I got up on the window and prepared myself. I wouldn’t try to imitate her smooth movements, that was probably a product of years of experience, so I should stick to the basics I learned from the book.
I placed my left hand on the circle, raised my right hand while closing it into a fist, then extended my arm, pointed out my finger, and…
“[Ignis!]”
I didn’t puke! Again, a firebolt exploded out from the fingertip, but this time it was much slower. Instead of flying straight forward, it started spinning around in the air like a dying mosquito, slowly moving ahead before crashing into the ground, the size and power of the explosion didn’t seem any different from Luna’s spell though.
“I FUCKING DID IT!”
I couldn’t contain myself and screamed at the top of my lungs, then hopped straight into my new teacher’s arms. Naturally, I screamed in Portuguese.
She had an awkward face, however, like she couldn’t decide between happy and worried, and seemed in a rush to do something.
Crap, did I do something wrong?
As I thought that, she placed me down, took a thick book from her robes, and hurriedly opened it on a page with a grey magic circle on it. All while looking out the window with a worried face.
The book seemed to be nothing but magic circles on every page, and it had tons of thumb indexes, it also had a thick, bronze looking metal lining the cover. She could probably kill someone with it, it reminded me of female clerics in RPGs who would wallop goblins in the face with their tomes.
I managed to stand on top of some books so I could see what was going on outside, and I quickly understood her worries. Unlike her spell, which crashed high up on the barrier, mine hit the grass outside and was quickly burning everything up in its surroundings. Just as I let out an awkward scream of shock, however, she immediately started casting a spell.
This time her movements were too fast for me to follow. She touched the circle and did some sort of spinning and closing motion with her hand that made it very clear she was slowing herself down before.
“[Vacuum]”
After a second of silence there was a snapping sound, and all the flames were gone in an instant, leaving only smoke in their place. It was like she had extinguished a candle, only it was a sea of flames that would probably end up burning everything inside the barrier.
Now that I think about it, it was probably a good thing I didn’t manage to cast this spell before…
I looked at Luna with newfound respect, I could see the experience and competence in her movements. Before I could attempt to say anything, however, I started to feel dizzy. I usually prepared myself for this feeling and managed to stay standing during it, but this time I was caught off guard by the situation, and I fainted as I ran out of MP, or whatever it was.
The last thing I saw before I went out was the proud, beautiful face of my teacher looking down at me as she held me so I wouldn’t fall. The fainting lasted only a moment, but I decided to sleep right there in her embrace.
I know it’s weird that secretly I’m a 24-year-old bodybuilder, but at least she’s not underage, ok? Leave me alone.
***
“Eight… Nine… Ten… Come on Toba you can do one more! You did eleven last week, I told you to eat more today you fucking pussy!”
Toba managed to execute half a rep more, before falling on the ground, dropping me and the three huge sacks of grains he was balancing on his shoulder. I landed on my feet of course.
“Cona be nicer to Toba please, he’s not feeling well today.”
“I know but that’s why he should have eaten even more! If he sent all his calories down the pit, he needs to replace them!”
“Cona…”
“Ok, ok… Here.” I extended my hand to Toba and helped him stand up after all the squats he did
“What did you eat to get like this anyway? We even ate raw meat before but never got sick.”
“Bad red fruit, squishy inside.”
“A rotten fruit… Why am I not surprised?”
2 years had passed since Luna moved in, and life was pretty good. I already knew how to read and write since I really pushed myself to learn it as fast as possible, and although it did mean I neglected almost everything else, it was fine. I was still a kid after all.
I could also cast minor firebolt a little better (although still only once a week), even if I was focused on reading and writing, magic and swords are way too interesting to push to the side.
That’s not to say I didn’t learn ANYTHING else though, I did have some basic knowledge about this place I reincarnated into.
Basically, everything now was about adventurers, one way or another. I say “now” because apparently there were different eras preceding this one, and before adventurers started popping up, the whole world was involved in constant war.
