The Spark of Victory
“It’s do or die! Undine! Adore!”
[Yes, Master.]
[Calling on me quite a lot today, Master. For once, I approve.]
When Adore appeared, the surroundings brightened slightly.
I turned my gaze toward the ogre.
Truthfully, I hadn’t properly tested it yet, so I couldn’t guarantee its power, but I was the only mage here. It was also an objective fact that magic attacks worked better on ogres than physical ones.
The only problem was that I was ten years old!
“Undine! Aqua Ball on the ogre!”
Whoosh.
Thanks to repeated practice, Undine’s magic had become a little faster. The Aqua Ball flew swiftly, leaving trails of water droplets in the air, and struck the ogre squarely on the forehead.
I hadn’t expected the spell to deal any real damage anyway. The ogre completely ignored the Aqua Ball and kept trying to tear Kenta apart alive.
“I don’t want to see that! Undine, keep firing!”
The sudden barrage of Aqua Balls startled the mercenaries, who quickly backed away. When the ogre realized the water attacks weren’t stopping, it hurled Kenta aside and charged straight at me, its single eye gleaming.
“Aaaah! I knew this would happen… Undine, keep going!”
Three Aqua Balls shot forward, but the ogre didn’t bother dodging. It simply took them head-on and kept barreling toward me with heavy, thunderous steps. Water soaked its upper body thoroughly.
“Adore! Your turn!”
The mercenaries who had retreated from the Aqua Balls tried to raise their weapons again, but at Shabel’s signal they quickly fell back. I covered my ears.
[What are we doing, Master? I’m already prepared!]
“Pour every last drop of mana into it! Shock!”
I didn’t have much mana left, but I trusted the mercenaries to back me up if things went wrong. Worst case, I’d be sent flying by those massive hands.
Crackle-crackle!
The moment the mana-infused Shock activated, golden sparks danced across the ogre’s wet body. A blinding flash filled my vision.
“Krrraaagh!”
The light was so intense that everything went white. Even with my ears covered, the thunderous impact left them ringing painfully.
Did it work?
The ogre had frozen mid-charge, but I couldn’t relax yet.
“……”
Everyone was holding their breath. A cold wind blew past, and then—
The ogre swayed heavily before collapsing to the ground. Its massive body hit the earth with a tremor that sent dust flying all the way to my feet.
“……Did we succeed?”
Even I couldn’t believe the result. With my mana completely drained, Undine and Adore were forcibly unsummoned. My stomach twisted painfully, and a wave of nausea hit me from using too much mana too quickly.
Maybe my vision was blurring, because the sight of the charred ogre felt unreal.
“We did it!”
“That was amazing, Jeanie!”
The brief silence shattered as the mercenaries erupted into cheers. My legs gave out, and I sank to the ground.
“Woooo!”
“Jeanie! Jeanie!”
Arnel hurried over and helped me up. The mercenaries crowded around, their rough hands ruffling my hair. My head spun, but a silly grin still spread across my face.
“Kid, you’re pretty good!”
“What was that flashy thing?”
“……My spirit!”
“I don’t know much about magic, but that was incredible!”
“No, I said it’s a spirit!”
My body felt hollow from the mana loss, but the empty space was filled with the sweet taste of victory. My first real win.
Before I knew it, I was perched on Kenta’s shoulder. From the higher vantage point, the fallen ogre looked a little smaller.
[Maaaster… forgetting about me, *sob*.]
“Rai?”
Right—Rai! The last time I saw him, he was clinging to the ogre’s wrist!
I finally spotted him still wrapped around the ogre’s arm. His once-shiny scales were severely damaged.
I climbed down from Kenta’s shoulder and picked Rai up. When I touched the charcoal-blackened snake, soot came off on my hands.
“Eek! What happened to you? Did your shell melt?”
[It’s your fault, Master!]
“Sorry… What do we do now?”
[I was only mimicking a snake’s shape. My body is made entirely of metal. The outer shell was iron, which is easy to replace, but the impact was too strong. I’ll have to make a new one.]
The mercenaries gave me odd looks as I talked to the snake, but I was used to it by now.
[Let’s make it something really tough this time.]
[Tough, you say?]
[Something heat-resistant and pretty.]
