I guess miracles do happen. This chapter was just the right size that I finished it in time. Next chapter is decent size and will take some time so maybe tonight but probably tomorrow morning. At the very least I got over the cliffhanger with this. I totally didn"t feel like looking up and using the english names for those fish. Also, changed Necromancy to Necromantic, no idea if it"s an actual word or the correct use of the term but it sounds more accurate in this case than Necromancy for that system.
Year 7444, Month 1, Day 1
I throw away the meineiji that had turned into just a bone and take the second dried fish out of my bag before putting it on the grill of the stove and started grilling it again. Karl and the other fairies are all intently eating the dried fish in their hands a bit at a time.
The ones that managed to get the delicious fatty portions of the stomach are curling up their bodies to protect it from the other fairies while eating it, it"s the same for the ones who got the meat from the cheeks, eyes, and areas like that. Hmn. These guys, since their height is roughly 30 cm or so, well it means they"re less than roughly 1/6th my size. Since my height has just reached about 170 cm, and you could say I"m pretty tall for a 15 year old.
In any case, since their height is 1/6 of me then I guess that would make their body weight 6^3 or so? To be more accurate it would be a bit less than 6, so that means they"re about 1/200 of my weight. If you"re asking what I want to say then it"s about the volume of their stomach. The dried meineiji I brought was about 30 cm long. The portions of it that were possible to eat putting aside the head from the neck to the tail was about 20 cm worth. When it comes to me in my growth spurt as expected just one is not enough. If I don"t have two and some bread I feel it"s a bit lacking for a single meal.
I think there"s over 100 fairies in all? It wouldn"t be strange for there to be about 200 of them. In that case, they probably feel it"s not satisfying with just one fish as well. Ah, it would have been good if I bought two more...
"What"s this?"
Karl points at the bottle of mayonnaise while moving his mouth as he chews. He still has some meat of the meineiji in his left hand. You, took a bit extra right.
"Ah, it"s mayonnaise. If you put a bit of it on the body and"Ah, mayonnaise huh? I don"t need it. It"s sour after all."
I see. It can"t be helped so I smear some mayonnaise on the bread I just cut and ate it just like that. I talk while eating.
"And, continuing from where we just left off, would you mind telling me?"
"Talk? What was it again?"
Stop talking with your mouth full. I"ll flick you in the head, this winged insect.
"The magic, the conversation about the spell {Report}."
"Ah, I"m amazed you could remember that. How far did we talk about it again..Ah, I guess it doesn"t matter. In any case, {Report} is a spell that shouldn"t be known all that well. There"s quite a few restrictions on using it after all. Did I talk about the restrictions?"
"No.."
"I see. {Report} is a spell you use on a specific target. It often requires using a lot of mana. In most cases, there"s quite a bit of distance between the user of the spell and the target, or at first even if they"re close by, they use it under the a.s.sumption that they"ll separate afterwards. That"s why the first condition is that the user needs to have a large amount of mana. After that, it"s also necessary to know the targett they"re using the spell on well. On the level of family you"re normally living together with. It seems it"s not impossible to use it on a completely stranger as well, but in the case it requires even more mana it seems. Well in the first place {Report} itself uses up a tremendous amount of mana so regardless of whether it"s family or a stranger it doesn"t matter at all.
By the way, this fish, it"s my first time eating it. It"s really delicious right. It"s even more delicious than the Meiza.s.sh that George brought in the past! What kind of fish is this?"
"It"s a meineiji. And Meiza.s.sh isn"t the name of a fish. It"s a method of drying out fish. It was probably a fish called Eiwas. Were there a bunch of them with something like a skewer pa.s.sed through their eyes? And they shouldn"t have had their bodies cut open like this one. Rather than that."
"Wh, what did you say?! I didn"t know that. Al knows everything. I guess this is what you"d call extensive knowledge."
"There"s no way I know everything right. As proof of that things like {Report} or..the 13 systems of magic, it"s my first time hearing those. That"s why, please hurry with the continuation."
"Really~ Al sure is impatient. If it"s like that you won"t be popular? It would be best if you properly listened to what people are saying."
This..I want to dry it out and turn it into sardines~ I imagined biting into Karl"s head while biting my bread and started to feel disgusted so I stopped.
"..What is it? Suddenly going quiet. Ah, are you reflecting on it? Do you want to become popular that much? How unfortunate but we fairies and the human"That doesn"t matter at all, I"m begging you so please continue with teaching me about it."
"If you had come out like that awkwardly from the start hen I would have taught you though..Al sure is a shy one."
Really can"t this guy just die already?
