Mastering the first spell...

"What are you so worried about?" Aiden sat inside the giant circle drawn on the floor of the chamber of gravity. His clothes were wet with sweat, and he was gasping for air.

Mraz continued to whisper in his mind, "That place won't be so bad. It's just a few ice dwarves. If you're careful, you won't have any problems with them. They're very weak, and it might help you comprehend the first circle if you fight them."

'Do you think I'm worried about going to a planet like that?' Aiden ignored his constant pestering as he didn't have the energy. But what worried him most was that he couldn't get in touch with his family and Lucas again. It was the same for Owen, too.

'They know that I'm using Owen to get in touch with Lucas.' When he thought about it, he thought it was logical. After all, that bald man told him that Lucas had been waiting for him.

'How low can they go down for the data?' In the beginning, he thought he had the advantage as he had held all the data. Yet with every passing moment, things are getting worse.

'Those bastards!' He cursed in his heart. Even if he wanted to do something against them, he was powerless.

Right now, all he could do was to choose to go to prison after handing over the data or go to the exoplanet to run from the beast and monster with the tail between the legs.

The fatigue of intensive training began to fade as he could move his limbs again. After confirming that he had half an hour left before the end of the training season, he stood up and concentrated the mana on his left hand.

The point blue mana dot appeared on his hand and started to move on his palm. According to Mraz, that character that was forming on his hand represented the term called 'Soul Domination' in some kind of primal language.

However, the result of today's try wasn't much different from yesterday's. The incomplete, intricate design started to glow and…

"How much of an idiot could you be?" The voice inside Aiden's mind sounded like Aiden's constant failure had frustrated him. Aiden looked with utter disbelief that all the mana he had gathered on his palm had vanished with no explosion.

"That is a single character mana circle. Even a newborn child could do better than you." Finding that Aiden was no longer refuting his words, he changed his words, "Do you really want to learn it? Soul domination?"

As soon as Aiden nodded, he could hear Mraz sighed inside his head. "Mana circles are called mana circles because there are circles to contain the mana."

Aiden was expecting more. However, Mraz said nothing more.

'Isn't this a magic circle?'

Rather than helping him, Mraz's words confused him more. "This one doesn't have a mana-containing circle. How could it be one? Didn't I tell you that it wasn't even a low-level mana circle?"

'I have seen it at work.' Aiden voiced his confusion, but there was no answer. For a moment he felt that he was more irritated by Mraz's silence than by the circle itself.

"What's wrong with you? Can't you just help me with the mana circle?" Rather than saying inside his head, he cried out loud.

Yet the voice inside his head was equally angry. "I've helped you enough. If you want me to help you, study the first circle. Using a soul-related mana circle will also affect your soul. It's better not to study them."

'Affects my soul, huh?' Aiden frowned in his heart. He wasn't sure whether or not Mraz was telling the truth, but he couldn't deny the use of this thing. Of all the things he had learned from Jewel, he had felt that it was the most effective one. 'Even if it is the only thing I will learn, I will do it.'

After making his mind he looked at his hand again and thought, 'It's a magic circle without a circle, but it worked for them. Does that have to do with the things they used?'

Aiden wasn't sure, but he felt it might be the case. 'They used mana from mana stone and blood. And that was enough…'

Aiden frowned as he thought about it, 'it couldn't be that it only works for the blood mana stones…' Aiden could neither deny the fact nor could accept it.

'But if it's because of the blood...' Aiden didn't waste a moment and bit his finger and drew a circle of blood on his palm. He concentrated on the blue mana dot inside his palm. It moved to create an intricate character on it, but when it was only half complete, it began to shine again.

'What?' Looking at the familiar result, Aiden was a little flustered, yet he didn't dare to stop. And it clicked.

As soon as the half-finished character began to glow, it drew mana from his body, like it happened last time. But the result was different.

The circle of blood, around the character, absorbed the drawn mana and created a red hue around the pale blue character.

When Aiden realized that the radiance wasn't increasing any more, he concentrated and circulated the ice mana to complete the character.

'And, it was a success.' Looking at the complete character on his hand, a smile appeared on his face, and a wave of exhaustion struck him.

He was on his knees before he realized it. It took a moment before he could reorganize his thoughts, and when he did, he was astonished.

'Why did it change colour?' Aiden did not understand what triggered the change, but now the mana circle in his hand had turned purple. 'But it is so beautiful…' as soon as he concentrated on the mana circle, he felt it drew him to it…

"What the hell are you doing?" the scream inside his head woke him up from the trance, as the piercing pain at the back of his head almost forced him to faint. To support himself, he needed four limbs.

"What the hell do you want? To put a spell of soul domination on yourself?"

'Is that possible, too? ' Aiden did not understand what Mraz was saying was the truth, or he was rambling in anger. However, he was too weak to care about it. His head was dizzy, and the liquid was coming out of his nose, but it was the character that was imprinted on the con-metal floor that worried him most.

"It isn't recovering." In the moment of weakness, Aiden couldn't control himself, and his palm imprinted the soul dominance circle on the floor.

But the best characteristics of Con-metal is that it can recover in a matter of seconds, but it wasn't recovering even after two minutes had passed.

"What the hell are you doing? Quickly circulate mana through your body?" Mraz shouted, finding that Aiden was not paying attention to him.

"What? Why?" Aiden wasn't sure what Mraz was so angry about, but he did what he had been told. It surprised him when he did it.

"Why did the mana become so sluggish?" Only then did Aiden realize that something was wrong with his body. The ice mana that was coursing through his body had slowed down considerably, and when he appeared in his mana space, he understood the reason.

"See that is what happens when you cultivate a soul technique."

The obelisk was there, but instead of giving the blue hue, the aura around the obelisk now has a faint purple hue around it.

"What is that?"

"That is…" Mraz who appeared in front of him stopped and said, "that is the remnant of the corrupt mana. Don't you dare to use it in the future again, okay?"

"What is corrupt mana?"

"Huh?" Mraz sighed, "when you need to use a soul dominance spell, you tore off a part of your soul to dominate the soul of others."

"When that mana mixed with the part of your soul failed to escape your body, it turned into corrupt mana. And the same thing will happen when you cannot dominate the souls of others."

'So there are some side-effects, but...' Aiden looked at Mraz and asked, "So long as I manage to dominate the souls of others, there will be no side-effects, right?"

Mraz looked at him as he was angry, but said, "Do not waste any more time, circulate the mana and get rid of it as soon as possible."

'So I am right.' Aiden didn't talk about any more but continued to circulate the ice mana through his body.

By the time Aiden had completed the mana circulation and suppressed the mana, one hour had been eclipsed. He quickly left the mana space, not realizing that a tiny hairline crack that appeared on the obelisk.

After checking the time, he quickly left the gravity chamber and entered the healing pod in his room without even changing clothes.

There was a list of missed contacts on the large screen in his virtual 3X3 room.

'Could it be from the bald man?' Aiden was confused. He hesitated for a moment, but he tried to get in touch with the contact address. To his surprise, he was rejected. But before he could realize who it could be, the large screen lit up again.

It was a different address. Although Aiden didn't know who it was, he decided to accept the contact and entered the domain.

And this time it was Arya who was standing in front of him.