Mana circle

"That's not even meat anymore!" The man said.

"How much?" Will asked in a small voice.

"I'll give ya 5 bronze each and that's being generous." He said while shaking his head.

"That's fine," Will said keeping his head down.

"Here you go." The man said holding out a 10 bronze.

Will took it.

"Next time just cut off the heads." The man said.

"I'll try," Will replied embarrassed.

"Um… Do you know a place I could sell mana cores?" Will asked.

"Down the street that way. He might be packing up but if you hurry you might make it." He said.

Will hurried down the street. He almost passed the merchant who was packing up a box of cores.

"Hold up!" Will said.

The skinny man with a curly mustache looked up.

"You still buying and selling cores?" Will asked.

"I'm just about to leave so hurry up, what do you need?" the man asked.

"I've got two cores from some rabbits., Will replied taking them out of his bag.

The man sighed and took the cores for a closer look. He pulled out a pair of monocles and put them on.

"I can give you 50 bronze for each." He said.

"60 bronze" Will replied determined too make up the loss for his rabbit meat.

The man narrowed his eyes. "55 Bronze final offer."

"Deal," Will replied.

The man held out 1 silver and 10 bronze.

Will took it and left.

"Hey, system where is the nearest sleeping lodge?"

[Continue up the road 90 meters and turn left]

Will found himself in front of a decrepped inn called "The Blue Cloud Inn"

"Snazzy" Will mumbled as he entered.

Other than a few people at a table playing some type of game with blocks of wood and the receptionist and bartender there was nobody on the first floor.

Will walked up to the receptionist.

"How much for one night?" He asked.

"That would be 15 bronze and 5 more bronze for breakfast." She said while staring at him.

Will slipped 15 bronze over the counter.

"You got any food right now?" Will asked while taking his key.

"Room 16 and we have some leftovers. I'll give you them for 3 bronze 'cause they're cold."

Will quickly ate the dull soup and made his way to his room.

Inside the room were a medium-sized bed, a table, a small closet and a window overlooking the street below.

'System what time is it?' Will asked.

[9:53 PM in Hosts time]

Will took the stool from the table and sat in front of the window, watching the sunset over the market building across the street.

[Congratulations to user Imashi for being the first user from earth to obtain a trait]

'It's that Imashi again.' Will decided it wasn't any of his business.

After a few moments, Will started feeling a cramp.

"That is not comfortable." Will mumbled while getting up and walking over to the bed.

Will sat cross-legged on the bed. Will focused on his skin and his surroundings.

After a few minutes, Will had a thought.

'What if I use mana eyes to see the mana and then reach out to pull it in?'

[Mana Eyes]

With his eyes still closed Will could see just the pure mana nothing else. This allowed him to see mana and aura as well. He could also still see his surroundings. Albeit far less than he could if he had his eyes open.

Seeing a silver speck of mana Will pulled it inwards towards his forehead. Feeling nothing like the pain before Will continued on.

After about 30 minutes Will opened his eyes.

'This is taking too long.'

Opening his book on mana Will scrolled through it.

After a few seconds of flipping Will stopped.

'Mage circles.'

'Mage circles are a common way for people to… absorb mana faster. Mage circles are first formed by… phsyicaly… drawing a circle of your mana around your heart. This circle works as a… magnet for mana. Additonaly, the more… circles one has the stronger the force of… attraction. The highest number of circles… recorded is… twelve.' Will looked at the diagrams in the book.

This time it looked like a square and a diamond shape on top of it along with the familiar triangle.Three more circles with odd symbols in them surrounded them.

'That is more complicated than I thought.'

For a few hours, Will practised forming the circle on his hand for practice.

'Still nothing!' Will was getting frustrated.

Will tried again.

He slowly formed the first square shape.

Then the Diamond shape.

He then formed the triangle.

He then formed the first two symbols.

He tried to form the third but it was just too complicated.

The formation crumbled leaving Will with a dull pounding in his head.

Will glanced at the book.

This time he just tried forming the 3rd symbol.

After about 15 minutes he succeeded.

He let the symbol crumble.

After resting for a few minutes to recover his mana he tried forming the formation again.

"Succes!" Will shouted. Earning himself a pound on the wall from his neighbour.

Will took extra care to carefully from the formation.

After about 15 minutes of careful mana control, Will finished.

"Ha!" Will sighed loudly collapsing backwards on his bed.

'God I'm tired…'

The mental power that controlling mana for the first time was heavy.

Barely noticing the system's signature Ding! Will fell asleep.

[Crude mana control level up!]

[Crude Mana Control lvl: 2]

[Congratulations on creating a Mana Circle]

[+20 EXP]

[100/400 EXP]

[Congratulations to user Lucifer for being the first user from earth to create a Mana Circle]

[Congratulations on being on the system announcements]

[+10 EXP]

[110/400]

[Host has unlocked the [Traits] Tab in the system interface]