Chapter 78

Ch 78 — My Blessings (Small) Turn Out To Be Really Useful After All

Right then, next up is the verification of the changes to my own magic powers . There are various things I want to try and they'll take a bit of time . In that case . . .

"Hey Fer, I want to try out my magic powers and it may take a while . While I'm doing this can you go find a Black Serpent and hunt it for me?"

"Oh, is that about you wanting a Black Serpent skin? You said something about it earlier . "

"Yeah, that's it . Lambert-san talked me into agreeing to wholesale him a Black Serpent skin . Can you catch one for me?"

"Yeah, no problem . I'm not doing anything else anyway . I'll be right back . " Fer hesitated . "Yes, I've put up a Barrier for you . I know how you worry about such things . " Condescension doesn't suit you, Fer .

"Oh Fer-sama, thank you thank you thank you . " Fer ignored my sarcastic riposte, dashing off quickly into the distance . He could really move when he wanted to . Right, to work .

"Lessee, let's try fire magic first . " There was a danger of fires if I shot off Fireballs randomly in the forest so I first tried changing the size of a Fireball held on my palm . I started with a regular Fireball .

"Wow!" The Fireball I made was double the size of the ones I could create before .

"Is this the power of the goddess' blessing?" OK, dial it back a bit . . . I tried to deliberately make a Fireball of the usual size, using a lot less magical power . . . Oh, I made it . That looks good . So if I cut back on the magical power I feed into the Fireball it gets smaller . More power, it gets bigger . I kept pumping magical power into it and eventually I ended up with a Fireball about a metre in diameter .

"It takes a lot of effort to keep it this size . " I muttered .

"Wow, Aruji is amazing-" Sui commented .

"Sui, this is a Fireball and it's really hot so you shouldn't get too close to it . "

"I understand-"

While Sui was telling me I was amazing I saw the Fireball growing and shrinking . I had to concentrate to maintain its size .

"Next up, another Fireball at the same time . . . " I created two smaller Fireballs, one on each hand . That worked too . I spent about 15 minutes trying assorted combinations then I paused, puzzled by the way I felt .

"Huh? I'm not at all tired?" I would feel tired by now normally . I'd want to sit down after expending so much magical energy but it's no problem now .

"Is this reduction of magical power consumption from the blessing? The Goddess mentioned something like that . . . I'm OK afterwards even though my fire magic is a lot stronger too . "

It turned out it was difficult for me to maintain a Fireball with a diameter of about a metre and half so I decided I'd only create a big one like that in an emergency . Whaddayaknow, the Goddess' blessings (small) looked like they were going to be useful after all .

Next I tried out my earth magic . First of all . . .

"Stone Bullet . " Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk . . . I went up to the tree I had used as a target and counted seven pebbles (Stone Bullets) embedded in the trunk .

"Seven Stone Bullets at a time is a big improvement, and they're embedded deep in the wood . It looks like their striking power has also gone up . "

I kept experimenting, firing off Stone Bullet several times while increasing the magical power I fed into the effort . At my limit I could shoot nearly 30 pebbles at a time .

"It's a bit like a shotgun . " I mused . It seemed to be quite powerful but again I decided I'd reserve that amount of effort for an emergency .

Next I tried using some new Earth Magic I had acquired . "Stone Wall . " A stone wall about 2 metres long and tall and about 10 cm thick appeared on the ground in front of me .

"Oh, it worked . " I was a bit surprised, I had only put a small amount of magical power into it since it was my first attempt at using this spell . I felt I could put a lot more power into it if I desired . It certainly felt different to the Stone Bullet spell .

Was it worth expending magical energy to simply create stone walls? Well maybe, perhaps if I thought I wanted to be somewhere for a long time . I decided to try something more elaborate but first I decided take a little break and restore my magical power levels again . Checking my Status, my magical power was reduced to nearly half from all the experimenting I had done . I also felt a bit tired and hungry now so I decided to eat something to restore my energy levels while I relaxed . I bought some sweet buns from the Net Super .

"Sui ~ Let's rest for a while . " I called . Sui who had been busy practicing water magic came over at once . "Here's a snack for you . " I offered her a sweet bun .

"It's not dinner-time, is it OK to eat just now?" Sui wasn't sure she was allowed to snack between meals .

"Yes you can, but only this one time . " Sui-chan's a good girl, she deserved a treat now and then .

"Yay!-" Once Sui started eating, I started eating too, with my usual canned coffee accompaniment to the sweet buns . Yeah, sweet things when I am tired are delicious . After nearly an hour's break I checked my Status again . It wasn't totally restored but it had recovered to about 90% . Sui got sleepy as usual after she ate sweet things and she took a nap in her bag . I moved away a bit to avoid waking Sui again before I continued experimenting .

"Fu~, I finally managed to do it . " It had taken a lot of trial and error but since I now had Stone Wall I thought I could perhaps make a house with earth magic . I only had the blessings (small) of Earth Goddess Kishar so I wasn't sure I could do such a complicated thing, but this is really useful .

The 'house' I created (although it's doubtful whether you could actually call it a real house) was a box-shaped room of roughly 10 tatami mats in size . It had walls, a doorway and a roof, nothing elaborate or complicated but the difference between having it and not having it while travelling would be more than you'd think at first .

Fer's Barrier spell guarantees me a perfect defence and rain and breezes are kept off but because it is transparent it doesn't provide me with the reassurance of a solid wall . My biggest problem is when I go to sleep . I know that the Barrier is safe and reliable but since I can see through it I continue to worry and I can't rest easy . I want a wall between me and the world outside when I go to bed so I can sleep well, so this will be like sleeping at home . Good enough .

It took me about two-thirds of my magical power to make this 'house' though, but if it reassures me and helps me sleep better it'll be worth it .

It may only be a blessing (small) but it's doing a really good job . Well done! I was kinda worried this change in my Status would cause me problems but yeah, having it is good for me after all . I'd not be able to do this sort of thing otherwise, probably so in the end I'm glad I got the blessings (small) .