Chapter 9

Skill window update? Previously, there were only status and party windows, so it did feel like something was missing, but a skill update?

Doyugeon cheered aloud.

“Skill window!”

Really, skills? From the login terminology being ‘login,’ it did feel somewhat game-like, but aren’t skills too game-like? What kind of existence is this system that it loves such game-like features so much?

This kind of game-like update by the system isn’t the first. The fact that the door inside the Slime Room opened was also due to an update.

“Passive skill!”

“Not an active one, huh. That’s a relief.”

At least it’s not so nonsensical, which is lucky. If it were an active skill, it would have been bothersome trying to figure out how to activate it.

Shall we take a look?

“Skill window.”

[Skill Window]

Basic Skills

◇ Magic Perception – OFF

◇ Aura Detection – OFF

Hm. The term ‘basic skills’ implies there are other skills as well, right? That the system gave Magic Perception must mean that perceiving magic requires talent.

But what exactly is ‘aura’ in Aura Detection? Is it sound? It doesn’t feel like it, though.

[Activate your passive skill by calling out the skill name along with the activation command.]

The system is a bit unhelpful. The Skill Window didn’t mention which skills are passive but is asking us to activate them. If you’ve played games, you might figure it out instinctively, but if you haven’t, you wouldn’t know what a passive skill is.

“Magic! Magic!”

Doyugeon gestured at the sky with his arms. He had just activated the Magic Perception skill, and it seems he can now sense magic.

“Can you feel it, the magic?”

“I can!”

His expression is excited. He must be having a lot of fun. Though, I remember feeling the same way when I first sensed magic, though not to this extent, perhaps?

The boy asked,

“How do you use magic?”

“You move the magic.”

“How exactly do you move it?”

“Hmm…”

How does one move it? It’s just something you do, so it’s hard to explain concretely. How should I describe it? Maybe a demonstration will help.

I raised a wind with my magic. Leaves and grasses swayed gently.

“You do it like this.”

“…How?”

“Like this.”

I raised the wind again. Doyugeon tilted his head, seemingly confused. Does he not get the feel of it?

Afterward, I kept explaining how to move magic, but Doyugeon couldn’t manage it. Sensing magic and moving magic seem to belong to different realms altogether.

Besides, when I checked the range within which the Magic Perception skill can detect magic, it appears to be around 2 meters. With only 2 meters, it would be impossible to find goblins.

I, on the other hand, can perceive distances of roughly a few hundred meters without effort, so I understand how limited a 2-meter range truly is.

It seems the Magic Perception skill is itself not very useful. Still, it may function as a stepping stone for people who lack magical talent, helping them use magic, as it firmly imprints the existence of magic.

I activated the Magic Perception skill again, just in case, to verify if the skill’s range varies based on talent. But as soon as I did, I felt an unpleasant sensation as if something was being overlaid onto my senses.

Despite the discomfort, I tried to check how far the skill’s range was, but without any noticeable effect of the skill, it was all just unpleasantness, making it impossible to verify. I’ll have to search online for more information later.

After confirming Magic Perception, it’s time to check Aura Detection.

“Aura Detection activation.”

[Aura Detection—ON]

As always, the involvement of the system brings a degree of unpleasantness, but enduring it, I tried to feel if anything had changed.

Hmm… did something change? I’m not sure.

When I used the Magic Perception skill, it felt like something was overlaid on my senses, but with the Aura Detection skill, I can’t tell any difference. It’s uncomfortable, so I’ll turn it off for now.

“Aura Detection deactivation.”

[Aura Detection—OFF]

The boy approached.

“How’s it going?”

“It’s ineffective. Do you feel something?”

He laughed, then said that with his eyes closed, he could detect the positions of objects.

“I can do that too.”

“This skill detects auras without using magic.”

“Aura?”

When I asked if he was hearing sounds and he thought about it before answering no. If you can figure out object positions with your eyes closed and no sound, that’s straight-up fantasy. Oh, it is fantasy, isn’t it.

