Time sure flies. Q’illu and Tikka had gotten a baby shortly after the battle after Kuska and their kid had already turned 2 years old. I might have to make a spell that makes my sense of time like those of a human.

The research on magical weapons was coming along quite well. It made me wonder if Misha hats were based off magic weapons or the magical weapons were based off Misha hats. It was hard to find out what came first. I had investigated many other magical weapons in the last two years. I even stumbled on some ancient ones. They originated from well before the Great Eraser.

Over here it’s called the Blank but it was consistent that limited information was available from before that period. Only ancient buildings and relics like magic weapons seemed to have survived it.

The Misha hats have more in common with the more ancient versions as the modern magical weapons are… inefficient. Why does everything tend to become inefficient over time? Aren’t things supposed to become better and more efficient? Anyway, I was able to modify the shape of my hat! I was able to do so before but it was just changing shape of the hat as a hat.

I had currently turned it into a large hairpin and my hair in a bun. I have a lot of hair so the left over was braided, with the help of Tikka of course.

This is a big deal because Misha are known for their hats. But my hat is now a hairpin and... I pulled out my hairpin which is actually a folding fan. It changes shape a bit to turn into a folding fan after I pull it out of my hair.

My slapping damage has increased by 500% and my fanning power to infinity and beyond! But jokes aside, the slaps of my fans pack a real punch now as if slapped by a magical weapon. My fan skills need work. The folded fan is for close range and the unfolded fan for ranged attacks.

Slapping is easy. I’ve been doing that for years. I might want to get some coaching from a weapon user though. But the ranged option gives me a lot of difficulties.

Apparently, there is a difference between me casting skills and my hat casting them. But my hat is a part of me, right? So how does that make sense? I don’t know! Well, I didn’t. That’s what research is for.

Well, the mana used by my hat is slightly different. Similar to how magical weapons use ‘magic’ but it doesn’t register as ‘magic’ in Kaledon and even here. This phenomenon needs a lot more research but that’s why magical weapons can function in mana free zones and barriers that interrupt magic circle formation. They play by different rules.

So technically Misha are immune to skills and barriers that block the use of mana or the generation of magic circles. But most Misha think it’s their bane. The academy in Witchaven had whole curricula on how to act and break situations that prevent the use of mana or the formation of magic circles. It feels as if I'm getting farther away from my race at every step. Hardly anything I knew about my race seems to be true. How depressing.

There are still some confusing points but I have the basics down so those will come later. Most magical weapons have a set element. The whip I stole has a fire affinity and only fire.

Some magic weapons have 2 affinities but 1 affinity is the norm. But I’m a Misha and this is my hat err hairpin… fan? What do I call it now?

Anyways this is a piece of me so it shares my affinities. So, I can switch it up! It’s possible that Misha were the first magic weapon users! But I have no evidence to back up this claim. Misha could as well be magic weapons turned into living beings. Who knows.

So, I’ve become a magical weapon user! But I have no idea how to use it. It’s like teaching a baby [Meteor]. I will have to get this solved before someone dies.

Jafliximus had gotten ill. It made me sad. It might have been my fault. I knew that alpacas aren’t supposed to eat cake yet…

It broke my heart when I had to tell him that I couldn’t feed him cake anymore, also because I had run out of cake. Nobody here knew how to bake cakes, me included.

There was urgency behind mastering my Hairpin Folding Fan. I had encountered a Blur so the Imposter knows I’m on the continent. It will be a matter of time before more Blurs appear but that’s the best-case scenario. This is the continent she had been living for who knows how long. It’s bound to have nasty surprises she couldn’t send overseas. I will bring everyone in danger if I take too long. I’ve already been here for 3 years…

I went out to practice. I had to stop Jafliximus. He wanted to join me even though he was still ill.

I stroked his fluffy fur. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to put you more in danger than I’ve already done. I don’t know what the long-term effects are of cake on your digestive system. Rest and be a nice alpaca, ok?”

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Jafliximus made another funny face but it also seemed like he was in pain. I hugged the silly and fluffy alpaca and went out in the jungle to practice on some jungle rats.

Most people practice to become stronger. I practice to become weaker because…

I pulled out my hairpin, turned it into a fan, unfolded it, and swung the fan. Freezing wind and icicles flew out and destroyed a large part of the jungle in front of me. I had only targeted a scurrying rat. This is the weakest attack I could muster. All I did was swing my Hairpin Fan.

The hairpin went back into my hair and I inspected the area. The frozen area was about one-third the size of Tuqu village. I can't use this in the village… it is yet unclear why the output is enormous.

