Even though I knew she was in no way ordinary, watching her casting spell after spell made me think most mages wouldn’t have trouble using up at least 10 or 12 minor spells a week.
With a slightly pale face, I looked at her and asked.
“Luna… Just how many spells can you cast?”
She giggled playfully before answering.
“It’s a secret… but I do have a Great spell in my repertoire.” She said with her finger in front of her lips.
“Great spell…”
Great spell huh… If a minor firebolt can blow up two bandits to bits, what exactly is she capable of?
She laughed again when she noticed my astonished expression, and as she turned back to Toba so she could explain it all to him again, I just stood there, taking in the information I had just received.
…
After she finished answering my questions about spells, she moved on to explain adventurer ranks and adventurer’s guild rules of conduct. I didn’t pay that much attention to it, and Luna didn’t tell us what rank she was, so all I could remember was that there were 11 ranks (not counting rookies), and that they were divided in colors.
The only thing that caught my attention, was that apparently ranks were certified using special magic circles linked to one’s very soul.
She also told us about quest ranks and other miscellaneous stuff. Normally I would take an interest in these things, but after learning about magic there was no way I could care about something else, at least for the moment.
Besides, this sort of stuff can be told by guild receptionists anyway.
When Luna noticed our brains couldn’t soak up more information, she brought us outside and told Toba to practice with the gladius.
“It’s about time you learned a new spell, right Cona?” She said in a sweet voice.
Seems like her tough act degrades as the day goes on. I wonder if it’ll restore completely tomorrow morning.
“Yes! I’ve been waiting for this!”
I wasn’t just acting, I was really looking forward to learning new spells, since it wasn’t that difficult to master minor firebolt. Luna, however, insisted that I would only learn another one once my firebolt was acceptable.
Her reasoning was that I could only train once a week, and if I kept trying new spells, I would never make any permanent progress.
She also said the next spells I tried probably wouldn’t be as easy to learn, she called it beginner’s luck that I was able to learn minor firebolt so fast. Of course, what she didn’t know was that before she found me, I kept repeating the initial steps every week, and since I didn’t have the word of power to complete it, I kept polishing the other steps, thinking they were the reason I couldn’t cast it.
Luna sat on the ground and took out a spell book I had seen before on the second floor of the tower. The cover was simple but robust, and the title was “Minor defense”.
Couldn’t they have chosen a better name? It sounds like a guide on how to protect against pedophiles.
“Today I’m going to teach you minor repel, it’s a simple barrier magic that creates a shield capable of stopping attacks both physical and magical, but you should only use it against physical attacks, since it’s weak to other spells.” She said while flipping through the pages of the tome, stopping on the medieval style drawings illustrating the step by steps of the spell.
She also took out an engraved fist-sized disc from her robe and handed it to me.
“Hm? What’s this for?” I asked as I raised my head to look up at her.
“It’s the magic circle for the spell, they can be engraved in all sorts of materials, not just drawn on paper.” She smiled as she observed me examining the iron disc.
“They can also be tattooed, but it’s a bit of a taboo to do that.”
This certainly changed things. As durable as the special water-proof paper they use may be, at the end of the day it’s just paper, it can be destroyed with relative ease.
Metal, stone, and even hardened leather seem to be a lot safer to carry around in a battle without risking losing all your magic circles and the hard work needed to draw them.
Tattoos seem even more convenient, but apparently there’s a reason for them not to be used.
“Is this the circle for minor repel?” I said as I traced my fingers through the grooves in the disc.
It was surprisingly hefty for its size, and the grooves were deep. Just from looking at it I could tell it would be extremely hard to damage this magic circle.
“It is. This is the most common magic circle out there, and usually it’s the one found engraved in the cover of most combat grimoires.”
Still with my eyes glued to the object in my hands, I asked:
“Is it hard? I imagine it’s not a natural spell like minor firebolt.”
Luna chuckled a bit and looked at Toba, who was tirelessly practicing with the gladius inside the barrier, before turning back to look at me again.
