Chapter 4: Reading
Wearing his burnt clothes back, Ishida then looked up into the sky to check what time it is.
'It's currently noon... I have to move fast, the villagers may had already caught wind of the forest fire and probably went to put it out.'
Picking up his hide bag Ishida started walked towards north.
'If the map from the anime is accurate, all I have to do is just walk north and I will reach the Royal Capital'
Sighing to himself Ishida took out the coin pouch with all of the money he saved (stole) over the months from his bag and counted it.
"Only about 23 strahl gold coins, if you add up all of the silver and many bronze coins."
'I wonder if I can bribe the guards to let me in the capital?'
Juggling the pouch of coins, Ishida then shook his head.
'If they were so easily bribed then the whole capital would had been swarming of demons right about now...'
After thinking of different plans to integrate into human society, Ishida felt a little depressed but continued walking since he really has know where else to go.
'Sometimes the most safest place in the world is located in the most dangerous parts of the world...'
(Day 366: My house was burned down by a couple of kids after I went back gathering for berries, I was able to get some of the important materials like the grimoires I found in ruins and caves and quickly pocketed them on my bag before the whole tree burned everything to the ground, sadly I wasn't able to get the whitish stone containing some goddess magic on it...)
*Grumbling...*
'Ye-yeah I know we haven't eaten lunch yet... Don't curse me now...'
Ishida patted his stomach with his left hand and put his diary back into the hide bag and then pulled out a small grimoire that he got when first entered a cave with his rusty cave.
Opening the first page of the palm sized grimoire, Ishida had habitual thought.
'Why do I always try to skim through the grimoires? it's not like I can comprehend any of the sym-'
'!'
"Wait a minute!"
Blinking and rubbing his eyes, Ishida looked at the first singular page of the grimoire In front of him and his heartbeat raised in succession.
(Beginners Guide to Magic by Tryol Geider)
"I CAN READ IT!!"
Ishida quickly turned page by page to see that all of the symbols that he had a hard time trying to decipher has turned into phonetic words that he can translate into English words.
"Magic is the art of manipulating mana around one's body to form and release certain spells, there are many elements that mages are capable of manipulating with the proper training and guidance. Like for example Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning, Earth, Goddess, and many many more, but in some rare cases some elves and demons are able to create new and different types of elements in there spells"
Ishida looked at the pages in awe while trying to read the contents in the grimoire, he can understand the language in the grimoire which means that he is also capable of learning the spells contained within the other grimoires!
"Hehe, hahaha"
Laughing to himself while he walked, Ishida tried to read through the next pages.
"The first step of being a mage is to learn the basics of mana and the second step is to feel the flow of your mana. For example, when you feel your mana circulating around your body, the sensation should be similar to the feeling of having an electric current passing through you. The only difference is that you can control the flow of your mana, you can even stop it all together. Mana can only be found within the bloodstream of a living being, but it can also be used to enchant certain items with magical properties, only a few number of humans are able to practice magic because almost all of population can't feel the flow of mana in there blood stream, however elves and demons are naturally adept to feeling mana in there surroundings and they themselves as such they are very proficient is casting a wide variety spells.
But however, what separates us from long living elves and demons is that even if they are naturally talented in terms magic, they lack the sense of creativity and they sometimes stick to only one set of magic element resulting in there studies of magic to stagnate."
'That sounds about right'
Ishida nodded while he remembered what the anime has said about demons, because of their long lifespans and pride in magic, they never truly thought about trying to min max the efficiency of there spells or even make create new spells to counter different magical elements resulting in humanity winning the war against the demon king.
'If what this guy is saying is correct, then the only way for me to use magic is to learn how to feel and control the mana in my bloodstream...'
"Let's try it!"
Plopping down on the ground, Ishida closed his eyes and tried to concentrate his focus inwardly and feel the mana within him.
*Inhale"
*Heartbeat*
*Exhale*
*Heartbeat*
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.
.
After a minute of concentrated meditation Ishida looked around him and wasn't able to find anything different about him
'Did it not work? Maybe it's because I was already adept at feeling magic in my surroundings and myself that I didn't feel any different?'
Ishida begrudgingly thought to himself, before all of a sudden his stomach made noise again
*Grumbling*
"..."
"I should probably hunt something... Before I start practicing magic again..."
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Just south of him at the Elmsdorf Village, Johann and Father Jacob immediately fell to there knees and clenched there chests like as if all a sudden the mana in there surroundings suddenly got heavier and thicker making it harder for them to breath.
"!"
"!"
'SUCH THICK MANA!'
"Johann!"
*Thud*
*Cough*
*Cough*
'Johann already passed out from how his own mana could no longer take the burthen of large amounts of mana flooding his blood stream in one go.'
Father Jacob who was still kneeling with one leg up looked at his niece lying flat on the floor and made a silent prayer to himself.
"May the goddess protect us from her kin...'
Before finally, passing out from mana absorption overload just like Johann.
Throughout the village one by one, all of the villagers fainted from the sudden shift of density of mana in there surroundings making there bloodstream unable supply enough oxygen into there brains causing them to black out.
*Thud*
.
.
*Thud*
*Thud*
"Mommy! I can't breath!"
*Thud*
"What's happening?!"
*Thud*
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.
