Chapter 15: Spirit Art
What did Charlie do after being equipped with super powerful gear?
Defeat monsters to gather Excelia?
The answer is no!
Charlie wasn't reckless; on the contrary, he was very cautious. Otherwise, he wouldn't have lived long in his previous life.
Aside from the fact that finding monsters outside the Dungeon is much harder than inside, he preferred to practice Spirit Arts rather than search for monsters without any leads.
To avoid drawing attention from others, he walked deeper into the forest.
"This should be safe." He thought.
Looking around at the open area surrounded by bushes, Charlie decided to train here.
"Aishia, can you hear me?"
"..."
There was no response.
"It didn't work, huh..."
Charlie sighed, slightly disappointed.
Ever since Aishia taught him how to manipulate Ode/Essence to use Spirit Art, her voice had not been heard again.
"No choice, I'll just have to train on my own."
Placing the Sword of Damocles on the ground, Charlie sat cross-legged and began to meditate, trying to recall the details from the light novel when Rio was taught the proper use of Spirit Art by Orfia.
Slowly but surely, forgotten memories began to surface. Charlie knew that his memories were lost but stored in his brain. He stimulated his brain using Ode very carefully, trying to avoid even the smallest mistake, which could cause brain damage.
He knew his actions were very risky, but he didn't have a mentor like Rio who could help him learn Spirit Art. Whether he liked it or not, he had to take the risk.
High Risk, High Return!
If it was worth doing, Charlie wouldn't hesitate to gamble, even if it cost him his life.
In a sense, the world of Danmachi was much less safe for ordinary people; adventurers with superhuman strength could abuse their power to oppress ordinary people.
Just once was enough for him to experience the bitter tragedy of being powerless as a weak person!
"I did it."
Wiping the nosebleed from his nose, Charlie's eyes sparkled with joy.
Suppressing his inner excitement, he began reading volume 2 of the light novel Seirei no Gensouki that appeared in his mind.
Skipping the unimportant parts, he focused on the pages that discussed Spirit Art training.
"The concept of Spirit Art can be very abstract and difficult to grasp. Spirit Art is a technique that manipulates Ode to imbue the user's will into Mana, causing phenomena that alter the world around the user. Ode is the energy of life or what humans call Magic Essence, while Mana is the energy of nature itself..."
"Depending on the user's abilities, Spirit Art can cause phenomena much more freely than magic and even do some things that magic cannot. Usually, people have their own affinities for certain elements."
Pausing for a moment, Charlie used Spirit Art to create a small fireball in his right palm.
"Success!"
"To succeed on the first try, this is likely due to Karasuki Rio's innate talent."
Not getting complacent, Charlie attributed his success to Rio's prodigious talent from the start.
Next, he didn't just produce fire. Using Spirit Art, he created a water ball, an earth ball, a green wind cluster resembling Rasengan, and a blue lightning ball similar to Chidori.
"My assumption was correct; the Karasuki Rio template is my cheat. Rio had no particular strengths or weaknesses. He once heard that people had magic they could and couldn't learn, but he hadn't found magic he couldn't replicate through Spirit Art."
"What Rio could do, I can do too; it just takes time to master gradually."
This discovery convinced Charlie that this was his cheat as someone reincarnated into another world.
Based on his experience reading transmigration and reincarnation novels, the protagonists are blessed with cheats that help them take off.
Of course, Charlie never considered himself a protagonist. Real life was different from fiction; there would be no plot armor to help him out of the troubles he caused himself.
He didn't like relying on fate and preferred his life to be determined by himself.
"Next is to train my control."
Charlie had to admit Rio was very talented; within 30 minutes, his control improved drastically.
With his current level of control, he could change the shape of the fire into a person, an animal, a sword, and then a spear, each transformation taking less than a second.
"If I had Gojo Clan's Six Eyes, my control over Spirit Arts would increase to a different level."
Smiling wryly, Charlie shook his head, discarding the unrealistic idea.
Next, he increased his control over the five basic elements.
"Ugh... So this is the Mind Zero that Goddess Hera mentioned."
The water sword in Charlie's hand collapsed, a blob of water soaking the ground, while he experienced a severe headache as if he had stayed awake for three days without sleep.
He was experiencing Mind Zero.
Magic requires thought, which can cause fainting, and overuse can cause one to pass out, a condition known as Mind Down or Mind Zero.
Although Spirit Art and Magic are different in the Seirei no Gensouki verse, this world is in the Danmachi verse.
In the status engraved on Charlie's back, Spirit Art is classified under the Magic column, meaning this world considers Spirit Art a type of magic.
After repeatedly using Spirit Art, Charlie began to tire.
"In the end, I'm only Level 1. Wait... This doesn't make sense; if I inherited the Karasuki Rio template, it doesn't make sense for me to run out of Ode. In the original work, Celia detected that Rio had an extremely large amount of Mana, even surpassing the Court Mages. So why am I running out of Ode after just a short training session?"
Thinking about this issue seriously, he could only find one plausible explanation.
"This world is limiting me, or whoever gave me this cheat sealed Rio's abilities. To unlock the seal, I have to level up."
Charlie remembered that before receiving the Falna blessing, he couldn't see Ode or Mana in others and himself, indicating that Spirit Art hadn't been activated.
Only after Hera gave him the Falna, Spirit Art awakened along with two other Skills.
"So, if I want to gain a large Ode capacity like Rio, I have to level up?"
"That's just an assumption without proof. Whatever, I'll know after leveling up. It's too early for me to think about leveling up, let's rest first and recover my Ode."
Not wanting to think about anything complicated, Charlie lay down on the green grass, the sound of crickets echoing like a melody in the forest.
The blue sky looked mesmerizing with clouds of various shapes.
"I wonder how Dad and Mom are doing... Are they crying over my departure or regretting giving birth to someone who became an enemy of the state...?"
"I hope Carla takes good care of our parents..."
Carla Vallière, Charlie's younger sister, was only three years apart from him.
As usual, their parents gave their children Western names to sound cool. Yet their names were very typical of Indonesia; their father's name was Susanto, and their mother's name was Susanti.
Both had similar names and gave Western names to their two children.
"May Dad and Mom live happily."
"I leave our parents to you, Carla. Don't let your big brother down..."