I make my way to my master's residence, where I repeat the same actions as yesterday, practicing magic techniques until I grow severely magically exhausted, at which point I begin to practice with my sword. I must admit that, despite hearing the news that most of my class is slated to be executed, I am in a much better mood than yesterday. Try though I might, I can't help but be optimistic that, if I maintain my current power growth rate until my deployment, I should be relatively safe on the battlefield.
Actually, when looking at my primary goal, much of my swordsmanship class being put to death tomorrow will undoubtedly help me. The slight loss from having eighty fewer soldiers with me on the battlefield is incomparable to the benefit gleaned from Reinhart being able to devote much more of the class time to my specifically my development. Of course, I don't [want] to think about it that way, I don't [want] to think of the deaths of eighty people as nothing more than a furthering of my goals, but I can't help but do so.
[Well, at least I can blame it on my Madness skill, right? Right? Bah! Who am I kidding here. I have always been this way; even on Earth, it was my natural inclination to view everything, even death, based solely on what impact it had on me. That was how I became an assassin in the first place - I deemed that the benefit from killing someone, a substantial financial award, was of greater importance than the life of my victim (assuming I didn't get caught, that is). Sure, my victims were usually pretty scummy people, but I always knew that that was just a way for me to justify the unjustifiable. And my wife, as well, though that was more an accident than anything… Well, whatever the case, this is still quite a bit different; after all, their blood is in no way on my hands; I am merely indirectly and coincidentally benefitting from their deaths.]
Eventually, after recognizing that there is nothing that I could do about their fates even if I wanted to, I return full heartedly to my practice. After all, if I am to ensure survival on the battlefield after my deployment, I still must become much stronger. While I am rather optimistic about my survival [should I maintain my current level of growth], I would certainly not bet on it at the moment.
Honestly, perhaps I should embrace this strange optimism. I had been living in an exclusively pessimistic state since my madness skill reached Master in level, as an effect of the skill, and so the feeling of hope for the future is a welcome relief.
Feeling a bit suspicious, I glance over my skills and find that I have, at some point, acquired "Lesser Resist Madness," and that it is already at level 3. I briefly wonder how I could have acquired a skill in the last day, and leveled it to level 3, no less, when the last day has been exclusively filled with dangerous fights and death? And, more importantly, why it took so long to acquire. I mean, I was briefly coated in acidic venom and my acid resistance skill reached moderate level 2. It seems strange that I could be suffering from a high level of madness since coming to this world, to only within the last day finally acquire a resistance to it.
Resolving to ask my personal information dump provider (my master), I again cast aside my distracting thoughts and return to practice.
This time managing to maintain focus until he arrives, I manage to cover my body in sweat despite my heat resistance skill.
"Oh, I see that you are practicing with that weapon of yours again. I heard from Reinhart that you are quite proficient in it, being a magic swordsman apparently suits you quite well."
"Master," I say to him as a means of introduction, bowing deeply.
"Heh. I feel your introductions only grow increasingly elaborate," he replies with an amused laugh. He then becomes much more serious, asking me "so, what are your thoughts on today's announcement?"
I shrug, saying "the judgment seems fair enough to me. While they ought not have been given the command in the first place, the cowardice they demonstrated has no place in the military. Furthermore, the much less emphasized, but, in my opinion, more important issue is that they flat out refused to follow orders. That is [definitely] something that cannot be allowed, whatever the order may be."
"I'm glad to hear that you feel that way. Believe it or not, the decision was – don't mention this to anyone else – far from unanimous. Nearly half of the commanders assembled here argued in favor of the soldiers, on the side of cowardice and insubordination. Despite my general disapproval of his methods of teaching, I still sided with Reinhart. And why did I do so? The answer lies in what you have already said, demonstrating that you possess the critical thinking skills that, when combined with talent and training, make an expert mage. I must say, I chose rather well when I took you as an apprentice. I was admittedly a bit worried that my choice may have been too hasty, that if I waited longer an individual better fit to be a mage – namely, one talented in straight magic – would arrive. However, you have thus far proven a beyond adequate apprentice. If you keep up the good work, I wholeheartedly expect you to go far as a mage. Now, it's time you learned how to read."
I wordlessly nod, before then following him into his house. He has me take a seat before starting my education.
Considering that I am already able to speak the language, it is not [that] difficult. The system is slightly different from the customary alphabet that I was used to on Earth, but I am still able to grasp the different sounds the characters make with relative ease. Of course, the spelling isn't by any means fully phonetic, which I can't help but heave a mental sigh over. [If this language was fully phonetic, as someone able to speak it, learning to write it would likely not have been all too difficult. However, as it is… well, I better study hard if I have any hopes of being able to read when I leave here in roughly three months.]
