NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Reincarnation
I, who decided to go by the name Rei instead of Suzuki, found myself surrounded by trees in a forest.
“Damn it! I’m naked after all…”
I still had things I wanted to ask the goddess, but I was instantly dropped into another world. I feared this might happen, but I’m completely naked and empty-handed. Starting with finding clothes doesn’t bode well for what’s ahead.
For now, I’ll think about clothes later and first check my new body and the information the goddess said she had input.
My physical age seems to be around mid-teens. I stare at both hands, clenching and unclenching my fists, feeling my new body. Naturally, it’s quite different from before. My body feels light, and I have considerable strength. Is this what the goddess was so confident about? Certainly, it seems stronger compared to my body in its prime, but it doesn’t feel like an outstanding physique considering the goddess called it the strongest. However, having just died from illness with a severely weakened body, I’m moved by this healthy one. Yet, I feel a slight discrepancy. It’s not that there’s anything wrong, but rather a strange sensation of unfamiliarity.
“Well, I guess I’ll get used to it eventually…”
Suddenly, I notice a sensation in my body that I couldn’t feel in my previous life. Could this be “mana”?
Closing my eyes and concentrating, I feel an unknown power welling up from the center of my chest, near my heart. Searching my memory as if recalling the goddess’s information, I understand that this is what’s called “mana”.
I try to circulate the mana throughout my body by focusing my consciousness. It’s a strange sensation to be able to control this inner power at will. I once experienced something called “qigong” in my previous life; I wonder if it’s similar…
“According to the goddess’s information, is this ‘body enhancement’?”
I look at the information in my head and try out the “body enhancement” using mana. It’s an enhancement magic that circulates mana throughout the body, improving physical strength and motor skills. I concentrate the circulated mana in my fist and punch a nearby tree. A tree about 30 centimeters in diameter easily breaks.
“Whoa, seriously…? The power is insane. I’ll need to practice controlling this.”
For a while, I flow mana through my arms and legs, trying various things. It’s quite interesting. If I enhance my eyes, my vision improves; if I focus on my ears, my hearing is enhanced. It seems the effect varies depending on the amount of mana used and how I imagine it.
Next, I attempt to manifest “magic”. According to the goddess’s information, “magic” is about materializing desired phenomena using “mana” as energy. It seems that in this world, typical mages and sorcerers use spell incantations to quantify imagery and mana amount, stabilizing the manifestation of phenomena. There also seem to be various other methods of activation, such as using magic circles or magical tools called “magic implements” to simplify activation and conserve mana consumption.
However, the goddess’s information doesn’t include details about incantations or magic circles.
“…”
The crucial part is missing.
“How am I supposed to use magic?”
As a last resort, I try concentrating mana in my hand like with body enhancement and imagine “fire”.
…Nothing happens.
I try to make the image of “fire” more specific. I strongly imagine the flame of a lighter and try again.
A flame about the size of a fingertip lit up like a lighter.
It’s surprisingly easy. Maybe it’s thanks to the goddess’s inputted information, or due to this new body, or perhaps both. While I’m happy that I can use magic so easily, I also think I need more training for combat. It’s easy to imagine power capable of killing or injuring people, but it takes quite some time to concentrate on visualizing and fixing that image. Also, when it comes to actual practice, I need to consider the location and situation to avoid causing damage to the surroundings. I don’t even know the geography of this area yet, and it would be terrible if I started a fire.
However, I now know that incantations aren’t necessary for magic. What’s crucial is a clear image and mana control. It’s about converting the mana in my body according to the image. It seems that spell incantations merely routinize this process to stabilize the activation. In any case, if I want to use magic in combat, I still need a lot of practice. It’s difficult to use in battle unless I can handle magic as naturally as breathing. Although it’s not in the goddess’s knowledge, learning incantations might be good too.
But even if I knew the incantations, it would take courage to vocalize them in front of others. Can a grown adult really shout “Fireball!”? No, it’s too embarrassing to shout.
Of the six elemental magics in the goddess’s knowledge – fire, water, wind, earth, light, and darkness – I could use all except earth and darkness normally. For some reason, only earth attribute magic doesn’t work well.
Let’s say I try to create an earth wall.
I end up wondering, what’s the composition of soil? Even if I vaguely imagine an earth wall, I get caught up in the components and composition of soil, and can’t solidify the image as just “earth”.
The periodic table scatters in my mind.
As a test, I imagine “iron” and try to create an iron lump. I can create it, but it consumes much more mana than other attributes. I still have plenty of mana, but this isn’t cost-effective.
I’m very curious about how others in this world use earth magic.
By the way, dark attribute magic apparently mainly causes status effects on living beings, so I can’t try it now.
There seem to be many other types of magic, but for now, I think I’ll look for a town. I can’t stay naked in the forest forever.
Since I don’t know where this is, I search the map in my head.
A map like a Google Maps aerial photo appears, but I don’t know my current location.
“…”
It feels like being blindfolded, put on a plane, brought to a forest, having the blindfold removed, and then being handed a world map.
That’s what it’s like.
“Damn it!”