Final Victory Operation.

  That was the name that the old general bestowed for this current mission. It was finally time for the glorious expedition’s last offensive into the Lair of End.

  They already found out everything they needed to know about the Death God. They knew his weaknesses, the positions of his remaining minions, and the strong points of his defenses, alongside the source of his magic and powers.

  With nothing but four regiments, all cobbled up from the various remnant units after two decades of heavy fighting, they charged onward. Even their names only denoted their suicidal roles—the 4th ‘Disruptor’ Regiment, 1st ‘Spearhead’ Regiment, 19th ‘Decoy’ Regiment, and the 5th ‘Blocking’ Regiment—because everyone knew that this was going to be the last battle that no one in the outside world would know.

  There was no need for any flashy order of battle for the history books.

  They were all going to die. As the remnants of the glorious expedition, they weren’t really expecting anything other than a pyrrhic victory. They were throwing everything they had left, all for one final battle.

  It was up to Marcus and his elite company to make it all count, and in the end, he did make it count. Still, his mind returned to one of the scenes he vividly remembered during the final victory operation.

  While he and his main spearhead platoon charged onward to disable one of the Death God’s mana conduit towers, his eyes saw a glimpse of a squad of combat mages, holding off nearly ten thousand demons in their lonesome.

  The spells they fired were simply so flashy that even at that moment, he truly wanted to do more than just swing his sword around. Maybe it was childish, but damn it.

  Being a [Mage] was cool, Marcus thought, and those [Mages] were even cooler as they pushed themselves to their limits just for mankind’s victory. Death Magic was an utter scourge, yes, but one of the things that was most effective at countering it was the ability to wield elemental and special magic effectively.

  If only there were more [Light Mages] in the Astrean Imperial Army, maybe things would have gone so much better that day.

  While Marcus’ mind found itself lost in his fantasies about cool magic and [Mages], Stella was worriedly watching him. He was sitting calmly on a hill, right next to a tree.

  While Marcus followed Stella’s instructions for brute-forcing the formation of a magic circle, Stella was silently gathering mana from the atmosphere. Beads of sweat fell from her pale face as she aimed her gloved hands at him, a soft golden light coming from her palms.

  I just need to keep accepting external mana from her through my gate.

  Then, I’ll send them to my manacore to integrate them into my body.

  …Then, I’ll form a magic circle around it.

  It was slightly more complex than that, but it was the main gist of Stella’s idea. Normally, [Mages] formed a magic circle automatically once they unlocked the [Mage] class, which usually happened when a person gained enough theoretical knowledge about magecraft or after creating spells powered by one’s soul essence.

  Marcus back then, unfortunately, wasn’t able to do that. He was too poor to have any formal education from a magic academy, and attempting to use your soul essence to cast spells was also dangerous, as it could literally just straight up kill you, so he simply was locked out of that opportunity.

  It was why he tried to grab a few spellbooks earlier. He was hoping the system would grant him something after reading a few of them. It turned out that it was largely bunk, as he literally used his free time in the last few days to read a few books, and nothing happened.

  Indeed, the system certainly wasn’t going to grant him a second class that easily.

  So, this was going to be his last option. He truly hoped it would work. It was lucky that Stella was here to assist him, not just by giving him this secret technique, but also because she was aiding him.

  Spellcasting, after all, was different from simply using your manacore to fuel skills or mana arts, which usually only involved strengthening your body, healing yourself, or enhancing your stamina. Spellcasting was so much more complex. It involved an individual using nearly all available mana, both external and internal, and bending it to their will using instructions from one’s magic circles.

  It was essentially what magic circles were anyway. While manacores act as internal reservoirs for mana, magic circles are metaphysical organs of every [Mage] that were able to command mana itself through spell invocation. Thus, the number of magic circles that a [Mage] formed determined the number of spells they could cast and maintain at the same time and the amount of mana they could effectively utilize.

  Because of the nature of magic circles, it had to be something capable of controlling both naturally occurring mana in the atmosphere and, of course, mana stored inside an individual. The mana that Stella was sending to him, which came from the air around them, would help in making sure that his first magic circle would be capable of conducting this task.

  Otherwise, Marcus risked being a mage who could only effectively control mana that came out of his body. While that wasn’t a bad thing, as he had a diamond core himself, he would be handicapped regardless by the fact that his magic circles wouldn’t be attuned to external mana.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  That, and there was the risky possibility that the system would consider him a defective magic user and refuse to grant him a [Mage] class. It was unlikely, but it was out there. It was why they were religiously following the Holy Church’s standardized technique down to the finest detail.

  Marcus continued trying to force both his manacore’s internal mana and Stella’s external mana to form a magic circle. He felt a growing heat emanate below his chest, right at the center of his body.

  Within twenty minutes after they started, he felt a ring-like thing slowly appearing around his manacore. It was strange, because the damned thing was painful, and it had been ages since Marcus felt pain.

  “Sir Marcus,” Stella suddenly spoke up, breaking his concentration. “Your face is turning red. Are you—?”

  “I’m fine,” Marcus winced a bit, eyes still closed. “What about you? Can you keep this up?”

  “I can. I can go on for hours if need be.”

  “Good, now let me concentrate.”

