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Chapter 9: The First Awakening (3)

“Urgh.”

The solution tasted worse than Henry had expected. It burned like strong alcohol with each sip, but he did not stop drinking. Finally, he finished the solution, down to the last drop.

“Burp.”

The solution started to heat up in his throat before spreading out across his entire body, including his stomach.

Sizzle.

His entire body was burning hot, and he started to sweat profusely. Soon, he was completely drenched. He opened the window to cool himself off, which sent a cold wind rushing through the room. Water vapor emanated from Henry’s body.

“Whoa…”

Henry sat down calmly and crossed his legs. At that exact moment…

‘Kurgh!’

Miracle Blue had finally been fully absorbed, and was now beginning to wreak havoc on his entire body. It spread throughout his system relentlessly, with the explosive power of a dragon!

Henry concentrated his mind, fighting to keep the magic flowing through his body under control. He barely managed to contain the painful moans that crept through his throat.

‘That’s right,?this?is the kind of power I wanted.’

This level of pain was still nothing compared to when he had achieved the 8th Circle. However, he had grown so used to his new body and its lack of magic power that he was unable to hide his delight when he felt the overwhelming amount of mana flowing through him.

‘Yes, run loose, more!’

Henry entered a trance state as he concentrated harder. The undiluted solution was still spreading rapidly inside his new body, indulging in the purity of his knightly bloodline. Henry welcomed the rampant power as though it was a VIP, and slowly guided it through every nook and cranny of his body. Still, he remained cautious and firm, reminding it that he was the owner of this body.

This tug-of-war between Henry and the Miracle Blue went on for quite some time. Originally, he had only been supposed to drink less than a cup of the solution, so the struggle did not come as a surprise.

A long, long time passed. Henry’s body started to cool down little by little.

But, at that moment…

‘Mm?’

Henry was fully concentrated on his heart, which controlled his magic. When he was almost done digesting the solution, he felt an abnormality in his heart that he had never experienced before while consuming magic.

‘Perhaps, a Circle is forming?’

The feeling of a Circle forming was distinct and recognizable. Henry felt a fourth blue ring form over the other three. It was definitely the fourth stage—the 4th Circle.

‘Nonsense! How did this happen?’

The birth of a Circle meant the realization of a mage. When a mage created a Circle, it opened the door to the next realm through the magic power produced by the mage’s own awakening. This was the first time that a Circle had been created spontaneously and unintendedly like this. The surprises did not stop there, either.

‘N-no way,?two doors are going to open?’

Immediately after the 4th Circle was completed, another Circle began to form.

‘Huh, I guess even something like this is possible!’

Even the Magical Spire recognized a person with 4 Circles as a complete mage. In other words, having 4 Circles meant that one was recognized as a great power of the empire; equivalent to that of a baron. Now, the Miracle Blue was well on its way to creating a 5th Circle.

The effect was beyond Henry’s expectations.

He had been anticipating strong results, given that he had consumed an undiluted Miracle Blue solution, but he would have never dreamed that it would open two doors at once. If this had occurred in his previous life, it would be worthy of announcing to the entire Magical Spire, and then some. There was not a single mage in the history of the Magical Spire who had successfully consumed an entire undiluted Miracle Blue.

Henry was truly disappointed that he could not share this great discovery with anyone. At that moment, the 5th Circle was completed.

“Am I a mage already…?”

The domain of the 5th Circle. The domain that most people could never achieve, even if they worked hard for their entire life. In the Magical Spire, wizards who reached the 5th Circle were granted the title of ‘mage’.

Mages possessed the power of a hundred wizards, and had the same level of authority as a sword master. Henry waited in anticipation for any additional rings, but it seemed like the Miracle Blue had run its course.

‘Well, anything beyond this would require an absurd amount of mana anyway.’

Magical enlightenment was required to increase the number of Circles, but one also needed to possess a large amount of underlying magical power to pull it off. Henry could not help but feel a little disappointed. Still, he had been able to break through the limitations of the 3rd Circle and become a mage, so he felt a sense of accomplishment as well.

After completely digesting what was left of the Miracle Blue, Henry opened his eyes and uncrossed his legs. He stood up and closed the window to warm up his body, which had now fully cooled.

“Urgh, what’s that smell?”

As he closed the window, a rancid stench hit Henry’s nose, causing him to frown deeply.

“Sniff, sniff, is it… me?”

The source of the stench was none other than himself. At first, Henry thought that it was because of his sweat. He sniffed around a bit more.

“No way?”

In that instant, Henry remembered something. He quickly took off his shirt and checked the condition of the linen. There were yellow stains all over it — definitely not caused by sweat alone.

“Light.”

Henry hurriedly lit up the room. Next, he took off the rest of his clothes and checked them, discovering the same pattern of yellow stains everywhere. Even though the clothes had definitely been washed with cleaning magic, all of them were stained yellow, as though they had not been washed in years.

Now naked, Henry rushed to the mirror and examined himself.

‘I’ve awakened!’

