25 Yer a Wizard, Nori

I accepted the offered branch from the white Aurean wolf, taking into consideration my body language at all times.

A part of me understood intrinsically that this wolf pack was grateful that I sent off their former packmate instead of letting him continue onto the path of destruction. That they probably cast him out before the Madness would consume the pack as a whole.

Watching as the wolves left, I saw the pale alpha female throw her head back and let out a mournful howl. The air of loss among the pack made me wonder if Mana Madness really was incurable.

Contemplative about what just happened, I glanced down at the living branch, staring at the green leaves and small, bright-red fruits. The berries reminded me of hawthorns.

[You have been given a blessing, Nori. You have also leveled up.]

I was Level 5 now.

The branch disappeared from my hand without prompting, the AI putting it away, as I straightened up and mentally shook off my last encounter.

Level 5 meant magic. Magic meant fireball! I cackled in my head; the dream spell of any fantasy geek was possibly within my grasp!

[…]

I quickly moved on to find an area where I wasn't liable to accidentally start an uncontrolled forest fire.

I stopped as soon as I found a brook, absentmindedly told 37 to jar me if there were incoming animals that were going to try to eat me, and immediately started. I had hours to come up with various methods to try out based on various fictional systems, after all.

"…"

[Nori, how…?]

I almost missed the flabbergasted emotion from the AI I shared headspace with, too preoccupied staring at my hands with a shit-eating grin stretched across my face.

I made fire.

With my mind.

Pyrokinesis all the way, baby!

[Nori… was there really no magic on your Earth?]

'As far as I know, nope!' I replied with only part of my attention split, focused on seeing if I could shape the lick of flame hovering over my palm.

[I am sorry for doubting you. I will not do so again.]

'Hm?' I could feel him metaphorically recalculating what to expect from me.

[I did not expect you to have the level of focus and concentration needed for something most use mnemonic aids to accomplish.]

Tilting my head as I played with the size and temperature of the <Fireball> in my hand, I took a moment to focus on using my refilled MP gauge to see if I can stack—Yep. Definitely possible, though I nearly lost control of the shape.

"My older sister is a black-belt judoka though she's mostly swinging around swords nowadays. When she taught me some moves for self-defense, I learned mokuso. Archery also requires a certain state of mind. And, well, I'm just used to getting into the zone," I shrugged as I replied out loud so I could concentrate a bit more easily.

The imagery was also easy, considering fire was basically a chemical reaction. I just used the energy—let's just call it mana from now on(yes, I gave in)—as the fuel. The heat was produced by agitating the molecules and oxygen was found in my surroundings.

Easy as pie.

Of course, it meant I would need to occasionally refuel the fire but the rate that mana was consumed was, logically, based on the rate of combustion. I would need to experiment a bit more but 5MP would last a good ten seconds, satisfactorily enough for a long-distance attack, I think.

After stepping into the brook and successfully pitching the <Fireball> several times (I needed to keep focus on it so it didn't destabilize but I could understand why mnemonics would be useful for more complicated processes—there'd be too many things to calculate otherwise), I was on an adrenaline high and decided to tackle that lightness technique inspired from the elves.

And wuxia. Yeah. I admit pulling off qinggong in real life would be badass.

I liked freerunning for a reason, after all.

'Right, so I peripherally interacted with gravitational force and velocity with the <Fireball> spell. So if I—'

[…]

Um.

[Congratulations Nori, you just learned an advanced technique: <Flight>.]

I fell with a light splash, the shield protecting me from the rocks of the shallow brook as I lost concentration from shock and stopped floating.