  This probably wasn’t normal then, Marcus thought. While she did say that the ritual would probably take a whole day to complete, it probably didn’t involve the participant being in slight pain, explaining why she was so concerned.

  Or maybe she was just a worrywart. Marcus wasn’t entirely sure. He tucked those thoughts away again, concentrating. All he needed was to concentrate and concentrate some more.

  That, and he just needed to keep circulating his mana straight to his core, where he needed it to form his first magic circle. Silence reigned in the small area they occupied for nearly an hour.

  It was good that they picked a place that was remote and safe, so no one would be looking at them. According to Stella, initiates in the Holy Church usually did this ritual in church temples, where the individual practicing it would find complete privacy and silence to finish it.

  It helped so much. At many points, just a little breeze of wind distracted him enough that he felt like his progress at building his first magic circle would suddenly collapse, but luckily, none of that happened.

  As he finished forming his magic circle, the ring around his manacore further solidified until the burning sensation from it began to cool down. It was almost as if it was being tamed, ready to be controlled by Marcus’ mind. When it was fully cool, he finally opened his eyes.

  [LEVEL UP! YOU'RE NOW A LVL 1 (UNCLASSED)]

  [CLASS OPTIONS AVAILABLE!]

  “Sir Marcus?” Stella curiously leaned close to him as he looked at the system notification in front of him. “Are you finished?”

  “Shit.” Marcus’ response was dry, though there was a hint of childlike excitement from it. “It worked.”

  He looked at his class options. Unfortunately, until he picked a class, he wouldn’t be able to advance his levels. So he quickly picked his one and only option.

  He picked the [Mage] class.

  [Name: Marcus Lieberman]

  [Age: 18]

  [Race: Human]

  [Class: Hell Ranger (Lv 100), Mage (Lv 1)]

  [Rank: Diamond]

  [Strength: 313 + 195]

  [Vitality: 303 + 195]

  [Magic: 299 + 104]

  [Perception: 327 + 515]

  [Speed: 319 + 515]

  [Dexterity: 304 + 99]

  [Class Skills: (Hell Ranger: Swift Blade, Absolute Blaze, Hellfire Aura, Blink Step, Healing Aura, Pinpoint Hardening, Mass Surveillance, Unseen Veil) (Mage: Basic Elemental Magic, Magic Missiles, Weak Dispel)]

  [General Skills: Diamond Mana Core, Identify, Deception, Levitation, Advanced Equipment Repair]

  Marcus blankly stared at his gains. It was quite minor, as expected. His base attribute stats only increased by six points, one point for each attribute.

  The [Mage] class stat attribute bonuses at the moment were minor too. The bonuses it offered were low except for his [Magic] stat, which was moderate. Thus, his stat class bonuses only increased by three points for his [Strength], [Vitality], [Perception], [Speed], and [Dexterity] attributes. [Magic] itself only received an eight-point bonus.

  It made sense. His [Mage] class rank was at the bottom, starting out as bronze. Even the skills it offered were extremely barebones.

  [Basic Elemental Magic] was just an entry-level skill that would let him slowly learn how to cast fire, water, air, and earth-type spells. [Magic Missiles] probably involved firing small pulses of pure mana that dealt damage by sheer energy alone. Lastly, [Weak Dispel] was probably only capable of dispelling a small flame at most.

  All in all, such gains were a drop in the bucket for Marcus. It wouldn’t noticeably change his combat style and effectiveness yet.

  Still…

  “I’m a [Mage],” Marcus uncontrollably smiled. “I’m a goddamned mage.”

  Just like those guys, I can cast spells too! My old captain won’t even believe this bullshit.

  “It truly worked.” Stella’s eyes were wide, as she must be using [Identify] on him. “Sir Marcus, I can see that you’re a true level 1 [Mage]. Wait…now I can’t!”

  “Sorry, I blocked it with [Deception]. It’s weird to be a level 20 [Swordsman] and a level 1 [Mage] at the same time,” Marcus lightly explained. “I love being normal.”

  “Hmph, you’re the furthest guy from ‘normal’. Not only are you more powerful than me, but you also now have two classes. Goodness, if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve been ordained [Saint] by the goddess herself, you’d beat me at being favored by the system.”

  “...Hey, I worked hard for this,” Marcus said, slightly grumpy. “I have been hoping to make use of this reward since day one.”

  “I know,” Stella smiled. “And you deserve it. I’m just saying, this is extremely special. Wielding two classes is something I don’t think anyone achieved, and I’m glad that it’s you who reached that, Sir Marcus.”

  He then decided to bow at Stella, which surprised her.

  “I know I don’t show this much.” Marcus felt embarrassed doing this. “But, it’s been my dream to become a [Mage]. Thanks for making that possible.”

  “A-ah, um, Sir Marcus, you shouldn’t do that to me. I swear, you got this far in life because of your own efforts!”

  “No, you helped me out.” Marcus bowed deeper. “And I thank you for that so much.”

  “...I see,” Stella nodded. “You're welcome then. Please enjoy. Magic is fun.”

  “Exactly, I will enjoy it.” Marcus's tone turned into that of a gremlin. “Now, teach me your ways. I need to learn how to throw the biggest fireball possible, pronto.”