Now, the 5th Circle
"What are you doing here... Ah."
The knight captain, about to ask the Mage Tower Lord what he was doing there, suddenly remembered the dragon and nodded in understanding. Mages were a race brimming with curiosity. To the Mage Tower Lord, the dragon before him was undoubtedly a fascinating research subject.
"If you know, then get lost already."
Mage Tower Lord Decaron had always been the type to dive headfirst into anything that piqued his interest. That relentless pursuit had propelled him to the pinnacle of the 9-Circle realm and the seat of Mage Tower Lord. Though he was deeply disappointed that it wasn't his grandson who had summoned it, his scholarly zeal as a 9-Circle grand mage refused to be quenched.
Noisy bunch.
Watching the scene unfold, Rian sensed he'd only grow more exhausted if he stuck around. Things were already chaotic with just these two; he didn't even want to imagine what would happen if more people showed up.
If I leave it like this, I'll get dragged into even more hassle. Better shove Guams back and head to Professor Ash to learn illusion magic.
Considering Guams's sheer size and the mana waves it emanated, it was no surprise it had drawn attention not just from the academy but the entire capital. Fortunately, only the Mage Tower Lord—who could hop the academy walls at will—and the imperial knights with their investigative authority had made it in. The academy's entry protocols had blocked everyone else.
Time to clean this up.
Rian raised his hand. Just as he gathered his mana to reverse-summon Guams—
A faint yet colossal mana link pierced his senses.
His heart's tirelessly spinning 4D tesseract-structured Mana Circle. The massive dragon Guams's core looming before him. And between them, a thick, transparent mana pipeline—the contract bond—clearly connecting the two.
Hm?
Rian's hand froze mid-air. In his mind, knowledge from his past life, magical principles, and the intent encoded in the language of magic sparked like fireworks.
Hold on. If I use the core of that ridiculously huge, sturdy dragon spirit... yeah, I can do it!
He knew that even if he went to Professor Ash and learned vast illusion spells, his current 4-Circle couldn't replicate what he envisioned. To create a perfect virtual reality in the brain without overload, he needed parallel processing on another level entirely.
That's why he'd planned to push to 5-Circle. But not the conventional kind.
The issue was that building a 5-Circle my way would overload my body and make it explode.
No matter its infinite mana regeneration, transitioning from 4D to 5D geometric expansion would bring massive backlash. For a 13-year-old body just starting to recover from malnutrition, it was too much.
Originally, he'd planned to bulk up, add safety measures, then attempt it. But now he had Guams.
What if I use that guy's core as a temporary heatsink?
An overload distributor. Channel the horrific mana backlash from forming the 5-Circle straight through the contract link into that sturdy dragon spirit's core.
A perfect equation crystallized in Rian's mind.
Calculations complete. Success rate: 100%.
With the result in hand, Rian had no reason to hesitate. He could hardly contain his urge to slam this flawless, elegant geometric compression code into his heart right now. He was thrilled at the thought of learning illusion magic after hitting 5-Circle.
Suppressing his excitement, Rian called out to Professor Elmiana.
"Professor. I'm about to push to 5-Circle, so can you control the area for five minutes?"
His words echoed across the training ground clearing.
In an instant, the Mage Tower Lord admiring the dragon and the knight captain edging away both froze. Silence descended. Not even the wind stirred.
"...W-what did you say?"
"Did I hear that wrong just now?"
Mage Tower Lord Decaron's gray eyes widened like saucers. Knight Captain William, helmet off, stared at Rian with a dumbstruck expression.
"A first-year brat reaching 5-Circle? Just like that, in five minutes?"
The Mage Tower Lord's voice cracked in disbelief.
Breaking from 4-Circle to 5-Circle was like shattering a mage's lifelong wall. Even geniuses among geniuses needed years of mana accumulation through meditation—and grueling effort. Yet here was a 13-year-old commoner boy declaring he'd knock it out like brushing his teeth after lunch.
"Rian, you're ascending to 5-Circle?"
Vesperia asked in wonder.
