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Chapter 80: The Concept of “Magic”

「What an amazing place. Is there a cavity inside the ice?」

「Seems to be so. My father said the Ice Dragon is in there…」Drake.

Strangely, the blizzard ceased in the area where we were. And there was a dome-shaped shining wall of ice.

As I walked around the perimeter of the ice wall to observe it, an old man with a pure white beard suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

(What the!? My Detection skill didn’t detect him!)

The old man approached me as I was bewildered.

Shit, I can’t get a read on this guy… I can’t even read if there is any hostility.

「Fo fo fo, did you come here knowing what kind of place this is?」

Drake stepped forward while I was wondering how to answer.

「Yes! I’m here to take the Ice Dragon’s Trial! I’m Drake of the dragonewt race!」

「Hou?……Hmm? By any chance are some of you guys monsters?」

How did he know that… Does he have the Appraisal skill?

If that’s the case, then I guess we have no choice but to answer honestly.

「As you guessed… 3 of us were originally monsters.」

「Hmm. That’s quite unusual… But it’s fine, as there are more than 4 races gathered. Go on, Drake. You can pass.」

After saying that, the old man approached Drake in an instant and cast some kind of magic on him.

I was unable to perceive the old man’s actions… at all.

In addition to that, his magic activation is chantless!?

…This old man alone is stronger than all of us put together.

「…Hey Grandpa, who are you?」

「My name is Quereble. I am also a dragonewt.」

Drake reacted to that name.

「Qu, Quereble-sama!? Aren’t you the hero of the Human-Demon War! You weren’t just a fairy tale?!」

「Fo fo fo, so you do know of me. I have been alive for over 2,000 years. Leaving that aside, Drake… you should hurry up and go inside the ice wall.」

After saying that, he moved behind Drake and gave him a light push on his back, and Drake slipped into the ice wall.

Drake couldn’t react at all. This old man is at a level that much higher than us…

If this old man had been hostile, it’s possible that someone might have been killed by now.

The thought made me sweat despite being on a snowy mountain.

「Now then, you guys might be feeling bored just waiting here, right? It seems that there are some of you who don’t know how to use their powers… so let me give you some advice.」

「Wait a minute… How long will it take for Drake to come out? We don’t have much time…」

「That depends on Drake himself. It could take days, years, or even decades…」

「Are you serious? …The truth is, there is a war about to break out soon. So, at least us 4 need to return to the dragonewt village first…」

「Aun… Drake will be fine. Besides… we are still weak. We need power to fight against the demons.」

Kinu and Shinku, who have witnessed the strength of the demons personally, might be feeling the impending danger more strongly than I do.

Which means the demons are much more formidable than I imagine…

Moreover, there aren’t many opportunities to study under such a strong person.

Thinking about it calmly, this is the first time I’m facing someone beyond my power ever since I became a monster. Thus I might have been acting too cautious.

As Kinu says, let’s believe in Drake.

「If Ruzark contacts us, then I think at least us 4 should head back first. But we should still have about three weeks until then. We may never get another chance like this, so let’s train until the very last minute!」

「Hmm, the young miss seems to understand her own capacity and limits. In addition, the expression of your eyes have also changed… I think it will be worthwhile to train up this group.」

After that, the four of us decided that while Drake was undergoing the Ice Dragon’s trial, we were also going to be trained by Querebre. We introduced ourselves and explained our fighting style to him.

「I see… A lot of things have changed since I started living on this mountain. And I have also somewhat understood the discomfort I felt towards you guys.」

「Discomfort? Regarding our fighting style?」

「No, it’s your magic and skills. …The magic I know is fundamentally different from the one you guys use. Let me explain from this point first. In the first place, magic is more free than you think. To be more specific, it’s something you create yourself.」

「Creating… magic?」

「For example, what Kinu is using right now seems to be a characteristic magic called [Flame Lance] or [Flame Wall]… In extreme terms, even those who haven’t learned this skill can use it as long as they have the aptitude for the fire attribute and enough mana.」

「Huh? Then the meaning of a skill is…」

「Probably to simplify the activation of magic. Even those who just learned that magic can activate it by chanting the skill name. It must have been made for ease of use. But the degree of freedom of the skill is simply limited to increasing the number of attacks, right? In addition, it would be fatal if the opponent perceived what you were going to do mid-battle.」

「Nn. I can increase the number and density, but I can’t change the shape or size.」Kinu.

「I guessed so. That’s because most of the magic is activated automatically. In my case, I create and adjust everything from scratch myself. As long as you have enough mana and Intelligence stat, you can use magic as you imagine.」

「Even if you are special as an individual, Quereble… Does that mean magic has degenerated over the years since your time?」

「For you guys, I’ll start by drilling in the theory of the magic that I use into your heads.」

For the next two days, we received guidance on magic construction from Quereble, after which each of us were given our own tasks.

Kinu had mastered the basics in the following week and was entering the next phase.

However, in my case, it was difficult to control. So I continued to construct the magic which I imagined using lightning magic, but it didn’t go well.

After three weeks, I was finally able to create the form I had in mind.

Like me, Shinku and Nelfie finally cleared the basics over the course of three weeks.

According to Quereble, we were still quite fast, and he said that Kinu was at the level of “innate talent”.

The day after we started working on our respective tasks, the dome-shaped ice wall suddenly broke and Drake appeared.

「Fo fo fo… Drake seems to have been a more outstanding talent than I expected.」

Saying that, Quereble displayed a genuinely happy smile.

(Just as I thought…)

I had somehow naturally realized this. Quereble seems to be the “Ice Dragon”.