Preparations

When the body is familiarized with Mana and starts absorbing it from its surroundings, then the person is said to have reached the First Rune of the First Magic Circle and had broken free from the shackles of mortality.

"Codex, show me all the information about magic circles that I can access." This time I didn't even bother asking for locked information.

[There are a total of nine circles in the mage realm, also known as the beast mage realm, and each Magic Circle has 9 stages called Runes.

To reach and surpass the First Magic Circle, the basic requirement is to have a Soul Beast. That you somewhat fulfill, but not quite. Second requirement is, to have abundant Anchor Shards to consume. Those of a respective rank or higher than the Mage's rank are the most preferred ones to use. Thirdly, you need a Heart Engine.]

That was the cause of my headache…

Each of those teeny tiny pearls, even of the lowest Rank, was hella expensive!

I might have to sell a leg or two for those... or will they buy knowledge on Atomic Bombs?, I mused.

At least for our family. Although I was not sure how much money we had right now, I was decently sure that all of that could be spent on buying 8-9 Anchor Shards of the lowest rank, and… I also didn't want to lean on our family budget for something with no short-term returns.

Oi, Codex, How many do I need to reach the first Rune of the Zeroth Circle?

[Five should be enough. But you can't do that right now, Dia does not count as your Soul Beast as of right now. Plus, you do not yet have a Heart Engine to hold the Runes in any feasible manner.]

Explain from the basics, you Revitalized Dia's Beast Orb, did you not? So, how come?

[She was indeed made anew from the orb, but that just created a temporary link between you two. You still need to formally Bond with her for her to be recognized as your Soul Beast. As for the Heart Engine, you'll have to visit the nearest Cathedral for that. They'll help you with the process.]

You mean, the Baptism? I asked, Yeah, that would make sense, everyone needs to go to one of the Cathedrals to become a mage. I didn't know it involved the Soul Binding.

This wasn't in the memories I inherited.

We'll talk about that later when we get home, first Dia's food.

My reason for coming here when I did was two-fold, for one, I would get some food for Dia, secondly, I could stock some Anchor Shards for my future plans.

As I was walking around in the wilderness, I spotted a nest high on the branch of a tree that seemed to be 10 meters in height. The nest was made of small twigs of the same color and texture as of the branch it was settled on.

The reason I could spot such a well-hidden nest was that a snake was slowly but surely creeping closer to the nest. The snake had three distinct colors on its scales. Its head was blue and its tail was green. Between them both, it had a red colored belly.

Although I couldn't see what was in the nest that the snake might want, I could guess that it was either an egg or a defenseless newborn.

I silently approached the tree in question and crouched down near its base as I eyed the tri-colored serpent, just as it eyed its prey.

Without removing my eyes from the nest and the serpent, I picked up a stone that was the perfect weight and size for me and got the feel of it by twirling it in my hand a bit.

When I was ready, I pulled my arm back to its limit and then swung it upward with all the momentum I had gathered.

—Swoosh!

—Tak!

The stone flew straight to the branch and hit the nest, which caused it to fall and the snake to be flustered. However, its fluster didn't last long and it soon started slithering down the tree to reach the ground before the falling nest did. Its speed was truly staggering.

Damn, I should be a marksman. I mused.

In just a few seconds, it reached the spot just below the nest, just a few meters in front of me.

Now that it was close to me, I could tell that it was half the size of the obsidian serpent I got Dia from. After seeing its size, it finally dawned on me that the nest was not an ordinary nest, as it spanned a diameter of a couple of feet.

—Thub!

As my thoughts paused there, the nest fell on top of the serpent. The nest was not sturdy enough to damage the serpent and it passed through the nest.

—Caw!

While the serpent started to feast upon what was in the nest, another player entered the battlefield.

It was a black crow with red eyes and a grey beak. Its wingspan alone was enough to overshadow the whole nest.

It shot down from the sky and caught one of the chicks with its talons, while the other one was being swallowed by the serpent, whose lower half of its body was still below the nest.

Since the chicks were newborns and defenseless against the serpent's attack, they could only rely on the crow, their mother, to protect them.

However, due to the crow not being fast enough, one of the chicks had already been welcomed into the serpent's hungry belly.

With the other chick in her talons, the crow flew into the tree and dropped the chick in her talons on the branch where the nest had been previously.

On seeing that it could no longer have a second serving of delicious crow chick, the serpent turned around and made its way into the forest, as if nothing had happened.

—Caw!

Enraged by the death of its child, the crow's high pitched scream forced me to cover my ears.

—Swoosh!

After announcing her anger, the crow locked onto the serpent and shot toward it like a homing missile. Just before the crow could chop the serpent in half with her sharp talons, the serpent drifted to the side.

—Thud!

The crow slammed into the ground, causing dirt to fly into the air with her impact. As the crow struggled to regain the footing she had lost, the serpent didn't waste this chance and lunged at her. It wrapped its tail around the crow's neck and lifted her up in the air, before it swung its tail in an arc, slamming the crow against the ground.

—Caw!—Thud!

Seeing that the battle was at its climax, I decided to make my appearance known. I reached my hand to the side of my waist where my knife was peacefully nestled in its scabbard.

With my other hand, I picked up another stone from the ground, this one being a bit bigger than the one I threw at the nest, and pocketed it.

As the skirmish was going on, I searched around me for sharp-ended twigs, and for that, I had to move around some, but I always made sure to maintain a low crouch and stay within 6-8 meters of the stage.