Two weeks had passed since we arrived at Exceed.
Most of the time, we were using our break time from training to check out the Royal Library. And what I meant by 'We' was me and 19 others student who couldn't reach the average status of 20.
The reason why we were reading this book, was because after two weeks of training, the difference in power between one that had combat skill and high status and one who didn't become apparent.
Not to mention we still hadn't managed to cast a single combat magic, and with the skills that were too useless to use at the real battle. we were forced by the Royal Magician to utilize the knowledge and wisdom to compensate for our lack of strength and magic by learning a new skill.
And what was the deal of didn't have combat skills? I would start by explaining the concept of magic in this world.
For starters, there were six different types of magic in Exceed, each corresponding to one of the Six God.
The God of Valor and War, Aethon, corresponding with Power magic. The magic that could change the properties of a creature or an object, whether it was increasing our sword slashing power or lowering enemy defence.
The Goddess of Knowledge and Trickery, Dream, corresponding with Mind magic, either by projecting your mind or controlling the others mind.
The Goddess of Nature and Creation, Tangarita, corresponding with Elemental magic by manipulating mana to produce fire or using to create magical barriers.
The Goddess of Day and Night, Terminus, corresponding with Time magic, either by turning back the time to heal the wound or a glimpse to the future.
The God of Star and Sky, Scalan, corresponding with Space magic. Starting from making an object moving at your command, allowing you to teleport to another location or creating a pocket dimension to store an object.
The God of Life and Death, Mordicai, corresponding with Spirit magic, either by conjuring creatures or objects to our side, drain the life energy from another creature, or turning an enemy into a harmless creature.
The process of utilizing magic in Exceed was by channelling magic power from one’s body, weaving the mana strain from the air into a magic circle by means of an incantation, which would then activate the magic spells.
There was no way to directly activate the spells with magic power, as one must construct the corresponding magic circles to cast the respective spells.
Also, the more magic power that was used to weave mana into the magic circle would mean the increase in proportion to the incantation time, which would inevitably lead the magic circle itself to become larger and more complex.
For example, the most standard Elemental magic, Fireball, would require a 10 cm wide magic circle, only to produce the fire alone. After that, we still needed to input more program and command on the magic circle such as its power, range, direction, launching speed, distance and the fireball durations, which would end up increasing the scale and the complexity of the magic circle.
On the other hand, there were exceptions to these concepts. That was one’s affinity. Basically, people with affinity meant that some people born in a unique body, mind, soul, and mana structured so they could leave out some formulas when using magic spells.
For example, if I could cast fireball, I didn't need to write the duration section of the magic circle. Instead, I could rely on my imagination to make up for the missing formula. I just needed to imagine or think the fire would last for 5 seconds while chanting the incantation.
But I still needed to create the Elemental magic circle for producing the fire, then inputting Space magic circle to before I could launch it. On the other hand, I only needed the most basic incantation to cast Foretell, a time-based magic.
At the same time, for someone who had an Elemental affinity, they only needed the most basic incantation to cast such spell. Though, they needed to create Time (The future) and Power (The eye) magic circle to cast Foretell.
All in all, I needed around 10 seconds to create the most basic and weakest fireball, not too mention if I didn't have enough concentration, the creation of magic circle would fail and my magic power would be gone for nothing, or in the worst case, the formula was wrong and the spell launched in the wrong direction or had the wrong power.
Well, in short, a spell was not practical for real combat, especially if the person did not have an affinity.
That was why one needed to repeatedly use and polish the said spell for numerous amount of time until they suddenly conquered the so-called wall and turned the spell into their Skill. Or in simple terms, it was a spell that you needed to chant before, but one day, you suddenly grasped the essence of the spell and improved your proficiency until you didn't need to cast the incantation of the said spell anymore.
Although, there were other ways to simplify this process even though one didn't have the corresponding affinity or skill. It was by preparing the magic circle beforehand. Either by using a special kind of paper which could only be used one time and magic stone engravings which could be used multiple times. The first method had a wide versatility, but could only be used once and its strength would also decrease. The second could be used for several times and still retain its strength, but its spell couldn't be changed, it cost a large amount of money, not to mention the failure chance when engraving the magic circle and the constant maintenance.
Anyway, both of my skills, Fast Forward and Slow Motion were the skills that allowed me to fasten or slowed a non-living object (with the exception if the targeted living creature agreed and willing to receive my spell.) not bigger than my palm.
For now, the only method that I could think off was using this to preserve food, blooming a flower (somehow this always succeed if I used it on the bud, though I couldn't use it to rot the fully bloomed flower), or increasing the regeneration process on a small wound. Other than those three, I still hadn't found a single way to use this.
And this was the reason I got stuck in this library as I didn't have any skill that I could use for combat.
"Haaaah" I let out a sigh after reading the book about magic circle for quite some time before I threw it onto the table.
Stolen novel; please report.
"Bang!" ... yeah, the book itself was thick enough to create a sound that startled a librarian who just happened to pass by, causing the librarian to glare at me.
"Be careful with that book!" The librarian continued to shout at me.
I, myself could not help but lament at my fate, completely ignoring the librarian before letting out another deep sigh.
I slowly took out my Status plate as I rested my cheek on my palm and lazily glanced at it.
Karasuma Eiji 15 Year old Male Affinity Time Level 2 Strength 18 Intelligence 16 Dexterity 21 Charisma 22 Constitution 20 Wisdom 15 Skills: Fast Forward (O) Slow Motion (O) Language Comprehension (D)
"Haaaah, this is bloody ridiculous," I complained to myself.
"Whatever~ Oi! Anyone want to skip to the town with me?!" While shouting this, I peered through the library’s window and gazed at the blue sky outside.
