[Chapter 24: Circles in intermission]

Progress has been slow.

Don’t get me wrong, there has been some progress, reassuring me that this will actually mean something in the end. But despite that I feel a long way off from the level of methodical thinking it entails. I knew that at some point I would reach a problem that can’t be solved by a bit of ingenuity but it’s ultimately disheartening to experience now that it has happened. Though I suppose that it’s better for me to experience this now on so I can get used to it early on.

Anyways, in order to invoke the correction I have been doing little other than reading books for the past few days. I even kept meditation time down to around an hour each day in order to focus on this, and I’m pretty sure what I did do wasn’t that effective since I had to keep myself from getting too into it for fear of losing track of time. The worst part is that the longer I try to work at it the worse things go. I’m starting to get frustrated at the task so I think it would be best to do something else for a while.

This gives me time to try and practice making magic circles, it’s something I’ve wanted to try for a while but then again, what magic don’t I want to try? Okay actually there are several schools of magic I don’t want to learn because of how much a hassle they would be but that’s beside the point. From what I know, magic circles are the programs of magic; they allow magic to be done when there is no mage there to do it themselves. If I can learn how to make them there is a ton of stuff I think I should be able to do. Of course most of those plans are all dependent on me having the proper materials and truckloads of experience, but a couple months of practice should let me at least create a magic air conditioner.

The circle I plan to use as a test run is obviously going to be as simple as possible because of course. The circle will (hopefully) be a mana geyser, meaning that it take inserted pure mana to the middle of the circle and blows it out, hence the name. This is meant to be as uncomplicated as possible for ease of creation, to the point of not even having a full dispersion method, with what pushes the mana out apparently being half of what is needed for a real circle. Basically a completely useless circle except for the teach of the most beginning of beginners, that being me in this case.

The book I’ve been using for all my magic stuff says that bone dust should be used by beginners, with more potent circles being made of things like rare mana conducting metals and the like. Honestly, I’m just glad it told me that using bone dust was possible because, much like the rest of the book, it is really just some mage bragging about how powerful and amazing at magic he is. It’s to the point where I’m not actually sure it tells me the full way to make magic circles, i think I can see what it’s implying on how to do it but if my thought process is wrong I’m completely screwed.

Now on to making the circle itself, the outer circle works to contain the mana keep it in the circle and all that. Then the symbols inside the circle direct the mana to the center while changing it up a little, the ones used for this are simple as they just guide but even then the 2-D shapes are almost reminiscent of the ways mana moves when I use it myself. And finally the center circle finishes the process while simultaneously delivering the intended construct, though the lone circle used in this is acts more like a stray wire leaking electricity. Wait, the center circle is to small, it will just disturb itself like this, that’s why people start these kinds of things center first, rookie mistake.

Baring foolish mistakes like that, things went okay, not all to well yet not terribly either, just okay. So with the circle complete all that’s left was to use mana manipulation to put some mana in it. And the irony of that what I am doing completely invalidates the point of a mana circle does not escape me. And upon the insertion of the mana the circle proceeds to fanfarelessly return that completely invisible mana to the atmosphere. I know it worked and all but that was pretty underwhelming.

[Obtained skill]

[Magic circle creation | lv 1]

[10% ability to create magic circles]

Thanks skill, you make me feel better. Funny that I got it after the successful circle was used, maybe something to do with knowing how they work firsthand? I know it’s probably something like that, doubt that’s it exactly, but I’m close, I know it. Should probably fiddle with circles some more in the future to level the skill up, but that’s for later.

Something succeeding, no matter how insignificant it turned out to be, really helped shake of the frustration that was building. It’s stuff like this that always helps, when the going gets tough, the smart take a break and return not wanting to throw reality itself out a window. But it think it would be best if I took a bit more time off and do some meditation. Is this just me wanting to improve my magic, who knows, who cares, I sure don’t.

[Skill level increased]

[Basic mana core| lv: 2]

[Mp is increased by 10%]

And with my helpful distraction over tomorrow I return to reading once again in order to beat that irritating mental correction. The fact that thoughts like that come naturally is a rather good indicator of how sideways my life has become. Here’s to hoping sideways is better.