Chapter 8
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Translator: MJK
Chapter: 008
Chapter Title: Only Magic
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“Just got lucky.”
“Luck?”
“Yeah. I was running for my life, and the beast didn’t chase me. Maybe because I’m still a kid—it didn’t bother.”
“Hmm...”
The villagers nodded at Andy’s explanation.
It made sense. All the grown men—strong hunters—had been taken down by the beast, yet little Andy had come through unscathed. They bought the boy’s story that the beast had simply let him go because he was young.
“While I was fleeing in a panic, I stumbled on a cave. Hid inside, terrified the beast might follow. Turns out, Tom was deeper in.”
“You found Tom by pure chance?”
“Yes.”
He described how he’d discovered Tom collapsed by sheer coincidence.
Tom shot Andy a puzzled glance.
‘He found me in the cave by accident? That doesn’t add up...’
Andy’s voice echoing through the cave when he’d located him—it had been steady, composed. Nothing like someone who’d just been chased and stumbled upon it blindly.
And he’d descended the mountain path so leisurely, without a hint of desperation. No way he’d been running from a beast.
But Tom held his tongue. The villagers listening to Andy were dead serious. He wasn’t that clueless to pipe up and ruin the mood.
Andy pressed on.
“That’s the whole story. The beast chased me like mad, I hid in the cave and found Tom, then we came down.”
“Then how are we still breathing? It didn’t finish us off while we were out cold.”
“Maybe it never meant to kill us in the first place? It left us fainted folks alone, didn’t touch us.”
“No intent to kill from the start? Hmm... That wolf might not have been an ordinary beast. Could’ve been a spirit beast.”
“A spirit beast?”
Andy had heard the term before.
One of those sacred forest creatures people revered like gods, right?
“Regular beasts attack humans on sight. But certain ones called spirit beasts? They don’t harm people. They just reign nobly over their domain. Maybe... the beast on this mountain’s a spirit beast.”
“A spirit beast...”
Andy pictured the wolf again at the words.
It did have an otherworldly aura.
A massive frame brimming with dignity, lustrous white fur gleaming beautifully. The sharp horn jutting from its forehead glowed with an ethereal blue light.
Less ferocious, more mystical. Yeah, it fit the bill for a spirit beast perfectly.
‘And it understood my words.’
Not just that—it had comprehended Andy’s request for Tom’s location like it was nothing. Even given him a ride on its back.
“If that giant wolf’s a forest spirit beast, what about the pack that jumped us? Its minions?”
“Dunno. From what I know, spirit beasts don’t lead packs. Probably... the pack lost their territory when the spirit beast showed up and went berserk.”
“Ah.”
Putting it together: the spirit beast and the wolves were separate.
The spirit beast had claimed the wolves’ turf. Starved of prey, the pack had raided the village and snatched Tom.
“Us barging into its domain in a horde probably set it off. Spirit beasts don’t kill for fun, but they’re touchy about their territory.”
“Makes sense. Lucky it was a spirit beast, not a regular one.”
“Yeah... truly lucky. If it’d been an ordinary beast and wiped out the village’s men here... shudder to think what comes next.”
Everyone here was basically the village’s entire able-bodied workforce—family breadwinners.
Imagining their families’ fate without them brought a wave of relief.
These were brutal times of war. Households without a provider didn’t have it easy.
“Anyway, glad it ended without deaths. Let’s head back. Dawn’s breaking.”
Hunter Derek wrapped up the talk and started walking. Andy and the others trailed behind.
The long night’s wolf hunt was over.
The villagers headed home.
“Tom! You’re safe!”
“Mom!”
Tom rushed into Gavory Aunt’s arms. Tears streaming, she crushed him in a hug.
Mother and son reunited.
Snatched by wolves, Tom was back safe thanks to everyone’s efforts.
Gavory wept with joy; Tom sobbed in relief in his mother’s embrace.
Their faces radiated pure happiness—no trace of their usual hardness, just gratitude and bliss.
They’d tormented Andy harshly before, but in the end, they were just an ordinary mom and her boy.
‘...Bedtime.’
Andy watched their reunion quietly from the side.
Then he turned and shuffled to his cramped room.
Click.
He shut the flimsy door and flopped onto his bed.
