"I wonder if it"s been healed? Could you look at it for me?"
Ashley who had been looking at him with an astonished expression, fl.u.s.teredly moved closer to confirm the condition of his ear.
"It"s healed. You can also use healing magic . . .? The chances that you"re a holy knight are getting higher and higher . . ."
Although she muttered the last words quietly, Ray was able to clearly hear it since she was close to his ear
"Why? I know that holy knights use the light element . . . nevertheless . . ."
"Although I"ve only heard about this from rumors, they say that the holy knights" are actually better at healing magic than offensive magic. Well, some of them replace their bows with arrows of light when they"re on horseback, but it doesn"t seem like there are many of them who can do that."
Ray wondered why that was, but didn"t arrive an answer since there was too little information.
Is it that difficult for magic and swords to coexist? I don"t remember making that kind of setting though . . .
In his setting, there were magic swordsmen who used fire magic and elven warriors who used wind magic.
"Perhaps, swordsmen who can practice magic are rare?"
"That"s right. It"s not that they don"t exist, but I"ve never heard of many people having first cla.s.s skills in both magic and swordsmanship. Magic requires the a.s.sistance of magical equipment such as staffs. Furthermore, since the number times they can be used is quite limited, most magicians use a sword for self-protection instead of magic. Elves however, are a different matter."
I think I get the gist of what"s she"s saying. This world"s magic places great importance on the mental image. If the image is unclear, the efficiency of the magic will be terrible, causing the consumption of magical energy to be high. In order to prevent that, magicians need to compensate with magical tools such as staffs to raise the efficiency. Because of that, there aren"t many magic swordsmen. Unless there"s a weapon that also serves to increase one"s magic efficiency, having both of them coexist is a difficult matter. Well, for races such as the elves who are geniuses at one specific element, the problem of inefficiency is resolved . . . I"ll need to make sure I don"t use too much magic during practice.
The two of them continued to talk about such matters and before they knew it, two hours pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye. When Koda arrived to pick them up and was told that they had already finished subjugating all of the lizardmen, his cat ears twitched in surprise.
"You"ve already finished? Alright then, please get on the boat."
When the returned to Latley village, they headed for Kieran"s place and showed him the magic stones, informing him that the request had been completed. It seemed like he had never thought these two young adventurers would finish the entire subjugation in merely three hours. Due to his astonishment, Kieran"s round cat eyes rounded even further.
After he confirmed their completion of the request, they both departed Latley village. It was still early, two in the afternoon. If they headed for Molton right now, they would arrive before three o"clock. Since they still had some free time, they decided to search for the place where Ray could practice his magic. They advanced on the road until they were in the vicinity of Molton and then entered the forest on the eastern side of the town.
After walking for around ten minutes while pulling their horses, the discovered a place where the land sloped down into a shallow basin.
"I think this place is good. Ashley, sorry to trouble you, but could you stand guard for me?"
She immediately consented to the task and headed for the top of the basin.
After confirming her departure, Ray began to think about what kind of practice he needed to do.
Alright, what kind of magic should I practice. I should concentrate on magic that can be used reliably if I don"t want to hold Ashley back. With that in mind, it would be best if I try mastering the light element and also practice the soil and wood elements for surprise attacks. So, let"s do light first then . . . (TL: I"ve changed arbor to wood.)
Ray summoned the spear of light that he had thrown at the lizardman earlier.
He then threw it at the slope of the basin. However, it"s speed was slower than the image in his mind and it"s power was also lower than expected.
The size of the spear is acceptable, so the problem is its speed and power. How do I raise its speed? . . . no, wait, why does the light have to be in the shape of spear in the first place? Why can"t it be a laser cannon or a gun? There"s probably no need for me to specially use the form of a spear right?
He ordered the spirits of light to gather and decided to shoot the gathered light all at once.
Although light began to gather as he thrust his left hand out before him, the light wasn"t very focused. The light finally finished gathering after one minute and was shot forward with a powerful force.
Just when he thought that the dazzling light was flying forwards, a sound similar to the crackling of thunder resounded throughout the area and a small hole was opened in the side of the basin.
Does the sound come from when the air is torn apart due to the light being too concentrated? I can almost use this like a gun, but, its weak point is the time required until the light is completely gathered. Would the time be shortened if I suppress the power a little bit more?
However, no matter how many times he repeated the process of trial and error, the magic wouldn"t activate when the power was suppressed any further. He finally accepted that the one minute of focusing the light was required.
Rather than a laser gun, this is more like a thunderbolt. I"m not sure what the range is but it seemed it seemed to have flown around fifty meters (TL: Nelon"s column is ~52 meters). However, whether or not I can aim it accurately is a separate problem . . . it feels like any further improvement for this will be difficult. Let"s see if we can add homing capabilities to the arrow of light.
He produced an arrow of light of around thirty cemers in length and also shot it towards the slope of the basin. Although it was faster than the spear, its speed was about only as much as a normal arrow.
Perhaps it"s influenced by my mental image? The spear was only as fast as a javelin throw and the arrow was only as fast as one shot from a bow. As for the thunderbolt, that was only limited by the speed of light . . . I"ll need to experiment with this some more . . .
He produced another arrow of light. This time, he imagined it with the added homing function.
Because he imagined it more like a missile rather than an arrow, its initial velocity was slow but it gave off the feeling that it steadily accelerated and then once again, slowed down in the end. Compared to when he had imagined an arrow, its range seemed to have extended. However, its actual range couldn"t be grasped due to the constricted s.p.a.ce of the basin.
In regards to its homing abilities, the trajectory could be somewhat adjusted. However, it wasn"t maneuverable enough to be called homing.
The homing has room for improvement. Nevertheless, I wonder how the spears and arrows of gathered light manifest physically? Do the spirits of light gather and then harden? I still don"t really understand it . . .
As he thought about such things, Ray tried to materialize an arrow of light once again. However, the moment he tried to do so, he was overcome with a sudden wave of dizziness and had to squat down onto the ground.
Ashley watched Ray practice his magic from above the slope. As she saw him perform such abnormalities, she fell into mute amazement.
Among the best mages I"ve seen up until now, even the elves of Saltooth didn"t activate their magic continuously over such a long period of time. The spear of light in the beginning, the series of thunderbolts after that, and the arrow of light can change its trajectory . . . if he actually manages to aim those thunderbolts accurately, then n.o.body would be able to avoid them. Those arrows of light will also be considerably difficult to avoid . . . nevertheless, for him to shoot so much magic in such a short amount of time . . . is he really human?
She wondered how many times she had been surprised these past three days, and couldn"t help letting a small smile escape.
TL: Editors are welcome. Tell me in the comments if you"re interested.