"Hey~ Karl. I"m begging, I really want to know. Please teach..Please teach me I"m begging you."
"If I"m being asked that far then I guess it can"t be helped. Then, the continuation. In any case the spell {Report} requires an absurdly large amount of mana to use. That"s why isn"t it only about the G.o.ds? That can use it."
"Huh? G.o.ds?"
"Right. I"m sure it"s only about the G.o.ds. Like I~du-sama or Vagwina-sama, don"t you know them?"
Putting aside I~du, I"ve never heard of a name that"s one step from becoming a word prohibited from broadcasting like Vagwina.
"I don"t know them. It"s my first time hearing that as well. Are those the names of some G.o.ds?"
"Hmn, I see. Both of those G.o.ds are pretty old after all. Well to be more accurate they"re not G.o.ds but {Demi-G.o.ds}. It seems that recently Lilus-sama was able to ascend to being a {Demi-G.o.d} as well. Well even if I say recently it was before I was born so I don"t really know for sure on it. Rather than that, Meineiji, was it? Flip it over."
"Ah, yes-yes~"
Just as Karl requested I flip over the dried fish so a different part of the flame is. .h.i.tting it.
"In any case unless it"s someone like those {Demi-G.o.ds} that have an absurd amount of mana then there"s no way they could use a spell like {Report}. That"s why, I could have sworn at first that Al was the envoy some {Demi-G.o.d} had sent over."
"It"s not a skill right?"
"He~! As expected the things someone with a Unique Ability says are different!"
Eh? I haven"t said a single thing about having a Unique Ability..
"What are you so surprised over? Fairy Sight can see all skills...Come to think of it George was surprised as well. He had a lot of more Unique Abilities than Al. That"s right did you know? George you know, he said his name isn"t George..What was it again? In any case he said he had a completely different name. That"s strange right. Even though he had the name George Rombert. Well rather than something like that but in regards to the spell {Report}"Rather than something like that, you..!"
In a panic I interposed some words but Karl just kept continuing like that.
"In order to use {Report} you know, it seems you select the target for it, but that doesn"t particularly mean they have to be within your vision supposedly. However you know, if they aren"t normally in your sight you"d have no way of selecting them right? Ahahahaa."
I wonder if it"s just my imagination that talking to this guy makes me feel pointlessly tired.
"Wait just a moment, Unique Ability..Never mind, I"ll ask in order.."
"That"s right, Al. It"s important to properly listen to what people are saying. And, did I already mention that {Report} is a spell the user casts on a specific target? Yeah, right. And then.."
Karl"s conversation kept jumping back and forth here and there, but I was able to learn several important points.
First, about the spell {Report}. In order to use it you need a tremendous amount of mana. I don"t know how much that is but it seems it"s no good if it isn"t in the realm of the G.o.ds like these {Demi-G.o.d}. I don"t know at all if I could use it with my mana.
And, the important parts start from here but the spell {Report} isn"t a spell that just sends everything the target sees or hears to the user as it"s running. It"s limited to just the effect of allowing the user to peek into the head of the target it seems. That"s why, he said unless it"s something that the target is somewhat strongly aware of that remains in their memory then they can"t see it. And, it seems that in order for the user to see inside of the targets head the target needs to be in a state where their level of consciousness has fallen so it seems that most of the time it"s while sleeping and the user can only see things when they want to look (in other words, unless the user doesn"t actively try to look at them they can"t see).
And, the memories of the target that the user looks at are stolen. Stolen is a considerably faulty expression. More accurately they"re "sealed away as if they"re stolen". It might be a bad comparison but if we were to say there"s an event called A which the target has strongly remaining in their memory. If the user of the spell looks into the memories of the target during sleep and event A is included in those memories they see then the target will have memories concerning event A sealed away "almost as if it was stolen". Since it"s limited to just being sealed away, if there"s some sort of occasion then you can remember them again easily.
Here I remembered back to several instances. One year ago and even before that I was forgetting about important things right and left. Of course, everyone has times when they forget about things that aren"t important so I"m sure there"s plenty of stuff I"ve forgotten about and just not noticed as well. If I have the spell {Report} cast on me then it"s not that I can"t agree on that point.
It seems the target is fine as anyone. The easiest target is something like parent and child, siblings, or a blood relative. After that is blood relatives who are a bit further on the degree of kinship. And people like roommates or marriage couples that are on intimate terms like family but not blood related. Friends, acquaintances, as the relationship gets further away it seems it requires more and more mana to use the spell. It seems that in the end even if it"s a No-Name Gonbee-san who you don"t know at all and is several hundred Km away it"s possible to use it on them still.
