It’s a few day’s since Gran sent me down to whatever the fuck he calls that replica to act as a training session even though he calls it an investigation. He’s out today saying “I have some important thing’s to manage”. He said he’ll be back by 8.00pm so I have all the time in the world to finally be able to use my free time how I want to spend it. So today I’ll be attempting the Transport circle again.

  I’ve got 2 things on my agenda today, trying out the new circle structure I had to redesign and my date; I feel weird saying that. There some important parts I need to acquire to produce the circle and initiate it. Side note: Nearly all magic circle created are instantaneous, not continues. Meaning they can be activated once and will initiate a command that executes something. There are some circle’s that stay activates and will continue to take up mana until it’s depleted, but I haven’t been able to find much. What I’m missing right now are two things; A Carcadian’s blood and a pure mana core. I can get Carcadian blood from Novera and I’ll get a mana core from a dungeon, they’re known for their stability so that’s my best shot. Carcadian blood naturally contains mana and is a good conductor of it, making it perfect for drawing a circle. The core will be used to create a mixture of that flower I found and the core to make a power source.

  First thing’s first I’ll rift into Novera, get the blood from the donor’s market and clear a dungeon to get the mana core. To spice thing’s up and for ‘research purposes’, I’ll start a timer the moment I pass through the rift. Good thing Gran taught me how to do that or else I would have to settle for a different alternative entirely.

  It’s 8.00 in the morning right now, if I can just get back in 2 hours at 10:00 that would give me enough time to prepare to meet with Kida at 11:00. I have everything I need right about now to go, “This might be fun I have to say. Meh, only time will tell”

  The watch on my arm counts down,

  3, 2, 1, *Beep*

  I open a rift as run into in our garden area. My body is transported to Novera and rifted into the capital Seranova in it’s market district. Visually human looking civilians walk here and there, and I spot a familiar face near the district association building. I run through the crowd and I confirm my memory,

  “Kael?”

  The human looking man wearing a black coat and a golden badge looks at me and light’s up.

  “Ar? Is that you!?”

  We exchange a dab and excitement fills both of our faces.

  “Brother you don’t understand how many times I tried to contact you but your phone was off”

  “Sorryy, I was a tad bit busy”

  Wait, why am I here.. Oh Shit

  “Dude I gotta go, I’m timing myself right now sooo I’ll be back tomorrow”

  “Ah no worries, I’m assuming you need locations for dungeons?”

  Tears of joy run down my face,

  “Yessss!”

  A grin appears on his face and he hands me a location onto my phone.

  “Oh that’s not too far”

  “When you get there just fair a warning, it might take a while to fully clear it. Just thought you should know”

  Uh. . .

  “Why is that?”

  “You’ll find out, anyways Run! Your wasting time!”

  Kael pushes me

  “See you later!”

  I turn around as Kael waves goodbye and jolt towards the crowded street. On my phone, I see that the dungeon is opened right outside the second highway underneath the line connecting Seranova and Covelle. It’s not that far off. I find an alleyway near a building in the street and run over as fast as I can. As I head deeper in, there’s no one around. Since Novera is just raining atmospheric mana, I don’t have to restrict myself to using low-level skills and spells due to mana expenditure. It’s nice to be able to let go sometimes.

  I chant,

  “CrimsonBloom”

  This skill is the result of years of improving and dedication, It’s a skill I created and the best skill I have. I found a skill called “Absolute Paradise’ which I read in a book left by my dad and mom. I was able to access it’s power for less than a fraction of a second when I was designing a summoner for it. Within that time I was able to take a piece of it out leading to what CrimsonBloom is. My body shifts in composition and I feel my body becoming lighter. Physically nothing looks to have changed, but my skills now have a buff and my physical strength has doubled.

  Taking a breath in, I snap my fingers. In the blink of an eye a teleportation circle had transported me to the dungeon. Is it just me or does it look small on the surface? Uh, this shouldn’t be that hard. I get on the floor grabbing onto the rock underneath me and the ground under my hand breaks. My grip tightens and a pressure pulls my body back as another force wants to push me forward almost like a slingshot. The pressure increases and air is pushes behind me with sparks appearing near my hands and legs.

  “Release!”

  The pressure pulling me looses against the forward force and I crash through the air into the dungeon.

