CH 13

When I finished telling Allison the whole story about the dragon’s birth, she made a really sour face. Why are you mad?, I asked confused. I’m not mad., she said with a straight face. I wonder if she didn’t like the part where I got into bed with Manuela. It’s not like we did anything. We did give birth though.

Afterwards, Winter left along with Manuela. He was stuck to me making sad cries right until he had to leave. Such a cute fellow. They were going to meet Winter’s biological parent once, that seemed to be a part of the dragon’s request too. Manuela said that she would give my additional reward the next time we meet, so for now I decided to take the magic bag out for a spin.

While she did say that there were some stuff inside, I am still not exactly sure how to use the bag. I went with a displeased Allison to complete a new request. After we defeated the monster, I held the magic bag in my hand. Will just circulating my mana through it be enough? I gathered mana into my hands and suddenly the magic bag grew absorbing it. I opened the bag and looked inside. It’s completely dark. Like the magic Manuela used, the opening of the bag was pitch black, and I couldn’t see what was inside. I wonder what’s inside. The moment I thought that and was about to put my hand inside the bag, an image floated in my view. I guess this shows a summary of the things inside the magic bag? That’s pretty handy.

There were about fifty books inside. She said that she hadn’t touched this bag for over a century, so they are probably pretty outdated. There was also a large amount of money inside. When I took some out, I found that they were coins that I had never seen before. Where can I even use this? I tried asking Allison, but she hadn’t seen the like either. Well, it was in use over a century ago after all. Not everyone would know about it. That said, Allison was still in a bad mood. I tried distracting her by taking out a book from the bag. It seemed to be a book related to monsters, but I didn’t know what it was exactly about. I wonder if she’ll bite.

What’s that?, she asked curiously. She bit! Well, I’m not sure. It’s difficult to read. When I said that, Allison came closer and peered at the book. ‘Contracting with Monsters. A tome about Taming.’? Allison snatched the book away from me and began flipping through it. Despite the book using archaic speech, she was reading it at a very rapid pace. She then froze on a single page and perused it for a long time until she suddenly slammed the book shut. Hey can I borrow this?!, asked an excited Allison smiling for the first time that day. I nodded surprised by her sudden excitement. Looks like she found something. Allison was in good humour on our way back, but she refused to tell me anything about what she’d found in the book.

The following day I was on my own because Allison wanted to properly read the book she borrowed yesterday. I suppose I’ll work on my magic today then. There were some swords inside the bag, but my swordsmanship was still poor, so I left them be. There were some books on magic too, but about half of the 50 odd books were in a language I couldn’t read, and the other half was in archaic speech. I could read it but found it difficult to follow. I was still surprised that Allison could read it with ease.

Out of all these, one book titled ‘Basic Magic’ was the only one I was able to read. The problem was that the first chapter began like this, Let’s try mixing two attributes. Stop fucking with me! Flipping through the book, I saw cute illustrations that showed me that this book was meant for children, only, all the characters in the book had pointed ears. I finally found a useful looking heading in the appendix that read, Everyone, let’s don our Aura to protect ourselves from injury. When I turned to the right page and read, I felt like pitching the book at the nearest monster, because it said, Well, I’m sure you all already know how to do it though. Irritated, I continued to read further. Apparently, Aura is the same as Body Strengthening that is performed on the surface of the body.

I put the book down on the ground and got up to test it out. I knew how to release my mana outside my body, I just needed to use it as I would for Body Strengthening, but on the outside. It’s not working. Specifically, I was able to circulate and use my mana as I did for Body Strengthening, but when I move the reinforcement doesn’t follow me. In short, I was having trouble with the ‘Donning’ part of ‘Donning an Aura’.

When I was mulling over this issue, I noticed the gatekeepers at a distance. They were wearing armour. I see, maybe I should imagine it to be like wearing an armour. Until now, I’d been releasing mana outside like I would for casting water balls, and then tried to circulate it around me like I would for Body Strengthening. But that isn’t right, donning an aura is not a two stage process like that. I need to look at it like growing an armour. I thought back to how I learnt to release my mana outside in the first place. I focused and released my mana just above my skin, and reinforced it simultaneously.

It felt like there was something wrapped around my entire body. When I looked down at my own hand, it felt slightly warped, like I was viewing it through water. I think I got it this time. When I tried moving, it moved along with my body. Now I need to test if it works as well as, no, even better than armour at protecting me from blows. The best way to do that is to jump as high as I can. I wore my Aura and then strengthened my body too. It was hard to maintain both simultaneously, but I managed. Once they felt stable, I set myself and sprang up as high as I could by pushing against the ground.

I rose high through the air like my body had been freed from the fetters of gravity. I’d jumped even higher than the tall walls of the town. The knights stationed on the wall seemed to be staring at me in shock. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to jump as high as I could. This is too high! I held still for a moment at the apex of my jump, and then began to fall back down. But no one had informed my organs, they were trying to stay where they were. Oh shit! I’m going to die! Panicking, I strengthened my Aura even further. The ground rose to meet me, and I shut my eyes fearing the impact. And it never came. Opening my eyes I found that the ground was slightly hollowed out, but I was completely fine. Looks like it worked well. Phew. If it could take this impact, it should be able to block swords too. I won’t be testing that though.

Next up was the second grade spell of the water attribute, but I couldn’t get it to work at all. Even if I tried shaping the water in the form of a sword, that’s all it was. When I tried shooting it, it had no offensive power. I might as well have thrown a bucket of water. While I was groaning in frustration over my lack of progress, Cornelia came around. Apparently, Allison hadn’t lifted her head out of the book at all, so she came here.

I’m able to cast spells to form shields or swords, but it’s just water in different shapes., I complained hoping she might have some insight. Cornelia nodded and said, Well of course. You aren’t a Servant after all, you’re not a tool in the first place. I tilted my head in incomprehension. Seeing that, Cornelia added, I mean, we use our original forms as the basis to cast the Ability. It’s almost like we are creating clones of our original selves. In my case, I was first a sword who was then made into a shield, so I can do both.

Like a clone…. Then in my case…. If it’s like a clone, should I try to cast something human shaped?, I asked doubtfully. Ah, that’s right…., trailed off Cornelia as she folded her arms and sunk in thought. I doubt it would work, that’s not a weapon right?, she admitted. Obviously.

Ah, I should have asked Manuela to teach me how to do it. She was casually using knives created by magic to attack me. I wondered if there was some hint in the books, but there was no point if I couldn’t read it.