I"ve really come upon an interesting guy. After encountering numerous unpleasant things for some time in this town, I was starting to think about leaving. Seems like my boredom will be solved temporarily with this.
Ashley remained vigilant of her surroundings as she thought about such things. However, when she spotted the figure of Ray seemingly about to collapse from magical energy exhaustion, she rushed down the slope.
Did he exhaust his magical energy? Did he not know his limits after losing his memories? Or did he force himself to the limit in order to get stronger . . . if he was thinking about getting stronger because of my words . . .
She"d heard from magicians that using your magical power to its limits was a matter related to life and death. She"d also heard that in the case where large scale magic was being carried out, if the magic was utilized beyond its limits then every single mage involved would lose their lives.
Immediately upon arriving, she embraced his shoulders and said, "Are you okay? I"m worried since it looked like you used a considerable amount of magical energy . . ."
In response to her worried face, Ray immediately stood back up and replied, "I"m fine. Just a little bit of dizziness."
Ashley cursed her own carelessness and made sure to pray special attention to the fact that Ray had lost his memories.
The magic which Ray had invoked was exceedingly efficient. That was an effect of the magical formula written on his left hand. However, these two people who knew little about magic related matters didn"t realize that.
Magic was invoked by changing the energy of the spirits into a form in accordance with the pract.i.tioner"s imagination, in exchange for the pract.i.tioner"s magical energy. Spirits were existences who did not possess high intelligence. In order to convey the mage"s image accurately to the spirit, it was necessary to make it easy for the spirit to understand.
It might be easier to understand if you view the spirit as a computer.
In order to use the "spirits" or the computer in a manner that follows your expectations, a program or "image" is required.
Because this program doesn"t reside permanently within the computer or "spirit", each time use it, it is necessary to write the program from scratch, in other words, you must "convey your image to the spirit by chanting."
For those who cannot program well, their programs waste an unnecessary amount of processing time, the equivalent of "magical power".
So how do you simplify a program?
You need to incorporate an application or "magical formula" into the process from the beginning.
The magical formula on Ray"s left hand is an application that is able to interact with each of the eight elements. When the imaginative power of a modern person like Ray is coupled together with the general utility of a magical formula, then his magical efficiency will be several times greater than a normal magician.
The two of them exited the forest and headed for Molton.
Although Ray appeared absolutely exhausted due to how close he was to completely exhausting his magical power, if you exclude that, there was no particular abnormality that could be seen. After they pa.s.sed through the main gate and arrived at the guild, the time was four o"clock in the afternoon.
Ashley walked to the counter while supporting Ray in order to report the completion of their request.
Aftering placing the seven magic stones onto the counter and they received a completion reward of seventy Crona and also another fourteen Crona for the magic stones.
Among the adventurers who saw Ray"s haggard form, those who knew that this was his first request wondered if he had failed it. They imagined on their own that it must have been a considerably difficult fight.
As for those who didn"t know about him yet, when they saw the figure of a man clad in extravagant plate mail armor leaning upon on a completely clean-looking female warrior for support, they sent him scornful looks.
Within the guild, there were malicious words, like, "How did he end up that sorry state after fighting just seven lizardmen?" or "He was saved by a woman?" Although the two of them heard them, they paid them no mind and headed for the inn.
Around the time when they arrived at the inn, Ray was somehow able to walk by himself again. However,
Magical energy exhaustion feels so terrible . . . aah, I shouldn"t have refused quantifying magical power. I purposely didn"t include such a thing in the setting since understanding magical power and life force through digital values seemed strange. Besides, if someone was in an extreme situation, they should be able to exceed those kinds of values . . . nevertheless, I really want a gauge for my magical power right now . . .
He hurriedly finished dinner and then immediately fell asleep after flopping into his bed.
After bringing Ray back to his room, Ashley once again returned to the dining hall and began drinking some alcohol by herself.
My head"s feeling confused after everything that"s happened today. I wonder what I should do about my relationship with him from now on . . .
