5 Arc 1, Chapter 4

I was sitting down eating dinner with the old man, I had just finished an entire 2 weeks' worth of practice and meditation on improving my manoeuvrability in combat.

" -so I made this new spell after all that training! I call it [Blazing Feet]. Essentially, I cause fire magic to explode on the souls of my feet while reinforcing my feet in some kind of "fire boots". This explosion then propels me towards or away from enemies." I said, too enthusiastic to start eating.

" Very nice, Magnir," William said having chewed the mouth full of food he had.

" Yeah, AND I can use it to make my kicks stronger too. Ah, speaking about that, I will be training my kicks for the next weak. I am not sure if it will help me kill monsters but I better train it too... just in case. Oh, I can also slow my fall with this spell if I ever fall off a cliff or something. Ah but its spell formula is quite sophisticated, so it takes a while to cast. It is li- Nevermind, I will just draw it for you to see."

" Eat your dinner first." William interrupted before I could get some paper. Nodding, I quickly shovel down the food. Then, I ran off to the drawers to get some paper.

...

For the next week, I could be seen practising highspeed kicks. Though the noise had attracted a goblin, which I had promptly decapitated with a kick, I largely had a fun time semi-bumbling about. In the midst of practice, I had also come up with the idea to incorporate summersaults and backflips into my fighting style which should increase my mobility.

[Blazing Feet] could be more aptly named explosive feet as the explosions were far more useful than the fire part of the spell. In any case, the spell helped me tremendously while trying to learn how to do front and back flips. Now, I find myself to be a much more mobile and versatile fighter.

With a smile, I grabbed the waterskin I had prepared, my small pouch of surprises and my sword. After saying goodbye to my guardian, I set out to the forest. As soon as I stepped into the forest, I took a minute to cast my spell [Flaming Knockback]. Then, I continued my hunt.

Even with my spell acting as a precaution, I made sure to pay attention to my surroundings and avoided making sounds as much as possible.

As I stepped over a dry stick on the forest ground, I spot a goblin walking in the direction of the village. [Fireball] I thought and a blazing ball of fire appeared before the finger I was pointing at the goblin and flung itself at my target. As I had expected, the goblin was blown back and hit the tree behind it.

Taking a moment to check my surroundings for any more goblins, I realise that the goblin was likely travelling alone. With unhurried steps, I walked to the scorched corpse of a goblin and confirmed that it was indeed dead by stabbing the corpse with my sword.

I could take out goblins easily... With a calm look, I turned to where the goblin had come from and started walking in that direction. Goblins normally lived in communities. If my luck is up to par, I would be able to find and wipe out an entire village of them.

After a relatively long march, I stumbled upon a small clearing with around 5 or so huts made of dried sticks and leaves. From where I hid, I could see about 15 goblins and a few of their children. I squinted my eyes as I realised that the monsters could breed and gritted my teeth.

After what felt like an hour of watching, I decided that it didn't matter if some goblins weren't in their pathetic excuse of a village and decided to just attack. Grabbing one of the discs from my pouch of surprises, I inspected it.

The small rock disc, just as I had checked the day before had my custom-made spell circle engraved on it with all the important little details still intact. Furrowing my brows in concentration, I inserted a bit of my magicules into the rock and then tossed it as far into the village as I could. All the while, I made sure to manipulate and insert the magicules in the air into the spell circle engraved in the rock.

[Explosion]! I thought internally as I saw large rust-red and yellow magic circles manifest in the air above the rock. Two seconds later, I felt the spell click into place and I started sprinting back into the forest away from the goblin village. [Blazing Feet] I thought while sprinting.

3 more seconds later, a loud boom rang out I felt a shock wave run through me causing me to stumble and fall face first onto the grass. Licking the blood from the cut I had somehow gained on my lip, I didn't bother getting up and just turned to look in the direction of the goblin village. From my prone position, I could only see smoke in the distance between the many trees.

I smiled lightly, satisfied with the results. While laying there to rest and wait for the smoke to pass, I took a swig of water from the waterskin and kept a hand on the hilt of my sword just in case a stray goblin or monster popped out of nowhere.

Having gotten enough of a break, I stood up and walked to the goblin village to see the result of my hard work. As I approached, I could already see the devastation my [Explosion] spell had caused. The trees closest to the village had been blown away by the spell and some of the trees were scorched.

On the way to the site, I noticed a twitching but still living goblin child. Did the parent throw the child away from the explosion when it realised what was happening? Either way, I mercifully lobbed its head off with my sword to put it out of its misery and continued walking.

What I saw put a sadistic smile on my face. All that was left of the village was a large crater. Those years spent learning and mastering the art of carving stone had paid off. [Explosion] my most powerful spell should be able to destroy about half a small village at its maximum output. The cumulation of 5 years of planning.

I was happy with the results.