Kochugunshikan Boukensha ni Naru

When I turned around, I saw the two ladies frozen solid where they stood, with stiff-looking expressions.

“……Um, Alan. On second thought, I think I’ll try learning explosion magic at a later time. I’m not planning to give up on it, but I think the current me wouldn’t be able to handle it yet.”

“Cleria-sama, I now understand why you said Alan would be able to handle the knights of this country all by himself.”

“Well, I guess this spell does seem to be a bit too much for you at the moment, Cleria.

We probably won’t encounter a lot of situations where we need to use this spell anyway, so I think it’s better for you to learn something more practical.

Oh yeah, why don’t you try teaching Elna magic yourself, Cleria? You’re already familiar with the spell casting method that I use, right? So I think it would be better if you handle teaching Elna. I think she’d prefer that as well.”

“Certainly. I’ll teach you what I’ve learned from Alan, Elna.”

Cleria and Elna started getting absorbed in the discussion, so I decided to do some magic practice myself a little distance away.

I wanted to try something out today. I have been thinking of trying out whether or not I can draw the magicles stored in magic stones in order to cast spells.
Magic tools draw power from magic stones and make use of it to perform certain effects. I was finally able to learn about the exact process during this morning’s lesson.

In order to test my theory out, I brought with me a number of magic stones. I took all of them out of my bag.

(So, can you draw out the magicles stored in these magic stones?)

『Not possible.』

Hm. So how can I draw them out from the stones then? Oh yeah. Didn’t the chief say something about magic power being drawn out of the stones only after spell activation? So that means I wouldn’t be able to draw out the magicles as long as I don’t use a spell, right? Let’s try it out.

I tried casting the Water spell while holding a magic stone on one hand.

Water!

Water started pouring out of the empty space in front of me.

(Now, can you switch the magicle source entering my body from the magicles in the atmosphere to the ones inside the stone?)

『Testing now.』

The water being produced from the Water spell sputtered intermittently for a few moments. After about three minutes, the spell finally stabilized again.

『The correct method for switching magicle source confirmed.』

(Whoah! You did it!)

『However, the source is not completely from the stone itself. The ratio is 95% from the stone and 5% from the atmosphere. Unable to completely switch source to magic stone.』

(Why’s that?)

『Reason unknown. If the 5% inflow from the surrounding atmosphere is stopped, the entire process would come to a halt.』

(So, can we store the magicles drawn from the stone inside my body?)

『Replenishment of the magicles used up in today’s activities complete.』

That’s fast. In other words, the amount of magicles in my body has already reached 100% right?

(Can we still store more magicles?)

『Not possible. Reason unknown.』

Well, there’s nothing we can do about it if it can’t be done. I’m sure it’s due to the body being unable to take in more than a certain magicle amount. We’ve already noted this phenomenon in earlier magic experiments.

But the experiment objective has mostly been achieved. I was mostly able to accomplish what I wanted. Now, as long as I have a steady supply of magic stones on hand, I’ll be able to continuously cast spells without worrying about magicle consumption.

Right now, I can only cast up to fifty Fire Ball spells at full tank. I don’t think it’s enough if we ever got surrounded by multiple enemies.

Now, I just have to learn the most effective way to actively take in magicles from the magic stones. I mean, I can’t just keep casting spells like Water and soak everything around me just so I can take in magicles from magic stones.

I stopped casting the Water spell.

I can’t really cast fire spells when I want to recharge. Wind magic is also out of the question. The safest bet would be light magic.

Well, now’s a good time anyway. Let’s try casting out some light spells.

I made an internal image of light beaming out and illuminating the surroundings.

Light!

I successfully managed to cast the Light spell. It’s midday, so it’s a bit hard to tell, but there really was a bright beam of light illuminating the ground.
Great. It’s a success. I practiced a few more times and confirmed that I could cast this type of spell without any problems.

I wonder if it’s possible to release light from my palm or something. I made an image and managed to make light come out of my palm without any problems as well.

Great. Let’s make this the spell to use when recharging. I picked up another magic stone and released light from my palm.

(Please resupply the magicles.)

『Replenishment complete.』

(Can we make the process automatic?)

Light came out of my palm without me doing anything in particular.

『Automated process completed.』

Excellent. It didn’t take much imagination to make it work, so Nanom can also accomplish it easily.

What’s left is to find out just how much magicles are stored in this Gray Hound magic stone. I need to decrease the magicle amount in my body for that.

I’ll release a Flame Arrow spell on that rock earlier, then. Since it’s about a hundred meters away, I’ll need to put in at least two times the magic power.

I fired off a Flame Arrow spell with two times the magic power.

Flame Arrow!

The arrows of flame hit the target rock directly.

(I’ll start releasing continuous Flame Arrow spells at the rock, so once my magicle count drops to an acceptable level, start taking in magicles from the magic stone.)

『Acknowledged.』

I grabbed another magic stone and started casting Flame Arrows on the rock. The virtual HUD displayed [READY x50] in the corner.

I materialized five shots of the Flame Arrow spell and released them all on the rock. I after repeating the process nine times, my palm finally lit up, and the corner of the virtual HUD displayed [READY x50] once more.

I continued on casting Flame Arrows. It took two times of my palm glowing until the display on the virtual HUD finally changed to [READY x0].

『It has become impossible to extract further magicles from the magic stone.』

When I took a look at the magic stone in my hand, it already became transparent and glass-like. It looks like the magicles finally ran out.

(How much magicles were we able to take in from the magic stone? Please use the magicle consumption for Fire Ball as reference.)

『147 charges all in all.』

It looks like a Gray Hound’s magic stone has a surprisingly large amount of magicles. It’s about three times my current capacity.

With this, I’ll be able to take on lots of enemies if I have ten magic stones like this one on hand.

When I looked back after an unexpectedly productive experiment, I again saw Cleria and Elna standing around like stone statues with frozen expressions. Just how long have they been behind me?

“……Just what was that, Alan?”

“Uh, Flame Arrow?”

“That’s not it! I’m asking about that continuous spell barrage!”

“Oh. I tried using the magic stored inside magic stones, and it unexpectedly turned out well.”

“Eh!? But that’s impossible!”

“That just can’t be done!”

“Well, even if you guys say that… I already did it.”

After that, I had a hard time pacifying Cleria and Elna, who both made a huge fuss.

“Like I said, I’m not sure how I did it myself.”

It’s a method I came up with after repeating various trial and error experiments with Nanom after all. I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to come up with it on my own.

“Anyway, I’ll share with you what I’ve learned for now.”

I told them about the fact that one can draw out magic from magic stones by casting spells first. I also taught them that if one wants to draw the magic stored inside magic stones, one has to use a certain small amount of magic power to keep the process going.

After that, Cleria and Elna tried grabbing magic stones of their own, but they didn’t manage to succeed in the end.

Eventually, both of them ran out of magicles. Since we couldn’t do any more magic practice today, we decided to come back to the city.

When we entered the gate, the guards persistently asked us if we heard any strange sounds out there. They were probably talking about the explosion caused by the Fire Grenade spell.

It looks like we have to refrain from using magic spells that cause loud sounds from now on.