Chapter 70: Ball Game

Adan’s training is going well. The glowing bean bag training is something I devised to teach the fundamentals of magic power control by having a set amount of magic power constantly supplied to the ball while playing.

When I asked old man Kent about how to practice magic power control, I was told that the academy students and the children of nobility all unitarily plant themselves on their desks and endlessly pour magic power into a magic circle. The magic circle seems to have been set to activate if a certain amount of magic power is continuously loaded into it, but continuously doing the same thing without any way to know how much MP is currently loaded into it, or even if it’s too much or too little, is definitely nothing short of inefficient if you ask me.

「Hmm, it should be fine to move on to the next phase now.」 「Oh? It’s not just juggling?」 「That’s just the basics of basics. We’re going to up the ante.」

Adan and Urania are now able to continuously juggle the glowing ball 27 and 32 times respectively. Me? I got tired of counting after reaching 270, so I can’t really remember.

Still, this is only the basics. Whether one uses magecraft or magic, swiftly using only the needed amount of magic power is an important part of the fundamentals. And since they’ve already reached that far, I’ve decided to move on to the next step.

「Urania, come here. And Adan, you stand here.」 「Nh.」 「Is this good?」 「Okay. Now then, use this ball.」

Saying so, I took out a volleyball sized ball from my 【Dream Storage】 and threw it to Adan. As I did that, I made sure to supply it with magic power to make it glow. Like the ball from earlier, this magic item will light up if charged with a certain set amount of magic power. The magic power this ball needs is less than the other one, needing only a tenth of it, but in exchange, it requires a precise control of magic power.

In addition to that, this ball has a special mechanism installed. Well, it’s just somewhat like a game and considering how they were doing with the ball juggling, they should be able to get the hang of it in no time.

「What you need to do is simple. Just charge the ball with magic power and pass it to the next person.」 「That’s all?」 「Does it explode too?」 「Naturally. It’s just a tiny bit painful.」

Same as before, the ball will still burst if it gets too much magic power. When that happens, I made it so that it’ll cause pain just on the level of a rubber band snap.1 Similar to Uranina’s grimoire, it’s made out of proper materials, so although it does burst, it’s not like the magic tool itself actually breaks for real.

「Ow!?」

And it looks like Adan immediately failed as she’s groaning while covering her forehead.

「Teacher~2 There’s something weird about this.」 「Nh, I noticed it too. The magic power needed is different.」

Oh, looks like the two of them noticed it already. While the magic power needed in the other ball is fixed, meaning it’s only a matter of memorizing how much is needed to charge it, this time, the needed magic power fluctuates every time it’s thrown. At first, it wouldn’t be that much different, but the more they pass it around, the greater the fluctuation will be.

「You should be able to know how much it needs when catching it. There won’t be any much difference at first, so it shouldn’t be a problem as long as you just focus.」 「But even if you say that…」

Since Adan is grumbling about it too, I guess I should dangle some bait here.

「Alright then, you two will be passing the ball with each other and the one that makes fewer mistakes will get a reward, how does that sound?」 「A reward?」 「Can we ask for anything?3」 「As long as it’s something I can do.」

Things like making them the Sage of Leo or something is impossible after all. Still, if it’s just some delicious sweets or some magic item, then I can give them as much as they like. Hell, I can even make some with 【Dream Fabrication】 no problem. It’s going to disappear if it breaks though.

「Alright! I’m definitely not losing!」 「Fu. Right now, I can win against anyone.4」 「Hii!?」

F-for some reason, am I just imagining things or is there bloodlust or rather an awfully cold surge of chill coming from Miss Urania over there? And is Adan, who’s holding the ball, flinching even before they even started…? Did I, just maybe, make the wrong move…?5