A Loner, Having Trained for a Month

Author’s Note: Perhaps I made too quick of a development?

Second day of training.

Shun told Alicia “I’m going to run today” and though he took a short break, he ran for nearly four hours. Since he was training on the mountain, he had to run not flat land, but on a steep surface. His stamina was exhausting at an alarming rate, and the burden on his body was increasing, but was to be expected when training.

Shun thought of Alicia as a commanding officer since she chose a not the training grounds, but a mountain.

Third day of training.

On this day, Alicia trained Shun in the forest on how to fight, how to make traps out of wood and install them, how to secure water sources, how to procure food, along with other survival training. While doing this training, Shun marked trees in the forest with his sword.

As to why they were doing this, Shun said “wouldn’t doing this be cool?”

Day four of training.

On this day, Alicia taught him the basics of magic.

“Shun, first…try to envision a fire.”

“A fire, is it?”

Shun could not understand why imagining a fire was necessary for magic.

Isn’t magic done by chanting…?

Alicia nodded to what Shun said.

“Right, a fire.”

“……?”

While tilting his head, Shun imagined a fire like Alicia said to.

Let’s see, for a mental image…the matches we often use in science should work.

“…Okay, I imagined it.”

While Shun had his eyes closed, Alicia gave a signal,

“Next, take out your hand.”

“Alright.”

“While spreading out your palm, say the following, okay? Flames…dwell within my hand.”

“Sure…um…”

Shun quickly spread out his palm and then recited the words,

“[Fire───dwell within my hand]” (TLN: Alicia said flames while Shun said fire, dunno why it’s different)

Upon which,

*Whoosh*

A flame floated in Shun’s open palm.

“Whoa……!”

Shun was suddenly astonished at the sight with his eyes gleaming like a child’s.

Shun was in high spirits for a bit as he tried to wave his hand, blow on it, and apply the fire to a lying down stone, as if he had returned to his childhood.

“Heh heh…”

Alicia found Shun, who was being so engrossed in the basics of fire magic that he lost awareness of surroundings, quite funny yet charming at the same time.

Shun’s face, which had turned cheerful and amazed in flash, reminded Alicia of her early childhood.

Perhaps I was like that as well back then…

“Shun.”

“Huh…?!”

“We’re going to continue…okay?”

“R, right!”

“Anyways…as you’ve just demonstrated, magic comes in elements. Along with the fire elements, the water, wood, and earth elements are the main ones. These are called the ‘four main elements.’ There’s also the light and dark element. These two are called the ‘Yin-Yang elements’…You can probably use dark, though since you’re a Dark Knight, that’s only reasonable…However, no matter how much the Demon Lord’s Dark Knights struggled to do so, they could not use the light element. For now, we’ve only confirmed that you can use the fire element…so how about you check the other elements?”

“Alright.”

Huh…so there’s light and dark elements. It seems I can do things like using the dark element or lighting things on fire.

“You can check by saying the words before, but changing ‘fire’ with a different element.”

Shun nodded and recited what he said before,

“[Water───dwell within my hand]”

Upon which,

“Huh?”

Nothing happened.

“……”

“It seems like you don’t have an apt for it…Well, try the next one.”

“…Alright.”

With a sigh, Shun recited,

“[Wood───dwell within my hand]”

Then,

“…”

He tried to imagine something coming into palm twice now, but nothing happened.

“This one too…next.”

“Yeah…”

“Don’t worry about it so much, okay? Normally, people only have an apt for one element.”

“Really…? You should have told me that earlier~”

“Ah hah hah, sorry, sorry.”

“Ugh…well, here I go. [Earth───dwell within my hand]”

When doing so,

“Well…it seems I only have the fire element.”

Shun sighed while looking at the palm of his hand, where still nothing happened.

Ugh…at least I know that I can use the fire element.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry…Now, next I’ll teach you beginner level fire magic…Here, I’ll demonstrate so it’s easy to understand.”

“Oh! Sock it to me, Teacher!”

“What’s with those words you just said…? Anyways, I’m going to start.”

Alicia stood in front Shun, made a gesture like she was drawing a bow, and recited,

“[Fire───seek a great arrow of raging fire]”

Thereupon, a bow of fire was created in Alicia’s hands while she was chanting, Alicia pulled the bowstring and finally shouted───

“[Fire Arrow]”

The moment Alicia let go of the bowstring, arrows wrapped in a vigorous hellfire launched an explosion after hitting a large tree they were aimed at, creating a large gaping hole in the tree.

