Chapter 12: Upgrading the Wind Glove!

"Nice~" Said Sarah as she touched the "glove" Jay was wearing on his right hand, although it looked very fragile, it actually gave off some pressure, like a strong air current but in a very small space.

"Well, while we were "fighting", I realized that the wind I can control dissipates and loses power the further away it is from me."

Before, because he didn't want to get beaten up, Jay did everything he could to oppose her magic, thus he used the Wind Control at full power, however, he couldn't do much even with that.

When he had trained this skill in the afternoon, he had the suspicions that it was a greatly limited, and after the "fight" with Sarah, it was confirmed.

First of all, the power of his skill decreased the farther he wanted to use it, proportionally, the energy he had to use also increased, however, when he used the skill near him, like when he had blown Sarah, the power was considerably greater and he didn't have to spend much energy.

Fortunately, when Jay was under pressure, like when he was fighting a dangerous mage like Sarah, his mind worked faster than usual, which made him think of various ways to use the Wind Control near him, and this was one of the ways he had thought of.

"Although...I think it's still very weak." Sarah added by touching the claws directly and testing their sharpness.

"Well, it's actually the first time I've done it, so I'm a little surprised it even worked." Replied Jay with a small smile on his face, then trying to make the claws bigger, but it didn't work, making the whole glove dissipate.

"Damn, that seems to be my limit."

"But it seems useful enough, I think you could even create a reinforcement for your whole body if you practice enough. " She said as she sat back down.

"That would be cool...I'll train hard to achieve that."

Even though his biggest trump card was the system, Jay thought that training wasn't bad at all.

"And the claw thing is necessary...?" She added again, "I mean, right now I think you need to priorize defense over attack."

"But the claws look cool..." Jay lamented a bit.

However, listening to Sarah's suggestion, Jay couldn't help but think that it actually made a lot of sense, so he activated the wind glove again, this time without the claws, increasing the density of the glove a bit, although his opinion that the claws looked cool hadn't changed.

Seeing that, Sarah touched it again to check its resistance, even though it was not visible, the air current could be clearly felt to the touch, and in fact, the power of that current had increased, even repelling her hand a little if she tried to go through the glove to touch Jay's skin.

"Hoho, now this is much better." Said Sarah looking to Jay's new glove with an interest filled gaze.

She was showing such an interest because the vast majority of magicians were quite curious about the skills of esper, and Sarah was no exception, however, since the only decent esper at the school was Carl, she had not had the opportunity to satisfy her curiosity.

But that had changed now that Jay had basically the same ability, even if it was of a lower rank, it was better than nothing.

"Now try to increase the size slowly."

"Alright..."

Slowly, the current around Jay's hand grew larger, until it was the size of a boxing glove, and even though Jay tried to increase the size further, he couldn't do it, he felt that the wind would dissipate instantly if he made it bigger.

Sarah then tested the glove's strength again, before making an "as expected" expression.

"Yep, in this form you exchange power for size, which is not very useful if you ask me, at most, if you hit someone, they will feel a refreshing breeze".

She couldn't help but laugh a little as she imagined Jay refreshing his opponent with each punch. "Anyway, now do the opposite, first shrink the glove into it's original size and try to condense as much wind as you can, remember to keep the glove from changing size."

When Sarah finished her sentence, Jay was already doing that, the "boxing gloves" were getting smaller and smaller until they reached their original size, then he focused on increasing the density of the wind that was surrounding his hand.

"Alright, this is harder than making it bigger!" Jay shouted as a few drops of sweat formed on his face, this task was proving to be more challenging than expected.

Unlike before, where Jay's glove was simply transparent and one could only feel the glove if one touched it, now it was starting to emit some wind around it, even though it was somewhat weak.

"Wow, now you definitely look like a real esper." Said Sarah as she watched Jay's hand surrounded by the dense wind current.

Jay didn't answer or rather, he couldn't afford to do it, he was putting all his attention on keeping the condensed wind current in his hand after all.

Despite the fact that he had spent all afternoon training it, since the Wind Control was something he had gotten recently, that kind of concentration was needed.

Sarah on the other hand didn't care much if he didn't answer, she was more interested in the increasingly dense air current in Jay's hand.

***

After several minutes of struggling, he reached a point where all the wind he could gather was concentrated in his hand, and his glove ceased to emit wind.

But even if it wasn't emitting wind currents or some kind of pressure like before, Jay was feeling that right now, his hand was the strongest part of his body.

"...I did it!" Yelled Jay, seeing his hand that seemed normal at first glance.

"Alright, now I definitely have to test it's resistence with one of my spells~!"

*Ring Ring*

However, before Sarah could even draw her wand to satisfy her curiosity, the doorbell rang, indicating that the order they made had arrived.

"...Damn it..!" She said in a bitter tone, "Haaa, well, you keep at it, I'll go get the food."

Jay nodded to what Sarah said and began to test his "glove". When he touched it, he felt a strong wind pressure that completely repelled his hand, making him unable to touch the hand inside the glove.

"Wow, although I don't think I can use it for long, it's much stronger than before."

Even though the espers didn't have Qi, or mana, they still got tired if they used their skills too much or for a long period of time-

For them, their skills were like a muscle, they had to train a lot in order to familiarize themselves with their skills and increase their energy or find a way to lower the energy consumption.

"At most, I think I'll be able to use it only for 30 minutes or so..." He said, feeling how his energy was being slowly drained.

In fact, what Jay was doing right now slightly surpassed what the Wind Control (D-) could do, that's why the energy consumption was higher, but of course...

Although the energy consumption to maintain the glove was high, Jay could ignore it thanks to his quick recovery, but that also meant that if he did demanding things while he had the glove activated, he wouldn't be able to use it for that long.

"Well...it's not like I plan to fight for 3 days and 3 nights or anything like that, but I better be careful with my energy consumption." He said as he recalled the battles of some famous pugilists.

"Ah..."

And right when he thought about the pugilists, Jay couldn't help but remember something that was really obvious, but for some reason had escaped him completely until now.

"...I don't know how to fight."

As a person with no skills, Jay had always been careful not to get into fights with other people, not because he was afraid, but rather because he was at a total disadvantage.

As for the time when he "fought" Carl, all he really did was touch him before making a tactical withdrawal that wasn't embarrassing at all.

Thinking about it, the feeling of success he had felt due to managing to strengthen the glove quickly disappeared.

"You just realized that~?"

Before he could think about it anymore, Sarah came back with a paper bag with burgers and fries inside, putting them on the living room small table, then she took one out for her and Jay.

"Then how about we call James to teach you something~?" She added again with a burger on her right hand and taking out some fries from the paper bag with the other hand.

"A-ah..."

Jay couldn't help but unconsciously tremble when Sarah mentioned James to teach him.

There was a reason for that, James had been his teacher for a short time a few months ago, but that short time left mental scars on Jay because of the hellish training he had gone through, which even lead to Jay calling him "James the ogre" because of how barbaric he was.

As a person with no skills, his strength was very limited, so James had wanted to teach him to be able to dodge most kind of skill or at least to be able run away, which, translated into training, meant that he had to be a target of practice at his dojo and having to run away from a James that would give him a tremendous beating if he caught him.

"Haa...I think it's the only option, we'll have to do a demonic summoning..." Said Jay with regret.

However, Jay had to recognize that his methods were effective, so, at the risk of waking up past traumas, they decided to call James the next day.

***

Meanwhile, in James' dojo, he suddenly sneezed.

"Achoo!"

'...I wonder who's talking about me...' he thought before ignoring it and continuing his training.