As I hobble my way through the endless towering trees, trying to stay in the light as much as possible to speed up my [Solar Regeneration] skill, I turn to my only source of conversation.
“Hey, Is there anything you can actually tell me that will help me find somewhere safe to rest, preferably a place that has clean water?”
The young pretty illusion of a villainess casually strolling beside my crippled self unexpectedly deigns to give me an answer.
“Hmmm. I don’t think you need to worry too much about how clean the water is with your passive regeneration skill. If I were you I would focus on using your light magic to scout the area. Light magic is quite handy after all.”
While I am glad for the truly helpful advice I can’t help but latch on to something that really bugs me. She just said that light magic is useful. Normally I would just assume all magic is useful but I can’t ever forget the words of my parents when I told them my magic… They called it useless, so useless in fact that they felt the need to murder me to avoid the shame of having a child with such useless magic. So as I trudge along I decide to interrogate the AI.
“If light magic is so handy then why did my parents say it was useless and then murder me over it?”
“Well, humans are stupid. Light magic is quite useful and very rare. However due to the rather awful education standards of your species I can only assume they lack the understanding of how to use it and acquire new skills or turn them into attacks to level up. Judging from your frequent mumblings you are someone who was reincarnated from another world, yes? I assume your personal knowledge of how light functions is the primary catalyst for your ability to actually use your magic.”
So it is my education on earth that is letting me use my magic better than most. I had read in a book once that some mages believe the more you understand the origins of your magic the lower the mana cost. I had been wondering why [Light Beam] used so little mana that I could fire it off so many times despite my rather low level and still mess with golemancy after. It seems paying attention in physics class and watching all those fun BorkTubers who make science videos is really coming in handy.
With those thoughts in mind I remember a rather important thing about light, that light is more than just the visible spectrum. I grin to myself as I recall those videos demonstrating how much damage a microwave can do to anything containing water, and that most creatures have a lot of water in their bodies.
“I wonder how much damage I can do with a [Light Beam] made of microwaves?”
“I would recommend against using [Light Beam] to practice creating microwaves. Unless you enjoy getting your face cooked off when it explodes like it did last time? You do seem to be quite the masochist so I suppose you would.”
“Hey, I resent that statement! There is a limit to how much pain a person can enjoy.”
“So you admit you are a masochist?”
“No comment.”
Snorting at that, the blonde snark-bot continues walking.
Now walking -hobbling- along in silence I try to use my knowledge of light to acquire new skills in hopes of living through the rest of today.
I let out a trickle of mana and use it to grab ahold of some of the ambient light, doing my best to study the way it moves and the way it feels. After a rather long span of silently working on feeling out the light I notice I can sense a tiny difference in the texture of the light, like there are rougher spots or smoother spots. Latching on to that feeling I try to smooth out the rough light to match the rest and make it all uniform. I nearly walk into a tree due to my diverted focus, thankfully I am moving at a snail's pace. And after a long struggle I finally smooth out the light to all match the same texture.
[Skill [Light Beam] has leveled up!]
[Skill [Light Beam] has leveled up!]
[Skill [Light Beam] has leveled up!]
[Skill [Flash] has leveled up!]
[Skill [Flash] has leveled up!]
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“Woah, that is a lot of level ups just for smoothing out some light!”
“You are not smoothing out the light dork, you were changing its frequency. Doing that vastly improved your control over your magic which was reflected in the level ups. Honestly, levels for skills are rather arbitrary, especially in your case. Are you sure you have memories from this world as well?”
“Yes I’m sure. I remember quite a lot about the things I studied and those dusty old books always said that fighting monsters or people with your skills is the fastest way to level them up. And what do you mean in my case?”
“The system provides bonuses for combat, but you don’t need to worry about that because any combat you get into in this forest will just leave you as a red smear on one of these stupidly thick trees.”
With that rather sugar coated answer, Alice ignores my question about levels being arbitrary and keeps walking.
Now I guess it is time to focus on turning [Light Beam] into an actual weapon instead of a high powered flashlight. I let the mana flow through my body in the same way it does for [Light Beam] but this time before firing it I grab ahold of the light and smooth it out to a single uniform blob of light. This makes the sphere begin to get brighter and shift color and become a glowing crimson then settle finally in a bright red.