Staring blankly at the ceiling, the boy drifted into thought.
‘So much happened tonight.’
He replayed the night’s events.
Deep into the witching hour, climbing the mountain trail tracking wolves, confronting the beast.
Looking back, it felt like a dream. Facing down a magical beast, beating it... even riding on its back?
Too much crammed into one night. Hard to believe it was real.
Yet the memories were crystal clear.
Above all, the sensation of casting magic stuck with him.
‘Dominate the mana, arrange it, manifest the power.’
Andy relived the moment.
He’d cast a spell back there. Sure, he’d hijacked the beast’s mana rather than using his own.
But it was undeniably magic.
“...”
Lying there, Andy slowly raised a hand toward the ceiling.
He closed his eyes and focused.
His soul’s senses expanded. His will seized and commanded the ambient mana.
He rearranged the mana in the air.
Recalling the beast’s mana from before, he mimicked it. The neutral mana realigned, gradually taking on the properties of electricity.
He channeled it to his fingertips.
“Like... this?”
Instinctively, the boy snapped his fingers.
And—
-Pajik.
A tiny spark leaped from his fingertip. A faint blue flash briefly lit the dim room.
The merest trace of mana dissolved in the air—rearranged into a simple electric spell.
A fleeting glimmer of lightning, nothing more.
But it was magic.
If any mage from the continent witnessed it, they’d rub their eyes in disbelief.
Someone without a single circle wielding magic?
Mana circles were the essential magical organ for any mage to control mana and work miracles.
Common knowledge: no circle, no mana arrangement, no spells.
Yet extraordinary talent shatters common sense.
The boy had no circles at all, but he’d manifested magic, feeble as it was.
Thanks to his freakishly acute mana sensing and overwhelming gift.
He had no clue how monumental that was.
“Fun.”
He simply enjoyed the primal thrill of wielding mana and sparking supernatural phenomena.
-Pajik! Pajik!
The boy kept snapping his fingers. Each time, weak sparks crackled, flashing light into the gloom.
The end of a grueling day.
The wolf fiasco behind them, the village settled back into routine.
Farmers tended fields, hunters hunted, Gavory Aunt’s inn kept serving.
Not everything was the same, though.
Subtle shifts had occurred.
“I’ll haul the water. Andy.”
“Ah, thanks.”
“No big deal...”
Tom’s attitude, for one.
The troublemaker who never lifted a finger at the inn, always off causing chaos with other kids.
Now he was pitching in.
Credit the wolf incident.
Something clicked when the “weakling” Andy saved him. Kid straightened up.
‘No more bullying, either.’
He used to lead the pack tormenting Andy mercilessly. Now? He stepped in to shut down other kids trying the same.
Andy’s days got smoother.
No harassment, plus Tom helping out. Life was downright pleasant compared to before.
Tom wasn’t the only change.
“Come out for dinner from now on too.”
“...For real? Gavory Aunt?”
“Yeah.”
The innkeeper started feeding him two meals a day.
Common folk ate twice daily in these times. Andy? He’d scraped by on one.
Orphan worker, not family—Gavory had always skimped.
But the wolf mess sparked some gratitude, it seemed.
Now she dished out normal portions.
‘No more starving.’
He’d battled insane hunger forever. Now? Actual fullness. Satiety for the first time ever.
Post-incident changes.
Small stuff, but huge for Andy.
He’d longed for no beatings, no gnawing hunger.
He’d gotten a taste of it.
From invisible non-entity to somewhat human treatment.
But Andy wasn’t thrilled.
He knew Gavory and Tom’s kindness wouldn’t last.
‘Feelings fade with time.’
He wasn’t naive enough to expect endless goodwill.
Right now, gratitude for saving Tom had them treating him better.
But time would blur that.
Odds were, he’d slide back to the old grind: all the inn work, one meal, barely alive.
Andy was certain.
‘Magic. Only magic can save me.’
His life still hinged on their whims.
Penniless orphan, no backup—he got tossed by circumstance.
Master magic, though? Even an orphan could carve his path.
His dim closet under the stairs.
Tonight, like always, Andy cracked open the book.
[Mana Circulation]
The book’s second chapter: Mana Circulation.
The step where one attuned to mana sensing finally stores it within the body.
Tonight, Andy would give it a shot.