Interlude: Magic Practice

(Point of view: Haku, the protagonist.)

In all things, accumulation is key.

Even if you can’t do something at first, you’ll eventually become capable if you repeat it enough times, and even if you are capable, you can always aim for greater heights.

There are many abilities that can be acquired through accumulation, but if you abandon them halfway, you’ll quickly lose the ability to use them.

If you want to be perfect, it’s vital never to neglect the effort of constant practice.

“Haku, are you ready?”

“Yeah, whenever you are.”

We are in the forest. It’s the spring I always visit to make potions.

It’s a familiar place, but I don’t neglect my surroundings, keeping Detection magic active. I’ve been attacked here a few times before, after all.

This time, I’m not here for potion-making, but for a different purpose: magic practice.

After returning to the inn, I review magic circle theory and study construction, but it’s been a long time since I’ve practiced actually firing magic.

It’s not that I don’t use it—I’m constantly firing magic at monsters—but only doing that leads to a bias in my skills. I decided to try out various types of magic as a refresher.

Aria is already standing by over the spring. After confirming one more time that there are no signs of monsters in the area, I told Aria I was ready.

“Alright, begin!”

At Aria’s shout, the water of the spring surged, and several water balls flew out.

I tracked them with eyes enhanced by Physical Reinforcement magic and began unleashing my own spells.

First, the basic Ball-type series. Basics are important in everything, and the Ball-type is the easiest to handle.

I started with Water, my specialty, and switched to Fire, Wind, and Earth at fixed intervals.

The magic spheres I fired one after another struck the water balls with precision, causing them to disperse in mid-air.

After a certain number of shots, the water balls stopped. Accordingly, I stopped firing my magic.

“As expected, your precision is incredible. A hundred percent hit rate.”

“It’s basic magic, after all. I have to keep my accuracy tight.”

When I first started learning magic, I couldn’t even hit a target; I’ve really grown quite a bit.

Once I understood the properties of magic, it became clear how to fire it, making construction and manifestation much faster.

I don’t know how skilled I am as a mage in the grand scheme of things, but I feel like I’ve at least become a proper magic user.

No, I shouldn’t let myself become conceited.

Magic is something anyone can use as long as they have the aptitude, so anyone who puts in the training could probably fire off beginner spells in succession like I do.

If there’s one thing I can take pride in, it’s probably constructing new spells by analyzing magic circles.

Being able to modify magic that was only useful for combat so it can be used for daily life is a small point of pride. …Wait, that’s exactly what conceit is.

“Next, let’s try intermediate magic: the Weapon-type.”

“Okay.”

Following Aria’s signal, I took my stance again. I launched a water arrow at an incoming water ball.

Unlike Ball-types, Weapon-types maintain a shape as a weapon and are characterized by high power. Consequently, mana consumption increases, making control more difficult.

If I were to activate it after seeing the target like before, I’d be a little slow. I have to deploy it in advance and aim it to match the target.

It was quite difficult; even though the action is the same, it requires considerable concentration.

I stopped blinking, held my breath, and focused my eyes so as not to miss a single fragment of the incoming water balls’ movements.

Just as my breath became labored and my concentration was about to break, the release of water balls stopped.

I exhaled the breath I’d been holding and sat down on the spot.

“Good work. I’m impressed you hit every single one.”

“Haa… haa… it was pretty close, though.”

I just can’t do it as effortlessly as beginner magic. Seeking power inevitably means consuming more mana, and maintaining a weapon’s shape makes control significantly harder.

Applying Ball magic to transform it into a blade shape like I usually do is easy and convenient, but the power is low.

That might be enough for low-level monsters, but against strong monsters like Ogres, it gets deflected immediately.

If I can’t use strong magic when it counts, I’ll be in trouble, so I have to keep practicing even if it’s a pain.

“After a short break, let’s do the Area-of-Effect types.”

“Okaaay.”

AoE types, as the name suggests, scatter magic over a wide area. Precision isn’t very necessary, but they eat up so much mana that I rarely use them.

They are primarily for dealing with large numbers of enemies, but I can take out quite a few with just Weapon-type spells.

However, if I’m aiming for greater heights, it won’t hurt to be able to use them.

The time may come when I need it.

I deactivated my Physical Reinforcement magic to rest my eyes.

It turns out that applying reinforcement to the eyes puts a significant strain on them; I discovered that I get hit with a headache after deactivating the magic.

It’s not so bad for a short duration, but using it for a long time might be dangerous. My headache persisted for quite a while after the Ogre fight.

After resting for a bit, we moved to a different location.

The reason was that AoE spells can affect the surrounding terrain, and I didn’t want to mess up the spring.

The last time I used it, the ground was gouged out, and it was a mess.

Now then, let’s do this.

I visualized the magic circle and deployed it on the ground before me.

I could expand it further if I wanted to, but since environmental destruction isn’t the goal, I narrowed the range as much as possible.

Thinking about minimizing the impact on the forest, I decided Water was the best choice.

While considering this, I decided on the color of the magic circle, opened my eyes wide, and poured in the mana that acts as the activation key.

In that instant, with a roar, a massive pillar of water rose. The powerful current knocked down the surrounding trees, creating a small pond on the spot.

“I guess that’s about right.”

As always, the scale of AoE types is huge. I narrowed the range to the minimum, but it still had enough power to lightly alter the terrain. The mana consumption, however, was insane.

To be honest, I don’t really want to use it. Now that my mana has increased, I can use it somewhat reasonably, but when I first started, I’d collapse every time I used it.

Using a double magic circle can suppress the consumption somewhat, but it’s still more than Weapon-type. I wish I could lower it a bit more.

“Aria, how was it?”

“…………”

“…Aria?”

『Haku, behind you.』

I looked around, but Aria was nowhere to be seen. A telepathic message suddenly arrived, and wondering what was happening, I looked back to hear the sound of grass rustling.

I hurriedly checked the Detection magic I had running and saw two presences approaching.

Monsters? No, if it were that, Aria wouldn’t need to hide…

While I was confused, the identities of the presences revealed themselves.

“Ts!? Haku-chan!?”

“Lily-san? And Sonia-san too.”

It was Lily and Sonia, the adventurers who helped me during the Ogre subjugation.

Eh, why are you here?

“We heard an incredible sound. Did you do that, Haku-chan?”

“Eh? Ah—yes, that’s right.”

“The area is flooded… was that Area magic? Were you attacked by something?”

“No, I was just practicing a little.”

According to them, they saw me heading into the forest and followed me. However, they lost sight of me halfway, and while they were wandering around, they heard a loud noise, came to investigate, and found me here.

I had Detection magic active constantly, but I must have missed them because I was too focused on practice. Hmm, that defeats the purpose. I need to reflect on that.

Suddenly, I looked at my Detection magic again. I realized several presences were closing in from the surroundings.

“Oh, wait, this is…”

“Haku-chan, be careful. It looks like monsters are gathering.”

“There seem to be quite a lot of them.”

Hmm, they probably reacted to the noise, right? Practicing AoE magic in the middle of the forest might be a bad idea.

If I try to kill them for materials, the magic shreds them so much that I can hardly harvest anything; AoE magic really doesn’t have many upsides right now.

Regardless, I have to take down the ones coming at us.

“Sorry. Could you help me defeat them?”

“Of course. Leave it to us.”

“Count on me for support.”

We stood back-to-back to face the approaching horde of monsters.

One thing I learned is that Area magic can be used to lure enemies. Not that I’ll have much use for that.

While dealing with the monsters that leaped out, I thought about future uses for Area magic as a task to work on.

End of 33