Magic Condensation
The spirits who were supposed to be taking the whip looked at Letisia with awkward expressions, while the goblins that had been swarming down froze, their faces hardening as they began muttering among themselves.
“Kyaek, th-that woman is weird.”
“Queek, weird, she’s definitely weird.”
“Keek, scary. Can’t we just go back?”
“Kyeek, then we all die.”
Even those goblins seemed to sense something was off. Making monsters tremble in fear—just how deep into sadism was she…?
Anyway, they’d said going back meant dying, so like Letisia had guessed, something was pulling the strings behind them. Probably orcs. Most of the time, the ones bossing goblins around were orcs.
“Wipe them all out!”
At Letisia’s command the spirits unleashed attacks of every attribute, and the goblins that had been paralyzed by instinctive terror began exploding one after another.
Watching their brothers and comrades die snapped the rest of them out of it; they started pouring down the hill again. Letisia didn’t flinch in the slightest.
“Harder!!!”
Spirit Mage Letisia activates Frenzied Whipping
What kind of skill name is that……
“Kyahaha! Don’t leave a single one alive—kill them all♥”
Letisia started swinging her whip with genuine, unhinged ferocity, and the spirits’ power surged even higher while their temperaments grew a touch more vicious.
The salamander’s flames swelled until they blanketed the entire hillside; sylph’s wind crashed over them and whipped the fire into a raging storm. That destructive tempest turned the goblins into perfectly roasted chunks of meat in an instant.
The spirits were stronger now than they had been in the Lizard Lord’s dungeon. That skill from a moment ago must have carried an extra buff effect.
“…Scary performance in more ways than one.”
I glanced around. The only goblins coming were the ones Letisia was watching on the hill; nothing was flanking us from anywhere else.
“Ohh…”
Even the coachman’s face, which had been a little pale at first, was gradually brightening.
The situation looked pretty comfortable… and if it was this comfortable, maybe I could try something myself. First, practice drawing out the magic power stat of 100 that had appeared for me.
Earlier Letisia had definitely…
When she raised her magic there had been almost no preliminary steps, but I could still tell where that power had started from. Two days ago that observation would have been meaningless; now that I actually possessed magic, it was incredibly useful.
Finding the source of one’s magic was the most important thing. Once you knew where it began, pulling it out wasn’t all that hard.
“…It started from the heart, I’m sure of it.”
The root of magic was the same place a human’s life resided—the heart. I closed my eyes and slowly… searched for the magic whose existence the status window had already confirmed.
After focusing hard I finally managed to move a tiny amount of it. I hadn’t even stirred all of it, yet fatigue washed over me and my head spun a little.
Is it because it’s the first time…? This is exhausting.
Still, my magic had definitely moved. Power that began flowing from my heart traveled down both arms and emerged into the world.
“So this is my magic…”
Looking at the glittering power floating in front of my eyes felt incredibly strange. Until recently I’d lived a life where this sort of thing only existed in games, so of course it did.
But it was still weak. This pathetic amount couldn’t possibly be everything I had. I started moving the magic I’d drawn out this way and that.
Keeping it from scattering the way Letisia had—gathering it toward the center—while adding new motion. The magic stayed together, sliding left, then right… it moved smoothly.
“Oh…”
I might actually have talent.
All right, time to pull out some real magic. Converted into stats, what I’d drawn so far was maybe five at best. Possibly less.
So I needed to move at least twenty times that much before I could say I was properly using my magic.
“Hoo.”
One deep breath… okay. Now then…
I returned the moving magic, then drew far more from the source. Just that act alone made my hands tremble as if my mental strength were being scraped away, but I gritted my teeth and kept going.
The drawn magic moved like blood through my veins and soon rose above both palms. Cold sweat poured down my face just from getting this far. And I still wasn’t finished.
My goal was to gather the magic into a sphere and move it freely. So this wasn’t the end. Slowly I shaped it into a round ball. Then, just like Letisia had…
Whoosh!
I sent the magic to the right.
“……!”
It moved—and didn’t scatter. I tried left; still no scattering. I could roll it around like a firmly packed lump of clay without any problem.
“I did it…!”
