Now that I've had my magic abilities tentatively confirmed, I need a safe and secluded place to test them. I can't think of anywhere in the city that fits the bill, so I'll have to go into the surrounding area outside the city. From what I remember when arriving, there is a forest's edge near the city wall. That seems like a good place for private magic practice.
However, I don't want to be that guy that gets a reputation for just randomly disappearing into the woods for hours at a time. So, this would be a good time to grab a guild job with low difficulty as a pretense for my trip to the forest. With that in mind, I make my way to the guild after leaving Percivil's shop.
On the way, I chug one of my healing potions to see how it works on my hand. It is wild – it almost looks like a time-lapse of the healing process. In just a few seconds, my hand is back to normal.
Jeez…I wonder how expensive these things are. I'm glad Percivil gave me these.
After that, I pull out my adventurer handbook and flip through the info about accepting jobs. Jobs, just like adventurers, are put on the G-to-S ranking system, and the rewards increase with their rank. Obviously, taking jobs at and below your rank is fine. However, it also seems that you can take jobs one rank above yours, but if you fail to complete it, you face a fine and can't take higher ranked jobs for a while.
Each job has a rank, goal, stipulation for proof of completion, reward amount, timeline, and party size minimum. All in all, no big surprises.
I arrive at the guild and make my way to the G-rank job bulletin. It's afternoon at this point, so the job pickings are kind of slim. However, I spot a slime hunting job tucked off to the side of the board. I don't mind this cliché.
Let's see, kill 10 slimes from the forest surrounding Elmesia in three days for 4 coppers per slime. Minimum party size of one. Proof of completion is 'slime cores'.
I pull out my book on monsters from Azazel and flip to a section on slimes. Apparently, you can kill slimes by removing these acorn-sized cores from their gelatinous bodies, or by damaging the cores inside them. I think this will do nicely.
I grab the job and take it to reception. Melanie is there still and approves my job acceptance. I say my goodbyes and make my way to the city entrance.
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I feel a touch nostalgic arriving back at the gate where I first entered the city. It feels like forever ago despite happening yesterday. Since it's daytime, the iron gate is open. I do one last equipment check, then make my way out of the city.
I didn't notice it before, but a massive main road leads directly up to the city entrance from the north. I can see it stretching off into the distance, with no end in sight. Several horses and carts are moving along the road, so I wonder if it's a main thoroughfare. It reminds me that I need to prioritize learning about the layout of countries and cities around Azura after this. I don't plan to stay in Elmesia forever.
Turning my attention to the job at hand, I scope out the forest edge and make my way there. After about twenty minutes, I pass into the shade of the forest's canopy.
I take note of the direction of the sun, so that I can make my way back to the forest's edge later, then I press onward. Eventually, I come across a small clearing. I've seen bunnies and squirrels up to this point, but no slimes. In that case, this seems like a good place to start practicing some spells.
I take a seat on the forest floor and pull out my book of magic. I flip to the section on elemental magic and incantations. Apparently, people in Azura classify spells by intensity into four categories: basic, advanced, mastery, and calamity. Anyone with a compatible affinity can cast basic spells from the start, and advanced spells with practice. Gifted individuals can use mastery level spells, and only a few magicians have wielded calamity spells.
Basic magic is useful for everyday life. Advanced magic is suitable for fighting creatures. Mastery level magic is more appropriate for waging war, and other large-scale undertakings.
The upper limit of calamity class magic isn't really known, given the few examples in history. It's rumored that one mage with calamity class magic could erase major cities. My book has mostly basic spells with a few advanced spells.
I search for a basic elemental spell to begin my testing. Ah hah, 'fireball' a classic. I am curious about whether I can use incantation-less spells at a practical level, but I want to start with the incantation version for a baseline.
This spell should shoot a golf ball-sized fireball strong enough to light fire logs. There is a boulder across the clearing, so I take aim at that. I try to just clear my mind and recite the spell without thinking too much.
"Oh, meager flame, bring warmth to my palm and flicker with life!" (Mizuki)
As I recite the incantation, I can feel a mild warmth spread through my body and coalesce on my outstretched palm, and after a couple of seconds the heat on my hand intensifies, and a soft glow can be seen between my fingers. Then, my body tenses briefly and relaxes, and the fireball is launched towards the boulder. It hits, and almost immediately dissipates. A small scorch mark is visible on the boulder afterward.
