Chapter 30 - Start of Magic Training
A short while has passed since Jae had unwittingly entered the Pride Dungeon and experienced a fateful encounter with Aphyllanthes, the Dungeon's boss and the Ruler of Dragons.
The exact definition of 'a short while' is undetermined as the seven suns decorating a portion of the sky appeared to never set; it was impossible to count the "days" as that was all it was. Nonetheless, time was undeniably flowing, giving a slight, eerie sense of uncanniness.
What’s more, Jae had yet to grow tired despite being awake all this time; judging by his internal clock it felt like it had been at least a few days' worth of time, but combined with the unchanging, dry scenery around him, it began to dawn on him just how long the previously mentioned '3 years' would actually be.
Jae possessed Exhaustion Resistance at Level 3, but even that shouldn’t be enough to stay awake for multiple days without rest―at least then he would feel the desire to sleep, but even that was nonexistent.
Although, he did feel the climate was far too hot to sleep even if it were possible, so perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.
Unfortunately, Aphyllanthes wasn't of much help either, as she only addressed his concerns with a simple, “There are no changing things. It is all how this place was designed,” causing Jae to frown.
“Is there no need for dragons to rest their minds or something? Why did you make it so annoying?”
I thought dragons were said to hibernate or sleep for hundreds of years or whatever, so what the hell is this about?
"Hm. Are the dragons in your world that weak so as to require centuries of rest? How terribly inefficient."
"No, it's a myth. I told you we don't have dragons."
"I see. Anyway, as for the latter... You seem to be mistaken. I am not the one who designed this place.”
“What? Then who...?”
If Aphyllanthes wasn’t the one who created the Pride Dungeon, but the one who ruled over it in the original creator's stead, then what did that make the one who designed it?
Naturally, Jae thought it must be impossible to design such an unnecessarily large sub-dimensional world.
Unless the subject was akin to a god, that is, but that was doubtful―as he had learnt from Aphyllanthes, gods were unable to interfere in the mortal world without severe repercussions or strict conditions, so to make not just one but seven unique worlds would be too much. He had wanted to know if the Sinful God could just curse him again if he ever managed to cleanse it, but thankfully, that didn’t seem so for now.
In any case, since Aphyllanthes is the current Ruler of Pride, it meant she was the most... Prideful person? To Jae, it didn’t really make sense for that to be the condition, and he rather thought she seemed unexpectedly normal for a dragon―not arrogant or derisive like he would expect, further strengthening his doubts.
There must be something he was missing, but he couldn’t figure it out.
Right... Well, if the Rulers of each of the sins were decided by something like that, then I'm sure they would all be human.
At most, he guessed it must have been the previous Ruler of Pride who created this place, but then they died, so Aphyllanthes took over. In a vacuum, the fact that a dragon was the Ruler of Pride made sense and was consistent with how he always thought a dragon would be like, anyhow, so there was that.
If he thought about what kinds of creatures most closely relate to each of the sins, he could probably figure them out quite quickly.
“You will naturally discover such secrets as and when it is necessary.” Of course, Aphyllanthes magnificently evaded the question when he asked.
“Aw, come on, seriously, that again?”
“It is not that great a mystery. There is nothing special about it, nor any particular reason for you to know. Concede.”
Eventually, faced with her sharp tone, he gave up, reluctantly accepting that there must have been a good reason for such adamant denial to answer.
If I'll find out later anyway, then I guess it doesn't matter. Though it is a little annoying... Is there really no way...?
“Jae. Stop asking unnecessary questions and focus.”
“...Yes, ma’am.”
Lowering his head and closing his eyes, Jae returned to a concentrated mental space. With Concentration, which had recently broken through to Level 5, the effects were immediate and substantial.
When the realisation hit him that he would be stuck in this place for three years, the first concern he brought up was if there was some kind of time distortion in this place―to which Aphyllanthes answered positively. She never specified the exact degree of distortion, but it was implied that it wasn't something totally insignificant.
Immediately after that, Jae begged her to teach him magic, and she accepted the request without much persuasion.
Perhaps it was what she meant when she said ‘providing assistance in other ways’, but either way, now that he had acquired both a first-class personal magic tutor and a massive block of free time ahead of him, he was elated and planned to use that time to grow as strong as he can.
The first few days were spent acquiring and training the Mana Sense skill to be able to realise the magical energy that resided within him. It had quickly reached Level 4 and sat at a plateau, the time had come for the next stage.
“Now, once again.”
Through his absurd level of heightened concentration that could be said to be more powerful than a ‘flow state’, Aphyllanthes’ sharp voice still rang clear.
“Observe the entire process of mana within your body.”
Jae did as instructed and ‘watched’ countless rich particles of colourless, pure magical energy be absorbed into his body through the air he breathed in.
It coalesced and formed a mass of mana within his lungs, accumulating as it waited to be slowly soaked up by his body.