I almost cheered out loud. That was how happy I felt. Sweat ran down the back of my neck in rivulets, but I didn’t even have time to notice the fatigue.
From now on drawing out my magic wouldn’t be that difficult. With this I could finally start studying the techniques that used magic—actual spells. Step by step…
I was still basking in that joy when a notification suddenly floated up in front of my eyes.
Magic Condensation Lv.1
…What is this?
Magic Condensation… it seemed to refer to what I’d just been doing—packing magic tightly so it wouldn’t scatter.
But was that something that showed up as a trait? I was pretty sure Letisia didn’t have anything like it. I looked at the floating magic. Even with the new trait, nothing felt different, which left me puzzled.
“What the…”
I’d never seen this trait while playing Dungeon in Evil either, so I had no idea what effect it actually had and was still sitting there bewildered when—
“Allen!! Are you okay!?”
“…Huh?”
Letisia’s voice rang out at the exact same moment the carriage canopy was yanked open. There was no time to react; both things happened almost simultaneously.
Uh…?
“Why do I sense magic coming from—eh?”
Ah.
I’m fucked.
Letisia paused mid-whip and lifted her head to survey the situation. Under the spirits’ overwhelming firepower the goblins hadn’t even made it halfway down the hill before they were all burned to death.
The remaining ones were too terrified to come down at all. Letisia looked at them and sighed as if she found it boring.
“How dull. Is this all lowest-tier monsters can manage? I wish they’d made it a little more fun…”
She grumbled that she should have just gone with Erinn instead. Right then Letisia flinched in surprise.
It wasn’t because of the goblins. From behind her—from the carriage where Allen was—she suddenly sensed unfamiliar magic.
“…Allen?”
Magic was coming from Allen’s carriage. For a moment Letisia was so startled she couldn’t look away. And the instant she glanced in that direction, those cunning little fiends spotted the opening and shook off their fear.
“Kyaaak!!”
“Kieeek! Kill the woman!!”
The goblins used their surprising jumping power to vault up the hill in a flash, intending to drop straight onto Letisia and pin her down.
“…Getting cocky just because I looked away for a second.”
A moment’s carelessness usually invited death, but that rule didn’t apply to Letisia, who possessed the same exceptional senses as the rest of the hero’s party.
“Your thinking is so simple and crude.”
She had the Sixth Sense trait as well; there was no way she would fail to read mere goblin movements and get caught by them…
Spirit Mage Letisia activates Storm
There wasn’t.
KWA-GA-GA-GAK!!
The wind spirit sylph’s fierce gale blasted every goblin that had been charging her from behind clean away. Letisia spoke in a chilly voice.
“Get those stinking faces out of my sight. They’re filthy.”
Crack—she brought the whip down and continued,
“Keep them from coming down the hill. I’m going to check on something for a moment.”
“Grrrng…”
Letisia hurried back at a near-run. The salamander and the other spirits turned their attention to the hill.
She had told them to stop the goblins from descending, but there was no need. The goblins had already realized that even a surprise attack wouldn’t work and that they stood no chance.
“Ki-kieeek!”
“Hi-hikiik! Let’s run!!”
They were already fleeing in a full rout. The spirits considered chasing them, but Letisia’s order had been to hold position, so they stayed put.
Letisia came dashing back to the carriage in a fluster. In her haste she called his name even before she could fling the canopy open.
“Allen!! Are you okay!?”
“…Huh?”
“Why do I sense magic coming from—eh?”
The moment she yanked the canopy aside, the sight that greeted her made Letisia let out a stupid little sound. She couldn’t help it. There was Allen, brightly glowing magic gathered into a neat sphere, rolling it this way and that.
Allen, who supposedly didn’t even know the first letter of the word “magic,” was freely manipulating it. Letisia couldn’t hide her shock.
“That’s magic……”
“Le-Letisia!!”
“Hwet, y-yes?!”
Still unable to process the situation, Letisia jumped again at Allen’s sudden shout. Then, the instant he shot to his feet, a thousand thoughts raced through her mind.
Did I just see something I wasn’t supposed to?
Then why did Allen call me?
Is he going to do something weird to silence me…?
