Chapter 37

I will translate the provided text into English:

At 6 PM, I'll post another one m(__)m

Early the next morning, before the sun had fully risen, Orphia came to teach the promised magic.

The sleepy Zangren, who had stayed up late, was asked by Orphia how he had studied magic, and when he said he had studied using the magic textbook given to him when he was abandoned, Orphia asked to see the textbook.

When Zangren showed her the book, Orphia stroked the cover fondly, saying, "It's nostalgic."

"The first edition was quickly revised, and there are very few existing first editions."

Zangren shook off his drowsiness and asked, "Why was the first edition revised so quickly? It's not like it was reprinted, right? Making a book isn't that easy, is it?"

Zangren's tone of voice had remained the same since that night.

Orphia, unusually, looked embarrassed.

"About 150 years ago, I was commissioned to create this book for the founding of a certain academy. At the time, I was full of enthusiasm and went a bit overboard. As a result, I was removed as the author from subsequent revised editions... It's embarrassing."

"Overboard?"

"The book covered the basic construction theory of autonomous magic, the basic construction theory of magical artifacts, the basics of spirit magic, the relationship between life essence magic and body structure, theories on the cultivation of mages, and even theories and techniques that were not publicly known at the time. It was right after the world war, so the protests from elves, who feared the leakage of even a small amount of spirit magic techniques, and the nobility and royalty who held secret magic, led to immediate revisions. The book itself was rare, and while it wasn't banned due to being too dense and difficult, almost all copies ended up in the national warehouses. ...I was too focused on the task at hand, a mistake of my youth."

"Youth...?"

"Oh, I shouldn't talk about age to a lady... but elves have a lifespan of over 500 years, so we don't really care about age. By the way, I'm 450 years old. Ha, I've become quite an old lady."

She said this while looking fondly at the cover of the magic textbook.

In Elipsis, the human lifespan is up to 150 years, elves live over 500 years, beastmen live 80 to 160 years depending on their lineage, giants live over 160 years, and earthlings, though not immortal, have no defined lifespan.

"From the second edition onwards, it was renamed the Elipsis Magic Textbook. ...It's been a long time since I've seen the title Elipsis Magic Compendium. However, to think you studied from this... I'm curious about your background, but did you really study from this?"

Zangren's intellectual level was evident, as starting with this book required a significant level of understanding.

But Orphia had already given up on investigating Zangren's background.

This young man is living here. That's enough.

"So, you understand the basics of parallel activation, supply maintenance, and the basic construction theory of autonomous magic?"

"More or less. I had plenty of time, after all. I gave up on magical artifacts because I didn't have the tools."

If he had focused on understanding a single book after being abandoned in the mountains, it might have been possible to learn magic from this book.

Orphia, however, still found it astonishing and continued the conversation.

"So, you haven't seen the original texts, right?"

Assuming that someone who had been isolated in the mountains would have little chance to access the mostly secret original texts, Orphia spoke.

Even if he understood the basic construction theory of autonomous magic, it wouldn't mean he could create original texts. The Elipsis Magic Compendium only covered the common components, elements, and features of autonomous magic, as well as some simple, publicly known autonomous magic.

Creating new original texts required extensive trial and error, and most importantly, a bit of 'luck.'

"Deceiving the world" wasn't that easy.

"No, I have the original text for 'Magic Arrow.'"

That's why Orphia was understandably surprised.

"Is that... with this book as well?"

"No, I learned it from a former noble."

The original text Zangren possessed was the autonomous magic he had traded with Baron Potapenko.

"Magic Arrow, huh? It's quite useful for hunters. You met a good noble, didn't you?"

Zangren smiled wryly. In many ways.

"No, it's not that great."

"Magic Arrow" is activated by a magic activation body, incantation, and magic medium, and flies towards the target.

However, only one arrow can be launched at a time.

It's not entirely useless, but it might be inferior to the generic "Magic Arrow" magic artifact sold by the association.

"That's... quite rare in a different sense."

There were indeed differences from generic magic artifacts.

The shape could be adjusted to some extent as long as it fell within the average size of arrows used by the species.

