The Magic Circle of Recirculation
The offensive weapon was in place.
What remained was defense.
Buying enchanted armor from the market was madness.
The prices ran into dozens, even hundreds of gold.
Besides, if a commoner went around wearing gleaming armor, he’d become a target all by himself.
“No need to buy it. I’ll make it.”
I needed upper-body armor in the form of an underlayer, not an outer garment.
It had to stay hidden, while still being able to block blades, arrows, and throwing needles.
The problem was materials.
If I’d had something like the spider silk of Arachne from legend, that would’ve been perfect, but of course I didn’t.
All I had was the tough silk thread and hemp thread you could buy anywhere in the market.
Could that stop an assassin’s knife?
No way. But there was a method.
If the material was ordinary, then the process had to be extraordinary.
I arranged five Medium Magic Stones in a pentagon atop the worktable.
In the center, I placed a skein of silk thread.
According to the books, magical armor hardened objects by coating their surface with mana.
That made them metallic in sheen and rigid to the touch.
Anyone could tell at a glance that magic had been worked into it.
My method was different.
[1st Tier Transformation Formula: Compression]
[1st Tier Transformation Formula: Flexibility]
Of course, there was no 1st Tier household magic with those names anywhere in the academic world.
I had torn apart existing formulas and recombined them into something new.
It was only called 1st Tier because 1st Tier was all I could cast.
Theoretically, it incorporated elements that went all the way up to 3rd Tier.
I don’t care. If I’m a 1st Tier mage, then it’s 1st Tier.
If a high-ranking mage saw it, they might get furious that I was applying advanced 3rd Tier knowledge to something so mundane.
It’s not like I’m showing it to anyone else.
This was my own magic, something I’d made for myself and myself alone.
[Compression]
[Flexibility]
Screeech! Whiiir!
The mana from the Medium Magic Stones kept being drawn into the thread.
All night, I compressed the structure of the fibers.
Keeping the volume the same, I increased only the density inside.
Again and again, I layered on magic to maximize flexibility so it wouldn’t turn stiff.
Three full days passed.
The once ordinary silk thread was reborn into something entirely different.
“Success.”
It had been compressed to an extreme degree, yet it wasn’t hard.
On the contrary, it felt softer than before.
But the moment I tried to cut it with scissors, the blade bounced off.
Snip! Snip!
No matter how many times I cut at it, it was useless.
The same went for a knife.
It won’t just break under normal force.
Only an aura blade from a knight or the magic of a high-ranking mage could do it.
A common sword or pair of scissors wouldn’t make a dent.
Of course, I could cut it.
All I had to do was alter the flow in the part I wanted to sever.
That was my own secret formula, a method only I could use.
This was the power of the household magic I’d created.
“Now that the thread’s ready, let’s make the clothes.”
I spread out the cut pattern for a shirt and picked up a needle.
This was war.
War against myself.
The instant the needle pierced the fabric, I had to inject mana so thread and cloth fused into one.
Mana in every stitch.
Shock dispersion in every stitch.
Thwip—shiiik!
Every time the needle passed through, a vein bulged in my forehead.
The joints of my fingers hurt so badly they felt as if they might snap.
“Ugh...”
I’d only mended one sleeve cuff, and already my mana core felt empty.
I was so dizzy I nearly collapsed onto the worktable.
Normally, I should have stopped here and rested.
But I couldn’t rest.
I had no idea when the assassin might come again.
I feel like there was a way to recover mana faster in situations like this.
The ancient taboo training method I’d seen in a book.
[Reflux Magic Circle]
It scraped the core dry of mana, then forcibly refilled it.
Repeated endlessly, it was a grotesque training method that stretched the core by tearing it.
The old mages either went mad doing this or blew out their cores and became husks, didn’t they?
It wasn’t called a forbidden magic circle for nothing.
Countless mages had ruined themselves trying to imitate it after that.
And yet so many still threw themselves at it, because it was that seductive.
For a mage, the promise of instantly refilling depleted mana was deadlier than any temptation.
My own core was pathetic, draining dry as soon as I cast a single spell.
If I can make this work...
The Reflux Magic Circle.
Until now, I hadn’t even tried it.
I didn’t want to become a cripple.
Don’t think in terms of can’t. Change the formula to fit me.
I opened the library in my head.
[Reflux Magic Circle: Original Formula]
-Core mana discharge
-External mana injection
-Core expansion!
