《Ethereal Bodies》


 Ch.1

    Darkness and silence surrounded Jacob as he woke up. Something was different from before. Something was off.


    Where am I? How¡¯d I get here? What the hell is wrong with my body?


    Confusion struck quickly. He couldn¡¯t remember what happened before he woke up. All he knew was that something bad had happened to him. But what could have put him in this situation? He couldn¡¯t feel his arms or legs. He couldn¡¯t even feel his head. His body just felt like one large blob. Or perhaps a cloud? Itdidfeel like he was floating. A discomforting feeling, that¡¯s what it was.


    ¡°¡è¡è¡è¡è¡±


    A sound could be heard. At least he assumed it was a sound. Jacob wasn¡¯t the sort of person to doubt his senses, but when those very same senses were telling him that he was currently lacking most of his body parts and, well,ears, he felt like he had no choice but to be wary of their judgment.


    Despite that, he heard the same noise once again.


    ¡°¡­.¡è¡è¡è¡­..¡è¡è¡è¡è¡è¡è¡è¡±


    It was faint, but it did sound like talking. He couldn¡¯t understand a word of it, however. The talking continued and slowly grew louder in volume and clarity. At the same time, the darkness surrounding him gradually began to disappear and was replaced by the sight of a large room. The floor was made up out of dark wooden boards and shelves filled to the brim with all kinds of books lined the walls. At the far end of the room stood a desk with large piles of books and paper spread all over it. Everywhere he looked in the room he could see small particles that floated about with a faint blue glow, yet that wasn¡¯t the most surprising factor about this place. Jacob was currently fascinated by the floor in the center of the room. Or rather, what was on the floor.


    Covering an area of at least a dozen or so meters was an incredibly large number of circles nested inside each other, each circle smaller than the one before. Each circle¡¯s border was covered with dozens upon dozens of odd-looking glyphs and runes that glowed with a faint pulse. All in all, there were at least a few hundred circles drawn on the floor. Maybe even over a thousand. For some reason, this huge amalgamation of circles had a weird kind of allure to him. It was almost beautiful to look at. Like a piece of art. And he was at its center.


    The talking continued and he shifted his attention from the circles on the floor to the source of the sound. A man seemingly in his fifties stood at the edge of the circles that surrounded Jacob and spoke in some unrecognizable language. He wore neat, black, suit-like clothes and had slicked-back black hair that had started greying at the temples. His beard was short and finely trimmed, with almost as many grey hairs in it as black ones. Jacob couldn¡¯t describe it as being nothing else but majestic.


    The man was observing Jacob intensely as he waved his right hand in front of his face. Before his hand, several violet-glowing circles similar to those that surrounded Jacob appeared and several of the circles on the floor started glowing accordingly. A very large amount of those particles he had seen floating about in the room suddenly erupted from all of the glowing circles and surged towards him,enteringhim, flowing through him and making him feel incredibly dizzy. After a few seconds the particles stopped flowing towards him, the circles¡¯ glow died down and the dizziness disappeared.


    ¡°¡ªall this time. I have succeeded. NowHEEDmy word!¡±


    Wait, what did he just say?


    Earlier he hadn¡¯t understood a word of what the man had said, but after that light show, he could now understand what the man said clear as day.


    ¡°KNEEL.¡± The man commanded.


    Jacob didn¡¯t move. Who was this man? Did he have something to do with what had happened with his body? Who did he think he was to order him around like that in a situation like this? He tried voicing these questions out loud but to no avail. Without any vocal cords to produce the sound, there wasn¡¯t much he could do.


    ¡°Hmph. Not entirely compliant.¡± The man stroked his beard. ¡°Very well. It was expected, after all.¡± He waved his right hand in front of him once again. This time, the violet-glowing circular pattern that appeared before his hand was several times more complex than previously and respectively, many more of the circles that carpeted the floor started glowing. A mind-boggling amount of the same particles from earlier surged outwards from the glowing circles, quickly overflowing the area around Jacob like a thick fog that obstructed his sight. The particles then moved towards him, once again entering into him, but this time they brought pain. And that pain brought memories.


