3. Another world (3)

For now, I decided to try the simplest magic I could. This book covers magic mantras and magic circles. Since the former is more common, I chose to start by learning mantras. As I understand, as the scope of the mantra becomes larger, the time to recite it also becomes longer. But if I start with simpler things, I should be fine.

Alright. Whatever the problem is, I just need to give it a try.

With The Magic Mantra in my left hand, I stretched out my right hand and began to recite the words.

"Let blessed water gather and release a pure single stream from it—Water ball."

I felt a sensation of blood flowing in my right hand, and then, as if flowing through my palm, a small water ball the size of my hand manifested.

"Gah!" I screamed at the strange feeling, and a moment later, the water ball fell to the floor.

It seems concentration is needed to maintain it.

Concentration... concentration...

Once again, I extended my right hand, forming an image in my head as I remembered the last time. I don't know how much magical power I have, but I think I can't keep using this repeatedly.

My plan is to practice one thing at a time until I can do it.

I took a deep breath, my blood flowing through my whole body, from my fingers up to my head, gathering in my right hand, filling it with power. I could feel the power emerging in my palm. Now, little by little, very carefully, my mind aligned with my heartbeat.

Water ball, ball, water, ball, water...

I clenched my seatbelt and decided to do it.

"Hah!" I yelled in pure reflex. At that moment, the water ball appeared.

Wow, what?

Splash.

As I was startled, the water ball fell to the floor.

"Wait, I didn't chant the mantra, did I? Then... why? What I did was just placing myself in a mental space (imagining). Is it possible that the mantra is not essential when producing magical power flow?

Hmm. Maybe the mantra is a trigger for activating the magic, where uttering the mantra will create the effect without having to focus on the flowing energy in your body. It's probably like the difference between manual and automatic transmission in cars, where you can still take manual control if you really want to.

"Using mantras allows magical effects to be triggered automatically."

This has some significant advantages. First, it's designed to facilitate teaching. Instead of requiring convoluted explanations about feeling the blood flowing through blood vessels and all that, uttering mantras with spoken words is easier to explain and understand. Then, as one's studies progress, the idea of mantras being an inseparable part of the process will naturally take root.

The second advantage is that mantras are easy to use. Attack magic, in essence, is something that needs to be done in the heat of battle. Uttering a mantra is much quicker than closing your eyes and standing there humming as you try to concentrate. Moreover, in the midst of the moment, it's easier to say something than to concentrate on creating a mental image.

"But maybe some people do find the first option easier...

Alright. First, I will try magic using mantras, then practice magic without using mantras.

"Okay, let's try this again," I said as I stretched out my right hand in front of me. My arm felt somewhat heavy, and my shoulder seemed to be burdened with something large. It's fatigue. Did I concentrate too hard?

"Is it over already?" What? If a person's magical power is determined at birth, does that mean I only have enough magical power to use two Waterball mantras? It seems too low. Or maybe because this is my first time, I only have a little magical power to use? No, that doesn't make sense.

I tried once more, just to make sure, and finally, I passed out.

***

"Honestly, Allen," my mother said, "if you're tired, you have to go to the toilet before going to sleep."

I woke up and found myself asleep with a book in my hand and wet with urine. Darn it. I can't believe I wet myself at my age. It's embarrassing. Darn it. How could I...

Wait. I'm only two years old, right? Wetting myself is still forgivable at this age, isn't it?

So, it seems my magical power is too low. That deflates my mood. Still, even if I can only conjure two Waterballs, what matters is how I use them, I guess. Maybe I need to concentrate to transform them faster?

Ugh.

***

The next day, I still felt fine after making my fourth Waterball. After trying to create the fifth one, I started feeling tired.

"What the..."

Recalling the experience from the day before, I knew that casting another one would cause me to pass out, so I decided to stop.

And then I realized: It limited me to four Waterballs—twice the number I did yesterday. I stared into the bucket filled with water equivalent to four mantras and wondered why I could do twice as much as the day before. Am I more tired because it's the first time? Does chanting the mantra consume more MP (magical power) because it's the first time I'm casting it?

I'll use all my magical power today without using mantras, but I doubt it has anything to do with it. I don't know. Maybe my abilities will develop further tomorrow.

***

The next day, the number of Waterballs I could create increased significantly. Now I reached eleven Waterballs.

What's the deal? The more I train it, the more I can use it. If I'm right, I'll be able to make twenty-one Waterballs the next day.

A day after that, I successfully made twenty-one Waterballs. My guess was correct; the more frequently I trained, the more magic I could produce.

I've been deceived! All that talk about a person's magical reserves being determined at birth? People are just setting limits on potential when there are none. How dare adults tell children where their limits are?! "It seems I can't just accept what this book says," I muttered. The things written in the book seem to take a perspective that there are limits to what a person can achieve.

Or perhaps it's talking about how everything works after training one's skills? Maybe the book is saying that there's an upper limit to magical power, so no further effort or training can surpass it.

No. It's still too early to jump to that conclusion. For now, it's just a hypothesis. Maybe it's like... perhaps a person's power increases as they mature or something. And using magic during childhood may quickly raise that upper limit.

In my previous world, they said that practicing during your growth period would make you develop faster; conversely, after you finish growing, improvements only come slowly even with intense effort. We might be talking about magic in this world, but the reality of how the human body works remains the same principle.

Which means there's only one thing I have to do: keep honing my skills as best as I can while I'm still in the growth period.