The old man and Draylen sat facing each other at the wooden table, with the old man explaining how Dragon Summoner's spell circles differed to normal summoner's.

"You see, the majority of traditional summoner spells are designed as consumables, with the exception of familiar summoning circles. This is the traditional way of summoning, costly, inefficient, however, normal summoners don't need to inscribe their own spell circles and can instead buy them off of anyone. Our Dragon Summoning spell circles are different as each and every one must be reusable and permanent. Whilst traditional summoners are able to inscribe and activate reusable spell circles, they are more costly and also use a lot more mana." The old man said, pointing to different spots on a spell circle.

It was a normal summoner's spell circle, a lot smaller and less complex than a Dragon Summoner's.

"I also doubt that anyone in the Auria empire has the knowledge and expertise to even inscribe a reusable spell circle." He chuckled.

The summoner's spell circle seemed to be comprised of two layers, whilst the Dragon Summoner's was made of three. Spell circles with more complicated patterns often had greater effects but also consumed more mana, the cost to activate a spell circle was directly proportional to it's power.

Dragon Summoning was an exception though, since most of the intricate brush strokes were to make the spell circle reusable. This meant that whilst the mana input was directionally proportional to the power of the spell, the mana cost couldn't be judged by the size of a spell circle.

"Old man, since our spell circles are larger and require us to use our body as the spell's medium, doesn't that mean that as soon as we run out of space on our bodies, we can no longer learn new spells? Wouldn't that make our skillset more predictable as one would just have to identify the tattoos on our bodies in order to know which spells we cast?" Draylen asked in a concerned manner.

"Well, it's not like our predecessors haven't thought of an answer. Firstly, if you go wrong with a spell circle or want to replace it, you can simply burn off the skin that has the spell circle on it with dragon fire and then use a healing spell to regenerate the skin. Secondly, Dragon Summoner's spell circles are immensely different from normal summoner's, did you know that those two spells in front of you are the same?" The old man replied with a grin.

Draylen shivered at the thought of burning off his own skin if he went wrong somewhere.

'Wait, those two spell circles are the same spell?' He yelled internally, eyes widening in disbelief.

Originally, Draylen thought that Dragon Summoner's spell circles would be identical to normal summoner's, albeit with an external ring around the outside. This was because his first contact with summoning was Dragon Summoning, today was the first time he had actually seen a traditional summoning circle, therefore it was not unreasonable to make the assumption that they would be nearly identical. Draylen took another look at the circles, there were a couple of similarities here and there but most of the brush strokes had been altered.

"Old man, how come they look so different, yet both yield the same results?"

The old man rubbed his chin for a moment before pointing to points on either of the spell circles.

"These two points are different because the traditional summoner's spell circle is geared toward cast time, mana efficiency and more towards the utility side of things. As you know, Dragon Summoners are naturally more mana efficient than traditional summoners, thus instead of making our spell circles like the conventional efficiency and cast speed, we use power instead. The reason why these two parts of the spell circles are different is because this symbol here," He gestured to the traditional summoner's circle, "Reduces the mana usage of the spell circle, whilst this here," He then pointed to the Dragon Summoner's circle, "Increases power and strength."

Draylen nodded eagerly, committing the symbols for each of the attributes into his sponge-like memory. Upon seeing this, the old man sighed slightly.

'Whilst it's good that the young lad's eager to learn, but to this extent... It's too extreme, doesn't he ever get tired?'

Noticing the old man's slight sigh, Draylen decided to explain why he was so eager to learn.

"Old man, please don't worry. I want to become someone like Dragon Knight Draaklen, I want to change the world. I read in a book somewhere that people learn best during their youth, whilst I don't know if that's really true, I do believe that it's important to make the most of my youth to learn as much as possible." He explained sincerely.

"No, no, you misunderstand me. I'm just envious of your learning drive!" The old man laughed loudly in response.

"Right, anyway, here are a pair of armament and weapon spells. These'll be the first one's I'll teach you." He pulled out two more spell scrolls with intricate looking spell circles on them and put the previous ones away.

He passed an ink pot, parchment and a brush to Draylen.

"There is an order to drawing a spell circle. Much like writing normal characters, left to right, top to bottom. Start from the inside of the circle and work your way out. Try copying this armament spell circle." The old man instructed, sliding the armament spell scroll forward.

Draylen nodded. He picked up the brush and dipped it in the ink, then mimicked the old man's drawing posture. He held his long sleeves back with his left hand and used a calligraphy grip with his right. The writing training from earlier was definitely helpful when it came to drawing spell circles.

