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Chapter 43: Early Morning

 

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–The Next Morning—

I awoke feeling chilly. I moved my body and saw that the sky outside was still dark. I shook a little, covered myself with a blanket and once again tried to go to sleep. However, it doesn’t seem like I’ll be able to sleep any longer.

「…….mornings on a mountain are pretty cold huh」

Now that I look over, the three of them are all hugging each other and sleeping in a kind of pile, it looks pretty warm and comfortable.

……..wait, that’s not right.

When I look more closely, Lydia is crushing the both of them in her arms, Claude and Milly have a somewhat painful look on their faces.

Lydia’s face seems really happy because she has a flower in each hand. (A beautiful girl on each arm)

The three of them seem warm, so I put on my coat and go outside.

I’ve finally found some time to myself. Shouldn’t I use it to train my magic?

When I get outside, I hear the sounds of birds calling in the distance.

Are the Roc Birds starting to wake up? How about I go look for them a bit?

Oh yeah, this is the first time in a while that I’ve gone hunting by myself.

Well from the start I prefer solo-hunting. I’ve had to go hunting around with the guild, so little by little I’ve gotten used to it, but when there are too many people hunting you lose a certain tension, and it gets boring pretty quickly. If you get too used to slacking off or having it easy, somewhere along the way you’ll lose your drive. It’s that kind of thing.

A mage has a weak body and when they’re alone they need to both attack and defend. This makes solo hunting as a mage quite dangerous.

However, magic is a deep and profound art, if you prepare for all kinds of circumstances there is always some way to 「withdraw」 safely.

If you do the very best action, at the very best time and you continue to do so, then theoretically no matter the opponent you should be able to win.

I cast Safe Protection, and begin to teleport.

First I should start by searching nearby. In the areas right next to the cabin there are very few monsters.

I teleport and meditate while I look around, and once I confirm whether there are any monsters about, I move on.

After I’ve moved a couple of times, I catch the shadow of a Roc Bird from the corner of my eye.

I’m still pretty far away from it, so it hasn’t noticed me yet.

This is great, let’s try this out.

I cast Time Square, then as time slows I cast Black Sphere and Green Sphere.

「……..Gu…….!?」

The moment I activate the magic in both my hands, I find that I can’t aim at the roc bird’s location very well, making my aim inaccurate.

I try to readjust but I can’t do it very well.

To raise my accuracy, I do as I normally do, but the aim I had imagined was greatly shaken. I still hadn’t gained proper control of the magic by the time it fired.

*Voom*…..and a pitch black sphere of magic appears on a boulder far from the roc bird.

The magic ball hits the boulder. It is chipped, shaved, and crumbled. By the time the spell finishes quite a bit of it has been consumed.

It didn’t stop at the destroying the rock, it swallowed the morning mist and a large amount of dust and dirt, before finally disappearing with a small explosive sound.

The aftermath was half the ground and a boulder were gouged out completely.

By how cleanly it broke the rock, the sharpness and strength of the attack is easily visible.

「Haaaa haaaaa……Damn it, it’s really hard to control…….」

I lay spread eagle on the ground, panting miserably.

Sphere type magic has good power and range, however, it is really hard to control.

Especially using Green and Sky types that are originally difficult, this raises the degree of difficulty even higher.

It’s embarrassing to say, but in my past life when I learned how to use magic more proficiently, I stopped using these two magic types.

It seems like this is what I get for slacking off.

Inside of Time Square I can multiply power and combine magic but the cost of each spell doubles. It also looks like the difficulty of controlling the magic also doubles.

If I’m not wrong, even though magic ball originally has a long range, the 「magic range」 attribute should also have doubled.

So I don’t forget later, I cast Scout Scope on myself.

Zeph Einstein

Level 36

「Red」 Magic lvl 30/62

「Blue」 Magic lvl 25/87

「Green」 Magic lvl 28/99

「Sky」 Magic lvl 29/89

「Soul/Spirit」 Magic lvl 29/97

Magic Power 300/1325

I used 1000 already……that’s absurd.

However, the power and range correspond with the consumption.

The problem is control.

As I raise the level of Black Sphere and Green Sphere, I’ll somehow reach the point where I can use them well I think.

A mass of wind pressure that crushes and pulverizes, it annihilates, and anything it consumes seems to disappear like it’s being crushed by gravity.

「I think I’ll call it Gravity Sphere」

I’m not able to use it normally yet.

For now, I check my surroundings and begin to meditate.

Now that I’ve recovered to some extent, I’ll continue to accompany that roc bird from before. As I meditated, I measured the distance between us, and made sure that I didn’t lose sight of it.

I don’t have much time till everyone else wakes up, so I can’t waste my time looking for another enemy.

I aim at it just as it reaches the very edge of my range.

「Black Sphere」

I aim at the roc bird’s body, and a whirlwind appears in the correct place…but, it had already moved from the center of the whirlwind, and it began to charge using its strong legs.

「Black Sphere sucks in air pressure from the surroundings and uses wind to cut things continually. It’s not so easy to escape from it.」

It has taken some damage, but it’s pretty tough I see.

It doesn’t care about its injuries and has already shortened the distance between us by half.

With this kind of fast enemy, it’s impossible to escape on foot.

I cast Red Wall.

Right before the roc bird stabs through me with its beak, a pillar of fire erupts before my eyes and repels the roc bird.

The only type of wall magic with offensive capabilities, Red Wall.

This pillar of fire will burn, repel, and stop any enemy that touches it.

However, this effect doesn’t last for long, now when I have the chance to burn it…..!

I was about to cast Pyro Crash, but then I thought.

What would happen if I use wall type magic and Gravity Sphere at the same location? This sort of magic decreases in accuracy the greater the distance.

…..Shall I try it a little?

The moment that Red Wall breaks, I teleport away.

The roc bird lost sight of me for a moment, but soon chased after me with great speed.

I leisurely walk around while meditating and when it gets close I teleport.

I continue to teleport around without letting the monster lose sight of me.

As I continued to do this, nearby roc birds all started to gather and chase me, now I have five roc birds chasing me around.

However, they’re pretty spread out.

If I can’t get them all gathered in one place it’ll be troublesome.

I aim a short distance away and cast Red Wall, the flame wall repels the roc bird in front.

But the roc birds that followed it caught up and charged the wall together and broke it in a moment.

But, they’re finally all gathered together.

「Gravity Sphere, Lock」

I aim at my feet and cast Gravity Sphere.

Right before my eyes, the group of 5 roc birds charge straight at me.

They stick out their claws to rip me apart.

I teleport, and head to the top of a cliff.

「……Crash」

At that moment, as they lost sight of me, the confused roc birds gathered in a group, then a pitch black magic sphere appeared. The magic enveloped 2 roc birds immediately and annihilated them completely.

The remaining roc birds immediately distanced themselves, seeing that their partners were beaten, they escaped at top speed.

「The area of effect is pretty small and it takes time. I guess I have to say that this magic is not very efficient huh….」

The scattered roc birds returned to the earth, and when I glanced around I noticed the morning sun climbing through the sky.

Milly and company have probably already gotten up.

I should start heading back to the lodge now huh?

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