I quickly open my eyes and see that I'm falling towards the ground. I cast a reinforcement spell just before hitting the ground, but it still winds me a little bit. I sit there wheezing on my back for a few moments.
When I catch my breath, I look around and see that I'm in the clearing in the forest.
"Holy shit…I mean my aim was a little off, but that actually worked." (Mizuki)
From what I can tell, I was spat out about 15 feet in the air a little off-center in the clearing. So, not accurate enough to teleport into a room yet.
I practice teleporting via line-of-sight back and forth across the clearing. I have a few misfires, but over time I get pretty accurate. I'm not sure I want to risk teleporting into a tight space yet – I need to know the long-distance accuracy.
I confirm an exact spot to return to in the clearing by drawing an 'x' in the dirt, then I try teleporting to the spot about 10 meters outside the forest where I entered yesterday. Thankfully it seems roughly correct.
Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes to focus on teleporting back to the 'x' I'd marked inside the forest. I feel the typical lurching sensation, open my eyes again, and look down.
Bullseye. I can't help but smile to myself. I never expected it to work so well.
With my accuracy confirmed, I teleport back into the room I left from at Percivil's shop.
I was confident, but I still feel a flood of relief when I end up where I intended and not inside the wall or floor. Looking around, I don't see Percivil, so I call out for him. After a moment, he comes running back in.
"Woah, Mizuki, you were gone for quite a while. I thought you left. Were you invisible this whole time?" (Percivil)
Eh…probably best not to freak him out with the truth. Instead, this gave me an idea for my trip into the forest.
"Something like that! Hey, listen, do you have anything small and basically worthless that looks really important?" (Mizuki)
Percivil stares at me in confusion. Yeah, I didn't explain that well.
"Like, a small sphere of colored glass that doesn't actually do anything and you won't miss. Or something similar." (Mizuki)
"Aye, actually, I have some small blue spheres that were originally going to be a part of magic weapons I was designing." (Percivil)
He's obviously confused why I am asking.
"Can I have a few of them, please? I promise they're for a good cause, and I'll explain it to you one day." (Mizuki)
He just shrugs and walks over to one of the boxes in the room, then digs out something in his palm. Inspecting them, it's just as he said – like three blue marbles. This will work perfectly for what I have in mind.
"Thanks, man, I owe you even more now! Alright, see yah!" (Mizuki)
With that I teleport back to the center of the clearing. After returning, I turn my attention to the next skill I'll need – detection.
First, I need to confirm if I can get my magic to react specifically with certain substances or objects. I pull out one of the marbles and place it in my left palm. Then I will my magic to form a string between two of my fingers on my right hand, and I slide it over the marble.
As I anticipated, the space between my fingers passes through the marble as though there's nothing there – it's like a marble on an invisible string. However, I know that magic must be able to react with matter when you will it to, based on some of the spells I accomplished.
Next, I place my right index finger on my palm a few inches away from the marble and will a 'web' of magic to spread out from my finger in all directions until it's large enough to touch the marble. Then I imagine my magic reacting with the marble and pulling other parts of my magic towards it.
Nothing happens at first, but as I keep visualizing it, I eventually start to feel a 'pull' around my finger. The pull isn't physical, but more like a sense that my magic is being called somewhere.
Then, I take the three marbles and throw them into random spots around the clearing. I close my eyes and picture a magic web spreading out a kilometer in every direction. Despite the scale, it doesn't feel like a strain at all.
Then, I will my magic to react with the marbles as before. After a moment, I feel my magic being pulled in three directions.
I can't tell exact distance, but the 'force' of the pulling decreases with distance, so I can tell relative location for now. I open my eyes and walk towards the three locations I sense – sure enough, I find all three marbles.
Next, I need to get a sense of the scale and distance. I teleport back to the edge of the forest and drop a marble, then to Percivil's back room and drop a marble, then back to the clearing.
I expand my magic web and periodically check for a marble reaction, until I sense both. I'd guess the second one is almost 25 kilometers away, and I barely feel any magic consumption making a magic web that big.
After playing around with different marble distances like this for about an hour, I'm able to instinctively gauge the approximate distance and location of marbles with this 'magic sense'.
Okay, now to try something else. I think this is a good time for slime hunting.