First Magic

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The experiment had begun. It was quite a reckless experiment. Marie and I were not allowed to do it without supervision, but I managed to convince my father to come along. With him there, I felt more relaxed and able to proceed with it. I was grateful for that.

“Are you really going to do this, Theon?”

I stood shirtless beside my father, who looked tense and worried, but it was necessary for safety reasons.

“Of course! Let’s see this through to the end!”

“Ugh… I can’t refuse when I see my son’s sparkling face. Alright then, I’ll stick with you to the end. Come on!”

In the distance, Marie was practicing her swordsmanship. She didn’t seem interested in joining us today. Well, to be honest, she was more than willing to come along, but my father was more enthusiastic about it.

Moreover, she’s been devoting more of her time to practicing with her sword. Perhaps she’s anxious about confronting goblins, but she didn’t say anything and never showed her concerns. Though I was worried, I carried on as usual.

Observing my sister swinging her sword with determination, I made a vow to stand by her side, ready to lend a helping hand if she ever felt troubled or suffered, just as she had done for me when I was worried about my inability to use magic.

Anyway, in front of the bonfire, I concentrated my magical power in my right hand. This experiment was about observing the reaction between accumulated magical power and fire. I would alter the conditions slightly each time and record the results. These conditions involved changing the amount of magical power, adjusting the heat intensity, exposing it to high heat and so on. These were tedious tasks, but they’re necessary.

“Let’s do this!”

“Anytime!”

I made contact between the magical power and the fire. Immediately, the fire spread.

“It’s so hot!”

“Watch out!”

The flames were extinguished after my father doused me with water from the bucket.

“Oh, it’s hot! There’s no change in temperature! Smoke is a dark gray color. Flames are blue. Let’s increase the intensity of the fire!”

“Got it! I’ll add more firewood… Okay, we’re ready!”

“Okay! Let’s do this!”

“Sure!”

I gathered magical power in my hand, then I infused the fire with the same magic. The fire spread again.

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“It’s so hot!”

“Here you go!”

Again, my father poured a bucket of water onto me to put out the fire.

“Oh, there’s no change in temperature. Smoke and flames are the same color! Next, let’s try it with less magical power.”

“Okay, let’s do it!”

I reduced the amount of magical power and touched the fire. It spread instantly, but the flames seemed weaker than before.

“It’s hot!”

“Yahoo!”

My father, who had become accustomed to it, smoothly poured water from the bucket over me again.

It was hot only for a split second, but wasn’t enough to burn my hand. The flames of magic were not as hot as actual fire this time.

Overall, I knew it’s a reckless experiment.

“Ah, I can’t tell if there’s any changes in temperature, but I did see a slight change in the color of the smoke and flames. The fire appeared to be quite small, and the intensity of the spreading flame will depend on the amount of magic used. Now, the next step is—”

From that day on, it continued almost every day.

On days when my father wasn’t around, I spent my time practicing magic rather than experimenting with fire magic as it’s dangerous.

And then, after a month, I learned a few things.

One. The amount of fire that spread depended on the amount of magic released through magic gathering. The more magic there was, the greater the strength of the fire that could be held in the hand. This part was the same as the image of magic in my mind. With the amount of magic consumed, powerful magic could be used.

Two. Although I tried various kinds of combustion, it reacted even with something other than fire. It seemed to ignite at high temperatures too.

Three. Even if touched while I was in the magic aura state, it simply ignited normally. This was natural. But it reacted as if fire was spreading normally throughout the body. The color of the fire remained red. In other words, it just burned normally.

Four. This was also related to the magic-gathering state. When a part of the body was covered like a glove and magic was gathered, the magic was released outside the body through the clothing. And when touched by fire in that state, the same thing happened and the glove burned.

To summarize the above four points; I can adjust the firepower according to the amount of magic, but since it spreads throughout the body, it’s not practical and is dangerous. And it turns out that magic plays a role like a flammable substance.

However, it’s only one characteristic, and it shouldn’t be everything. There were various changes in the reaction to magic, and I was considering experimenting with other phenomena.

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After trying various things for a month, I concluded that I couldn’t achieve any further results.

And now, we’re in the living room. We sat at the table and began to discuss with my father and Marie.

“Theon, I thought this experiment was quite worthwhile, but I don’t feel like we’re making any progress. You said that magic creates things like fire, right? I understand that the creation stage is difficult. That’s why we set our goal to handle fire. However, even that seems difficult as all you’re doing is transferring the flames from the magic power. We can make some adjustments, but it’s not enough.”

“Father, I think you’ve a point. In the initial stages, I want to be able to summon flames in the palm of my hands or even in my hands themselves and release them towards a target or make them fly. But it doesn’t seem like I can achieve that yet.”

“If only you could wear gloves that don’t let the fire pass through… But such things don’t exist.”

There’s no such thing as completely fireproof gloves. If they existed, firefighting in this world would be much easier.

As my father and I were pondering our next move, Marie timidly spoke up.

“Um, what about the Ettentraut’s light orb? It’s a magic ball, right? Theon, If you could do that, you could release the fire away from your hands.”

“Yeah, I thought of that too, but I haven’t been able to do it yet…”

“Huh? I can do it, you know?”

My sister lightly said as she held her palm up, and a small ball of light emerged from her palm, hovering up and gradually disappearing into the sky.

