SIAW Vol. 1 Chapter 4 (PROLOGUE)
Chapter 4 – Training : Day 30
As per usual, I sat at the office desk and checked the monitor: the display showed “Day 31 (one month) 09:03”, thus showing how many days had passed and the time.
If one month was 30 days, then the whole training period was going to be 90 days.
Name: Tenma
Species: Human
Level: 1
Gender: Male
Age: 14
HP : 56/56 (UP!!)
MP : 368/368 (UP!!)
STA: 59/59 (UP!!)
INT: 72 (UP!!)
STR: 121 (UP!!)
SPD: 77 (UP!!)
SKL: 53 (UP!!)
LCK: 50
Title(s):
Skill(s): Language comprehension – LV 2, Lifestyle Magic – LV 3 (UP!!), Appraisal, Item Box LV 1 (UP!!), Throwing LV 1 (UP!!), Magic Depletion Resistance LV 1(UP!!), Magic Recovery LV 1 (UP!!), Sleep Resistance LV 1 (UP!!), Quickread LV 1 (UP!!), Magic Detection (NEW!!), Sword Arts (NEW!!), Concentration (NEW !!), Targeting (NEW!!)
As usual, my HP barely increased. I didn’t have the guts to hurt myself to decrease my HP, so I had to find some other effective way…
My MP grew at a good pace, which also meant that the MP depletion – complete recovery process took more time. And it was going to be longer and longer in the future.
The other stats increased pretty much like I expected. I wanted to find a more effective way to raise them, though…
～
Lifestyle Magic grew to level 3, so I was pretty satisfied.
When Water and Fire became level 1 Lifestyle Magic reached level 2; when Blow and Hole did the same, it reached level 3. Light was already level 1, so when Sleep reached level 2 there was a high chance that Lifestyle Magic would become level 4.
Once it did, I was going to focus on Appraisal.
My max MP had increased, so I became able to level up magic skills more quickly, as I had estimated.
Maybe because of the increase of my magic power quantity, I sometimes felt a warm sensation under my belly button. It disappeared when my magic power decreased, so I guessed it was caused by the flow of magic power in my body.
Especially when I used Clear, I could feel the magic power enveloping my whole body. I was able to sense this flow thanks to the Magic Detection skill, surely.
Acquiring this skill required a rather high amount of magic power, so I thought that the condition was probably casting a great amount of spells.
～
Throwing became level 1: speed and precision improved a lot. Learning the Targeting skill increased the precision as well. Lately, I started practicing throwing things while running. It would be great if I could raise it to level 2 within the training period.
When I acquired the Sword Arts skill, I was almost moved.
My pathetic swings, thanks to the increase in STR, had progressed quite a bit. After learning the skill, I could tell that I was getting close to moving like a real swordsman: it felt much more natural to hold the blade in my hands.
I gave up on practicing other skills: it would be ideal if I could raise Sword Arts to level 2 within the training period.
Quickread became level 1, surely thanks to the time I spent studying.
The Concentration skill was gained not only thanks to studying, but also because I always focused while practicing my skills. I had just acquired it, but I could already tell that it improved the quality of my training.
～
It was time to reevaluate how to proceed.
First of all, I was going to make sure I stayed at level 1. I decided to think again about it one month from now, and focus on raising my stats.
I was going to continue the training I already did, and try to learn skills that seemed necessary.
I wasn’t going to go inside the dungeon yet, but I wanted to try to go out of the safe area and practice fighting. Experiencing real battles might give me new ideas, and there might be useful skills to learn.
I also needed to get used to defeating monsters, after all.
I very rarely experienced killing living creatures in my past life, and saw blood only on a screen, for the most part. I wasn’t playing a game anymore, so I had to get used to killing.
If in the process I acquired skills related to extracting materials from monster corpses, all the better.
The “Resources” menu did not include meat, so I probably had to take down monsters to have some.
Besides, I also wanted to learn cooking-related skills if possible. I had no idea what kind of world awaited my new life, so it would be definitely better to be able to cook my own food.
Lastly, I definitely needed a magic power manipulation skill.
In order to learn the magic I read about in the library, or to learn alchemy too, I had to know such a skill, or so I read in a book.
If magic existed in the world I was going to be reborn in, I surely needed to be able to detect and manipulate it.
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I started to experiment with magic power.
I casted Lifestyle Magic spells and checked how much MP I consumed when I stopped being able to detect magic power.
After a few tries, I confirmed that I became unable to detect it under 300 MP.
After the experiment, I did my usual training until my MP recovered over 300, so I could detect magic power again.
Two hours later, my MP exceeded 300; I immediately tried my hand manipulating magic power, using the method I had found in a book in the library.
I closed my eyes, as if meditating, and concentrated in the magic power pooled under my belly button. I then tried to move the magic power I detected at my own will.
I moved it up and down, left and right, little by little.
It didn’t respond much at first, but eventually, I felt a jolt and could tell I succeeded. After about 30 minutes, I became able to move it around in small bursts.
It took less time than expected: the Concentration skill probably helped, as well as the training bonuses. The book said it would take 10 days to 1 month to reach this stage, after all.
I added this exercise to my training regimen.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Next up, actual battling!
I thus ran up to the limits of the safe area.
From inside, I scanned the surroundings for any monsters.
I walked slowly along the border of the area, and soon enough found a horned rabbit. It was munching on grass, about 10 meters away from me.
It didn’t seem to have noticed me yet. I carefully made sure there were no other monsters around: I didn’t have the courage to face multiple opponents from the start.
I pulled out my short sword a few times, to be sure I could draw it quickly, then took out a pebble.
I slowly went through the safe area’s film bubble; immediately, the rabbit noticed my presence and started running in my direction.
It was faster than I expected, but I managed to keep my cool and throw the pebble.
The rabbit didn’t even try to dodge and kept running straight in my direction. The pebble struck it straight on the forehead and the rabbit wobbled as if it had a concussion.
I quickly approached it and swung the short sword at its neck.
The rabbit’s head was detached easily: the short sword, however, got implanted deep into the ground.
Was it because my STR increased, maybe?
I also felt less guilt than I thought I would. The sight of blood wasn’t a pretty spectacle, but I did not feel like throwing up.
I put the horned rabbit remains in the Item Box and returned to the safe area.
When I checked inside the Item Box, the remains were labeled “Horn Rabbit”. Its meat was edible, and it was a common ingredient, apparently.
After that, I hunted three more Horn Rabbits.
～
I then went to the river and tried taking apart the monster’s corpses, recalling the method I read about in a book.
When I let the blood out and extracted the organs I felt a little sick, but endured it and kept going: while they didn’t look pretty at all, I managed to obtain a mana stone, meat, and pelt.
I let the blood and organs flow down the river. They were probably going to disappear by the next day…
In any case, I confirmed I could fight somehow or other. I was going to add such battle practice in my daytime training.