//AN//
Just realized that I never said how old is the Mc so I'll put it here now LOL
Anyway Enjoy!!
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"Ughh....It's so frustrating!!!" Shouted Konrad, a few days after returning from his adventure.
He was currently sitting inside his dorm room in his version of a lotus position, that had him sit comfortably on the bed with the pillows as a support, trying to feel and manipulate the Mana he received after absorbing the orb from the gacha.
Konrad was currently seventeen years old and every week he would drive to a neighbouring town some 40 km away to attend highschool. Thankfully it was a boarding school so he didn't have to drive there every day and pay a lot of money, but it still costed his mom a bit for him to go back and forth every week.
Now you might ask, why is Konrad so frustrated? The answer lies simply in the fact that after trying to manipulate the Mana inside of him for the last few days, Konrad came to an annoying realization.
"It's useless! No matter what I do I can't use it anyway!" He barked to himself.
Indeed. Feeling the Mana inside of him came to Konrad surprisingly easy thanks to the fact that he lacked it before. He even managed to move it inside his body and let it out! But soon after he would try letting it out, he would become mentally exhausted and need to rest for around 20 minutes so he could try again.
And the worst part? His Mana practically wasn't even growing! Or more exactly, it did grow a bit but Konrad suspected that every time he exhausted it all, it would only grow by a 1/1000 more so it was almost nul. He couldn't even tell if his supposed control training had any effects at all...
But there was always light in the darkness cause theoretically...he only need to
do it around 700 times to double his mana!... Yeah well...If we assume he does that 3 times per hour for 8 hours a day it would only take him a month but...the side effect of walking all the time in the state of magical mental exhaustion is not something he considers very helpful in his regular studies or in anything really. Not even mentioning his plans in researching the magical formation..And it would only double his mana from 1 to 2! it doesn't even feel like it's worth it for now, at least with how little Mana he has at the moment.
All this is also while assuming that what Konrad felt was really a 1/1000 increase and not some fluke but he was quiet certain that he was right in that matter.
"Uhh...i think I rested enough... should I try again?" He muttered.
Konrad looked around his room. it was a plain room with with a worktable and a wardrobe, belonging to a row of similar rooms placed side by side in the west side of the school. Many students who lived too far away stayed here even though The rooms were not very clean, (meaning: If some health organization official ever saw any of them, he would instantly have a heart attack) Nor were they in good condition, but most students didn't really care since they would leave this place soon enough anyway.
Konrad used to live here with his roommate and friend called Kris, but sadly he changed schools only a few months ago and Konrad was left alone. They still kept contact thought, and Konrad liked to think of him as his another close friend, and a part time Meme Lord...
Thanks to being alone now though, Konrad has the chance of spending his free time after school practising Mana control and research formations.
Going back to the present though.
Konrad was thinking whether he should continue but finally realized that...''it's one or the other...ugh I'm too mentally exhausted everytime I try this... I think I'd have to begin with research in the afternoon and only after that start doing my magic strengthening later... Stupid! Why didn't I proceed like that from the beginning!...Right...too excited with learning magic haha.." Konrad laughed awkwardly to himself.
'Well nothing to do about it now since the notes are home...huh. but I still have the pictures on my phone. Maybe i can figure something out while I'm like this...' He thought and quickly took out his phone and started to look through the gallery. He already made copies of the picture on his computer and printed them into the folder with all the old man's data for safety measures so he almost forgot about the picture in his phone.
"Let's see..."
Konrad looked through the screen but he quickly realized that it's not enough for him. he can't see many details when looking only at fragments and different perspectives. He decided to take out a few sheets of paper and began to draw.
He only needed an hour to recreate a perfect copy of the golden formation through his pencil drawing skills but he had a few problems with the formation of the old man. It was of course because of his natural understanding of the language of the golden formation and the fact it's much more readable and clean than the one from the basement. It took him nearly three hours of constant drawing and rubbing off the picture and a few thrown away sheets to finally achieve a somehow workable copy. Then he used it to redraw it on a new sheet of paper so it was smoother and easier to read. It would probably go much smoother if he actually had the notes of the old man but whatever.
It was already time for supper so Konrad went down and ate the cheap school food quickly and went back to his room with a refreshed mind.
His analysis at the begining was stagnant though. he decided to begin from the golden formation since he understood how it worked but other than understanding the words, he couldn't figure out the meaning. There had to be some kind of key to this formation though.
"Alright let's gather the facts we have..."Konrad muttered.
"First: There's a core point of the formation that is responsible for powering it.
Second: There are two of those cores known to me, with the first one using my blood... however that works... but I'm not sure from where does the second one gets it's power. I assume it to be collecting Mana from the air though.
Third: ...umm the formations are based on circular layers around the core of the formation, made with the eldritch languages in-between some geometrical...shapes...SHAPES!
Yes! i can see that! both of them at the base are similar but the old man's is missing some parts and is overall smaller or rather lacks layers in comparison to the golden formation, while being more packed! There...seems to be a pattern after all..ha haha hahaha! God it's so exciting to figure something out by yourself! I bet that I'd only need a few weeks to figure out something useful! maybe i can even improve His formation! So many possibilities! if only I had access to more different formations, i could compare theme together!" Konrad was jumping excited like a little child in an amusement park. He finally made some bigger progress in his research and couldn't contain his glee.
*STOMP STOMP* resounded from the ceiling.
"be Quiet down there or I'll crush your balls!" could be heard muffled.
Konrad snorted and ignored his neighbours. It's time for research!
.
.
.
//Three Months Later//
Autumn passed and the the town got covered in a white icy fluff. Yep. It's winter!
"Konrad! Get up! Breakfast is ready!" A voice resounded from behind the doors.