As I quickly learned when I first got here, there were also lots of different races, enough that I couldn’t memorize them all, but the main ones in terms of influence were humans, seafolk, and demons. Beastfolk were also very numerous, but they weren’t organized in any specific territory.
With all these different races, of course, came countless combinations of mixed races, something I understood very well, having been a Brazilian in my past life.
Also, as luck would have it, apparently both me and Toba were of mixed origins, and that was what caused our abnormal growth. Luna explained it like a combination of the aspects of both races, that resulted in a unique development that only hybrid children went through.
From what I understood, humans were the only ones with a constant, and short development cycle. The other races nearly all had an accelerated development in the beginning, until hitting a certain wall where things would halt for a long time.
Where exactly their development would slow down was individual to each race, but what mattered was that since both me and Toba were half human, we still had the initial growth burst (which was much appreciated), but our development wall would be less drastic than our pure counterparts, and our lifespan not as long too.
Well, I say “we” but according to Luna, I was probably 3/4 human and 1/4 demon, which was a rare occurrence since usually the child should just be born a regular human. My quick development, and apparently my green hair, too, said otherwise.
She did warn me that she wasn’t certain, however, since her only evidence so far was my lack of demonic traits, apart from my hair of course.
And all this time I thought people were just born with vibrant colors of hair… Why is pink a normal human color but green isn’t? I’m sure I can find a way to victimize myself with this… There isn’t a twitter here though, so I guess I’ll just accept it.
Luna also tried teaching us geography, but it all went over my head, I don’t have that much space in my head, it was already a miracle I was learning so fast.
Despite my initial doubts, Luna was a competent adventurer, and so she had a lot of practical knowledge that I begged for her to teach us about. She was proficient even in things I didn’t expect, like swordplay and grappling, apparently every adventurer needed to know the basics, even full-on mages like herself.
I could guess why. From what I observed so far, every spell required a magic circle, and judging from the frequency with which Luna practiced, spells seemed to be very limited in the number of times you could cast them. I can imagine a wizard running out of fireballs while backed into a corner and with all their party members dead, a mage who couldn’t handle a sword was just a ticking timebomb until their death.
That was fine for me though, and for Toba even better. Despite Luna’s best efforts, Toba could just about speak a few words stringed together, and he avoided magic circles like the plague. But there was one thing he excelled at, and that was strength.
We were both getting impressively strong for our size, but Toba was already far ahead of me, at least in terms of raw power. I had a bigger biceps, but he could take down a tree in 4 sword swings, I needed at least 8. He could also climb things with an agility I just didn’t understand, and out of the 10 sword matches we did every day in sparring, I could maybe beat him in 3, if I was lucky. Simply put, the kid was a beast, pun intended.
“You boys are done for now, right? I need help bringing water from the waterfall.”
Luna said to us with a hopeful but complicated expression on her face, she was looking at Toba, but her question was mainly directed at me, and the reason for that is that Toba was a little shut in who wouldn’t get out of the barrier no matter what. Even she was starting to give up on trying to get him to come with us.
“Yeah, I’ll get the bucket. Toba, you coming?”
“…”
“Whatever, but you don’t have to be such a coward, you know? We haven’t even seen that tiger again after all this time.”
“… Not afraid.”
“Yes you are.”
“…” Toba had shame written all over his face as he stared at the ground in silence.
I left Toba there and went to fetch the bucket, I did enjoy teasing him, but it also had a purpose, I didn’t want him to stay locked up in there in fear.
I’ll admit that even I didn’t like to go alone at first, especially in the waterfall where we almost got turned into tiger food, but that beast never even showed it’s face again in 2 years, it probably stays in another area now. And besides, even if he does show up, I’m sure he’s no match for Luna.
Yeah, I still don’t go out alone either… But hey why take the risk when she’s here with us, right?
Either way, it was probably a matter of time before he worked up the courage to accompany us, I know he doesn’t like to be left out.
“I’m ready big sister Luna!” I said while doing my best possible adorable kid act.
“… SO CUTE!!”
As she lifted me up and squeezed my head against her chest, I got the feeling that someday I would have to pay for my actions.