“Whoa…”

Fire element magic on trees…has a drastic effect…!

Although it was just beginner level magic, Shun felt shocked beyond belief at its destructive power.

“Well, this is what it is. Imagine pulling back a fire and then letting it go…I’ll tell you that this power of this beginner magic is due yo my magic attack being high. Normally, it’s just an arrow that pierces things.”

“Oh, so that’s what it is…man, that really got me nervous.”

Shun made a bitter smile.

“I see…when seeing me like this…it frightens you.”

……Hmm? Something seems off.

Alicia made a bit of a sorrowful face towards Shun.

“…Teacher?”

“A, ah! It’s nothing! Here, try it yourself.”

Ahー…there’s definitely something going on…well, whatever.

“Ahーalright thenーI”ll give it a shotー”

“R, right……”

“*huff*”

After looking straight at Alicia, Shun took a deep breath and put aside his worries.

Time to concentrate…I just have to form a mental image of pulling a fire and releasing it, right? Though, maybe it’d be quicker to just imagine a regular bow?

“───Alright.”

Shun opened his eyes, stared at a large tree that would be suitable, made a gesture of drawing a bow like in his mental image, and mimicked Alicia’s recited words,

“[Fire───seek a great arrow of raging fire]”

Upon which, a bow of fire formed in his hands, just like with Alicia.

Slowly…but mightily pull it back.

While saying that in his mind, the bowstring shined red as he slowly, but mightily pulled it back.

Alright…now!

“[Fire Arrow]!”

While saying that, Shun let go of the bowstring.

At once, an arrow of hellfire was shot and soared straight towards the big tree, causing an impact.

“Alright!”

Shun made a triumphant pose.

Like Alicia said, the arrow Shun released did not cause an explosion, and just pierced through like a normal arrow would.

Although its destructive power was far lower, Shun was filled with a sense of accomplishment at that moment.

Oooooooooh! That was the first time in my life! I fired magic! Aah~I want to fire more of them…!

Being overly pleased, Shun suddenly put both of his hands on Alicia’s shoulders.

“───Teacher!”

“Huh, what?!”

With a serious face, Shun stared at Alicia’s blue eyes.

H, h, h, h, his face is really close…! Shun’s eyes are right in front of me…huh? My face feels hot for some reason…! Aah, don’t look this way…Though, Shun’s face is also in a similar state…Hey, isn’t there something you want to say to…to me? Hurry and say it!

While Alicia was on guard with a blushed face, Shun spoke after a couple of seconds,

“───Please teach me magic!”

“───*sigh*…………………………”

Alicia made her longest sigh ever.

▣ ▣ ▣ ▣ ▣ ▣

So, using the training from those four days as a basis, he continued a similar training schedule every day.

Shun spent most of his time with Alicia, devoting himself to training and studying about this world.

After continuing such days without a break, a month had passed.

He looked much more masculine than before. As expected though, his personality didn’t change.

Nevertheless, Shun felt the rapid growth of his body.

Telling himself “why not go up to Alicia to check my status in the morning after a month?”, Shun himself was anxious and checked his status the second time since he came to this world.

“This is…”

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Kondou Shun

Male

Human Race

Lv1

HP 320

Attack 438

Magic 290

MP 315

Agility 589

Endurance 227

Skills

Swordsmanship Lv4 /10

Fire Attribute Magic Lv3 /10

Dark Attribute Magic Lv2 /10

Concealment Lv2/ 10

Innate Skills

Abnormal Status Doubling (Lower Rank)

・The effects of any status abnormality are doubled

・It is added whenever an abnormality occurs in your body

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“I’ve grown quite a bit…”

Shun was surprised, but not astonished.

Well…I’d cry if they didn’t go up by this much after all that hellish training.

It was only because of the training that he reap this much.

Unlike when he touched the crystal for the first time, he was full of confidence and was pleased by the results.

“……”

However, Shun looked at the status paper and made a bitter smile.

“Innate skill…Abnormal Status Doubling.”

Even after a month, he still didn’t understand the nature of his innate skill.

“I feel uneasy about something…”

Shun once again looked at the effects of the innate skill.

・The effects of any status abnormality are doubled

・It is added whenever an abnormality occurs in your body

“If some abnormality is induced on me, then it’s effects are amplified…what does that entail?”

Shun, who had gotten stronger, was still worried.

Innate Skill────Abnormal Status Doubling, and its effects.