CH 10

“We should stop for today. And if we’re camping here… We should be fine under that tree.”

We walk towards a tree not too far from the main road, and get ready to spend the night here. Depending on the situation, small groups of people don’t usually need to set up tents. Of course, that’s a different story in cold regions, but many people in places with a nice temperature feel good spending the night covered with only a robe.

This also makes it easier to deal with a sneak attack if that happens.

“Since Sora isn’t used to this, we’ll have two people stand watch just for today, while the other rests. But usually we rest better if only one stands watch.”

We’ll try it today, and if there aren’t any problems, only one person will stand watch tomorrow.

First, we start a fire and take a breather. Chris does it with her Basic Daily Life Magic. She teaches me some stuff about it too.

Both girls can cook, and they’re pretty good at it. I want to assume they’re being nice and letting me do nothing but watch because they assume I’m tired.

“Usually when people camp, they have a simple soup and bread. I actually heard that if you have a high performance magic bag, you can walk around with food you buy in a store, but I don’t know how true that is.”

“How much are they?”

“They’re usually sold in auctions, so their prices skyrocket. There are cheap magic bags too, but even those tend to cost around fifty gold coins. Apparently those can fit the contents of five barrels. Some people also find them in treasure chests in dungeons.”

“Do they get more expensive the bigger their capacity? Isn’t there anything like storage magic?”

“…There is storage magic in spatial magic. Apparently how much the user can carry is dictated by the amount of magic energy the user holds.”

“But there aren’t many people that can use spatial magic. That’s why they’re usually invited to high ranking parties even if they can’t fight at all.”

Spatial magic… I have skill points, so should I learn it?

“Do you need to have aptitude for it? How do you check if you can use it?”

“It is possible to check your aptitude if you go to a church. If you learn you have the aptitude for it, it will come to you naturally, and if you continue to use it, you will learn new spells. Also, there are things called magic scrolls that will allow you to learn magic even if you don’t have the aptitude for it.”

Apparently I need to give alms if I want to look this up.

Magic scrolls are expensive too, so most adventurers don’t even use them if they find them in dungeons, and sell them instead. I hear that at some point there was a rumor that the Magic State of Efa successfully developed magic scrolls, but apparently no one talks about it anymore.

I think learning magic naturally once you know you have aptitude is the equivalent of learning it by using skill points.

I think people learn new spells by using magic because their proficiency increases and so does their magic level.

“Haven’t you ever done it, Sora?”

“I’ve never checked it in a church. I guess I can use new spells because my magic level increases?”

When Chris hears this, she tilts her head like she’s confused.

“Hum, I don’t know if magic has levels. It might have, but there is no way to check.”

“…Haven’t you ever heard the words status open?”

“Status open? I have not.”

“Yes yes. I see you’re having fun talking, but Chris needs to rest for a while. You can continue when you’re keeping watch together. Just don’t forget to watch out for threats too.”

Says Rurika, and Chris’ face turns red before she covers it with her hood and lies down on a sheet.

“I’ve never seen Chris talk that much to anyone other than me.”

“It does feel like she’s pretty shy. Some people just aren’t good at talking.”

“That’s not it. Well… I do feel a bit lonely, like she’s been taken from me, but seeing Chris have fun talking like that makes me happy, so feel free to keep talking to her. I approve of your friendship, but if you hurt her, I will never forgive you. Right?”

Yep. Her smile is scaring me.

That being said, while we did talk normally, we were talking about magic.

Chris probably loves magic, so she gets excited talking about it.

“But still, you can use Basic Daily Life Magic… How did you learn it?”

“Ah… I don’t really remember. A lot happened, so I don’t remember that time very well.”

I try to sidestep this topic. Even I know this isn’t a good excuse, but it’s hard to explain that I was summoned from another world.

No, if there are records of summoned heroes defeating the demon king, maybe people also know about people from another world.

But I don’t think I shouldn’t talk about that now. I might actually end up involving them, although there’s a chance that just being together like this is already involving them. I really wish those people just forget about me, or that even if they don’t, they just leave me alone. I won’t bother them either.

“Chris knows a lot about magic, even spells she can’t use herself. You should ask her more about it if you’re interested.”

I will do that. It should help me to know what skills I can learn.

And then, we keep watch and continue talking to make sure we stay awake, but quietly enough that it doesn’t bother Chris’ rest.

Eventually, Chris takes over from Rurika, and I ask her more about magic. What kind of magic exists, and what spells different elements have.

Chris tells me she spends her days off in the reference room of the guild or in the library reading books about magic, and books about fairy-tales and myths. And she’s always studying things like how to take monsters apart, what parts we need to take to prove we took them down, and what materials can become items too.

And when Rurika wakes up, it’s my turn to rest.

I lay down on a sheet, close my eyes, and chant status open.

Name – (Sora Fujimiya ) / Job – (Jobless) / No Level

HP – 220/220 / MP – 220/220 / SP – 220/220

Strength…210 (+1) / Stamina…210 (+1) / Agility…210 (+1)

Magic power…210 (+1) / Dexterity…210 (+1) / Luck…210 (+1)

Skill – (Walking Lv21) – Effect – (User won’t get tired no matter how much they walk) – (Get one experience point with each step)

Experience points – 1192/22000

Skill points – 5

Skills learned

(Appraisal Lv5) / (Appraisal Obstruction Lv4)

(Sword Master Lv3) / (Physical Strengthening Lv5) / (Presence Detection Lv4)

(Magic Energy Control Lv4) / (Basic Daily Life Magic Lv4)

NEW

(Spatial Magic Lv1) / (Parallel Thinking Lv1) / (Natural Recovery Boost Lv1)

I use three skill points to learn (Spatial Magic Lv1), (Parallel Thinking Lv1), and (Natural Recovery Boost Lv1).

That leaves me with two.

The first thing that happens when I learn Spatial Magic is that now I can use Storage Magic. Its proficiency increases by putting things in this spatial storage, and it’s basically the magic version of an item bag.

Since my level is so low, I have very limited space. If I go over the capacity of my level, I’ll be constantly spending MP to maintain it, and apparently what I stored jumps out when my MP runs out.

Proficiency doesn’t just increase when I store things, just having something here at all times increases it too.

I can only store inorganic material, so that rules out living beings. Things that degrade over time degrade at about the same speed too, due to my low level.

Parallel Thinking allows me to think about more than one thing at a time. I was thinking about how I could use Presence Detection while sleeping here, and figured Parallel Thinking should do the trick.

Natural Recovery Boost is good to speed up the recovery of HP, MP, and SP. The HP part accelerates natural healing abilities, the MP part makes it easier to recover MP spent using magic, and the SP part hastens the recovery of SP spent using things like skills.

In the end, I think I can use Presence Detection while sleeping, thanks to Parallel thinking. I sort of get a faint feeling that it’s active, but since nothing happens while the two girls are keeping watch, I can’t say for sure that it works.