Chapter 17: Earth Spike Technique

Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Earth Spike Technique

Hesia’s eyes lit up!

He firmly committed the notebook’s entries on the Earth Spike Technique to memory: the spell, the channeling method, and the practice notes.

The notebook was full of things to complain about, but the description of the magic itself was clear enough.

He closed the notebook and took Bruce to an empty lot on the western outskirts of town.

Raising his hand, he mimicked the complex gestures described in the notebook and chanted the tongue-twisting spell.

Bruce lay nearby, a look of utter confusion on his doggy face.

"PFFT!"

A soft, muffled sound.

A small mound of dirt, less than an inch high, formed in front of Hesia’s feet.

Hesia: "..."

Bruce: "..."

"Ahem," Hesia cleared his throat, consoling himself. ’At least this proves the spell and gestures work? The gathering part was a success, but the ’piercing’ force... needs some work.’

He focused his mind again, trying even harder to visualize a sharp spike...

"PFFT!"

Another small mound of dirt.

"PFFT!"

"PFFT!"

After several consecutive attempts, a crooked row of small mounds appeared before Hesia.

To have the magic take a rudimentary form on the first try was a starting point far beyond that of an ordinary apprentice.

Bruce, however, knew nothing of these subtleties. He let out a long yawn, his tail sweeping lazily across the ground.

"Hesia, are you planning on planting potatoes behind that row of dirt clumps?"

Hesia shot him an annoyed glare. "Shut up, Bruce! What do you know about magic?"

He took a deep breath, but just as he was about to try again, a wave of dizziness hit him so hard he nearly collapsed!

Casting the spell four times in a row had drained his already meager Magic Power.

Even though the magic didn’t have the desired effect, the Magic Power consumption wasn’t discounted one bit.

Bruce: "Hesia!?"

Hesia waved his hand, signaling that he was fine.

Fortunately, thanks to his [Earth Affinity], as long as his feet were on the ground, he could feel his Magic Power recovering, bit by bit.

Half an hour later, the dizziness had indeed subsided significantly.

"PFFT!"

"PFFT!"

...

Cast—rest—cast—rest.

For the next few days, Hesia’s life became a monotonous cycle: eating, sleeping, and practicing the Earth Spike Technique.

Outside the town, the small mounds of dirt popped up like mushrooms after a rain, forming crooked lines.

Then they would be promptly stamped flat by the man and his dog.

On the third night, the moonlight was hazy.

Hesia had practiced countless times, his stamina and Magic Power both pushed to their limits.

Just when he felt he couldn’t go on—

a notification suddenly came from the cold ball of light in his mind:

[Skill Acquired: Earth Spike Technique Lv. 1 (1/10)]

[Wisdom +1]

Almost at the same instant!

"SHIIING—!"

A sharp stone spike, half a meter high, shot up violently from the ground in front of him.

’It worked!’

’Lv. 1? Does that mean I can level it up?’

’Earth Spike Technique!’

’Earth Spike Technique!’

Hesia hurriedly cast them one after another.

’No change?’

’I need to figure out how to raise the Magic Level.’

Overcoming his mental and physical exhaustion, he took a short break, chugged some water, and then took his stance again, ready to solidify his practice.

However, his best partner—Bruce—began to whisper devilish temptations in his ear.

"Use a little more Magic Power, Hesia. See where your limit is! Like a real Mage! Stop making these useless little tricks."

Hesia admitted he was tempted.

On one hand, he really did want to know what effect a full-power strike would have with the boost from his [Earth Affinity] trait.

On the other hand, he wanted to see if this could raise the level of his [Earth Spike Technique].

That’s how it was for a self-taught practitioner; he had no choice but to figure everything out on his own.

Fortunately, after a few days of practice, his maximum Magic Power seemed to have increased a bit as well.

"Alright, Bruce," Hesia took a deep breath, his gaze sharpening. "Stand back, don’t get caught in the crossfire."

Caught in the crossfire?

Bruce shot Hesia a sidelong glance.

With that half-meter-high dirt spike he’d spent days trying to create?

He didn’t take the warning seriously at all.

Hesia focused all his concentration. His casting speed was already much faster than when he first started.

