The trial...

Planetary colony: Exo-04

Base: 17-c

No matter which direction they looked, a white blanket of snow covered had it. Apart from the large dunes of fresh snow from place to place, the geography of the endlessly stretched white plane did not change much.

"How much longer?" The man was covered in a thin layer of white clothing from top to bottom. Although it looked thin, he didn't feel cold at all. But after the vehicle had broken down, they were walking for quite a long down, so it exhausted him.

"Approximately 2.7 km northwest." said the only woman in the group of five. Unlike the first man, the other four were armed with a firearm, while a small shield and sword were hanging from their buckler.

"Oh, my God! I will die of exhaustion." The white man couldn't stop complaining. Others could see the deep frown behind the thin, transparent helmet protection, but there was nothing they could do about it.

"Why the hell did the concentration level of Tradecon begin to fluctuate?" The continuous stream of data passed through the helmet screen as the white mana looked in every direction to find a reason for the unexpected event.

"Tradecon fluctuation? Are you talking about mana?" the woman clutched her firearm closer as she looked around.

"What else could it be? Of course…" The white man couldn't finish his sentence and *Boom*

The thunderous sound rocked the white land beneath his leg. The only one to fall was the white man, as the other four were quick to crouch down.

*Boom* Boom*

"What was that?" The man in white continued to curse in a loud voice. He landed on the planet just 20 hours ago, and he didn't even reach his designated base, yet…

"What the hell is happening?" He cried on the top of his voice. Even though his head was covered with a helmet, his voice was still loud. But to his surprise, the four soldiers who came to protect him pointed the gun at him and ordered, "Stay silent. It is just a volcano."

"Volcano?!" the man in white mumbled the words in shock before a smile spread across his face. "Is it close?" He asked with excitement.

The woman shook her head and added, "It isn't close, but if you climb that snow dune you might see it."

This wasn't the first time they were escorting a new scientist, so they knew very well about the mindset of them.

Like a 'newborn calves are not afraid of tigers' the man in white ran towards the snow dune in excitement. Although the other four don't understand what is so exciting about a volcano, they followed. The only good thing was that it was toward base 17-c.

It took a while before the white man reached the top and stopped. "Woooow…" He couldn't say anything else when he looked at the horizon.

A giant mountain, could be seen at the distance, was spitting out all that was inside.

"Who would have thought there would be volcanoes that could spit out snow and ice instead of magma." Excitement filled his face as he looked at the enormous mouth of the mountain, which was continuously spitting snow clouds. But it didn't last long.

"What the hell are you doing?" He yelled in anger as he fell on the snow. However, before he could ask why he was pulled down, he found that he was being targeted by four guns.

"If you don't want to die, stay silent," said the woman in a hushed tone.

"Why? Are you trying to kidnap me?" He was angry because he was being threatened with guns, but looking at the serious faces of the soldiers, he couldn't say it out loud. And when he followed their line of sight, he understood what was happening.

Base no. 17-C was far away from the snow dune, however, without obstacle, they could see it from the top of the dune. It was down the plane, but there was smoke coming out of the buildings of the base. And even from the distance, he could see those giant beasts.

He was not sure, however, that he felt that the beasts were almost four meters tall. And they were running around, destroying giant fences like nothing.

As he concentrated, the zoom-in function of his helmet activated, and the breath was about to come out got stuck in his windpipe. For a moment, he felt that that blue-skinned giant was looking straight into his eyes.

It had no hair on its head, small sharp blue scales covered its heads and faces. A pair of dark brown horns had grown from the part below its ears, and one had grown from the chin.

If the face wasn't astounding enough, the well-toned, blue-skinned, four-metre-high body sent shivers down the spine. Apart from the neck and the groin, which had been covered with the fur of an unknown beast, there was nothing on its body.

Sharp scales also covered a few critical parts of the body, such as the shoulders and chest, but what it carried on its shoulders was more surprising.

'Is that a stone pillar?' The man in white wasn't sure whether the long chunk of stone with intricate symbols was a part of an unknown building or not, but the blood on the end of it proved its effectiveness as a weapon.

