Chapter 10: Overflowing... Money?
"I need to try this out…"
After witnessing that magical phenomenon, I saw the circle dissolve into the floor. It is one of the functions hidden in the chalk. It conceals itself upon usage, making it a handy tool to use magic while hiding it from the mundane.
Now, it is time to use magic… myself. This requires the mastery of mana control as I already have the theory side to back me up.
'It would take me days to control mana without help… I'm thankful that I have a cheat.'
Unlike those magician scions who have someone to guide them, I do not have someone who would do the same for me. If I did not have my cheat to help me, I would most likely struggle on this path.
'I need to learn Kaballah before the mana control to maximize that chance.'
If I already have the fundamentals in me when I practice mana control, I would be able to draw those magic circles with ease. As a result, my capabilities would greatly increase in those ten years.
'Modify the learning time of Kaballah to ten years later?'
'Confirm.'
…
Kabbalah originated in the 12th century. Its core value is to accumulate knowledge in order to have a better understanding of the world.
The better their understanding is, the closer they would be to God.
It combines both Magic and Religion and is used by the current Holy Inquisitors. There's also Spirit Magic that is a sub-field of Kaballah which is used to manifest what they dubbed as "God's Miracles".
It has many branches such as numerology, astrology, meteorology, and so on. It wasn't for a reason that it is the core magic system of 'wizardry' when there are dozens of magic systems out there.
...
"Fu…"
My previous knowledge of Kaballah was somewhat good. I have a basic understanding of it through the files that I memorized from that phone. But now, I could be said to be an expert on it.
Thanks to my experiences, my mind isn't as messy as before. I could immediately organize the new memories that I have and not be confused by them.
"Huff… Huff…"
All of these continuous usages made me feel quite exhausted mentally. Still, it isn't enough to douse my excitement about magic.
'I only need the practical experiences before I could use it… Magic.'
Without hesitation, I summoned forth my cheat once more.
'Modify the practice time of mana control to ten years later?'
The familiar feeling assaulted me. Before it could become more substantial, I hastily confirmed it with a thought.
…
In my memories, I started practicing how to cast. From a wobbly magic circle, I continuously improved. When I became proficient enough, I could form a spell easily.
A vague circle is formed out of thin air. With my mana as the pen, I guided it to draw this circle. Mental calculations are being done as I write. The gap between my mind and my drawing speed is evident, hence I chose to be slow this time.
Click-!
Once I felt its connection to the world, I recited the keyword that I have set–something that would strengthen my visual image to its maximum and manifest my intent.
"Blaesus."
The magic circle lit up as a huge amount of flame left it. It has reached the size of more than 50 centimeters. The blazing heat that it emits makes it feel real even though I could not feel anything but surrealness…
…
"Ma…gic."
This is it. Magic. The method to create miracles and manipulate the phenomena of the world at will..!
"Fu… Fu…"
I took in deep breaths to calm myself down. Still, I could not completely do so. Instinctively, I started manipulating… mana.
Slowly, I drew out something that exists within me. Not long after, I saw it–a thin wavy blue thread on the tip of my fingertips.
"Fu… I need to… cast."
Since casting something that is destructive is dumb, I chose to do a ball of light.
'Computation… The radius doesn't exceed a meter… Luminous intensity should not exceed 0.5 cd (candela)...'
I started sorting out the troublesome units through mental computation. It was not as hard as doing the flame magic from before. Most importantly, it belongs to the short single-verse type. If it has a length of three-verse long and is very lengthy, you can expect a wide-scale destruction.
"Lux."
A magic circle appeared on top of my palm. Then, a ball of light emerged from it. It shone brightly in this dark room.
"Mu…"
"Damn..!"
I swiftly cancelled the magic by disrupting the magic circle. The light died down, but I sneakily climbed on top of the bed and checked on the sleeping Ryuu.
"Phew."
After seeing that he is dead asleep, I calmed down.
'Magic. Magic. So that's how it feels!'
Right now, I'm feeling inexplicable. Creating something out of nothing can only be seen in fairy tales, yet I can do so in real life. Not only that…
'The sight…'
I could see the small white particles present in this room. This is the result of my ten years' worth of mana control.
