Chapter 14
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: The Potential to Create
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Alter began by teaching the boy how to use the grimoire, followed by a few simple magical theories.
As if to prove his innate talent, the boy absorbed Alter's teachings like a sponge.
...For ordinary children, it would take over a week just to comprehend a single one of Alter's sentences. Yet this boy, as if determined to prove his worth, made every word Alter spoke completely his own, missing not a single syllable.
The moment he heard the explanation.
And so, Alter, who had intended to offer only a few simple words of guidance, found himself teaching for over an hour, then two.
Before he knew it, his top disciple, Rireu, was also leaning in, her long ears attentive to her master's words.
Despite the rattling and swaying of the carriage, Rireu had taken out a notebook and was diligently transcribing her master's lecture.
Alter's lecture continued as long as the carriage wheels turned. And those wheels had not stopped once since the expedition first left the capital.
"Um... excuse me, but could we take a short break?"
The one who interrupted Alter was none other than Bin.
The boy, seemingly exhausted by the two-hour-long lecture, sighed and leaned against the carriage wall, rubbing his eyelids.
*...Damn, I got too carried away without realizing it.*
Alter had only intended to offer a few light words of guidance, impressed by Bin's sense of responsibility and his efforts as a member of the Sword Saint's party.
But the way the boy understood his teachings and made them his own was anything but ordinary.
After hearing how to use the grimoire, the boy asked profound questions. He then pointed out the subtle differences between Alter's magical theories and those in common texts, even re-explaining them in his own words.
It was a truly strange feeling.
The boy clearly seemed to be learning magic for the first time. There were many basic theories he was ignorant of.
Yet at the same time, there were aspects that made it hard to believe he was a novice. He grasped profound theories and knowledge that ordinary mages took years to comprehend, making them his own as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
*...He's accepting this theory so naturally. Most people who hear this for the first time just stare at me with a dazed look...*
Wondering if the boy was just pretending to understand, Alter deliberately mixed in some incorrect information.
The boy, as if to prove his talent, would then pinpoint the very parts Alter had intentionally taught wrong and ask if they didn't create a contradiction.
*...Hah. He's leagues beyond me at twenty.*
Along with his admiration, a curiosity to discover the boy's limits began to rise in Alter's heart.
And so, Alter began explaining increasingly difficult theories, as if testing the boy....
"Magic is the power of thought. Fundamentally, it is the act of overlaying the mind's reasoning onto the body's mana."
Soon, he was on to intermediate theories...
"The names of spells were developed to aid the complex magical calculations within the brain. You can cast spells without chanting their names, but the difficulty of the calculation skyrockets. Isn't it much faster and more accurate to write down calculations on paper than to do them in your head? It's the same principle..."
In the end, he found himself expounding upon advanced theories.
*What incredible comprehension. Even those who have studied magic for over forty years struggle to understand this...*
Alter watched the boy groaning in the corner of the carriage, massaging his temples and eyelids, and a faint smile touched his lips.
The boy, his eyes closed, couldn't see it, but his top disciple, Rireu, immediately understood the meaning behind that smile.
Alter wanted to take this boy as his disciple.
Just by watching him absorb countless theories and make them his own, he could see a fragment of his talent.
...At this point, he didn't care about something like a Bolt spell.
Even if the boy's Bolt was terribly clumsy, Alter was determined to make him his disciple.
Just as that resolution settled firmly in Alter's heart, a truly audacious question burst from the boy's lips as he massaged his eyes.
"If I were to master magic, would it be possible to develop new spells?"
***
Pushed into the corner of the carriage, I rubbed my temples and eyelids, letting out a sigh.
*This is killing me.*
When I first met Alter, I felt like I was backed against a cliff.
He demanded to see a Bolt spell the moment we met, then kept staring at me with blatant suspicion...
At first, Alter's sudden demands and suspicion were just baffling.
But the thought that this crisis was also an opportunity flashed through my mind.
The expedition to Enquer Highlands would be a long, two-week round trip.
Along the way, we could encounter failed mutants abandoned by the Mazoku, or monsters like goblins.
The cannon fodder near the capital could be handled by elite infantry, but the closer we got to the Enquer Highlands, the stronger the enemies would become. There might be battles that were too much for even level 20 or 30 elite soldiers and their level 40 squad leaders.
As a half-baked mage who could only use 'Blooming,' I would obviously be useless in such minor skirmishes.
But with the 8th-circle mage Alter and his disciple, Rireu, joining our infantry unit, the situation changed completely.
Alter, the former Master of the Magic Tower, was a monster of a different caliber, capable of easily defeating all the monsters that appeared on the road from the capital to the Enquer Highlands at once.
It didn't matter whether he tried to test me or eyed me with suspicion.
Just having him accompany the expedition, for whatever reason, would bring our survival rate close to 100 percent.
Although having to act sharp and extraordinary around him was a headache and physically draining...
*Still, it wasn't a total loss.*
As expected of the former Magic Tower Master, Alter was also a very skilled teacher.
He explained things so clearly that even I, someone who'd avoided studying my whole life, could understand. It made me vaguely grasp why people pour fortunes into elite tutors for their children.
*I've figured out the basic mechanics of magic.*
According to Alter, when mages cast spells, chanting the name wasn't just for show.
Magic was a kind of... mathematics.
It was fundamentally a power that originated from the brain. Magic was the process of the brain refining the body's inherent mana through a type of calculation and then expelling it.
Fast and accurate 'calculation' directly translated to a spell's speed and power.
The spell names they chanted were used as a tool to assist these calculations.
It was the same principle as how using the term 'quadratic equation' makes it easier for the brain to recall the formula and solve it reflexively, rather than reciting 'ax²+bx+c=0' every time.
