CH 12

Attribute magic is called the magic of Goddess, engraving magic is called the magic of scholars and the body strengthening magic is called the magic of people.

Engraving magic that uses magic circles is the magic of scholars because you can’t use it unless you go to school and acquire specialized knowledge.

And, since the body strengthening magic is passed down from one person to another, it’s called the magic of people.

After starting the training, I realized that while attribute magic is activated by circulating magic essence in magic veins, body strengthening magic is used by filling one’s blood vessels with magic essence.

It seems that this process of letting magic essence flow into the blood vessels cannot be instinctively understood unless it’s taught.

The practice that started with letting magic essence flow from my right hand to my left hand, then from my right hand to my right leg, from my right hand to my left leg and from my right leg to my left hand made me remember the sensation of letting it circulate through my whole body.

I understand the logic but it feels like the insides of my body are being tampered with and the hair all over my body stands on end.

“This is the foundation and if you neglect it, there’s a bigger chance that you’ll harm yourself. It might feel gross, but be patient.”

Currently, we are at the stage where Mr. Zeol is operating from outside and adjusting the flow of mana to make sure that it’s circulating smoothly and once it starts to flow without any problems, we can move to the next stage.

I’m also taught about magic before and after the training.

The flow of magic essence differs between attribute magic and body strengthening magic and they consume more magic essence when used at once, so it seems to be difficult to use them together.

There are few who can use them completely together even among high ranking adventurers and many of them seem to switch between the two quickly.

“Fill your body with magic essence before you go into a battle.  If your magic veins and blood vessels are overflowing with magic essence, you’ll be able to swiftly switch between them.”

“Is it that difficult to use both of them together?”

I had already perfected Steps but I told Mr. Zeol that I was still at the practice stage and I wanted to use it to escape while strengthening my body.

“Oh? Now that’s interesting. So you’re making a foothold with air?”

“If I manage to do it well, I’ll be able to cross the river and move to the other side of the cliff, so I think it will be convenient for escaping…”

“You’re right. If you’re going to escape, it’s better to be able to use body strengthening magic at the same time. In that case, try to improvise and practice yourself. If you start to practice from your age, you might become able to skillfully use both of them together.”

As expected, if you start practicing body strengthening magic young, you’ll master it faster and the degree of strengthening will be stronger too.

As somebody with a small body, I’d absolutely love to master using attribute magic and body strengthening magic at the same time.

“By the way, what kind of training do knight candidates do?”

“The knight training, huh. Now that I think about it, one of your peers became a candidate, right? Those who become knights do basics training, first of all. They are made to run with weights, do strength training and then cast magic until they collapse.

“Oof… What about knight etiquette and conduct?”

“That comes after they show the prospects of becoming knights. Anyway, they focus on improving their basic abilities first, fighting techniques and etiquette are secondary.” 

I’m the one who’s the most invested in practicing magic in Attuca village and I thought that I was outstanding amongst my peers, but Horacio, who’s in the royal capital, might be further ahead.

I don’t intend to live a stiff life as a knight or become a hardcore fighter, but I’d be annoyed if I had the difference between us shoved into my face when I reunite with Horacio.

I was far behind from the start, so I never intended to compete with him head-on, but it’s frustrating when you’re made to face the reality.

There are talented people working even harder out there, so I, as somebody who’s not been blessed with talent, won’t be able to catch up to them unless I put my blood, sweat and tears into this.

“I understand the feeling of not wanting to lose to your childhood friend, but don’t neglect the basics when it comes to body strengthening. The basics training is boring and it’s hard to see the results, but if you build a solid foundation, you’ll have more room to grow later. Don’t rush first, work slowly.”

“Yes…”

That being said, the basics training for body strengthening magic is mundane.

It’s the repetition of holding hands with Mr. Zeol and practicing how to circulate magic essence in my blood vessels.

Mr. Zeol was the one to move magic essence at first, but I started to do it myself on the next stage.

I’m still holding hands with him, but right now he’s just monitoring the movement of my magic essence.

I’m letting the magic essence I absorbed from outside fill my blood vessels and circulate it, but I can’t do it as smoothly as when I make it circulate in my magic vein when using attribute magic.

Body strengthening is probably achieved by intentionally circulating magic essence, that’s originally not meant to be used this way, in my blood vessels.

In addition, because I also brought up the knowledge from my previous life since I thought that it wouldn’t go well anyway, I became conscious of capillaries too and ended up leading myself into a dead end.

Until then I was only conscious of thick blood vessels and magic essence that used to flow relatively well suddenly stopped flowing properly. 

“Mr. Zeol, is there some kind of a trick?”

“Fufun, it’s something inside your body. Do something about it yourself.”

“Okay…”

Even if I ask Mr. Zeol for advice, his answers are always like this, so it looks like I don’t have a choice but to think of a solution myself.

Now that things are like this, I have no choice but to do it, so I picked myself up and concentrated on working so that magic essence would flow through the thin vessels of my whole body.

As the image of pushing the magical essence into the large blood vessels and diffusing, permeating, and circulating it from there through the small blood vessels became solidified, the flow gradually became smoother.

Rather than a fast flow, it’s better to create an even flow that goes to every corner of my body smoothly without stopping, even if it does so slowly.

Even when I was repeating trial and error, Mr. Zeol would only nod or shake his head, not giving me any concrete advice.

I even doubted whether he was just catastrophically bad at teaching, but this is the matter of grasping the feeling, so the person training has no choice but to improvise and grasp it themselves.

It seems that Mr. Zeol is holding my hand and monitoring me in order to forcefully suppress the flow of magic essence in my blood vessels in case it gets out of control.

“What happens when the flow of magic essence goes out of control?”

“There are cases where the blood veins burst and blood spurts out or heart bursts and the person dies.”

“Ueghh… for real?”

“Then, do you want to stop training?”

“No, I’ve no intention of stopping.”

“Physical training starts after 3 years of knight training.  The time until then is spent training to build a strong body so they don’t have to rely on body strengthening.”

“So that means there’s a higher chance that I’ll be able to use body strengthening better?”

“You’re right, but that also depends on you and even if you excel at body strengthening magic, if it’s not accompanied by body strength that serves as its foundation, you won’t be able to compete.” 

Body strengthening magic obviously has a limit too.

If somebody with 10 power uses body strengthening that doubles one’s physical strength, they’ll have 20 power.

For somebody with 2 power to compete with that, they’d have to use body strengthening magic that increases one’s powers 10-fold.

“How much can you strengthen yourself with magic?”

“Lemme think… Normally it’s 30% more, talented guys can make it 50% more, and only a handful of people can manage to double it.”

Even if I become able to double my strength, Horacio will also be strengthened by 30% more.

Considering the original difference in physical abilities between us, I’ll not be able to win in pure strength.

As expected, I should use body strengthening magic to make myself faster.