Chapter 195: Summer Vacation (4)
Chapter 195: Summer Vacation (4)
“First off, first off, shall we start with a simple explanation?”
“…Huh?”
I tilted my head at Iona’s first words upon arriving at the training ground.
Iona… giving an explanation?
I wasn’t the only one surprised. Carla and Elisha, who had been watching Iona’s lessons, also widened their eyes and began whispering.
“My goodness… a theory lesson, Elisha! A theory lesson!”
“Indeed. A theory lesson from Professor Iona, of all people… Just how difficult is the material she’s planning to teach?”
Since I could hear them, Iona obviously could too.
Iona pointed at the two of them with her loose sleeves and shouted.
“You two! I gave a theory lesson in the classroom last time too! Why don’t you remember that?! Student Yandel! Do you also think it’s strange for Professor Iona to start with theory?!”
“Well, I mean…”
“How mean! How mean! I have to at least tell you the principles and methods before I hit—I mean, before we spar! If I just start hitting you out of nowhere, that’s just bullying!”
“Ah, so you are going to hit me.”
I basically got the gist of it. She’d explain the theory, and once she felt I understood it to some degree, she’d immediately start the sparring session.
It was basically: If you don’t want to get hit, try strengthening your body. Now I understood.
Feeling much more at ease, I nodded. Seeing my expression, Iona let out a deep sigh.
“Phew… Anyway, anyway. Is it okay if I start the explanation again, Student Yandel?”
“Oh. Yes.”
“Good, good. Then where should I start… Right. You know how to use standard body strengthening magic, don’t you?”
“Of course. Usually, I use potions since the effects last longer, but I know how to use the spells too.”
Strength and Haste.
They were the alpha and omega of body strengthening magic.
It wasn’t that there weren’t more difficult and complex spells with better effects, but in the end, they were just applications of Strength and Haste.
“Then you probably have a rough idea! That body strengthening through magic falls far behind not only Aura but also Divine Arts!”
“It’s unavoidable due to the structure, after all.”
Aura strengthens the body by activating the physical form itself. Divine Arts feel like they assist every movement, as if you’re wearing a Powered Suit.
But Strength and Haste are different.
Strength is a spell that provides assistance from both inside and outside the body while allowing one to surpass the unconscious limits set by the brain.
Haste is a spell that sharpens the nerves to allow for agile reactions.
Both are spells that merely allow one to temporarily surpass their limits. In other words, it’s safe to view them as spells that force the body to overexert itself to a manageable degree.
That was why I had collapsed the moment my buffs wore off before.
If you exercise excessively, your muscles melt and your bones grind, don’t they? No matter how many buffs I had received, I had pushed my body too hard…
On the other hand, Aura works on the principle of activating the body’s basic performance to raise the limit itself, and Divine Arts work in a way that improves the results relative to the effort put in.
Because of this, unless you’re overexerting yourself to squeeze out every last drop, Aura has no recoil.
And as for strengthening through Divine Arts, no matter what you do, there is no recoil at all. Instead, the limit of the strengthening is determined by the priest’s level.
For the record, recovery types are roughly the same.
Magic is artificial activation, Aura is the strengthening of regeneration itself, and Divine Arts are simply the restoration of the body to its original state.
Because of this, healing magic is not only accompanied by immense pain, but if used excessively, it can cause things like tumors to form.
Similarly, if you use Aura for forced recovery, it shortens your lifespan, but otherwise, there are no particular side effects.
Recovery Divine Arts have no side effects at all. The fact that they automatically expel foreign substances from the wound is a bonus.
That’s why even mages usually drink potions or receive healing from a priest whenever possible.
Potions are refined several times through alchemy to minimize side effects, and as long as you have the money, you can obtain recovery effects that exceed your own capabilities.
The same goes for buffs.
Since magic can’t keep up with Holy Power in terms of basic efficiency or side effects for support, it’s the standard rule to receive buffs from a priest if one is available.
“But, but! I basically fought alone, you see? So it was hard to get support from a priest!”
“You have a vampire’s regeneration and potions.”
“If I use the blood I’d use for regeneration to cast one more spell, I can kill even more cultists, right? And back then, spatial magic wasn’t as developed as it is now, so individuals couldn’t carry around Subspace Pockets.”
True. The distribution and performance improvement of spatial-type magical tools only happened after summoning was banned.
Before summoners became unemployed, Subspace Pockets must have been incredibly rare items.
No matter how skilled Iona was, it would have been much more efficient to use them for military supplies rather than giving them to individuals.
…By the way, is she for real, saying she’d rather kill one more person than use her blood for regeneration?
The fact that she says it in such a nonchalant voice is actually scarier.
“Anyway, anyway! That’s why I created Iona-style strengthening magic! Since you fight in a similar way to me, Student Yandel, I’m sure you’ll find it very useful!”
“Ooh…!”
“The method is simple! It’s the feeling of putting power into the blood itself and delivering that power to the entire body!”
“Are you using blood vessels instead of mana circuits?”
“No? No? That would be dangerous! You dissolve the magic created by the mana circuits into the blood!”
“???”
As I just blinked blankly, Iona suddenly grabbed my hand.
Then, she pulled it toward her chest in one swift motion.
Squish.
A heavy softness felt through my palm. The moment I reflexively tried to give it a squeeze without thinking—
Iona, her lips curling into a smirk, adjusted the position of my hand a step faster than me.
“Oops! Oops! Not here!”
“Tch.”
Regrettably, my hand was pressed against her upper chest, an area with relatively less to grab.
Feeling her cool body temperature through the thin fabric, I spoke.
“So? What is this all of a sudden, Professor?”
“From now on! From now on! I’m going to use it myself, so I want you to feel it! With your current skills, Student Yandel, you should be able to get a rough sense of it!”