“Huh? H-h-how, how did you do that? When did you learn how to gather magic like that?”

“I listened to you how to do it, Theon, and decided to give it a try. But my magic output isn’t as high as you, so it’s not that much.”

“Is this what it means to be a genius?” I thought to myself. While I was spending time training my magic power, my sister, who was practicing swordsmanship, was able to casually do something like magic gathering, and releasing it outside her body.

“H-h-how are you doing that?”

“Normally. I’m trying to release magic from my palm, and it’s coming out. But it’s quite difficult to adjust.”

She said that while creating multiple balls of light, one after the other. While I couldn’t make a single one.

Feeling powerless, I decided to think positively. The fact that someone else could do it proved that it’s possible. Therefore, I should be able to do it too.

However, I’d never been able to output magic externally, not even once. Marie did it effortlessly. A ball of light floating above her palm, about the size of a ping pong ball. I observed her magic-gathering state.

There’s only a thin film of magic power surrounding her, compared to mine, which was considerably thicker. I knew there’s a difference in the amount of magic output, but it seemed quite weak in terms of light.

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Then it hit me!

I focused my magic power on my palm, then concentrated my willpower and attempted to release the magic power. Suddenly, a ball of light about the size of a baseball materialized and rose into the air before disappearing.

“Theon, you did it!”

“Did you do it? I can’t see it. It’s frustrating… But how did you do it? You couldn’t do it before, right? Why did you suddenly manage it?” Father remarked.

“Well, to put it simply, I think the problem was with adjusting the amount of magic I release outside my body. Suppose my magical capacity is at 80%. Initially, I would gather all of my magic power in my right hand and try to release it all at once, but this approach doesn’t provide enough energy to sustain the release. The solution is to preserve some of that magic in my palm, allowing me to successfully release the magic.”

Imagine a situation where water droplets fall from the ceiling due to moisture buildup. Not all of the moisture fall to the ground, as some of it remain on the ceiling. Even if you triy to force all the water to fall, it will be impossible.

When I thought about it, it seemed to be related to why some of the magic stayed in the body during gathering. It’s impossible to completely rid the body of all the magic, and it took a considerable amount of magic to release it. It seemed that only about 60% magic power could be put into release. It felt quite inefficient, but I didn’t have to worry about it then.

“Let’s go outside right away!”

“Yeah, Dad, let’s go!”

“Sigh… I’m jealous of how much fun you two are having.”

We all went outside. Father prepared the bonfire as usual, and I took off my shirt and filled a bucket with water. Marie watched from a distance.

“Okay, we’re ready, Theon!”

“Alright, let’s do it!”

I held my hand over the fire, gathered magic in my palm, and then released it. When the magic left my hand and touched the fire, it began to produce a blue flame. The flame rose into the air and then disappeared.

“Wow!”

“Amazing! You did it, Theon!”

We laughed with joy, my father and I. My sister shook her head in amazement and applauded.

Finally, I’d done it. That was magic!

What’s that? It’s underwhelming? That’s okay. It’s still in the prototype stage. It’s the first attempt at a new magic spell. It’s not very impressive compared to the magic in my mind because all it did was make the fire float and disappeared. But what’s important was that I was the one who discovered it, created it, and brought it to life.

There’s no magic in this world, but I found it. And above all, the thing that made me happiest is the fact that I could use magic. It made me so happy that I couldn’t help but burst into tears.

“Uh, I-I can use magic, magic… uhehehe, hehe.”

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“Wow! your usual creepy laugh is back!”

“Hehehe, I’m glad, Theon.”

The two congratulated me. I was happy about that, but there was still something I wanted to do.

Wiping away my tears, I took something out of my pocket.

“Is that… A handheld flint?”

Yes, it’s a handheld flint that could be used with one hand. The small tool looks like a pair of tweezers with a piece of flint attached to the end. It produces small sparks, but it’s not as effective as larger flints we use at home.

“Wait and watch.”

I concentrated my magic and struck the flint. Instantly, sparks burst out, bounced off the magic I had gathered, and transformed into flames. The ball of fire floated in the air for a moment before disappearing.

“W-what was that!? Theon, wasn’t that magic?!”

“I-it’s amazing! I never thought there was such a way to use it!”

I grinned and scratched the back of my head. The two of them smiled happily and were delighted as if it were their own achievement.

I’d been thinking about this for a while – starting a fire and then transferring it into magic. It’s a crude form of magic, but it’s a start. I knew there’s still room for improvement, though. After all, all I could do was make a floating ball of fire.

The image I had in mind casting the magic spell was a straight beam of fire aimed at a target. It would take a lot more practice to achieve that, but I already took the first step towards realizing it.

After longing for more than thirty years, I finally got to use magic. My heart’s overflowing with joy. It’s such an overwhelming feeling that I couldn’t believe it was real.

“Hehehe, I did it. I did it. I can use magic.”

“…Theon has an even creepier smile than usual because of his happiness. Also, his language skills have significantly decreased…”

“He must have been so happy. Let’s just leave him alone for now.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

My heart swelled with joy as I basked in the warm gazes of the two.

Thank you, other world. Thank you for giving me the gift of magic. I had decided that from then on, I would work hard to explore the art of magic and become even more proficient in it.

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