Then, he witnessed the absorbed mana, now glowing blue, slowly circulate his body.
It travelled leisurely through the same veins as his blood, but rather than returning to the heart, it travelled to every corner of his body, passing across every inch, and slowly burned to nothing.
At this moment, Mana Sense grew to Level 5, but Jae was far too deeply engrossed to notice the notification.
Realising his progress, Aphyllanthes moved to the next stage and spoke.
“Now. Keep your eye on that mana. Maintain focus and firmly yet gently grasp it.”
Watch the mana.
Grasp it.
And move it.
As the mana moves and circulates the body, it naturally adapts to the state of the flow and grows comfortable moving at a quicker pace, albeit temporarily.
Simultaneously, this manual acceleration of the mana within Jae generates a lot of heat. As it moves faster and faster, the heat correspondingly grows, causing excruciating pain as the insides of his veins begin to heat up and burn.
Heat Resistance, despite being maxed out at Level 10, did not have any effect on this, as the skill only served to deal with 'external heat'.
Nonetheless, pain of this level can easily be tolerated without disturbing his enhanced concentration. And, so long as the temperature did not rise to the point of boiling his blood, there was no risk of death.
"......"
An extended period of silence flashed as Jae sat cross-legged, accelerating the speed at which mana circulated his body.
You have acquired the Magic Skill: 「Mana Manipulation」
Skill 「Mana Manipulation」 has levelled up...
Skill 「Mana Manipulation」 has levelled up [Lv.3]→[Lv.4]
When Jae was finally able to accelerate the flow of his mana by three times, his body felt an unprecedented level of heat that overwhelmed his insides.
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“Stop.”
With one commanding word from Aphyllanthes, the circulating mana inside Jae gradually slowed and returned to its original, leisurely pace.
“Paah...!”
Opening his eyes wide with a gasp, Jae fell backwards and lay on the floor, collecting his breath as he roughly wiped his forehead with his arm. Thanks to a beforehand warning to make the heat even a little bit more endurable, his torso was bare, but that only allowed him to more easily see just how drenched in sweat he was.
"Aaaahh..."
Holding his hands in front of his face, he flinched when he noticed how much he was trembling. Isn't this normally a technique that's supposed to strengthen my body with magic or something? I didn't feel anything like that...
He turned his head to Aphyllanthes, staring down at him as she stood by the side.
“You didn’t mention anything about this... Am I okay?”
“Your body is recovering from an extreme condition it has never experienced before; that is, the recoil damage you sustained from forcibly accelerating the circulation rate of mana. You will be fine in a short while. Good work.”
“Sure... By the way, is it really alright to leave it at this? I don’t understand the point of only being able to cast spells faster when I’m using all my focus to circulate mana.”
As Aphyllanthes had explained prior to the training, the faster a magician’s mana flows around their body, the faster their spell casting will be, or at least has the potential to be. But, because it was such a tough thing to keep up, the burden it would have on a magician's body was not negligible. Moreover, as Jae said, he could only do it whilst at full focus―there was no chance he would be able to pull it off in an intense situation like battle.
On the other hand, Aphyllanthes seemed unconcerned.
“You are an Otherworlder, so you should now have achieved Level 4 Mana Manipulation, correct?”
“Oh. Yeah.”
“Then it’s fine.”
Merely increasing the speed at which Jae can fling fireballs or chuck spears of ice isn’t the main purpose of this training, and in fact, Aphyllanthes did not seem to care for it at all.
“You seem to have recovered enough. Now, let us move on to the next stage.”
“Already?”
“Jae. You requested my teachings, and I accepted. Do you understand the implications of challenging a dragon?”
‘I will teach how I will teach’; and so, there was nothing Jae could refute.
Gulp.
"No... I wasn't intending to challenge you. L-let's get started."
This was only the beginning.
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Magic is a complex subject.
For the most part, it had rules, hard truths, and comprehensible logic that most could follow.
On the other hand, it also had many unknowables―deceptive mysteries and intricate conundrums that couldn’t be solved even by the brightest magical minds of the modern era.
Although, that was only to be expected.
After all, magic was not something developed by humans, nor was it something fully understood.
Corroborated by what the Summoned Heroes’ tutor said back during the first day of class, there existed many other races and species in the world that could perceive and handle magic in a manner far superior to humans, and they could do so as naturally as breathing; Demons were one such example, and Elves another.
However,
More than humans.
More than demi-human species like Therianthropes or Monstermen.
And more than magically blessed semi-human species like Elves or Demons.
There was only one species of biological creature that utterly towered over the rest when it came to comprehension of magic.
Dragons.
Born from a combination of biological matter and magical energy, the only one who could compete with a dragon in a competition of magical mastery was a high-ranking Spirit.
Elementary, Apprentice, Advanced-grade magic, et cetera et cetera―The human understanding of magic, created both by and for humans, only existed to simplify the subject and allow more humans to make sense of magic as a phenomenon.