That's right, this is mana in their visible form.
This is the substance that every magician are manipulating. Of course, the particles inside this room is more stagnated due to the anti-magic barrier that I engraved.
'Right. I need to replace it every week.'
Under the starry night, my overexcited mind caused me to have no sleep for that day.
*****
"Yawn…"
I woke up from my sleep. As usual, I did not see Ryuu as he's already gone to school. From when I started learning magic, my sleep schedule has been a mess. Though, I fixed it soon after I got accustomed to it.
"Those sleepless nights…"
Even if a few months had passed, my passion for magic was not quelled; it became even stronger. What's more, my improved body doubled my energy absorption efficiency, cutting down the usual 200 days of gathering electricity into 100 days.
I could also use my mana to convert into my cheat's energy, but it seems inefficient since there is nothing different between 100 volts of electricity and mana. My capacity would not increase by doing so, which is why I continued to "borrow" electricity from the local neighborhood.
In total, I received another chance to use my cheat. As to where I used it…
"This light feeling is something that I'm not accustomed to."
It went to my body. To be exact, I used it to train my body for ten years. My improvements were then converted to suit the current me, which is why I only grew a few centimeters.
Though, my prowess is on another level. With this small fist, I could fight a grown adult. This is the effect of my trained body, perhaps.
This resulted in my energy limit increasing once more. I have only absorbed more than 60 days' worth of electricity, yet I could feel that it is about to be filled up again. More than 15 days, I suppose.
"Monday..?"
I saw the date on our calendar. January 7, 2013. Monday. In an instant, a cold feeling doused me from my sleepiness.
"It's this day…"
Today, I planned to not go to school with the reason of "sickness". Though, the main reason why I wanted to stay home is that this is the day. The D-day. The time when we could earn our keep and live comfortably for the rest of our lives.
Realizing this, I swiftly exercised my mental operations by creating uncast magic circles.
One. Two. Three. Four…
Ever since I learned multi-circle spells, casting a dozen magic circles in one go isn't particularly challenging anymore. Keep in mind, those multi-circle spells can be as much as three dozen circles at minimum. The only reason why a magician's mind can keep up with it is their continuous practice as well as exposure to mana.
This is why at least those tactical-class magicians, known as Rank S, have brains comparable to supercomputers. The Rank A and below are just as horrific, too.
If someone were to ask about my current standing, from Rank D to Rank S, I would probably be in C-rank to B-rank.
My mana control which is honed by ten years of training is good enough to be ranked by such. This shows how terrifying my cheat is. Ten years of training compressed in under a second.
Albeit, there are even stronger monsters than I.
Those in A-rank are currently high-ranking magicians who have a great influence over the magician's society. I knew this from the mobile phone that the unfortunate guy was carrying.
As for those S-rankers, they are dubbed "Great Scholars". They can obliterate an army of millions at will and are the closest to the truth. They are walking nukes that can destroy an entire city with a single spell.
(A/N: It was stated by Yakagi Suimei that his father, a Rank S magician, could obliterate millions of devil armies.)
"I need to get more magic-related books…"
If I have those, I could have become even stronger than now. After all, most of the ten years during my mana control practice as well as studying magic consisted of 60% studying and 40% deduction.
When I reached the limit of my current knowledge, it leaves me with deducing a higher-level knowledge. In the end, the stuff that I got from that unfortunate dude is still lacking–he is only a Rank B give and take.
I even found it surprising that he has this many books, which can only be explained by his high standing in the magician's association.
After feeling the exhaustion, I canceled all of them. Even though we magicians can now use our mana efficiently, our mana tank–a metaphysical "part" of our body–is still limited. This usage of magic made it so that modern magicians can cast greater amounts of spells with ease as compared to the ancient magicians of the same rank.
"Swordsmen, huh…" I tightened my small fist while being absorbed in my musings. "It seems that the physical mana application truly exists."
