Chapter 34. Potential of Gravity Magic and recovery herbs

After returning from the Magicians' Guild, the first thing I did was to open the book I bought for 8 gold coins, skim through it and quickly learn the spell [Shine].

At that moment I reached Advanced rank in Healing magic!

…

In the afternoon Eris visited me for her magic lessons.

She looked excited. "What is it that you did earlier?! Will you teach me that as well?"

"What did I do?"

"That magic that made me fly!"

"Ah, that."

"Wingardium Leviosa?"

"Yes, that one!"

"..."

Eris wanted to learn Gravity Magic?

Unfortunately, Gravity Magic was the one type of magic that I did not plan to teach to anyone.

Silent Casting was not something new, and neither was Disturb Magic.

The Human-God Hitogami was undoubtedly my most dangerous enemy in this world, since as an otherworlder I would be a variable that had the potential of eventually bringing down his downfall.

However, he was an ancient being chronologically way older than Orsted. As an ancient God of humans, it's only natural that he would already know all there is about Silent Magic, Disturb Magic and perhaps all other kinds of magic that were already lost to time.

There's no risk in Hitogami overlooking how I teach my students Silent Magic and Disturb Magic, putting aside the fact that Rudeus did the same in canon.

But Gravity Magic was different.

I knew that some methods of Gravity manipulation already exist in this world, but what I was personally doing, basing it on my knowledge of physics from Earth, should still be a highly innovative type of Gravity Magic.

It was my special magic, my lifeline.

The moment I start teaching Gravity Magic to others, people directly and indirectly involved would begin to come up with counters against it.

As I did that and explained the process behind my Gravity Magic, by observing it Hitogami might also receive various clues on it, on how to counter it and on how he could teach it to his followers.

Although Hitogami shouldn't know about me yet, he was still somehow able to learn about Rudeus's life after the Mana Calamity, so he should have this kind of ability to observe my history as well.

So Gravity Magic was one thing that I wanted to keep for myself and not teach others.

Besides, I doubt that grasping Gravity Magic would be within Eris's ability for controlling mana anyway.

First, she had to learn Silent Casting, and then there was still Disturb Magic which should be enough of a challenge for her.

If one day I could craft her a magic sword that can manipulate gravity, it would probably be good enough.

I told her, "It's my special magic, I can't teach you. But before you even think of learning it, you still need to learn silent spellcasting. But you can't even cast an Elementary rank spell yet. Focus on learning the basics."

Eris grumbled, but she seemed to have gotten the picture. The magic I used was beyond her current ability, at least.

"Will you teach me in the future?" She asked, looking at me hopefully.

"It's too difficult."

"Okay…"

"If you can learn silent casting and pair it with your sword, it will already be amazing. You have talent for the sword, so focus on that," I said.

"You think so? But Seraphim is younger than me and you're better even with the sword." She looked like she lacked confidence.

"I think that if you give it your all, you can become someone amazing." I placed a hand on her shoulder and looked at her encouragingly.

She brushed off my hand immediately with an annoyed expression.

But no punch came flying.

She pouted and looked away in annoyance.

Was she blushing?

Yes, definitely.

It was probably not due to romantic feelings, but just out of embarrassment.

I placed my hand on her head this time.

She brushed away my hand again.

"What are you doing?!" She glared at me and raised her fist at me.

She glared at me angrily and observed me. Her first seemed to itch, but no punch came flying again as if she was hesitating.

That being said, she's grown, huh?

She might have understood to a degree that doing anything to me is only useless and stupid. It's like trying to punch her grandfather Sauros.

Is it because she's so simple-minded that she got it already?

Truth be told, Eris's bratty behavior so far didn't quite faze me, perhaps because her tricks never worked on me.

She was just a brat acting like a brat.

It was too much for me to become triggered by a little kid's feats. I have dealt with way worse and way more unreasonable people back on Earth.

In comparison, Eris's tricks so far at best might only be considered amusing.

