I really need to revise the translations here. I’m not staying consistent with tense, terms, and other things. Should anyone find any mistakes or general fixes I could make, please comment. I’ll do an actual revision when I compile all the parts together into a single upload.
The day after I defeated the Lesser Wyvern.
I found the pedestal after looking for it in the air.
I thought that since a higher vantage will let me see farther, in the middle of the day I should find it.
And I found the pedestal in a place very far from me. Extremely far.
I must have went the opposite way from the pedestal.
『Uryaaaaaa!』
I flew straight for the pedestal.
I met a few demonic beasts along the way, but I ate their magic crystals with one strike each.
Compared to the wyvern from yesterday, it seemed like these low-ranking magical beasts were staying still.
I just thought of this, but it seems like the monsters get stronger the farther I get from the pedestal.
The cause was likely the mysterious magic flowing from the are around the pedestal. It’s just a guess, but there must be a barrier.
Since I got used to manipulating magic recently, I was able to feel it.
Though I can’t tell who cast it. Could it have been my maker?
Because I flew full-speed straight for the pedestal, it took less than an hour to reach it.
Moving around in the day is definitely the most efficient.
I was only gone for a day, but I really did miss it. The barrier’s warm magic really does feel nice, huh.
『Uwhoooa! Pedestal! I’m back!』
I dove straight into the pedestal.
Sook.
Mmhm, this is calming me down. Being in the pedestal is calming me down a lot.
This pedestal is definitely my home. It’s a healing place.
『Phew. I almost didn’t find it~.』
I spent a while just looking at the clouds.
Ahh, this is bliss.
Then since I took a break, it’s time to have some fun.
『Huhuhuhu… Hahahahaha! I finally got it! I am no longer a mere sword! 』
Yes, I am talking about magic.
While annihilating the goblins, I gained a magic skill from the Goblin Mage.
It was magic that I wanted incredibly badly.
『Fire Magic is set.』
Preparation complete.
I concentrated.
After using skills so many times, I think I can use it just like that.
No, I used to think that.
『There’s no response.』
I didn’t even feel it fail, let alone activate.
All I did was grunt. That’s it.
『What? Do I not have enough MP? No, there’s no way the Goblin Mage had more MP than me… I’ll set all the skills it had for now.』
I set Mineral Knowledge, Command, Staff Wielding, Combat Staff Wielding, Magic Boost [weak], and Mana Manipulation, and hoped for the best. Then several images popped into my head.
Fire Arrow, Fire s.h.i.+eld?
I’ll try Fire Arrow.
The best magic is attack magic!
『The image of the spell popped up in my head.』
I read aloud the incantation that was inside my head.
After I finished reading it, I could feel magic flow out of my blade.
『Fire Arrow!』
Fyuuu.
A fiery bolt of fire formed in the air after my shout.
『Whoa, whoooooa?』
The completed fire bolt flew far just like an arrow.
I cast magic!
『Hahaha! I did it!』
All Fire Arrow did was scorch the earth a little.
If that’s it, then it’d be a hundred times better just to attack monsters directly.
But that’s not important. What matters is that I used magic.
『Then next! Fire s.h.i.+eld!』
A small buckler, a circular s.h.i.+eld, made of flames appeared.
『Hmm. How strong is it?』
I threw a rock at it using Telekinesis.
I didn’t throw the rock very hard. It was about as fast as a baseball pitcher’s.
It blocked one hit.
A second, it blocked a third.
『Hm, seems that’s all.』
After it blocked the third blow, the s.h.i.+eld disappeared. It’ll probably block an arrow, but I didn’t trust it to block a sword or an axe.
I played around with the magic for a while.
No matter what spell I used, the MP cost was always 5 so because of my increased rank, I could continually use it.
『Fire Arrow! Fire Arrow! Woohoo!』
I calmed down after 30 minutes.
That feeling I have that the bushes are on fire is probably just my imagination.
『Whewww. Come to think of it, I should check out my skills.』
I should figure out which skills I should use to cast magic.
I first excluded the ones that had nothing to do with magic like Mineral Knowledge and Command.
I tried Staff Wielding, Combat Staff Wielding, Fire Magic, MP Boost [Small], Magic Manipulation.
『So I can use it.』
I unequipped Staff Wielding and Combat Staff Wielding.
『Fire Arrow!』
There was no problem with the magic.
Next I unequipped MP Boost [Small].
I could definitely still use magic.
This time I unequipped Magic Manipulation.
Now I only had Fire Magic set.
『It doesn’t work.』
I reequipped Magic Manipulation.
『Fire Arrow.』
Whooosh.
It seemed that Magic Manipulation was crucial to using magic.
I’ll have to keep that set in the future.
I became curious about the skill that had a similar name as it, Energy Manipulation.