Also, it seems that even we say strangers, rather than a blood-relative who lives far away, an intimate person who lives nearby and has similar values is easier to use it on. For example, if I were to use it on my parents or child (I have no children though) then it would be the easiest but by narrowing the search objective it can be easier to use it on a stranger as well.
Rather than trying to look at everything inside of my head things like, "a former SDF officer who was discharged as a result of fighting and likes fish" or even lighter, "people who want new shoes" if it"s people who have the same values as me, or rather, I can"t express it right but anyone who might share similar qualities, it seems that those sorts of things make it easier to target the spell. I remember back to searching by keyword on the internet. It"s probably unrelated though.
According to Karl there"s even more of some kind of restriction in the mana of the {Report} that"s connected to me and obviously the more restrictions (something like search conditions?) included the easier it is to use, so while it makes sense to me, it"s certain I don"t feel good about it. When it comes to distance according to Karl it"s tremendously far away. Though it depends on the frequency and depth that the spell {Report} is being used but it seems that if someone mentions the memories that were sealed it"s common to remember them.
This is probably the cause of my memory impairment. I don"t know for sure when they started using it on me but according to Karl, it seems it"s less than 10 years in the past. At first I was suspicious of the G.o.d who reincarnated me but I guess that means that"s not the case?
The next thing that had my interest was what Karl said about the human named "George Rombert" who visited here in the past. In all likelihood it"s about the founder George Rombert the First.
I guess that means the legends were true.
And it seems that George Rombert had a lot of Unique Abilities. In other words he was a reincarnated person the same as me. The only thing that Karl was somehow able to remember was that he had around 20 Unique Abilities. He said he doesn"t remember what kind of abilities they were. If who he met was the founder George Rombert the First then it would have been about 500 years in the past, so it"s probably harsh to criticize him for that. It"s good he was even able to remember just the name.
After that is magic. According to Karl, splitting it up into elemental magic like Water, Fire, Wind, Earth, and Void Magic for the five types of magic is the way of organizing them for beginners. It"s true that their names appear as special skills so it"s easy to split them up like that. However, when it comes to using magic there"s always some sort of objective to it. It"s something that"s only obvious but an action without objective doesn"t exist. No matter how insignificant or trivial it is an objective is an objective. And, in order to meet that objective in most cases Void Magic makes up the largest factor towards that.
You"re using element magic and void magic in combination to create a spell but spells each have a certain process to them. How you make the elements using elemental magic, the order they"re made, what happens after they"re made, and how void magic interacts with that. The organization of thinking about things like that is the magic organization called the 13 type system.
For example, it doesn"t matter what but if you have an elemental magic of level 2 (above) and level 2 (above) void magic that you use in combination you can use the most simple form of healing spell called {Cure}. This "doesn"t matter what" part is where it gets difficult. It"s fine if it"s earth magic or water magic. Of course it"s even fine as fire and wind magic as well. Such magics as those combined with void magic and the healing phenomena that are made through magic is the spell called {Cure}.
Then what system of magic does {Cure} fall into?
Is what it comes down to. It"s true if you try to think of it in terms of special skills as the base then it comes out as extremes, so it might be easier to call it "all systems" in that case but that"s essentially the product of abandoning the idea of trying to study magic.
The ones that are primarily used for healing {Cure} or light healing {Cure Light} are the {Cure} system or the type for connecting limbs back together {Reconnection} (after all it existed), and those sorts of spells that have some kind of effect on the body are cla.s.sified under the {Necromantic} system of spells it seems.
The one that removes paralysis {Remove Paralyze} and neutralizes poisons {Neutralize Poison} that are commonly called the Remove type have a cla.s.sification as well. {Remove Paralyze} is the {Abjuration} system and {Neutralize Poison} is the {Alteration} system.
I felt like scales fell from my eyes hearing this. It"s true that since I normally use mana and I can use a variety of spells, and have trained with them quite a bit so it"sa concept that"s easy for me to understand.
The type of spells used for attack as well, on Orth they"re considered Gravel type, Arrow type, Bolt type, Javelin type, and simply have a warhead to that goes flying, or ones that are called the Azahedd type (Fire Ball is of course included but Lighting Bolt, Ice Cone, Disintegrate are considered this type. Simply put they"re just cla.s.sified as different from the above) so it"s only obvious they were split up by the wide variety of elemental magic and the scale they use.
