Chapter 34 - The Birth of Bend… er… Controller? 1
“Oh, you managed to comprehend the earth element so quickly? You might be talented with earth magic then. What's your name?”
"Huh? You don't have a name? Ah, I see. That thing with orphans, isn't it. Then how about I give you a name? It's fine, it will be convenient to have a name, right? And I have already think of something that will definitely fit you”
"Rocky. That will be your name because you have talent in earth magic. A fitting name, isn't it?”
#Rocky POV
“Oh… that was just a dream… but still a good dream to have”
I slowly raise my body from the bed as I rouse myself up. My mind gets clearer as the second passes by.
“That was kinda nostalgic. The day I was bestowed my name, huh? I feel like today's going to be a great day”
After all, like Master Milo said, keep letting positive things out of my mouth and working earnestly. Good things will surely follow. Of course, most of the time. Life is always about things not going the way you want. So I need to always be prepared.
And that is how Master Milo described a mage is. A mage is always prepared. So let's prepare to face today.
Well, I can do that in an instant, though.
“Clean!"
Arguably one of Master’s best spell inventions, the clean spell. First, cover your body with water. Second, control the water barrier to spin around your body. And lastly, third, push the covering water outward. As easy as that one two three, I don't have to take a bath and do my laundry anymore.
Well, not forever as I still enjoy taking a hot bath after training. And having clean clothing is also feels good. The clean magic is not designed to directly take over the function of taking a bath and laundry cleaning but more of a emergency use or when you have little time to groom yourself.
Okay, I admit, I am too lazy to clean myself in the morning. There will be morning training after this so it is not efficient to clean beforehand.
I then created a water mirror in front of me to check my presentability.
This is another great magic invention from Master Milo. Especially for the girls I guess. But having a mirror to check on ourselves is a convenient thing to have. You don't have to make a fool of yourself because of something weird sticking out of your body.
As I look in the mirror, I can see a brown haired man in buzz cut hairstyles with a large robust body wearing a standard mage robe.
Yeah, that is me. Not really the looks one would expect from a mage, isn't it? Well, it was all thanks to all the training and nutrition that Master Milo provided to everyone in his army, I started to grow uncontrollably big like this.
Master Milo said that I might have a giant as my ancestor that I naturally grow this big after having my needs for food and training fulfilled. He also said that my physique matches really well with my talent in earth magic. Earth magic is usually described as heavy, immovable, and persistent. When someone as big as me cast earth magic, my opponent would feel that sensation twice. One, naturally from my earth magic and two, from looking at my huge body.
Well, it's not like I want to be a pure fighter which needs what Master Milo keeps mentioning about the perfect fighter body which in short just means a perfectly balanced body. You know a strong body but not bulky, an agile body but not flimsy. Such things like that.
So yeah, my body is not the type included in the perfect fighter's body as I am too bulky. Master Milo told me to focus my training more on agility and flexibility to better balance my body and I should say, Master Milo rarely gets things wrong. The training really helped me a lot in sparring especially when I face strong opponents like captain Leon.
Well, enough about my body. My body is asking for nutrition now so let's go to the cafeteria now.
On my way to the cafeteria, I met Leon who was also heading in the same direction. We lightly greet each other and walk together.
And as always.
“Hey, Rocky, cast ‘clean’ as usual please"
"Thank you as always. What do you want for that?”
“Oh you don't have to… Ah, no. I have some difficulty that I need another person's view. Could you?”
“Well, as long as you just need an opinion and not solving problem I guess I can lend you my ears”
“Good, let's talk after we eat"
Yes, talk after we eat. Because in Milo's army, everyone made it a habit to eat fast. Master Milo told us that we can eat slowly in a safe environment but most of us army members keep the habit of eating fast. After all, this way of eating really feels satisfying. I mean it won't be that satisfying if you eat dry stuff from army rations but for a warm meal filled with meat and refreshing taste from berry sauce, it is just heavenly. I can't think of another way to eat it besides gorging myself.
““We are thankful for the food””
We should never forget that having food is a great blessing. Never forget the old days in the old orphanage when Master Milo still not around. So we should always be thankful before eating.
After we say our thanks for the food, I took a glance at Captain Leon who are sitting across me. There's a glint in his eyes as he look straight to me.
Your challenge, I accept it!
Yes, we should be thankful for the food, but as a soldier of Milo's army, we have to train our speed in gorging our food. Of course, even if we are gorging our food, we can't make a mess because it means that we are wasting food and wasting food is a big sin!
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And Captain Leon’s signal to me is a challenge to see which of us can eat the food faster. The loser will have to buy the winner a dessert and the current popular dessert now is the shaved milk berry ice drink.