Somewhere at the outskirt of holy city of Strahl, a petite female elf with green eyes and long white hair tied into two pigtails, long pointed ears twitched and coldly looked south, where she felt a sudden surge of familiar mana and silently muttered something.
"Are you looking for something?" A young human girl with purple eyes and short, purple hair spoke to the elf girl while holding a basket of mushrooms.
Seeing the girl, Fieren stood still and casually observed the young girl's exceptional control of her own mana.
Feeling that something was wrong the young girl questioned Frieren
"Is something the matter?"
"I'm looking for the house of man named Heiter"
"Then your a visitor" The young girl spoke before leading the way to Heiter's home.
.
.
.
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After following the purple haired young girl, Frieren was finally able to see the home where her old friend is currently living in and entered inside.
"You're still alive, you corrupt priest?"
The man named Heiter is currently tending to the hearth before answering mocking tone.
"It turns out that it's much harder than I thought to make a stylish exit..."
"I brought some liquor to offer to your grave, would you like to drink?" Frieren offered
"I gave drinking long ago" Heiter wholeheartedly refused.
"I see, I doubt the goddess will forgive you even if you clean up your act now."
The purple haired girl offered both Heiter and Frieren a cup of tea before finally leaving and went back to the kitchen to prepare the mushroom she foraged.
"Thank you"
"Who is she?" Fieren curiously asked
"Her name is Fern. She's a war orphan from the southern lands."
"It's not like you to volunteer to help people. You're not Himmel, after all..." Frieren calmly ridiculed Heiter like a true friend would.
Sighing in defeat, Heiter asked Frieren on why she visited him.
"Frieren, why did you come to visit me?"
"I was in the holy city picking up some things, I've been trying to get to know the people, I meet on my travels as much as possible. And I owe you a lot, so I came to repay my debts before you died" Frieren retold some of her past adventure over the years.
"In that case, I have a reque-." Heiter rubbed his hand while holding the tea cup.
*SLAM!*
Just as Heiter was about to ask Frieren to take Fern as a mage apprentice, she suddenly slammed her palm on the table and her long ears visibly twitched uncontrollably and her eyes suddenly turn on the direction of south.
Seeing her old colleague's abnormal action Heiter couldn't help but worry and ask her question
"Frieren, what's wrong?"
"I believe the Demon King just resurrected." Frieren didn't even take the time to look back at Heiter continued to look at the south direction as an tidal wave of mana that only she and a few other talented mages could see started making it way towards the holy city of Strahl and spoke in an emotionless tone.
Hearing the word coming out of her mouth, Heiter almost had a heart attack but was able to stop himself by casting recovery magic on himself.
Coughing a couple times Heiter then looked at Frieren who was still look south and cautiously asked
"But the demon lord is dead, we even made sure to bring back his head to the king, it cant be an illusion right?"
Listening to Heiter's suggestion Fieren proposed a theory
"No, I made sure when Himmel and Eisen were on the vanguard, I dispelled all of the demon king's illusion magic... The demon king we killed in the past is real, I even saw his mana slowly fade away into the skies."
"Then who woul-"
*Thud*
"FERN!"
Heiter quickly ran towards Fern who suddenly collapsed on the floor and checked her pulse before using recovery magic to help
"Heiter, don't use recover magic!" Fieren quickly asked Hieter to stop his spell.
Trusting Fieren, Heiter quickly stopped the flow mana into his hands and looked at Frieren for answers.
"Protective Spell: Scuzaul"
A bluish hue started enveloping Fern from top to bottom, further protecting her from suffering from mana absorption overload, after ten seconds after casting Fern who just suddenly collapsed opened her eyes and looked at both Heiter and Fieren with her same emotionless face, quickly stood up from the floor, patted her clothes and then continued on preparing the mushrooms in the kitchen in silence.
Heiter sighed in relief knowing that Fern was okay and in sadness since that he didn't take Fern sooner away from the civil war and with how she reacted to suddenly collapsing on the floor, he can't even fathom what such a young girl has experienced during the war.
"Thank you Frieren, but what happened to her, why did she suddenly collapse?"
"Mana Absorption Overload, it's a condition where there is so much mana in the surroundings that the human body start absorb to much mana in there body resulting in there blood stream to be either slowed down or halted, my teacher used to call it 'Mana toxicity'."
"I see, then why was I not affected?"
"I already casted a protective spell on you the moment, I stood up"
Fieren's ears twitched again and looked at the south with a look of worry in her eyes
'This amount of mana is far larger than all of me, teacher, Serie and the demon lord combined, just what is going on in south lands?'
Fieren looked at Heiter and made an apologetic face
"I'm sorry Heiter, but can your request be for next year?"
Heiter looked at Frieren's apologetic face resisted the urge to laugh at just how absurd her face looks at the moment and thought to himself
'Himmel if only you were alive today, Frieren's apologetic expression would had truly 100% killed you accidentally in our adventure...'
"It's fine, just make sure you don't forget or no one would be able to lower my body to the grave..." Heiter waved his hand to express to Frieren that her actions were justifiable.
"Thank you Heiter."
After thanking her friend, Frieren quickly went outside after grabbing her suitcase that is filled with with a set of grimoires that dates back to the mystic era and casted a flying spell unto herself before finally flying towards the south lands.