Endless World: The Rise of Leonard Lawson

Shortly after going through his memories, Leonard heaved a sigh of relief.

”Thank goodness I didn’t have curses or mana deficiency,” he muttered, patting his chest.

”Wait, I can’t be relieved yet.” Suddenly, Leonard stood up and walked out of the chamber.

”Crown Prince,” the two guards standing by the door swiftly bowed their heads and greeted.

Leonard ignored their presence and continued to walk through the corridor. His palace contained a library dedicated to multiple types of books.

Upon arriving at the library, the librarian sitting by the desk nearly choked on their saliva.

”C-Crown Prince?” They hurriedly stood up and fixed their posture. It was clear that they were startled by his presence.

”What brought you over here, Crown Prince?” The librarian kept their head low and inquired.

”I’m just here to browse through some of the books.” Leonard calmly said and told the librarian to focus on his own task.

Usually, the librarian was composed, but in the presence of Leonard, it was a miracle that the former didn’t faint from fear. After all, Leonard rarely ever stepped into the library.

”Yes, Crown Prince. If you need anything, this lowly librarian will be here to assist you.” The librarian responded politely and offered his services.

Nodding, Leonard glanced at the librarian’s name tag which was listed as Seth.

Given the library’s vast collection, a librarian was always stationed there. Seth, a meticulous middle-aged man, had overseen it since its construction—far outclassing any of the newer recruits. Due to such factors, the library was always the domain of Seth.

”Where’s the section for mana and magic circle, Seth?” Leonard inquired.

”It’s at the third aisle, fourth shelf, Crown Prince. There are books that listed the foundation of mana and methodology of magic circle formulation and its usage.” Seth replied immediately. Not an ounce of hesitation could be seen or heard from his tone.

Leonard received the information and made his way toward the third aisle.

Arriving at the third aisle, Leonard glanced at the fourth shelf which had the label of Mana and Magic Circle.

He casually picked up one thick book titled ”The Beginning of Magic” and flipped through the pages.

As he flipped, he came to a halt at Chapter three where it was about the origin of magic. ”Let’s see what it is.”

—

In the earliest recorded age, long before the founding of the First Kingdoms, the world was silent and dormant—mana had yet to awaken.

Legends speak of a time known as The Primordial Stirring, when the world’s very soul, Aetheris, released a pulse of divine energy. This pulse, now understood to be the birth of mana, permeated every living thing. Mana became the unseen bloodstream of the world, a formless essence capable of being shaped by will, emotion, and spirit.

It was the Ancient Arcanists—a now-extinct race of scholars and dream-weavers—who first learned to shape this raw mana into patterns. These patterns evolved into what we now call Magic Circles.

—

”Ancient Arcanists and the world’s first soul, Aetheris.” Leonard’s brows furrowed. The term Aetheris must have derived from the word, Aetherion. But the terminology Arcanist was quite foreign to him.

Maybe in a sense, arcanist was similar to the form of address such as archmage, magus, warlock, etc.

Spencer was an Eight Circle Mage and was often referred to as a high magister.

’What a complicated usage of terminologies.’ Leonard sighed and decided to keep reading on. Soon, he arrived at the part that mentioned the magic circle.

In hindsight, a magic circle was not merely a tool, but a framework. One that was a complex array of symbolic geometries and runes designed to channel ambient or internal mana, stabilize volatile spell forms, and amplify the effects beyond the caster’s natural limits.

At its core, a magic circle performs one essential task: giving shape to formless power.

Without structure, mana is wild, reacting to instinct and emotion. With a circle, it becomes law-bound and reliable.

It sounded simple yet complicated at the same time.

However, Leonard was able to comprehend its meaning rapidly by comparing mana to that of a car engine.

A car was powerful and could accelerate at high speed when stepping on the accelerator. The accelerator resembled that to the meaning of mana being wild.

Then there comes the brake which stops the car from moving fast. The brake was the magic circle in this instance used to control and make the car stable.

To summarize, the current him could utilize mana, but without a magic circle to control the wild mana, a backlash could erupt and cause catastrophic damage.

Flipping through the next page, Leonard became absorbed with the book.

Anatomy of a magic circle...

A properly constructed circle consists of three primary layers: the base ring (containment layer), the geometric core (function layer), and the runes and glyphs (directive layer).

The containment layer definition was that of a simple circle that contains the mana and isolates the spell from the environment. It was often infused with the caster’s signature or magical attunement.

The function layer was the geometric core that was composed of triangles, squares, pentagrams, or other symmetrical shapes. The more complex the symmetrical shapes, the more difficult it was to cast them.

Moreover, each shape had a unique magical affinity.

For instance:

Triangle: Amplification or offense.

Square: Defense and grounding.

Circle: Healing and continuity.

Star/Pentagram: Multi-type manipulation or divine channeling.

However, this didn’t mean the information recorded was indisputable either. The shape’s magical affinity listed was just a reference that best suited the shape, and was not a mandatory procedure.

Finally, there was the directive layer, which was written in the Runic Tongue of Elarith, a precursor language predating human civilization. Glyphs act as verbal commands encoded into the structure, dictating how the mana should behave.

After he finished reading about the information, Leonard also came to a more in-depth understanding of Spencer’s previous magic chanting.

”So the unknown chanting was a language from the historical Elarith.” He felt his head spinning when he realized he might have to study another language.