“Even so, I don’t think that’s possible…”
Thump.
A slow heartbeat transmitted from my palm.
I don’t know how she did it, but I suddenly began to feel Iona’s blood pumping from her heart and circulating through the blood vessels of her entire body as if I were holding it in my hand.
“I’ve dissolved mana into the blood. How is it? Can you feel it well?”
“Yes. It’s fascinating.”
Confirming that I was nodding, Iona continued her explanation.
“The basic image is simple. In this state, the mana becomes power, and that power feels like it’s dissolving into the entire body along with the blood!”
“Hmm… I think I get the gist of it.”
“Right? Right? The next part is the hard part, so you have to stay sharp! Let’s see…”
Saying that, Iona began to write something in the air with one hand. Light stretched out from her fingertips, turning the empty air into a giant chalkboard.
Incomprehensible shapes. Mathematical formulas. And incredibly long annotations.
The only thing I could recognize was a simplified anatomical model of the human body. I’d seen that a lot in my previous life…
After writing in the air for a long time, Iona finished by lightly placing a period.
With a flick of her finger, everything that had been written from her perspective—and thus appeared mirrored to me—flipped so it could be read normally.
Of course, being able to read it didn’t mean I could understand it.
“First off, first off. Listen while you memorize!”
“Yes…”
I had already memorized it thanks to my Excellent Memory trait, but if I said that, the sparring would probably start immediately.
To me, as I nodded obediently, Iona continued her supplementary explanation.
“Since it’s a spell that acts inside the body, your unconscious protection will kick in! So don’t worry too much; it’s okay to fail! The problem is when you succeed!”
“When I succeed?”
“Yep, yep. If you succeed even clumsily, from that moment on, your blood becomes the fuel that moves your body. Even if you just stand still and breathe, a minimum amount of blood will be consumed, and if you use great strength, a larger amount of blood will evaporate.”
“…That sounds incredibly dangerous.”
“That’s right. It actually is dangerous. If you try to use power beyond your limits and something goes wrong, you might just collapse on the spot! In that case, the cause would be excessive bleeding without any wounds, I suppose?”
Iona giggled as if she’d made a funny joke. But when I didn’t laugh along, she soon returned to a serious expression.
“Of course, once you become proficient, Student Yandel, there won’t be any danger. So, until you’ve completely mastered it, never practice alone. You must only train when I, Professor Iona, am present. Well? Can you promise me that?”
“Of course. It’s for my own safety, so I’ll keep it in mind.”
Though, once I succeeded once, it would be registered in the System and receive corrections, so I probably wouldn’t need to worry about that.
“By the way, Professor. How is this magic different from other strengthening spells?”
“Ah! Ah! I haven’t told you that part yet! I said it before, right? That blood becomes fuel.”
“Yes.”
“Blood is the essence of life force itself. Therefore, you can strengthen your body in a way similar to Aura. Since it’s blood magic, the effect is several times better than other strengthening spells! Above all, just as Blood Shift allows the caster to pay for someone else’s damage, the blood will take the recoil that you should have received! This can even be applied to ordinary physical trauma!”
“That sounds like it would consume a lot of blood.”
“That’s why it’s a technique that only vampires or someone like you can use. Oh, the name is Blood Force, okay?”
“Hoo…”
It’s not like just adding ‘Blood’ to everything makes it blood magic.
I could only sigh at Iona’s disastrous naming sense, but it was true that it was incomparably more efficient than existing strengthening magic.
It meant mimicking Aura with magic, and in a pinch, being able to absorb impact by consuming blood.
The problem, however, was still regeneration. Mediocre regeneration wouldn’t even come close.
The thing that increases my regeneration by the largest margin is the Sun God’s Blessing. And that’s a blessing that only gives a regeneration bonus while the sun is up.
Does that mean even if I learn it, I can only use it during the day…? No, in the end, all I need is blood, right?
If I ask Fay later to make a potion that specifically restores blood… like a Hematopoietic Potion, wouldn’t I be able to use it at night too?
While I was coming up with various alternatives in my head, Iona suddenly poked her head in.
“Oh? Oh? Your eyes have been staring into space for a while now! Have you already memorized it all?”
“Ah.”
“You memorize faster than I thought! Hah!”
She pushed me away from her and lightly waved her arm. Then, a red aura flowed out from Iona’s body.
The now-familiar aura of Blood Shift linked my body and Iona’s as one.
It was a sign that the sparring was about to begin.
“I’ll attack with just enough strength that you can respond if you successfully strengthen your body with Blood Force!”
“W-Wait. Wait a minute! You should at least give me time to cast the spell! I have to chant, don’t I?!”
“Do you know this, Student Yandel?”
“I don’t know what it is, but I feel like it’s information I don’t really want to know.”
“To put it simply, blood magic is a magic that uses mana and life force simultaneously. That’s why it’s so efficient.”
“I… suppose?”
“Since you already know how to use mana, Student Yandel, once you learn how to use life force, it’ll be a breeze!”
“Aaaagh! I told you you don’t have to say any more!”
I covered my ears at the ominous feeling and shook my head like a child, but I couldn’t stop Iona’s mouth.
“And the best way to awaken your life force is to feel your life being threatened!”
“I knew it!”
I quickly widened the distance and tried to fumble through the incantation I’d improvised on the spot, but Iona was a bit faster.
“It’s okay! It’s okay! I’ve cast Blood Shift, so you won’t die!”
Whoosh.
The distance closed in an instant. Then, Iona’s leg whipped out like a lash.
At the same time that my clumsy mental image and mana began to heat up my body, the top of Iona’s foot connected with my temple.
Thwack!
My vision spun along with a sharp pain.
As I lay on the ground, the sky I looked up at was chillingly blue.
It was the second day of summer vacation.