I decided to confirm if he was really on to something. With his eyes closed, I used magic to levitate a notebook in mid-air. His Magic Perception skill is turned off.

Whether I levitate the notebook to the right or the left, the boy accurately guessed its location.

Impressive. I can’t sense it at all, so is this due to the difference in talent?

However, this method could still slightly influence the air and produce some sound, so we can’t be absolutely sure that this isn’t auditory-related. Maybe the skill just enhances hearing. Is there any better way to verify this properly?

While in deep thought, the boy suggested,

“I’ll guess the number of your fingers.”

“Can you do that?”

“I think so.”

The air movement from finger movements is something we’ll overlook, since this isn’t a scientific study, anyway.

I extended two fingers.

“Two.”

I extended seven fingers.

“Seven.”

Oh? I extended three fingers.

“Three.”

Wow, with a chance of success of only 0.1%, he still guessed correctly.

Shall we verify this a bit more rigorously, then?

“I’ll try again.”

I conjured a strong wind with magic. Clothes billowed, hair whipped around, fallen leaves were swept up, and the grass swayed. Just as I extended two fingers while all this was happening, the boy answered. But the sound of the wind drowned out what he said.

I straightened my disheveled hair and clothes.

“Did you get it right?”

“I couldn’t hear properly because of the wind. What did you say?”

“Two.”

“You got it.”

“Yesss!”

I watched as the boy stood up, raising his fist in triumph, then shook the dirt off my clothes. Dirt splashed, somehow. I had tried to avoid raising dust with the wind but didn’t manage well. At this magic skill level, when will I ever return to reading?

“Haha! As always, I’m a genius!”

What the…

“Even if you do have talent, isn’t it a bit presumptuous to call yourself a genius?”

“Isn’t this the ‘frog in a well’ theory again? We’re geniuses alright. Among them, I’m a sword-genius…”

Suddenly full of overconfidence.

“Ah, yes, as you wish.”

“But! There’s always ranking among geniuses. For instance, a sword genius is stronger than a magic genius. If we two were to fight, I’d win.”

“Is that so?”

I just can’t let this statement pass. Of course, my side is stronger.

I concentrated my magic, shaped it into a sharp point, and aimed at the tree. After several improvements, this method turned out to be quick and powerful. The tree was pierced, and I could see through the hole on the other side.

The boy, seeing the hole in the tree, remarked,

“An armed contest, where I would win, you mean.”

“Of course.”

“But these days, I could win even with my eyes closed.”

“Ei, that’s not right. Your arrogance knows no bounds.”

“Then how about we do it? I recall seeing some wooden swords in the prep room.”

The boy had a confident look. Despite the significant gap in strength, isn’t it a bit too overconfident to challenge me with your eyes closed?

Hmm…

I kept looking at the boy, but he still looked confident. He’s so bursting with confidence that I’m starting to feel like I might lose.

“Let’s do it next time. I’m tired today.”

—

The study of magic formations continues to be difficult. I’ve given a lot of thought whenever it comes to mind, but I can’t find any groundbreaking methods.

Either mass-producing magic books or understanding the magic formations could work, but I don’t know how to do either. Without knowing how to create those formations, making the magic books is out of the question.

Understanding the formations isn’t working either; I’m just aimlessly observing them. I originally figured they had a structure of magic-use, accumulation of mana, and locking of the magic formations. Examining how they work has happened a few times, but now, I don’t even know what else to examine.

It seems as though the research is becoming more difficult because I lack a proper research methodology. With my background not in STEM fields, I don’t know the right way to approach this either.

Although I’ve read books on how to deal with being stuck, I realized that I need practical experience to truly grasp this process. Even at the academic level, my reading is only at the hobbyist stage, far from becoming an expert.

The study of magic formations has turned in circles and come back to the starting point. Perhaps it can’t be helped. Since I’m not intending to publish the studies in academia, I’ll settle for my own satisfaction. Though I expect it to continue to be stuck, thinking about it too far ahead isn’t worth it right now. Haven’t I promised this to myself before?

