“Well then, from here on, I’ll teach you,” she said.
“Okay.”
When Diana said that, Kurt stepped back to the side of the main house to observe and sat on a log that served as a chair.
“In order to use magic, ‘attribute assignment’ and ‘state change’ are important. You understand attribute assignment since your dad taught you about it, right?”
“Yeah, I get it.”
“Alright, then we’re going to study state changes… Nero, what do you think state changes are?”
“Um…”
Just as the name suggests, I think it’s about changing a state… In this case, does it mean giving a change to magical power?
“Changing magical power?”
“That’s right, correct. State change refers to giving commands to the magical power with attributes assigned to it to actually activate it.”
“Commanding magical power?”
“Yes, that’s right, Nero. You’re a clever one.”
Commanding magical power… How do I do that? Do I say ‘Go!’ or ‘Fly!’ out loud? That seems a bit embarrassing.
Or do I concentrate on giving the command in my head?
But I tried concentrating a bit when I assigned attributes earlier, and there was no change, so I think that’s not it.
“For example, with a basic water attribute spell called Water Ball, you need to consider what shape it is, how big it is, how much mass it has, which direction it flies, and what initial speed it will be launched at. You have to give instructions for all of that.”
Is it really necessary to give such detailed instructions for a single spell?
But magical power doesn’t have ears, nor is it a living thing. How do you command it?
“Can magical power hear what you say?”
“Hehe, if it could, that would be fun.”
Diana smiled at me affectionately.
“You know about the magic horn, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You give instructions to the magical power through that magic horn.”
So that thing has such a role.
“You can see my magic horn, right? Let me show you.”
Saying that, she opened her palm to reveal a magic horn base.
It was shaped like a pentagon.
Just like Kurt’s.
“My magic horn is pentagonal. Each side of this pentagon can receive different instructions. For example, the size, shape, mass, and so on that I just mentioned. Since mine is a pentagon, I can give five instructions at the same time. Yours is a heptagon, so you can give seven instructions simultaneously.”
I see, that’s why those with more corners are treated as higher-ranked.
It’s more advantageous to give multiple commands at once.
“And to give commands to this magic horn base, the power of imagination is very important.”
“So I just need to think about five things at the same time?”
“That’s right, you’re smart. But just sending a water ball isn’t enough; you’ll need to develop this further to defeat magical beasts.”
That was a completely serious expression that she had never shown before, despite always being gentle and kind.
Is this the face of the water dragon witch known as a magical warrior?
Water began to cling to the magic horn base she had unfolded.
The magical power was being assigned an attribute.
And then, something happened.
From the center of the magic horn base, five new pentagons appeared in five directions.
“My magic horns increased!”
“Yes, this is a magic horn chain. Each of the five magic horns can further add more instructions.”
“That means…”
Five pentagons appeared, connected by sides like petals. The fact that you can give instructions from the edges of this new pentagon means that you can give an additional twenty instructions, excluding the connecting parts.
“Can you really give that many instructions at once?”
“That’s right. But it can increase even more.”
As soon as she said that, more pentagons appeared around the five pentagons.
Every time they increased, the water ball in her palm transformed into a sharper shape and shrank as if compressed.
She was likely compressing the same amount of water into smaller particles to increase its power, making it like a bullet made of water.
Now that I think about it, when Kurt defeated that black ant monster, I saw a similar chain of magic horns.
He had quickly deployed it during battle, which meant he was giving a lot of instructions to his magical power in that instant.
Knowing Kurt, he probably did it instinctively and casually, but even so, it was impressive.
“Watch closely.”
Right after Diana said that, with a whoosh sound, a water bullet was shot from her hand.
The high-speed projectile pierced through a branch of a tree in the yard.
The penetrated water bullet drew an arc, soaring into the sky and dispersing into droplets.
The broken branch rolled to the ground.
“How was that? This is magic.”
“Wow, Mommy, that’s amazing!”
“Thank you. But even after doing that, it doesn’t have enough power to defeat magical beasts. As you can see, it only has enough strength to break a branch. To compete with magical beasts as a magical warrior, you need to connect even more magic horn chains. By doing so, you’ll be able to create even more powerful and precise magic.”
So it’s going to need to be even more than that…
Since I have a heptagon, the number that increases at once is also high.
In that case, I can increase the precision of the magic…
Just thinking about it seems tough.
“Well, you don’t need to rush. Don’t think about anything else; just start by launching a water ball.”
Diana said that, but I feel like I finally have the chance to learn some real magic, so I want to challenge myself a bit.
She said that the power of imagination is important, but does that mean using my imagination to supplement the complex and numerous instructions?
For example, techniques used by characters in manga or anime come to mind, and I have visuals and effects firmly set in my mind.
If I use those as references, I might be able to simplify some of the instructions for state change.
Alright…
“I’ll try it out.”
“That’s right. It’s important to grasp the feeling first, so go ahead and give it a try. At first, it might be hard to stabilize the shape of the magic, but continuing to challenge yourself without giving up is the shortcut to success.”
I see, so it’s that difficult.
I’ll have to approach it seriously.
I stretched out my right hand and first unfolded the magic horn base that would serve as the starting point for activation.
I channeled my magical power into it and assigned the attribute.
The assigned attribute was water.
Since Diana suggested starting with Water Ball, I would give it a try.
First, for the shape I would manifest, it should be a sphere since it’s a ball.
Now, regarding the amount of magic power to use, I wonder how much I should pour in?
I can tell that the more I pour, the bigger the water ball gets.
If it gets too big, it will be hard to handle, so I need to compress it.
Trying to compress it while keeping the amount of magical power I poured in unchanged, just like Diana did.
I was able to make it about the size of a basketball, but I couldn’t compress it any further.
It felt like there was a strong force pushing back from the inside.
What’s wrong… Why can’t I make it smaller than this?
Well, since it’s my first time, I guess it can’t be helped.
I decided to leave it as it was for now, and the next thing to consider was how to launch it… But I wanted to form it into a proper shape rather than just launching it normally.
So it’s about that imagination power…
What came to mind was something like a wave attack from a certain manga.
The image of condensing the energy inside me and releasing it all at once.
“Is it like this?”
I pulled my arm back for a moment and felt the magic horn expand on its own.
Ignoring that, I thrust my arm forward again.
The next moment, a heavy mass of water was shot from my hand.
It was a water bullet, a Water Bullet… No, it should be called a water cannon, a Water Cannon.
The recoil was incredible, and the mass that flew away had unexpected power.
It pierced through the trunk of the tree in front of me and shattered the stone wall beyond it.
Fortunately, the mass of water burst after breaking the stone wall, so there was no further damage, but if it had hit someone, it would have been serious.
Oh no… I’ve already broken the promise not to do anything outside what I was taught on my own.
No, I intended to follow what Diana taught me, but it seems I veered off course somewhere along the way.
It might be better to just apologize honestly.
Thinking that, I turned to my parents.
Then, Kurt and Diana stood there with their mouths agape, dumbfounded.
