Assignment (1)
The next day, Lawrence visited the magic tower to recharge a mana stone.
This time, he headed upstairs rather than down to the basement.
How many turns had he climbed the spiraling circular stairwell before he finally arrived?
On the third floor—or perhaps the fourth—Lawrence stepped into the corridor and walked on.
The room he soon reached looked very much like the library he had only ever heard described in words.
Countless bookshelves lined the walls, and chairs had been prepared atop geometric magic circles.
In front of them, a massive levitating stone bobbed gently up and down.
This was probably the rechargeable mana stone.
“Number 13 has come to recharge a mana stone.”
“Understood. Please go to mana stone number 4.”
The exchange was brief.
The mage guided Lawrence to a chair.
“This is your first time recharging a mana stone, I take it.”
“Yes. Is there anything I should be careful about?”
“Just relax and sit there. It’s fine if you do homework or anything else. There’s only one thing: just in case, please don’t use any magic. Once the magic circle activates, it’ll draw out your mana. If you start feeling dizzy, don’t force yourself—tell us immediately.”
As if that were the only precaution, the mage who had led him here left him alone.
A moment later, just as he had said, the magic circle activated.
A faint halo of light shimmered into being. Without caring about Lawrence’s will, the circle began drawing out his mana.
What was the sensation like?
It felt close to maintaining a set spell.
Only, this time Lawrence wasn’t the one holding the thread—the magic circle was.
It was not as taxing as he had expected.
Compared with setting up Shadow Trap, it was a speck of dust.
He had no idea it would be this simple, and he had needlessly tensed up for nothing.
Now that he had some breathing room, Lawrence looked around.
On the other chairs, there were other applicants recharging their mana stones.
They seemed used to the place and sat however they liked.
One applicant was nodding off, after clearly spending the night doing something or other.
Another was absorbed in a magic book, as though unwilling to waste even this time.
A third, perhaps for an assignment of their own, was busily writing something down.
Was it dizziness?
One applicant, suddenly pale-faced, raised a hand.
A mage came out from inside and helped the person away.
The system doesn’t seem to have any issues.
Lawrence took a small box from his pocket.
It was a tool Number 14 had given him to help him learn Unlock.
It was commonly called the Box of Wisdom.
The box was made up of blocks of different colors.
Its pieces could be removed and inserted by matching their positions.
By using that structure, one could infer the inside of the box.
Apparently, this Box of Wisdom was usually used when learning telekinesis magic.
Of course, I’m learning Unlock right now. Imagine that inside here is a keyhole. And you’re opening it with mana, like a key.
Lawrence recalled Number 14’s words.
He pictured a key fitting a keyhole.
But the image did not take shape as easily as he had hoped.
Unlike magic that could be seen clearly with the eye, Unlock relied heavily on imagination.
Because he could not directly see or confirm it, a distinct mental image did not come easily.
Lawrence separated the Box of Wisdom.
With only the frame left, he fitted in the blocks one by one and tried to imagine how the unseen interior must be arranged.
Fortunately, the mana-charging room in the tower was quiet.
It was an ideal place to concentrate on a single task.
How many times had he assembled the Box of Wisdom?
Before long, Lawrence came back to himself and lifted his head.
The applicants sitting in the nearby chairs looked unfamiliar.
It seemed one round of charging had already ended, and they’d been replaced by other people.
Then why was he still here?
He checked his pocket watch and saw that thirty minutes had passed long ago.
Nearly two hours had gone by since he’d started charging, and he couldn’t understand why nobody had come to get him.
When Lawrence raised his hand, one of the mages approached.
“Understood. Are you feeling dizzy?”
“No. It’s just that two hours have already passed, and I was wondering whether the charging hadn’t finished yet.”
The hood of the mage beside him trembled.
“You’ve been sitting there for two hours?”
“Yes. Roughly that long.”
“Please step down from the chair for now. Be as careful as possible, in case you collapse. Right. Yes. Let’s get you outside the magic circle.”
The mage hastily helped Lawrence up.
“You’re not dizzy? Or feeling nauseous, like you might throw up?”
“No. It’s really fine. You don’t need to be so dramatic.”
Never had he seen anyone make such a fuss.
If there had really been a problem with his body, Lawrence would have noticed first.
For instance, a headache, or chest pain.
Not a single abnormal symptom that usually came with overusing mana had appeared.
Frankly, setting up Shadow Trap in the workshop basement was more exhausting.
“It wasn’t a problem with the magic circle, was it?”
“I don’t know. I’ll go check, so could you wait here for a moment? If you start feeling unwell, please call another mage.”
Looking back over her shoulder several times, she hurried into the inner room.
A little later, two mages came out and approached at a quick pace.
“We’re sorry. Our check was delayed. Applicant number 13, are you all right? You were on the magic circle for a full two hours.”
The voice beneath the hood belonged to a woman.
“I’m fine. I told the other person already, but I really am fine, so there’s no need to worry.”
“Really? That can’t be right….”
She tilted her head, looking puzzled.
“Let me ask one more time. Are you absolutely certain you’re fine? No headache, no chest pain—none of that?”
“None.”
There was a faint edge of irritation in Lawrence’s voice.
He kept saying he was fine, and they kept asking the same thing over and over. He didn’t know how many more times they needed to check.
“And mana stone number 4 is already half full….”
“Half full? Did you maybe bring someone else’s stone by mistake?”
“I don’t know. Maybe there’s a problem with the link. Or with the magic circle. We’ll need to run a detailed inspection.”
So there really had been a problem with the magic circle.