    <hr>


    Jacob Mitchells was his name. Just your average-26-year-old-joe. At least if you asked him. If you were to ask those that knew him they might not agree entirely on the ¡®average¡¯ part. Some of them might even go as far as to call him weird. But that was just a small minority. The majority would settle with just calling him a tad bit eccentric. They were nice like that.


    When he had just woken up he couldn¡¯t remember what had happened right before he lost unconsciousness, but now he remembered it clearly. He¡¯d been out at night in a bar with some of his pals and had had entirely too much to drink. Ordinarily, he wasn¡¯t one to drink much, but tonight had been an exception as they were celebrating one of his friends scoring the job of his dreams. Jacob had done the mistake of going to the toilet by himself and, appropriate to much he had drunk that night, he fell asleep right after he was finished with executing nature¡¯s call.


    He had woken up again to the smell of something burning and the sound of things falling down. He had barely managed to get himself standing and out of the toilet when the sound of something breaking was followed by a railing landing on him and pushing him down on the ground. Everything around him had been on fire and all he¡¯d been able to do was lie there and scream in agony as the fire and blood loss finished him off.


    That¡¯s right. He had died. And very painfully at that. And the pain of dying reminded him a lot of the pain he was feeling right now, as these unknown particles surged into his weird body and lit the entirety of his being on fire.


    ¡°I NAME THEE, IBRAS!!¡± A voice sounded out, drowning out and extinguishing the pain entirely.


    ¡°Now. Heed my word my Ibras.¡± The thick fog that had covered the space around Jacob had disappeared and he could now see the black-clad man standing outside the circle with both of his hands behind his back and a cold look in his eyes.


    ¡°Kneel.¡± The single word felt so powerful to Jacob that, for just a moment, he couldn¡¯t even formulate a thought. When he regained his semblance, he noticed that he was kneeling. Whereas before this body of his had just been in the shape of a floating cloud, it was now shaped more like a person. Looking down at his arms, he saw that it consisted entirely of the same particles that were scattered throughout the room, albeit a bit more brilliant and dense, forming the vague shape of a hand.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Have I unconsciously shaped my body like this because it¡¯s what I am used to? Or is this somethinghedid?


    He shifted his gaze from his incorporeal arm towards the man standing outside the circles. ¡°Good. Let me introduce myself. I am Salamar Virrona, your new master. I have expended a stupendous amount of resources in my experiments to summon you here and I expect you to be grateful. I have heard that the original ritual I based this summoning on had a high chance of summoning individuals that were close to death. It is very likely that I just gave you a new lease on life.¡± He was now sporting a cold smile on his face. ¡°I have a feeling that this will be a highly auspicious partnership.¡±


    What the hell has he done to me?! I don¡¯t care if he saved my life or whatever, I¡¯m not going to be someone¡¯s slave!


    ¡°You may rise.¡± He said and gestured with his hands.


    The moment he did, Jacob, or Ibras as he now felt the urge to call himself for some reason, felt his body stand up by itself before he regained control of his ethereal body.


    ¡°As I have understood it, summoned individuals such as you should have no prior experience with magic, no?¡±


    Depends on how you define magic, grandpa. I¡¯m a devil at card tricks. And if you hand me a coin, I¡¯ll make it disappear and reappear where the sun doesn¡¯t shine. Although I guess that was a rhetorical question. I mean, he must be aware that I can¡¯t speak, right?


    ¡°No need to answer. I am aware that, up to this point, you would have been used to a physical body. Speech in that form would, at the very least, require you to have a modicum of experience in using wind magic.¡± The man observed him quietly for a second. ¡°Well, no matter. That will come in the future. Your communication capabilities aren¡¯t a priority. For now, all you have to do is serve. Your inexperience with magic will not be a problem either. If my hypothesis is correct, in that form, you should be able to see the very essence of mana and controlling your own mana to conjure a circuit will be as natural to you now, as breathing was to you before.¡± He held out his palm and a single violet ring appeared above it; its borders covered with even more of those incomprehensible characters. ¡°This is a circlet. In order for all magic to be cast, at least one circlet has to be conjured and infused with mana.¡±


    Hey, grandpa. You said it yourself, I basically died just a few moments ago. Most people would be freaking out right about now! It¡¯s a miracle that I¡¯m even this calm. You really think this is the right time for a lecture?!