"Are you not going to punch me?" I asked.

"If you keep making fun of me, I will!"

"I'm not making fun of you."

"...Hmph!" She crossed her arms and pouted, with her mouth forming a reversed v shape like an anime cat girl.

So back when she tried to punch me when we went out and I called her cute, it's because she thought I was making fun of her?

Well, it was a bit of a tease, actually.

Either way, what I knew about Eris from the novel and from my life's experiences, most of them from reading novels, allowed me to see through her somewhat.

If it were another arrogant girl or another brat, then she might have required a different approach, but I knew Eris well enough. She was a heroine during her growth stage, a 7 year old spoiled girl with a short temper and a habit of violence, not a modern world's entitled thot that needed to be brought down a notch.

As long as I act with a bit of patience from a position of superiority, without arrogance, she'd eventually grow to admire me and actively look for my advice. Didn't she do that for Rudeus eventually?

Of course, Rudeus still ended up as her punching bag even then, so I planned to take it a step further in the future and clearly show her how I want her to treat me and what is unacceptable.

Perhaps all this was a method of manipulation, but manipulation is such a vague term. Skilfully influencing someone directly with your words to your liking is also manipulation.

A 'special' girl like Eris required a special approach, and that's what I was doing, using what I thought was the best method for the situation.

She was like a riddle, and solving her with the information and tools I had felt quite satisfying.

Is it how Hitogami feels when he manipulates people?

Either way, my intentions were good, so I felt no remorse.

"Then did you eat already?" I asked.

"I did!"

"Then let's go do your strength training first."

…

After doing physical training with Eris, I had her go eat a post-workout meal and then watched over her magic training.

For the time being Eris was still practicing how to cast her Fireball correctly, so there was not much for me to teach her.

In the meantime I invited Ghislaine to spar with me, since she was keeping watch over Eris nearby regardless.

Using wooden swords, I clashed against Ghislaine in the courtyard while Eris was casting fireballs sitting at a patch of grass at the side with closed eyes.

Clang, clang, clang!

The sound of wood clashing against wood spread through the square.

As Ghislaine was deflecting my attacks, I increased my tempo gradually and went on the offensive.

My speed and strength slowly rose as the fight progressed, as if I was magically powering up.

"Aaaagh!"

I eventually sent out a diagonal slash at Ghislaine's shredded midsection with my maximum strength and speed, but that was also easily deflected.

Ghislaine swiped my sword aside, making my arm vibrate in recoil, and placed her own blade at my neck.

I froze.

Ghislaine's expression slightly changed and she said, "Hm? Seraphim, were you holding back during sword training before?"

"A bit," I replied while panting.

"You shouldn't have."

"No, you don't get it." I breathed roughly for a while. After recovering some of my breath, I continued, "What I'm using right now is a special type of magic. It increases my speed and power, but it doesn't increase my perception and reaction speed. That's why training normally is still good for me."

"You said a 'special type of magic'? What type of magic?" Ghislaine looked at me flabbergasted.

"It's something like a fake Battle Aura formed by magic."

What I was doing right now was a form of Gravity Manipulation that I named [Space Bending].

Until now I have discovered three main ways to utilize Gravity Magic.

The first one is altering gravity in an area using physics, second is targeted Telekinesis and the last one is 'Space Bending'. Each one is harder than the last.

The first method is the most simple and my relatively most powerful form of Gravity Manipulation. I can drastically change the gravity in a given area with the least amount of mental effort.

I can reduce gravity or remove it completely. I can increase gravityand I can even reverse gravity to make people 'fall toward the sky'.

Making people and objects experience a gravitational pull sideways along the ground is something that I'm still working toward.

If I use myself as the center of my magic, it becomes the easiest to do. However, doing things this way naturally isn't very user friendly, since it includes myself in the gravity field as well.

But I can also alter gravity in what seems to be a spherical area of my choice, for example, not too far in front of me. If doing things this way, it requires my maximum concentration to be able to do this and also cast another attack spell. There is also a strict limit on the range of how far my Gravity magic can extend.