Hmm…I'm assuming that warm sensation that moved through me was magic. First, magic flowed to the site of activity from my body, then the fireball was generated in that space, and finally it launched. Now that I've sensed how my body reacts when using magic, let's try it again without an incantation and see how it compares.
I close my eyes and focus on that sensation of warmth bubbling up and then flowing to my hand. I envision magic as a kind of particle I can't see, and I imagine it taking shape as a sphere in front of my palm and trapping and accelerating the air molecules within it. I imagine more magic flowing into this process to intensify the air heating. I open my eyes.
An intense yellow orb the size of a baseball is hovering in front of my palm. Trying not to lose focus, I will a small surge of magic toward my palm and imagining it forcing the yellow orb away. My muscles contract, and I feel a light recoil against my palm, then the fireball screeches forward at an incredible pace and impacts the boulder. On impact, a small explosion ensues, and I feel a wave of heat, then red-yellow 'flames' spread across the rock for a few seconds.
I'm in shock. I was hoping I'd be able to replicate the book's spell, but this was obviously something different – it didn't look like a flame, and I couldn't feel its heat until after I launched it.
In retrospect, that makes sense. Normal fire requires combusting carbon-based material, and I just heated air. I probably didn't feel intense heat near my palm, because the fireball was insulated by trapping the air molecules until it was cast.
I'd say that my theory about using detailed visualization to bypass incantations has been tentatively confirmed. That raises quite a few possibilities that I'm eager to investigate, but I should refine this spell first until it's more instinctive.
I spend the next couple hours or so practicing the custom fireball spell until I can instinctively cast it. In addition, I discover that I can tweak the size and intensity of the fireball depending on how much air and magic I add to it. I can easily get the fireball heated to the point of blue incandescence. Overall, I'm quite pleased, so I move on to my final exam.
I smile at the thought of being able to push the spell to its absolute limits of intense air molecule heating. I take a deep breath, and place both hands out in front of my body. I begin the spell as though I'll be making a blue fireball, until it gets to the size of a golf ball. Then, I imagine the air being pulled in and compressed, and I focus on pouring as much magic into the superheated orb as I can without expanding it.
More…more…more…at this point my whole body is straining, trying to superheat the air without letting it expand. I also imagine my magic sphere reflecting any radiation from the spell that's outside the visible spectrum, so I don't die.
I persevere with superheating the air in a confined space with my magic, and then the air in the fireball begins to swirl together – plasma.
A strained smile spreads across my face. It's taking all my effort to hold, but I managed to produce a golf ball-sized plasma ball. Gathering my resolve, I focus on launching the plasma ball at the boulder across the large clearing. Now!
The plasma ball races off and impacts the boulder. A brilliant light and heat spill out from the impact, and a shockwave from the rapidly decompressed air knocks me onto my back.
When I come to my senses and sit up to look at the boulder, a basketball-sized hole has been burned most of the way though the rock. The rock itself is still superheated and appears to be dripping, while flames burn around the impact site.
Yup, that is lethal. In retrospect, that blowing up in my face was a real possibility.
I lie back on the ground in exhaustion, and I'm breathing heavily. That obviously took quite a lot out of me. I'll need to practice making that more efficient. For now, though, I think it's time to take a break and try other basic magic.
I'm feeling thirsty, so maybe this is a good time to try water magic? I wonder if I can do it without the incantation as a template, now that I've at least managed other magic. Hmm…what would be the simplest way to produce water? Maybe pulling it from the air and concentrating it? That's worth a shot.
I get my empty canteen from my bag at the ready, then hold my hand out and focus. I once again will my magic to flow towards my palm to form a sphere, then I imagine it trapping and condensing water molecules from the air.
It doesn't seem to work at first, but after a few more moments I see a small drop of water floating above my palm. As I continue investing magic, it slowly grows until it's about the size of a baseball and then stops.
I move my canteen under it and imagine my magic funneling it into the canteen. It's a little messy at first and I lose some water, but eventually I get the hang of shaping the water into the canteen opening.
I take a sip of the water from my canteen cautiously. Yup, it seems fine to me! I wonder why it stopped growing after a while though. Maybe I pulled in all the water vapor from the surrounding air? If there is an incantation that conjures water in a different way, it might be worth learning to bypass that limitation.
Okay, time to try some other spell classes! It's safe to say I can use elemental class. Sooo…what about alteration class next? I'm not sure what spell to try first, though. What would be most useful?
Looking at the sky through the opening in the tree canopy, at this rate I'd say I have time to practice maybe three more spells. Then, I'll need to head back before it gets dark. I think slime hunting will have to wait until tomorrow.
