88^th day.

The young mage slowly woke up and opened his eyes, but closed them immediately after as rays of sunlight hit his face. "This day starts well," he said sarcastically as he stretched his sore back. Falling asleep without properly setting his sleeping bag was something he would avoid from now on.

His stomach growled as soon as he stood up; a cake was all he had eaten yesterday, and it wasn't nearly enough. "What do I have on hand?" Ortenz, his eyes half-closed, opened his satchel, hoping to find a ration or some stale bread, but there was nothing.

He blinked, confused for a second, then made an understanding nod, "Aaah, yeah. I wanted to eat at the inn. I'm fucking dumb, aren't I?" He had left the village in a hurry and hadn't thought of buying food beforehand: a rookie mistake.

The young mage sighed and took a knife from his belt, "Guess it's time to hunt." and walked further into the forest. The humid grass and scarce sun rays bathed the forest in peaceful tranquility, which Ortenz was about to break.

The dense vegetation of the central region always provided freshness regardless of the season. In winter, some tree species kept their leaves, thus becoming the nests of many birds and small animals, while in summer, other species of trees released the water contained in their leaves to hydrate the surrounding animals.

In spring, the climate is perfect for small game, and Ortenz wanted to take advantage of that. He stealthily walked between trees and bushes while observing the few moving figures hid in the grass. Bunnies are hard creature to catch as their small size, and speed makes them nimble preys. The young mage waited for his chance.

Minutes passed, and Ortenz finally got his first catch; a white bunny, which he then swiftly cooked.

When he finally finished the bunny, and after he licked his fingers, Ortenz took the drawing of the magic circle out of his satchel and stared for a while. He wanted to make sure he had correctly deciphered the whole thing; he didn't want to go in the wrong direction.

Unfortunately for him, he was right. "There is no error. About five thousand kilometers east with a negligible amount of vertical degrees. I can't believe it!"

"Who is the mage who did that! No, the mages! Fuck this girl! Can't she stop making my work harder?!" He stomped the ground in fury as he complained of the obstacle this girl had just put in his way. "Forty-six days! FORTY! SIX! HALF THE DAYS I ALREADY SPENT ON THIS DAMN CONTRACT WALKING!"

The young man's lungs drew a long breath, his face relaxed a little, and an old but pleasant memory came to his mind.

---

"Master! I don't want to do this anymore! I'm sure it will be useless!" A teenager whined in front of his textbook. His master, a silver-haired beautiful woman, turned away from the blackboard and frowned. "How can you say this? Have I ever taught you something useless?" she asked as a sly smile crept up on her face.

"Huh... Okay, defend this then! What use do asymmetrical magic circles have? None!" The teenager stood up with a triumphant smile and hit the table with his hands.

Her master's smile faded from her face, and she sighed. "Aaah... You are not wrong, but I know you are better than that. Asymmetrical circles exchange stability for freedom of effects, meaning they can potentially be the most powerful, destructive, or useful formations."

He muttered a curse under his breath, then went on, "They do exchange stability, yes. So much that even the most renowned archmage in history couldn't make on work properly! They are useless if nobody can make them work!"

Her sly smile came back, more visible than before. "And you dare compare archaic flourishes to those useless circles?"

The teenager recoiled and adjusted his glasses, "Ah, uh... They are archaic! Most of them are outperformed by recent ones or even totally useless after certain discoveries. Why bother learning them if they aren't going to be seen, even less used?"

His master didn't stop smiling and licked her lips. "And what do you think the academy's magic circles are? Outdated and archaic because their fundamental formations cannot be changed." She pointed to the circle almost as old as the academy floating just beneath the room's ceiling.

"This is why you need to learn them if you do not want to be the stupid mage who can't read old flourishes! Now, stop being a dumb mage and learn them properly!"

---

Ortenz smiled in remembrance and finally entirely calmed down. "Complaining will only make your work harder to do," he softly muttered as he walked eastward.

At long last, he regained the road. No more walking in the mud on uneven terrain, and welcome dirt path with slightly less uneven terrain. By looking over his shoulder, Ortenz saw the peaceful village getting further and further away.

He smiled sourly as he recalled the delicious taste of the Black Forest he had eaten yesterday, "I promise I will come back!" he said to the wind.