On another hand, bending time-space to influence gravity in a donut-shape around me while completely disregarding the area around myself is as difficult as it sounds. When I change gravity in an area I usually use a single point as the focus of my magic, so I don't even know how to attempt it yet.

In essence, removing gravity in an area completely was a move that gave great results with the least effort, as it could be seen from my duel with Ghislaine back in the village. Reversing gravity and increasing gravity was also rather straightforward.

Apart from this, the second method of using Gravity magic is 'Telekinesis'.

Telekinesis is significantly less powerful than the first method and requires very delicate mana control. It allows me to freely move objects around in the air.

I don't know how 'Telekinesis' is scientifically possible as an application of Gravity magic, but it is.

It is not easy at all, but manipulating unresisting weak living beings is also possible.

Someone like Paul can still easily break out of my hold, perhaps by the virtue of his raw strength or thanks to Battle Aura, I am not yet sure.

Finally, the last way to utilize Gravity Magic, of which I'm the most proud of, is manipulating space-time itself!

Basic understanding of gravity should be enough to grasp Gravity Magic with enough talent and effort. That's probably how Rudeus eventually did it in the novel.

However, by applying the principles of Einstein's theory of General Relativity, I managed a completely different level of gravity manipulation.

According to General Relativity, gravitational force is an illusion.

It is not that objects exert gravitational pull toward other objects as it was originally thought, but they bend space-time itself by existing, which in turn makes nearby objects gravitate toward one another.

As it's said back on Earth: matter tells space-time how to curve and curved space-time tells matter how to move.

From an outsider's point of view, it looks as if objects attract each other, but it isn't quite correct.

Gravity is in truth matter's ability to bend space-time.

Utilizing this principle was how I managed to develop 'Space Bending'!

Practically, I wrap a layer of Gravity Magic around me, similar to how it's supposed to be done with Battle Aura, and use it to bend space-time toward my liking as I move my body.

Effectively, it makes me move faster and with more power as the space-time itself bends in front of me to boost my movements, making them quicker and heavier. Other words to describe it are: space-time bends in the direction that my limbs move, making my attacks be affected by a gravitational force that increases my speed and power.

It was an ingenious method.

Truth be told, as I thought back to the novel, it wasn't actually something completely innovative.

During the final confrontation in the novel, Rudeus had overloaded the magical Gravity Sword of the North God with a crazy amount of mana, which in turn seemed to have caused a space rupture.

That was an example of an extreme application of Gravity magic's ability to bend space-time!

I also knew from the novel that using Telekinesis to directly influence my own movements mid-fight and mid-air, and deflecting projectiles like Kalman III with his magical gravity sword should also be possible, but I wasn't yet at the level when I could do that.

"Is it your unique magic that you made up? Just like the magic you used before to suspend me in the air?" Ghislaine asked.

"Yes!"

"I see…" Ghislaine gave me a very deep look.

I said, "That's what I wanted to ask you for a favor. I'm primarily a magician, so it would make no sense for me to fight in close quarters if I could help it. But with this ability I can boost my speed and striking power. It pairs perfectly with the Sword God style."

"That's true. If your magic could be paired with Battle Aura, then it would indeed make you a perfect Sword God Style user," she said thoughtfully.

Sword God Style users take the initiative in a fight and aim to cut down their opponent first.

Even if my reaction speed is not affected by Space Bending, the fact still remains that it gives me a speed and power advantage, making this ability ideal to be paired with the Sword God Style!

As of this moment, Space Bending seems to only be giving me about 33% boost, but it was still an advantage over those who only had Battle Aura. Furthermore, I was continuously improving as I kept training in it; I still lacked skill and experience.

Ghislaine said, "I originally thought that North God Style and Water God Style would be better suited for you. But this new magic technique you mentioned complicates things. It makes it difficult for me to give you advice."

