Chapter 5: Textbook and Veranda

Chapter 5:
Textbook and Veranda

“I’VE READ QUITE A BIT of this book already…”

I lounged on the veranda of the hideout surrounded by green, idly flipping the pages of Introduction to Spellcrafting IV.

I gazed up at the crumbling roof. Tiny white flowers grew in the grass covering the roof and fluttered in the wind. How beautiful. I wonder what the name of those flowers is.

With the sun shining, the veranda was nice and warm, so I read comfortably. Due to my accidental misfire of Create Pebble the previous night, the trees out front were knocked down. As a result, the sunlight on the veranda, which had already been good, became even better.

That giant pebble (though I was a bit hesitant to call that hulking boulder a “pebble”) had, for some reason, crumbled away right after its creation. It appeared that for Earth spells, a creation’s form couldn’t be maintained unless mana was constantly imbued into it. As such, I was saved a bunch of time dealing with the mess. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that a stupidly big rock rolling around the garden would’ve been a nuisance.

The fundamental tenet of Earth spells was: “Once the supply of mana is cut by the spellcaster, the creation shall crumble,” which made Earth spells difficult to rely on—the instability was a real disadvantage. Since all things created by the Earth attribute would inevitably crumble, its spells couldn’t be used in civil engineering or construction.

Still, there were Earth spells a spellcaster could use to create weapons and tools from dirt. Unfortunately, without a constant supply of mana, the object would lose its form, giving the attribute awful mileage. To put it bluntly, as long as there wasn’t a specific reason for an earthen weapon, it would be way easier to use the normal kind. Instead of swinging around a dirt sword as it guzzles up my mana, I think I’ll be better off buying a regular one and using that.

In the end, the practicality of Earth spells was limited, and in daily use they were seen as having more cons than pros.

Hmph, to think that the only attribute I had an aptitude for was viewed in such a way by society…

The author of Introduction to Spellcrafting, Luvel Zairein, also looked down on and criticized the Earth attribute in his works. It really was a struggle to hold back my urge to kill him. You could even see the discrimination in the size of the volumes. The number of pages for the volume on the Earth attribute was a fifth of the ones about Fire or Wind.

The Introduction to Spellcrafting series consisted of twelve volumes. Volume I described the general aspects of spellcrafting (such as “discerning attributes”), and the remaining volumes were dedicated to explaining their respective attributes. The bare minimum of what I needed to read was Volume I and the one associated with the Earth attribute: Volume IV. Even if I did read the others, I wouldn’t be able to use their spells.

The book explaining the Earth attribute, Introduction to Spellcrafting IV, was super light. I mean like “light novel” light. Incidentally, Introduction to Spellcrafting II on the Fire attribute was as thick as a law school textbook.

Hey! Isn’t this blatant discrimination based on inborn ability?! Don’t mess with me. I’ll kill you, Zairein! Ah, right. You’re dead…

In any case, I diligently read Introduction to Spellcrafting IV. While reading, I realized the writing style of Introduction to Spellcrafting IV felt a bit different from Volume I and the stone book written by Zairein.

How could I describe it? Like the wording felt sort of…gentle? Come to think of it, could this volume have been mainly composed by the co-author, Emerly Heilem? To tell you the truth, just imagining that made my motivation to study take a sudden turn.

Yeah, that’s right. My teacher is Emerly-sensei. It absolutely isn’t that bastard, Zairein. Yeah, that definitely has to be the case. All right. I just decided that’s definitely the truth.

Decision made, I returned to my studies with renewed fervor. In the meantime, to maintain this level of motivation, I imagined Emerly-sensei as my type: a gentle woman, slightly older than me, and a bookworm. How wonderful.

Ah, of course, I knew Emerly-sensei’s actual gender hadn’t been revealed. And even if they were still alive, I was sure they would have lived quite a long life by now…

……

But, you know, ladies and gentlemen, motivation is important.

Well then, unlike the first volume, which was a general introduction to spellcrafting, Introduction to Spellcrafting IV contained a rather in-depth explanation of spells. As such, if I became lazy with my reading, portions turned into those illegible scribbles that looked like “Nyu popo reperepere uhoho…@♪♪.”

It was truly painful. Each time this happened, I felt like I had been reincarnated as a gorilla or a Neanderthal. However, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. As I managed to skillfully avoid the gorillafication of my translation ability and properly read the book, I began to realize something new.

Although the true nature of the bug in my translation ability was yet unclear, I was fairly sure I now had a vague understanding of what caused it. In summary, my ability to read this mysterious language as soon as I awoke in this world didn’t allow me to 1) decipher the particular elements in spells or 2) read the contents of spell circles. If I were to compare it to words and numbers, it would be like seeing a mathematical equation as a mere collection of characters unless you actually possessed the knowledge to understand it.

Furthermore, reading advanced text on spellcrafting and deciphering spell circles required understanding extremely specialized grammar and terminology. In other words, expertise. As such, I think it would be best to imagine my situation as akin to that of a freshman entering their university’s law department and falling into despair after having just read judgments given by the Supreme Court during the Meiji Era.

Oh, come on… What exactly is up with this half-baked translation ability?! I couldn’t help but feel that there was definitely something else going on with it.

“Well, in any case, I guess I just have to take my self-study seriously.”

I really had no choice but to face this head-on. I was a man who wouldn’t be discouraged.

Please watch me, Emerly-sensei. I’ll show you that I can overcome this.

Although I said that, I spent nearly two days lounging around on the veranda reading this book. I hadn’t done any experiments or run any tests since casting Create Pebble.

Who could blame me? I had wanted to create a simple pebble the size of the tip of my pinky, yet I got that disaster instead. The destructive environmental terrorist attack the day before had completely traumatized me.

***

While sprawled out on the veranda, I flipped through the introductory book. If I withstood discouragement due to the frequent gorillafication of my translation ability, I was making decent progress, if I do say so myself. Yeah, I wanted to pat myself on the back.

As such, I had managed to make it roughly halfway through Introduction to Spellcrafting IV. I reached a new chapter.

That day…I encountered a spell that drastically changed my destiny. Was it grace from a benevolent goddess? Or a curse from a genocidal witch?

At the time, I was yet ignorant.

“Uh, let’s see…Create Golem?”