There are no problems while the fan is folded. It makes for a good and powerful slapping weapon. I can use that in the village. The problem is when the fan unfolds. That was the first problem I tackled. A change had to occur when the fan unfolds but I found nothing…

The Hairpin Fan doesn’t go through any changes between folding and unfolding.

The hairpin went out again and I smacked a rat that targeted the berries I was eating. These berries attract jungle rats. I’m too slow to chase them so they need to come to me.

The rat flew into the tree with a cracked skull. The animals on this continent are super tough so this was a good sign.

Some birds got attracted to the berries and they were allowed to eat them. I have nothing against birds, unless they’re seagulls. The next seagull will get slapped by me too.

I’ve been hunting jungle rats for the last 3 months and I seem to have made progress but it’s not enough. Mana control doesn’t seem to influence the output of my unfolded fan. If mana control and mana output doesn’t help, what will? Am I too stupid to use a fan?

I unfolded the fan and used it as a shield. This works. The rats jumping at me had turned into rat-shaped ice cubes. What if I gently swing my fan?

The fan moved slowly and I saw it pick up the ambient mana, it gathered more and more and more.

“Oh… the slower I swing the stronger the attack…” All the ambient mana gathered in front of my fan and got pushed away freezing and destroying an area 4 times the of Tuqu village.

“So I’m not stupid, I’m just slow… I can’t believe the answer was this simple!”

I started to nerd out a bit and tried to swing as fast as I could. I hurt my arm… but I had devised a near accurate assessment of how my Hairpin Fan works.

It seems my magic control is excellent. Nothing that comes out of my fan is because the magic weapon activates due to its own mana or my mana. It’s just an ability, which is… quite strong.

My Hairpin Fan will gather ambient mana and just like a normal fan will blow air away, my fan will blow it away after turning it into water attribute. The slower I swing the fan, the more ambient mana it can gather. So if I swing it super-fast it won’t have time and be relatively weak.

It is hard to control and I’m probably too slow to pull off this in a controlled manner. But it just shows how far Misha are from their true potential. I call my Hairpin Fan a magic weapon but it’s just my hat.

I sighed. No Misha is going to believe this. I gathered some fruits and headed over to an area in the jungle that has a low concentration of ambient mana. I might be able to practice there a bit.

The rats had fulfilled their duty so their population was safe, for now. My destination was some sort of crater. I’m not sure what happened here but the ambient mana is very thin. Did a fight break out here? Or… a [Meteor]? It looks small for a [Meteor] crater. And [Meteor] shifts the balance of the ambient mana toward fire, it doesn’t reduce it

----------------------------------------

The practice went well! It was however a poor representation of reality as anything that came out of my fan was way weaker than normal but since it was just a crater there was no jungle to destroy and I got to improve my skills in fanning! I also had a lot of fun.

My fun took a dent when the sun rose. When did it set? I need to set alarms! But I had no obligations anymore so that’s fine. I kept practicing.

So I found out something funny. It wasn’t funny when I discovered but it’s funny when thinking back on it. I can counteract all this bullshit if I activate the mana in my hairpin. Since my mana control is excellent its easier for me to control the hairpin mana to counter the swinging nonsense than to actually get good at swinging fans.

Its funny in hindsight but I was very upset when I found out. So much time wasted. I could also use the mana to get stronger but why would I do that? I value control over power so I focused on controlling my Hairpin Fan powers. It took a while but that was 3 days well spent.

The practice was valuable. I was confident that I could use it in the village and only destroy a house or 2. My mood was excellent. I would reward Jafliximus with the fruits I had gathered.

I left the crater and headed back to the village. The sun was setting again. Determined to not turn my 3 days of absence into 4 days of absence I picked up the pace but I tripped over a jungle vine and tumbled off the slope.

My [Azure Aura] prevented me from getting hurt by the tumble but I prefer it when the world isn’t spinning around me. The spinning stopped as I tumbled into a small chasm. I braced myself, expecting to crash into the floor but something soft broke my fall.

“Oh what’s this? It’s not exactly fluffy but this will do.” The furry ground moved and I heard a growling sound.

“Uh oh, you’re not some soft furry soil, are you? You’re some angry and hungry beast, aren’t you?”

A large claw covered in red fur swiped at me. I evaded by jumping off. And I got a good look at what had broken my fall. I seemed to have fallen into some cave which was probably the lair of this beast. It looked like a gorilla or was it an orangutan? I’m not too familiar with monkeys but it had bear-like claws. So, is it a bear gorilla? Or a gorilla bear. It also had blood red fur and it was huge. The size of some buildings in Gittrian.

“Uhm, how about you skip this meal and let me go home? Or how about a vegetarian dinner?” The beast roared. I think it disagrees.

I pulled out my hairpin. “It seems you can become my target dummy, please make it entertaining.”