“Peep!”
“Chirp chirp!”
A light tearing sound echoed through the quiet forest.
Despite the tree being alive and healthy, the trunk cleanly snapped in half and fell to the ground, stirring the birds resting their wings in the nearby greenery.
Seeing that result summarized the rest of his movements up until then for Ryoma.
Weird... My strength is that of my previous life or better. It doesn’t suit my frame at all. My body’s so light I move like a breeze, and the length of my limbs should go without saying. My distance, perception and senses are out of tune. I don’t think I’ll have problems with basic movements like walking or running, but... I guess I’ll have to get used to it bit by bit.
Having reached that conclusion, Ryoma returned to the base of the tree he had been sleeping against and checked for his current position on the map. He picked up the bag and put the letter away, at the same time finding a knife to keep by his side as he started walking towards the destination the gods had marked.
Two hours later.
Ryoma had spotted several small animals and creatures that didn’t exist on Earth, but they were all weak monsters that either fled of their own accord or ignored him completely.
While traveling took a little more time with his child legs, the journey itself wasn’t dangerous and even allowed him to gather herbs and edible plants using the knowledge the gods had bestowed upon him in advance.
Thus, Ryoma eventually walked into the depths of the dimly lit forest.
The trees parted before a cliff face of bare rock.
Ryoma looked around to confirm his safety before quickly putting down his belongings and sitting down to read the continuation of the letter from the gods.
“Hmm, so there’s a river nearby. Looks like the perfect place for a home base.”
Ryoma muttered to himself as he read more of the letter, showing no signs of heading towards civilization nor intent to actually leave the forest.
Like he had told the gods, he planned on starting from living as a recluse in the forest.
“Apparently there’s a tent among the supplies, but a cave would be safer when up against monsters...”
The safety of a tent wasn’t very reassuring.
With that thought, Ryoma approached the cliff face and poked the bare rock with his right hand before moving his eyes back to the letter in his left hand.
The page on top was an explanation of how to use magic.
“First, calm your heart and focus within your body... Like this? It feels like there’s a water balloon under my skin... Gross...”
Despite calling it gross, the tone of his voice was a mix of excitement and delight, and his expression also softened faintly.
However, no matter how much of an interest he had in games and light novels, even if he had thought of countless fantasies between the breaks of his busy work life, he still had never used magic before.
Because of that...
“Umm... Once you feel the magical energy within your body... Move while imagining that magical energy flowing out of your body, yup.”
He checked each and every step along the way.
He was almost the spitting image of an elderly person with an instruction manual in one hand while struggling to keep up with modern-day technology. But once he imagined the magical energy flowing out of his fingertips, it slowly but surely started to happen.
For the record, the twelve elements of magic were: Neutral, Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Ice, Lightning, Wood, Poison, Light, Dark, and Space.
Each element was sorted into a difficulty level referred to as lower elements, middle elements, or higher elements.
Furthermore, the element of a magic type was changed based on what someone imagined as they released their magical energy, and could be activated by chanting the spell name of the magic.
Having read this sentence in the letter, Ryoma decided to select one of the earth magics recorded on the page and test it out.
“The magical energy flows into the rock of the cliff, breaking it into dirt... Break Rock.”
The cliff touching the end of his fingertip crumbled slightly, creating a small hole in the face.
The hole was roughly three fingers wide and as deep as his first knuckle.
It was more of a dent than a hole, but Ryoma just looked at it and laughed quietly.
How long has it been since I felt this way? A life where overnight shifts and overtime was normal, where I was either at work, home, or out drinking with my bosses. It’s not like I didn’t have any fun at all, but... It’s been so long that I’ve forgotten this feeling...
While remaining alert of his surroundings, he continued to use Break Rock with a smiling face for some time.
But after he was satisfied with his first use of magic, Ryoma muttered to himself.
“This isn’t very efficient.”
All this effort and I only have a hole large enough for both my hands... I won’t even be done by sunset at this rate. And there should be a limit to how much magical energy I can use anyway.
With that thought, Ryoma decided to take a break and retrieve water from the nearby river. Once he returned, he started to read the next part of the letter.
It’d be nice if there was something useful... But at worst, I’ll just use the tent. Back on Earth it wasn’t rare for me to do two to three all-nighters in a row, so I should be able to last that long without sleeping... Oh!
Ryoma had turned the page in search of a solution to his problem and came across a table where all his current abilities and statistics were displayed.
My status, huh? This is useful. I can check what I’m currently capable of with this.
On the page, these words were written.
Name: Ryoma Takebayashi
Gender: Male
Age: 8
Race: Human
My name and gender are unchanged from my previous life. Aside from how my family name comes last now. And I’m eight years old... I wonder what kind of child I was back then? I can’t remember anything other than training under my father. Well, whatever. Next.
Physical Energy: 10,486
Magical Energy: 102,300
Note: The average adult male has a physical energy of around 1000, while adventurers, soldiers, and others that have undergone training have an average of 2000-3000.
“Wow, am I a musclehead?”
I knew I could move around more than my bosses and the youngsters these days, but was it always this big of a gap? I can understand my magical energy increasing because of the transfer process, but... I don’t recall asking for increased physical strength.
A similar note was written for magical energy, where the average person had 100. Warriors that used supplementary magic had 500-700. Normal magicians had anywhere from 1000-5000, while royal sorcerers had an average of 10,000-50,000.
Well, I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have more. The rest are my skills and abilities, huh?
Everyday Skills
Housekeeping 10, Etiquette 7, Performance 3, Singing 3, Calculation 5
Combat Skills
Unarmed Combat 7, Sword Mastery 7, Dagger Mastery 6, Hidden Weapon Mastery 7, Spear Mastery 4, Bow Mastery 4, Staff Mastery 6, Chain Weapon Mastery 4, Throwing Weapon Mastery 7, Stealth 6, Trapping 4, Body Control 5, Energy Meditation 5
Magic Skills
Taming Magic 1, Barrier Magic 1, Healing Magic 1, Alchemy 1, Fire Magic 1, Water Magic 1, Wind Magic 1, Earth Magic 1, Neutral Magic 1, Lightning Magic 1, Ice Magic 1, Poison Magic 1, Wood Magic 1, Light Magic 1, Dark Magic 1, Space Magic 1, Magic Detection 1, Magic Control 1, Magic Recovery Speed 1
Crafting Skills
Medicine 6, Blacksmithing 1, Architecture 2, Woodworking 2, Modeling 3, Painting 4