[There are many options. What do you have in mind?]
[Something ordinary, like diamond.]
I figured this was a good chance to make a real adamantine snake.
[That would require a lot of mana, though.]
Rai moved his head, and pieces of corroded metal flaked off with a rustling sound.
[It’s fine. We can change it little by little. How long do you think it’ll take?]
[If we’re only coating the exterior… even working all day, we’d only manage about twenty centimeters. Why diamond, specifically?]
Instead of answering, I lifted Rai and roughly measured his length. About a meter? If I replaced him bit by bit as my mana recovered, it should take about a week.
[Yeah! Decided! White snakes are pretty.]
[……Is that really the reason?]
[Honestly, I never liked the black color. It’s so dull.]
[If it’s just the color you want, there are other options……]
[Is there pink?]
[Diamond sounds better. Yes, it’s ordinary, and if worst comes to worst, you could even sell it for money. An excellent choice.]
Rai clearly didn’t want to be pink.
I was thrilled at the thought of having a (fake) adamantine snake. Rai was simple-minded and easy to manipulate, which made him oddly cute.
***
This time, the test subject was Kirk, the cook and one of Rai’s sworn enemies.
Kirk, who had been busy preparing food, stared in bewilderment as the water in his pot began to float into the air. He looked like he was about to call his comrades over to witness the strange phenomenon—until the mass of water suddenly crashed down on him. He flailed in panic.
With his upper body completely submerged, Kirk soon began to gurgle, struggling to breathe. He tried to escape by throwing himself flat on the ground, but the water followed his movements. Eventually, even his lower body was submerged, and he started swimming in place.
Waves rippled as his head briefly surfaced, only to be pulled under again. Kirk clutched his throat, eyes wide.
“Pfft!”
[Puhaha! The sight of that big guy swimming on dry land is truly a masterpiece, Master.]
I tried to hold it in so I wouldn’t be caught, but laughter burst out between my lips. Rai, half white and half black, didn’t bother holding back either. I rolled on the ground, laughing uncontrollably.
“Undine, that’s enough!”
[Yes.]
The water lost its shape and scattered. Pop—like bursting droplets.
Kirk lay sprawled on the muddy ground, blinking in confusion. He still hadn’t processed what happened.
“Cough! Th-this is weird? I was definitely…… achoo! underwater, right?”
While Kirk dazedly wrung out his soaked clothes, I quickly jotted down notes on the experiment.
• No need to cover the entire upper body to prevent breathing. → Use the minimum amount of water to cover just the face!
• If they resist hard, they can escape the water. → Increase water pressure. Compress it. Maybe force water up their nose?
• Can’t tell if the person underwater is running out of air. → Limit it to about one minute.
• The subject ends up looking ugly. Snot runs too. → Cannot be helped.
“Hmm…… Is this about right?”
I was developing my own new technique—one that used little mana while completely immobilizing the opponent.
Well, “new technique” was generous. It was really just a mix of existing methods.
“Undine.”
[Yes, Master?]
“Is it harder to compress water or to summon it?”
[Similar, but compression takes more time.]
“Aha.”
I noted that down too. Water without compression had almost zero offensive power. If I wanted to attack, compression was essential.
“Good work! Tomorrow let’s call Adore too and practice combining Aqua Ball with Shock.”
[Yes!]
After the ogre appeared, we had descended the mountain without further trouble. The weaker monsters were probably hiding because of the ogre’s presence.
We were now two days away from Veilan. We had passed all the monster-infested areas, so all that remained was an easy descent.
During that time, Rai’s body had been half-recolored, and with an endless supply of test subjects, my new magic development was progressing smoothly.
Having plenty of healthy volunteers around was a wonderful opportunity.
The mercenaries who had been subjected to my bizarre experiments naturally knew I was the culprit and raised a fuss, but once they realized it only increased the number of times they’d be used as test subjects, they quickly quieted down.
My goal was to defeat every mercenary except Arnel!
“Mwahaha!”
[Mwahaha!]
The abundance of test subjects filled me with joy. I should express my deepest gratitude to the Shabel Mercenary Corps for sacrificing themselves for my endless growth. If I actually thanked them, they’d feel burdened, so I’d keep it in my heart.