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CHAPTER 7
Six years have passed since Reito was reborn in the new world.
That day, he woke up early and practiced the sword in the rear garden. He swung the wooden sword Aria made for him, focused with his whole body and mind.
“Shah!! Haah! Waah! Kweh!”
“That last yell was pretty silly, young master…”
“Wafful!!”
“Now you’re just asking for sweets!”
“Hah…Aria…is it time for breakfast…?”
“That’s right. How long have you been swinging that sword…? You’re dripping with sweat…”
Reito had taken off his shirt before starting swinging practice, so Aria brought him a towel.
His body was still immature, but because of the daily practice, it was well built for his age. His swings also had much better form than the beginning.
In the last six months, Reito had acquired the Swordsmanship skill. It simply boosted the speed of his swings. Likewise, he also learned a new Battle Art.
To finish his training, he swung his sword down through the air.
“Helmet Splitter!!”
Reito had raised the wooden sword over his head and brought it swooping down, in a blow faster than the norm.
It was a Battle Art normally used with axes: Reito had learned it after imitating Aria’s motions when she chopped wood.
Aria, with a sigh, handed Reito a bucket of water.
“You’re such a strange boy, young master. You have a magic-type job, but you learned a Battle Art for sword users…I’ve never seen anyone like that before.”
“Wah…it’s cold!”
“Yes, yes, let’s wash away the sweat now…”
Aria wiped Reito’s sweat. He entrusted his body to her and looked at the wooden sword.
All he learned through the practice swings was just “Swordsmanship” and “Helmet Splitter”.
To learn other skills and Battle Arts, he had to actually fight.
No one would ever seriously train a 6-year-old boy though. Reito tried asking Aria, but she never accepted his requests to be his sparring partner.
Reito tried once again to win her over.
“You really can’t fight with a sword, Aria?”
“I’m a magic user, I told you…even if I could, I would never teach you anyway, young master. I finished wiping you, let’s go to the dining hall.”
“Okay…aah, my soul hungers for battle…”
“Don’t you talk like a berserker now…let’s go already.”
The distance between Reito and Aria had grown wider for a time, but they were now back to normal.
While following her to the dining hall, Reito looked at the wooden sword, her present.
He had made it sharper with Shape Change and improved its endurance with Matter Reinforcement, so for a wooden sword, it was very practical and easy to use.
Effects created with alchemy skills faded over time, of course, but when he used them he could even chop through wood with the sword.
(Matter Reinforcement is what let me learn Helmet Splitter too, now that I think about it.)
On his way to breakfast, Reito was lost in thought.
(Until now, I just had to follow Airis’ advice, but learning new skills has become harder and harder. I should ask her if there’s something I can do…)
When they arrived in the dining hall, everyone else had already finished breakfast.
After breakfast, Reito returned to his room and immediately started communication with Airis.
『Aiemooon!』
『What part of me looks like a cat robot from the future, Reibita-kun?』
Unexpectedly, Airis humored Reito’s joking way of calling her.
『You even know these things from my world.』
『Well, I am the manager of the interdimensional space, after all. Gathering information and knowledge from your world is all too simple.』
『Really…so do you know how my parents are doing too?』
Reito asked the first question that came up in his mind, but Airis’ reply was nothing but serious.
『…do you really want to know?』
『No…never mind. I have a new family in this world, after all.』
Airis probably realized how Reito truly felt, so she changed the topic.
『By the way, you’re working very hard on your sword swings. Is it going well?』
『Well, I learned skills, but just two…I feel kind of stuck, to be honest.』
『…I see. Without someone to practice against, it’s not easy, is it…oh yes! Why don’t you try learning different skills then?』
『I had the same idea, actually. What skills do you think I should learn?』
Airis’ tone became sort of playful.
『It’s time to practice magic, don’t you think? Truthfully, it is still early, but I think you could be able to manage it now.』
『Magic!?』
The long-awaited words filled Reito with joy, to the point most of his restraint flew out of the window.