"I'm going to count to 3! If someone wants to come, then walk to my sit." I shouted, completely ignoring the killing glare from the librarian.
Though much to my surprise, Tadano stood from his seat and walked toward my direction. And another person, a shoulder-length dark red haired girl with half opened blue coloured eyes silently pulling my shirt.
In the end, after recollecting all of the knowledge about the town I had painstakingly gathered in the past two weeks. I led these two out from this boring castle.
Normally, there was no way the guards would let us out. 'Normally'
By using some cigarette as the bribe money, I managed to win the heart of two guards that usually guarded the west gate around this hour. Then again, it really surprised me when I heard cigarette was one of the expensive goods.
For the money, I had 3 Silver coin and 36 Bronze coin or 480 unit after I managed to steal the leather pouch from some random street thief.
Their value of things was a little different as 10 days worth of decent meal had the same value as one goat and 50 days worth of meal had the same value as a set of a chessboard. But approximately, each person needed somewhere around 20 unit each day to have a decent three times meal and lodging.
Anyway, the listing of currency on Exceed was a total mess, 1 small bronze coin had 1 Value or unit, bronze coin valued 5 unit, large bronze was 10. After that multiplied the value by 5 and 2 until it reached large gold coin in 10,000 unit. From the large gold coin onward, it got multiplied by 10 until it reached 10,000,000 unit.
Value (Unit) Small Bronze coin 1 Bronze Coin 5 Large Bronze Coin 10 Small Silver Coin 50 Silver Coin 100 Large Silver Coin 500 Small Gold Coin 1000 Gold Coin 5000 Large Gold Coin 10000 Small Platinum Coin 100000 Platinum Coin 1000000 Large Platinum Coin 10000000
I didn't know the exact reason, but it seemed this weird monetary value was created so that normal people only used anything below silver coin as the daily transaction.
. . .Speaking of transaction, I needed to treat those two huh. Well. . . this wasn't my money either, so why not?
There was indeed a lot of people, but it was still relatively empty for someone who had been living on Earth. After all, when compared to Tokyo’s packed trains, the street of Grurian was a whole league empty.
"Now that I think about it, even though this is my first time visiting an otherworld town, somehow it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be." Said Tadano.
"Well, we did pass this street when we walked to the palace."
"Ahaha. . ., at least the old buildings are a rare sight, but the lack of beastmen or elves somehow really disappoint me."
"...You're that type of guy huh. Ey, watch out girl."
The crowd of people going to and fro wasn’t that big, but the girl who hadn't introduce herself was being too conspicuous. she would stop at a weird place as soon as something caught her eye, from the shady looking stand that clearly sold water rather than medicine, a food stall that sold rugby-ball sized eggs as the street snack, and a stall that sold normal looking hat. That conspicuous behaviour of her was almost felt like she was basically announcing that she knew nothing of the world. And thanks to her, some annoying people came.
A man was walking along a course that was sure to hit her, and I managed to pull her arm just in time to get her out of the way.
"Seriously, watch out for your surrounding."
After pulling her away, I heard the man clicking his tongue as he fastening his steps. So he really was a pickpocket. Though, I wondered how much money he that he got today.
Curiously, I opened the white cloth pouch that I took away from the man's pocket. ...It was heavy, but most of the coin was small bronze coin and bronze coin.
"...Karasuma... You're really amazing." Said Tadano.
"That so? This is pretty easy for me though."
And just as I replied Tadano's words, this time it was a man walking out from the alley. Clearly targeting the girl A. And once again, somehow I managed to pull her out of the way before they could collide.
Because I pulled her out of the way, the man missed his timing and tumbled onto the ground.
"Geez, There are people walking out from the alley. Just be careful or I'll tie you with a rope."
She only answered with a silent nod.
Speaking of silent, wasn't this the time that man screamed she broke my leg or something like that?
"Gah!! My hand! It broke!"
The man stood up and walked to our direction while holding his right hand. Classic, then again, I approached the man. "Ah! We're sorry! Don't worry about your hand! I might now look like one, but I know some first aid treatment, so, which hand is broken? The right one, right?"
I lightly grabbed his right hand with my right hand. "No, no, just give me the money and I'll go get a treatment all by myself!" Said the man.
"Aw, sir, no need to be shy. Trust me, I'm professional at this." At the same time, I placed my left hand behind his elbow. Like this, I twisted his arm and broke his posture.
The man was opening his mouth, ready to say something, but when he realized he was falling, he closed it again. Just before he completely fall, I pulled his shirt and stopped him, then I looked him in the eye and spoke.
"It's healed, right?"
"Y-Yeah... Thanks for giving me the treatment."
"No prob." I said with a smile. "But, please be careful for the next time."
Just as the man instantly dashed away with satisfied face after managed to steal away my white pouch, I wondered what his expression would look like if he noticed I took his wallet when I pulled his shirt.
After taking a peek at his wallet, I could see several silverish coins at the inside. "Huh, so. . . how about buying some snack before we go back?"
Just a moment after I said that, Girl A happily pulled me to the nearby food vendor as Tadano strolling near us.
All in all, even though I said 'some' and 'snack', somehow the amount of food that we brought already pilling up like a tower. . . heck, some food even completely mixed between one and another.
And just as I was busy using Slow Motion to keep the food fresh and warm, Girl A still pulling my shirt while bringing her own share of snacks.
"You’re still planning to sightsee!?" I shouted.
Then again, thanks to her, after protecting her from pickpocket, extortionist, con-artist and kidnappers. By the time we went back, we brought a mountain of food with 8 different pouches hidden on my shirt and an Idea of what I should do for my combat skills.