If I have a guardian angel, I’m sure he’s angrily shouting “He can’t keep getting away with it!” right now, but mister angel I assure you that while I still can, I’ll enjoy every moment of it.
While Luna was busy caressing my cheeks without using her hands, I thought about something. Wasn’t it time I started hunting again? Food falling from the sky was great, and I didn’t slack off on my workouts or my sword training with Luna, but if I didn’t expose myself to danger a little, I would grow soft.
Besides, while I had only lived for 3 and a half years in this place (which I still don’t know how to call, since apparently people just call it “world” and have no name for it), my body was already that of a six- or even seven-year-old, and according to Luna my bastard growth privileges still had a while to go before completely stopping.
My physique isn’t bad either, I look like those weird calisthenics kids you would sometimes see on the internet. Toba is strong too, but he looks more like a creature than anything else.
Having made up my mind, I looked up at Luna and said:
‘I wish I had your milk instead of the wolf’s’
Just kidding, but I bet her reaction would be amusing to watch
“Big sister Luna, after we finish collecting water, can we fight some beasts?”
She paused for a bit, considering something while making a very cute face, she looked like she was trying to solve a puzzle on a cellphone game.
“Ok, but you have to obey everything big sister says, and if you misbehave, I won’t take you again!”
“… Alright!” I said with a smile after a brief pause.
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting her to agree so easily, I was prepared for it to require at least a few days of nagging on my part.
But now that I think about it, she is surprisingly lenient when it comes to these matters, she didn’t fuss about the sword, and she even showed me magic and let me cast it, despite the obvious dangers.
Looking at her one would think she’d be the overprotective type, but her actions couldn’t be further from that. Maybe it’s a cultural thing and that’s normal in this world… Anyway, there’s no reason to fuss about it, after all this benefits me greatly.
I’m not sure yet what I’ll do with my time here, but I feel like I would fit right in with the rest of the adventurers, the idea of slashing and hacking and blowing up monsters with magic excites me.
After all, I couldn’t do anything similar back on earth, hunting was an expensive hobby, and I was broke.
Just before we walked past the barrier, I noticed Toba looking at us with a complicated expression.
Huh, maybe there’s even a side benefit to this little hunting trip. I bet he’ll want to come with us next time if I bring a huge boar back home.
As we walked towards the waterfall, I took the time to admire the scenery before me, Dwarf Forest, as they call it, is truly beautiful. The plants are diverse and colorful, the smell is refreshing, and the temperature is just right for hiking. At night I didn’t appreciate it so much, but this forest is a really nice place to live.
“Luna, Luna.” I said as I tugged on her robe, and in response she looked at me with a smile, waiting for my barrage of questions.
“Why do predators live in separate parts of the forest?”
“Hmm… I’m not quite sure, but I think they have separate territories to avoid killing each other, predator meat isn’t as good, so they rather keep to themselves and hunt the other animals… I’ll have to read about it later though!”
“And where are all the dwarfs?”
“Hm? Oh! You mean because of the name? I’m surprised you know about dwarfs already, but the forest was named like this for its characteristic trees.”
She walked up to a stubby tree nearby and gestured for me to follow. Weirdly enough, the squirrels and birds living in the tree didn’t move an inch when she approached, but when I got there, they all scattered.
“See, for you it may still look big, and big sister isn’t so tall either, but comparing to other trees, the trees here are all short and thick.”
“Just like a dwarf?”
“Exactly! You learn fast hehe.”
“Thanks!” I said as I already thought about my next question.
I do this kind of questioning as frequently as possible whenever I am with Luna. For some reason she hasn’t taken us out with her when she went to get supplies in the nearest town, so I try to learn as much as I can from her, since I’m not able to leave the forest and see the world with my own eyes yet.
Today, however, my questions are all about this place. I get the feeling I’ll spend quite some time here, so I need to get familiar with it. That’s also part of the reason why I asked her to fight a beast with me.
“Luna, what about those big red insects that sing at night?”
“You mean the blood crickets? They’re dangerous, you shouldn’t go near them, ok?”
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