I decided to stop trying to create magic formations or delve further into them, and instead, I’d play with the Magic Book. I intended to preserve the Magic Book since I didn’t want to depend on others, but I also didn’t want to waste time buying more.

Nevertheless, when I thought about meddling with the magic formations in the Magic Book, this question popped up:

Is it safe to mess with it?

It was fine when I first touched the Magic Book and tinkered with it, but will it be safe to meddle now? Was it just luck back then?

What if it causes an explosion, or the magic formation goes out of control, and an unforeseen problem arises?

Handling explosions might be possible, but what happens if the magic formation goes berserk, causing unknown magics to activate?

A foreseeable major issue in the future is the potential for a magical outbreak. For example, how would we handle a lethal airborne disease with a 100% mortality rate? If the disease also comes with a hidden incubation period of a few years and is undetectable by modern science, it could easily lead to human extinction.

In short, when we tamper with this Magic Book, will the resulting scenarios be fantastical or cosmic horror?

Considering the fantastical situations so far, even if they’re abnormal, they were manageable outcomes. But we can’t guarantee that this Magic Book will be the same. So far, the fantastic scenarios have been just the tip of the iceberg, and the events that may come could very well fall under cosmic horror territory.

But such concerns seem to be mine alone or shared by a small few. Ever since the Magic Perception skill appeared, many posts about magic have surfaced on the internet. Many of them mentioned breaking the Magic Book.

Some accidentally broke the magic-activation formation, while in other cases, without knowing the cause, they discovered stored magic power in the Magic Books. As these few successful cases surfaced, the posts about breaking Magic Books kept increasing.

Doyugeon couldn’t move magic, but it seems that a certain number of people began to be able to move magic not long after using the Magic Perception skill.

I wish those with such talents would carefully consider their actions…

There haven’t been any significant incidents with Magic Books reported on the internet or in the news, so I decided to set aside my thoughts and tamper with the Magic Book magic formation. Even something like a fatal disease wouldn’t be something I could prepare for alone.

I took the Magic Book. I’d tamper with it in the prep room to avoid causing issues for my parents.

“Login.”

I entered the white space. This was the first time I entered alone since the incident with Doyugeon a month ago. There wasn’t much emotion tied to it, though.

I placed the Magic Book on the shelf and carefully examined its magic formation. The Magic Book contains three separate magic formations.

One obscures the book’s content, another stores mana, and the third fixes the magic formations onto the Magic Book.

My task moving forward is to break the activation formation, excluding the locking one, to disturb the balance of magic use and accumulation.

I siphoned off a small amount of power from the working magic formation. I felt the obscuring of the book’s contents disappear. I didn’t notice it before, but now I can tell when it’s gone.

As expected, with the balance of magic broken, power began accumulating in the Magic Book. The accumulation isn’t particularly fast, but if I take a walk through the forest and look for goblins, the stored magic should be enough for combat use.

I might leave it alone in the prep room for a while to check its maximum capacity and any potential side effects when the power stores increase.

I intended to log out, when suddenly I saw a wooden sword near the shelves. Now I remember, Doyugeon and I had agreed to a sword duel on our next login. But I’ve never even held a wooden sword yet.

Approaching, I picked it up. It was heavier than expected, but still lighter than a real sword. In the center of the prep room, I tried swiping vertically.

Everything felt awkward.

I swiped both vertically and horizontally a few times, but the awkwardness didn’t go away. Doyugeon claimed he’d fight with his eyes closed, but now I’m worried if I might actually lose. Perhaps secretly using magic might help.

While pondering what to do, I sensed magic at work. Turning toward it, I saw Doyugeon appearing in thin air.

“Hmm? Are you secretly practicing without me?”

“Not exactly practicing, just trying it out since I had some free time.”

“Calling it practice won’t make you able to beat me.”

“You really are overconfident.”

The boy laughed.

“How about we confirm that right now?”

“Right now?”

“Yup.”

Right now…

Does it matter?

“Sure, why not.”

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