After her disappointment towards Ray"s pathetic performance in his first battle against the lizardmen, Ashley had intended to abandon him. Of course, since he was her life savior, she planned to look after him until he was able to be independent. However, similar to how she had felt about him in the beginning, this time her feelings toward him had also warmed up and then all at once, suddenly cooled.
Although he had somehow managed to hold a fight in the end, her feelings towards him shouldn"t have changed.
And yet, when speaking with him, she had casually let out the words "If you want to stand beside me . . ." Ashley had no idea what she was thinking at that time.
After she heard Ray"s subsequent apology and witnessed him desperately practicing his magic, her evaluation of him once again changed.
I don"t know if he had worked himself so hard because he wanted to be with me, but it"s not exactly something I can ask . . . I wonder what he actually thinks? . . . since meeting him, not even two days have pa.s.sed. Despite that, what is this feeling?
Not knowing how to deal with her various emotions, Ashley ended up drinking a bit more alcohol than usual.
The next morning, when Ray opened his eyes he welcomed the morning feeling refreshed.
Although I was worried about how I would feel today after exhausting my magical energy, it looks like it was a needless worry.
The weather was also good today. His eyes had opened due to the rays of the morning sun which had streamed through the crevices of the wooden window together with the break of dawn. Since the time was just right, Ray immediately put on his equipment and headed for the back of the inn.
For some reason, Ashley was not yet present, so he had to begin his practice alone. After swinging by himself for around thirty minutes, a sleepy-looking Ashley arrived.
"Good morning, you"re quite late today. Perhaps you were too worried about me last night to sleep?"
While looking slightly ill-humored, Ashley shook her head.
"No, I just drank a bit too much last night. The sleepiness will go away immediately after I start sweating. After we"ve warmed up, want to spar?"
Ten minutes pa.s.sed, and they began the mock-battle with one holding a wooden sword and the other holding a wooden rod. It seemed like Ray really was compatible with the spear after all, since he seemed to improve even further than yesterday.
"It"s as I thought, you"re quite talented with the spear. What level is your spearmanship skill at?"
"I can"t see my skills . . . I don"t know why though . . ."
"Never mind, don"t worry about it. Based on how I felt during our exchange, it"s probably around level twenty or thirty. A level that"s more than enough for a soldier to make a living."
Having been given the stamp of approval by Ashley who was a mercenary, Ray felt slightly comforted.
We should also be accepting a monster subjugation request today. I"m happy even if she said that just to make me feel better. Let"s do our best not to show her an unsightly appearance today.
The two sweated for another thirty minutes and then pa.s.sed through the guild entrance once again at the same time of eight o"clock.
Identical to yesterday, the bulletin board was crowded with people. When Ray asked Ashley about what kind of request they were going to accept, she replied, "We"re aiming for a big one today." She then showed him the request slip.
"A grizzly appeared near Latley Village which we went to yesterday. He"s going to be the one we"re taking down. There"s a possibility that we"ll have to spend the night at Latley today."
Not knowing why they had to stay over at the village, Ray inquired about the reason.
"The area of activity of a grizzly bear is quite wide. Since its active area is divided into separate parts by the two lakes, the area we have to search is even larger. It’s best to think that if we go now and have good luck then the most we can do is find its trail."
While wondering if that really was the case, Ray recalled the stories he"d heard about the Matagi and then, accepted it. (TL: Matagi were traditional winter bear hunters of j.a.pan.)
Now that she mentions it, I"ve heard that the Matagi had to enter the mountains for several days. Not only that, they also brought hunting dogs with them. For us who don"t have any means of tracking the bear, it"s probably a mistake to think that we can find it in a single day.
Ray"s theory was actually slightly off. Different from the monsters of this world, the bears of j.a.pan were fundamentally timid animals. Compared to them, the monsters and wild beasts of this world actively attacked humans, rarely ever deciding to run away and hide.
Even if they were to hunt down monsters without any dogs, the monsters would attack them on their own. So it wasn"t like the adventurers of this world were better at tracking than hunting dogs.