『Magic!! Teach me magic, now!! Or else I won’t talk to you anymore!!!』
『Hey!! Did your mind become a baby’s too!? Calm down…! You’re the one that will be in trouble if we don’t talk anymore!』
『That’s true…sorry, I got too excited.』
Airis waited for Reito to settle down, then explained in detail about the magic he should try to acquire.
『Your main job, Support Magician, is specialized in magic spells that provide support to your allies — exactly as the name says. Its exclusive skills are three: “Muscle Boost”, “Magic Boost” and “Recovery Boost”.』
『I see, I see…what exactly do they do?』
『First, Muscle Boost. This spell increases the target’s physical prowess. Its effects depend on the proficiency level: if you master it, this spell can improve physical abilities up to five times, even!』
『Wow!!』
Learning that the skill was much more powerful than expected, Reito grew even more excited.
Airis, however, promptly shut down his rising fever.
『After the spell wears off, however, the body will pay the price for being pushed past its limits…causing most people to collapse on the spot.』
『Eh!?』
『Next, Magic Boost. This spell improves the power of offensive magic. If you master it, the target’s spells will be five times more powerful than normal!!』
『Whoa, amazing!!』
『Naturally, they will also use five times as much magic power.』
『Wha….』
As it turns out, both Muscle Boost and Magic Boost came at a considerable price.
Reito was utterly dejected, but Airis’ explanation continued.
『Lastly, Recovery Boost. This spell improves the target’s natural recovery abilities. It takes more time than standard healing magic, but can definitely heal the target.』
『…this one doesn’t have any disadvantages?』
『The recovery speed is a bit slow, but that’s about it.』
Recovery Boost did not seem to have a harsh cost like the two spells before it. Its effects weren’t very special either, though…
Airis then said she would reveal a very useful piece of information to Reito.
『The major characteristic of the Support Magician job is its magic power capacity, which is one of the highest among all jobs. In video game terms, imagine a job that has a massive amount of MP, but barely any useful spells.』
『Oh…I…see…』
Airis’ merciless evaluation had Reito feel rather conflicted.
That wasn’t the only negative trait of the Support Magician job, however.
『Its greatest demerit, however, is the inability to learn Blast Magic.』
『Blast Magic? Like shooting with a gun or a cannon?』
『Well, in simple terms, you shoot magic power like a laser beam…which is also called Magic Cannon.』
『So basically, you can shoot magic beams from your hands…』
『Yes, exactly. Blast Magic has high offensive power: even the low-grade spells that apprentices can learn are capable of defeating about 10 Goblins at once. The high offensive power, however, means that its magic power consumption is high too. It can’t be used in rapid succession, and the number of times it can be used in a day is also pretty limited.』
In any case, this high-powered Blast Magic was not unavailable to the Support Magician job.
Timidly, Reito asked another question.
『Can the Support Magician learn any offensive magic, in the end…?』
『Well, it can, but…other than Support Magic, it only has access to basic grade magic spells, which all not magic-oriented jobs can learn too.』
『Basic grade magic…it definitely doesn’t seem strong…』
『Well, it’s also called lifestyle magic, after all. It’s not impossible to use it in battle, but…』
After Airis’ explanation ended, Reito was completely down in the dumps.
He finally understood why the Support Magician was considered a hopeless job, though. He pulled himself together and reorganized Airis’ explanation.
『So, the Support Magician only has not very efficient Support Magic and can’t use Blast Magic, one of the greatest weapons of Magician jobs. The basic grade magic it can learn has very limited offensive abilities.』
『That’s right. But there is a way to limit the burden of Support Magic on the body, though.』
『Eh? Really!?』
『What do you think that could be?』
The sudden question threw Reito for a loop. He started thinking and quickly realized that Recovery Magic, the only one of the three without clear disadvantages, had to be the key.
『Maybe, with Recovery Magic…?』
『Correct. By using magic that boosts the target’s natural recovery abilities, it is possible to lessen the burden on its body to the minimum.』
In other words, Recovery Boost could lessen the damage caused by Muscle Boost to the target’s body.
Reito assimilated the explanation and a new question popped up in his mind.
