Chapter 2: Training

I followed after the blonde girl and, 15 minutes of walking later, we arrived at an around five-meter-tall wooden wall that surrounded the village.

The girl went straight to the central main street and brought me to a conspicuously large mansion poking out of the deepest part of the street.

Entering the mansion, I saw a blonde boy with a bob cut descending down the stairs.

As if to protect me, the blonde girl immediately placed herself in front of me.

"What do you think you're doing, gathering up all these people at the first sign of turmoil? When Father and Mother return from the capital, I'm going to report this, Aqua," the boy said.

"Do as you please. Let's go, Grey," Aqua responded.

The blonde girl, Aqua, grabbed my right arm and led me up to the second floor.

Several servants threw cold gazes at me, which I noticed had come from several villagers earlier as well.

After gathering info for a few days, I finally understood the situation I've been placed in.

The owner of this body's name is Grey Millard, third son of the ultra-poor Millard family and lives in a remote village of the Archive Empire.

The Millards were the lowest ranking noble—a Baron. They lacked any type of specialty and lived in a basin enclosed by high mountains, so travelers rarely visited. With a population of around 3000, the Millard territory was dotted with seven villages. Many believed it wasn't even a territory, but rather just a series of villages.

To make matters worse, around 80% of the territory actually consisted of uncharted 『Ancient Forest』where powerful monsters roamed the land, which left only a small portion of habitable land. Moreover, orcs and goblins regularly assaulted the villages every few years. The Millards were truly fallen nobles, cast off to the edges of the empire.

In any case, I'm the third son of a Baron, born from a mistress. For what it's worth, my mom is also a noble so I will inherit a little, but the amount is even less than my sister, Aqua, will get. It's all just like a script of some day drama. I thought this was the reason for all those cold gazes at first, but that wasn't the case.

It seems the owner of this body, Grey, was born without the ability to use magic. In Archive, magic ability reigns supreme. So supreme, in fact, that it's also called the Magic Empire, Archive. Those who can use magic are prioritized, but on the other hand, those who can't are often labeled as incompetent. They fall all the way down the ladder of inheritance, are barred from entering any building that the empire's Magic Academy oversees and face many other penalties.

Basically, I've been pushed out of my mother's family into the Millards and my siblings avoid me like the plague. How I even have a doting sister like Aqua is extremely strange.

With all that being said, the fact that I'll leave once I turn 13 is almost immutable. Understandably, I wasn't fond of the notion of living with fools who use my lack of magic ability as a reason to discriminate against me, so I'm quite happy with how this has turned out.

As a side note, I've found that I can use Analyze Environment on myself. Grey Millard Status HP: G- (0/100%) MP: G- (0/100%) Strength: G- (0/100%) Endurance: G- (0/100%) Magic: G- (0/100%) Magical Endurance: G- (0/100%) Agility: G- (0/100%) Luck: G- (0/100%) Drop: G- (0/100%) Wisdom: ΛΦΨ Growth Rate: ΛΦΨ Gift: Magic Blueprint Analyze Environment Infinite Item Box Warp Point Race: —————— Title: Brain Monster

I'm extremely weak, but there's nothing I can do about that; it's always like this in the beginning. There's also no convenient level stat, so I don't know how high my stats can go, but I can slowly uncover that.

Additionally, my race name is corrupted, so it's impossible to understand or find the cause. This should also make more sense as I uncover more info.

Next, let's take a look at the Magical Blueprint.

To the right there's an empty box. Could this be a search engine?

I tried inputting fire into the blank space.

★ Magic

Fire Series

◇ Low

[Fireball] [Fire Enchantment] [Fire Whirl]

◇ Medium

[Fire Pillar]

.........

.........

.........

Low and Medium, huh. That's probably an index of how strong the magic is.

Can I look into it with Analyze Environment?

★ Magic Rank: The absolute index of magic strength

The 10 types are broken into Low, Middle, High, Top, Special, Super, Legend, God, Ultimate, and World rankings. As you progress through the rankings, you'll be able to display increasingly supernatural phenomena.

The fact that it has already been classified into different ranks bodes well for understanding the concepts of magic.

Next is the limits of each respective rank.

★ Total Possible Creation Limit for Magic Ranks: The maximum number of grimoires you can create for each magic rank.