    Small, violet particles, presumably the mana that was mentioned, started flowing from Salamar¡¯s palm towards the circlet and a small flame suddenly appeared above it, floating in mid-air. ¡°Only the most basic of magic can be cast with a single circlet. In order to produce more impressive effects, one needs to use a circuit; the combination of several circlets.¡± Two more rings appeared nested inside the first ring and the flame suddenly doubled in size and intensity. ¡°Each circlet has its own effect. The greatest of mages have memorized tens of thousands of circlets, the effects of those circlets and how to best combine them into different circuits. The only thing limiting a mage¡¯s power is their knowledge of circuits and the amount of mana they have access to.¡± The circuits above his hand disappeared, and with it, the flame died out. ¡°With enough training, you will excel in both to magnitudes never seen before.¡±


    That sounds cool and all, I¡¯ll admit, but I don¡¯t really feel like learning magic just to be the slave of some old fart. Don¡¯t think a magnificent beard is enough to forgive the fact that you¡¯re an asshole.


    The same circuit appeared above his hand once again, along with the flame floating in the air.¡° Now, I want to see what years of research and the depletion of most of my resources has granted me. I want to see what you are capable of. Normally it would take years for a novice just to learn how to control their mana and conjure up a single circlet, but as I mentioned, that should come entirely naturally to you. All you have to do is imagine the shape of this circuit and will your mana to form it.¡±


    Ibras, as he had now unconsciously decided to refer to himself as, tried moving closer to the man and felt surprised as he realized that he didn¡¯t actually need to move his legs in order to move forward. He just floated forward at a slow pace. When he drew near the border of the enormous circuit that encircled him he felt the presence of some kind of border that stopped him from moving any further. He observed the circuit above Salamar¡¯s palm and hesitated.


    While I am excited by the idea of performing real magic, should I really do it? It doesn¡¯t feel right, it¡¯s like I¡¯m letting him win.


    ¡°I would encourage you to do as I say. Otherwise, I can just order you do to it. That might not lead to as fruitful results, however. It would be best if you willingly tried it. If it is motivation you lack, I can once again perform the spell that brought you pain before.¡± Salamar said with a cold smile.


    Oh, right. Forgot about that. I guess he alreadyhaswon.


    Ibras put his hand forward and observed it. Apparently, it was made up of mana, then. So conjuring a circuit would just be shaping some of that mana as he wanted? He tried imagining some of the mana in his hand shaping a circuit identical to the one above Salamar¡¯s hand. He didn¡¯t even have to look at Salamar¡¯s circuit while envisioning it. For some reason, the image of that circuit was as clear as day in his mind¡¯s eye, almost as if he¡¯d always known it. An incredibly thin trickle of mana moved from his hand and started shaping itself above his palm.


    ¡°Excellent. I see that you are a sensible one, you know what is best for you. However, despite the nature of your current form, you still have to memorize the shape of the circuit in order to cast the magic correctly so I doubt that you will be able to succeed on your fir¡ª¡±


    A red flame appeared above the newly formed circuit and burned brightly as it hovered in the air.


    ¡°H-How is that possible?! You¡¯ve already memorized the circuit?! This might be an incredibly primitive circuit, but even a natural-born genius should not have it that easy their first time.¡± Salamar closed his hand, snuffing out his flame along with the circuit before proceeding to stroke his beard thoughtfully. ¡°Perhaps¡­ Could it be? The unique trait you gained as a summoned outlander¡­ It has something to do with memorization? If so, this will be incredibly useful. Seems like I have been incredibly fortunate with you, my dear servant.¡±


    Unique trait? What¡¯s that? Like a cheat? That¡¯s way too convenient! Not that I¡¯m gonna complain. I like convenience. That¡¯s the only reason I bought a car, to begin with, considering how high car prices have been lately.


