New Life Magic

Since there are no seasons in the dungeon, the trees visible are all evergreens.

"Which way should I go?"

The forest spread out before me seemed quite vast. I had no idea where the stairs leading down might be.

For the time being, I decided to follow the dungeon walls to the left. Along the way, I encountered a horned boar. I managed to defeat it with a double activation of "Push," known as Double Push.

"Wow, 'Push' is really useful. Why hasn't it caught on?"

I knew the answer. There were many other more powerful spells than "Push."

As I continued to defeat horned boars, I found what looked like a mineral deposit after about twenty minutes.

"A mineral deposit on the fifth level means silver. This could be worth a bit of pocket money."

I struck the deposit with a mattock, extracting the ore. After an hour of digging, the vein started to thin. There seemed to be a larger vein further on, but it would take too much time to reach, so I stopped digging.

I packed the extracted ore into my backpack and continued onward.

After making a full circle back to the stairs connecting to the fourth level, I had defeated five horned boars, but no dungeon error occurred. I had hoped to get some horned boar meat, but things didn't go that smoothly.

I climbed the stairs a bit and sat down. The stairs were a safe zone where no monsters appeared. I decided to extract just the silver here. Using the "Pure" spell, I extracted fine silver from the silver ore.

Even after processing all the silver ore, I only had about a hundred grams. I placed the fine silver in a small plastic container.

"Alright, let's continue the exploration."

I descended the stairs back to the fifth level and resumed my search.

I aimed to find the stairs leading to the sixth level, heading toward the center of the forest. Eventually, I found the stairs in the central area. However, three horned boars were sleeping around them.

I could handle one at a time, but three...? Why are there three of them? What should I do?

"Maybe I can lure them out one by one by throwing stones."

I picked up a small stone and threw it at the horned boar sleeping on the right end. The stone hit the right end boar's head, bounced off, and got wedged in the nose of the middle boar. Then, the boar blew the stone with a snort, hitting the forehead of the boar on the left end.

"No way. This is not a gag."

As soon as I shouted, all three woke up simultaneously.

The three boars noticed me. Naturally, they started chasing me. I ran desperately, occasionally checking their position. While monitoring them by their presence, I turned back and fired a Double Push.

The lead boar was hit and sent flying. While running, I made a victory pose. But I hadn't finished them off yet. I continued to fire Double Push, sending the second boar flying.

Then, I fired Double Push at the remaining boar. It was sent flying too. I rushed over and stabbed my hunting knife into its neck.

The first boar I had knocked away got back up and charged at me. I hit it with another Double Push, knocked it down, and finished it off. As I fired Double Push at the last remaining boar, I felt dizzy.

I had run out of magic power. But I couldn't pass out here. I gritted my teeth and delivered the final blow. The horned boar disappeared, leaving behind a magic stone. At that moment, I felt a throb inside my body.

"Huff, huff... Maybe my magic level has increased. But no dungeon error even after all that effort."

Staggering, I collected the magic stones and headed for the stairs. I descended the stairs a bit and rested there.

"I ran out of magic power. I'll rest here and recover a bit before heading back."

I rested until my magic power recovered and then made my way back.

When I returned to the surface, the sun was glowing a deep red. I went to the student cafeteria, ate dinner, and returned to the janitor's hut.

I didn't have the energy to go to the bathhouse, so I wiped my body with a damp towel and collapsed onto the bed. I fell asleep almost immediately.

When I woke up, it was pitch dark. I turned on the fluorescent light. Then I switched on the radio. While computers and smartphones had stopped working, analog TV and radio still functioned.

The news came on the radio.

"Today, a rhodium deposit was discovered in the Haruna Dungeon in Gunma Prefecture."

"Hmm, a rhodium deposit, huh? It's a metal more valuable than gold. It's probably located in a dangerous area."

The radio announced the name of the adventurer who had discovered it. It was Ryuji Takase, an A-rank adventurer. High-ranking adventurers like him could easily earn over a hundred million yen annually.

I looked at the clock and saw that I had slept for about three hours. The magic depletion had taken a toll on my body. To prevent this in the future, I needed to learn the magic "Mana" for measuring magic power.

This spell was one of the analysis magics and was taught to first-year students at the academy. However, having never attended classes, I neither had the textbook nor the magic circle for it.

"I'll check the library for the magic level needed to learn it and then buy it at the school store."

The academy had a store where you could purchase basic magic circles.

"But given my magic talent, it might take a while to learn. Tomorrow, I'll be more careful about my magic power depletion and proceed cautiously."

When I checked with "Self-Analyze," I found that my life magic had reached magic level 3. The benefit of the increased magic level was that I could now use three life magic spells simultaneously.

Life magic was only developed up to the spells learned at magic level 2. Yesterday, I had learned "Tanning," so the only spells I hadn't learned were the life magics "Prop" and "Swing."

"I don't really see how these can be useful."

"Prop" was a spell that created a volleyball-sized lump of D particles to hold objects in mid-air for about five seconds, making it seem useless. "Swing" generated a thin plate of D particles that would swing around.

At first, I thought "Swing" might be useful as an attack. However, it turned out to be as effective as being hit by a narrow board during Zen meditation, causing only a minor sting. Thus, I deemed it useless and gave up on it.

However, considering how powerful the double activation of life magic turned out to be, I reconsidered. If I could multiply cast the spells, they might become potent attacks.

I decided to learn "Prop" and "Swing" and then, exhausted, went to sleep.