Magic Practice

After we got back from the church, Marie went to play at the neighbor's place, while Mom and Dad began preparing dinner.

They said they'd make dinner extra special, so I was looking forward to it!

I decided to start practicing magic right away and went into the living room.

I should start by reviewing Light. I imagined light shining from my fingertip, just as I'd been taught...

'Light.'

A light exactly as I'd imagined appeared at my fingertip. I wonder if I can change its size?

When I tried it, I found I could produce anything from a strong light to a weak one, as well as white or yellow light, exactly as I imagined.

Next, I'd try using magic without chanting.

I imagined a light appearing at my fingertip and moved mana toward it. A light appeared exactly as I'd imagined.

It worked...! Magic really is amazing. I don't understand the principle at all, but being able to use mana to do exactly what I imagine is incredible!

All right! Next, I'll try Heal.

But to test whether I can really use Heal properly, I need an injury, don't I?

I don't like pain, though... But it's for practice! I steeled myself and went upstairs to the storage room.

I picked up the knife I take with me when I go into the forest and nicked the tip of my finger.

Ouch! If I can't heal this, it'll be terrible... Thinking that, I imagined the wound healing and chanted Heal.

'Heal.'

Amazing... It healed! It was almost unbelievable. I can't even tell where the wound was anymore.

But it felt like it used considerably more mana than Light. It also took some time to heal.

Maybe a more detailed image would help.

If I remember correctly, wounds heal when platelets stop the bleeding, and then cells repair the damage, right?

I don't know the details, but it might be better than not imagining anything at all.

Thinking that, I cut the tip of my finger again and tried using Heal with as much detail as I could imagine based on what I knew.

This time, the wound healed using about half the mana and taking about half the time.

Amazing! The image really does matter...

Could it be possible to heal wounds more serious than a broken bone, or even illnesses, if I formed a sufficiently precise image?

But there was no way to test that. It was better not to suffer a serious injury in the first place, so I hoped I'd never have the chance to try.

Thinking that, I returned to the living room.

Next was Purification. This is supposed to clean away dirt, right?

I used Purification on a wooden box in the room, trying to clean off the dust that had accumulated on it.

'Purification.'

The box glowed faintly, and then it was as clean as if it were brand new.

This is amazing! Isn't this incredibly useful?

Could I use it on my body too...?

When I thought of that and tried it right away, I found that I could use it on myself too. My hair, which had never felt truly clean from just washing it with water since I came to this world, felt incredibly fresh!

I'll do this every day. I'll clean my clothes and bed too.

At least for now, it solved all sorts of problems that had bothered me since coming to this other world!

I was so excited that I decided to clean the entire room and tried to use Purification over the whole thing.

Then my vision suddenly went dark, and I lost consciousness.

"Uuugh... Huh? What? Why was I sleeping in a place like this?"

I had been sleeping with my head on the living-room table.

I remembered practicing magic... But what happened after that?

That's right! When I tried to use Purification on this room, everything suddenly went black.

I must have been unconscious for a little while...

The cause was probably using too much mana. I can barely sense any mana now.

My mana is recovering little by little, but it looks like it'll still take a long time to recover completely.

So using too much mana all at once makes you lose consciousness... I need to be careful.

Besides, Purification had consumed several times more mana than Heal.

It's probably because I can't form a detailed image of it. With Heal, thinking about the body's tissues reduces the mana consumed.

But I can't form that kind of image for Purification.

Because in Japan, there was no such thing as dirt suddenly disappearing and becoming clean.

I guess Purification is probably best used on myself only occasionally. I'd thought it would solve my problems, too.

I thought I was finally going to be free of that smelly, filthy toilet and my sticky, disgusting hair...

Well, it can't be helped. It was the Healing magic I'd always wanted, and my mana capacity is five. Complaining about that would be tempting fate.

Come to think of it... I was able to use Healing magic right away, so I never tried using the other attributes. I wonder what happens if I try to use them?

I'll give it a try. I decided to try the Fire magic Mom had used before.

I raised my index finger and imagined a flame kindling at its tip...

'Kindle.'

When I chanted that, a flame appeared at my fingertip.

"Whoa!!"

I'd expected nothing to happen, so I was extremely surprised and inadvertently jumped up from my chair.

Um... what does this mean?

I'm sure each person can use only one attribute, right? Could I possibly use the other attributes too...?

I moved to the courtyard and decided to try Water magic next.

I didn't know the spell's name, so I simply formed an image and used mana.