I had thought I smoothed it out quite a bit but I am still stuck in the visible range. I find myself having to pump quite a bit more mana into the sphere just to smooth it out until it finally fades from red to completely clear. With that I know I have made a tiny ball of microwaves. And so I launch it forwards into a tree. And I see, absolutely nothing… Right, microwaves are invisible and a laser pointer made of them hitting a magic tree for a split second is never going to accomplish anything. Well, whatever I will just need to find something better to test it on.
Ignoring the look I am getting from beside me I begin forming a larger ball of microwaves once again. However just as I finish turning it into microwaves I hear a now familiar screech. Two of them in fact.
“Oh look, some target practice showed up. Lucky you. Do try not to die.”
“Shit.”
Looking off towards the direction of the screeching I see 2 green figures with wooden sticks in their hands, pointy ones.
“[Lesser Identification]!”
[Goblin - Lv : 8]
[Goblin - Lv : 11]
Not good!
Think! Think! Think! There has to be a way to win this! I just can’t take on two at the same time so I need to distract one of them. I can already barely move with my injuries, dodging is not going to be an option.
Staring at the goblins charging towards me as sweat pours down my back I see Alice standing in the distance, hands in her uniform pockets. I wonder what she is doing as she just disappeared the last time I fought a goblin. Then I figure out the hint. I reach into my pocket and pull out the dirty green crystal from within and toss it onto the ground in front of me.
“[Create Golem]!”
The dirt around it begins to rapidly accumulate and form a 3 foot tall humanoid blob to match the size of the goblins coming towards me. Using my connection to the golem I move it to tackle the level 8 goblin while I also charge [Light Beam] with more and more mana to create a densely packed sphere of microwaves.
The level 8 goblin collides with my dirt golem. They both go tumbling to the ground as the goblin begins stabbing the dirt creature over and over in a mad rage, screeching all the while.
Seeing this I continue to command the golem to fight and struggle to convince the goblin it is still alive so that its attention stays fixed.
Just as the level 11 goblin finally closes the distance to a few meters I point my finger at its head and release the hold I have on my [Light Beam], letting the invisible sphere of light crash into the goblins head. It screeches bloody murder, clutching its skull unable to understand what is going on. The flesh on its face turning red and blistering as I continue to produce and fire microwaves at it at the same time. Until there is a muted splat, and the goblin collapses.
[Level 11 Goblin defeated!]
[Bonus Experience is awarded for defeating a creature 5 levels above you!]
[You have leveled up!]
Clutching my pointy stick I ignore the agony from moving my injured body so fast and charge towards the goblin still attacking my golem. I am almost there when I hear a crack, a sound like glass shattering accompanied by my connection to my golem fading away. Shit it must have broken the core.
Seeing its prey finally stop moving the goblin turns towards me, never stopping its angry yelling for even a moment. It charges with its stick pointed right at my chest.
“Damnit, [Flash]!”
Shutting my eyes and leaping to the side I use the only skill I can to escape.
The goblin’s screeches go up a pitch as it misses me when its vision is obscured by a blinding flash of light.
Opening my eyes as the light fades I can see the goblin rolling around on the ground with its clawed hands clutching its eyes in pain.
Still gripping my own pointy stick I run over to the writing green noise machine and plunge my weapon straight into its chest. It screeches again, even louder this time and begins flailing at anything and everything. I end up taking a big scratch across my leg as I stab down again and again before it finally goes silent.
[Level 8 Goblin defeated!]
[You have leveled up!]
[Skill [Create Golem] has leveled up!]
[Status]
-Lua Knight-
Species: Human
Level: 5
Class: 1
Magic: Light, Golemancy
Skills:
[Lesser Identification]
[Lesser Clean]
[Lesser Repair]
[Light Beam] Lv-5
[Create Golem] Lv-2
[Flash] Lv-3
[Passive - Solar Regeneration] Lv-1
“Fuck.”
Clenching my teeth at the gash across my leg I use [Lesser Clean] and [Lesser Repair] to keep my wounds from getting worse.
“Hmm, how odd.”
Sitting down to let myself rest I look up at the curious AI girl.
“What is odd?”
“Well, you are rather deep in The Sea of Trees and have been here for hours yet only encountered three goblins. Either that god of yours is excessively kind and protecting you, or…”
“Or we're in something's territory, something every other monster around besides the stupid goblins is terrified of…”
“Well, you said it, not me.”
“Great, today just keeps getting better and better.”
And with a lamenting sigh I flop on to the ground laying on my back to get a tiny bit of rest before shit hits the fan again.