    Salamar brought his hand forward and conjured up another circuit, this one several dozen times as complex as the previous one. ¡°I am unaware of the limit of your trait. This might be too complex for it but attempt to replicate this circuit.¡±


    It didn¡¯t require much effort for Ibras to produce an identical circuit above his hand. As he poured mana into it, the circuit shone brightly and immediately after Ibras could feel how, similar to when the first spell was cast upon him and he learned to understand Salamar¡¯s language, knowledge directly entered his mind.


    Woah¡­


    True Name: Ibras


    Race: ???? (Unique)


    Traits and Skills: Facsimile (Unique), Mana Molding


    Where is this information coming from? The world? God? Not even they know what the hell I am right now? That¡¯s reassuring... And what are these traits and skills? Mana Molding I can guess from the name, but Facsimile?


    Facsimile (Unique): Copy a circuit from either a magical beast¡¯s magical circuit or an observed circuit.


    Oh, I see. So itisa cheat. Nifty. Who would have thought you get so many perks for being a foreigner! But wait¡­Anyobserved circuit?


    Salamar brought forth his other hand and another circuit that was similar to Ibra¡¯s current one appeared. His mouth widened with a smile. ¡°Mana Molding was expected, that was the goal after all. But Facsimile? Never heard of it before, but it truly is magnificent. It even works on the magical circuits from magical beasts!? My Ibras, you truly are the gift that keeps giving.¡± Then his eyes opened wide with surprise and realization.


    Sorry grandpa, a bit too slow this time!


    Above Ibras¡¯ other hand a new circuit had already formed, and a large amount of mana was traveling from his hand into the circuit, lighting up several hundreds of different circlets compressed into the size of your ordinary tv-screen with a bright violet sheen. Salamar recognized the spell being cast immediately. After all, not much time had passed since he himself had used it.


    ¡°NO! IBRAS I COMMAND Y¡ª¡± He screamed as the room was lit up by a mass of glowing circlets and, just like last time, a massive amount of mana surged outwards. Yet, unlike last time where the mana gathered and moved towards a single target, this time it split into two different streams moving towards two different targets.


    Ibras, previously known as Jacob Mitchells, screamed inside his mind as the mana surged into him and burned his entire being and he felt a tinge of regret at what he had done. But not enough to outweigh the satisfaction he felt as he remembered the panic on his ¡°master¡¯s¡± face as he desperately tried conjuring up new circuits when the mana flowed towards him. The last thing Ibras remembered before the world went black from the pain was the faint sound of screaming in the distance.

 Ch. 2

    When he woke up, everything was dark once again. It took him a while to get his bearings, but once he did, light slowly started returning to his world. He was still in the same room as before. The circlets that covered the floor had stopped glowing entirely.


    Jacob, or rather ¡ª Ibras, looked around. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that his true name was listed as Ibras, but he didn''t feel comfortable with referring himself as Jacob anymore.


    Anyways, no matter what he preferred to refer to himself as now, he no longer felt like there was an overbearing presence looming over him like he had felt when he first woke up here.


    He looked at a spot just outside the circlets on the floor, the spot where Salamar had stood before. There lay a body, its clothes charred and its visible skin a weird mix between a bloated red and burned black color.


    Ugh. That''s disgusting. Did I do really do that?


    Ibras floated over towards the ravaged corpse of his ''master''. Unlike before, there was no invisible barrier that stopped him from exiting the boundary of the circuit that covered the floorboards. He stopped beside the body and observed it with a mix of disgust and satisfaction.


    Well, survival of the fittest and all that, you know?


    ...Wait, that makes me sound like a horrible person.


    Karma''s a bitch. There, that''s better.


    ...Or is it?