During my ten years of training, I hit the ceiling at some point. When I was 16 years old, I think? No matter how much I strain my body, the improvements are minimal. I thought of transfusing mana to my body at that time, but I encountered many problems at that point, with the body rejecting mana being the biggest.
I tried my hardest to manipulate mana to the thinnest that I could make them, but it still did not work. So… I have been considering "borrowing" those techniques from the hands of the capable. Though, I will leave it to when I become stronger.
"Yawn… We need to do this work today…"
I muttered as my thoughts shifted to the biggest opportunity today.
*****
"..!"
"..!"
The father-son duo closely stared at their computer screens. Their palms are sweaty from holding the mouse, which is ready to be moved at any moment now.
"The biggest prey…"
"...is brought down."
Since the US Government had mounted a strong defense against its hunters–the hedge funds behind the attack–the moment of their downfall became unpredictable.
Some even thought that they would win in the end and that the hedge funds will only serve as fertilizer over the strong dollar currency that has been maintained since decades ago.
However, on January 7, 2013, at exactly 2:31 AM in the morning, it collapsed.
The majority of the people who bet with it remaining on the throne instantly lost millions of dollars. Even the hedge funds who are taking advantage of the situation were caught off guard as their analysts predicted that the US still has a lot of wild cards to play. In short, nobody expected the dollar currency to suddenly fall.
Well… except for the select few who got lucky. They, and the hunters who had been eyeing this event from the beginning.
Gulp.
After reading the series of zeroes on their accounts, they stopped breathing out of pure shock.
One. Two. Three. Four… Eleven.
Eleven Digits. If converted into its number form, it would be…
"T…en. Ten. Billion."
"N-no. Tou-san. It's more than that."
"Ah."
Seiji's eyes were brought to the forefront of these numbers. There, he saw another set of numbers that he had not expected. He had worked hard ever since Nobu's predictions, actually.
He called in his 'representative' whom he knows the best and started signing a bunch of papers for this day. It was not an understatement that he bet on most of his properties for this day. He went through all of this trouble as he trusted his son.
Now, all of his hard work paid off.
"Huff…"
Both of them relaxed at the same time. They are currently in the children's room, with the cold temperature from the air conditioner brushing their necks. Still, this did not calm down their overexcited hearts from beating out.
"Shit…" Seiji subconsciously mumbled. Though, he corrected himself upon realizing that there are kids here.
"Nobu-kun. You can't say that word yet, okay?"
"Um."
Strangely, Nobu seemed calmer than Seiji had thought. It is only on the outside. Right now, he's having a mental party on the inside.
'Shit. Shit. Shit..! I did not hold much money in the past!'
'Ohmyohmyohmyohmyohmy…'
'It's a fucking relief..! I thought that we will have some fuck up here. Thank god my future memories are reliable.'
'Should I create a few companies to acquire more magic-related materials? Magic guns, hehe…'
'I could create a magic plasma rifle! Mana-powered combat suits! Programs that would help me cast magic faster! The possibilities are endless!'
This night, Nobu went crazy.
Creak-!
Suddenly, the two of them heard the clicking sound of the doorknob. The door was promptly opened, revealing a long white-haired woman who is smiling menacingly towards the two.
"Seiji… I see that you are setting a bad influence on the kids."
Hearing her voice, Seiji had seemingly fallen into the deepest level of hell. Even the chills from the air conditioner could not compare to the sensation that he was feeling right now.
"H-honey, I can explain."
"We can hear out your explanations later."
Eri swiftly pulled Seiji's ears and dragged him outside the room. Just as Nobu is relieved and prayed for his father's well-being, he heard a voice.
"You're also going with us, Nobu-kun."
'Well…'
Tonight is destined to be a memorable one for the duo.
*****
A/N: Apologies. The subsequent chapters 11-15 will be uploaded tomorrow. I have to take care of something, which is why I'm dipping today. Take note my Patreon page is not yet updated. It will be updated tomorrow with this fic's advanced chapters.
PS: If anyone's curious, the next chapters will have a time skip. It'll show the Jujutsu Kaisen side as well as his entry to the Danmachi world.
Happy Reading~!