It’s been two days since my reincarnation.
Yesterday, I tested all the spells up to level five and confirmed I could use them, but I still couldn’t control their power precisely. I ended up sleeping in the forest without fire or light.
Just in case, I set up a defensive barrier around me, but no one broke through it.
It seems there really are no creatures nearby.
Even with the rising of the two suns this morning, there was no sound of birds chirping.
While berries fill the stomach, their nutritional balance is highly questionable.
No matter how many times I used appraisal, I couldn’t identify the names or effects of the items.
I’d like to find other things if possible.
Marius stood up and stretched widely.
My joints ached, but not as much as I expected.
I brought the remaining berries I picked yesterday to my mouth.
They tasted good and filled me up sufficiently, making them useful for now.
The only issue might be that I couldn’t identify the berries even with appraisal.
I searched for edible wild plants within FAO but found nothing noteworthy.
However, I did identify wood fragments and medicinal herbs, so perhaps to know the name of something through appraisal, Marius himself needs to possess that knowledge.
Each instance of this reinforced the fact that this was not the Barnam Continent, and it didn’t sit well with me.
Still, the feeling that it’s better than dying there was strong.
(Today’s goal is to be able to use magic with less power than yesterday!)
Even if I go to human settlements eventually, causing disasters with the lowest-level magic is problematic.
I already have a severe lack of knowledge about this world.
I wanted to avoid being seen as a criminal.
After finishing my meal, I left the seeds and skins on the ground and started walking towards the lake.
I remembered hearing from someone that fruit peels could be used as fertilizer.
If I’m wrong—that thought crossed my mind, but there’s no end to such worries.
Marius, as a person, tended to put aside things that seemed unlikely to yield a conclusion and live positively.
You could say it was haphazard, or you could say he was adaptable and quick to switch gears.
I washed my face with the lake water, quenched my thirst, and started walking to the right.
There are no creatures to the left of the lake—so what about to the right?
Marius pondered this.
“Fire.”
Without drawing my equipment, I pointed my right index finger towards the sky and chanted. A fist-sized ball of red fire flew upwards.
Compared to the first time I used it, its power has significantly decreased.
However, I couldn’t reduce it enough to serve as a light source by last night.
I realized that if I fired it upwards, it wouldn’t cause damage to the forest or lake, after I had used Wind to knock down berries.
Still, if someone saw it from afar, it would likely cause all sorts of misunderstandings.
Marius could only continue training, praying that no one would notice.
“Fire.”
I cast it again, and a slightly smaller fireball than before flew upwards.
So far, it’s going smoothly.
The more I willed it to be weaker, the less its power became.
Perhaps the initial cast was just too strong.
(Perhaps I should try a silent incantation now.)
Silent incantation is a technique even beyond abbreviated incantations, where you cast magic by just thinking it, without even uttering the spell’s name.
I thought “Fire” without speaking it aloud.
Then, a fireball about two sizes smaller than a fist emerged from my finger and flew upwards.
(Did it work?)
Since abbreviated incantations are possible, it’s not impossible for this to work too.
In games, you could only activate pre-set spells, but in this world, you can do it with your own will.
Perhaps it’s inevitable since pre-setting isn’t an option.
(Now, what should I do?)
In games, abbreviated incantations don’t change MP consumption but decrease power, and silent incantations further reduce it.
The fact that this hasn’t changed has been proven both yesterday and today.
On the other hand, the difficulty of handling them increases, and even max-level players don’t have many who can use silent incantations.
Furthermore, while it can be cast instantly, its power drops significantly, limiting its uses.
Unless playing solo, it could only be used for emergencies.
Although it has great value to Marius now, it could become grounds for being ostracized once he reaches human settlements.
Given such risks, I wasn’t inclined to actively practice silent incantations.
This is land unfamiliar to Marius, so the possibility that this world’s basic magic system relies on silent incantations cannot be ruled out…
(Well, that’s fine. First, I’ll focus on being able to control it with abbreviated incantations.)
Marius stopped pondering and decided to resume his practice.
I proceeded around the lake in a counter-clockwise direction.
“Fire,” “Water,” “Light,” “Wind.”
Perhaps due to my high stats, I could cast low-level spells consecutively without issue.
However, as I continued casting spells while walking, I started to get a little breathless.
Even when checking my status, my life points hadn’t decreased.
I inferred that there is a concept of stamina separate from life points.
The fact that it can’t be checked on the status screen is troublesome.
As I started to get somewhat breathless, I stopped for a moment to focus on regaining my breath.
“Fire.”
The fireball that left my fingertips was as weak as if I had used a silent incantation.
When cast while my breathing was uneven, the magic’s power also seemed to decrease.
This time, I tried casting “Fire” with a silent incantation.
The resulting fireball was about the same as with an abbreviated incantation.
It seems that the power doesn’t drop with silent incantations.
It was a good discovery that silent incantations are actually better when I’m tired.