I am, of course, a good student while Lector is teaching, paying extremely close attention and obtaining clarification for anything I initially fail to grasp. Even on Earth, back in my school days, I had always been rather quick to pick up new information. And, of course, here my incentives to learn are much greater than they ever were on Earth. Learning to read and write will give me a great advantage over the average commoner in this world, and obviously I pay close attention when learning ideas related to magic that may very well save my life at some point.
After we have gone over the basics of the writing system, as well as some common irregularities, we move on to this day's magical topic: multicasting.
"Alright, now I would like you to gather up two elements, one of fire and one of earth. Form them into balls each three inches in diameter and hold them in front of you one foot apart."
I do as he commands, or try to anyway. This increased grasp over the elements that I obtained from having elemental manipulation reach 'moderate' in level is still not enough to be able to form two different elemental spells – multicasting, he calls it – with any semblance of ease. Still, I give it my all.
I obviously have no difficulty in materializing the first element. However, the issue comes in when I try to summon the second one. The magical exhaustion I feel increases to an unreasonable level, and I quickly lose the focus necessary to keep the first element materialized, causing it to either dissipate or fly off uncontrollably.
After nearly a dozen failures in a row, each of which being met by my master's encouragement to try again, I begin to think that this exercise is perhaps impossible. However, I quickly move to suppress that though when I remember that I had actually [seen] him use two different elemental spells at once before. When I arrived early to class that one time, when he was demonstrating fire's ability to cut by forming a very condensed sword of flame and cutting into a metal block, he had been manipulating two elements at once.
And not merely summoning two elements simultaneously, it must be mentioned; he was multicasting, condensing, and even [shaping] – something that I still have no clue of how to do – with two elements, one of which being the harder to use metal element, all at the same time. If he can do all that, then I should have no difficulty summoning two elements at once. So, drinking an energy restoration potion, I try again. And again. And again.
I actually rather expect Sir Lector to grow irritated at my display of absolute incompetence, but he says little other than encouragement.
Slowly, and certainly not surely, I begin to slightly grasp the concept. By the time breakfast is scheduled to begin, my best attempt is two elemental balls only a centimeter in diameter held formed for about ten seconds. That may not sound very impressive, but I couldn't help but be proud of my achievement. It was, without a doubt, among the most demanding and difficult things that I had ever done, both in this life and my last.
Sir Lector does not seem overly concerned about my slow progress; in fact, the opposite is true and he assures me that I am figuring it out far faster than even he had, and most elementalists have to reach at least the greater elemental manipulation level to multicast with two separate elements.
"Though it is much easier to multicast with two of the same element," he says, "if you can learn to do so with two different elements you will certainly also be able to do that. Also, what level has your elemental manipulation skill reached? I suspect that it may have gone up a level or two over last night's practice."
I quickly glance over my skills, and am genuinely shocked to find that, far more than rising only a level or two, my Moderate Elemental Manipulation skill had risen from level one to level 5.
When I tell my master this, he seems to be genuinely shocked. "Four levels in a single night of practicing only one technique? That is simply absurd! Even when practicing high level concepts, wizards often take months to go up one level. I was optimistic that your level would rise, as you have shown yourself to be absurdly adept at leveling your elemental manipulation ability, but this is simply beyond reason. Do you, by any chance, have an extremely high level proficiency for elemental manipulation?"
I initially just shake my head as way of response; then, deciding to elaborate a bit more, I say "I actually have no proficiency in elemental manipulation at all. And, it is not just my elemental manipulation skill that has been leveling at an absurd rate; as of late, most of my skills seem to be leveling far faster than could be reasonably expected. I was thinking over this recently, and the only conclusion that seemed possible was that they are being boosted by my general leveling bonus. Is that possible?"
"No, it is not. The general leveling bonus, while incredibly powerful in its own right, and explaining the shocking speed with which your actual level increases, has no effect on the growth of skills." He then goes silent for a minute, before continuing "I honestly have no explanation for you. I'll look into it, but I don't suspect that I'll find an answer. This situation actually becomes even more shocking when taking into account your class as a slave. As you know, slaves suffer a massive experience gain penalty for all skills and general leveling as their class characteristic. If I try to imagine your growth without this penalty… well, it is truly shocking."
The sun begins to peek over the horizon then, and we end our discussion to set off for the dining hall.