Awarang, a small elven town in Gretharea Kingdom, 56 Gearro 3982

It had already been nine days after the day I chose my name. Nothing really extraordinary happened during that period of time. I had essentially spent these nine days adjusting to my new hectic schedule, which was basically like this…

I woke up right before dawn and started my free run, over different courses every day. Once I returned home, bath and breakfast were next on the menu, followed straight away by several sets of my [Trinity Training Technique] and ranged weapon practice. Then, I moved to [Loweld] dojo to practice dual wielding my melee weapons.

After that, I went to the blacksmith workshop and helped my uncle with tedious physical work at the smithy until noon. I didn’t have to but I needed the pay. To rest my sore muscles afterward, I had my lunch and went to the town library to read some books.

And then, in mid afternoon, I did the next tedious work… watching insects. Using [Monster Magic Mimicry] to watch insects was boring as hell, but I still needed to do it. Next, in late afternoon, I attended [Ealong] martial art practice, which in essence was the strange mixture of judo, jujitsu, anatomy, acupuncture, and gymnastics.

Right after the sun sets, I did another free run through a different course before heading home. At home, what waited for me were several other sets of [Trinity Training Practice]. I could enjoy a warm bath and dinner after that.

Taking care of my room, clothing, weapons, and other equipments was what I usually did after dinner. The evening was also the period of time where I discussed many things with my uncle… if it could be said discussion, since it basically was… like… I asked detailed long questions, my uncle answered in merely one or two words. It was simple for him, frustrating for me…

Back to my current schedule, I usually went to bed when it was close to midnight, after some other sets of [Trinity Training Practice] which were done differently than the morning and evening practice. This time, the practice was specifically aimed to level me up. So far, during those late training practices, I managed to break into two levels for each of the three domains. Now, I was level three in mind, soul, and body.

Talking about level-ups, I didn’t really have any problem with leveling-up in mind and soul, but that body thing… urgh… it was damned painful.

…

Anyway, during these nine days, no other terror attack occurred in town. The elven guards were in serious trouble though. The town council put the blame of the many deaths during the incident on them. And there were even some attempts to reform the group. Last time I heard from Laertreon, the guard leader was sacked, and Rudevall, the silver eyed guy, was forced to be the new leader.

…

Right now, I was in the town library, trying to push myself to keep reading some boring thick book about advanced knowledge of herbs and plants. I tried and tried, but it was useless. I could not get any motivation to continue reading.

I sighed. I knew herbalism was important to survive. I had some decent information of basic and intermediate herbal knowledge from some other books which were not as dreary. This advanced herbalim book, however, was just somehow… devoid of any interesting things. It was as if the writer of this book tried very hard to make nobody willing to read this book.

I massaged my temples in irritation, frustrated at the content of the book, at round-about way the writer tried to give information, at the strange dictions, and the long complex grammars. I felt as if I were an elementary student trying to understand the words of a senile professor who wanted to show off his trivial knowledge…

I gave up. This book was too boring. I closed the book and was about to stand up, ready to return it to the right shelf. It was time for me to do the tedious insect watching anyway.

“Khael-ka! Khael-ka!” A cheerful voice stopped me from standing up.

“Shush… Don’t you know not to shout in a library, girl?” I quickly shushed the familiar newcomer.

“I am not shouting,” said the newcomer with a pout.

I took a quick glance at her. She was an elven girl of about nine or ten years old with fair skin and big round eyes. Her wavy dark brown hair was long and tied in a pony tail.

I knew her quite well. We were not really close or anything, but she was one of the few noteworthy acquaintances of mine. She was the daughter of the librarian here. She was also attending [Ealong] dojo and a member of the unnamed free-running community, the youngest member even.

“You were talking loudly. It was very close to shouting, you know?”

“Ugh… you sound like father,” grumbled the girl. She hadn’t earned her name yet, so right now she was still called the daughter-of-Lashom-and-Maleina.

“So, what’s up, girl?” I asked in low voice.

“Oh, yeah… I need you to cast that magic again. Cast that beast magic skill again at me, Khael-ka! Come on! Do it once mo…”

“Is that how you ask someone to do something?” A familiar calm yet deep voice cut in from behind me. I didn’t need to look back to know who said it. It was the voice of Lashom, the librarian, and also the girl’s father.

“Ugh… er… Would you please kindly cast that extraordinarily wonderful beast magic skill at me, o great sir with generous heart?”

I almost burst out laughing at those mouthful polite words coming from the little girl who showed no politeness at all in her expression and gestures. It sounded so… out of place.

I heard the familiar sigh from Lashom. “I can guess already who taught you that silly way of asking favor. It was your uncle, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah… Uncle Laertreon said that I should use it when I ask a stranger for help. But, Khael-ka is not a stranger, is he?”

