kscans

Chapter 4 - Interlude: Personal Skill Training.

Here, I’ll talk a little about the training I was doing at my family home in Japan.

About a month after I started my training as a hunter and adventurer with my master, I began a secret training regimen of my own.

It was training for my skills. This was something my master couldn’t teach me. After all, it was rare for anyone to have skills, and those who did usually had only one. When I heard that, I knew that revealing I had three skills would only make my master more suspicious.

So, I had to train on my own.

Inside my house, there were three things I needed to confirm.
First, how much magic each skill consumed.
Second, what would happen if I kept using my skills.
Third, whether it was possible to increase my magic power.

I started with the first one. I activated Detection. When I found out I could use it in this world too, I thought it was a skill for life. By the way, there were two blue dots nearby, a forest to the north, and a small stream to the west. It didn’t show detailed paths, but for general vigilance, it was fine. The magic consumption was so minuscule I barely noticed it. The duration was three minutes; I timed it with a watch, so it was accurate.

Next, I activated Analysis. I looked at a single sheet of paper and activated the skill. Information flowed into my head. The material of the paper was plant fiber, sourced from pine trees. The manufacturing process was also broadly outlined—pulping, papermaking, finishing—but when I tried to look into the details, my head started to feel a bit dizzy. So, it seems that processing becomes difficult if there’s too much information.

As a physical type, I’m not that smart. I mean, I was desperate enough to try a magic circle, which makes me feel a bit pathetic. Oh well, as long as I can grasp the general idea, that’s good enough. After that, I just need to use my intuition and apply this skill in practice. I didn't feel much magic consumption.

Finally, I tried Matter Conversion. I took a piece of scrap paper and activated the skill, imagining iron. The paper instantly turned into a sheet of iron. The thickness was the same as paper, but the hardness was that of iron. When I bent it, it buckled. I let go and placed it on the floor, but it didn’t change. Analysis revealed its material to be true iron with a purity of one hundred percent. Well, that was to be expected since I imagined iron. I could also manipulate its shape freely, turning it into a roller and making it spin without using my hands. The magic consumption was noticeably greater than the other two skills.

For the second point—what happens when I keep using a skill—I went outside to the back of the house where I was less likely to be seen. There, I turned a palm-sized stone into iron and poured more magic into it to increase its mass. I shaped it into a thick, round log. By the time it reached the height of my stomach, my breathing was ragged. It felt like the exhaustion and breathlessness of sprinting a hundred meters.

When it reached the height of my face, I was so fatigued and dizzy that I had to drop to one knee. Realizing this was dangerous, I quickly went back inside and to my room on the first floor. I couldn't stay conscious any longer and collapsed on the spot. When I woke up, it was evening. I had started the experiment at one in the afternoon, and it was now six, so I had been asleep for five hours. This was the result of using a large amount of magic.

I realized that I couldn't afford to carelessly use it until I was completely drained.

Third point: can I increase my magic power?

This was something I couldn’t just test and see the effects of. So, I decided to go to the second floor of the storehouse. The bookshelves there were full of foreign books, but I thought there might be some in Japanese as well. I went to the second floor and looked at the bookshelves. To my surprise, I could read all of them. Even the foreign language books. I wondered why, but then I remembered. When I drew the magic circle, I had written the characters for language acquisition. I had assumed it was limited to the other world, but it seemed to work in this world too. Not that there were any foreigners around here to test it on, so it didn’t really matter. But that was beside the point. My original purpose was to find out if I could increase my magic power.

I looked through all the books. There were books on the types and origins of runic characters, types of medicinal herbs and how to combine them, the pros and cons of curses, and so on. They were interesting, but right now, I needed to find a way to amplify my magic. Then, one book caught my eye. It was called Introduction to Magic.

I thought this book might have something about magic power, so I started reading. It described how to learn and use magic, but it said that you needed a specialized grimoire to learn, so I skipped that part.

I found a section on magic power and read it. It said that magic power is life energy, and in some countries, it’s called haki or nen. To handle it, you need to calm your spirit and be able to feel the flow of power within your body. Also, even if you can feel it, you can’t use it unless you have an affinity for an element or a special ability. It also mentioned that if you keep using it, you can lose consciousness, which I had already experienced, so that was accurate. I found the section on increasing magic power.

There are two ways to increase magic power. The first is to repeatedly use magic until you are significantly fatigued, then eat a nutrient-rich meal and rest for five hours. Repeat this process. The second is to create and drink a secret potion that enhances magic power.

The first method takes time but reliably increases magic power. The second method significantly increases magic power in a short time, but at the cost of causing mental abnormalities. For example, losing your reason and going into a berserk state. There was no reason for me to choose the second option. I wasn't in a desperate situation, so I decided to take my time and train using the first method.

Based on all this, I decided to start training my skills. In between, I bought and watched manga and anime, thinking I might find some hints. My savings dwindled, but I figured I’d definitely have a chance to earn money once I started working as a hunter and adventurer in the other world. It was a greedy and base motive, but I had to accept it as a necessity for survival.

After a year of personal training, I had a flash of inspiration while watching a certain anime. In it, they sealed magic and weapons into rings, necklaces, and the like, and used them at will. I wondered if I could do something similar with my skills and decided to try it immediately.

I made a ring with my skill and wrote the Japanese character for "fire" on it, but there was no reaction. Well, failure is part of the process. I decided to try different characters next. English, Chinese—failure. Then, I tried runic characters. There was a reaction. I was able to produce a faint flame. This was when I reconfirmed that runic characters were essential for magic.

My master had told me about the types of magic, and I wanted to be able to use all five elements if possible, so I made a ring for each and tried them out.

In conclusion, I could use all five, but their power varied. In descending order of power, it was fire, lightning, earth, wind, and water. It seemed to be related to my skills. Things with heat were powerful. Earth was useful for blacksmithing, so I could raise it, but I couldn't cause fissures. As for wind, no matter how much magic I poured into it, the best I could do was the equivalent of a fan on high; I couldn't create a kamaitachi. Water was my weakest element; even with intense concentration, I would be exhausted after producing just a cupful.

As I continued this training, I could feel my magic power increasing. When I first started using Matter Conversion, I would pass out when the object reached the height of my face. But now, it could grow taller than me, reaching the second floor of the storehouse. And the fatigue was only enough to leave me breathless; I didn't pass out. Fire and lightning became quite powerful. I went into the forest where I wouldn’t be seen. I found a wild boar, over a hundred centimeters long, which was perfect for a test.

I used fire magic and created a ball the size of a basketball and launched it. The boar stood frozen and took the hit. The flames engulfed its body, and it ran around trying to put them out, but they didn’t extinguish, and it collapsed. Once the boar stopped moving, the flames died out as if their job was done.

I frantically went to put out the trees that had caught fire when it was running around. I had brought a fire extinguisher just in case, and I sprayed it for all it was worth. The boar was roasted whole. Its fur was gone, and its meat was a well-done black.

I took it home and enjoyed a delicious meal. I tested lightning on a large rock. I searched the forest and found one near a large river. I shot a bolt of lightning at it. It pierced through the rock, leaving a hole about ten centimeters in diameter. The area around it was slightly blackened, but there were no cracks.

I looked behind the rock and saw that since it was on a slope, the bolt had hit the ground and caused an explosion. There was a large crater. I thought I had heard a noise, but my focus had been on piercing the rock, so I hadn't paid it much mind. This training was mostly self-taught. I decided that when I went to town in the other world, I would use it as little as possible in front of people, and only start using it openly when I had enough money to buy a grimoire.