If it wasn't enough, there were a lot of human-sized beasts that used some blunt weapon to beat humans, as the whole base went into flames with an enormous explosion.

"Quick, run." The voice of the woman didn't quiver, but he could see the panic on her face. Even if they didn't tell him he knew things don't look very good. Without any word, he followed them.

Yet before they could come down, they had already been surrounded in every direction.

"AWoooooo"

The howl from the back attracted his attention. He turned around to find that a two-meter grey wolf was standing on the top of the dune with blood dripping from its jaw.

**********

"Is it complete?" Aiden looked down to find the glowing circle around the giant Obelisk.

"I would never have thought your desolate plane would have access to such a high-level magic circle."

Aiden looked at Mraz in confusion and said, "Is it that high level?"

"That absorption magic circle is shit, but the essence extraction circle is better than the low-level magic circle." Mraz shook his head and said, "It would have been surprising enough to find a low level in that desolate plane, but that circle... where do you find it?"

"Jewel had shown it to me. He said he got it from the North Continent. "Aiden wasn't sure why Mraz was curious about it.

"Those people must have some methods to connect to the other plane." Mraz's words made Aiden curious, but he was more interested in the magic circle under his feet.

"So now that I have a magic circle, I am the first circle..." Aiden wasn't sure if he should use the term 'beast' or 'magic.' However, he was greeted with a Mraz frown before he could decide.

"You're nothing." Mraz spitted, "I just merged 'The essence extraction circle' and 'Spirit absorption circle' to create this 'Essence absorption circle'."

"Even if it is barely a middle-grade magic circle, do you think you can understand it just by looking at it? Are you a genius offspring of those pointy-eared bastards?"

"Just tell me what I have to do?" He was exhausted after spending all the mana while condensing the magic circle. He didn't have the energy to fight with Mraz.

"To be a first circle beast, you need to comprehend the magic circle, otherwise it will be just a useless decoration."

'Then what I've been doing so far?' Aiden didn't have the energy to ask, but Mraz said with a smile, "But you're lucky that you have me. I tweaked the mana circle so that even if you can't use it at will, the essence will be extracted on its own as long as the beast is killed by you. "

"All you have to do is to absorb it. In the meantime, comprehend the magic circle, otherwise, you will be stuck with the first circle for all your life."

'Comprehending magic circle?' Aiden did not understand how to do it, but he was more curious about one other thing, "Can I absorb more essence? Doesn't that mean I can use the power of many beasts?"

Aiden was happy with that thought, but Mraz looked at him as if he was an idiot. He asked, "Is the tiger going to become a sheep after absorbing the essence of the sheep?"

Aiden wanted to say yes, but he knew that it didn't make his sense. He wanted to ask, however, chose not to. He had already exhausted his mana, and his brain was running on fumes.

For the moment, he stopped thinking about it, and as he concentrated the surrounding changed. In the next moment, he was standing in the 3X3 meters of virtual space with the large screen in front of him.

"Good choice." Mraz reappeared on his shoulder and said, "It is better to rest. Your body is still too fragile. It's not used to my essence yet."

'That's right! Status.' Aiden realized that he had never thought about it after he had absorbed the essence of Mraz. He was about to ask the system to show his status, but the data on the large transparent screen put a frown on his face.

[Trial of First officer Aiden: 2:03:47/24:00:00]

[Failed contact: Project head (2 times): 22 hours ago.]

[Failed contact: General Lucas (27 times): 23 hours ago.]

He clicked on the notification with a frown on his face. The detail stated that he had to appear in the meeting room within 24 hours. Otherwise, he would be judged guilty of the murder of Alex.

[Trial of First officer Aiden: 2:01:11/24:00:00]

Looking at the constantly decreasing time, he understood that he had just two hours left. Without hesitation, he tried to get in touch with Lucas, but the connection did not go through.

'Looks like Gen. Lucas has already done his work.' Aiden found that all 27 attempts to contact him were between thirty minutes, but there were no records of contact after the timer had started. 'So they don't want me to contact him?'

"Looks like they're more narrow-minded than I thought they were." A smile appeared on his face as he asked, "Mraz, can you freeze something inside my body?"