Chapter 38 - Fireball (1)

Would you believe me if I said a strange haze was rising from my sword? It was the sort of thing you would find in fantasy or martial arts fiction, so I could hardly believe it myself.

According to Sword Masta, it was very easy once you got the hang of it. But apparently, she had never seen anyone emit energy as soon as they heard her advice, like I had. Even she had needed an hour to get the hang of it, or something. Of course, that might have been because her advice distilled all her accumulated expertise.

Is this aura?

Wild Grylls

(Photo of a sword with haze rising from it)

I did what Sword Masta told me. Is this aura?

Asking because it was way too easy.

└Sword Masta Yes, that's aura... I had my doubts, but you really did it.

└Wild Grylls That's good, right?

└Quit humblebragging. It's annoying.

└Some people take months, and this guy does it in a day lmao.

└Months, my ass. It took me three fucking years lmao.

└What exactly did Sword Masta teach you? Tell me too.

└Wild Grylls She just told me to recreate the feeling of circulating mana, then imagine sending it into the sword. So that's what I did.

└God... I can't believe she'd give an explanation like that, and I can't believe it actually worked for this guy.

└Fuck, if that explanation were enough to emit aura, every random nobody would be using it lmaooo.

└Starlight Lady Wow. That's amazing. What circle would that be equivalent to for a mage?

└For a mage, it'd be like starting at the third circle.

└Starlight Lady I see. That's impressive, right?

└What circle did YOU start at?

└Starlight Lady The fifth circle. I could have started higher, but my illness prevented it.

└Here's another one spouting bullshit lmaooo.

└That's like using an aura blade from the get-go lmao.

└It's not an aura blade. It's sword force.

└Same fucking thing, moron. Do you have to nitpick?

└It's a matter of pride.

└Wild Gryll Anyway, if I concentrate this stuff together, it becomes an aura blade, right? Okay, I'll practice.

└Sword Masta Practice is good, but the most important thing is to hold on to that feeling. Sometimes people forget it.

└Wild Grylls Forget it?

└Sword Masta It's the same principle as becoming conscious of your breathing.

The comment section went wild the moment I showed them my aura. Heavenly Demon didn't comment, perhaps busy fulfilling her moderator duties. Well, now that we could chat one-on-one, I figured she would message me herself.

'Is this really that good?'

I studied the sword and the haze rising from it. I could definitely feel mana leaving my body. But every breath replenished it, so that didn't mean much.

'Sword Masta said to compress it tightly, right?'

She had advised me to practice until the haze took on a sharp form. From here on, it was largely a matter of talent, so there wasn't much she could do. Even so, she promised to help as best she could.

'I feel like all I ever do is take...'

I wanted to give Sword Masta something for all her useful tips. But she refused even rare herbs because she didn't want to get any healthier. What could I give her that she would gladly accept? Would she take some other material gift instead of herbs?

'This is tricky.'

Sword Masta was especially difficult compared to Heavenly Demon. All this taking without giving anything back didn't sit right with me. She'd said all I had to do was marry her, but that was obviously a joke. Besides, I wasn't even sure I could get out of here.

'Shall I test it out first?'

I went outside with an ordinary logging axe instead of Heavenly Demon's sword. Roundfur was napping, and the speed-sloth was riding on my back. There was no better way to test aura—sword energy—than chopping down trees.

'Normally, this took a few swings.'

I recalled the feeling of putting mana into the sword. First, I needed to feel the mana accumulated in my dantian. She had advised me to think of the mana stored in my lower abdomen as a stockpile. All I had to do was draw mana from that storehouse and send it into my weapon.

'She said that when the storehouse runs dry, you have to refill it using a cultivation method, but...'

Sword Masta said she had never once lacked mana in her life. Her constitution let her accumulate mana with every breath, keeping her going like a perpetual-motion machine. She said I might end up the same way given my environment, but I wasn't sure.

'I should keep practicing my internal energy cultivation method.'

I sent mana into the axe. A haze gradually began to rise from it. This energy was called sword energy in the Central Plains, and aura in other countries. Supposedly, it let you exert several times the strength of an ordinary person.

"Hup!"

Just how powerful would it be? I swung the axe hard, aiming straight at the thick trunk of a tree. Only yesterday, a tree like this had taken several swings to fell.

CRACK!

The axe blade didn't just bite deep into the trunk. It passed straight through. It hadn't sliced through like tofu, but the middle of the trunk was thoroughly shredded.

CRRRAACK!

