I looked around as I could finally rest. I was exhausted and slightly wounded but I was OK. I had managed to defeat this town’s biggest threat, the fallen guard known as Grog.

I disabled『Dragonfly』and fell on my butt. Although maintaining『Dragonfly』didn’t consume my Mana as I thought self-enchanting would, the burden applied on my body was proportional to the additional power I gained from it. Currently, my whole body ached.

I looked around me and everyone was baffled. “How could a brat like him defeat the town’s most feared fighter ?” is what they were probably thinking. Eventually, the bartender approached me and helped me to sit on my chair. He went to Grog to check him and shouted.

“Grog’s been knocked out and seriously injured ! Someone go get the guards ! And a healer !”

Two persons immediately went outside. The rest still looked dumbfounded. Then bit by bit, the fact that Grog had been beaten started to sink in and the dreadful atmosphere was replaced by an uproar.

“Oi oi, did you see that ? That kid cast Fire Magic without Fire Cindril ! How did he do that !?”

“This guy is no joke… Grog’s power was on the same level as that of an imperial knight… and yet that guy defeated him with almost no wounds at all !”

“Did you see how fast he was moving near the end ? He managed to dodge most of Grog’s best strikes ! That kid is amazing !”

I was under the assumption that Grog was a kind of bandit but I didn’t expect him to be such a high level criminal. The waitress approached me with a big smile on her face and hugged me strongly. My faced was buried in her breasts and it became hard to breath.

“Thank you so much ! Who knows what would have happened to me without you… You are this town’s hero !”

“Hero ? Surely you’re exaggerating… I mean, if the guards were too scared to fight him, why didn’t you try to send a letter to the Emperor ?”

Hearing this, the bartender joined the conversion.

“Ah kid, it looks like you don’t know anything about this town. Saying that Grog was just a simple criminal would be an understatement. This guy kidnapped many girls and forced the merchants to give him whatever he wanted for free. He also committed murder. Despite this, he was strong enough to beat all of this town’s guards by himself.”

“We did try to send letters to the Emperor to get more guards but no reply ever came back. We started thinking the world had given up on us and that Grog would keep behaving like a tyrant around here… but you saved us !”

“What will happen to him now ?”

The bartender replied.

“He will probably be executed. The sooner the better.”

I didn’t feel any sympathy towards the man I had just defeated and yet, I thought of he idea of killing him as disturbing. Well, nothing I could do about it though. That’s probably how the world works nowadays… Criminals are killed to atone for what they have done.

The so-called “justice”.

“What is your name, kid ? My name is Artis and this is Elestasia.”

“I am Zwölf Kreizig. I’m aiming to become a Magician.”

“A Magician huh ? With such skills, you’re sure to succeed. Wait, are you going to take part in the capital’s tournament ?”

“You know about it ?”

“Of course, kid ! Everyone knows about it. It’s the main talk in town right now. So you’re travelling towards the capital, right ? In that case, take this.”

“Hmm ?”

Artis handed me an envelope.

“I have a friend in the capital and he manages a rather good inn. If you give this to him, he’ll let you stay at his place for as long as you want for free. This is my thanks for getting rid of Grog.”

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“Wow… I… I’ll gratefully accept it.”

I wasn’t the one paying for the expenses but Father would surely appreciate saving money on something as expensive as inn fees.

“On behalf of everyone in Bruneciel, allow me to express my thanks and wish for your victory at the tournament.”

Elestasia hugged me one more time.

“Good luck Zwölf ! If it’s you, I know you can win the tournament. Also please drop by to visit whenever you’re around. We’ll welcome you warmly and give you a discount, right Sir ?”

The bartender nodded.

After hearing these kind words, I left and headed back to the meeting place.

***

I found Father waiting for me in front of the fountain where we had separated earlier. It looked like he had bought food and medicine and was ready to travel. I showed him the letter Artis gave me and he looked at me with surprised eyes.

“I heard some people shouting about someone having defeated this town’s tyrant… was it you by any chance ?”

“Seems like it.”

“… You could have got yourself killed you know. What am I supposed to tell your mother if that happened ?”

“I, hum- I…”

“Sigh… Anyway, it’s no use scolding you… if you defeated someone like the rumored Grog, that means you’re already stronger than your old man, hahaha.”

“Mhm.”

“Well, still. Try to avoid getting into dangerous situations, ok ? “

“Yes, Father.”

We departed from Bruneciel soon after. At nighttime, we finally stopped to set up the camp. After eating, I finally got time to read. Although Father went straight to sleep, I went inside my tent and tried to produce light with “Creative Magic”. That’s the name I have given to Magic that only uses Mana.

I imagined a yellow flame that wasn’t hot at all and produced maximum lighting. The difference between Cindril Magic and Creative Magic is how easy it is to know how much Mana to use to cast the spell with Cindril Magic. On the other hand, Creative Magic works more like a hunch and often requires trial and error.

The first 7 fires I cast were too powerful and blinded me. After some experimenting, I finally succeeded in casting one that was bright enough to read but not too powerful.

Once I remembered the Mana input needed and the overall design of the spell, I’d just name it. Saying the name out loud would help me to cast it immediately without thinking about the parameters. Thus I named this blinding light 『Flash』. I also tried to fuse it with 『Dragonfly』but as expected it didn’t change its effect.

Since I finally had some quiet time, I decided to start reading the “Expert level” books.

Although Creative Magic was very useful, its cost in Mana was extremely high so relying on Cindril was still a better solution for fighting. At least until I increased my Mana capacity significantly.

After 2 hours of training, I had mastered a few new spells. 『Wind Razor』 was the Expert version of『Wind Blade』. It was the sharpest and fastest version of it.

I also improved『Whirlwind』into『Hurricane』and『Rock Wall』into 『Rock Shield』.

It was easy to improve Intermediate skills into Expert ones, as opposed to learning totally new ones. All I had to do was refine my molding and spend a bit more Mana to fuel the Cindril in order to fortify my Intermediate spells into Expert level ones.

After feeling exhausted from using up so much Mana, I felt asleep quite easily. As I was sinking into a deep sleep, I felt happy as I finally felt like I had powered-up significantly.