NOVEL NEXT Chapter 17: (1)
Magic III
Before the departure for magic training. Tanaka first gathered information in Nanashi town. What he was looking for was a larger cave. A cave that didn’t matter even if it was destroyed, to be more precise. He gathered information at the tavern and the guild. The northern side of monster territory. It was said that there were numerous caves, which were supposed to be monster’s den, scattered around there. It was a pain that there were monsters around there, but he didn’t want to waste too much time looking around either, so he had no choice but to make do with such a place.
After deciding their training ground and finishing their preparations for the trip as soon as possible, Tanaka and Suke-san departed for the northern side of the monster territory. Along the way, they hunted monsters to raise Suke-san’s level. After a while, they arrived at a rocky area with a few vegetation remaining around it. Tanaka and Suke-san then began to explore the area to look for a cave. They found a cave they were looking for before long, and Tanaka was ready to begin his training.
「Are we not going to enter the cave-degozaru?」
Suke-san wondered about it and asked Tanaka, who for some reasons began to distance himself from the cave. Tanaka continued to move away with a grin plastered on his face.
「Yeah, it’d be very dangerous being too close to it, after all. Well, just watch.」
As they continued on, they arrived at a place quite a distance away from the cave. There, Tanaka began his training.
「Thanks to my extensive training, I was able to develop a lot of ideas. Fufufu, if you think I’m simply going to adjust my magic, then you’re sorely mistaken. For I shall create my own chant of my new attack magic!」
Tanaka abruptly turned toward the cave. He struck his self-proclaimed cool stance, and unleashed Stone ball. A huge boulder suddenly appeared and disappeared into the cave at high speed. Right after, a rumbling in the ground echoed around the area.
「Wha! What was that just now-degozaru?」
Suke-san was stunned at the phenomenon that had just happened in front of him. As soon as he came to himself, he asked Tanaka about it.
「That’s a ninth-order magic, Stone ball. Thanks to my unskillful control, though, it turned into that kind of outrageous thing.」
Tanaka sighed at his Stone ball which was still as crazy as usual. However, Suke-san expressed a positive response about it.
「Even if you say unskilled, isn’t it quite amazing in its own way-degozaru?」
Tanaka certainly thought it was amazing, too. However, he was a man who couldn’t discard the deep-seated cowardice in his heart. In the face of self-protection, he expressed a harsh opinion.
「No, if the target were close to you, you’d be caught in the explosion too, you know? You can’t use it in a narrow space, and even in a large space, your allies could get caught in it.」
Tanaka trembled as he imagined a splinter of the exploding rock flying through the air and hitting him in the head. Suke-san also tried to imagine himself getting caught in it.
「I certainly wouldn’t want to get caught in it-degozaru.」
Recalling the gigantic rock from earlier, Suke-san was horrified.
「That’s why I have to make some adjustments to it. However, I won’t stop simply by adjusting it. While I’m on it, I’d also make some improvements. First, I’d make the rock smaller. At the same time, I’d make it fly at an even faster speed. In addition to its original physical impact, I’d add fire attribute to it through friction. With further study, I could even make it disappear through friction. That way I’d be able to use it even in narrow spaces. Kukuku.」
Tanaka’s chuunibyou ideas continued to expand. Suke-san didn’t understand what he was talking about, so he simply listened to him and stayed quiet for the time being. After a while, Tanaka came back to reality and proposed to Suke-san about the future plan.
「Well, for now, the first step is to repeatedly invoke this magic, though. I’m cool since I can do trial-and-error with my magic, but in the meantime, Suke-san, you’ll have got nothing to do, won’t you? Why don’t you try to learn magic and train yourself」
After saying that, Tanaka took out the tenth-order magic book and contracts, and handed over them to Suke-san.
「Oh, so this is a magic book-degozaru? In that case, I’ll make use of it without reservation.」
Suke-san received the magic book with great interest. It seemed that he wanted to try his hand at magic as well.
「I’ve learned Ignition and Water, by the way. So I’d appreciate it if you could learn magic other than those two.」
In the end, the magic that Suke-san contracted were Airflow and Embankment. Airflow was a magic that allowed you to more or less freely control the air. Although it was still spring and not so hot, Tanaka was hoping that it could be used as a countermeasure against the heat in the future. Embankment was magic to control the ground and make it rise. It was a magic commonly used in construction and agriculture. It wasn’t particularly useful to them, it was just that Tanaka found it amusing, so he had him contracted it.
In this way, Tanaka continued to incessantly fire Stone balls into the cave in order to gain control of the magic. When the cave was destroyed, he’d move to a new cave and continued to fire Stone balls again. Sometimes he’d obtain experience points, which meant the cave was a monster’s nest. It somewhat felt like winning a lottery, which made Tanaka feel great. Next to him, Suke-san was playing around by controlling the air and raising the ground.
Then on a certain day. Tanaka was continuously firing Stone balls as usual. However, he was somewhat restless. It was because Suke-san was seated in seiza, while staring fixedly at him.
Tanaka seemed to be able to use magic endlessly, but that didn’t seem to be the case with Suke-san. When his magical energy ran out, he needed to wait for it to recover. In the meantime, Suke-san would absent-mindedly watch Tanaka’s training. Tanaka finally couldn’t stand the situation any longer, and decided to talk it out with Suke-san.
「Suke-san. If you keep staring at me like, I can’t really concentrate with my training….」
「Even if you say that, I’m running out of magical energy and have nothing to do-degozaru.」
That was the sad nature of a man who couldn’t discard the deep-seated cowardice in his heart. Tanaka couldn’t simply and directly say, ‘Stop staring at me’.