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Maximum Concentration
Today was the 11th day since I began practising [Anti Magic].
Meaning, today was the last day of our two weeks break.
Originally, I planned to end my magic training after 9 days but, at the 9th day I had this feeling like I was almost there, like I could finally learn it now so I ended up extending the training to the last day.
And on this last day, today, we were in the last 2 hours before the sun would set but……I had still not yet learned [Anti Magic].
“C’mon! Stop resting and get ready for the next magic!”
“I know. Go ahead, and use your magic.”
“Take this, [Fire Ball]”
I activated [Mana Sense] and [Perception Enhancement], these two skills.
As soon as the old began the chant for [Fire Ball], I instantly judged the amount of mana and its nature as it accumulated in his hands——-and before his chant ended, I blasted a clump of mana at him.
Of course, the old man was highly proficient at using magic so the time I had till he finished casting was only about 4 seconds.
He was also specifically using a abbreviated chant apparently which meant the magic would be completed very fast.
Which meant, that I didn’t have the time to be perfectly adjusting my mana leisurely and had to make a close estimate before firing my ball of mana.
At first, I thought this speed would make it impossible for me to learn [Anti Magic] but, soon I started to get a handle on it and now it felt like I was only a step away from properly learning it.
I have to fully learn it in the remaining two hours. No, I’m going to!
“Anti Magic!”
“HEY! The nature of your mana was lacking! We go again!”
Another hour passed since then.
He continued firing ‘ball’-type beginner magic at me and I practiced trying to negate them with [Anti Magic]——-and finally I started to get a hang on how to match the nature of mana as well.
The most important thing for matching the nature of the opponents mana was, to not let any part of ‘myself’ seep into it.
On top of [Mana Sense] and [Perception enhancement], I also activated [Life Presence Sense] [Hearing Enhancement] and [Perception Range Enhancment] as well.
What I needed to match was not just their mana, but also the minute details like their breathing rate, or any other delicate movements they’d make.
I sensed the mana flowing from the chant, and accumulated an equal amount of mana in my hands and——
“[Anti Magic]”
“Fire Ball……….?
The perfect ball of mana I threw hit the old man and in that instant, completely melted and assimilated around him, and negated the [fire ball] he was activating completely and made it all disappear into nothing.
——–Yes! FUCK YES!!!
Seeing [Anti Magic] actually work for the first time, I made a guts pose with a tightly clenched fist.
…………..calm down. Still too early to get happy.
So that I don’t forget this feeling, I want to try [Anti Magic] on the next spell as well.
I quickly suppressed my exploding excitement and looked towards the old man to ask him to use his next spell but, the old man was frozen in his spot, staring at his right hand that was about to fire magic but failed.
“…………? Oi, old man. Did you feel some change in your body as well?”
I called out to the old man as he stood like statue, but I got no response still.
Wait, could it be that [Anti Magic] causes some kind of other adverse effect on the target as well?
I walked straight up to his face to check on him but, it didn’t look like his body was any different from before.
…………so I put my mouth right by his ear and shouted.
“OI OLD MAN! CAN YOU HEAR ME!?”
“NUWAHH! What!! Why are you screaming in my ear!!”
The moment I shouted, the old man’s body jumped back into action.
Judging by his reaction, it doesn’t look like he suffered from any abnormality.
“I shouted because you weren’t listening to anything. I mean, you didn’t even notice me coming this close to you just now.”
” I was in deep thought! I could hear you!”
“then, you should have answered at least……….So, what did the magic feel like? Was that a success?”
When I asked, he started staring at his hand again and then returned to being a statue.
What is it this time?
There’s not much time left so I really wanted to practice a bit more so I was about to call out to him again but……..before I could, the old man began talking himself.
“I think that was probably a success. But, it was a bit different than how I’d originally envisioned it so I’m a bit perplexed that’s all.”
“‘Probably’…….? Different from how you envisioned it………..?
“First of all, [Anti Magic] was originally created by Melkirouhi-sama for the golems to use. Originally, [Anti Magic] was nothing more than a huge blast of mana to obstruct other magic but, I further developed it and improved it for human use and then taught that version of [Anti Magic] to you.”
He’s begun another one of his long speeches again it seems.
I wanted to ignore it but, this time he wasn’t his usual passionate self but seemed to be speaking more matter-of-factly so………I decided to seriously listen this time around.
“When I was still young, I had once gotten hit by the original version of [Anti Magic] but to explain it simply, it was like someone had jumbled my own mana and was being interfered with………but this time, the [Anti Magic] that you fired, didn’t do that.”
“I don’t get what you’re saying. So was that a failure then?”
“No, in fact it’s gone beyond just a normal ‘success’ and has basically become a different magic than the one I originally thought of.”
A different magic………..is that something to be happy about then?
I mean, the only other proper magic I knew was [Fire ball], so as someone that wasn’t really in touch with the world of magic, I wasn’t sure if this was something amazing or not.
“That’s a good thing——-I presume?”
“Of course it is. I wasn’t even sure if you’d be able to use the [Anti Magic] I taught you, but you went above and beyond and surpassed my expectations. You may have no talent for magic but, your focus when it comes to battle and all things related is without a doubt an unmistakeable talent.”
“Oh so, my talent for magic is still zero eh.”
“The moment I was deemed unable of using [Anti magic], you could only call this one a defective magic. After all whether you can learn this magic or not is basically irrelevant to your talent for magic.”
“Wait, you taught me this magic while fully expecting me to fail at it? That’s some recommendation alright.”
“On the contrary, you seemed like someone who could learn nothing except [Anti magic] after all. But, in the first place, it’s not like you want to become a magician right?”
“Well yeah, after actually using magic I was convinced that I’m ill suited to being a magician. Though I do enjoy being able to use it.”
“Then, your main [Fire Ball] and now [Anti Magic] are more than enough for you. And of these two——put all your hard work towards mastering [Anti Magic].”
Just like the old man said, being able to learn these two magic spells alone is a good enough result for me.
In the first place, the only reason I wanted to learn magic was to burn and get rid of monster corpses, which now I can do with [Fire Ball]. But more than that I had learnt a new spell that was effective against magicians specifically with [Anti Magic] on top.
I can’t help but feel gratitude towards this old man who bet on my potential for learning a magic famously assumed to be un-learnable.
“I’ll be sure to do that. We had our disagreements over the last two weeks but, thank you for your teachings. You made it so that even someone like me with zero experience or knowledge of magic could understand easily.”
“Hmph. Acting all polite all of sudden only makes me feel gross.”
“Well, I’ll still continue getting lessons from you for free. So a little thanks to smooth over our relationship felt worth it, that’s all.”
“You really are shrewd man, aren’t you………..C’mon, there’s still time before the sun sets. Let’s continue your practice so that you don’t forget the feeling of using it.”
“Sure, let’s continue.”
And so, for the next 30 minutes that remained till sunset.
To not forget the feeling, the sensation of successfully using [Anti Magic], we continued practicing over and over again until the very last moment.
Since it required the use of multiple skills as well as me being in the [Zone], the fatigue that had accumulated by the end was no joke but……..
I had become able to use it successfully 90% of the time, making it usable in actual battles.
And with this, my magic learning chapter came to an end.
A part of me wanted to learn more from the old man while I was still here but, I also have a mountain load of other things that I need to do as well.
Whenever I get time, I’m sure I’ll show up to further fine tune this magic with him again but, for the time being my daily visits to [Magic cave] must come to an end.
After all said and done, I had to give my thanks to the old man for constantly sticking with me and supervising me till the end, and then I returned back to [Gorush] to rest for tomorrow as we begin completing requests anew.