10 Episode 9 Sword and Barrage

I was so focused on controlling the magic from a distance that I forgot the most important thing.

--The barrage is power.

If you're going to get caught in the middle of a big spell, why not just carpet bomb the place?

So I'm going to see if I can make multiple fireballs. Two for now. That was easy.

I'll try sending them all together. The power of the explosion is the same as usual. The MP consumption is exactly double that of usual.

The magic-added projectile consumes 4 times as much MP, has 1.6 times the range, and covers 2.56 times the area. The cost per area is also cheaper.

1.6 times? 1.6 x 1.6 x 1.6 is 4,096 divided by 1,000, so it's roughly 4. MP consumption is also 4 times.

Magic control also doubles the distance and consumes 8 times the MP. That's 2 to the 3rd power. Is magic consumption proportional to the third power in many cases?

Especially fireballs. If the range of the explosion is increased by 1.6 times, then the firepower at the center of the explosion is almost 4 times that of a normal fireball.

The ground where the fireball hit was also heavily scorched. I thought it was because of the range, but the firepower may have been different.

At any rate, I'll continue to examine the barrage.

It seems that up to 7 bullets can be generated at once, but beyond that, the generation speed drops.

Up to seven fireballs can be fired in rapid succession with an interval of 0.5 seconds. The diameter of a normal fireball is about 70cm, so if you line them up in a horizontal line, you can burn down a distance of about 5m.

The MP consumption is not as linear as that of spraying water, but the maximum consumption is still about 10 per second. It seems that our hypothesis was correct.

With the current MP, the maximum output lasts only about 3 minutes at most, but so far the maximum value is increasing by 500 per level, and it will continue to increase.

In the first place, though, I don't want to deal with a demon that can fire this kind of firepower for three minutes and not die.

Okay. I think I can handle multiple opponents with this. Now I need to strengthen my rock spear.

It seems that the power of the rock spear increases when you spend MP on it, and I was able to generate up to seven spears at the same time without slowing down.

However, the size of the rock spear increased with MP. It's a similar expansion. I don't understand the principle. I don't understand the principle of magic, because magic itself is not subject to the law of conservation of mass. If physicists were to ask about magic, they would be very upset. Or maybe physicists are supposed to find the cause of magic? Oh well.

The amount of water also increased when the MP consumption was increased, and this is probably a special case of fire. Water and earth depend on quantity, while fire depends on heat (temperature?). Water and earth depend on quantity, while fire depends on firepower (temperature?).

The other thing is to find the enemy. ...... How do I do that?

Close your eyes and try to feel the presence of your surroundings. Concentrate on ....... I see it!

Swing your fist in the direction you feel the enemy is. A thump! There's a crunch.

It was a woody feel. It hurts. Oh, it's broken. I need to go to the hospital.

I'd claim my fee, but there's no one around. I don't have any enemies. Which is why I chose this place.

My hand hurts. My skin's peeling. I remember the guildie said something about healing magic.

I'm trying to picture my hand healing. Imagine it scabbing over and then coming back together over time.

Done. It's healed. But my bones feel sore. Maybe it's cracked. Imagine the crack healing. The pain went away.

So this is recovery magic. I thought it was some kind of green light that came out, but there was no effect.

I used about 2 MP in total. It's okay because it's me, but a normal wizard would probably run out of MP in one shot if he tried to fix a serious injury.

That's why they have potions and such. Of course, you'll need them if you don't have any wizards in your party. I think I'll buy some just in case.

Anyway, spying. It seems that we can't sense their presence, so we have to think of some other way.

I tried to imagine a sensor made of wind touching a tree 1m away, but it didn't increase my MP consumption. I can feel it.

Oh. Is it okay that I'm controlling it at a distance? Keep stretching it out. The longer I stretch it, the more magic power it consumes, but it doesn't feel like it's consuming it at an accelerated rate. And the consumption seems to be very small.

I reached the limit after extending it about 20 meters. It seems that I can't extend it any further. It seems that it only consumes magic power when it is extended, and it does not consume magic power if it only senses the sensation.

Sensor (tentacle?) I feel a sensation on the straight line where the sensor (tentacle?) is located. I don't know if it's because I have sensation in a part that doesn't exist originally.

When I touch the leaves of a tree, they do not move. It seems to work as a sense organ, but it cannot interfere with objects.

But this means that even if I touch it, I can't see it or know what's there.

Let's try to extend the current wind distance to the plane. The MP consumption increases at an accelerated rate as the distance increases, but it seems to be proportional to the square of the distance.

Since the original MP consumption is small, it doesn't bother me much. It consumed 1 MP after 4 meters. If you extend it to 20m, it consumes about 25 MP, which is light for me.

