Chapter 4: 1st circle

Chapter 4: 1st circle

The sun had already set, casting the hospital room in dim light while Hans remained confined to his bed. But that was when a not-particularly tall, middle-aged man with sparse hair entered the room.

The man was dressed sharply in a formal black suit that didn't seem to match his demeanor.

He took a seat beside Hans's bed and addressed in a rather rude tone, "Hey, lucky guy, just know that you aren't worthy of this. Tch, it hurts my mind thinking that someone as young as you is receiving so much money without even doing anything... But, I can't ignore her words."

"Here, take this," saying that, the man gave him a card, but clearly seemed reluctant to let go of his grip on the card as Hans accepted it.

Once given the reward as ordered, the man continued, "There's fifty thousand on this card; they said it's the bounty obtained through the bodies of the killed monsters."

"It should've been a little bit higher, but many of them were beyond saving.?Ugh! I still have goosebumps. It was definitely the work of a monster."

Hearing this, Hans's face turned pale as he subconsciously started sweating.

Meanwhile, noticing this, the man continued, "Ah.. you don't have to worry about it. It's not like you're in any trouble because of someone else's deeds."

Then with a mocking tone, the man continued, "Also, your hospital bills have already been settled, so there's no need to fret about it."

After the exchange and the man's departure, Hans lay in the uncomfortable bed, gazing out of the open window at the illuminated cityscape.

"Fifty thousand huh? Just for a single day."

He then mused inwardly, 'It should cover their hospital expenses for a couple of months, and I ought to start saving to pay off my debts'.

'If it weren't for the fact that the health care here is decent, I would've left this country ages ago. They demand over twenty thousand dollars every month. I had to sell the old house and even so, for the past eight months I've been forced to take a loan.'

"But what choice did I have? Let them die? No way!"

"Now I have the chance to earn enough money... but I shouldn't get too greedy. After all, just a single misstep could lead me to death. If I don't pay the hospital, they'd probably kick them out, basically killing them."

"My priority is to get stronger. My only advantage is my high wisdom, leading to a high mana pool, but I couldn't use it at all in the last battle due to my lack of spells.

However now..."

As he said that, Hans swung his hand in the air and manifested a book, written on its cover was the title: "Fireball"

"I should start by learning this," Hans was determined.

{Tier-0 Spell: Fireball.

Magic spells can be devised in various elements, such as fire. Fireball is the most basic spell of the fire path, the first thing one needs to do to activate a spell is...}

With that, for the next few hours, Hans's entire focus was solely locked on the spell, from the online sources he had understood that even the most basic spells would take a few days to comprehend.

But in the middle of the night, while repeating the same process over and over again...

{Fireball}! Hans muttered confidently, attempting it once again.

And this time, all of a sudden, a lump of fire manifested on top of his right palm as it floated.

Initially, the fire was rampant and unyielding, but as Hans repeated the process many times, it gradually became warmer and much tamer.

According to the book he had, this signaled the increase of his mastery over the skill, and indeed, when Hans felt that his mastery over the spell couldn't get any better, the book he had received disappeared, followed by a window popping up before his eyes.

[ Current Status:]?[ Name: Hans

Age:18

Class: Knowledge Seeker (UNKNOWN)

Title: None

Lvl: 5

Strength: 19

Agility: 19

Endurance: 19

Wisdom: 191

Class Skills:

-{Knowledge Hunger}

-{Almighty Knowledge}

-{Piercing Gaze}

Normal Skills:

-{Tier-0 Fireball}(NEW!) ]

"This is insane! I should have at least four times the wisdom of a normal tier-1 mage And considering the fact that I am able to cast spells one rank above myself, I should be as capable as a tier-2 mage."

However, stats and skills weren't the only aspects that determined the power of an awakened. Factors like mentality, experience, and decision-making also influenced the results of battles.

With that in mind, the Awakened Association, a company that rose during times of crisis to control and assist the awakened, decided to standardize the ranking based solely on combat power, the rankings were– G, F, E, D, C, B, A, and lastly S, from the weakest to the strongest.

Typically, these ranks ran parallel to the mage's circles.

An apprentice mage without a circle would be ranked G, limited to minor spells that could burn a little bit of grass or light a fire.

A mage with a first circle would be ranked F, capable of more substantial feats like causing grave burns or repel enemies with a gust of wind.

A mage with a second circle was ranked E, their spells capable of killing a normal person.

One with the third circle was ranked D. Spells from a mage of this rank would crack a brick wall, while mages with the fourth circle were ranked C, spells from them would most definitely destroy a cement wall.

As for mages in the fifth circle, who were ranked B, a casual spell from them could cause a massacre or create a crater in the ground.

Mage with the sixth circle was ranked A. This was the realm of natural disasters, a mage of this level could probably create a typhoon or summon a meteor.

Whereas a mage with a seventh circle, they were the most powerful and ranked as S. They were beyond disasters, there weren't many times anyone had seen them fight outside of the gates, nonetheless, their powers were comparable to that of nuclear weapons.

Normally, it wasn't possible for a country to have many of them, and the public would look at them as superheroes or movie stars.

"Even if my only spell is a tier 0 fireball, it should be enough to be categorized as rank E. However, if I were to get my hands on a tier two spell, considering the amount of mana and my affinity with it, I would probably be categorized around D-rank. At least that's what I think," Hans mused after thinking about it.