Hmm…I'm sure it's only a matter of time until I get injured, and I don't know how expensive those healing potions are. I nod to myself, confident I made the right choice, and mutter aloud.
"Yup, time for healing magic." (Mizuki)
First, I'll need an injury. I brandish my dagger and make a very slight cut on my left palm – after all, I'd hate for it to be serious if my healing spell doesn't work. I have one more healing potion as well, just in case.
I look down at the injury and imagine magic flowing to the site on my palm, then accumulating there and surrounding the injury. Next, I try and visualize the healing process accelerated over a few seconds. Clotting, cell division, scabbing, and resolution all crammed together.
It's fruitless initially, but I keep repeating this process on a loop in my head as I focus on the wound, and on concentrating magic power in that area. Then, the wound starts to pull together and eventually closes. I rub the previously injured spot with my other hand – I can't feel any trace of the cut I made.
I repeat this a few times with similar size cuts, until I can do it almost instinctively. Then, I try a roughly six centimeter cut on my lower leg. Eventually, I can reliably heal those cuts to completion by instinct as well.
However, it seems like the more serious the injury, the longer it takes to heal. Thinking it wise to not risk my health further for the sake of training, I decide to move on. Hopefully, I never have to heal anything more serious than that.
Next up, I think alteration class body enhancement spells would be appropriate. As it stands, I'm extremely weak physically. I still need to get stronger the old-fashioned way, but being able to boost my speed, strength, and defense with magic would be helpful in the meantime.
I think I'll try boosting my defense first, but I need a baseline. I take my dagger and hold it about 6 cm above my palm, tip down, then prepare to drop it onto my hand. Crap, I bet this is going to hurt. Do I really want to do this? Hmm…best not to think about it too hard.
I drop the blade and it crashes through my soft flesh and stops about halfway into my hand.
"Ahhhhh, damn it, that hurt!" (Mizuki)
I can't help but scream out the obvious as blood begins to well up from my hand. I quickly cast a healing spell on the injury and manage to calm my nerves by the time it heals. Good thing I learned healing spells first.
Okay, I really hope this defense spell works the first time because I don't want to do that again.
I close my eyes and will magic to flow around and cover every surface of my skin. Then, I imagine it seeping into my tissues and strengthening the very bonds between all the molecules that make up my body.
I reposition the dagger at the same height, and I try to continue focusing on the feeling of the spell instead of the potential imminent pain. I drop the dagger, still focusing on my visualization, and try not flinch. This time, the tip of the dagger hits and leaves a minor cut, then falls over off my hand.
"SUCCESS!" (Mizuki)
It stung, but I didn't scream in pain over it. Progress.
I heal the minor cut and begin repeating the process. I focus on refining the feeling of strengthening my body and pouring more magic into it, and I get used to doing this reliably even under the threat of pain.
Eventually, the dagger begins to deflect off my skin on impact like it's hitting metal, and I increase the drop height of the dagger. It's still not piercing, so I lightly stab my own hand with the dagger, and it deflects off without issue.
"Okay, time to see how far I've gotten with this." (Mizuki)
I'm aware that all this time in the woods is making me more prone to talking to myself…I need to start meeting people soon before I lose it.
Since it's just my defense that's high with this spell, and my strength is still at its pitiful normal level, my final test of the defense spell can be slamming my dagger into my palm at full strength. Hopefully, I've honed this as well as I think I have.
I begin pouring magic into my defense spell as intensely as possible – I can't afford to half-ass this one. When the intensity of the magic flow feels like it has plateaued, I thrust my dagger into my palm as hard as I can.
The dagger deflects off my skin again with a loud sound like scraping metal. Inspecting my palm, I can see no evidence of injury. I also didn't feel any pain on impact, just a light pressure. It's honestly way better than I was expecting. A satisfied grin appears on my face.
Now...buffing my strength and speed.
I walk over to a nearby tree a little under a meter thick at its base and square up in a boxing stance. As a baseline, I apply a strong defense spell, then punch the tree as hard as I can. Pitifully, I barely even disrupt the bark.
"Tch…let's see if I can't improve that." (Mizuki)
Next, I apply another defense spell, then focus on extra magic seeping into my muscles. I imagine the magic reinforcing the very contractions of my muscle fibers. Then, I begin punching the tree. At first, the result is the same as my baseline test. However, I keep focusing on the idea of magic supporting the contractions of my muscle fibers as I punch and move my body.