He began to draw, slowly and steadily. Each stroke was deliberate and the young boy felt as if something inside him was resonating every time the ink touched the parchment. The inside of the circle was like a very basic outline of a chest piece but with several power enhancing symbols that seemed to weave into it. Several straps of black ink looked as if they were holding the black armour together. Soon, Draylen moved onto the second ring, then the final outer ring.

After an hour of tiring work, he finally finished. He put down the brush and heaved a breath of relief. The old man glanced at the spell circle and nodded approvingly.

"Good. Have a drink and then draw 10 more."

And so, the rest of Draylen's day consisted of drawing. And drawing. And more drawing.

"Finally!" He cried out, exhausted.

After practicing spell circle drawing for a few hours, he had become proficient at it, now taking a maximum of 10 minutes to draw a single circle. There were rarely any errors in his drawing and the old man had deemed his work as 'acceptable'.

"Very good. Now draw 10 weapon spell circles." The old man said.

"W-what?!" Draylen looked at the old man as if he were a monster.

"Just kidding. I've already prepared a high quality armament spell and weapon spell beforehand. Get on the table and I'll inscribe these onto your shoulders." Horatio chuckled upon seeing Draylen's expression.

"Hmmphh!" The little boy glared at him before doing as the old man asked.

Soon, the spell circles were tattooed onto his shoulders. Draylen jumped energetically.

"Old man! How do I use them?"

"Just activate them with mana, but try imagining what kind of weapon and armour you want." The old man answered patiently. "Wait a moment, I have a book with some designs here."

Draylen took the 10 centimetre thick book and directly opened it. There were thousands of dragon themed designs, ranging from heavy armour to light, twin blades to giant broadswords.

'What kind of stuff do I want? Well, I'll choose a weapon first.'

The young boy flipped through the pages excitedly.

"Careful, don't tear the pages!" Horatio reminded hurriedly.

"Got it, calm down old man." Draylen answered absentmindedly.

The old man's eyebrow twitched.

'Why do I feel like he's becoming rebellious? Isn't that phase supposed to start at 14, is there something wrong with the young lad's brain?'

Finally, Draylen stopped at the design he liked.

'I originally wanted to be the same as Dragon Knight Draaklen, but I also want to carve out my own legend. That means I'll need to choose a different fighting style!'

He brushed his fingers over the weapon on the page, as if the blade could actually cut.

'Draaklen was known for his confrontational fighting style, annihilating his opponent's with overwhelming strength. The great sword became something like his signature weapon. Then... I'll fight with a sneaky style, I'll defeat my opponents in an instant so they won't even know how they died!' Draylen began fantasising about being a shadowy stalker who ended his enemies' lives at night, not being seen or heard by anyone.

"This, I want this!" He exclaimed.

The old man looked thoughtful, before eventually nodding.

"Okay, then picture that weapon in your mind as you activate the weapon summoning spell."

"Yes!"

Draylen concentrated, trying to imagine the weapon from the book. He visualised each surface of the weapon, the texture, the sharpness. A gush of mana shot from his heart, feeling lively and energetic. It leapt into his right shoulder, seeping into the spell circle, causing it to shine.

Suddenly, the white glow changed colour. The lively glow from before became a deathly pitch black, which then ran down both of his arms and began to materialise into two wrist blades. They were lined with a metallic dark purple, the metal itself seemed as black as night too. Black leather straps burst from the sides of the weapons, wrapping around Draylen's hands and wrists like pythons.

-Shiiinng

Four claw-like blades from either gauntlet slid out neatly, shining menacingly in the dimly lit room. They let out a predatory aura, looking at it made one feel as though they were being surrounded by a pack of savage wolves. Draylen lifted up his hands cautiously, examining the wrist blades.

"Right, now I need to create some armour." He reminded himself.

Draylen quickly began flipping through the book, before finding a few noteworthy designs which he liked. Torn between choosing one out of a few, the young boy imagined the sets of armour but combined various features and removed some that he deemed unnecessary.

A black wave of mana gushed over his body, leaving behind exquisite black leather armour. Some parts had metal plates protecting various vital regions and dark purple leather decorated the areas around the black metal. A strange black draconic helmet appeared. Instead of a typical knight's helmet, a pane of deep purple glass sat at the front, inside of the black dragon's mouth.

This way, Draylen's vision wasn't as restricted as the old man's when he activated his armament spell. He nodded to himself in a satisfied manner before deactivating the two spells, causing his weapon and armour to vanish in a puff of black smoke.

"Good job. It's late now, so let's eat and then turn in for the night." The old man said somewhat hurriedly.

Draylen nodded and trotted out of the room.

'Why did the kid's mana turn black all of a sudden? Hmmn. I'll have to research this, in case it's really what I think it is...'