“Senior Hasole and Senior Elbrick are going to love this. They’re already draining all the mana stones just because of that statue incident.”
“What’s there to love? It just means more work for us. These days I can barely tell whether I’m a mage or the foreman in charge of laborers.”
She grumbled for a moment, then seemed to reach a conclusion.
“For today, please return to the workshop and get as much rest as possible. Since it might put strain on your body, please don’t use any magic, and if you feel anything strange at all, make sure to visit the magic tower. We’ll do everything we can to help.”
“Understood. If anything seems off, I’ll do that.”
He was certain of it.
There was definitely nothing wrong.
Lawrence had plenty of experience pushing magic to its limits.
Seeing no sign of even a clock-eating worm, he felt perfectly normal.
“Where do I get the payment?”
“Right, of course. Please wait just a moment.”
Apparently, they had forgotten all about that.
The female mage produced a coin purse and handed it over.
It felt heavy in his hand.
To his surprise, the purse held nearly twenty silver coins that gleamed inside.
“I’m sorry. This won’t happen again.”
“No, it’s fine. These things happen.”
His irritation vanished in an instant.
Not five silver, but four times that amount—twenty silver.
He hadn’t even done any real labor; he’d simply sat in a chair and studied, and now twenty silver was in his hands.
There was no easier money than this.
It was only natural that Lawrence’s mouth curled all the way up to his ears.
“I’ll see you again, then.”
After Lawrence left, the female mage muttered to herself.
“Was there really something wrong with the magic circle? If so, then it’s my fault. What am I supposed to say to the seniors?”
Her dejected voice was stained with tears.
* * *
The practicality of Water magic.
Lawrence stared at the wooden tub, not yet having filled it by even a single measure.
The assignment the magic tower had given him still had no progress to speak of.
He couldn’t deny that he had been busy ever since taking up residence in Workshop 13.
He had learned Wind.
He practiced magic in the workshop basement almost every day.
On top of that, he was even learning Unlock from Number 14.
Even when he somehow found time, there was no chance to work on the assignment unless it was the dead of night.
The result was that empty wooden tub.
A sigh escaped him.
If he couldn’t solve the assignment, he wouldn’t be allowed to learn attack magic.
The shape of Unlock was gradually becoming clearer, at least.
But he still couldn’t get a handle on how to make Water useful in practice.
Practicality.
That sounded nice enough, but in the end the assignment was to bring down an enemy with a basic spell like Water.
“Water.”
Water formed in Lawrence’s palm.
Since he’d made it lightly, it was only the size of his fist.
Use this to kill a monster….
No matter how hard he wracked his brain, no answer came.
Water had no killing power.
No matter how big he made it, water was still water.
It couldn’t burn like Fire when it touched something.
And it couldn’t be sharpened into a blade like Wind.
If he made it as large as possible and slammed it down with all his strength, it might inflict some damage.
But even then, it would amount to little more than a sting.
It did not have the force to threaten a life.
“Hmm….”
A groan full of worry slipped past his lips.
What came to mind was Vodyanoy.
If Water had been a sphere of water, there would have been no need to worry.
That kind of water was strong enough to smash the ground itself.
“Water.”
Lawrence condensed as much mana as he could.
Water changed shape.
Like snow being packed down hard, the spell compressed.
Small and solid.
But when fired, faster than anything else.
Remembering the water sphere Vodyanoy had wielded, Lawrence shot the Water spell out the window.
With a sharp hiss, the spell flew out and struck a tree outside.
With a soft pop, a small scratch appeared on the trunk.
The trunk was already covered in similar marks.
All of them were scars left from Lawrence practicing Water.
This level of force was nowhere near enough.
Depending on how it was used, maybe it could kill a person.
A throat, perhaps, or the heart.
He could aim for a vital point not protected by armor.
But that was only if the opponent was human.
He couldn’t bring down a monster that fought with a body of extraordinary physical strength.
It was the kind of power where he couldn’t even tell whether it would leave a bruise.
It would be far better to burn the body with Fire, or slice it in half in one stroke with Fire Tail, than to force mana into Water like this.
In real combat, there was no second chance.
If he squandered a rare opportunity on a half-finished spell like this, then the very next moment his head would be rolling across the ground.
Lawrence covered his mouth with one hand.
Should he try compressing Water even more to increase its power?
But this was already close to the limit.
More than anything, even though it didn’t look like much, it consumed a tremendous amount of mana.
Concentration was the same. Since the form itself changed, he had to put real effort into the casting time as well.
Still, if he kept at it, he would improve eventually.
He could shape Water like this in about ten seconds, more or less.
Ridiculous.
In actual combat, lives were decided in less than one second.
There was no time to leisurely compress Water in front of an enemy.
Would it be better to approach the problem another way?
Perhaps he had become too fixated on the water sphere Vodyanoy had used because it had been so overwhelming.
Lawrence rose from his seat.
Writing did not suit a boy.
It was better to act than to speak a hundred words.
Better to show the mage tower’s examiner the Water spell directly than to keep holding a pen he wasn’t even good at using.
There was still a Shadow Trap left in the basement.
At first, it had lasted only thirty minutes.
But now, through relentless effort, it was being maintained for nearly two full hours.
He would practice Water while being as careful as possible with Shadow Trap.
Fortunately, the target boards were still there.
They looked as though they might run out soon, but he had earned enough from mana stone charging that buying new ones wouldn’t be much of a burden.
Maybe because he’d finally stood up from that boring chair, Lawrence’s steps toward the basement felt light.