"Right. But it isn't certain if I will be a strong Battle Aura user in the future."

"You will," said Ghislaine. "You're too strong for a kid your age."

Was that the case?

I trained in a systematic manner since 2 and supplemented it with Healing magic, so I wasn't entirely sure. But it was still nice to hear Ghislaine say that.

At that moment, the conversation died down.

It seems Ghislaine forgot that I wanted to ask her for a favor.

To get things back on track, I said, "...That's why I would like to spar with you and practice my close-range magic in the evenings by going all out against you using Sword God Style. In turn I could try to teach you magic."

"You want to teach me magic?"

I scratched my head. "If you want to learn. And if you have talent for it."

It would normally be presumptuous of me, a 5 year old, to say that to a Sword King, but I already knew that Ghislaine would want to learn magic.

"I don't know if I have talent. I never tried learning magic seriously because my memory is bad."

"If you never tried seriously, then there's a chance. I can at least try."

"...Very well then. I'll practice with you in the evenings and you can try teaching me magic," said Ghislaine, gently smiling in the end.

I smiled.

Good.

While when training with Eris I can practice my sword techniques and instincts, with Ghislaine I will be able to go all out offensively to practice my Space Bending!

As I talked with Ghislaine, I noticed Eris looking at us with a disheartened expression.

I approached her and asked, "How is your magic practice?"

"It's no good. I still can't make a real fireball," she grumbled.

"Just keep at it."

"Hmph! Seraphim, how long did it take for you to master your first spell?"

"I started when I was younger and I have a talent for magic, so don't compare yourself to me."

"Right. I'm not talented."

Okay, I can see it now.

She should be feeling discouraged after hearing my talk with Ghislaine.

Perhaps it hit her that I was actually 'holding back' against her during our sword training, which was partially correct.

In the novel, the one thing Eris had going for her was that she was better than Rudeus with the sword, yet she still had self-esteem issues because Rudeus was too outstanding.

However, here I beat her even in that.

I expected something like this eventually, that's why I didn't tend to talk down Eris unless necessary. There's no need for me to disrespect her when she'll come to realize her weakness herself.

I said, "...No, you are."

She looked at me again.

"You can already cast a spark of Fire magic after a bit of training. Most people can't even do that. Only one in four hundred is even able to use the most simple magic. That's why *you are* talented," I told her.

"..."

"Even if you're not the best at magic, it's still worth learning it. If you pair it with the sword, you can still be amazing."

I looked at her one more time and walked back to Ghislaine, leaving Eris with these words.

I saw Ghislaine smiling in my direction.

"What?"

"Nothing." Ghislaine's face turned expressionless. "Let's go back to training."

…

Next day.

While Eris was doing her fireball practice in the morning, I began to teach Ghislaine magic.

I imparted to her a different personalized story I made up just for her to help her learn and memorize the Fireball Incantation.

In comparison to Eris, Ghislaine's talent in magic didn't seem any better. In fact, it was only worse.

It's only at the end of the lesson that she managed to barely cause a small spark.

But even though it was just a spark, Ghislaine looked satisfied.

After that was sword training with Ghilsaine and Eris, and then I had time for myself while these two went to attend Anastasia's lessons.

Around noon, I grabbed my workout log and came into the gym.

I was not sure of the results after just one day, but today I should notice if the healing herbs I took make a difference in my strength training.

And the final conclusion was... Well maybe, but actually no.

By taking the herbs I experienced a boost in my stamina and stamina recovery. That was for certain.

I felt it during strength training and during sword training. I had more stamina and recovered quicker during and between training sessions.

However, there was no difference in my maximum strength gain, and there was no difference in the amount of repetitions I could do as long as they were within the normal range of up to 12.

At the end of the workout I did something special, however.

It was bodyweight push-ups.

It was tiring to pump up so many reps, but I still pushed myself to the limit just like the last time I tested myself after my 5th birthday.

In the end, I noted a very significant increase in the amount of total reps I could do.

