Chapter 49: Lessons from Ms. Amanda 〜The So-Called Explanation-Time〜

Chapter 49: Lessons from Ms. Amanda ?The So-Called Explanation-Time?

It’s been one hour since Fran’s sparring match and defeat with Amanda.

After waking up, Fran took a seat face-to-face with Amanda. As Amanda was feeling apologetic for letting the battle escalate so far, it was decided that she would teach us some of the information we wanted to know.

As Fran was able to learn a lot through the battle, I don’t really think that there was a need take over Fran’s watch and personally guard her while she slept as well as grant us this, but... Since it’s already like this, we’ve might as well accept it, right?

「Then, first I’ll explain fighting Skills.」

「Please.」

「However, I’m not too strong when it comes to theories, so I won’t be able to explain everything. Is that alright?」

「That’s fine.」

To us who know near-nothing, any information is precious.

「Then, Combat Arts are things like Sword Arts, which allow one to improve their handling with a respective weapon; these improvements can also be seen with Techniques. Combat Techniques like Sword Techniques, Pugilist Techniques, and my preferred Whip Techniques all hold special moves that consume one’s magical power. Did you know of that?」

「Nn. I know.」

Sword Arts is required to learn Sword Techniques, and Bow Arts is required to learn Bow Techniques. Furthermore, it’s impossible to learn Combat Techniques at a higher level than their respective Combat Arts, making the two a pair. In other words, one must bear in mind that if their Sword Arts is only Lv5, they can only level Sword Techniques up to Lv5.

「After that is only a matter of learning how to use Combat Techniques themselves, but......」

「Nn.」

「Well, I’m not really clear on the details surrounding that.」

「Eh?」

「No, well, the methods to learn can be grasped through training, but... I don’t really know the detailed theory around it. If you ask someone researching the subject, you might be able to understand it a bit better.」

「Just training method is fine.」

「That’s usually how it is for Adventurers. Anyways, I suppose for that I should talk about the prerequisites of Vigor Manipulation and Magic Manipulation? As for the reason for needing them...... To be frank, I don’t know why either. As a Half-Elf, I gained both of them before I could remember. Well, it seems that Fran didn’t have any problems with them either, so shall I simply omit it?」

「Nn. Don’t mind.」

「Then, moving onto the training method for Combat Techniques, just envision yourself pouring your magic into the weapon as well as your body. Then, like a flash, Combat Techniques arrive. The Techniques themselves are activated when you don’t go against that flash. After the first use, the Technique is acquired in the form of a Skill of sorts, so there’s no problem using it from that point on. Fran can use Combat Techniques too, so do you remember acquiring them?」

「?」

「Well, Fran is still small, so you probably learned your Combat Techniques when you were even younger, right? It’s possible that you’ve forgotten. Still, to be able to use Combat Techniques at such a young age, you’re pretty prodigious, huh.」

Dangerous. We were saved by the fact that Fran’s a child. Anyways, in regards to the method of obtaining Combat Techniques, I have a rough idea of how it works. With this, not only Sword Arts, but Sword Techniques should also be able to be trained manually.

「Once a Combat Technique has been learned, you should continuously use it to raise the Skill’s level. The reason being each time a level goes up in a form of Combat Techniques, a new Technique is learned.」

Lv1 must be the most difficult to raise, then.

「Next, shall I move onto the description of Magic?」

「Nn.」

「In Magic, the basic attributes are Soil, Water, Fire, and Wind. Their superior versions are Ground, Ocean, Flame, and Storm respectively.」

All four of the basic attributes can be used already.

「After those are what are called ‘composite attributes’. Those are Lightning, Ice, Nature, Lava, Sandstorm, and Life: those 6.」

「Composite?」

「Yes. You can acquire those attributes after improving two of the basic attributes. For example, Nature Magic requires Water and Soil Magic.」

「Possible to learn? Or not?」

「Well, I’ll get to that.」

To learn Magic, one can either become a pupil of an experienced magician, or learn it through means of memorization, or... Well, there’re various methods.

That reminds me, there’s still one thing that I’ve been wondering about.

「Is Dark Magic only used by bad people?」

The Demon made use of it, and Poison and Ghost Magic are the types used by villains no matter how you look at it. If it was me, I wouldn’t be able to trust a practitioner of Ghost Magic on our first meeting no matter what. They’d be an evil person, after all. Or... I’d imagine them to be so, anyways.

「That’s not the case. Demonic Beasts may make use of it, and civilians might think that it’s inherently bad, but... For Adventurers, magic of all kinds is generally recognized as ‘useful’. For example, Ghost Magic is really useful in Dungeon exploration, you know?」

Alright. In that case we can make use of Darkness Magic without a problem. With that, Darkness Reinforcement and other such Skills won’t simply be left to collect dust.

Finally, we asked about the combinations of complex attributes.

Water + Soil = Nature

Water + Wind = Ice

Water + Fire = Life

Wind + Fire = Lightning

Wind + Soil = Sandstorm

Soil + Fire = Lava.

Those are the combinations.

As for the composite attributes between Light and Dark as well as unique attributes, they have yet to be confirmed.

「Well, I don’t know of them, at least.」

「I want a composite attribute.」

「Fran made use of Soil and Wind magic a while back, and you’re good with Fire too, right? With those, it’s possible to aim for Lightning, Sandstorm, and Lava.」

「Nn. I’ll do my best.」

Alright, if that’s what Fran wants then we’ll obtain one without fail!

I could learn a composite attribute through absorbing one, or through manual acquisition. I was able to learn Flame Magic through Fire Magic Lv10, so the possibility of a composite attribute being learned through raising the levels of other magics is high.

『As it stands...... The attribute second to Fire is Wind.』

In the Goblin Den, Wind Magic Lv3 was repeatedly obtained through absorbing the stones of Army Beetles. The efficiency of absorbing higher-leveled Skills is better than lower-leveled ones, after all.

Raising Wind Magic through the insects’ Lv3 versions took far less time than advancing Sword Arts through the Goblins’ Lv1 versions.

『What shall we do...... Perhaps we should give it a level or two?』

47 Self-Evolution Points remain. We should leave 28 of those for the sake of testing out the Superior version of Sword Arts.

『What do you think?』

(What to do?)

In the end, we used 6 Points to raise Wind Magic’s level. As we attained the Lightning Attribute properly, I have no regrets. Furthermore, the Storm Attribute and Master of Wind Titles were also obtained.

(Want to use it quickly.)

『Not here. We only just heard about Composite Attributes from Amanda, so somehow using one immediately would be bad.』

(Alright......)

『When we return to Aressa, let’s test it out. Alright?』

「Nn.」

Note:

Surprisingly mentions Hunter×Hunter without any censorship (狩人×狩人).

In regards to the higher version attributes, the first (Decay) is actually Ptomaine Poison (死毒). Because Ptomaine is found in putrefying corpses/vegetation, Decay seems to be fitting, so I went with it.

The second is 聖浄, with the first character being Sacred/Holy/Pure and the second being Cleaning/Cleansing/Cleanup. ‘Cleansing’ in itself can be linked to the purging of sins/filth, so that’s what I decided upon.

It should also be noted that 浄化, which I’ve translated as ‘Purification’ could also be ‘Cleanup’, so if Teacher and/or Fran happen to get it and the first spell is something like ‘Clean’, then I’ll change Purification → Cleaning, and keep Cleansing the same.