-Wooong...!
-Paht!
“Oh, it worked!”
Had it been exactly five days since I first sensed mana? At last, I succeeded in moving mana according to what was written in the magic book and forming a circle.
This made it certain. I was rather talented at magic.
I had been unsure, since the act of sensing mana itself was described as taking up to eight hours, but the book said forming a circle took more than a week on average.
If I achieved results faster than the average, didn’t that mean I had talent?
-Wooong...!
“This feels really strange.”
Perhaps because the circle was complete, when I focused my awareness on my heart, I could sense and move mana far more easily than before the circle had been formed.
-Wooong...!
The moment I thought of moving the mana, the ring-shaped circle wrapped around my heart began to rotate, and I could feel the mana moving along with that rotation.
I see. Apparently, the principle was to induce the movement of mana through the rotation of the circle formed around the heart. That was why the more circles one had, the more powerful magic one could use.
“Then... is it time to try using magic now?”
-Flap!
As I turned the page of the magic book with anticipation, I found the chants and principles of several 1st Circle spells written there.
“Let’s see. The first spell I should learn is... this one looks good.”
The reason I chose Magic Missile was simple. It looked like a fairly useful offensive spell, and most importantly, it was a spell that did not require an incantation.
If my hideout was discovered, I would have to fight alone, and in a situation where I had no companions to buy time in front of me, it would be difficult to use magic that required chanting.
So it would be better to learn a spell I could activate as quickly and instantly as possible.
Still, since it was generally said that it was best to at least mutter the name of the spell to solidify the image, I also stretched my palm forward and raised my mana while reciting the name of the spell.
“Magic Missile!”
-Wooong, shwaaak!
-Thwack!
“Oh...!”
Then, for an instant, a sphere the size of a fingernail, made of mana, formed in my palm, before flying far off and leaving a gouge in the ground.
Compared to how easy it was to manifest the magic, its power seemed considerable.
“Magic Missile, Magic Missile, Magic Missile!”
-Thwack, thwack, thwack!
After using Magic Missile a few more times like that, I realized several problems.
“My accuracy is a mess.”
Maybe because it was my first time using it, but my accuracy was seriously low.
It wasn’t just at the level where nine out of ten shots missed; it was at the level where I could fire twenty shots and not land a single one.
Well, to be honest, I had expected it to some extent. Embarrassing as it was, even in the military I had been jokingly called a hopeless case when it came to shooting, whatever else I might have been decent at. And this was my first time ever using magic.
If there was someone who could do something skillfully from the start, that person was a genius; it did not mean the person who could not do it at once was abnormal.
And there was a second problem.
“The power varies too.”
Perhaps because I was poor at controlling mana, the power of Magic Missile fluctuated wildly every time I fired it.
Sometimes it would leave a deep gouge in the ground, while at other times it would barely even tear up a little grass, let alone make a mark in the earth.
To put it another way, aside from those two things, I had no particular complaints. The power seemed decent, the casting speed was fast, and the mana consumption did not seem that high.
“Good. Then all that’s left is to practice like crazy. Still, if I practice while talking with you, Flora, I won’t get bored.”
-Wriggle!
Hearing my words, Flora lightly moved her flower.
“Well, I say talk, but it’ll basically just be me rambling to myself... Still, it’s better than muttering into empty air. At least you keep reacting to me, Flora. Right?”
-Wriggle!
Seeing Flora move her flower again, I chuckled and continued practicing.
***
“Magic Missile!”
-Wooong! Thwack!
“Phew... I think I really do have talent.”
About a week had passed since I first used Magic Missile, and over the course of that week, my skills had quite literally improved by leaps and bounds.
First of all, my accuracy had improved dramatically, and now I could land about nineteen out of twenty shots where I wanted them.
Of course, the farther I went beyond the five-meter distance I had been practicing at, the more my accuracy fell little by little, but compared to the first day, it was tremendous progress.
And I had also succeeded in stabilizing the wildly fluctuating power.
To be honest, I had thought the problem with the power lay in my mana control, but I had not known the exact reason. As it turned out, the problem was the shape of the Magic Missile.
When I first created the Magic Missile, it did not come out as a perfect sphere but in a slightly warped shape, causing it to be unbalanced.
Now, my control over mana had improved, allowing me to refine the Magic Missile into a perfect bead shape, and as a result, its power had been standardized at a higher level.