    He shook his head. Or he would have ¡ª if he had one. His body had reverted to its cloud-like state, so instead, he just shook his entire body. When he realized this, he tried shaping his body like that of a human as he had done before. Through his will, he managed to form his body into the general shape of a man without any real features. He then looked around himself once again.


    He''d noticed it before, but this room really was huge. There were enough books on the shelves here that, even if you read almost non-stop for a whole year, you''d be unlikely to finish them all. Just the thought sent shivers down Ibras'' ethereal spine. As Jacob, he''d always liked reading. But only things he considered fun, and the list of things he considered fun to read was narrow. Whenever he read science articles or the like, he''d be lucky to manage it for more than a minute before jumping out of a window. Sometimes literally... Don''t ask.


    He kept glancing about the room when a thought struck him. How was he seeing right now? He''d been too preoccupied with the whole ''I died and was summoned as a magic slave'' thing before to notice, but he was lacking eyes. And neurons. Plus a couple of other things that were generally considered necessary when it came to biological functions. Now, he wasn''t a person to look a gift-horse in the mouth, but he felt like his current body was severely lacking in some areas. And yet it functioned surprisingly well. Hell, he was pretty sure his vision now was better than when he actually had eyes. After all, he didn''t have a 360-degree field of vision before. He was both confused over how he was able to see right now and surprised that it took him this long to notice the difference from before.


    Wonder if I can still eat things. Else that''d be a real bummer.


    As Ibras looked around the room, his eyes landed on the desk at the end of the room. It was made out of beautifully ornated, black wood and had piles of books and papers spread over it. He glanced down at Salamar''s charred body.


    It''s not prying if the person is dead, right? Besides, I bet that guy was a person who''d steal ice cream from little girls. He deserves it.


    He walked over to the desk. Or rather, he floated over and moved his legs so that it looked like he was walking. It did look a bit odd as he was actually floating a couple of inches above the ground, but there was no one around to call him out for it. When he reached the desk, he looked over the books and papers that lay on it. He tried grabbing a book but was discouraged when his intangible hand failed to grasp it. The best he could do was nudge the book slightly after he focused on his hand as hard as he could, imagining it solidifying.


    Cool three-hundred sixty degrees vision did not make up for being unable to interact with objects. If he could, he would have frowned right about now. Yet another feature his body was lacking.


    Instead, he sighed inside his mind and inspected the other books that lay on the desk. One, in particular, caught his attention. It was a large book that was currently opened, its yellow-tinted pages filled with hand-written text. Thankfully for him, it was written in a language that he could understand, even though he was certain that he had never witnessed it before.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ''Entry 856'' The text read at the top of the page. Ibras'' curiosity was spiked by this and he started reading was else was written.


    ''All the necessary reagents have been gathered for the forthcoming attempt. I did run into slight trouble procuring the draconian fibers, and I only have enough mana flower dust for one more attempt, but that will not pose a problem. I am sure that I will succeed this time. The summoning circuit has finally been completed, and I am currently working on completing the circuits for the assorted binding spells. It doesn''t matter how powerful this being will be; even a dragon would have problems going against these spells. I will perform this ritual in a week when the constellations of Oxreus and Gathar intersect. According to the Voedia kingdom''s notes, that is supposedly the best time to perform it. I can understand the logic behind it. It is said that the outlanders that are summoned are usually close to death. Thus it makes sense to use the time when the God of the Afterlife''s constellation intersects with the God of Beginning''s constellation.''


    Several thoughts moved around in Ibras'' head. How long had this guy been planning to summon him for? Who were these outlanders that were mentioned? And gods? Really?


    I guess I can''t question it, considering what I''ve seen so far. If magic exists, why not gods?


    He thought over the matter for a few seconds, before reaching out his faintly glowing hand towards the book. While he couldn''t grab the book, he could muster enough force to awkwardly turn the pages. He turned the pages for a couple of minutes before he reached the spot he was interested in.


    ''Entry 1'' It said at the top of the page. Ibras smiled inwardly. It was time to see what that old man had been planning.