“It’s not the problem of stranger or not. Your mother and I have already told you many times the proper behavior for asking favor. It’s… oh, whatever… Why you would prefer using whichever weird things your uncle teaches rather than what we teach was beyond my understanding. Sorry about her silly attitude, Khael.”

“No problem, Lashom-ka. She is still a little child after all,” I said, grinning widely because I knew what would come.

“Hey, I’m not a little child!”

Got her… She was so easy to bait.

“Well, you look like a little child; you talk like a little child; you behave like a little child… so, you must be a little child, right?” Lashom followed up quickly. This had almost become like a habit for us since it was the most effective combo to deal with the girl.

The girl stomped her feet angrily. Normally, she would have run away in anger. But now, surprisingly, it was different. Instead of running away, she quickly grabbed my right arm and shook it violently.

“Please cast the magic! Please, please, please, please, please…”

“Okay, okay… Don’t shout and stop shaking my arm.”

“Yes!” She put a victory pose, and waited impatiently with sparkling eyes.

I sighed. The magic she wanted me to cast was what I got from a wayjasmott… the wise ant. I acquired it after four days of observation… of over fifty times using [Monster Magic Mimicry] on the insect.

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It was basically a dud. Four days were wasted to gain a magic skill which was useless for anything other than entertainment. I knew I shouldn’t have chosen any creature with the word wise in its name. Nothing really wise would ever appear from anything that had the word wise on its name…

“Come on! Hurry up!”

“You know I would definitely discard this magic when I found a better one, wouldn’t you girl?” I said without much enthusiasm.

“I know, I know! That’s why I ask you to do it now, before you throw it away. I’m not stupid, you know?” responded the girl with another pout.

“Okay then, here you go…”

Without any word or gesture, I focused my mana and shaped it with my will into the complicated pattern of magic I had learnt. The magic appeared as a single marble-sized ball of rainbow-colored light in front of me. With a simple order from my mind, the colorful ball shot as fast as a lightning to the girl’s forehead… and disappeared without a trace.

The girl’s eyes glowed white for about a second but then returned back to normal, although she seemed to be dazed at the moment.

“So?” I asked.

She looked at my face for a second and then started giggling uncontrollably. She then aimed her sight to her father and giggled more uncontrollably.

I let out a helpless sigh. The magic I had learnt didn’t really have a name, so for now I simply called it [Silly Sight]. What it did was basically distorting someone’s perception of color for a while. It meant that in the target’s eyes… grass could be blue, sky could be purple, cloud could be red... The color change in the target’s eyes was completely random, so it could be unexpected and quite entertaining.

I knew I could probably use this as a debuff magic. Changing the color of everything in the enemies’ point of view might make them shocked and confused for a while. It would give enough chance for surprise attack or for running away.

The problem was… I had limited slots for active magic. If I had at least thirty spaces for aez, I would probably keep this magic skill for fun. But I didn’t, so I would surely discard this magic skill as soon as I got a better one.

“You both look really funny,” said the girl, before she dashed away, giggling at everything she saw.

“That was a fun magic you have,” said Lashom. “It would definitely be super popular if you cast it to people in the next Ageny Festival.”

“Ageny festival? I don’t think I would hold on to this magic for that long,” I responded. It would take about forty more days before Ageny Festival, the celebration of the first day of summer, was going to be held.

I stood up and walked to one of the book shelves to return the book I held to its place.

“It’s a pity then. You could earn a lot if you charge, let’s say, five silver coins for one cast,” said Lashom.

I stopped dead on my track. Damn! I had never thought of commercializing this magic.

I knew my business sense was bad, here in this world as well as in my past life. But to not realize that I could charge money from performing entertainment magic… I hadn’t realized that my business sense had become this pathetic.

Should I keep this magic skill to earn money from the Ageny Festival?

…

I would have to think more about that. For now, I would just need to focus on my current task, trying to learn [Matjiwa].

After saying goodbye to Lashom, the librarian, I moved to the site I had always been going to for the last three days.

It was a pretty secluded spring, with lots of rose-like plants around it. It was actually not really far from the library, but it was tough to get there, since I needed to go through a series of dense bushes. Fortunately, those bushes were not the ones with thorns.

This secluded spring was the habitat of a matrog, a beholder bug… the second species in my list which I suspected to possess [Matjiwa]. I was lucky that my uncle knew about this location. A secluded spring with a lot of mavaar plants, plants whose flowers were like roses but with glassy blue color, was the ideal habitat of matrog.

Yet, still, the insect was very rare. Here, in a place with secluded spring and probably hundreds mavaar plants, I could only find one matrog. But at least I could find one. I had spent two unfruitful days searching in many other places before I could find this.

