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Days passed with Akeru giving his utmost attention to converting mana into water.
One day, something interesting happened.
"You kid, what are you doing here all alone in the woods?" a magic knight in blue asked.
He was accompanied by another man in similar attire.
"I am training," Akeru said while striking the axe on the tree bark.
It was all an act; he had sensed these people from miles away and created this scene.
"Why are you training?" the other man asked.
Anybody could tell at a glance that these guys were nobles.
Their clothes, posture, and body language when they spoke
All exuded flawless elegance.
"I want to become the bandit king," the blondie with blue eyes said with great enthusiasm.
"..."
"..."
The magic knights looked at each other and communicated with their eyes.
'This kid is mental.'
'Let's leave.'
They decided to leave the weird kid in the forest and proceeded with their mission.
'Ehh, I was expecting this scenario to delve into a fight or something along those lines. Why did they leave?' Akeru's gaze reflected pure disappointment.
It was like seeing the kid you raised make ridiculous life decisions.
At least, Akeru didn't suffer any emotional damage from this.
After that, no magic knights or any human beings made contact with Akeru in the forest.
Days passed with Akeru focusing completely on converting his mana into water.
Soon, one month passed since Akeru defeated the Purple Orca magic knight.
"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" Akeru shouted as droplets of water floated near his palm.
He was so happy that he shouted subconsciously. Realizing this, he probed for anybody in the area with his mana sense. To be cautious, he changed his location and moved closer to another stream.
He practiced for the next few hours, and soon, water in the shape of a ball could be seen floating on his palm.
Now that he had learned to convert his mana into water, doing this wasn't very hard.
If news spread that a 12-year-old had learned to convert his mana into an element, a commotion would erupt.
It's worth noting that the commotion would be very significant if people realized it had only been a little over three years since he started learning magic.
'Just you wait; I will defeat you even without a grimoire,' Akeru thought with determination.
He normally wasn't that petty, but it really irritated him when he realized the difference between having a grimoire and not having one.
So, he arrogantly decided to copy the water pythons he'd seen the guy using.
After a few hours, he stood humbled.
'Ahem, this is a bit tough. I need to start with something simple. Why did I even start with a complex spell in the first place?' he scolded himself while focusing on creating a proper water ball that could be thrown as a projectile.
Over the next few days, he tried throwing a water ball but realized that they either lost their shape or exploded before reaching their target.
It took him nearly a week to create a proper technique for throwing a water ball.
'Uhh... Would this even be considered a spell?' Akeru deadpanned as a massive water ball hurtled toward a tree.
The radius of the water ball was around two meters, making it taller than any human and quite intimidating up close.
However, Akeru's deadpan expression was due to the ball's speed—it was agonizingly slow.
In fact, very slow.
It was literally slower than a toddler's aggressive crawling.
'Well, this is some progress. Let's now try reducing its size slowly. I believe the speed will naturally increase from there,' Akeru thought as he analyzed the mechanism behind the spell.
His guess proved correct when the speed of the water ball increased as he compressed it to a smaller size.
Days passed, and three weeks went by in the blink of an eye.
Akeru could be seen extending his palm, and in the next instant, a water ball the size of a fist was fired. It soon collided with a tree, leaving a hole in it.
The water ball only stopped after crashing into a few trees behind it.
'Finally, I am done with this; it's combat-ready,' Akeru thought with a proud smile.
He took a break and lay down in the shade of a tree.
'When I get a grimoire, this spell will evolve into something more destructive. I'm really looking forward to that,' Akeru thought with a giddy smile.
The reason for this training was exactly that.
Spells created solely by a person get upgraded when registered in a grimoire.
That is one of the reasons nobles train their kids from an early age.
However, the difficulty of creating even a simple spell like a water ball was evident—it took Akeru nearly a month to get it right.
The time required would be much greater for complex spells like a water bike or water python, as described by the knight.
However, this didn't discourage Akeru in the slightest.
He looked at his palm, and a blue glow could be seen at the tips of his fingers.
Upon closer inspection, one would notice mana vibrating furiously at his fingertips.
'I wonder if this would be considered a spell or not? It's purely an application of mana, but its lethality is really high,' Akeru thought while recalling how he had named the technique.
He wanted to give it a cool name, but the word "vibration" didn't convey the sense of danger or coolness he desired.
Spontaneously, he thought of "Oscillatory Dysfunction," and the name stuck, even though it didn't perfectly fit the technique.
"Dysfunction" refers to a lack of function, and Akeru had heard the word somewhere but couldn't recall the context.
Anyway, he was satisfied with the name, oblivious to the implications people might infer when they heard the technique's name in the future.
"Did you catch his trace?" Julius asked.
It had been two months, and he was baffled that the person had disappeared as if they didn't exist in the first place.
"No, Sir. I think either he is still hiding in our kingdom in disguise or has already left the kingdom," Marx replied.
"We strengthened our borders immediately when we heard the news two months ago. From his location, it's highly unlikely he reached the border that quickly unless..."
"Unless they have spatial magic or magic specializing in long-distance travel," Marx completed his thought.
This kind of scenario was highly unusual. Normally, there would have been news or clues about him being captured or leaving the country.
"But they still would have been detected by our sensors if they crossed the border during that period," Julius frowned, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"Give him the task of finding that spy. I think he's suited for this type of mission," Julius said, pointing to someone's information on the table.
"Are you sure? I think it would be a waste of manpower to mobilize him," Marx hesitated.
"What waste of manpower? It would only be a waste if he actually did something," Julius chuckled, leaving Marx with a helpless expression.
Marx was completely speechless at the truth of Julius' words.
"Very well, I will notify him," Marx said, leaving the room.
Julius gazed out of the window.
"I wonder what type of magic he has. Such a shame I can't search for him personally," Julius muttered, looking at the stack of papers on his desk and imagining the pile that would replace them once he was done.
It's quite baffling when one considers that this person is a mage specializing in temporal abilities.
The sheer amount of work he had to do was worth pondering for a third party.
***
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