Then, a tingling, unpleasant sensation around my neck struck Marius.
In manga and novels, this is a premonition of hostile individuals approaching.
(My intuition for such things is supposed to be dull…)
If my intuition were good, I wouldn’t have ended up caught in an avalanche and died.
However, I reminded myself that I am now “Sage” Marius Tubaan and prepared myself mentally.
If it gives a “Sage” an unpleasant feeling, it must be a formidable enemy.
I stopped and quickly drew the Dragon God’s Staff.
Glancing left and right, I still couldn’t see any signs of an enemy.
So, I quickly took out the Ring of Divine Words and put it on my right index finger.
At that moment, a rustling sound came from the forest to my right, and multiple shadows appeared.
Five monsters with green faces, two small horns growing from their temples, clad in simple helmets and armor, and wielding clubs in their right hands—Goblins—appeared.
(Goblins…? By the lake?)
Doubt flickered for a moment, but the setting of FAO was that there were Goblin nests in the forest.
The four Goblins on the left were about the same height as Marius, while the one in the center was a size larger than those on the sides.
They had already spotted Marius and were rushing towards him with hostile eyes.
“Scan.”
I cast a probing magic to learn about the enemy.
The larger Goblin in the center was identified as a Goblin Leader, and the other four as Goblins.
Beyond their names, nothing else could be analyzed.
(What…?)
“Scan” is a level ten, specialized magic for learning enemy statuses.
If its results come back as unanalyzable, it means either an enemy I’ve never encountered before, or someone whose strength is comparable to my own.
The strongest Goblins, King Goblins, should be around level fifty.
The levels of monsters, excluding boss-class and special monsters, indicate levels that players can defeat one-on-one.
In other words, a player level fifty or higher would almost certainly not lose to a Goblin one-on-one.
—In the FAO world.
(Just in case, I’ll go all out.)
If this isn’t the Barnam Continent, there might be powerful Goblins I don’t know about.
Deciding this, Marius decided to use the power of the Ring of Divine Words.
“O crimson flames, burn away my obstacles! Crimson Blaze!”
By merely thinking the name “Crimson Blaze,” the spell was instantly completed.
This is the effect of the Ring of Divine Words, which my companions jokingly called the “cause of balance destruction.”
It’s an item that eliminates the weaknesses of mages, allowing them to cast magic with silent incantation without any power loss and without any subsequent recovery time.
In MMOs, soloing boss monsters is impossible.
Extra items were meant to overturn such common sense.
The fact that its extremity hasn’t changed in this world was conveyed by the giant wall of white flame that appeared before Marius.
The Goblins were engulfed in flames and vanished instantly, armor and all.
“Crimson Blaze” is a wide-area spell at level five.
For beings level 150 or higher, its power is at least enough to withstand one blow, and against a group, it drops to a hundred or less.
Seeing how easily they were dealt with, at least the Goblins of this world were not a threat to me.
Marius felt some relief while looking at the traces of the charred Goblins.
Among monsters that attack humans, Goblins are as weak as Slimes and Kobolds, manageable even for rookie adventurers.
If I struggled against a few Goblins while going all out, I would have had no choice but to flee from battles in this world.
Of course, complacency is forbidden.
Marius told himself this and decided to search for the Goblin nest.
Goblins are carnivorous monsters that primarily feed on humans and herbivores, nesting in areas close to their habitats.
They also never approach places where creatures that threaten them reside.
This means that encountering Goblins implies the presence of herbivores or humans nearby, and no creatures that pose a threat to the Goblins.
(I’ve come quite far without realizing it.)
At some point, both suns were overhead, and the area that seemed like my starting point was only faintly visible in the distance.
It’s no wonder I encountered creatures I couldn’t find yesterday.
The fact that I’m not particularly tired must be due to Marius’s stamina.
As a mage, I shouldn’t be tougher than front-line classes, but that’s likely due to the stats of an extra player.
However, perhaps because I noticed the passage of time, my throat and stomach started to complain now.
It would be better to quench my thirst and fill my stomach before I get too exhausted to move.
Deciding this, Marius first scooped lake water and drank it.
I drank it yesterday as well, and there were no adverse effects.
There might be viruses from another world, but they are certainly not at a level that harms my health.
After safely quenching my thirst, I used “Detection.”
Then, in my mind, I saw myself displayed as a flashing red circle, and a large number of small flashing blue circles appeared a short distance away.
(They’re there, they’re there.)
Marius couldn’t help but grin.
This was the reaction of living creatures I had been waiting for.
However, here the drawback of “Detection” became apparent.
It can accurately detect the presence of living creatures, but not their details—that is its limitation.
I couldn’t distinguish which creature was which.
But, given the nearby Goblin nest, the possibility that the responding creatures were a pack of Goblins, and therefore controllable, was extremely high.
And since Goblins have a habit of forming groups and acting in units of at least five, the area with fewer blinking reactions would likely contain the Goblins’ prey.
And for Marius, that was enough for now.