If I were to split these up into the systems I just heard, for example {Stone Gravel} is {Stone Arrow}, {Stone Bolt}, {Stone Javelin}, all of those would be under the same {Alteration} system and also include the {Summoning} system but if it"s {Stone Missile} that has guiding added to it then not just {Alteration} and {Summoning} but the {Invocation} system is included as well. If this weren"t Stone but rather Ice then it becomes {Alteration}, {Conjuration}, and {Summoning} systems, and then if you were to make it into Ice Missile then just like with Stone it would be those three plus {Invocation} system added.
Other than that there"s also {Flame Thrower} is the {Alternation} system but {Fire Ball} is the {Evocation} system. Just the same {Shocking Grasp} is the {Alteration} system and by making the range of that even wider in other words {Lightning Bolt} is just the same as {Fire Ball} the {Evocation} system.
Things like the magic sound {Audible Clamor}, {Ventriloquism}, clone {Mirror Image}, {Invisibility}, and {Paralyze} are parts of the {Illusion} and {Phantasm} systems.
And then spells entered into a territory that I didn"t have even the slightest clue about. Spells that have to do with the mentality. The spell that can interrupt the opponent from thinking normally the spell {Confuse} (this seems to be {Enchantment} and {Charm} systems). A spell that makes it so the opponent is more likely to go along with your proposals {Suggestion} is the {Enchantment and {Charm} system, it seems that there"s a lot of really useful spells along that end, just the same under the {Divination} system which is considered a legend there"s {Find Trap}, {Detect Charm}, {Detect Lie}, {Predict Weather}, a mountain of insanely useful sounding spells.
Incidentally the {Possession} system which is said to be special is only made up of a spell called {Magic Jar}. It"s a frightening magic used to seal away the targets soul in a container prepared before hand (it seems a gourd is the best choice).
Putting it simply you could say they"re splitting them up based on their use of void magic. Honestly speaking, if it wasn"t someone like me who can use a variety of spells I don"t think there"s much meaning in learning or organizing spells by system. However, it"s a way of thinking that matches perfectly to me.
After thinking that far and knowing anew on the existence of a variety of spells I lowered my head to Karl who is biting into the dried Meineiji.
"Karl. Please, would you teach me magic? If there"s something I can do in return then I"ll do anything. I"m begging, just like this."
After hearing my wish Karl,
"Eh~ that"s too annoying. It"s not like I can use them all well myself either..Wouldn"t it be fine if you just asked the one using that {Report} spell on you? And my stomach is almost full soon, I"m busy. After all I have to take an afternoon nap after this~"
Said that and was about to go off somewhere (probably draw back into his sleeping place). I somewhat was able to grab him and lowered my head again.
"You know~ I"m tired right now. Haven"t I already taught you plenty? If you don"t stop already I"ll really get angry~ And, there"s already no more Meinieji right? You should leave."
Ah, I see.
"Understood. I"ll leave for today. However it"s fine if I come again right?"
"I don"t mind that. However can you get here? In order to teleport to here from the 1st floor, it won"t work just through coincidence. Once in every four months, in other words January, May, and September, it"s only a matter of if you get lucky when you teleport on the first day of those months. And, I don"t know how you did it but you have to get past the {Snake Generator} as well, and if you don"t press the switches that are in the bottoms of the pitfalls in the correct order the door won"t appear as well. Ah, I have no intention of teaching you though."
Hohou.
"I see..Karl, that"s unfortunate.."
"I"m disappointed as well, Al. Since you brought something delicious along."
"Yeah, by the way, do you know of a fish called Meiseiva? I thought about bringing that along next time. I"m sure there"s a matter of taste as well but I think it"s more delicious than Meineiji. I really wanted to let Karl try eating it. But, it can"t be helped."
"Ha Ha, people with Unique Abilities all seem to say things like that. It"s true I have interest in that fish but there"s no way I"d trade the secret for food. But, it would be nice if we can meet again in four months. If you bring along some fish again at that time I"ll talk to you some more. See you later. On your way back it will drop you a place that looks the same but they"re different~ Then, Good night~"
Karl said that and flew up to the upper part of the tree.
Not just Karl but the other fairies are all gone as well. I"m standing all alone in the middle of the pond. It can"t be helped, I guess I"ll head back. I quickly gathered my belongings and started walking back the way I came. I walk through the hole where the door is and after turning around there was no sign or shape of the door anymore.
Next time I"ll bring along a lot more fish.
Furthermore, the place I ended up in the dungeon was a completely different place from where I had originally teleported. I was able to realize it was still the 2nd floor along the way but I had to walk carefully for three hours and by the time I finally arrived at the room with the teleport crystal I was exhausted.