Countless people had followed those three steps and ended up broken.
They all failed.
The worst problem was the forced external mana injection.
It was a gamble that poured mana into a rigid core and waited to see whether it would shatter.
I’ll change the formula.
Countless combinations raced through my mind, and I seized on the ones that looked most promising.
I modified the original formula.
[Reflux Magic Circle: Modified Formula]
-Core circuit disassembly
-Mana rearrangement
-Mana circuit restoration
If I do it this way, the failure caused by forced injection disappears.
Better yet, the mana circuit is restored to its original state with the mana fully recovered.
That was the mystery of the Reflux Magic Circle.
But there’s a condition.
The circuit doesn’t stay still while mana flows through it.
It’s constantly moving.
I had to follow every one of those movements, unravel them, then weave them back together.
Miss even a single strand, and the whole thing went out of alignment.
...That’s why no one succeeded for hundreds of years.
My heart pounded.
I’m different. Once I see something, I don’t forget it.
The mana circuit shifted every second.
And I etched each moving strand into my mind exactly as it changed.
That was right.
The formula no one had solved for centuries.
The key to solving it was perfect memory.
The Reflux Magic Circle! It’s mine now.
I carved the circle beneath the worktable.
That way, the reflux magic circuit would run beneath my feet while I worked.
Tsss.
First, I unraveled my own core.
The moment I memorized the flow changing in real time, condensed mana from the Magic Stones surged into the loosened circuit.
“Kh—ugh!”
The pain felt like my veins were about to burst.
It was as though someone had poured molten iron into my body.
Grinding my teeth, I grabbed the needle again.
[1st Tier Transformation Formula: Erase Trace]
[1st Tier Transformation Formula: Strong Knot]
[1st Tier Transformation Formula: Rewind Cloth]
I burned through mana by casting household magic one after another.
Then I replenished it through the Reflux Magic Circle.
Empty and refill.
Empty and refill.
And so the days passed.
* * *
[Day 7 of Work]
By day, I returned to being an ordinary tailor.
Ellen’s clothing repairs always came first.
If I had time left over, I fixed the maid’s clothes too, all while guarding the annex with a smiling face.
I didn’t have to do it.
But the work itself helped my magical training.
Thanks to that, all the maids liked me and were happy to help.
At night, I became a ghost in the underground chamber.
I slept only two hours a day.
Just sewing and mana training.
The pace was slow.
Weaving the entire garment with compressed silk thread was backbreaking labor, like building a fortress wall by hand.
And it wasn’t just for my own clothes.
Ellen had generously handed over ten expensive Medium Magic Stones.
I couldn’t let that debt slide.
I should make something for her.
I remembered something she’d said offhandedly.
“...These days I’ve been practicing 2nd Tier magic, and the casting delay is such a pain. Once I use a spell, it takes forever before I can cast the next one.”
The cause was obvious.
Residue was left in the mana circuit, interfering with the flow.
Same as soot clogging a chimney.
All I had to do was loosen the flow and wipe away the residue.
I cut a strip from a scrap of cloth to make a lining for a bracelet.
Then I applied the transformation formula and embroidered a magic circuit into it.
There. This should remove the casting delay.
The corners of my mouth lifted slightly.
Removing casting delay meant she could chain spells faster than usual.
Any mage would understand instantly what that implied.
I’m curious what expression Ellen will make when she sees this.
The rough gray scrap wasn’t much to look at.
It was very thin and light.
Once attached to the inside of the jeweled bracelet she usually wore, it wouldn’t be noticeable at all.
I wrapped it neatly and set it aside.
* * *
[Day 15 of Work]
Just as the pale light of dawn began to break.
It’s done.
The fingers that held my staff were blistered raw and hardened into calluses.
My eyes were sunken and hollow.
And yet my expression was drenched in overwhelming emotion.
I finally finished it.
A single completed garment lay on the worktable.
It was light.
Feather-light.
Soft as baby skin to the touch.
My masterpiece, made with the mana of five Medium Magic Stones.
The Pure White Undershirt
At a glance, it looked like a cheap cotton shirt sold at any market stall.
Any trace of magic?
None at all.
I’d hidden the mana perfectly deep within the cloth.
Plain as a commoner’s undergarment to anyone who sees it.
But if someone pointed a blade at it...
It would bounce it off.
Arrows too.
Throwing needles too.