A notable feature was that once activated, it didn't require a continuous supply of magic power, but if destroyed, the magic would cease. Additionally, if the magic power supply was not interrupted, the "Magic Arrow" would continue to exist.

"Well, it's indeed a bit subtle for hunters. You can just carry arrows."

Considering the need to carry a magic medium, it wasn't much different in terms of effort. The magic medium for "Magic Arrow" was a wand-like material that stored magic power, and Zangren used the bones of a magic beast hunted by his parent beast.

"Anyway, if you've used an original text before, you should be able to use it as long as you understand the magic formula. So, as an apology, I'll teach you the magic formula for 'Illusion.' What else would you like to learn? Three more?"

Zangren put his hand to his chin and quickly suggested three.

"Of course, 'Self-Destruction' is out of the question. The resistance of life essence would be too great, so it's currently impossible. Instead of such dangerous magic, how about something flashy and popular, or something more advanced—"

"—"

"…You chose something sinister. 'Barrier' is understandable, but 'Magic Poison' and 'Magic Release'? All of them except 'Barrier' require the target to be on a magic circle, is that okay?"

Zangren nodded without hesitation.

Orphia sighed deeply, looking suddenly much older.

"I'll teach you because it's a promise, but absolutely do not misuse it. And do not teach it to anyone. Consider this the same promise you asked of me yesterday."

With that, Orphia extended her pinky finger to Zangren.

"I heard from Akari that if you break a pinky promise, you can punch the other person 10,000 times and make them swallow 1,000 needles. And if you can't keep the promise, you must die and apologize, and they must forgive you."

While wondering what Akari was teaching, Zangren extended his finger.

Since he had requested it, he should fulfill the other's request.

Their white, slender pinky fingers intertwined.

"Pinky promise, if you lie, a thousand needles will pierce you, if you die, you're forgiven, pinky cut."

Despite being in a foreign language, Orphia sang it and released her finger.

Orphia smiled and said, "Let's get started," and began teaching Zangren magic.

The absence of the giant thorny land spider significantly shortened the time needed to travel back and forth through the Alleduria Mountains.

Maxim, who had set out at midday the previous day, arrived by evening the next day, which was quite impressive.

He was bare-chested, steam rising from his body, but he said he could return to the village immediately. The territory of the slain giant thorny land spider had not been taken over by a new individual.

Maxim handed over the items to Dianthea and the other women and approached Zangren, who was being trained by Orphia in front of the cave.

"…You're being toyed with, huh?"

"…Leave me alone."

"Well, 'toy' is a bit harsh. You're surprisingly skilled, which surprised me. Even elves, who are lazy, don't want to do this tedious training, but for a human to self-study to this level, I just couldn't help but test your limits."

Zangren had completed the transmission of autonomous magic and was now training in spirit magic with Orphia.

He rotated a fist-sized water ball above his head, created an ice sword on his left shoulder, and generated a small tornado on his right shoulder. He also made blue flames dance near his right toes, and static-like lightning crackled on the opposite side. Behind him, where the sunset hit, light spirits ran around, and a small shadow danced in the shade of his chest, while the ground beneath his large shadow bulged as if boiling.

"You tend to focus on your hands. In spirit magic, as long as your 'will' is conveyed, the spirits will do the rest, so there's no need to focus on your hands. Humans tend to rely on their vision and hands unconsciously, so we're trying to break that habit."

Orphia smiled happily as she said this.

Maxim put down his pack behind him, muttering, "You're doing some mind-boggling stuff."

"I brought this from Irida Bargain."

Maxim placed a dark gray leather armor where it wouldn't interfere with Zangren.

However, Zangren looked at it as if he didn't recognize it.

"Hey, it's a leather armor made from the hide of a horned giant lizard. Irida said you'd recognize it if she gave it to you."

Zangren nodded in understanding.

It was something he had asked Irida for after a certain request.

"…I haven't paid for it yet."

"I paid for it. It's an apology for breaking the promise. And this is also part of that."

Maxim placed a similar-colored gauntlet next to the leather armor.

