Chapter 11: Learning Magic

Even so, he had remained by her side until the very end.

He did not regret that decision.

However, after she passed away, an overwhelming sense of emptiness had settled inside him, leaving him without the motivation to do anything.

Qiu Nuoya had become completely alone at the age of thirty seven.

He had nothing.

He had not even known what he was supposed to do next.

"...Nuoya. Hey, Nuoya! Are you listening?!"

"Huh? Ah, yes!"

Qiu Nuoya snapped back to reality.

He had been absentminded for a moment.

Igor looked at him with concern and leaned closer.

"Are you tired?"

"Come to think of it, you were just attacked by slimes. Maybe we should skip magic practice for today?"

"Eh... no, I’m fine! Besides, if I don’t practice properly and become an adventurer, I’ll be in trouble since I don’t have any money!"

"Haha, Nuoya is very serious. But you’re right. Without any money, you can’t even buy food or stay at an inn. Igor and I can help you for a day or two, but we can’t support you forever."

With that, Viktor took Qiu Nuoya by the hand.

"Come on."

He led Qiu Nuoya behind the guild, where there was a small open training ground.

Several adventurers were scattered around the area, each practicing combat in their own way.

"So this is the training ground?"

"That’s right. It may look like nothing more than a backyard, but a magical barrier surrounds this place. Because of that, people can train quite intensely without causing trouble for anyone outside."

As Viktor spoke, he raised a finger toward the sky.

A tiny sphere of fire shot from his fingertip.

The fireball flew a short distance above the surrounding wall before striking something invisible.

It bounced off a transparent barrier and disappeared.

"Whoa! So that’s the barrier? Amazing!"

Seeing real magic with his own eyes sent Qiu Nuoya’s excitement soaring.

Viktor’s fireball was impressive enough, but the invisible barrier that effortlessly blocked it was just as incredible.

This was exactly the kind of fantasy world he had dreamed about.

"Now then," Viktor said with a smile. "Let’s see how much magic you can already use."

"Um... what do you mean by ’how much’?"

Qiu Nuoya did not understand the question.

He had already explained that he had never used magic before.

"Well, magic covers many different things. Adventurers mainly use offensive and healing spells, but everyday magic is common enough that almost everyone can use it. Things like creating a small flame or drawing water. That’s what I mean. How much can you do?"

"Everyday... magic..."

Qiu Nuoya blinked his eyes.

He had never even heard of such a thing.

"I see. So you’ve never used it before? Didn’t anyone teach you?"

As Qiu Nuoya struggled to answer, Igor stepped in. "Maybe his memories are still scrambled. He probably forgot because of that."

"Oh, right." Viktor gave an apologetic smile. "I completely forgot. In that case, let’s start from the very basics."

"Then let’s start with the basics. First of all, what is magic?"

With those words, Viktor began explaining magic from the very beginning.

According to him, magic was the art of manipulating magical power.

There were two kinds of magical power.

The first was the magical power each individual naturally possessed.

The second was the magical power that drifted throughout the natural world.

Normally, the magical power used to cast spells came from one’s own internal reserves.

As for the magical power floating in nature, people could absorb some of it by consuming monsters or plants that had accumulated it.

However, everyone had a limit to how much magical power their body could contain.

Trying to absorb more than that limit would cause mana intoxication, making a person seriously ill. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

In the worst case, it could even be fatal.

Casting magic was like gathering the magical power inside the body, kneading it together into a ball, and releasing it.

The more magic a person used, the more their internal magical power decreased.

Fortunately, magical power could be restored by consuming magical plants or monsters, and it would also recover naturally over time.

However, Viktor warned that using more magical power than the body could safely handle was also dangerous.

In the worst case, it could even result in death.

"By the way, how much magical power did you have?"

"Huh? Ah... I think it was around twenty thousand... maybe?"

Qiu Nuoya could not remember the exact number.

He only remembered that it had been somewhere around twenty thousand.

The nun had said it was unusually high, so he had assumed it was a large amount.

The moment he answered, Igor’s eyes widened.

"Twenty thousand?!"

"Y... yes. I think it was around that much. Is... is that strange?"

"It isn’t strange," Viktor replied calmly. "A well trained mage could have that much magical power. However, for someone your age to possess that amount is truly remarkable."

According to Viktor, a person’s magical power could be increased through magical training.

Since mages relied on magical power to cast spells, they devoted themselves to training that would increase their mana capacity.

As for what that training involved, it was actually quite simple.

They just kept using magic.

By continuously casting spells, the body would eventually determine that its current amount of magical power was insufficient to sustain itself.

As a result, it would gradually adapt and increase the amount of magical power it could store.

Even so, there was still an upper limit to how much magical power a person could develop.

Those with low magical aptitude naturally had lower maximum capacities.

"With the amount of magical power Nuoya has, he probably won’t collapse even if he uses magic continuously for a while. However, since he already started with such a large reserve, the real question is how much room he has left to grow."

"Room to grow..."

According to Viktor, children born with exceptionally large reserves of magical power rarely experienced complete mana depletion.