  40 minutes pass and I come out bleeding with sweat and scars on my palms. First of all, WHY THE FUCK WAS THE DUNGEON SO BIG FOR GOD’S SAKE!? I should’ve expect this typical anime trope, judging by Kael’s face. Launching myself for time efficiency was good, I literally blasted through 19 floors in that shot but I forgot the crucial factor of HOW TO STOP MYSELF. Crashing on that final door by using my bare hands in front of me because I couldn’t flip myself was the dumbest yet only thing I could do. And why did this dungeon have 60 floors.. I don’t think there will be another dungeon like that in the continent of Hydra’s in a long while. At least I got a big ass core from it.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  I snap and head back to Seranova in the market district. I saved the location of the place I normally get blood from and run in the direction as I look up the location. They’re a bit far away, so I’ll just teleport to an area nearby. With a snap I’m transported near a hospital and right next to it is a relatively modern looking building in white with glass windows. I rush in and head to the counter. The attendant there looks at me,

  “Excuse me, do you have any blood available?”

  “Yes sir”

  Oh thank god.

  “Oh ok, How much would 650 milliliter's cost?”

  “Mind if I ask what the purpose of the blood is for?”

  “It’s for a mana circuit”

  “I see, so I’m assuming you want at least grade 3 purity blood?”

  100% purity would screw the circle because the circle needs at least a little bit resistance. Other wise it would short circuit and break the circuit.

  “Yes, how much would that be?”

  “650ml of grade 3 purity blood would bring you up to 9,200 Phi”

  “Ah ok, I’ll have that”

  A bit expensive for me, but I can manage. I’ll have to do some extra jobs next time I come here. After CrimsonBloom dissipates, I sit in the A/C filled waiting room. The attendant rings the bell and I head over. I give them my Id card that I got registered with the help of Kael and the attendant’s eyes widen as puts the card in the machine.

  “Ok sir, so it seems you have a loyalty card tied here if I’m not mistaken?”

  “Oh yeah, Sorry I forgot I did. I’m pretty sure I had that setup a year before”

  “Oh ok no worries then, then with the discount, that rings you up to 7,820 Phi”

  Damn, that’s a good deal, good thing the system read that. My card is debited through my Id and I take the bag and leave. It’s warm out here, I want to go back in..

  I run to another alleyway and open a rift. Dispersing my mana, I finally cross the rift into our porch. Stopping the timer, It reads 51 minutes ,11 seconds. Not too bad; Could’ve been better if didn’t go through a big ass dungeon.

  “I need a break after that, and besides I’m hungry”

  I make my way to the kitchen and open the fridge to see what’s there for me munch on.

  “Chicken, cake, some coke, biscuits, wait why are biscuits in here”

  Grabbing a piece of cake, I place the biscuits in the pantry under the counter. As I snack on the piece of cake, I check my phone to see if there’s anything new. Scrolling through instagram and youtube, there’s nothing interesting to watch. New messages appear and I check my messages. It’s Kida.

  I nearly choke on that piece of cake and drink some water to push it down.

  “Let us see what’s up”

  Heh good whatsapp pun. She’s coming over at 11.00am. It’s 9:56am, so I can chill for a bit and start on the circle. I take a bite as I reply to her and accidentally bite my fingers.

  “Shit”

  Now that I think about it I should definitely take a wash. I’ll wrap my hands after that.

  I clean my hands and head over to my bedroom as I change into a towel and enter the washroom.

  After 10 or 20 minutes I comes out smelling like strawberry’s. Changing into more comfortable clothing, I dry my hair. I sometimes wonder If I should trim my hair down, but Nah; I convince myself knowing full well I'm keeping this hair for style. I’m definitely taking a nap after this. I need at least 15 minutes of rest after that whole ordeal. I walk myself to my room and hit the bed.

  12 minutes pass and I wake up groggy as hell and a slight headache. I check the time as I use a spell of regeneration tuned to heal minor injuries, and notice that,

  “I think I should start now, otherwise I won’t be able to make my plans for when Kida comes over”

  I seriously want to sleep a bit more, but that'll throw all my plans off schedule. Pushing myself upright, forcefully enough, I go back to my brush tongue and get that post-sleep smell off my mouth.

  I walk through our house and head to the garden with the bag of blood, the mana core and the flower I found. First I’ll crush down the mana core into smaller pieces with the assistance of Gravity magic and mix the small pieces in with the flower I found containing the largest mana pool I’ve seen in my life. This mixture will be the power source, I would attempt at making it more solid but keeping it in liquid form will help cover a larger area of the circle making sure power is properly distributed. I’ll draw the circle with the Carcadian blood in the part of our garden with trimmed grass. I create the mixture and draw the circle I designed in detail and get ready to initiate the circle. I wonder, will this work? I’ve tried at least 21 times now and never once did it work. Every time something just breaks, it’s either the circle overlaps a part it isn’t supposed to short-circuiting everything, the blood is the wrong thickness or purity overloading or underwhelming the circle, something just happens. It’s highly unlikely this time will be different. At least I can go out with Kida knowing I tried in the very least.