Konrad groaned and opened his eyes. It was still dark outside the window so he groaned again.
"But it's still dark outside...and The winter recess started...ugh who in their right minds wake up this early?!" Konrad muttered while slowly getting out of bed. He crawled towards the bathroom with heavy steps and got himself cleaned.
The reason why Konrad looked so exhausted came from a simple reason. Other than finally doubling his Mana reserves from '1' to '2', After spending most of his free time during the last three months, researching all he could about the magical formations, Konrad finally made progress in understanding them to a certain extent and yesterday was the day of his first ever attempt at making one based solely on his theory! He was really exhausted from carving the formation for most of the day yesterday.
Yes! He created a magical formation! Now you might ask. Where did he even do that? It's simple enough to work on designing the formations and research them in secret. Konrad can easily hide the research materials and most of them was actually already digitalised by him. You heard it right. Konrad can work on his tablet or laptop whenever and wherever he want and his mom thinks that he just plays games or watch stupid videos. But it wasn't that simple if he wanted to actually use the formation. Because obviously...it's a freaking magic formation with a potential of exploding and blood being used as the catalyst! Yep, it was easy to figure that part out. The old man's notes were quiet clear about it and about the fact of the substitutes being enchanted precious metals that are out of my reach for now.
So Konrad ended up in an abandoned building in the forest around two km from his house. It was almost perfect, if you ignore the occasional homeless people passing by.
Konrad's formation had a very simple design. It only consisted of the core part and a single layer of text around containing a simple instructions to create light. The core was based on the one from the golden formation in that it was supposed to gather energy from the surroundings. It was basically made on a small disk of wood 30 cm in diameter and the design was supposed to glow stronger depending on the amount of power being supplied. He didn't know if it would work...or if it will explode... but before adding his blood it shouldn't pose any danger so he simply carved it here and then left to sleep and return the next day with a clear mind. He made quiet a lot jumps in judgement here but even if it ends up as a failure it would still provide him with data.
Now you might ask. why he didn't use the blood powering if it clearly worked with the formation of the old man? Well, that's easy...He didn't want to lose too much of his blood just after recovering it!...well alright, he recovered two months ago but still!
The notes of the old man mentioned a few of his failed experiments that ended up doing nothing, sucking his blood uncontrollably, and even exploding so he wasn't going to leave his success to chance. That's the reason why it took him so much time. He wanted to be sure that his creation is as close to perfection with his limited knowledge as it was possible. A small part of himself wanted to simply succeed on his first try!
//AN//
Sorry for that info dump ;p
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With his resolve in place Konrad placed the wooden disk (because that's what he used for his formation) on the floor and took out a big syringe from his backpack. Yep. Much cleaner and safer than cutting your body obviously. But of course it's a syringe... It's one thing to let a doctor take your blood but its another when you need to do it yourself and look closely so you didn't damage yourself. Konrad shuddered. Needles.
#Some bloody nauseous moments later#
With the blood finally in the syringe Konrad begun to fill the grooves in the wood skilfully. He thanked God for actually having some talent in art.
He expected something to happen as soon as he filled the last hole but to his surprise, just filling the markings on the disk, made each of these give out a slight red glow! Konrad was curious of the reason and created a theory that the language he used to make this formation was superior to the one used by the old man. He slowly but surely proceeded and the originally plain disk emanated now a very faint glow. Then came the moment of forming the pathways around the core point and the single outer layer. He was yet to do the core though, for safety measures. When the pathways were completed, the aura around the formation changed. It felt more...right...more completed. He grinned and started filling the core part to finish his creation.
The last drop of blood finally left the Syringe and with it the formation was completed! It flashed with light oh so slightly and then dimmed...Konrad was excited. He didn't know if the formation worked as he intended but he was obviously going to check it now.
According to his theory, his project should theoretically absorb the energy from the air to form a ball of light above the center of the formation. Konrad observed for any changes and grinned because the dim formation actually started to very slowly lit up! Now as he confirmed it, He moved to the second test. Is the energy of the formation the same as his Mana? It was easy to check now. Konrad pushed out his Mana from his hand in the direction of the energy absorbing center of the formation. He watched with excitement as The previously slowly changing formation suddenly glowed a few times brighter as his Mana clearly got absorbed!
"Does Formations uses mana? - check." Konrad said to himself excitedly.
"Then that would mean that blood can be used in place of Mana or maybe become transformed into it...Or maybe the Mana is extracted from the blood in some way..."
He waited for a while and finally after waiting for another 3 minutes the disk suddenly flashed and above the center a fist sized ball of light slowly formed! It was beautiful! Konrad was excited like a little kid.
"It worked! It worked! Hahaha, This confirmed so many of my theories! Improving the old mans formation isn't just a dream now haha!" Konrad laughed happily.
He gazed with wonder at the slowly stabilizing ball of light with wonder. He wondered how it was even formed. In all of his planing he didn't consider if making a ball of light is even physically possible but just assumed it is. How else would that weird dimension be created? It was clearly filled with solid light so it should work as well, right?
It was a few hours later that he decided to return. One thing he observed. The formation didn't seem to be on the way of stopping any time soon...It was a bit awkward because he couldn't leave it here nor could he take the formation with himself while it was still forming the light ball. A small oversight on his part... He sighed and took out a knife and while taking all the precautions necessary, scratched the center to disrupt the absorption. He did so after careful consideration. It's better to break the source of Mana than the actual working part. He hoped it doesn't explode.
Thankfully after the core was damaged, the formation slowly dimmed and the light ball dispersed.
"Next time, add a switch mechanism..." He muttered, but his face was still forming a toothy grin.
He made a magic formation! and it will not be the last!
//AN//
As I said...info dump XD but I like making magical research info dumps so deal with it LOL Wish there was more novels that did that
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