However, the information is so jumbled that I can't understand what's going on at all. I tried shooting a fireball, but all I felt was an impact, and I couldn't tell where the impact came from. Rather, the impact is as if I were hit in the head with a frying pan. This is terrible. I don't think I can fight.

It occurred to me to try to imagine that the information was plunged directly into the information manipulation analysis. Then, I imagined this forest cut into black and white slices in my mind. That's my information manipulation analysis teacher.

However, even if I knew the shape of the slices, it would not be of much use to me, so I made an image of searching for only living things while thinking of information manipulation analysis.

The slice in my mind turned into a dark circle with only my position glowing white. As expected of an information manipulation analysis, this was something different.

You can try to see if you can see anyone other than me after you enter the city.

Since some of the demons are short and some of them fly, I decided to line up 50 boards, 10 meters long and 20 cm apart. Let's call them tentacles.

The tactile plates have eaten up a lot of my magic power. I'll leave the management to Information Manipulation Analysis and keep them deployed. I don't think I have 500 MP left. It's almost noon. Let's go to the blacksmith's after we eat. The radar-like screen in my head disappeared when I felt it was in the way.

As the city approaches, I feel the presence of many people. It seems that you can sense the presence of people even when the touch screen is not displayed. This may be useful.

When I looked at the status, I noticed that the tentacles are not wind magic, but perception magic. Its level is 3. I appraised all spells other than perception spells, and they were all level 3.

I just increased the power, range, and number of bullets.

With this in mind, I showed my ID to the gatekeeper, passed through the gate, and walked down the road to the forge. I wonder if the tempering is done properly.

I'm sure it's not that difficult, since it's a technique that came out relatively early in the original world, but this is my first time in this world. Someone should have thought of it.

I open the door to the blacksmith shop. As usual, Mr. Dverag is working on something.

"Excuse me!

"Shut up! Shut up and wait!

As usual. But this time, he's tempering the sword after he's finished beating it. Thanks to this, the waiting time has increased to about 10 minutes.

The sword isn't bent. It seems to have worked.

"Oh. Hardening is amazing. The charcoal iron that came out recently is hard, but it's different when it's hardened. But ordinary cheap iron doesn't become very hard even if you try to quench it. Well, I only use charcoal iron anyway, so it's not a problem.

Charcoal Iron....... I wonder if he means steel. I guess ordinary iron is wrought iron. It is made in a lump iron furnace or a reverberatory furnace. I don't know how it's made, but it's not made in a converter. If it is made in a converter, it is not surprising that wrought iron has been exterminated. Even if a converter is used, it is possible that steel is more expensive because of the phosphorous contained in iron ore.

Wait a minute while I bring you the sword. I hardened it yesterday.

Mr. Dveragh then brings a sword from the back. It's got a scabbard and a length of about 80cm. It's rather large.

Try swinging it a little.

So I pulled out the sword and swung it straight vertically. It feels right.

"Oh! I wonder if swordsmen used to do that. The swing is totally useless, but the movement itself is solid. You'd be somewhat better at it if you did some swinging.

A martial artist's talent is to be feared. I'll do it later.

"It's easy to handle. Thank you.

I should be thanking you. I'm able to hit better and more consistently than before. But is that okay? This is a technique that could have been a secret, but you taught it to me so easily.

Yes. I'd rather you spread the word. Technology is only as good as the people who use it.

If good weapons spread cheaply, we can increase our strength and I can live safely. I'll put the sword in the item box for now.

You're young and you know your stuff. Well, let me know if you need anything in the future. By the way, you're not wearing any armor, do you need it?

By the way, you're not wearing any armor. There's a big difference in defense between having armor and not having armor. If the weight of the armor makes you unable to move, it would be a disaster, but I guess leather armor is okay.

I'd like to get some lighter armor, but I didn't have the money, so I thought I'd get some later. If you want something that won't hinder your movement, would leather armor be better?

"Yeah. Then leather armor. We only make sheet metal armor, but I know a good leather armor maker. It'll probably cost about 15,000 yen. Is that store okay?

Is armor more expensive than swords? Well, the sword I got was free, but it would probably cost more than 10,000 if you bought it normally. The 10,000 is for a sword that has not been tempered.

Well, it's a normal price for me now. It's enough for a day of herb gathering. You can afford it.

"That's the store, please.

It's the armor shop two doors to the left of the guild. They sell cheap armor for beginners, but if you tell them Dverag sent you, they'll get you some good armor.

"All right. I'll be off then.

I wonder if it's someone like Dverag again. ....... But the fact that he also sells cheap armor for beginners suggests that he's a kind person.

I guess I'll go there anyway.