Families.....".

Oh, the irony didn't escape me.

I let out a rough breath. Beads of sweat appeared on my brow, and the clothes that I was wearing clung tightly to my body. Despite that fact that this technically wasn't my body, I still felt grateful to the former owner for keeping it in such good condition.

"How many?".

"Over a hundred. One hundred and eleven to be exact. I'm assuming that you're a first generation mage, but for someone without any sort of bloodline or special heritage it is quite impressive. If they weren't in such bad shape, even I would be quite envious.....".

Rin let out a sigh before shrugging her shoulders.

"If you were to enter the Clock Tower, I could think of numerous different Families who would want to have you enter their Family. Even if the Quality of your Magic Circuits is pretty bad, their total power would make them quite the addition to any of your future descendents. Even if they got only half the number of Circuits you have, that still over fifty Magic Circuits.....".

I scratched the back of my head before letting out a deep sigh.

"One hundred and eleven Magic Circuits.... I wonder if there is some sort of Mystery that can increase their Quality, without me having to alter my internal fundamental structure..... Adding to them is impossible, but improving the Quality through Mystery might be something I could do.....".

"System".

The crimson coloured screen appeared before me. Pressing on the "Mysteries" option, I gazed up and down the list before coming to a whole sub-section of purchase options.

"Mysteries: Magecraft: [Regression To The Age Of Gods: 500 Years]: 500,000 Saint Quartz"

"Mysteries: Magecraft: [Regression To The Age Of Gods: 1,000 Years]: 1,500,000 Saint Quartz"

"Mysteries: Magecraft: [Regression To The Age Of Gods: 2,000 Years]: 4,500,000 Saint Quartz"

"Mysteries: Magecraft: [Regression To The Age Of Gods: 5,000 Years]: 10,000,000 Saint Quartz"

My eyebrow twitched.

This goddamn System was trying to wring me dry even before I tried to improve my Magic Circuits!

It was at this moment when-.

"Oi. What's that red thing hovering in front of you?".

I tried to turn towards Rin to answer her question, but the girl in question was hovering just beside my shoulder, her face only a few inches away from my own.

I mentally sighed. This was probably going to interest her even more than the Runestones that she had already placed in her pocket.

"Well, you see, it is actually possible for me to directly summon a specific item, although the costs for said item are extraordinarily high. As you can see, it is possible to summon "Heroic Spirits" and "Phantasmal Beasts" and.....".

Needless to say, seeing the colour drain out of Rin's face once more, caused a smile to rise up on my face.