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.