Berries is the king of fruits for the majority of the army member since back then in the orphanage. They are sweet and sour which made it feels refreshing when turned into a juice. Even with the appearance of new fruits such as citruses and melons, berries still the reigning champion as citruses are just sour without sweetness and melons are just too rare to find although those are indeed delicious.
Citruses are more popular with the girls but most still liked berries more overall.
And then there's milk, the new godly drink availabe after taming a female herbivorous monster with a cub. Our tamers immediately manage to increase its production after knowing the high demand for milk but it is still limited after all with the limited number of tamers in our army. Hirings new one would still take some time as the new recruit would need some time for training.
Drinking milk or or berry juice by itself is already like a dry ground receiving spring rain. But when those two combined and frozen by ice magic then shaved, it feels like my pores are refreshed by a blast of nature delight.
Come, captain. I can't in a spar with you but I can definitely out-gorge you!
And naturally, I win the match.
“Ugh, I still can't win. If I can make my mouth wider I might be able to win against you"
"No captain, don't do that. Or the ladies will kill me if they know that your face get disfigured because you wanted to win against me”
“Sigh, I guess you win some and you lose some then. Here, get the shaved milk berry ice"
We are going to round 2 of eating. But in this round, we are not gorging the food into our mouth like before. We are now slowly enjoying the food.
The reason? First, brain freeze. Second, desert is not something available in wartime. Well, to be honest, it is mostly because of the 1st reason for me. But then again, master Milo told us to learn to adapt ourselves to TPO, which means time, place, and occasion. Well, he wants us to learn that so as not to embarrass ourselves in a formal situation. But then again, I will just not participate in such a kind of hard to breathe formal party.
Still, I agree to eat desserts slowly as it hits a different spot when compared to a normal meal. This thing is made to be enjoyed.
After we finished our desserts, Captain Leon immediately asked the things that troubled me.
“So, what troubles you?”
“Well, you know that most of Master Milo’s magic is about ‘borrowing’ the surrounding element, right?"
"Uhuh”
"But the academy’s magic is mostly about controlling the mana inside us into the element we want. In this regard, I favor Master's way more than the academy. I don't feel comfortable controlling the element forcefully like that. But I also don't want to fail the academy from not learning their method. It was thanks to master that I can get to learn in the academy after all"
"Hmm. Is there any more?”
“I guess that sums up my troubles for now. I just can't accept the academy’s… way of approaching magic"
"Okay then. My first thought would be the quote from the era of the assassin's golden age: ‘Nothing is true, everything is permissible’. I see that you take too much pride in Master Milo's teaching but he always reminds us that he is just a mortal in the end, he is not a supreme being yet that is still prone to making mistakes”
“Next is also related to the first one, Master Milo also said that mages are truth seekers. They should be accepting of new knowledge and never be proud of what they know as the things that they know might not be correct in the first place. Remember, you can be confident because of your result but you have to keep being humble when facing new things"
"And lastly, just seeing things objectively, the difference of the two methods you mentioned is the source of the element that you are going to use in your spell. You might see the academy’s way as inefficient because there are rich elemental sources in our surrounding but what about in a place with poor elemental value? Master had said it before right in an example that we can't make water with Master's science magic in a place that is extremely dry as there are no water elements that could be used in the process. I think that the academy's method might prove to be more effective in that kind of situation”
…
……
………
I'm awestruck.
As I'm digesting Captain Leon's words, I can't help but be convinced again by Captain's position as Master Milo's right hand man. I was blinded by my own pride and refused another point of view. That is indeed a bad habit to have as a mage.
“If only you can also cast magic, Captain"
“Again, you win some, you lose some. Even without magic I can still win in a fight even against Master Milo. But I still have my own natural enemy"
"Ah, Jane. Yeah, you need to control her to not approach you in order to win but for all melee fighters like you captain, winning against Jane is close to impossible. But isn't Master Milo new fleshmancing magic could be a new variable in your match captain?”
“Master Milo is still wary of flesh magic. Especially in using the extra appendages as there are still chances that the evil god behind the fleshmancer demons could still somehow have connections with those. So I have 70% confidence in winning a spar. By the way, talking about fleshmancer magic, I'm so envious of that devour magic”
"Ah, I get what you mean. You can eat mountains of meat in seconds with that after all. It is a great auxiliary magic for every army's soldier”
“Too bad it seems that darkness affinity is indispensable for mastering that magic so only the selected few could master it. Not that it had anything to do with the magicless me though"
That ability is like having thousands or maybe even ten thousands extra stomachs which would mean an extra ten thousands energy sources. If Master Milo could find an effective way to control Captain Leon then he could win the spar by a battle of attrition.