"These are traditional giant gauntlets."

"…Gauntlets?"

"Well, they are. They're quite rare, you know?"

Orphia looked at the gauntlets with interest.

"Made from special metal and the skin of a magic beast, they're basically iron gauntlets."

Orphia looked exasperated as she continued.

"You're still as careless as ever. These gauntlets, known as 'giant gauntlets' among other species, become as hard as iron when infused with magic power, yet the fingers move smoothly. They can be used with a very fine amount of magic power, even by giants who are not adept at handling magic. Still, when did you prepare such things? They're not something you can just find in a store."

"Well, I ran down to the village."

"Ran... You haven't changed."

Maxim looked at Zangren's forearms.

"Your forearms are abnormally well-developed for a human, so they should fit you well. These days, few humans train their bodies to such an extreme extent. For most, they'd just be solid gauntlets. But you're different, right?"

Maxim's gaze moved from Zangren's forearms to his hardened fingertips.

"See you."

Maxim left.

"He's worried about you. Despite his gruffness, he's a considerate and principled giant. Please forgive him."

Zangren muttered while maintaining his spirit magic.

"If I don't die in these mountains, I'll forgive him. If I don't die, I'll be grateful, more than grateful."

With that, Zangren lost consciousness and collapsed.

The next morning, after Zangren fainted.

A fluffy, snow-white paw patted Zangren's face.

Zangren was awake but tried to go back to sleep.

The paw's force gradually increased.

From patting to tapping, and then to slapping, the paw continued to stomp on Zangren's face.

"Ugh."

Despite Zangren's continued pretense of sleeping, a vein might have appeared on Snow White's face, though Zangren, with his eyes closed, couldn't confirm it. However, he immediately understood her anger physically.

Face scratching.

Zangren couldn't get up and flailed his limbs.

Annoyed by this, Snow White picked up Zangren and dragged him away.

She then threw him outside.

Feeling the scent of grass and earth, and the cool morning breeze that hadn't been heated by the sun, Zangren opened his eyes.

The morning was blindingly bright.

After being woken by Snow White, Zangren prepared for hunting and went outside. After walking for a while, he looked at the small shield on his arm, and Orphia called out to him.

"Where did you get that small shield? It seems to have been purified by a holy spirit."

Orphia's voice was that of a strict lady-in-waiting.

Zangren, who had forgotten about the monster, told Orphia about the ice warrior monster.

After hearing the story, Orphia looked down in thought.

It seemed there had been no sightings of monsters in the mountains since then, but if it was an ice-based monster, it should have been deeper in the mountains.

So, it might have been an accidental occurrence during the snowmelt.

Considering it had been over 90 days since the occurrence, it might be overthinking.

Still, she added another sin to the branch leader's list.

According to the association rules, reports of monster occurrences must be immediately investigated, regardless of the reason.

This had been neglected.

Orphia raised her face as if nothing had happened and smiled as usual, explaining to Zangren, who seemed to know nothing about the small shield.

"This small shield can create an ice shield on its extended surface. The surrounding ice spirits gather and play, so the magic consumption for shield generation can be significantly reduced."

"Wow, then Akari's staff must be the same."

"Well, if the staff is still around, I should tell Akari."

"Can you see the ice spirits?"

Orphia laughed, saying, "I can only sense that there are spirits there. Most elves can do this."

"I'm sorry to keep you, but she's waiting for you," Orphia said, looking up the slope.

At the end of Orphia's gaze, Snow White was waiting, urging, "Hurry up, hurry up."

When Zangren and Snow White returned from hunting, Maxim had come back and was talking to Orphia.

Zangren, having no particular business, returned to the cave and started the training Orphia had given him the day before.

The next day, after fainting again.

Orphia said she was going down to the village.

The judges had not yet arrived, but preparations were complete.

Dianthea and the other nine remained to guard Akari, while Maxim and Orphia descended the mountain.

Ari and the other women had not returned to the mountain since descending.

Before leaving, Orphia smiled as usual and said,

"I'll show those fools in power a proper hell."

Her voice was that of a strict lady-in-waiting.