Over time, I get used to the sensation, and the punches start tearing off bark. I spend some time refining the sensations associated with the spell, and as my strength improves and tears off more bark, I put less effort into my punches to keep the damage somewhat constant.
Eventually, it no longer feels like my technique is improving and I stop. Time to see just how much combat power this earned me.
I walk over to a fresh tree of similar diameter, then apply the strongest body enhancement spells I can. I face off against the tree trunk, then pull back and punch it has hard as I can, throwing my whole body into it.
My fist goes crashing through the tree, and blasts away most of the tree trunk into splinters. The tree begins creaking, then snaps and falls into the clearing beside me.
I let out a smile…I won't pretend that didn't feel good, and I'm happy I'm not totally defenseless anymore.
I wonder how much this body enhancement will affect my speed though. I guess I should try it out since I already perfected the spell.
I crouch into a runner's stance, set my sights on the other side of the clearing, launch off the ground as hard as I can, and…fall flat on my face. The hell?
I stand up, wiping the dirt off my face, and inspect my surroundings for an explanation.
"Ahh…right." (Mizuki)
My body may be enhanced, but the ground I'm pushing off to run isn't. My back foot tore through the ground and I lost traction. Hmm…maybe it'd be better to just start slowly and see what top speed I can get up to. I pick out a starting point outside the clearing and another on the opposite side of the clearing, then take my position at the starting point.
First, I'll try it without body enhancement. I take off running and reach top speed before I enter the clearing, then it takes me about a minute to cross the clearing at top speed. From what I remember when I used treadmills on Earth, my top speed was probably about 20 kph.
Next, I return to the starting point and apply the body enhancement. I take off running, accelerating slowly, and barely reach top speed by the time I enter the clearing. At this point, the air is whipping past me with absurd force, and about ten to fifteen seconds later I cross the clearing. Slowly coming to a halt, I do some quick mental math.
"Holy shit, 100 kph? That's practically a car on the highway!" (Mizuki)
I'm so shocked that I wonder it aloud. The only problem is that my acceleration isn't much better than normal. That will be a drawback in a fight. Maybe I should try extending the enhancement spell into the ground to strengthen the ground and my traction on it?
I practice this by doing body enhanced sprints across the clearing. Eventually, I'm able to reach top speed in only a couple of seconds. Any quicker and it's too fast for my perception, so I think this is a good place to wrap it up.
Looking at the sky, I probably have about half an hour until sunset. If I hadn't worked on enhancing my speed, I might be in trouble. However, at a full sprint I could get back in under ten minutes with max body enhancement. Probably twenty if I slow to a walk within view of the city. I think I have time to try one more thing before I head back.
I find a tree just under a meter in diameter near the edge of the clearing and take up a position a short distance from it. I apply a max body enhancement, then pull out my katana and take a two-handed grip on it, holding it out to the side. Then, I extend the enhancement spell over the katana to strengthen the blade.
I crouch down, focus on the trunk of the tree, and then launch myself at it while pulling the katana forward in slightly upward slash centered on the trunk. The katana cuts through the tree like butter and I land just past it.
I turn around in time to see the tree slide off in the direction of my cut and crash into the forest.
A smile slowly spreads across my face – I've been wanting to reproduce that move ever since I found out I have magic. I unconsciously let out a lighthearted laugh into the forest, then I go around and gather my belongings to leave.
After a quick equipment check, I max out my body enhancement and start sprinting back towards the city. As expected, in about five minutes the city is within sight, and I drop my pace to a speed that won't freak other humans out.
I make it back to the gate just before sunset. Altogether, I'd say I trained for six hours today. Considering that just about any monster or half-trained adventurer could have killed me when I first started, I'm happy with my growth.
Now that I've stopped moving, I notice that my stomach is growling aggressively, and I feel like I'm starving. Time to head back to the inn, regroup, and get myself a well-earned meal!
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Back in my room at the inn, I put my equipment into the chest and then flop onto the bed. Oddly enough, while I'm a bit tired and hungry, I don't feel the deep exhaustion that I think I should. Maybe my absurd magic stores and body enhancement counteract fatigue to some degree?
Speaking of which, I don't know what the effects of magic power depletion are, but I don't think I experienced it all day. The closest I came to spell-induced exhaustion was after that plasma ball spell. Even then, the effects were minor and I recovered in under a minute. I never had to worry about magic consumption. Just how much do I have?