『Magic Manipulation for magic. Then what does Energy Manipulation control?』
The King that had Energy Manipulation also had Alert, Aurablade, Sword Wielding, Command, Boost Morale, s.h.i.+eld Wielding, Taunt, Spirit, and Throwing.
Is it for Sword Wielding? No, there’s the new skill Aurablade as well. What is that?
I continued to test out the skills and figured out that Aurablade and Energy Manipulation were a set.
I was able to use Aurablade by using energy. It seemed like a killer move a warrior or someone would use.
There were two techniques: Double Slash which created a two-hit combo and Heavy Slash which was a deadly swing. This looked fun too.
『I’ll use it now.』
With this technique, I could fight stronger demonic beasts. Hunting should become way easier.
『Now that I’ve finished hunting the goblins, how about I go a little far away?』
Four days after I mastered fire magic.
Without fail, I spent every day like a magic sword of slaughter, being feared by demonic beasts or getting attacked by them.
I continued to absorb magic crystals and I progressed to Cla.s.s Rank 4.
I recently realized that different magic crystals have different flavors. No, there’s not a flavor per se, but the quality of the mana from the magic crystals definitely depended on the demonic beast it came from. I was able to comprehend differences between crystals. The ones I liked these days were the magic crystals from goblins and orcs and other Demon species. It’s because they have more of a kick compared to other magic crystals when I absorbed them, and they were also more fulfilling. It was like the spicy cooking you only eat occasionally tasted strangely good, I guess. Well, the parallel is really, really small though.
I also got a ton of skills. And also skill levels.
The den of the orc subspecies, the Gourmet Orcs, was especially good. For sating my appet.i.te for skills and magic crystals, that is.
I got a number of weapons skills, and the levels of the skills I used the most often, Aurablade and Sword Wielding, went up to level 3.
At first, I didn’t feel any real change after the level of Sword Wielding increased, but after reaching level 3, there was an overwhelming difference.
As I thought, it improved my control over my blade, or in other words, myself. Because of it, I was able make pinpoint attacks at enemies’ weak points.
I was now able to dodge or parry attacks from the larger demonic beasts. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it was the equivalent of a skill like Counter to a sword like me (tn: Not at all sure if Counter is the right word.)
After that, I level grinded my skills to gain the skill level up bonus and signifigantly increase my combat ability. Now my Sword Wielding and Aurablade skills were both at level 7.
I also gained earth, wind, and water magic from the Gourmet Orc mages. I also gained purification magic and a.s.sist magic.
Maybe it was a characteristic of their species, but the majority of the orcs had high leveled Cooking and Dismantling so those two skills were at level 5 for me. I laughed when I realized that my highest level skills after Sword Wielding were completely useless to me.
I acquired a variety of skills from the demonic beasts beyond just those.
I got the upgraded Venomous Fangs skill, Deadly Venomous Fangs, from Stone Spiders, spiders with hard, rock-like exoskeletons.
I got Sense Heat from Digger Moles, large carnivorous moles.
Just like with the Poison Fang Rats, the Paralysis Claw Cats didn’t have a Paralysis skill so I avoided them.
From new types of demonic beasts, I got See Air Current and other sensing type skills, stealth type skills from rodent type monsters, and so on. There were many easy to use and helpful skills.
I took over about seventy percent of the plain, so now this place felt like the front yard of my house.
『Uryaaaa!』
Boing.
『Fire Arrow!』
Fffft.
I was fighting a monster that, depending on the setting, was either a ridiculously strong cheat monster or a small-fry: a slime.
In this world, slimes are on the strong side. They regenerated quickly and were resistant to physical attacks. They were even stealthy.
Furthermore, it even had a skill called Cohesive Body, letting it fight by controlling its gelatin-like body. It whipped at me with tentacles made from its body or threw bits of its body like rocks, annoying me a lot.
Though it was particularly annoying to me.
In addition, it had strong acid inside its body. It seemed like its body was divided into layers, with a hard outer layer, an acidic middle layer used to dissolve prey, and a toxic inner layer that protected its magic crystal.
That toxic layer was extremely dangerous to me. It’ll likely do damage to me if I even touch it.
My only option was to burn it using the fire magic I acquired.
But the slimes were big. The smallest ones were at least 1 meter tall. The larger ones were 2 meters. There were times when it took dozens of shots of fire magic to kill one.
I came up with the strategy to cut apart the slime and thus do damage to it, then, while it was cut, shoot fire magic straight at its magic crystal.
The slimes had a habit of creating tentacles from whichever direction it was attacked to counterattack. Though this increased the damage it did to me, the more tentacles it made, the less substance its body had, making it easier for my magic to hit its magic crystal.
It took less mana to heal myself from damage than it did to shoot so much unnecessary fire magic.
『Is that all of them?』
There really were a lot of them. It seems this was their habitat. No matter how many of them I defeated, they kept coming up out of the ground.
They weren’t as strong as the other monsters in this area, but they must have made up for it through sheer numbers.
『Hm? Something’s coming?』