Chapter 143
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 143
Chapter Title: Magic Circle Tattoo
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In typical fantasy stories featuring magic, there's one thing that always shows up alongside it.
Magic circles.
These are drawings where you sketch a circle on the floor and fill it with indecipherable patterns—a technique that lets you produce magic-like effects through them.
In manga or anime, you often see them used in all sorts of ways: to compensate for a caster's shortcomings or to unleash surprise attacks on enemies.
So if someone asked whether the other world I visited had magic circles too, my answer would be yes.
They did exist there.
But they were just there—they weren't particularly useful.
That was due to a bunch of problems.
The first issue was mana efficiency.
Normally, a magician draws mana stored in their dantian to cast spells, but magic circles require the user to manually infuse mana to activate them.
However, a significant amount of mana is lost in the process of transferring it from the magician's body to the circle. So even for the same spell, it was way more efficient to cast it directly rather than bother drawing a magic circle.
That's why regular magicians had little reason to use them unless in special circumstances.
Now, you might ask if non-magicians could use them too, but the second problem makes that impractical as well.
The second issue is maintenance—it's a nightmare.
Drawing the circle is fine, but if you leave it sitting around and try to activate it with mana later, efficiency drops dramatically over time.
In other words, using an old magic circle might require twice as much mana or more than intended just to get it working.
And it doesn't stop there. The magic only manifests if the drawn circle remains perfectly intact—even a tiny scratch can cause it to fail.
Everything in the world gradually breaks down over time due to various causes.
Nothing lasts forever, after all.
Floors with magic circles drawn on them are no exception.
In the end, any damage to the circle, no matter how minor, renders it completely unusable.
The final problem is size, which scales with the spell's power level.
I heard from a magician researching magic circles in that world that once you try using them for intermediate spells or higher, the size explodes exponentially.
To cast even slightly more powerful magic, you need a vast, flat space—which is hard to find on the fly, and impossible in urgent situations.
Even if you prepare a spot in advance for regular use, the spells you're likely to need in such cases are complex and advanced, which means the circle gets even bigger.
You might think, "Just use them for basic spells, then." But why draw a circle for a beginner spell when the magician could just cast it themselves?
It might have some purpose for ordinary folk who can't use magic, but commoners can't manipulate mana to activate circles anyway, so they're utterly pointless.
There was research into minimizing circle sizes for mid-to-high-tier spells by cramming in more intricate patterns, but the results were underwhelming—reducing from 1,000 units to 990, not 10 to 1.
Plus, for black magic, circles were even harder to use. Regular magicians can convert ambient mana into their own, but black magicians have to source demonic energy directly, so efficiency is critical for them.
Wasting it on something as inefficient as a magic circle?
That's the kind of stunt only someone swimming in excess demonic energy would pull.
None of the black magicians I met were like that, though.
"Oppa?"
As I spaced out lost in thought, Yejin, who was wiping down my body, tilted her head.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Oh, you asked me to tattoo something on Seoyun's body, so I was pondering how to do it."
"Huh? Didn't you just say you couldn't?"
"Nah, that was just me brushing it off because I had no idea what design to put on skin."
I didn't have much artistic flair, so I doubted I'd draw anything decent.
But a magic circle? That's different.
To someone who doesn't know better, it'd look like some meaningful design.
Yejin's eyes sparkled at my words.
"So, you have a way?"
"Kinda? Not guaranteed, but I think I can cover the scars at least. Go call Seoyun once you're cleaned up."
"Okay~ I'll bring her over."
She sounded delighted, probably thrilled we had a solution.
We finished our quick showers, and Yejin threw on some clothes before rushing out to fetch Seoyun.
"Never thought I'd use this here."
Back in that world, while messing around researching black magic, I'd picked up how to draw magic circles—but I never imagined it'd come in handy like this.
That said, using it on skin instead of the ground was a first; no clue if it'd work.
Eh, trial and error it is.
It had been ages since I last drew one, but the steps came back to me as the door opened. Yejin dragged Seoyun in by the arm.
"Oppa, got her."
"Ah, you're here? Come closer, then."
I beckoned them over, and the two approached slowly.
"Um, can you really make the scars disappear?"
Seoyun's voice trembled—she must've heard from Yejin on the way. I pointed to one of her arms.
"We'll see? It's been a while for me, so I gotta try. Roll up your sleeve first."
Seoyun carefully rolled up her left sleeve at my instruction, revealing the scars hidden beneath her clothes.
Alright, let's give it a shot.
"What I'm about to do is engrave a magic circle on your skin."
"Huh? A magic circle? You can do that?"
Yejin, listening beside me, lit up and exclaimed in surprise at the words "magic circle."
"Yeah, but don't think it'll let you use black magic or anything. No expectations there."
"Aww, that's disappointing."
She'd clearly hoped for a way to wield black magic herself.
"It's just called a magic circle—don't get your hopes up. It's not efficient at all. I'll make it so it covers your scars, that's it."
"Th-thank you..."
"I'll show you how too, so you can handle the parts you can reach yourself. I'll do the back since you can't. Watch closely for the demo."
I pulled Seoyun's rolled-up arm toward me and checked the scar's position.
Then I focused demonic energy at my fingertip and brought it slowly to her arm.
"It'll sting a bit."
"Eek!"
As my demonic-energy-charged finger touched her arm, she winced in pain.
Engraving patterns into flesh couldn't be painless, so I ignored her pained voice and slowly drew the pattern I knew.
It was probably like a light pinch.
Once I finished one pattern for the magic circle, Yejin peered over in fascination.
"Whoa... it looks like a cool design. And I can't even tell there was a scar."
The simple pattern inside a small black-lined circle completely hid Yejin's—no, Seoyun's—scar.
"So, something like that. What do you think?"
"Phew, the scar's totally gone..."
Yejin stared in wonder too, but Seoyun, the one affected, seemed even more amazed—my words didn't even register.
"It kinda looks like a pretty tattoo. Is this really a magic circle? What does it do?"
"Not much. Hmm... Seoyun, try channeling some demonic energy into the one I just drew."
"Demonic energy? Hold on... Huh?"
Seoyun had been diligently practicing demonic energy control even without me around, quickly directing it into the circle.
The circle activated, and the spell it unleashed was...
"Huh? Water? Oppa, that's it?"
A brief water spout erupted from the circle before vanishing. She shot me an incredulous look.
Given the arm-sized space, it wasn't surprising—only basic effects fit.
She'd probably expected some spectacular phenomenon.
"Tiny circles can only do stuff like that. Anyway, satisfied?"
As I spoke to Seoyun, who was still staring in awe, she looked at me with truly lively eyes for the first time since arriving.
"Yes! Thank you so much!"
"Glad you like it. I'll draw them all for now and teach you how, so you can do the rest yourself next time."
Seoyun nodded and stripped off her clothes entirely, eager to erase every scar like the one on her arm.
As I worked on various magic circles across her body, Yejin spoke up from the side.
"Hey, Oppa, question. Do magic circles have to be circles? Different shapes might look cooler."
"What? Of course they go in circles... Huh. Actually, I don't know why they have to be."
When I learned to draw them back then, the teacher just had me copy circles—no one said they had to be round.
"Hmm... That's an interesting idea. Let's try this, then."
Instead of a circular base like Yejin suggested, I drew the pattern inside a more complex border and infused it with demonic energy to test.
The spell activated as expected...
But unlike any circle I'd seen before, it took noticeably less demonic energy.
What is this?