"Yeah, that's the plan. Just figured out how."
"Whoa, that's amazing! You hit 4-Circle yesterday, and now 5-Circle in a day? You're the best, Rian!"
Vesperia's bright cheer stood in stark contrast to the incredulous faces of Mage Tower Lord Decaron and Knight Captain William. But Rian ignored them, staring straight at Professor Elmiana, awaiting her response.
"Professor."
At his call, Professor Elmiana's shoulders twitched. Her pink eyes blazed with the fervor and sense of duty of a true magic scholar.
The Mage Tower Lord and knight captain were still underestimating Rian's talent, even after seeing that dragon spirit. But not her.
Rian can do it!
This walking disaster-class talent could really pull off the miracle of 5-Circle in five minutes. No—a blind conviction that he would consumed her reason.
As a scholar walking the path of magic, I must witness this great talent bloom!
Biting her lip, Professor Elmiana spread her arms wide.
"Everyone, back off! Don't interfere with our student Rian ascending to 5-Circle!"
With her resolute shout, a massive hemispherical mana barrier enveloped Rian perfectly. It was top-tier defensive magic, blocking not just physical interference but mana flow itself.
"Professor Elmiana! Have you lost your mind?!"
The Mage Tower Lord bellowed in shock. An academy professor was playing along with a first-year's bluff, forcibly shoving him and the knight captain away.
But Professor Elmiana ignored the Mage Tower Lord's roar, gulping as she held the barrier steady.
Ardelia watched the bizarre scene in bated breath.
Really reaching 5-Circle in five minutes?
Ardelia's red eyes fixed on Rian's back. Strangely, no doubt or skepticism arose. Of course he'd pull it off.
Meanwhile, Vesperia clutched Blackie to her chest, fists clenched in pure support.
"You got this, Rian!"
With external noise and gazes sealed off by the barrier, Rian finally closed his eyes in perfect isolation and silence.
Let's begin.
His will clamped down on the 4D tesseract circle pulsing near his heart. Rian didn't force expansion or brute-gather mana. He rendered mathematical formulas into the language of mana in his mind.
A horrific geometric reconstruction: punching a brand-new fifth axis through the existing 4D structure.
Wuuuuung—!
The space inside the barrier screamed. No flashy lights or explosive heat like typical circle upgrades. Instead, the air grew oppressively heavy, light seeming to get sucked in—a bizarre illusion. The space itself warped, dimensions crumpling in a chilling phenomenon.
"Ngh!"
Rian's brow furrowed in pain. The split-second shift from 4D to 5D. Computational structure exploded exponentially, unleashing horrific mana backlash. Like a certain yellow electric rat's 100,000-volt thunderbolt scorching his nerves.
Even with preparations, it hit hard. A normal human body would've burst blood vessels and died in a second from the overload.
But Rian didn't panic. This was all calculated.
Link it.
His will forcibly opened the massive mana pipeline between heart and exterior. At its end: Guams's core, filling the clearing.
Krrruuuh!
Despite the sudden influx of hellish heat and backlash, Guams barely flinched. Unlike a human body, this dragon-formed spirit shrugged it off. It perfectly played its role as temporary heatsink.
As the colossal dragon spirit silently tanked the 5D collapse backlash with its absurd durability, Rian's work accelerated smoothly.
32 vertices. 80 edges. 80 square faces. 40 cubic cells.
Perfect mathematical data in his mind converted to mana particles, assembling flawlessly.
And enveloping it all: 10 tesseracts.
Finally, a 5D hypercube—penteract—transcending space, perfectly cradling the old 4-Circle, settled unshakably in his heart.
Fwaaah—!
The instant the structure completed, Rian severed the temporary compute link to Guams without hesitation. No more heatsink needed.
Inside him now spun an independent infinity penteract circle, meshing perfectly without external aid or forced mana.
The spatial distortion halted like a lie. The oppressive air inside the barrier calmed instantly.
"Hoo."
Rian opened his eyes and exhaled slowly. Feeling the penteract throbbing near his heart, a thick smile curved his lips.