  I take a deep breath and throw the mixture onto circle. The mixture splashes and on the last drop, the circle activates releasing an immense shockwave that forces me to stand my ground. Wind vortex’s around the circle and the winds it’s producing pushes me back. The sky darkens as rain clouds gather over me. Thunder spreads and rain falls. If what my testing concluded correctly a rift like portal like object should form above the circle which will connect this point in our universe to the one my parents came from and went to. Wind pushes against me harder and harder,

  “This should be fun to see”

  Sparks crackle around the circle and lightning strikes over it. Rocks and parts of the grounds vibrate as they slowly lift up. The pressure increases and sends a another shock-wave rippling off. My eye’s feel like their going to explode and my legs might give out. I struggle to keep my ground so I cast gravity magic in the slightest and keep steady. The circle glows an intense white that switches to a light blue and a wave of sparks ripple out passing me by and over the grass and pavement nearby. The swirling stops dispersing the air out and the pressure dissipates as I nearly fall before regaining my balance. What’s happening now..

  The glow disappears and the sky returns to normal. I’m guessing that didn’t work. Yeah expected as much. Looking at my phone the time is 10:50am. Seems like the high density mana that was circulating around the circle had an effect on time. Damn it I’m not going to have enough time to get ready. My senses trip and I hear someone approaching near the gate right next to the garden. Shit did Gran sense something was wrong and come? I hurriedly look and it’s.. Kida? Oh fuck she’s early. Kida wearing a white dress and a straw hat looks and smiles at me and I can’t help but stare as blood rushes into my face. I really have to say, Damn I’m lucky.

  “Ryo! Sorry I’m a bit early! Looks like someone isn’t ready”

  I’m left speechless at her appearance and almost forgot to talk for a second.

  “.. Y- Yeah, Sorry I got a bit busy here”

  I’m about to have the time of my life here Boyy. As I walk over the circle to get to the gate, my body freezes over and I can’t move.

  “Wait what.”

  The circle that I drew suddenly moves to center me and expands to be as long as my height. I can’t move.. What the hell is going on? Time couldn’t have frozen, Kida’s still moving and I can hear her calling out.

  “Ryo? You ok over there?”

  Shit there’s something wrong. I can’t move nor talk, I’m at a standstill.

  “Ryo? Your not moving, are you ok?”

  Her concern grows,

  “Ok I’m coming in”

  Shit No No No, Don’t do that. Wait, Stop!

  I can’t even act and she comes in and oversteps the edge of the circle as it expands to cover both of us. Rain clouds converge above us with rain pouring down again. The circle re-center's and a spot of light appears in the clouds right above us. Everything starts shaking vigorously and a wind starts swirling around us leading to the spot of clear sky above us. The shaking increase and a pressure comes from atop. A beam of light crashes down from the sky above us and pain swells every inch of my body as the beam crashes above the circle we’re in. The pain intensifies and I feel like my body is going to crumble into pieces. My body is about to tip over from the pain overloading my sense of direction but it’s still frozen in place. Using the silent activation of CrimsonBloom, I cry the pain off and I’m able to move with the endurance and strength buff it gives me. All of my senses return even though moving is like trying to push a 6 ton boulder, and I can hear Kida screaming through her gritted teeth. I force myself over to her and push her underneath me with my back curving in an arc. A sound of a bone cracking resonates from my back but at least I manage to take the pain off of Kida even in the slightest amount.

  “A-Are You O-k?”

  Kida cover’s her mouth as tears run down ramped.

  “Ryo, what’s going on?”

  Damn it why is she looking at me like that. God damn it.

  “I-I’ll explain to you i-in a bit”

  I look up while maintaining a cover over Kida and I something coming down. Is that a circle? A red glowing circle speeds down and I can manage a few details. That looks like the teleportation but with a few details different. As the circle get’s closer I can make the details somewhat clearly.. Flashbacks of my research book appear and I instantly recognize it. The purpose of that circle is to Kill! FUCK. That’s the wrong circle! Oh I definitely messed up. That’s not supposed to happen! Something wrong must have happened when I was drawing the circle. Now it’s too late, we wont be able to make it out of the circle’s expanded border’s it’s just too far away. I should’ve known the risks from the start. I look back at Kida who’s shivering and in tears realizing the mess I’ve made.

  “Kida, I’m sorry this happened. You might not understand what’s going on right now, but I’ll tell you eventually”

  No time for explaining, time for a backup plan. I feel Kida’s face and pass a small portion of CrimsonBloom preactivated with enough defense to keep her soul intact and brace myself. I cover over her and the circle crashes down burning and atomizing both of our body’s.