As long as it was any exercise with a low weight and a high amount of repetitions, I could do more.

But it is not that I became stronger.

It seems that the healing herbs boosted my stamina recovery and my muscular endurance by boosting my body's natural recovery through cell duplication, something like that.

In other words, I recovered quicker during the training thanks to the herb's effect, but it isn't that it allowed my body to grow stronger.

It might seem that just the increase in stamina alone would take my strength training to another level and allow me to grow more, but the topic was more complicated than that.

I don't think it was helping me much.

The truth is that ever since I began to approach the age of 5, my strength gains had significantly slowed down.

Unlike before when I was making quick improvements, the rate at which I was growing slowed down, yet remained somewhat consistent.

I figured I am stronger than a child my age should have been able to get normally.

I think that by training hard since I was 2 years old I may have approached my genetic limit as a 5 year old child.

After that point, my muscle mass did not seem to increase, but I continued slowly growing stronger beyond my biological limits.

Back on Earth a child before puberty can only grow so strong. It would have a lack of hormones such as testosterone and others, so a prepubescent child isn't able to build a significant amount of muscle.

On another hand, it's probably quite easy for a child to approach what's considered its 'genetic limit'.

With this in mind, it's possible that after approaching the genetic limit for my age, I began secretly building up 'Battle Aura' inside me, hence my progress slowed down, began to be more consistent and I continued growing beyond a child's limits.

One tidbit of knowledge I remembered from Earth was that the record for consecutive pull-ups for a 5 year old child was 18.

It was achieved by a gymnast girl, but in contrast I'm a boy who had trained his entire body, so I'd be heavier and it would only be more challenging.

That's why I think that I am a little superhuman already since I could do at least 25 at a heavier weight.

There's no child that would have possibly pushed themselves properly and followed a scientific training program perfectly ever since 2 years old. In my situation it might not be strange that I have hit the limits of a 5 year old.

So because I was no longer primarily building up just muscle, but perhaps mainly working on slowly increasing my reserves of Battle Aura, something like healing herbs would have no effect on my strength gains even if they work for a normal person.

That was at least my theory to explain what I seemed to be experiencing.

But although it was only a theory, everything clicked in my brain.

I simply had no other explanation.

I have no idea how I could boost the growth of my Battle Aura, but if I was close to reaching my genetic limit as a 5-year-old child, herbs that boost cell-duplication and recovery would not provide a noticeable improvement, because I have simply hit my limit and my progress slowed down to a crawl.

I began to view things this way.

In the end, I planned to continue taking healing herbs.

It was not to improve my strength gains, but to improve my stamina to push myself more during swordsmanship practice and during strength training.

I think that even a magical testosterone boosting herb might not be helpful, because what I was doing now was no longer training my body, but my Battle Aura!

With this theory I have also convinced myself that I do indeed seem to have a talent for Battle Aura.

I was stronger than I believe a 5 year old child should be, and it seems to be a fact, so I guess I should just go with that.

From that day onward I made Eris drink healing herbs as well.

I logged Eris's training before and after, and after a few days I had more data.

In contrast to me, she experienced a very noticeable improvement in her strength progress compared to before.

To someone untrained, healing herbs did boost growth by a factor of around 75%.

I guess that even though Eris was already stronger than a girl her age, her body itself was not yet as strong as it had the potential to be. Her previous strength should be due to the virtue of her raw innate talent for Battle Aura and the sword.

So do healing herbs help with strength training?

I updated my answer a little.

Well yes, but actually no.

For some people they might, providing a nice boost when paired with Healing magic thanks to the effect of boosting cell-duplication, but not quite for me who isn't really growing muscle anymore.

I planned to continue testing various magical herbs, but I didn't expect much. 

For my strength training, I planned to keep doing what I'm doing every day, keep noting my progress and periodize my training as I see fit. I can only slowly build up my hidden reserves of Battle Aura until I'd hopefully be able to consciously manifest it.