Perfect.
First sensation: overwhelming compute speed surging through his nerves. Ten fully independent tesseract cores inside the penteract structure—tenfold parallel processing, running infinitely.
Ten-core multithreading. Now I can offload visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile data for illusion magic to separate cores, coding at ultra-high speed simultaneously. Even the most complex VR map renders real-time in the brain without load.
But what satisfied him most was something else.
Overload perfectly offset.
80 faces and 40 cells spinning eternally around the 5D axis—a flawless closed system. The horrific heat and brain fatigue from complex spell assembly dispersed into the vast internal space, vanishing completely. Even the chronic physical exhaustion from ramping basal metabolism for recovery was washed away by mana circulation.
No more makeshift awaken spells to fight sleep.
Now I can run VR games or code spells for days straight without brain fatigue buildup. No more dying from overwork like my past life.
Finally, the freakishly surged mana density. 32 vertices threading the 5D axis, physically compressing atmospheric mana particles to impossible levels. Dimensional interference maximizing mana compression.
His 4-Circle mana pool had rivaled an 8-Circle grand mage; now it ballooned dozens of times, unfathomable.
Ultra-efficient infinite power. Not just fast atmospheric mana refill. The real cheat of a 5D closed system: mana particles I release achieve their goal externally, loop the dimensional axis, and return to my heart 100% intact.
Ultimate mass conservation—no mana waste.
Now, even saddling Guams with an aerodynamic seat or building massive VR won't ever drain my mana.
Within 5-Circle limits, it was exactly what he wanted.
Summary: mana pool dozens-fold increase. Easy fatigue resolution means full body recovery soon. Compute power 10x better. Released mana returns waste-free, so total never depletes. True infinity Mana Circle.
It took exactly five minutes—no more, as declared.
"......"
Outside the barrier, chaos reigned. As Professor Elmiana's defense barrier dissolved, the eerie mana waves of the 5-Circle penteract flooded the entire clearing.
"Hah, haaah...!"
Mage Tower Lord Decaron's knees buckled, collapsing to the ground. His 9-Circle senses tried analyzing the mana pouring from Rian's body. But it defied human intellect—overwhelming, eerie density, dimensions twisting like layers of abyss.
Facing that abyssal mana, the Mage Tower Lord froze, soul drained, mouth agape.
That's... no human 5-Circle! Is it even 5-Circle? Mana reserves like peak 9-Circles! What magical principle is this?!
His lifelong magical philosophy shattered.
Knight Captain William no longer saw Rian as a boy. The imperial knights kept their distance, faces pale. Ardelia gazed in awe.
He really did it.
Reverence now dominated her. Only Vesperia clapped brightly amid the disaster's birth.
"Yay! Rian! All done? Congrats on 5-Circle!"
"Yeah. Tough one. Thanks for the cheers."
"You're welcome! Hehe~"
Rian waved back at Vesperia's support. He gave Ardelia a perfunctory hand raise for her congrats, then turned to Guams, who had served as perfect heatsink.
"Good work, Guams. Rest up—I'll call you later."
With a casual wave, the house-sized dragon form shimmered like heat haze and reverse-summoned away.
But to the Mage Tower Lord and knight captain, that dragon paled next to the 13-year-old boy before them—far heavier, far more terrifying.
At the same time, to the Mage Tower Lord, this disaster in boy form was utterly captivating.
"I see why Iril took him as disciple."
But regardless of the Mage Tower Lord's gaze, Rian addressed Professor Elmiana.
"Professor. Summoning's done perfectly, so I'm off to see Professor Ash."
"Sure, good work. Congrats on 5-Circle, Rian."
With her well-wishes, Rian departed.
"Ah, Rian! Wait up! I'll come too~"
"Me too."
Sensing trouble if they lingered, Vesperia and Ardelia quickly followed.
Whiiiish~
As wind swept the clearing, Mage Tower Lord Decaron, Knight Captain William, and the imperial knights slunk silently back to their towers and palace.