“Let’s try it on.”
The cloth, synchronized with my mana, clung to my body like a second skin.
It didn’t interfere with movement at all.
The fit was incredible.
“My mana’s grown quite a bit in the meantime too.”
My mana core, which had always been parched and bottomed out, had been emptied and refilled countless times over the past fifteen days through the Reflux Magic Circle.
Thanks to that, the core had expanded noticeably.
“I reached 1st Tier mastery faster than I expected.”
I still hadn’t reached 2nd Tier.
Still, fortunately, I was no longer the weakling who had to stop after one cast.
Without Magic Stones or equipment, I could now fire Mana Needle several times in succession.
* * *
“Hans!”
Ellen came into the chamber with a thick robe thrown over her shoulders.
It had been a while since I’d seen her face.
“Sorry, it’s been too long, hasn’t it? I just couldn’t find the time to come by.”
“It’s fine.”
She looked around the cave, then wrinkled her nose and sniffed.
The pungent smell of burned mana.
“It’s a bit messy, isn’t it? I’ll clean it up soon.”
Under the worktable, the gray dust of spent Magic Stones lay piled high.
The five stones that had formed the Reflux Magic Circle had exhausted themselves and turned to waste rock.
“Goodness...”
Ellen stared at the shattered fragments of Magic Stone in surprise.
“You’ve been training alone this whole time?”
“If I want to survive, I need to get stronger.”
I answered calmly.
Ellen clicked her tongue.
“Any results?”
“More or less. Ah, and this is for you.”
I held out the small wrapped scrap of cloth.
At first glance, it looked like nothing more than a plain bracelet liner.
“What is it?”
“Wear it inside the bracelet you usually use. It should reduce casting delay a little.”
“Casting delay? Really?”
Ellen looked skeptical, but she slipped the cloth into the inside of her gold bracelet and put it on.
“Huh?”
Her eyes widened.
“This feeling... what is it? It’s like mana just slides through on its own.”
I smiled faintly.
Shortened casting delay.
That was a field that high-ranking mages spent their entire lives training.
Magic staves and tools that supported it were expensive luxury goods.
“Would you like to try a spell?”
“...Sure.”
Ellen extended a hand toward the empty space in the cave.
[Fire Ball]
Whoosh—!
“This is insane. The activation time’s been cut down.”
“Try again.”
Whoosh—!
Whoosh—!
Ellen’s eyes went wide as she looked at me.
“The casting delay’s been cut in half. That’s the kind of high-speed chanting effect only 3rd Tier mages use, isn’t it? How on earth did you make this?”
“A lot of combined formulas are at work, so it probably isn’t easy for you to understand, miss. But you don’t need to understand it to use it.”
“Thank you, Hans!”
Excited, Ellen grabbed my hand.
“This is seriously... the best present ever!”
Her face lit up like a child’s.
Seeing that, even my fatigue seemed to melt away at once.
“I’m glad you like it.”
“Oh, right. I have something for you too.”
Ellen pulled a heavy pouch from inside her robes and held it out.
“This month’s pay.”
When I opened the pouch, it was full of silver coins.
At a glance, there had to be at least fifty silver.
“This is far too much. Wasn’t the contract five silver a month?”
“Take it. Hiring talent like you for five silver would be a crime.”
She hesitated for a moment, then added,
“It’s also compensation for what happened with that assassin last time. And bribery, in case that makes you stay by my side a little longer.”
Her gaze was serious.
I stopped refusing and took the pouch.
“Thank you. More than that, I have a favor to ask.”
“What is it? Anything.”
“I’d like to take a vacation. About ten days.”
“A vacation?”
“I want to clear my head, and I’ve got a few personal matters to handle.”
In truth, I was going to sell my stocks and look into a few things, but there was no need to say that.
“Fine. Go.”
Ellen nodded readily.
“...Sophia can’t move around right now, but still, be careful if you go outside.”
“Don’t worry.”
Feeling the hidden touch of the Space Stitch inside my bracelet, I smiled calmly.
* * *
The next morning.
Rowen commercial district.
The stock exchange.
The city’s mornings began with desire.
And the stock exchange was the furnace where that desire boiled hottest.
At its center was the stock I owned.
Black Forest Forestry: 1,057 shares
Let’s see how much it’s gone up.
I pulled my hat low and melted into the crowd.
Inside the exchange, it was pure chaos.