It was all a fabricated measure to support a standardised perception; not something based in reality.
The fact that humans could not cast magic without the support of the System was proof of their ignorance and talentless status.
What would happen if a talentless human were to receive the magical teachings of a dragon? There was a brief moment when Jae wondered this and his excitement could not easily be contained.
That soon changed, however.
“―I can’t do it.”
“Focus.”
“I can’t.”
“Just focus.”
“It doesn’t matter if I focus or not! I said I can't do it!”
“Jae. Do not raise your voice at me. I am instructing you; be quiet and listen. Now, concentrate.”
“Haa. Fuck, seriously...”
Slap-!
“Ow!”
"Sighing degrades focus, as does cursing. In the future, do not sigh carelessly, and refrain from spouting profanities.”
“Are you-- Argh. Fine. Sorry...”
Jae himself knew it was incredibly rude to be swearing in front of someone who was doing him a favour, and a dragon at that, but he was so used to it that he couldn't help himself. Rubbing his sore cheek after having received a “light” slap on the face from a firm and scaly tail, Jae begrudgingly sat still and shut his eyes.
"Huuu..."
When Mana Manipulation had finally reached Level 8, it had reached the point where further progress would be halted at another plateau; a large achievement would thus be needed to push it to the next level.
It had been a long while now since he began training Mana Manipulation, and progress was excruciatingly slow ever since it reached Level 4.
Still, this was only a preparatory phase; Level 10 was required to move on to what Aphyllanthes called the ‘real training’, but Jae thought even this so-called “easy bit” was far too difficult.
What Jae needed to do was, put briefly, exert influence over the magical energy outside his body.
It sounded simple enough on paper, yet the reality was anything but.
With Level 8 Mana Manipulation, he could effectively move his internal mana however he pleased without conscious thought, and it made circulating his mana as easy as drawing a circle in his mind.
Manipulating the magical energy of the surroundings was a whole different ball game, however. To put it into perspective, someone might describe attempting an impossible task as trying to smash a rock with nothing but an egg.
But, what Jae was being asked to do was more than that.
If circulating the mana around his body was like smashing a rock with an old pickaxe, and doing so whilst consciously concentrating said mana into a more condensed form was like smashing a rock with a metal spoon...
―Then trying to manipulate the magical energy outside of his body was like attempting to smash a rock with a leaf, as well as taking away any limbs to even hold it with.
It wasn’t at all a feeling like ‘I can do it if I try really hard and give it my all’, but a feeling like ‘this isn’t fair’.
A feeling of utter powerlessness.
Even if Jae had arms to just begin to try cracking away at the rock, he still had to somehow break it with a single, ordinary leaf.
This shit is impossible.
Of course, even at a glance, there was no way he could do it. Once upon a time, he held the belief that he could eventually do it if he persevered and went at it for long enough, but after many hours had passed with not an ounce of progress in sight, his hopes naturally dimmed.
"......"
Beginning to feel his frustration peak, he knew that mindlessly continuing wouldn't bring results. Jae grimly opened his eyes and called out.
“...Aphy.”
“What is the matter?”
Looking blankly at the dragon lady beside him, he found his doubts soaring as the words formed on his tongue.
“Is this even something humans are supposed to be able to do? No matter how I try, I just can’t imagine it.”
All he could do was glare at the metaphorical rock, but it would never break with just a look. He couldn’t even pick up the leaf to go at it with, nor did he know how a leaf could break a rock, so how could it break?
In this metaphorical scenario, there was no rain nor wind to speak of, so erosion should not be expected―the only thing that could break the rock was if Jae somehow used the leaf.
And that’s the thing.
Jae would be more than willing to give it a shot if he could at least pick up the leaf.
But he can’t.
And it’s his inability to pick up the leaf that is right in front of him that is frustrating.
His inability to even begin to try.
If he could try, he was sure he could find a way for the leaf to break the rock, but as things were, it was simply impossible to even imagine it.
He had never experienced such an inexplicable feeling of helplessness in his life, and it was just horrible.
If there were a person who could do this, he thought, then they certainly wouldn’t be human.
Strictly speaking, neither was he, but even he couldn’t do it.
Gazing down at the boy with an expression that couldn't be gauged, Aphy responded.
“Well, that is correct. After all, what I am going to be teaching you is how to use magic the way a dragon does, so of course the method of training we will be using is going to differ from the standard human convention.”
In other words―No, this was something no human had ever been capable of doing in the past.
"......"
At those words, Jae didn’t even know what to think and found himself speechless for a while.
He really thought it was the end.
That this was simply the physical limit, and there was no surpassing it.
"―However, I hold no doubts that you can do it. So do not yourself give up when you are the one who requested my teachings."
Nevertheless.
In the end, all he knew was that he had no choice but to continue.