The meeting had met its conclusion, and most participants had left. It seems even my best efforts could not get me past this slave thing. By conversing, I was at least able to get some insights into their leader’s character. Furthermore, the magic should have some downside since it wasn’t their first choice, so there might be ways to exploit it. The lie I used shouldn’t be a problem, since it would be pretty hard to know every rumor going through the slums.

Just because their spies can’t confirm its existence, they can’t be sure that it does not exist. Even if they have some means to check all current rumors, I can just argue that it wasn’t widespread, and the person I heard it from could have died.

"Follow me." The guard who led me here interrupted my thoughts. His voice seemed agitated. He likely disliked how I treated their leader or the way their leader treated me. This could be bad, but I had no choice and did as instructed, and just like before, the big guard was in front and the smaller guard behind me.

We walked through some more similar-looking corridors, and after some time, we arrived at what seemed to be a training facility. There, 31 children, looking similar in age to me, were training with different blades, bows, shields, and a whole lot more. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the number 31 seemed strange, but I didn’t quite figure out why. "Hey Okada, make sure to take care of the new guy extra carefully."

"Sure thing!" responded Okada to the guard with a big and menacing smile on his face. It was pretty apparent by now that this organization wanted me as part of their military unit. And these two had a good relationship. Instead of taking his anger out on me directly, he asked what seemed to be a combat instructor to make sure I had a rough time. "Hey you state you number."

I remembered the number they'd called me before, and while I was still curious about how their naming-number system worked, I'd learned that questions were most often answered with violence. So instead I did my my best navy recruit impression. "8028 Sir!"

"So you are the 6 Circle guy. Don’t look special to me. Well, since you’re so special, let’s start with a small warm up, 10 rounds around the field."

"Yes, Sir!" I quickly responded before starting to run slowly. Okada screamed at me: "Start running, not walking! You’re slower than a knight that had his legs cut off!"

"Yes, Sir!" I sped up a little, but he continued his relentless attack and didn’t stop criticizing me. Finally, after a painful 10 rounds, I was done. "Don’t think you can get away with not giving 200%!" He arrogantly proclaimed before carrying on. "Stop the spars. It’s time for magic training after I finish explaining the basics to the new guy."

Now, this was the critical part. I already knew that magic existed in this world. Now I just had to figure out how magic worked and how I could use my circles, which should give me an edge over competitors.

"Listen up, maggot. I won’t tell you this twice. There are 9 elements water, earth, fire, air, nature, summoning, dark, light, and unique. The 4 core elements are all you need to be powerful, so ignore the useless ones. To finally start casting spells, you need to have mana. How do you get mana, you ask?

Turn life force into mana. What is life force, and how do you convert it? Everything that lives has life force. To convert it into mana, you simply need to run it through your circles. Normally you only have one, but since our supreme leader is a peerless genius, he found out that humans can have multiple. Be eternally grateful and never forget: You are part of the unrivalled Bloody Crows!

Pay attention! Concentrate the warm energy you feel inside into one of the magic circles and imagine transforming it into fuel for a fire. After accumulating a bit, think of one of the 4 elements. Once you have a stable image, start shaping the spell, in our case, into a ball. Then release it before you and shoot it towards the training dummies.

Many people shout something as their keyword to help them trigger a powerful release. But never, ever shout what you are about to cast. Only idiots like the mages of New Kingdom without a brain would publicly announce their next attack. Enough talking. It’s time for action."

His explanation was pretty lacklustre, with crucial information about the different magic types missing. He also didn’t mention what use multiple magic circles have and if we can store mana or not. Whatever, for now, I will focus on casting a fireball.

Slowly, like I did when creating the circles, I directed the flow towards my left hand. It felt like something was sucking away at my very life. Shortly after, I thought I had enough mana. It was a weird feeling, as if my mana and life force were like oil and water rejecting each other.

Finally, I started visualizing. I felt the heat, a flame created by burning hay, which got ignited by 2 fire stones. Then I started forming the fire into a sphere. Should I hold back or give it my all? All the organization members seemed quite loyal, so my instructor wouldn’t try anything on a valuable trainee. Let’s make it bigger and bigger until it’s as big as a basketball. The spell continuously grew, but then halted. It seemed I was out of mana. Instantly I said my keyword to launch it: "Shinu!"

Boom

My body got blasted away. Hit the ground. Kept rolling and stopped after I hit a wall. I coughed up blood, and the world was spinning. "You weren’t supposed to announce what you’re about to do and you didn’t even die, you useless fuck. And what was wrong with that fireball, you silly idiot? You weren’t supposed to launch yourself, but the fireball."

This scumbag joked when I felt like I would die any second, but I had no strength or guts to retaliate. "Fuck, because of your fail I have to waste a potion on useless trash." You incompetent idiot! You should have explained it better and warned me that not having enough mana can cause an explosion, I thought. He then came closer and pushed some kind of glass bottle down my throat.

My broken ribs that were scattered in my body started assembling back together, cut veins connected again, and my flesh started closing the wounds. It hurt a lot, but after a short while, it seemed like I never had any wounds. Feeling it on your body really is something completely different than reading about it.

"Get up and start running 10 more rounds for being so useless." Instantly I shouted, "Yes, Sir!" I wanted to curse at him so badly, but I had to stay rational, and so I gathered my strength and started running once more. After an excruciating run filled with verbal abuse, I was panting, completely out of breath.

"Now cast your spell again, and if you fail, you won’t get food." He arrogantly announced, but this was something where I could not fail. I knew the pain of starvation too well, and no matter what happened, I would not fail again.

I focused, directed, no, rushed my life force towards the circle in my right hand, sucking everything up until my legs felt weak. Next, see the flame, feel the flame and visualize the flame created by a spark, setting fire to everything in my way. Condense it, shape it, and shoot it. "SHINUUUU!"

Instantly, a basketball-sized fireball flew towards a training dummy at a speed that made it hard to keep track of it. The fireball hit the training dummy and went straight through it, collided with the wall, and exploded, creating an ear-deafening sound.

Perplexed, the instructor looked at me with a dumb expression, trying to regain his composure, and stuttered,

"Y-YYou useless trash. First you waste a precious healing potion and now you damage training equipment, you really are lucky that Father Crow has taken a liking to you otherwise… Cough, anyways everyone get ready for mealtime you have 30 minutes everyone that comes too late will get punished."

Before he could say anything more, I quickly followed the children towards a wooden door in the back, presumably leading towards my well-deserved meal. This was quite a satisfying outcome.

Like I thought, he wouldn’t mess me up badly as long as I showed enough potential. Besides quelling my hunger, this was the perfect chance to gain new helpful information. I had seen a blond boy with green eyes who was performing exceptionally well in training. From what I could tell, this training unit had people with very different skill and experience. And he was likely one of the first members of this unit. If I could get on his good side, it was likely that he could provide me with useful information. I hastened my steps to catch up to the group entering what seemed to be a dining hall.

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Post-chapter author note:

The word "Shinu" is Japanese and means "to die". So the instructor makes the 'joke' that he announced his next move (to die) but didn't even succeed at it (dying).

I know it's a stupid niche joke. This wasn't the first and definitively won't be the last of those, but in this case, his word choice is really weird if you don't get the joke, which is why an explanation was necessary.