Instinctively Letisia crossed both arms into a guard. But contrary to her worries, Allen didn’t lunge at her.
Instead he dropped flat onto the floor right where he stood.
“Please keep it a secret!!”
“…Excuse me?”
“I’m begging you!!”
Seeing Allen meekly pleading like that, Letisia couldn’t help a small laugh. It wasn’t that he looked ridiculous; she was laughing at how wildly her own imagination had run a second ago.
After that incident he had become so gentle there was no way he would do anything like that, yet she had panicked so hard she’d jumped to conclusions.
Letisia calmed down a little and spoke to him.
“Rather than just begging me out of nowhere… I think you should explain first.”
“Uh…”
I had no choice but to explain everything to Letisia from the beginning. I’d figured she’d be too busy with the goblins to notice anything over here, but apparently she’d had more leeway than I expected.
The goblins were already gone; the only things left on the hill were the roasted corpses of their former comrades.
“So you made a bet with Erinn.”
“Uh…”
“Hmm, so you’re trying to fill in my shortcomings, is that it?”
I shook my head vigorously at her words.
“It’s absolutely not that you’re lacking, Letisia…!”
Of course that had been the intention, but saying “you’re lacking so I’ll fill the gap” right to her face could sound like I was looking down on her. Especially coming from a useless porter like me, it would feel even worse.
If that made her mad enough to beat me with that vicious whip, I’d be in real trouble. So I praised her skill while carefully avoiding any implication that she was inadequate.
“If monsters that can interfere with spirits show up, you might get a little neutralized… that’s why I said we needed a mage! Your skill is outstanding, Letisia! What spirit mage could even come close to you?”
“…Is that so?”
It seemed to work. Letisia looked at me with a faintly embarrassed expression. Time to drive the point home.
“Of course. You just kept that whole goblin horde from getting a single one past you. Thanks to that I was able to experiment with drawing out my magic…”
“You can handle quite a lot more magic than I expected.”
“Huh?”
“For someone who only just awakened to magic, that was a considerable amount. Was that everything you drew out?”
“Uh… yeah, it was…”
Letisia continued,
“But you shouldn’t pull out all of your magic at once. If you lose it somehow, you’ll go straight into magic deficiency.”
Is she… giving me advice right now?
I was grateful, but also puzzled. Letisia had no particular reason to advise me.
From her perspective, a completely ignorant porter declaring he would fill her gaps was pretty arrogant. If I lost the bet with Erinn, they could even kick the useless porter out of the party.
“Why are you giving me advice?”
“Is that not allowed? Ah, don’t tell me a spirit mage’s advice is worthless…”
“Of course that’s not it…!”
I said,
“…I was just curious about the reason.”
“…What did you say to me earlier, Allen?”
“Hm?”
“When you asked me to show you my magic.”
When I asked her to show me her magic…?
“…Just because?”
“Then I’ll answer the same way—just because.”
Letisia gave a light laugh. The playful smile let me relax.
At least the person who would naturally feel the most threatened by me learning magic didn’t seem to be opposing it. In that case, maybe I didn’t need to hide it from the rest of the party either…?
“Who else knows about this?”
“Aria and Erinn… and now you, Letisia. Three people.”
“For something you were keeping secret, a lot of people have found out.”
“That’s…”
I had nothing to say.
“You’re going to grow strong enough to support us all by yourself in two months.”
“That’s the bet, so…”
If I hadn’t proposed that bet I would have been stuck as a porter forever, unable to do anything. That damn mesugaki would have kept watching my every move.
“You absolutely can’t do that alone.”
“…How can you be so sure?”
“I’m not a mage, but I know magic isn’t that easy. I studied it myself for a while.”
“You did?”
“I quit once I realized I had more talent as a spirit mage, but anyone who can handle a certain amount of magic almost always tries becoming a mage first. It’s basically the natural path.”
“Ah…”
I thought it over.
Letisia’s opinion was certainly correct by ordinary standards. Studying magic alone from zero, there was no way I’d become a proper mage in two months.
But I wasn’t ordinary, so it wasn’t impossible. While hunting for hidden pieces I would pick up traits and stats that had nothing to do with effort… and through those I could achieve growth that far exceeded normal standards.