“Don’t worry, it’s as simple as it gets, you shouldn’t have too much trouble. But you are correct that it’s not a natural spell, it’s a wished spell so you can’t make mistakes.” She said with a warm, nostalgic smile in her face.
“I remember my first time learning this spell… If we compare your talent to mine, it shouldn’t take long for you to learn all basic minor repel spells.”
“There’s more than one?”
“Let’s focus on this one for now.” She said as she ruffled my hair a bit.
“Ok…”
Luna knew that once I got interested and started asking questions I wouldn’t stop, so she knew when to cut me off.
“Now, don’t you want a demonstration? Fufufu.”
Again with the devilish chuckle… But it is a defensive spell so she’s probably just teasing me.
“You bet!”
She didn’t have to tell me anything as I grabbed a short sword near me and charged right at her. This was a barrier spell, and I had a hunch she used this exact spell to block the arrows the bandits fired, so there was really only one way to test it.
“HAAAAAAAH!”
I charged forth as I raised my sword and aimed my blow at the little smirk she was provoking me with.
Just before my blade got half a meter near her, she took out her hand from inside her robe with insane speed, and with her index and middle fingers raised, she extended her arm, almost touching the blade as she shouted:
“[Repel]”
Instantly, a golden light shone, and my blade collided with the barrier that surrounded her whole body like a sphere.
It was like hitting solid rock, except that after the initial impact I felt much more force coming back to me than it normally would.
I was thrown backwards, sliding a few meters across the ground as I left behind a dirt trail and ripped apart the grass.
First that firebolt, now this. Hopefully there’s no HOA around here because this garden is absolutely ruined.
Toba stopped what he was doing to look my way but was quickly scolded by Luna and got back to training.
“What do you think? Hehehe.”
“Yeah… Definitely packs a punch.” I said as I tried to support myself with my sword.
“The punch was all you, silly. The spell merely repelled it.” She said with a now much louder chuckle.
Having fun at my expense… I think I want the serious and scary Luna back.
I got up and dusted myself off. It was time to increase my repertoire.
…
The first day of training was over. As expected, I didn’t manage to cast minor repel right out the bat, but the spell overall was much simpler than minor firebolt.
All I had to do was touch the circle and bring my hand forward with my index and middle fingers raised and the rest of the hand into a fist.
The weird thing was keeping the spell up, I felt it about to activate but it was like the mana slipped through my fingers just before it manifested.
I would definitely learn it after a few months though, the process was new, but it was not complicated by any means.
After that our days continued one after the other, always following the same schedule. First thing in the morning we would try to fight Luna and receive feedback along with sword training, then we would workout, eat, learn the theory on something, and finally, learn it in practice.
I though our bodies would turn to dust after a few days of this, and I didn’t even intend to workout the other day, thinking I would wake up destroyed after all the work. Surprisingly, however, the little sleep we got was more than enough to bring us back to 100%.
This fast recovery, the abnormal rate my muscles and strength increase, the amount of food I can eat… Does everyone in this world have built in steroids? Is my special gift as a reincarnated hero a blood with trenbolone already running through it?
Nah, I wouldn’t be this happy if it was.
The only thing that changed in this routine was that, after a while, Luna started going out in the middle of the night at least once a week.
I had no clue what she was doing, but she always took a small bag with her and nothing else. Curious as I am, I later found out there was nothing but writing utensils in there.
The only thing that caught my attention was the stamp, which had a sigil in the form of a thin dagger with a drop of blood at its tip.
It was certainly weird, but I didn’t dare pry in too much. Everyday I found out more about just how skilled Luna was, and even with her training us in stealth and a variety of skills, we were still mere babies next to her.
Still, things were getting more and more interesting every day. Luna was an excellent teacher, and we were doing our best too.
I had no clue why she wouldn’t take us out of the tower already and into the city, but whatever her reasons were, I’m sure that when we finally got to civilization, we would stand out with our skills.
Taking the bandits as a baseline, it wouldn’t take long before I could take one on by myself, and with relative ease too.
The training had just begun, and we were still in the first few weeks, but we were already much stronger.
I couldn’t wait to start my life as an adventurer.
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