    ''I recently lost Invi, my high elemental servant. That damn bastard refuses to stop interfering in my business. I can not count how many of my servants and resources I have lost due to him by now. It is all because he somehow managed to contract that lesser deva. If I want to rid myself of that nuisance once and for all, I will need a spirit that can rival that deva of his. But finding an elemental that powerful is as good as impossible. They aren''t pure enough. Finding an infernal or deva would be easier, but they are too unreliable. Contracting them isn''t reasonable. Besides, I am not proficient in dealing with either holy or demonic energy. But what if I could create a new type of spirit? An equivalent to devas and infernals, but out of pure mana? If I could have a being like that as my servant, then no one could interfere with me anymore.''


    Ibras read over the entry one more time. From what he read here, he guessed that he was that spirit that was made out of pure mana. And Salamar had created him because he was fighting with some random guy that had one of these ''devas'' on his side? Ibras turned the pages to a newer entry.


    ''Entry 95


    Another failure. The elemental I summoned for the experiment could not handle the massive amounts of pure mana and was obliterated. Not to mention the troubles I''ve had with calculating all the different spells needed. Finding a decent subject for creating the spirit turns out to be exceedingly difficult.''


    ''Entry 343


    Failure once again. This time I spent a large amount of resources to summon a high elemental for the ritual, but its soul still could not handle it and was obliterated by the purity of the mana as I tried to create its body. If a high elemental can not survive the process, what can?''


    ''Entry 387


    In my search for potential subjects that can survive the process, I have found a possible alternative. The outlanders that are sometimes summoned to our world are often powerful and are said to be from a world without magic and traits. Their souls are sure to go through much and are likely protected by the gods during the summoning. I am sure that, if I performed the ritual as I summoned one of them, their soul would be able to survive the process. I merely have to acquire the summoning ritual first.''


    Ibras kept turning the pages through the different entries, reading the ones that looked interesting.


    ''Entry 713


    It took me a long time and much preparation, but I finally managed to acquire the summoning ritual that is used to summon the outlanders. The kingdom of Voedia''s security was almost impermeable, I will admit. But they were the closest kingdom that I knew had access to the ritual, and not even they could stop me forever. Now I merely have to gather the correct reagents and wait for the allotted time, then my years of efforts will finally be rewarded.''


    Ibras stopped reading after a while. Salamar seemed to have spent a lot of time and effort on successfully summoning and creating a new type of spirit. He even stole a priceless summoning ritual from a kingdom. Ibras had to admit, that did sound impressive. Too bad Salamar died right after he succeeded with his attempt.


    But Ibras was curious about that summoning ritual, and these ''outlanders'' that Salamar mentioned in his notes. From the way it was written, it seemed to Ibras like ''outlander'' was just another name for people like him, who were summoned here from earth. So he wasn''t the only one.


    Although, considering the unique circumstances in his summoning, he was probably the only outlander who was summoned as a spirit and didn''t have a corporeal body. A bit of a bummer. But still, he''d like to meet one of these ''outlanders''. He wondered how many there were. If the summoning ritual itself was this rare, and best performed during a specific time, that had to mean that outlanders were rare too, right?


    He''d have to figure that out later. Right now, Ibras was tired of reading and wanted to find out where he was. He looked around the room he was in until he spotted the exit. Then, without further ado, he started to pretend walking his way over there.

 Ch. 3

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 Ch. 4

    After being attacked without warning by a literal lake, Ibras felt a bit shaken. He had already died in a fire and been temporarily enslaved by an evil magician, but at least those were plausible scenarios. Well, the whole evil magician thing wasn''t, but at least the threat came from a person then. Now he was being attacked by freaking nature. That''s definitely worse. People, you can at least talk to or ¡ª in Ibras'' case ¡ª serendipitously land on an opportunity to kill them. He''d like to see someone killing an entire lake, however. Especially when the lake fights back.