So I was thinking it would be fine when Letisia casually asked,
“Shall I help you?”
“…Huh?”
For a second I thought I’d misheard. Letisia was offering to help me study magic?
“I can’t teach high-level magic, but I know intermediate spells. How to handle magic, how to train it… I’m the best in the party at that, you know? I won’t tell the others, so whenever you feel stuck, come to me in secret and I’ll teach you.”
“…Not only keeping the secret, but offering to be my teacher too?”
“Why.”
Letisia’s clear green eyes stared at me blankly.
“You don’t want to?”
“N-no. I’d be more than happy to.”
“Then it’s settled.”
Letisia said,
“Like I told you, come secretly. This is a bet with Erinn; if I openly get involved it would be unfair.”
“…Are you really okay with that?”
“How many times do I have to say it?”
“Sorry… it’s just hard to believe.”
What a windfall. Of course I was overjoyed. Letisia might not be a mage, but as a spirit mage her ability to handle magic was naturally the best in the party… and she even knew intermediate magic.
Her offering to teach me directly was the best news I could have gotten. It meant a chance to get used to magic and learn spells far faster than I could alone.
“I’ll say it again—come ask me in secret. If the others see me teaching Allen magic, it’ll look strange.”
“When you say secret…”
“Well… when everyone’s asleep, or times like now when it’s just the two of us…”
“Ah, I get it.”
Letisia blinked once, then spoke with a tone of mild surprise.
“Unexpected.”
“Hm?”
“I thought Allen hated fighting and wouldn’t be interested in anything like this.”
She was saying the same sort of thing Erinn and Ser-Aria had. Before I possessed this body he must have really hated fighting.
“Ah… I’ve been thinking lately that having only you guys fight while I do nothing feels kind of wrong.”
“That’s literally a porter’s role, though?”
…That’s exactly what I don’t like.
“I’m also sick of people saying I’m the guy who always hides behind the girls and does nothing…”
“…Pfft, you were actually bothered by that?”
“How could I not be… I’m a guy too.”
“That’s unexpected as well. I thought Allen wouldn’t care at all.”
Letisia gave a small snicker.
“Though that still doesn’t make you manly.”
“……”
Did she really have to say that?
“Anyway, from now on whenever you come ask me in secret, I’ll teach you.”
“…Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Letisia rose slightly and moved to the opposite seat as she spoke.
“Looks like everyone’s back.”
“Hm?”
I started to wonder what she was talking about, then belatedly sensed the approaching presence and understood.
“Allen! Did this big sis’s carriage stay safe while I was gone?”
“You all made it back in one piece.”
“Puh♡ Unlike someone who lost to goblins~♡”
…I’ve never even fought goblins yet, you brat.
“What about the villagers?”
At my question the thief shook her head slowly from side to side. Seeing that and Freya’s grim expression, I roughly grasped the situation.
“…That’s a shame.”
It hadn’t been a goblin pack that took people just to toy with them; they’d been using humans as food. If it had been the former, the victims would have been left with painful memories, but at least they could have been rescued.
“We even cleaned up the goblins that looked like they’d been chased off by Letisia! A few of them came running with their butts on fire, puhaha!”
“Ah, so they went that way? I should have made sure none escaped.”
“There were only a few left anyway! It was fine!”
She’d wiped out that huge horde almost completely by herself and left only a handful.
…Terrifying, Whip Girl.
“Let’s get moving again~ If we’re late we’ll have to make the excuse that we were busy stopping Allen from jumping Letisia~♡”
“Why does the conclusion always end with pinning a false charge on me!?”
“If that had actually happened, Allen wouldn’t still be alive and well right now.”
“Exactly!……What?”
“Just kidding.”
…The fact that it doesn’t sound like a joke is what scares me.
“All right, Coachman, please get us going again~.”
“Ah, yes!”
The carriage started rumbling forward once more. A surprising amount had happened in such a short time; a small sigh escaped me on its own.
Then, suddenly, my eyes met Letisia’s.
Those eyes that looked like green grass met mine, and Letisia raised a hand to her hat and casually took it off.
The cat ears that appeared beneath it twitched as if in a good mood.