With its trunk so thoroughly smashed, the huge tree began toppling on its own. It leaned farther and farther before falling with a thud. Good thing I'd been chopping on the side away from the cave. Otherwise, I would have destroyed the barricades the dwarf had gone to the trouble of giving me.

'It bursts apart instead of cutting.'

I examined the fallen trunk. I'd known it would make my weapon more powerful, but hadn't expected this much. According to Sword Masta, the haze was a sign of mana leaking out. That meant the weapon's fundamental nature remained unchanged.

'Considering what an axe does, it makes sense.'

An axe was a weapon better suited to smashing than slicing. That explained why the trunk had been torn to shreds. If I'd put mana into a sword instead, I probably could have sliced through it like tofu.

'... Could I?'

The moment that thought struck me, I fetched Heavenly Demon's sword from the cave. To test it, I placed the blade against a tree trunk without infusing it with mana. Before, I hadn't even tried for fear of chipping the edge. But I wasn't sawing wood with a sword now. I was just checking whether it could cut through a trunk as a performance test.

SHHHK

"Huh?"

My eyes went wide. I'd only applied a little pressure, but Heavenly Demon's sword sank deep into the wood. Then it sliced smoothly through the trunk and came out the other side.

RUMBLE

I was too busy staring at Heavenly Demon's sword to care about the falling tree. I'd known it was good, but I hadn't expected anything like this.

'What kind of broken-ass item is this?'

With a sword like this, I didn't even need to emit aura. Of course, I had absolutely no intention of using Heavenly Demon's sword for logging. Chipping the edge by mistake would be a problem.

'She just gave me a sword like this?'

My respect for Heavenly Demon grew by leaps and bounds. At the same time, I worried that the sword she'd given me was far too good. Part of me wanted to return it right away, but she would refuse.

'I'll return it once I find a good sword of my own.'

This sword was far too much for me. Someday, it needed to go back to its owner.

I listed all but one of the fallen trees at the auction house. Since I was there anyway, I checked the price of the inner core I'd listed that morning.

Inner Core: 500 nyang of silver

"Wow."

The price just kept climbing. I marveled at the bid. Five hundred nyang of silver was equivalent to 5,000 gold. The owlbear corpse had sold for 250 nyang of silver, so this was twice as much. Apparently, Heavenly Demon's testimony that it was an inner core had helped drive up the price.

'What if it turns out to be fake after all this?'

Would I have to refund the money? I wasn't sure. Still, with Heavenly Demon backing me up, the buyer probably wouldn't kick up a fuss. Even if they did, there should be no problem with her acting as my witness.

'Let's see. What time is it...?'

I opened the forum to check the time. Well over an hour had passed while I practiced cultivation and aura. It was now 1:30 p.m. There was still plenty of time until sunset.

'Maybe I should make some traps?'

It seemed like a good way to improve my handiwork and get some meat. A forum search would tell me everything I needed to know about setting traps. Adventurers sometimes posted instructions for making hunting traps. There were even some in the top posts, so I should be able to make one quickly.

'The problem is where the small animals are...'

I knew where small animals like rabbits passed through. The problem was that the muscle mushroom lived in that direction. It should be fine as long as I didn't provoke it, but you never knew. It might still be awake and wandering around. For safety's sake, it would be better to kill it.

'There was a cave there too. I can check it out while I'm at it.'

That settled it. I'd deal with the muscle mushroom first. Its blows packed a punch, but it was slow. And since I'd been told it was weak to fire, killing it shouldn't be too difficult.

'Or did he not say it was weak to fire? He said fire was essential because of spores or something.'

I'd have to hold a sword in one hand and a torch in the other. I recalled the golden shield, dented by a single Deathfist. If that punch landed cleanly, there probably wouldn't be much left of me. Fighting from a distance would be better.

'It didn't look like arrows would work on it.'

Even an ant had a distinct head, thorax, and abdomen. Not the muscle mushroom. Aside from its arms and legs, it was elongated like an eggplant. It was practically a plant, so dealing with it would be difficult unless I tore it to pieces or burned it.

'... They said magic exists too, right?'

Something suddenly came to mind. Magic, the hallmark of fantasy, an ability that invariably appeared in it. It was said that practically only geniuses qualified to even begin learning it.

'Couldn't I learn just a little?'

Learning magic would make all sorts of things more convenient. Not only would it give me ranged attacks, it would be a huge help in daily life. As soon as that occurred to me, I opened the forum without hesitation.

Is magic easy to learn?