“Judging by the marks gouged into the ground... I’m not sure, but it seems like it has at least the power of a handgun shot.”
If it had enough power to gouge at least five centimeters deep into dirt from five meters away, wouldn’t that be similar to a handgun?
Of course, maybe not. After all, I did not know much about the power of guns.
I had handled guns in the military, but those were rifles, and above all, the things we shot at in the military were just targets, so how would I know the actual power? I only remembered it as, roughly, if you got hit, you died.
Not only had I overcome the two drawbacks, I had even created a new application.
“Magic Missile!”
-Wooooong!!! Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!!!!
As I muttered the spell, five Magic Missiles appeared one after another near my shoulder, then poured down all at once toward the ground, kicking up dust along with deep gouges.
“Hoo, this is a little tiring.”
Since I was firing five Magic Missiles at once with a single chant, it did feel a little exhausting, but more than that, I felt proud.
After all, I had created an application that was not even written in the magic book.
As I stood there with a proud expression, a good idea suddenly came to mind.
‘Oh, now that I think about it, couldn’t I trim branches with Magic Missile?’
Since Magic Missile basically had a tendency to fly in a straight line, if I adjusted the angle properly and fired it, wouldn’t I be able to smoothly trim a branch?
To test the idea that had suddenly occurred to me, I immediately took out a branch I had roughly tossed into a corner of the cabin.
I had torn off the small twigs by hand, but it was still unbalanced and unsuitable to use as a wooden sword.
“Magic Missile.”
-Thwack!
“Magic Missile, Magic Missile, Magic Missile.”
-Thwack, crack, thwack...!!!
Just as I had expected, each time I fired a Magic Missile, the branch was cleanly shaved down and began to take shape.
However, perhaps because Magic Missile’s power was not that strong, there was a limit to the length it could trim at once.
Should I say that one Magic Missile trimmed about three centimeters? If I wanted to shape the branch into a wooden sword, it seemed I would have to pour in quite a large number of Magic Missiles.
-Piiiing!
“Ugh...?!”
After firing nearly hundreds of Magic Missiles like that, a wave of dizziness from mana depletion suddenly rushed over me.
“Ugh, I guess that’s it for today.”
It was not my first time experiencing mana depletion. To begin with, the way I had trained Magic Missile was by using Magic Missile all day until my mana ran dry.
Still, it was a little disappointing. If I fired just a few more Magic Missiles, I felt like I could complete the wooden sword today.
“Flora, I’m heading in a bit early. See you tomorrow.”
-Wriggle!
Receiving Flora’s not-quite-a-greeting as she bobbed her flower, I went into the cabin, leaned the half-finished wooden sword against one side of the table, and collapsed onto the bed.
-Flump!
“Phew...”
From what I had learned through several experiences, sleeping was the most efficient way to recover mana.
The timing was right, too, with the sun beginning to set, so it was not too early to sleep. I could wake up at dawn and continue working then.
With that thought, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.
***
“Magic Missile!”
-Crack!
“Phew...!”
The next day, as a result of continuing to fling Magic Missiles around as soon as I woke up, I was able to obtain one very neat wooden sword.
“Wow, it turned out better than I expected.”
Honestly, I had only tried it with half doubt in my mind, but I felt quite good after obtaining a wooden sword smoother than expected.
“Good. Then is it finally time to train in swordsmanship?”
I took out the swordsmanship manual that had not seen the light of day for nearly two weeks and began reading.
In truth, I had read it once two weeks ago, but because I had been so absorbed in training Magic Missile for those two weeks, I had completely forgotten what was written in it.
I had never seriously trained with it in the first place, either.
[The most important things in swordsmanship, in order, are the lower body, the eyes, and the upper body. Beginners commonly think the upper body holding the sword is the most important, but this is nothing more than a common misconception.]
[No matter what situation arises, you must maintain balance with your lower body to make both defense and offense easier; you must watch your opponent with your eyes to avoid attacks and aim for openings; and you must handle your upper body properly to attack or deflect.]
Ah, right. It was this sort of content. I think I had simply skipped over the lower-body exercises and dynamic vision training methods written after this.
First of all, in the case of the lower-body exercises, this body itself was so sturdy that there was no particular need for them, and the dynamic vision training method was impossible because I did not have the materials required for the training.
‘...Huh, wait a second. Now that I think about it, isn’t it possible now?’