Low —- 10000 Grimoires Middle —- 5000 Grimoires High —- 2500 Grimoires Top —- 1000 Grimoires Special —- 500 Grimoires Super —- 250 Grimoires Legend —- 100 Grimoires God —- 50 Grimoires Ultimate —- 20 Grimoires World —- 4 Grimoires

Basically, the maximum number of grimoires I can create for each magic rank is fixed, or something along those lines. I can't just endlessly pump them out, after all. That's the truth; it's only natural it be that way.

Then, let's try to actually create some magic.

I selected [Fireball]and, much to my chagrin, a metallic box plopped out.

Inscribed on the lid was the following

★ [Fireball]

Ingredients: 20 Rank G- magic stones, 1 fire stone

In short, I need to put those ingredients into the box, though the particulars on magic and fire stones are unknown. I should find out more about that.

I left my room and descended the stairs whereupon a white-haired man with a sharp glare, lightly bowed in my direction. He is Sebastian, the Millard family's butler. Among the servants, he's the only one who will associate with me without any pretext.

"Magic stones are obtained after defeating monsters. Fire stones are used when setting fire to something. Here's one," Sebastian explained. To my question, he first stared perplexedly at me with open eyes, but soon after pulled out a small red stone from his pocket and handed it to me.

"Where do you get this? It's probably hard to obtain a fire stone, right?" I asked.

"Not at all. If you would like so, you may take this stone. Here you go," Sebastian offered.

"My deepe-… Thank you," I corrected myself, thanking him in a more normal way and quickly returned to my room.

Lastly were the magic stones. Since I couldn't get them without defeating monsters, there was only one thing to do.

Currently, I've just come to the forest, or rather, the『Ancient Forest』. The southern portion of the Millard family's most important village, Mirage, spans across this forest. I'm sure you've realized by now, but that's where I first awoke—below a cliff in the forest.

In the Millard territory, people only live in the northern basin, and the『Ancient Forest』encloses the territory from the south, extending to the northeast corner of said basin.

On the other hand, the territory's largest village, Mirage, lies in the southeast sector, enjoying easy access from all.

As such, despite the『Ancient Forest』being adjacent, the path is blocked by a cliff, meaning Mirage is the safest village in the land.

On that note, I don't have to climb the cliff and can instead use Warp Point to comfortably travel to the forest. Hello, all-you-can-train time.

I approached the nearest slime and drew out a copper dagger that the mansion so graciously lent me. A bow was also in the warehouse where I had found the dagger, but I had not believed that I could hit anything with my skills and had quickly given up the idea.

Under the shadow of a tree I silently held my breath and soon after pierced the slime with my copper dagger in its back(?) where the mucus was flowing through it.

Suddenly, the entire slime liquified and sank into the ground, leaving behind a black stone.

I didn't want to risk it suddenly blowing up if I touched it or anything, so I first appraised it with my Analyze Environment.

Slime's Magic Stone: A crystallized fragment of the slime's soul. Attribute: None Rank: G-

A magic stone which is actually a fragment of the soul. What a hackneyed thing from fantasy … Well, whatever. When in Rome do as the Romans do, or so they say. I just have to do the same thing until I get the 20 magic stones needed to acquire the skill,[Fireball].

By now, it's clear that I can slaughter slimes without a hitch, so for the meantime I should make this area my hunting grounds.

After that, I hunted slimes until evening and obtained 30 magic stones for my hard work.

I returned to my bizarrely narrow room that was almost like a storeroom and sat on the floor, taking out the silver box that served as a blueprint for the skill,[Fireball].

Inside, I placed 20 magic stones and the fire stone, causing the box to transform into a book. Written on the front was [Fireball].

When I picked up the book, it began to glow, and a surge of warmth began to flow into my body. Additionally, the words 『By Grey Millard』were now carved on the front as well. I see, so it registered me as the owner.

I quickly opened the book, when this-

Spell Name: [Fireball] Explanation: Let loose a ball of flame Chant: "O red flame, gather betwixt my hands and turn to power" Rank: Low Proficiency: 0/100%

-appeared. In all likelihood your proficiency grows in proportion to how much you use it, up until you master the skill, [Fireball].

Early the next day, I left for the『Ancient Forest』in high spirits. I pointed the palm of my right hand to the slime in front of me, chanting "O red flame, gather betwixt my hands and turn to power."

Immediately after, a fireball around the size of a soccer ball rushed forward, slamming into the slime.

In an instant, the slime evaporated, and a magic stone fell to the ground. With this, I've gotten a ranged weapon. Next is to focus my all on training