In the reflection, Henry saw that his body had completely changed. He had strong, defined muscles, a reinforced skeletal frame, and translucent skin. He had also gained height, and now stood taller than Kevin. Seeing his changed appearance, Henry was convinced that he had awakened.

‘Advancing two Circles was already great enough, but now this…’

Awakening.

This was a phenomenon that only occured for those who dealt with magic, in which the body itself evolves to expand its magical limits. The way this evolution manifested itself differed from person to person, but it was common to end up with a stronger body, including a reinforced skeletal frame and increased muscle mass.

“Not bad.”

In his previous life, Henry had experienced a total of two awakenings. Usually, an awakening was something that was difficult to experience even once in a lifetime, but Henry had gone through two awakenings to obtain a much stronger body than his peers. Therefore, the stench and yellow stains on his clothes were familiar to him.

The smell was produced by bodily waste excreted during the evolution process.

“Clean.”

The odor disappeared in an instant, and the yellow-stained clothes were washed clean. After that, Henry took out a new set of clothes from his wardrobe and exclaimed with admiration as he put them on.

“Heh heh heh, looks like I won’t struggle with physical training for a while.”

With that, Henry became the first member of the Morris family to become an awakened mage.

* * *

Henry had transformed from a boy to a young man overnight. This caused quite a scene at the Morris estate the following morning.

Both Caughall, who came into Henry’s room to announce his meal, and the Morris family, who met him in the dining hall, were shocked when they saw him.

“W-what happened?”

“I don’t know either. When I woke up, I was already like this.”

Henry feigned ignorance, and nobody had any reason to suspect or question him. Only Caughall, the quick-witted servant, seemed to have caught on.

‘Is it because of the ingredients that were prepared back then?’

It was a good guess. Later on, Caughall, who had always dreamed of making a name for himself in the world, would use all of his life’s savings to purchase those exact ingredients that were used to make Miracle Blue. Since he did not possess the knowledge of how to create it, however, he would go on to just eat each ingredient raw.

At the training grounds, Bern examined Henry’s body as well. After a moment, Bern just shrugged. “I have nothing to say, other than that I’m amazed.”

“Likewise.”

“Is it because you suddenly began working out after never trying before? No, even then, there’s no way you could grow so quickly…”

“Whatever it was, isn’t this a good thing? Thanks to this, my physical training has gotten a lot easier.”

“Urgh, looks like I need to increase the intensity of the workouts a little more, but I think you can focus on your footwork training now.”

“That’s great news.”

Henry’s awakening had brought him only good news. With Bern’s permission, Henry was now able to spend less time on physical training and more time on his footwork.

A few more days passed.

* * *

Henry climbed the mountain that stood near the back of the estate. The mountain was steep, and home to many wild animals, which caused the population in the region to be very sparse. Henry was only climbing the mountain to train. Upon reaching the top, he took a deep breath.

“The air here at the summit is amazing.”

The climb had been rough due to the steep incline, but after Henry’s awakening, a hike like this was hardly even tiring enough to be a part of his warm-up.

.

“Shall I start heading down?”

Henry lightly jumped towards a distant cliff that stretched out beyond the summit.

Whoosh.

It was a dizzying height. But Henry surrendered to the pull of gravity without hesitation.

“Feather Fall.”

He cast a spell to reduce his falling speed.

As soon as he used ‘Feather Fall’, Henry slowly descended, until softly landing on the ground like a feather. After landing, he extended his hand forward to cast another spell.

“Shockwave.”

‘Shockwave’ was a non-attribute shock spell. Soon, numerous spheres containing enormous shock energy floated around Henry. He sent the condensed air bubbles towards the summit he had just jumped from.

Crash! Bang! Crash!

Dozens of shockwaves smashed into the solid cliff, causing a massive explosion that sounded like an approaching storm.

The noise caused every wild beast in the area to scatter. But it was not just the wild beasts that were surprised by the explosion.

“W-what’s that sound?”

A herbalist who was in the mountains to scavenge herbs fell off his seat, startled by the sound of the collapsing cliff.

“I-is thunder coming?”

He thought that there must be a storm coming in, but when he looked up the sky was clear.

Crash!

Dozens of craters formed on the bombarded cliff. Cracks formed along the entire length of the cliff, and soon a massive landslide of rocks and boulders came crashing down.

“Frozen Field.”

Crunch!

The landslide did not last long, as Henry used his magic to freeze it. It was quite a spectacle. The pouring heaps of dirt and stone froze in an instant, creating a truly incredible view.

“This should be enough.”

The spell caused a cluster of massive icicles to form, reminiscent of a wave frozen in time. Henry then casted another Shockwave spell.

Bang!

One of the shockwaves smashed a giant icicle into hundreds of sharp fragments, which began to fall towards Henry. He danced between the shards of ice as they landed on the ground.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Henry gracefully moved in circles, weaving between the pieces of ice that were falling like rain. It was Circle Step, the footwork technique used by imperial swordsmen.

When the final shard fell, Henry let out a deep breath.

“This should be enough for me to challenge him, right?”

There were hundreds of ice shards embedded into the ground. Henry headed back towards the training grounds without a single scratch on him.