I stood in front of the well bucket, imagined it filling with water, and spent mana. In an instant, the bucket was full of water.

As I thought... After that, I tried Wind magic, Earth magic, and Physical Enhancement magic, and I was able to use all of them without any problem.

Um... Could this be because I was reincarnated...? I mean, I can't think of any other explanation.

Uwaaah! Now there's something else I have to keep secret. Wait, do I even need to hide this??

But if people found out, powerful people would definitely take an interest in me.

If they used me as an experimental subject... No! I absolutely must not let anyone find out! I should keep it secret at least until I have the backing of someone powerful, or become powerful myself.

But keeping this to myself is hard too.

Could I tell Marcel-san...? Somehow, I feel like he'd be okay with it. That's just my gut feeling, though...

I'll think about it the next time I see him.

For now, although I have another secret to keep, it's lucky in terms of both protecting myself and convenience.

I should practice the other attributes too.

I'll start with Fire magic! I can't use flashy magic here, so for now I'll make a Fireball in the air without launching it.

When you think of Fire magic, you think of Fireball, right? It's something I've always dreamed of!

I imagined a Fireball floating in front of me and used mana.

A Fireball exactly like the one I'd imagined appeared! Amazing!!

To make it more efficient, the key is the image, right? Fire burns by consuming oxygen, so should I imagine that process?

When I tried it with that image, I was able to create a Fireball of the same size using about one-fifth as much mana as before.

As I thought, the power of imagination is incredible...

With Water magic, I made a Water Ball, imagining the water vapor in the air.

With Wind magic, I used Wind, a spell that simply creates a breeze, imagining the invisible air.

With Earth magic, I used Rock, a spell that simply creates a stone. When making it float, I imagined weightlessness; when creating it, I imagined compressing earth.

With Physical Enhancement magic, I used Boost, a spell that simply makes my legs faster, imagining my muscle mass increasing.

I was able to reduce the mana consumed by all four spells by forming those images.

I just made up the spell names. They weren't especially necessary, but they sounded cooler.

It seemed like I could do all sorts of other things, but I couldn't test them here, so I decided to go into the forest alone sometime and try them.

In any case, it seemed I could use magic of every attribute...

I might get caught up in trouble from now on, but for the moment, I decided to consider this a good thing.

I could even test magic for the sake of creating magic tools all by myself.

That's right! I'll try to see if I can make ice!

I imagined water below zero degrees that would freeze if given even the slightest stimulus.

Um, if I remember correctly, water consists of moving water molecules, while the molecules in ice don't move...?

I really should have studied more. For now, I pictured everything I knew and filled the well bucket with water.

It looked like ordinary water, but... I needed to give it a stimulus immediately, right?

I held the bucket and shook it sideways. The water inside froze solid with a sharp crack in an instant.

Amazing... I did it!! Could I make a refrigerator with this!?

I was getting excited and was about to practice more when I heard Mom's voice from the living room.

"Leon! Dinner's ready!"

"Coming, Mom!"

Worried that someone might find the ice, I lowered the bucket into the well to hide it and returned to the living room.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Mom."

When I entered the living room, Marie and Dad were already seated too.

"Leon, what were you doing?"

"I was practicing magic! I can use Heal now too!"

"Oh, that's wonderful! I nicked my finger with a knife earlier. Could you heal it for me?"

"Yeah! 'Heal.'"

When I took Mom's hand and chanted the spell, the injury healed right away.

"Amazing..."

"Yes, I can't believe you did it so quickly..."

Mom and Dad looked surprised. I wondered what they were so surprised about.

"What's wrong...?"

"Well, normally it takes longer for wounds to heal, and they often leave a small scar. So I was surprised because your magic is incredible, Leon."

"Yeah, I was surprised too. Maybe you have a talent for magic, Leon."

Dad said that with a gentle smile and patted me on the head.

Not only could I use every attribute, but my Healing magic was abnormal too... From now on, I should stop using magic carelessly...

"Big Brother, you're amazing! I want you to do it for me too!"

"You're not hurt, Marie. Try not to get hurt if you can, but if you do get hurt, Big Brother will heal you."

"Okay! Thank you, Big Brother!!"

"Now then, let's eat."

"Let's eat!"

Dinner was a steak for each of us. It was so lavish that our usual dinners couldn't compare.

"Thanks, Mom and Dad! It's delicious!"

When I said that, they smiled at me warmly.

I was happy. I vowed to use my strange power to protect everyone in my family, no matter what.