Moving on to more mundane concerns…I'm not broke yet, but my money is quickly dwindling. I had starter funds that got me all my equipment, but soon I'm going to need clothes and shoes. If I go to an actual inn, it will get more expensive, and I'd like to start saving for a house in this world soon. I don't know how much food is going to cost regularly, or healing potions, weapon and armor maintenance, and whatever else I can't think of.
As is, I only have enough money for food and housing for…maybe four weeks? That's not so bad, but it's only because of that one-time sale of my Earth clothes.
My current guild job will only get me enough for food and shelter for two days. At my current guild rank, I don't think my income will sustain me for long, especially if I have additional costs outside food and shelter.
"I need to make more money…" (Mizuki)
I could try doing merchant-y things like selling a board game or other products from Earth, but I don't have the capital to make that happen. I'd also need to partner with a merchant, which would launch me into a spotlight I don't think I can be in yet. I'm stronger than I was, but far from invincible.
"Tch…there's got to be a spell that's profitable, and I could probably learn and use it." (Mizuki)
Just then, I remember something Azazel mentioned about someone is Azura's history with a dark spell affinity. He said someone could convert rocks into gold. Could I do that?
Actually, do I need rocks, or will any old matter do? In theory, if I can just use magic to reallocate the subatomic particles from existing atoms into new atoms of a specific structure, I can create anything I want.
A smile breaks out across my face.
"Maybe I can literally make money." (Mizuki)
I sit up on the bed and open the window to my room, and a cool night breeze flows in. Okay, let's see if I can do this with ambient air. Since gold is a lot denser, it'll probably take a lot of it, and I don't want to suffocate in here from the air thinning.
I close my eyes and hold up my palm. I will magic to surround the area above my hand, and I imagine air being forced and compressed into a sphere in my palm. Then, I imagine the magic breaking down atoms in the center of that sphere and forming them into new atoms methodically – alternating addition of 79 protons and 118 neutrons to get the nucleus, then layer on 79 electrons.
I start to feel a 'resistance' in the spell as I focus on the atomic structure of gold.
At this point, since I'm technically doing low-yield fusion and fission, I also will my magic to elongate the wavelength of any high-energy radiation that might be produced, until it's just harmless radio waves. I can probably ignore neutrinos and leftover subatomic particles.
As I pile even more magic into the alchemy spell, I can feel the resistance from a moment ago being overcome.
Eventually, I see something shiny start to emerge above my palm, and a strong breeze begins to flow in through the window. I guess it's working and generating negative pressure in the room?
I continue with the spell, but for the first time I start to feel fatigued – is this what excessive magic depletion feels like?
I try forcing the spell to continue, but it becomes unstable as my vision starts to blur, then I feel my focus break along with the spell. I collapse onto the bed, sweating profusely, and I hear a loud thud in my room. I've never felt so awful…I guess this spell is crazy taxing on magic power.
I lay on my bed for a few minutes, and I'm eventually able to sit back up. I feel almost normal again already, so my magic regeneration must be absurd.
I look around my room floor and notice a solid gold sphere about the size of a golf ball, and I grin ear-to-ear. I walk over and pick it up, then sit down on the floor. It's surprisingly heavy.
Hmm…what should I do with it? I could try and sell it, but pure gold in this shape would put me under scrutiny. I can try molding it into the shape of a gold coin, I guess. That shouldn't be as taxing as actually making the gold.
I pull out my one gold coin for comparison. It looks like I synthesized enough gold for maybe four coins.
I extend my magic around the gold ball and imagine the magic forcing apart the gold into two halves. It is an awkward sensation initially, but after a little bit of trial and error, I manage to divide the gold into four smaller spheres.
Then, I compress the spheres into smooth disks with my magic and compare them to the original coin. They're pretty close in diameter and thickness – fortunately, even the normal coins aren't perfectly uniform in design.
I hold the original up next to a fresh mint and begin tediously using magic to warp the surface of the new coin until it visually matches the original. The first try takes about fifteen minutes, but I get better at it with the next three. The last one only takes five minutes.
After about an hour of work, I now have four new gold coins! I personally cannot tell the difference between them, but I shouldn't assume they're perfect replicas.
"Hold up…is this technically counterfeiting?" (Mizuki)
Hmm…eh, I'm fine with it. They'd just turn the god into coins anyway if I sold it, right? I'll consider it a public service!
With my guilt thoroughly assuaged by my mental gymnastics, I pocket my new hard-earned money, grab my belongings, and make my way to the tavern to get some food!