...I don't really know what a quadratic equation is for, though. Besides dropping out of high school, I gave up on math a long time ago.
Anyway, the important thing is that I've grasped the mechanism of the power I need to use.
If I understand the principles of how this power works, I can wield it more effectively.
After all, there's a fundamental difference between the kick of someone who just follows their instincts and the kick of a soccer player who has painstakingly refined their form based on systematic research and theory.
On top of that, this kind of systematic study and training would open up new horizons for me.
"If I were to master magic, would it be possible to develop new spells?"
In the skill selection window, I had 'locked' all spells except for 'Blooming,' making them unusable.
But what if I developed a new spell? I would surely be able to use that one.
Because when I created my character and locked the skills, that spell didn't exist yet.
How could you lock a spell that doesn't exist?
It might not compare to classics like 'Bolt' or 'Lightning Strike,' but if I could develop and use my own magic, my chances of survival would increase dramatically.
"However, the current system is the optimal result, refined and crafted by countless ancestors over hundreds, even thousands, of years. It has been 200 years since a new spell was last developed. If such a thing were possible..."
Alter spoke with a slightly concerned tone, his voice trailing off at the end.
"You, Bin, would have your name etched into the history of our lightning magic school."
Hmm.
So this method is out.
For someone like me, who's never properly studied a day in his life, to suddenly create a sophisticated calculation system like the 'Boiler Formula'... it was next to impossible.
In that case, rather than wasting time on such a pointless endeavor, it would be far easier and faster to just collect 'Artifacts' or the Spirit's Protection hidden around the world.
*I should've left at least one Bolt spell unlocked...* I sighed quietly with pointless regret and closed my eyes.
I don't know why my body is so tired when I haven't even done anything.
In the end, this abnormally low-stamina body of mine fell into a deep sleep in the relentlessly rattling carriage, as if I'd passed out.
It was only just sunset.
***
*...He probably didn't say it with any deep meaning.*
Alter watched the boy sleeping under the blanket of twilight, a deep furrow forming between his brows.
*With such incredible magical intellect, supported by a delicate control of mana...*
It's not entirely out of the question.
No, perhaps the possibility of this boy bringing a new horizon to the lightning school was higher than the alternative.
"You seem... excited."
Rireu, after confirming the boy was sound asleep, moved her lips cautiously.
Her small voice was nearly drowned out by the carriage's rattling, but to Alter, who had raised this elf for a long time, it came through with perfect clarity.
"Does it seem that way?"
"Yes. Because you have a pleased expression, Master..."
"Hah."
A pleased expression, she says.
He couldn't even remember the last time he'd heard such a thing while teaching.
"Lately, there's been nothing but... riffraff."
"...Like the herd of Tauros that's been following close behind us for a while now?"
Rireu quietly set down the quill and notebook she had been using to transcribe her master's words, adjusted her mage's hat, and spoke.
Beneath the sky where the moonlight was just beginning to appear, a faint, alien vibration mixed with the sound of horses' hooves.
"Yes. After teaching only half-baked fools, I suppose I'm unwittingly excited to be teaching a vessel worthy of becoming a dragon."
"Aren't you going to wake him? You were curious about his magic, Master..."
"Let him rest. I didn't climb into this uncomfortable carriage to watch him use his magic on some half-baked monsters."
Originally, he had planned to just watch a few simple 'Bolt' spells. Even such a basic spell was enough to gauge a mage's capabilities.
But after talking with the boy, teaching him without realizing it, and seeing him absorb those teachings in an instant, Alter's mind had changed.
Alter was dying to know the boy's limits.
He wanted to see the boy fight a dragon with his own two eyes, to gauge what kind of monster he would become.
He wanted to confirm if, as the boy himself had suggested, he was truly a genius who would develop new magic... a genius who would go down in magical history.
"I'm curious to see him fight a dragon at his full potential."
Captivated.
Yes, Alter was completely captivated by the boy's talent.
"Tauros herd detected to the rear! Numbers approximately 30 to 40!"
At that moment, a loud shout came from the rear of the column.
"Here they come. What's the distance to the main column!"
"About 50 to 60 meters!"
"A bit too close to shake them. No choice, everyone, prepare for com—"
*Fzzt!*
As the squad leader drew his blade, about to finish his command, a faint flash of lightning passed by the corner of his eye.
"Ah, just ignore them and keep moving."
The 8th-circle high mage, Alter Haindel, peeked his head out of the carriage and said with an affable smile.
"...Did you take care of them?"
"We have a long way to go. Can't let things like that slow us down."
The squad leader and his men, who had just drawn their swords on horseback, looked at each other, grinned, and sheathed their blades.
"Well, I'll be. Thanks to the mages, this expedition is a total cakewalk."
"Master Haindel of the Magic Tower... the promising star of the hero's party, Sir Bin... and Master Haindel's disciple. The people in that carriage alone could probably defend two or three cities."
"Thanks to Sir Bin bringing Master Haindel along, things have gotten a lot easier. When they suddenly announced Master Haindel was joining the expedition, I thought I'd misheard. The legendary Master of the Magic Tower, helping us?"
Thanks to Alter Haindel's actions, the reputation of Bin, who was fast asleep sprawled in the corner of the carriage, went up.
"To think he brought the great Master Haindel on the expedition. I don't know how he did it, but Sir Bin must be as skilled in negotiation as he is in magic..."
Of course, it was Bin's choice that brought Alter Haindel here, but...
"Isn't that obvious? You think the Sword Saint would have recruited him just for his magic? He must have some other outstanding qualities."
"That's true. That position is certainly not one to be taken lightly."
This... conversation was developing in a rather strange direction.
Bin, currently passed out from exhaustion in the carriage, had no idea that his stock was soaring among the soldiers, not even in his wildest dreams.