This time, he didn’t carefully control his Magic Power output. Instead, he unleashed every last drop of Magic Power in his body.

Influenced by [Earth Affinity], the Earth Elements in the surrounding ground surged toward him as if summoned.

Gather, pierce.

"BOOM—"

Along with a tremendous roar, the ground beneath his feet trembled violently.

Bruce yelped "AWOO!" in fright and jumped straight into the air.

Before Hesia’s eyes, a huge, thick stone pillar burst through the ground.

In the moonlight, the pillar’s surface was covered with jagged edges. It stood over ten meters tall, like a small stone tower.

Hesia’s vision went black as the world spun around him.

The emptiness of having his Magic Power completely drained brought on a wave of vertigo.

His body swayed, and he almost fell to the ground.

’Damn it, still no change!’

"WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!"

At that moment, a terrified Bruce reverted to his mother tongue.

Fighting back dizziness and nausea, Hesia clamped his hands firmly over Bruce’s yapping muzzle.

"Shut up! You stupid dog! Are you trying to bring all the Guards here?! Run!"

But the massive "BOOM" had already shattered the silence over Print Town.

"CLANG!"

"CRASH!"

The sounds of windows being thrown open rose one after another.

"What’s going on?!"

"An earthquake?!"

"Gods above! What is that?!"

Lamps were lit one by one like dominoes, quickly forming a sea of light.

The clamor of voices and footsteps came from all directions, converging on the source of the noise—the western outskirts of town.

"Dammit!" Hesia cursed under his breath. He had no time to scold Bruce. Dragging his rubbery legs, he pulled the still-shocked dog and dove into a nearby bush, quickly fleeing the "crime scene."

"This is your fault, Hesia!" Bruce said, not forgetting to shift the blame as he followed him. "You shouldn’t have made such a huge commotion!"

Hesia was so furious with the mutt that he wished he could take back the [Norton Holt Common Language] ability he’d given it.

"Shut up, you stupid dog!" Hesia roared in a low voice. "This was your rotten idea! You’re just jealous that I learned magic!"

"Jealous? Me?" Bruce stuck his neck out. "I’m not jealous! It was your own vanity acting up. All you humans are like that—the moment you learn something new, you have to show it off!"

"You’ve lost your dinner privileges!"

"I’m sorry, Hesia... I admit it... I was jealous. I shouldn’t have egged you on. But where should we hide now?"

"Hide? Why hide? A giant stone pillar appeared near where we live. Isn’t such a strange event worth checking out?"

The man and dog furtively circled the town, re-entered from the opposite direction, and then blended in with the townspeople who had come to investigate, "curiously" following the crowd back to the scene of the incident.

The area around the stone pillar was now a hubbub of voices.

"My heavens! What in the world is this thing?"

"It’s a miracle! This must be a miracle sent down by Mother Earth!"

"Miracle my ass! Feel this dirt, it’s still warm! I bet a volcano underground is about to erupt!"

"A volcano? Don’t spout nonsense and scare people! Could it be... could some Demon be about to claw its way out from below?"

"Doesn’t look like it clawed its way out. It looks more like something pushed it up from below. Look at the dirt around here, it’s all turned over."

"Pushed it up? What could be strong enough to do that? A giant?"

"I’m telling you, maybe there’s an ancient ruin buried under our town! This pillar is the entrance!"

"Ruins? Treasure?!" The crowd instantly grew restless, and many people’s eyes began to gleam.

"Stop your wild guessing!" An old man pushed through the crowd and walked up to the stone pillar, frowning as he examined it closely. "This thing... it looks like some kind of magic..."

"Magic? We have a Mage in our town?" The crowd fell silent for a moment, then erupted into even louder discussion.

"Get real! Where would a dump like our town get a master Mage? I say it’s treasure!"

"What treasure? Old John already said it’s magic!"

"That old coot is ancient. You believe what he says?"

"He went out and adventured when he was young. He definitely knows more than you do."

"Bullshit! I bet he’s trying to keep the treasure for himself!"

Listening to these increasingly ridiculous speculations, Hesia and Bruce didn’t linger. They showed their faces and then headed back.