On The Other Side: I Quit Being Human

Two weeks have passed since the day of my Mana Pool activation. My control over Mana has gotten better each day, and I have been learning Magic ever since.

I learn new Spells from Valeria at night, and practice them with Millonia in the morning. Since she is already allowed to use Mana now however, she has been kicking my ass for the past two weeks … Just like what she is doing now.

To say that Magic is something hard to learn will be hypocritical of me since I can master almost every Spell Valeria teaches me right away. Using it in practice, however, is a different kind of story.

“[Ignatio]!”

Boom!

“Too slow, Layland! You need to cast it faster!”

For example, using this Spell I have just cast, [Ignatio]. This Spell is the most basic Fire Spell—it produces three fist sized fireballs—but also the predecessor of every existing Fire Spell.

I could immediately cast [Ignatio] on my first day, but even until now, I can’t still masterfully use this Spell in combat. Even though my casting speed is already off the charts, there is still some delay for it to work even after I finish casting it.

I have asked about this to Valeria, and she said that it was because I always forgot the essential part of using Magic—utilizing Mana. I can’t deny that at all, since for all this time, I have always supplied my Mana to the Spell late.

In my defense though, it is hard to multitask. Although my control over my Mana is epically good, whenever I am in battle, I have to divide my attention, so I can’t really focus on one thing.

I have to think about the best attack I should deliver to my opponent (Millonia), I have to predict what move she would make next, I have to pay attention to my flow of Mana, and I have to cast the Spell correctly. It’s simply a chore!

Valeria herself has even said that she has no way to solve this matter other than having me fight as much as I can so I can get used to it. As the word goes, “Practice makes perfect,” so I completely agree with her.

With that said though, have I already got used to it?

“Fuck! How can you cast your Spell this fast?! Stop sending fireballs my way, bitch!”

“Kuhahaha! Burn to crisp, asshole!”

“Damn it!”

No, I haven’t got used to using Magic. My casting speed still outclasses my meticulousness in handling Mana, so the delay after I finish casting the Spell still exists.

There have also been a few times where the Spell didn’t work simply because I forgot to supply Mana to it. I really hate the main characters of the Isekai light novels I have read now, since they made using Magic in battle seem easy.

“Let me take a breather!”

I look at Millonia who is readying another Spell in exhaustion. Half of my body has been burnt due to her barrage of [Ignatio], and I am already mentally tired from casting Spells for 5 hours straight.

“Well, take your time.”

Luckily, she is rather merciful to me nowadays, so she really gives me time to take a breather. I sit down on the ground afterwards, and channel my Mana to the Demon King’s Mark.

I have recently found out that I don’t need to wait for the Demon King’s Mark to work by itself to heal my injuries; I can forcefully activate it with my Mana, and even accelerate the healing speed. Of course, it takes a lot of Mana.

Still though, no matter how much Mana it sucks from my Mana Pool, thanks to it, I have never Reset even once. That means, I have never died in the two weeks of having my ass kicked by Millonia.

She still does some crazy shit to me, but it has never affected my psyche or given me an immeasurable pain … I am already used to it after all.

As my breathing returns to normal, the injuries I received have also healed. My Mana is almost depleted, but I am not too worried about it since not only do I have a bigger than normal Mana Pool, but also an insane Mana recovery rate.

Valeria told me that my Mana Pool is only slightly smaller than Millonia’s, who Valeria claims has been a Warrior for more than 10 years. In other words, I am an anomaly among humans, but that is to be expected from a Demon King Candidate.

“Is it better to focus on Enhancing my body with Mana instead of using it to cast a Spell?” I muse to myself as I look at the two daggers in my hands.

“The gap between my raw power and Millonia’s shouldn’t be that great, but her experience makes her far stronger than me.”

Millonia, although, in Valeria’s claim, has an average control over her Mana, can cast the lowest grade of Fire Spell, [Ignatio], better than me. While my [Ignatio] only produces three fireballs, she can produce seven of them.

It happens because she is already used to utilizing Mana through her years of battle. Since practice makes everything perfect, her supposedly mediocre talent has nothing to do with what she is capable of in battle.

“I think mastering Spells doesn’t suit me well…” I hum quietly. “Since Magic is the utilization of Mana, might as well create my own Spell.”

“Hmph! You can’t even cast a basic Spell properly in battle—how will you create a Spell?”

“I have seen those protagonists did that. I should be able to do it.”

“Wake up, Layland. It’s not a dream world.”

I know what Millonia is talking about, but she has misunderstood me completely. I am not going to create a complicated Spell that uses this world’s ancient language that is funnily similar to Latin.

As Valeria says, Spell is just our way to influence our mind, so the thing that matters is still what we are going to make with our Mana, not the things written in the Spell.

Therefore, I am going to make a more primitive Spell that relies on my unique way of utilizing Mana, and name it in English. Since I don’t know if it will work, I am going to make sure from now on.

“Okay, so what is the least cringeworthy name I can pick for my Spell? Since I will only imagine what I am going to do without actually casting anything though, is it better to call it a Skill?”

I hum as I stare at my two daggers. I have initially thought these two are just normal daggers that would eventually be destroyed when I reached a certain power level, but they still function properly until now.

I take a few more seconds to steady my breath, then stand up as I hold my daggers in reverse grip. Millonia seems to notice that I am up to something, so she immediately readies her stance.

I smile slightly at how cautious she is looking at me, before channeling my Mana to the daggers in my hands. The blade immediately shine in red as I feel a strange connection between me and them.

I don’t know what is so special about it, but Millonia seems to be surprised at what I am doing. Ignoring her look of surprise, I think of one of the cool moves the game character I played had, before dashing at her.

Swish!

I powered my feet with Mana, so 15 feet is covered in just a blink of an eye. I have appeared in front of Millonia who is ready to intercept my attack, and I can’t help but smile when I think about what I am about to do.

“[Whistle of Death]!”

As I imagine the move of the game character I played that I am about to imitate, my body feels like moving on its own. My hand moves so fast, even my daggers whistle upon cutting the air.𝗈𝑽𝗅𝒩xt.𝗰𝒐𝓜

Swish! Swish!

[Whistle of Death] is a Skill that allows my game character to slash his opponent at a speed that makes his blade produce a sound similar sound to a whistling sound. I have successfully recreated it, and I am very excited about that.

“Kuhahaha! I have just created a Spell—no, a Skill!”

Clank! Clank!

“What the heck have you done?!”

I keep laughing at Millonia’s bewilderment as our weapon keep clashing against each other. Although I haven’t really got the hang of it yet, I can see that I am slowly overwhelming her.

It won’t be long until I can fight her on the same ground again, and the time where I can beat her ass will come afterwards. Today, I have found my way to utilize my power, and like Ilschevar says, I will keep unlimitedly growing from now on.

“Tch! You are still ten yours too young to win against me!”

Bam!

“Keugh! That was a hard kick!”

Of course, for the time being, I need to get used to what I am capable of. Millonia has made it clear that I have to get as much as experience from our fight to win against her, so for now I will let her win against me.

As I lie on the ground after receiving Millonia’s powerful kick to the solar plexus, I slowly lose my consciousness. I lose again today, but I have a smile on my face, for I know it is just the beginning of my endless victory.