Wild Grylls

I'd like to learn some simple fire or water magic. Is it hard?

└Heavenly Demon Now, now. Greatness comes from devoting yourself to a single pursuit. Are you already entertaining distractions?

└Sword Masta The moderator is right. Magic was so difficult even I gave up immediately. Don't even try.

└Guess you don't know how many wannabe mages are on this forum lol.

└Grylls, you're going to get burned. Don't do it.

└For real, we're saying this to be nice.

Everyone was against it. Even Heavenly Demon and Sword Masta. Why were they all so negative?

└Wild Grylls Didn't you say elves and demons use magic just fine?

└Their baseline is high enough to reach the third circle, but even they struggle beyond that.

└Grylls, didn't you say you were human?

└Wild Grylls Yeah. Just curious.

└Magic makes even demons and elves shudder. They're actually worse than humans when it comes to theory.

└Wild Grylls Why?

└Would you analyze every little theoretical detail of how you breathe? Humans are unusually inquisitive. Other races generally aren't like that.

└Wild Grylls Oh, got it.

└Slutty Princess Still, our Mephisto has better magic. Just look at broadcast magic!

└Gotta give demons credit for their everyday magic. Life's much more comfortable thanks to them lmao.

└Praise the demon who invented air-conditioning magic!

└What's air-conditioning magic?

└AC.

└Oh lol. Definitely praise-worthy lol.

└For me, it's refrigeration magic lol. I can have cold booze every day.

└Let's Grow Trees Elves are inventing all sorts of magic too!

└What kind of magic?

└Let's Grow Trees Communication, reconnaissance, and explosion magic!

└Holy shit... That's fucking terrifying.

└Are those bastards seriously planning to start a war?

└Let's Grow Trees Don't worry. Elves love peace.

└Wild Grylls How is that any different from saying, "If you want peace, prepare for war"...?

└Let's Grow Trees Oooh! What a wonderful saying. I'll take it to heart.

└Wild Grylls Huh?

Someone there seemed seriously unhinged, but it'd probably be fine. Anyway, magic apparently had all sorts of uses. It was literally magic in place of science. No, maybe in this world, magic was science.

└Starlight Lady Are you trying to learn magic? I can help.

└Wild Grylls Aren't you busy exercising?

└Starlight Lady I have plenty of free time outside my workouts. Forgive me for asking, Grylls, but you can do arithmetic, right?

└Wild Grylls I graduated high school, you know...?

Wasn't she underestimating me a bit too much? Or maybe a lot of people couldn't even do arithmetic. Given the era, I couldn't expect public education. They did have academies instead, though, so perhaps she was taking less developed regions into account.

└Starlight Lady Graduated high school? I'm not sure what that means, but you can do arithmetic, then. Good. In that case, you should be able to express fire mathematically.

└Wild Grylls Huh? Express what mathematically?

└Starlight Lady Formulate fire mathematically. It's very easy. What you do is...

As Starlight Lady's explanation continued, all I could do was gape. There were symbols, but not a single number. All my math knowledge had reset the moment I'd finished the college entrance exam. Besides, I'd been on the humanities track, so I couldn't understand any of it.

└Starlight Lady Well? Do you understand?

└Wild Grylls Is that the basics?

└Starlight Lady Yes. You learn this before the academy, not at it.

└Anyone else feel like their head's going to explode just looking at that?

└Me, for starters lmao.

└Hey lol, you can get through life without it lol.

Were all the mages in this world Newtons or Einsteins? Then again, Earth's scientists were geniuses compared to ordinary people too. I decided to give up on my ambitions of learning magic, plain and simple.

└Wild Grylls Uh... I'll just give up. Do you find math easy, Starlight Lady?

└Starlight Lady I love math. You can express everything in the world with it, can't you? Someday, I'll express the Forest of Four Seasons mathematically too.

└Wild Grylls You don't have calculators here, do you?

└Starlight Lady Why would you need a calculator? You can just do it in your head.

└Wild Grylls [sweating]

└God, that's obnoxious lmao.

└There's a surprising number of people like that.

└Their brains just don't work the way ours do.

I'd put magic firmly behind me. Getting my hopes up would only end in pain. Still, I ought to thank Starlight Lady. She seemed disappointed, and I felt bad.

'In the end, I'll have to solve this the physical way.'

Wasn't there some way to do it? I looked around the cave. Then something caught my eye—something I'd left untouched all this time.

'That's it!'

It was the liquor the dwarf had given me as a gift.