Once I reached the location, I quickly scanned around to find where the matrog was. It took me a while to find it. It was a tiny, beetle-sized bug after all.

The name matrog, when translated literally, actually meant sight bug. However, I preferred to call it a beholder bug, because… well, it looked very similar to the classic monster, Beholder, from the popular D&D RPG games in my old world. Like the monster from the game, matrog looked like a floating eyeball with creepy tentacles. But, compared to the monster in the game, the beholder bug here was not really scary… especially due to its minuscule size.

I focused my mind and used my [Monster Magic Mimicry] skill to observe the insect. Nothing happened, since the bug simply stayed unmoving on its original place, floating a few centimeters above the leaf of a mavaar plant.

I was prepared for that though. I had learned my lesson from the time I watched the wayjasmott: It was a waste of mana and time when I used my 3M magic skill to observe and the observed creature did nothing.

The duration of my 3M magic was quite long, probably about ten minutes if I used the time measurement of my past life. However, there was no guarantee that the observed monster would use its magic during that period of time. I used to waste time like that when I observed the wise ant. Not anymore though…

I had learned that impartial observation with no interference policy was not very effective in my case. The most effective way, mana-wise and time-wise, was: observing while making sure that the monster kept using the magic. To do that, I needed to find out what situation made the creature use the magic. And then, I just needed to recreate the situation myself.

And, after a few days of observing, I could now deduct what made the matrog use its magic.

With a twig, I took a grey caterpillar not far from where the bug was and dropped it in front of the beholder bug.

The matrog shone dimly for a few seconds. I removed the caterpillar and grinned, full of satisfaction. It seemed that my deduction was right. It used its magic whenever new creature appeared in close proximity.

I shoved another small creature in front of the bug. It was now a green ant. Nothing happened. Why? Ah, right… it was probably the cool down of the skill. I let the ant wandered around the bug, only replacing it back near the bug when it wandered too far. After about two hundred seconds, the matrog shone. That was great.

I kept shoving different creatures and object in the proximity of the bug, and reusing my 3M magic skill whenever the duration ended. And it kept using its magic until… after probably the thirtieth time it used its magic, it dropped down on the leaf, no longer floating.

Damn! Did it run out of mana? Shit! I hoped it didn’t die. I hadn’t managed to learn its magic. And, it would be really pain in the ass for me to find another matrog.

Anyway, why hadn’t I learned the magic already? Today, I had observed the magic for about thirty times. When I combined it with what I did yesterday and the day before that, I should have observed for more than sixty times. But, the magic still eluded me. Why?

Many possible reasons quickly appeared in my mind. Perhaps, this magic skill was an exception to beast magic, a skill that could not be learned by elves like me. Perhaps, it was a high level skill that needed much more observation. Perhaps I did something wrong with my observation. Perhaps, using stimulation to force a creature to use its magic restricted me from acquiring the skill. Perhaps…

While contemplating for those many reasons, I waited. I waited and hoped that the matrog was still alive. And my wish was in some way… fulfilled.

After some time lying unmoving on the mavaar wide leaf, the matrog moved. It started floating again, still unsteadily but it was still great… I didn’t have to find another beholder bug. But I probably should not force it to use its magic again.

Oh well… I guessed I had to finish early here today. From my estimation, it was not the time yet for my [Ealong] practice. Should I do some physical exercises somewhere else?

I stood up and started to walk away, ready to go through the thick bushes, when suddenly something unexpected entered my line of sight. There on the mavaar leaf on the furthermost of the spring…

It was a matrog.

It was another damned freaking matrog!

This was… ridiculously great. I could continue my 3M observation. Yeah! It was probably due to the luck in obtaining power which came from the great blessing of my name. Probably I should have prepared myself for a great bad luck to come to me after this. My name was also cursed after all.

But, that was for later. Now, there was this great opportunity in front of me. It would be incredibly stupid not to use this.

I quickly focused my mind once more, casting another [Monster Magic Mimicry] to myself. Then using the same trick like what I had done to the first matrog, I started to observe this second bug.

After the seventh time the bug used its magic, a complicated pattern of magic started to appear in my mind. It was the sign that the instinctual knowledge of the magic was beginning to form in my mind. After a few more observation, I would completely master the magic… or so I wished.

It turned out that I needed the matrog to do seventeen more uses of its magic skill to completely understand the magic.

But when my mind was finally able to digest the full information of the magic, I laughed out loud and excitedly jumped around and started to do what must have been a completely grotesque dance of glee.

I totally forgot about my pride and dignity. It was lucky that nobody was here to see that ridiculously embarrassing moment of my life.

However, my uncontrolled burst of joy was somewhat justifiable… I guessed. It was because the skill that I got from the matrog was the skill that I had aimed at the outset. It was… the [Matjiwa].