And so, the mage was on the road again. Minutes passed, and he thought of something, "If I ever finish this damn mission, I will write a guide of this region. I know it like the back of my hand! I'm sure even natives don't know the temple in the mountains!”

"I could even write a guide for the east..." he muttered. "How rich would I become? How famous? I would probably be the first man to write such detailed guides!" he stifled a laugh, "Let's do that! But I need more ink, though... It's decided, in the next town, I buy ink!"

More time passed, and Ortenz remembered one of the books he brought with him.

He took a book out of his satchel and began reading while walking. It was a Svelen language book, a northern dialect of Kielen, the common language used in the civilized lands. As far as he could remember, he had always been a bookworm, independently of the subject; history, magic, society, bestiary, anything.

This is why he was so happy when he first saw the academy's library, rows upon rows of books on absolutely anything, from children's books to essays to novels. Teenager Ortenz was delighted and spent far too much in this library, so much that he got scolded numerous times by his professor.

Even his master, who was quite the reader herself, told him several times to do something else, but he didn't listen. He even thought those comments were quite hypocritical considering she was just like him, but with less free time to dedicate to reading.

---

Hours passed while he read and walked. He had nearly fallen three times and fell fives, but that didn't matter as knowledge was well worth a few bruises. At least that's what his master always told him.

Suddenly, a scream came from the woods nearby the road; a shiver ran down his spine.

He heard the scream again, and as he was about to rush into the forest when he saw coming out from the bushes a crying and bruised young woman, whose tattered clothes hung limply on her sides.

The moment she saw Ortenz's face, her legs regained strength; as if hope fueled them, she traversed the few meters between her and the mage before loudly dropping to her knees in front of him, panting.

The woman grabbed his pants and looked him in the eye. She tried to talk, but more air than words came out. So, instead, she pointed at the forest, eyes full of fear, and legs quivering. Ortenz readied his staff and took a knife from his belt, "Take your time. Is there anyone else?" The woman nodded.

Ortenz's eyes squinted. This news complicated everything. He could easily save her from the monster in the forest; she had already escaped. But her friend's fate was... grim, to say the least.

The young mage warily approached the forest and eyed the bushes, waiting for a monster to jump from them, but nothing came. A few meters in the forest, he heard muffled growling noises coming from further within.

The growling suddenly changed to wet, squishy sounds, and Ortenz heard something else, too quiet to discern, but it wasn't coming from the creature. He kicked up the pace, fearing the worst had already happened.

From between the trees and bushes, Ortenz saw a furred figure, bigger than a bear, with a single horn on its forehead. It was a vengrel. The creature bent forward, and Ortenz couldn't see past it, but the wet sounds resumed. He slowly crept up behind the creature.

He took advantage of the noises to create a rune; blue streamlets lit upon his staff, and he assiduously drew the first lines of his circle. He first created the foundation, a pentagonal structure stable enough to allow good firepower without taking too much time.

The creature dug its claws into the earth, then put one of its paws on something. It positioned itself, then pulled violently. A crack, then a scream reached Ortenz's ears; he abruptly raised his head off his rune and saw the bloody figure of the creature, holding a leg in its maw.

Behind the creature, Ortenz saw a woman. Her strengthless, paralyzed, pale body was limply sitting against a tree. The furred monster's maw crushed the bones of her leg and engulfed it in a single motion.

A mess of flesh and blood gushed off her waist as tears fell down her chin. Ortenz held back his urge to scream, cry or flee; his legs trembled under the fear, and so were his hands.

The creature went back to the corpse and plunged its toothy maw in the entrails. Ortenz was nearly finished when he suddenly heard a squeak from the bushes. It was a white bunny, two meters away from his on the right, but that was not what worried Ortenz.

What concerned him was the creature, which slowly turned his head until its right eye caught the most striking figure between the bunny and Ortenz, meaning Ortenz. "Fuck..." muttered the young mage. The creature growled and moved its body in position, ready to charge Ortenz. The young mage jumped to the left, behind a tree, just in time before the monster trampled on the ground he stood seconds before.

Ortenz got to his feet in a hurry and swiftly ran towards the edge of the forest. Now that the creature had noticed him, he would have no time to draw a rune, especially not a complex one.