    Trying not to go look at the surprisingly murder-oriented lake, he moved back towards the tower''s entrance. His body felt rather weak after having been hit repeatedly by that water-tentacle, but he was already feeling that he was starting to recover slowly. His body, currently in the shape of a cloud of mana, seemed to absorb the mana particles that were ubiquitous around this lake and the tower into itself, quickening his recovery even more.


    When he neared the doors to the tower, they opened by themselves just like before. He didn''t look back as he floated up the stairs and entered the first floor. He hadn''t gained much by exiting the tower now. All he''d learned was that he was seemingly in the middle of nowhere and that he couldn''t leave this place because then he''d be beaten into a pulp by an angry lake. The only thing he could do right now was, take it easy for a while until he had recovered. In the meanwhile, he could explore more of this place.


    He started out by exploring the first floor. There wasn''t much to see, to be honest. Except for the pillars and statues that surrounded the floor, it was almost entirely empty. The floor had some cool patterns on it, but that was about it. The first floor almost felt like a reception, just without any sofas and fashion magazines. Except for the two spiral staircases at either side of the floor, there was only one door on the entire floor. He was about to open it to see what was on the other side when he remembered that he currently lacked the ability to properly touch anything. The only reason he could leave the study earlier was because that door had been left open.


    While Ibras was once again lamenting the fact that he couldn''t interact with objects as he wanted, an idea entered his mind. His current body was like a liquidy gas, and the door had a keyhole in it. Shouldn''t he be able to pass through that keyhole?


    If this works, I could consider my options for becoming a prospective burglar. Everybody''d be too busy accusing the butler to consider that the floating cloud committed the crime. It''s brilliant! Ahem... Not that I''d ever steal. Stealing is bad.


    Ibras moved his body towards the keyhole and tried jamming it through the hole. As he had assumed, his body slowly moved managed to pass through the keyhole. What he saw on the side of the door was a stone staircase that moved further down. The walls and ceiling were also made out of stone; nothing special at all. Compared to the other areas he had seen in this tower, this place looked certifiably boring. He also realized that none of the walls looked to emit any light as the walls did in the main hall, but he could still see without any problems, albeit everything did have a bit of a darker hue about it.


    Maybe whatever way I''m using to see right now doesn''t require light to work? Acquiring night vision has always been on my bucket list. Too bad I died before I could check it off.


    At the end of the stairs was a stone corridor. On either side of the corridor were several cells with thick iron bars. Inside the cells, he saw several different huddled figures.


    A large dog-like creature with three heads and sharp, white teeth.


    An even larger bear-looking creature with feathers and a long beak.


    Several small human-like creatures with green, almost transparent skin and ethereal wings.


    The cells were filled with all kinds of exotic, dangerous-looking creatures that Ibras could only have dreamed about seeing before. But they all looked to be in a sorry state, probably not being fed much. Some of the creatures seemed to observe the floating cloud of mana as it moved through the corridor, but most just lay in their cells without paying it any mind.


    Ibras eyes stopped on one of the cells. Inside, he could see a small human figure slumped to the ground. It was a child, seemingly around ten years old. He had a hard time telling its gender. It could either be a boy or a girl, but he was leaning toward it being a boy. The child was staring right at him with hungry eyes. His attention was caught by those eyes. They were purple-colored, and the child''s neck-long hair was grey. To him, that just looked weird.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    Gray hair on a child? And what''s with those eyes... It looks like the kid wants to eat me. Creepy.


    Seeing a child being stuck in a cell like this, Ibras first impulse was to let the kid out. But he paused as he moved nearer that cell.


    There had to be a reason the kid was in there. All of the other creatures that were locked into cages down here looked to be dangerous in their own way, and the same might be true for that child. After all, he was in a world of magic; for all, he knew that child could be a damn vampire. Just look at how the child was staring at him right now.