『Hmm? Then, depending on how you use it, Support Magic can be pretty useful too, right?』
『That might be true. Even so, Support Magicians, unable to use Blast Magic, is still considered a hopeless job. In this world, Magicians are highly regarded as an offensive type of job, even more than Swordsmen or Warriors. Blast Magic is the most efficient way to deal with monsters, after all.』
Despite Airis’ words, the Support Magician was not clearly inferior to other jobs.
Reito was convinced of it and swore to himself to master his job’s true potential.
◆◆◆
After the communication with Airis, Reito went to the rear garden.
“Okay then, without further ado…”
After some light stretching, Reito tried casting the spell.
“…Muscle Boost!”
Reito’s body glowed in a white light, which faded after an instant.
“I don’t feel like anything changed…did it really work?”
Unsure of the actual effects of the spell, Reito tried using the Leap skill.
He jumped forward, and—
“Here goes…whoooa!?”
— ended up jumping much farther than expected.
His momentum was so great that he missed his landing and stumbled, but managed not to fall. Reito turned around, to look at the distance he jumped.
Normally, the Leap skill allowed him to jump four meters at most. After activating Muscle Boost, he had jumped at least six meters.
“And I just jumped a little…”
Reito then opened the status window and checked Muscle Boost’s proficiency.
The menu displayed the skill’s proficiency level as “1”.
“Airis said that the skill will be five times as effective if proficiency is maxed out…at level 1, I guess it’s a 150% boost?”
As Reito reached this conclusion, a jolt of pain suddenly struck his muscles.
“Gwah!?”
The pain was so strong that he couldn’t stand anymore: he looked at his legs and found them shaking visibly.
Reito then hurriedly cast Recovery Boost.
“R-Recovery Boost…!”
The spell caused his body to glow white once, just like when he activated Muscle Boost.
Little by little, he felt the pain leave his body. His legs stopped trembling and, after about 30 seconds, he could move again freely.
“Phew, it’s finally gone…it’s too slow to be used as healing magic though…”
Airis explained that Recovery Boost healed the body by boosting its natural recovery abilities. Reito’s proficiency level was still low, so he could only heal light injuries.
She had also added that it could heal minor damage, but not missing limbs or any such grave wounds.
“People with Healing Magician jobs can send their magic power inside the target’s body and restore even missing limbs apparently…”
Reito was disappointed by the minimal effects of Recovery Boost, but shook the feeling away and switched to the next experiment: the last Support Magic spell, Magic Boost.
“Here goes…Magic Boost!”
Reito tried casting the spell on himself…but unlike before, there was no white glow this time.
Just then, he recalled something Airis told him.
“Oh wait…Magic Boost doesn’t work on the caster’s own body…!!”
Airis had indeed explained that, while Muscle Boost and Recovery Boost could be cast on the user’s own body, Magic Boost influenced magic power, so it was not to be used on magic itself.
Reito thought of asking Aria to use magic on him and to attempt Magic Boost on it but quickly discarded the idea.
“No, how am I supposed to explain that I learned magic out of the blue…? Aria won’t show me her magic, anyway…”
Aria did not use her magic anymore in front of Reito, since their game in the garden, maybe to prevent Reito from showing more interest in it.
Feeling stuck, Reito looked down at his feet…and the flower patch, as well as the medicinal herbs growing in it, caught his eye.
“It influences magic power…wait, there is a medicinal herb that restores magic power, right…”
Reito remembered Aria telling him about that strange kind of herb with such effects when they worked together on the patch. It had unique blue star-shaped petals and was aptly called “Magic Power Herb”.
According to Aria, the plant itself contained a small quantity of magic power.
“If it really does have magic power, Magic Boost should work…”
Reito pointed his palm at the Magic Power Herb.
To avoid any potential trouble, he picked one of the herbs he had grown himself, the frailest looking one.
“…Magic Boost.”
For one instant, the herb glowed white.
The next instant, its withering petals became a luscious, deeper blue, brimming with color and vitality.
“Yes, it worked! Now I can practice Magic Boost too!!”