The young mage didn't look behind him while he ran, but with the crunching sounds of leaves and branches crushed under the weight of the monster behind him, he didn't need to. The creature wasn't far from him, and Ortenz knew it was faster; he needed to get out of the forest.

Finally, the road was in sight, but his joy was cut short by an inexplicable instinct. No, it was rather a simple deduction. Instead of evading to the side, he ducked down. At long last, because of the stress, Ortenz's mind had calmed down. At least a little.

His thoughts, who were running around in circles, had finally stopped being stupid and sat down. This creature was a Vengrel, a sort of bigger bear with a horn and a bigger bloodlust. In retrospect, if he had kept his calm, none of this would have happened, he thought.

Vengrels hunt differently from other bears. Instead of pummeling their prey, they prefer jumping on their backs to pin them on the ground, then crush them with their massive weight. This is what the creature just attempted to do, but by ducking down, Ortenz had narrowly evaded death.

As soon as the monster jumped over him, Ortenz darted to the left, trying to get ahead of the vengrel.

The vengrel roared with fury and smelled the air. All the smells and odors of the forest permeated its lungs: the flowers, the leaves, the small animals, the blood, and... the still-living human, Ortenz.

The creature immediately turned its head toward the running human and moved its massive body to follow him.

Its paws sank in the grass and dirt under the sheer weight of the monster. Its fur was pressed against its body as is his eyes focused on one thing. His streamlined body cut through the air and was now near the human; this time, the vengrel wouldn't miss.

The mini-peoples in Ortenz's mind were running around, but not in a panic this time. Ortenz was in dire need of a fail-proof plan. The vengrel had caught up to him quicker than he expected, and now, he was seconds away from being crushed and devoured.

Thoughts ran through his head: his first day at the academy, his first encounter with his master, his graduation, all irrelevant things. Amidst the utter chaos, another load of useless thoughts appeared to him: the delicious Black-Forest cake, the day he made his master cry, that time he searched a book for four hours.

All, in all, only irrelevant things.

---

For a fraction of a second, he closed his eyes, and a sea appeared before him: turquoise water at his feet, white The sound of wind clouds above his head, and a swarm of mini-Ortenz running around disorderly.

A hand suddenly sat on his shoulder, he turned around and saw a watery figure of himself. The silhouette's face was grave; eyebrows furrowed, and the jaw tight. It looked at him and spoke. "What are you doing? Get back to work."

After a brief floating sensation, his eyes opened to see the forest once again.

The crunching of leaves alerted him of the imminent jump of the vengrel. He jumped to the side, but his unathletic body paled in comparison with the monster's powerful muscles, and already bloodied claws struck him, leaving profound gashes across his back.

His body fell on the ground as his face contorted in pain. He lit up his staff once again. He couldn't run nor fight the monster; his only option was to draw a rune.

The young mage painstakingly moved his arms in a triangle with a circle around it. The shape lit up with the same blue hue as the pillar of light. It illuminated the vengrel, the light reflected in its dark eyes as the monster looked confusedly at the sudden source of brightness.

It wasn't over as Ortenz added flourishes. The little drawings gravitated and whirled around the triangle; the circle's radiance augmented. Ortenz's eyes squinted, but he continued. The monster still slowly approached its head near the shape, attracted like a firefly.

Air vibrated as Ortenz approached the stability limit of this triangular shape, but he wasn't over. His left hand moved to the center, an empty zone inside the geometric shape, and the tip of his index lit up. He drew a rune of explosion, a low-stability cost rune with destructive effects.

As the rune lit up, the process was now complete. The circle around the triangle began rotating, then the flourishes too. Ortenz closed his eyes, pushed the magic circle away from him, toward the creature, and crawled backward, waiting for the inevitable destruction incoming.

Vengrels were not the brightest of creatures. It observed the whole process. At first, with confusion, then curiosity, yet, no fear despite the sheer strangeness of this shaped light. It wanted to stare at it as it was the most beautiful thing it had ever seen.

The light was pure, and the movements graceful. The forms were simple yet weirdly attractive.

But when the thing started to rotate, his instinct arose and told him to flee; his whole body wanted to run, to escape, but the vengrel didn't move an inch. It wanted to see the light.

It was too bewitching.