Adrian walked into the dungeon’s main room with Celeste and her brother trailing right behind him. He stopped near the center of the empty space and snapped his fingers.

The blank stone wall in front of them shook. The rock shifted and split down the middle before it formed a perfect doorway leading into a hidden room.

Adrian walked in and Celeste and Caelum followed him inside. The doorway slid shut behind them.

Soft magical light came out of the flat ceiling. Caelum looked up and frowned. Where was the light source? There was blank stone everywhere, and that door opening trick just now made zero physical sense. Solid rock just moved like it had a mind of it’s own.

But he kept his mouth shut. Questioning a noble was a quick way to lose a tongue and he had seen people make that mistake and regret it soon after.

Adrian turned around and looked at the siblings. Caelum was a self taught fourth circle mage, a genius runesmith and an enchantment expert. Celeste was not a mage but she basically knew everything there was to know about anatomy and potions. They were the perfect team for the experiment he was about to perform.

"I need a bathtub." Adrian said.

Caelum blinked. He looked around the completely empty stone room.

Before either of them could speak, a massive ceramic tub just spawned into existence right in the middle of the room.

Celeste stood there with her mouth hanging open.

Adrian completely ignored their shock. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a tiny glass vial. It held the exact same pale green medicine Celeste made for him earlier.

Since the liquid had entered the dungeon once, the system had already recorded its exact chemical and magical properties. Which mean that he could have an infinite supply of the liquid as long as he was willing to spend some mana.

’System. Fill the tub with this liquid.’ Adrian thought.

The green potion filled up inside the bathtub until it almost hit the edge and the smell of raw herbs assaulted their noses. It was way too strong for Adrian. To the siblings though, they seemed completely fine, which was mostly attributed to them being exposed to such smells for years.

Adrian untied a small leather pouch from his belt and tossed it towards Caelum.

"Throw the mana stones in the bath." Adrian said.

Caelum caught it and looked inside. Seeing glowing crystals sitting in a bag made the guy freeze up like he was holding the royal treasury. He carefully walked over and dropped the stones into the green liquid one by one.

Adrian started unbuttoning his shirt. He was a Baron and this suit was custom tailored and stupidly expensive. Getting blood all over it was something that Adrian had no intention of doing. He stripped down most of his clothes and tossed them all at a corner.

He told the dungeon to spawn a flat steel plate. The heavy metal disc materialized on the floor with a loud clank.

Adrian spawned a wooden board next and handed the board along with a piece of charcoal to Caelum.

"Draw me a magic circle." Adrian said. "I want a functional circle that gives specific instructions to mana."

Caelum frowned. "What kind of instructions, my lord?"

"I want it to break a human body down from the inside out." Adrian said casually.

Celeste coughed, choking on her own saliva while Caelum just stared at him like he just met an actual psychopath.

"Stop staring at me," Adrian sighed. "I am not trying to die here. Just crack my bones a little bit. You know... microfractures, tear the muscle fibers., put heavy pressure on the veins, arteries and all that. But keep it perfectly balanced. Bones and muscles can take a good amount of damage, but organs can’t. Keep the strain on the internal organs minimal. I need steady and controlled internal damage."

Caelum stood there holding the charcoal. He looked at the wooden board, and then he looked up at Adrian before sighing.

"Who would ever want to destroy their own body like this?" Caelum asked softly.

"Me." Adrian said. "Just draw it."

Caelum shook his head but he got to work. He sat on the floor and started drawing on the wood with the piece of charcoal he had. He drew circles, intersecting lines, and specific magical runes. It was basically a complex set of programming instructions meant for raw mana.

He added a single line extending from the outer edge of the main circle. He drew a tiny circle at the very end of that line.

"Place a mana crystal right there." Caelum pointed at the tiny circle. "That will power the entire formation."

Adrian looked at the drawing. The lines were slightly crooked. The circles were not perfectly round. The charcoal smudged in a few places. It was a rough draft.

"That works." Adrian said.

He linked his mind to the dungeon. He used the wooden board as a template. He commanded the system to carve that exact same formation into the steel plate on the floor, but he also got the system to make it flawless.

Deep grooves magically carved themselves into the solid steel plate. The circles were mathematically perfect and the straight lines did not deviate by even a single millimeter. The more perfect a magic circle was, the more efficient it became. This steel plate was now a masterpiece of runic art.

Adrian grabbed a mana crystal from his storage and sat down right in the middle of the steel plate. He placed the crystal onto the small circle at the end of the extended line.

The entire steel plate lit up and the grooves glowed with a faint blue light while Adrian closed his eyes and started his Mage-Knight breathing technique.

Three sharp inhales, seven sharp exhales.

He pulled the mana into his body and he felt it rush into his mana heart. Usually, a mage would just store it there or push it through their isolated mana veins to cast a spell.

But this new hybrid technique changed the rules a little.