“Okay, let's stop thinking of difficult problems. Things will come when you least expect it. Let's spar to help our digestion shall we?"
"Oh? Raring to get revenge so soon captain? Why are you so petty”
“Yes, I am a petty man, what can you do about it!”
"Aw rats. I need to get a hit or two so you won't be so smug facing those weaker than you”
"That would please me instead to feel your growth”
Sigh, I guess there's no escaping the devil now. On the bright side, I can use my full power in the spar so I just need to do my best.
Soon after, in the training ground.
The sky is so blue. Today is another clear sunny day without any cloud.
And I am naturally lying on my back as I can see the sky.
Simply put, I got knocked down instantly by the Captain. Bloody hell he is strong. I can only lament my weakness in sorrow.
Captain Leon slowly walks toward me and tries to help me up while saying:
“And I realize another weakness of Master Milo's magic. It takes too long to cast. In a single battle situation, it is just not that effective"
"Yeah, Master Milo need us to cover him when he is casting and I never thought to deep about it before his fight with the flesh demon”
“Ugh, I wish I can also witness that battle"
I take Leon's hand and rise up. Thinking again about Master Milo's great battle before, I suddenly feel ashamed with my rejection of the academy's magic technique. I remember that Master Milo immediately trained with the new magic as soon as he learned it from the library. He studied things again and again even though we all see him as the smartest man ever.
Maybe that inquisitive nature is the reason why Master Milo could become so smart and seems to know about everything.
He keeps saying that he doesn't know everything and only knows what he knows but now I realize there's an unimaginable amount of effort that Master has exerted inside his chamber unknown to us in order to achieve that level of knowledge.
I suddenly feel ashamed to call myself a mage.
Seeing my brooding expression, captain Leon immediately snaps me back to reality.
“Nobody's perfect. Now that you realize your mistake, you have become a better you. Now, how about focusing your skill on a single battle spar?"
"Don't be so smug when you are saying the words that Master Milo said before, captain. But you are right. Let's continue”
Yeah, that's right. There's no reason to feel ashamed. I just need to move on and work my hardest.
We started our spar again. But this time, I tried to mix in some fast casting academy spell with master’s science spell.
Captain Leon is running straight at me again but as he gave me a handicap of 100 short spear starting distance, I managed to finish casting a stone arrow spell. The basic stone attack spell while also casting the ‘stone bump’ spell created by Master Milo in an attempt to trip Captain Leon.
As its name suggests, the spell is just making a small earth bump at a desired location. Large area control earth elemental spells like quagmire, raise stone wall, pitfall, or land needle are too high level for me and besides, those take too long to cast.
No good. Captain Leon easily dodge the stone arrow. I guess such a simple spell would not work against him. Ugh cancel earth bump. Multicast earth bolt!
Earth bolt is an even simpler attack magic that Master Milo derived from stone arrow. It shoots a smaller stone projectile than stone arrow spell with a faster projectile speed as it is smaller thus has less weight.
The target of the stone bolt spell? Captain's limbs, especially his legs.
As the spell is simpler, I can manage to multicast 3 at the same time. Still far away from the fireball barrage that the flesh demon showed before but could increase the possibility of controlling Captain Leon when staggered.
“Whoa, hey, that’s not bad. But it's a bit weak don't you think?"
Figures. I don't think even a standard stone arrow could hurt Captain Leon, much less the stone bolt spell which is the weakened version.
I managed to hit one of his lower legs but it just made him flinch a little and continue on like nothing happened.
Not to be mistaken but even getting hit by the stone bolt spell still hurts. It's like the small pebble was thrown by a sling (which is used by a lower tier knight even). Even small sized herbivorous monsters like the deer family or ram family would die getting pelted by this. But as expected of the strongest fighter in the army, Captain just shrugged it off.
*Don't forget that the monsters in this world are 1 size up from their normal sizes so deer and ram sized as cows here*
Captain Leon has finally reached melee range. I can't just stay still standing in place. I tried everything. Evade and cast, evade and cast, evade and cast. But I can't keep on evading forever. And Captain Leon slowly corners me and catches me in a bad position with a thrusting move.
Bloody rat, captain, stabbing move with your huge sword (although wooden for training purposes) will hurt so much if it connects you know? Indignantly, I tried to punch the flat side of the sword to redirect it away from my body as my emotion reach the summit.
“Move!"
*Thwack!
Eh? What happened? I managed to redirect Captain’s sword? But my punch didn't hit the target? What hit it?
Unbeknownst to me, there is a small pillar of earth growing out of the floor diagonally from the outside direction of my hook punch that perfectly hits the side of Captain Leon's sword that immediately crumbles under the force of gravity.