Rei turned to Eugene. "Oh yeah, Eugene, will you take me to the place where I can find the magic circle that can keep Emberasia alive?"
Eugene, remembering the task, said, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot! It's a shop that sells magic circles, and it's at the third corner of Business Street."
"Wait, shops like that exist?" Rei asked, surprised.
"Yeah," Eugene explained. "It is generally run by those who excel in magic or are very knowledgeable."
Bart's eyes widened. "Eugene, so does it have other fighting-type magic circles too?"
"Yeah, it actually has so many types of magic circles that I didn't even get to see all of them! Let's go," Eugene said, leading the way.
As Rei and Bart followed Eugene, Rei said, "If we can earn money by selling these, then even I can open a shop of my own."
"Yeah, but it won't be very famous if you open it now," Eugene countered.
"But why?" Rei asked.
"People prefer to visit the shops of people who are famous and purchase their magic scrolls," Eugene explained. "After all, it will be more authentic. If you open your shop and aren't famous, no one will come to your shop."
"I see," Rei said, absorbing the information. Eugene pointed to a newly built shop. "That is the shop. Look there." Rei followed his gaze and walked with Eugene inside the shop.
"Hello, ma'am, are you here?" Eugene called out.
A young woman in her early twenties, with fair skin, brown hair, and brown eyes, emerged from the back room. She wore a yellow cloak. "Yes, welcome customers!" she said. "Oh, Eugene, it's been such a long time! You brought your friends. Let me introduce myself. My name is Aria." As Aria's eyes fell on Rei, they widened slightly. Rei was wearing a Distant Lands Cloak and held his Chaos Scepter, which looked like a wand to her. She quickly masked her surprise with a professional demeanor.
"Nice to meet you," Rei said politely. "My name is Rei."
"And I am Bart!" Bart added excitedly.
"Your friends are very polite and seem interesting," Aria said. "Eugene, should I bring your usual Holy Light Formation?"
"No need for that," Eugene replied proudly. "I can now finally use my holy magic."
"Oh, glad to hear that! Then what do you need?" Aria asked.
"We need a magic circle that can keep Emberasia alive," Eugene said.
"Emberasia?" Aria's surprise was evident. "Those are very rare. Did you find the location of an Emberasia?" Rei took out the Emberasia plant from his bag. Eugene said, "No, we have it here." Aria's surprise grew even more. Rei, Eugene, and Bart, being only 12 and 11 years old, didn't understand the full implications of possessing an Emberasia plant, but she knew it very well. A single Emberasia plant was worth one platinum coin.
"Oh, let me look for a magic circle then," Aria said, composing herself.
"Sorry if I'm interrupting," Rei said, "but you are wearing a cloak. Does that mean you are very knowledgeable?" Rei knew wearing a cloak signified that a person was a prodigy in their field, with only a handful of people able to rival their knowledge. Besides himself, Rei had only seen Arizona wearing a cloak before he saw Aria.
Aria, knowing what the cloak meant, said, "Yes, I am very knowledgeable in magic formations, so I was granted this Magic Wings Cloak by my teacher. You too are wearing a cloak. What is the field you master?"
"I master in the field of sorcery, which only a handful of people currently know about," Rei said it that way intentionally to make it seem as though sorcery had been around for a while. "That's why my teacher gave the Distant Lands Cloak to me. Previously, I had the Whispering Cloaks."
"Sorcery?" Aria said, surprised. "Never heard of it." She then found the scroll with the Emberasia's magic formation. "This is the magic formation," she said, unrolling it. "However, I would like some time to work on it because I don't know if it's outdated or not."
"Sure," Rei agreed. "But can you show me the formation?"
"Sure," she replied, holding it out for him to see. As Rei looked at the magic circle, he saw that, as he expected, it was very complex. It had multiple circles with inscriptions inside a single big circle and an inscription on the side. He also saw a note made by Arizona and Aria.
"Do you know Arizona?" Rei asked.
"Yes, he is my big brother," Aria said. "Though he excels in direct magic, I excel in magic formations."
"I see," Rei said. "Can you make my formation now?" Rei gave Aria his Emberasia plant.
"Sure," Aria said. She searched her desk, then took out another scroll called a draft. The second scroll was as complex as the previous one, but four circles from the outside were overlapping the big circle, each labeled with either fire, water, air, or earth. It also had many concentric circles instead of random ones. She placed the two scrolls side by side. Bart, Eugene, and Rei gathered around her.
She pointed to the Emberasia's magic circle. "Look at this side. I have written Water 4, Fire 2, Air 2." She then pointed to the draft. "Each number represents which concentric circle we are referring to. By this, you can tell that its parameters are the fourth, second, and second stages of these concentric circles, and you could also generate the same effect. I built this technique, which became a major breakthrough in the magic formation world and eased the process of identifying each circle."
"You lost me," Bart said, confused.
"I see," Rei said. "But it is still impractical."
"Excuse me, what do you mean?" Aria asked, annoyed.
"You can replicate a magic circle and adjust it to avoid errors," Rei explained. "It's true that the draft helps in avoiding errors, at least for now. However, if anything happens to your draft, you would need to create another. And if the second draft is even a little different from the real draft, then all your calculations will go to waste, and your scrolls will become unusable."
As Aria thought about Rei's reasoning, she realized he was right. A mere 12-year-old had found a major flaw in her years of calculation and study. She couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. "So, what other option is there?" she asked, her voice laced with frustration.
"First, please focus on Emberasia," Rei said, skillfully redirecting her focus. Aria, thinking Rei was dodging the question, sighed and began to work. She adjusted the parameters of the Emberasia's scroll in the draft and placed the plant on top of the scroll. She then carefully removed the krystallites. As time passed, she saw the tip of one of the leaves withering.
"Like I thought, my Emberasia's magic formation is outdated," she muttered. She adjusted the parameters, changing the fire to 3, but the withering didn't stop. She turned the fire back to 2 and set the air to 3. The withering immediately stopped. She looked at the parameters and noted them down. "So the parameters are Water 4, Air 3, and Fire 2. Okay, let me prepare the new magic circle."
While she was preparing the magic circle, Rei said, "In order to make a perfect draft, you should make a scale that can measure the draft and its gaps." As Aria heard this, she realized it was the perfect solution to the flaw Rei had found. She finally understood why Rei was given the Distant Lands Cloak.