    But just leaving the child there left a bad aftertaste in his mouth. He thought about it for a while, before he decided to at least try and let the kid out. The child would have a hard time hurting him as he was just a cloud of gas. Even if the child had some way of hurting him, Ibras could use that fire spell he knew to defend himself. While the flame itself wasn''t too impressive ¡ª it was slightly bigger than a fist ¡ª he could just summon a few dozen of them like he did last time. For being a supposedly primitive spell, it sure was useful as long as you used it right.


    Ibras moved closer to the iron bars and looked at them. When he observed them closely, he could see that a thin barrier made out of mana existed between the bars. At the base of the bars, he could see what looked to be circuits etched into the ground, glowing very softly. When he tried moving his body through the barrier, he was stopped by it. Not entirely unsuspected.


    The child inside the cage was still staring at Ibras with those hungry eyes, making him feel an ethereal shiver down his equally ethereal spine. Perhaps he should just leave the kid be?


    There was definitely something off about that kid, but without being sure if there was something wrong with the child or not, he couldn''t ignore it. He turned towards the door of the cell, which was also made up of iron bars. Inspecting the entrance, Ibras found that there was no keyhole. Perhaps one had to know a specific spell to open the door, like a fantasy version of a keycard?


    Unfortunately, Ibras didn''t know many spells at all. He knew the circuit and circlets necessary to create that small flame. He also remembered the circuit he had used to kill Salamar. However, he was relatively sure that that spell was worthless without having access to that circuit that was etched into the floor upstairs. Maybe it was just parts of that circuit that were necessary, he wasn''t sure, but it wasn''t of any use to him at the moment.


    That meant that his only option was to try and use the fire spell that he knew to destroy the iron bars. He really was trying to milk that ''primitive circuit'' out of everything it had to offer.


    Ibras conjured the same red circuit that he had used to fight the water-tentacle earlier next to the door. A fist-sized flame appeared and started burning the iron bars of the cell''s door. Sadly, Ibras quickly realized that the flame was far from hot enough to melt iron. He tried conjuring a few more flames next to the original one, but all that did was heat up a larger area of the bars. It did nothing to increase the intensity of the flames.


    Seeing his attempts to open the door, the child''s eyes had opened wider and the kid looked even more hungry now. Ibras sighed inwardly and extinguished his flames. He thought about it. With him only knowing a single circuit to cast spells with, was there really no way for him to open this door? Then realization struck him.


    He didn''t know just a single circuit. He knew a circuit and the circlets that made up the circuit. Salamar had originally created a flame with just one circlet, and then he had used two other circlets to modify the flame.


    Ibras remembered the first circlet that Salamar had conjured, and replicated it. A minute amount of mana moved from Ibras'' body, and in front of him, a red circle with several odd characters covering its borders appeared. Above the circle, a small red flame formed. He thought of one of the circlets that Salamar had added and created a replica of it inside the existing circlet. When the second red circlet formed, the flame suddenly more than doubled in size. It was now the same size as the other flames that Ibras had created.


    Ibras then added the third circlet, and with it, the flame''s color changed into a clearer red. He had now reproduced the flame spell that he already knew.


    So one of the circlets increases its size and the other one increases its temperature. Then I should be able to do this.


    Suddenly, two more identical circlets appeared inside the circuit, and the color of the flame changed, from a clear red to a deep orange. He had tried also tried creating a circlet outside the original circlet but noticed that the mana he used to create that circlet just faded away. It appeared that any additional circlets added to a circuit had to be inside the original circlet.


    He managed to add three more circlets to increase the flame''s temperature before there was no more space left in the circuit, and the flame''s color had then changed into a scorching white. Satisfied, Ibras conjured up a few more similar flames and let them eat away at the bars of the door.


    After a minute or so, the iron bars of the door had started glowing a bright red where the flames touched it and were slowly starting to lose their form. The child glanced at the cell door for a moment, before once again turning its attention to Ibras.


    It took him a few more minutes, but eventually, the majority of the door had been destroyed along with the circuits that were etched into their base. On the ground was now a melted puddle of liquid metal. Having dismissed the flames, Ibras warily floated through the opening and into the cell.


    The moment he did, the child pounced at him.