“RIGHT, Arius, you’re exceptionally strong for someone so young. You could probably compete with most adults. But don’t think you can rest on your laurels just ’cause you’ve got a lot of mana. Doesn’t mean anything with how sloppy your mana control is. You’re seriously lacking in technique and experience, too.”
It was my first day with my tutor, Grey, and he was pointing out my flaws.
“I’m not as forgiving as your mom and dad. I won’t hold back on your training.”
His lessons started with mock combat, where he mercilessly called out my failures. It was stupidly hard but easy to understand. He didn’t just point out what I did wrong; he showed me how to do it right.
Nevertheless, he demanded a high level from me, which wasn’t easy to reach. I repeated that training as much as I possibly could while he critiqued me over and over.
“A spell’s power and precision are greatly influenced by how efficiently you use your mana. Learning a spell is just the first step. Just being able to use it doesn’t mean it will be useful in battle.”
Selena also demanded a high level from me. She and I could cast the same spell, but they’d look completely different. She drilled mana manipulation into me, starting from tier-one spells until I reached a point she was happy with.
Spells and skills weren’t as easy to acquire in this world as in the game. You learned them by actually studying, then improved them by using them in practice and combat. And you didn’t just get stat boosts and level-ups whenever. They only started to go up after you trained and used your abilities in a fight. For example, repeated exercise and battle could improve physical stats like STR. INT could be enhanced through studying and using magic.
Then there was my level. I’d thought the total of your stats determined your level, but according to Grey, level was an indicator of a person’s overall strength. My stats were twice the average of other people at the same level as me. That kind of made me feel like level wasn’t an indicator of strength at all, but it was just because I was abnormal. Most people had varying stats based on their strengths and weaknesses, so they all fell within a similar frame of reference to each other.
I mean, there probably weren’t any other people who started training when they were a baby. It made sense my stats were out of whack.
After training and sparring came actual combat. First, they teleported me to an Orc lair.
“Arius, me and Selena aren’t gonna lift a finger to help you. Wipe them out on your own,” Grey ordered.
I’ve fought monsters before whenever I snuck out of the house to go hunting while Darius and Rhea were away. I assumed then that some Orcs would be a walk in the park.
“Forgot to mention,” continued Grey, “offensive spells are off limits. Beat them all with your sword.”
It was a fairly large lair. There were probably over a hundred Orcs. Defeating them all without offensive magic? That sounded like a pain, but I guess I had no choice.
I silent cast Strengthen, Fly, and Haste, then rushed in.
My sword, with its magic enchantment, split an Orc in two. But there weren’t just normal Orcs in the lair; there were Orc Mages, Orc Priests, and Ogres as guards. Even so, I could block piddly Orc magic with the tier-three spell Magic Guard, and I wasn’t weaker than the Ogres, thanks to my spell buffs.
There was a time in my previous life when I was into SLGs and MMORPGs, which meant I wasn’t about to mess up just because enemies surrounded me. I cut them down individually while ensuring I knew where the monsters around me were.
I somehow managed to wipe them out while dealing with their strength in numbers and ranged attacks.
“Well, I expected no less of you, Arius,” complimented Selena.
My next combat was deep in the forest. Selena cast the tier-five spell Monster Call, and packs of Black Wolves came at us howling.
“This time, do not use your sword. And no using your fists to kill them, either. Fight with only magic,” she commanded.
Couldn’t she have told me that to start with? The Black Wolves were already nearly up in my face.
Selena believed a magic user who was bad at close combat was no magic user at all. Besides, you can just use defensive spells to guard against your opponent’s attacks, and there was nothing wrong with casting an offensive spell point-blank.
I put up the tier-three spell Barrier and then chain cast the tier-one spell Fire Shot since using a spell with an area of effect could also hit me because the monsters were too close. My only option was to cut down their numbers with a single-target spell.
Selena had drilled me on magic manipulation, and my spells increased significantly in power, speed, and precision. My series of Fire Shots sped out at nearly 200 mph, killing Black Wolves one after another.
But they just kept coming, no matter how many I took down… Wait. Come on, seriously? Selena was casting Monster Call again.
“Um, Ms. Selena, they’ll never stop coming if you don’t stop calling them,” I said.
“That’s not true. They’ll stop when you’ve eliminated all the monsters in the forest.”
Well…uh… Guess I had no choice but to do it.
They must have thought Black Wolves didn’t have enough oomph. It wasn’t funny the kinds of giant monsters that started to gather: Killer Bears, Mad Tigers, and all other sorts.
Still, I just kept taking them out with my Fire Shot. All I had to do was blow their heads away with a headshot or open a hole in their chest, going for the heart.
In the end, I wiped out more than 300 monsters. Any normal person would be out of MP by then, but I still had plenty. Part of that was because I had a massive reserve and didn’t waste any of my spells. Each shot took down a monster. Improving my mana efficiency meant reducing my MP consumption, even when casting the same spell repeatedly.
And, well, it went on like that. I was stuck fighting hordes of monsters like that every day. Each time, they had me fight more powerful monsters, but it was never anything I couldn’t defeat.
I was obviously improving, probably because Grey and Selena evaluated my strength and selected opponents I could only just defeat.