Chương 19: Days Like This

The next day after a stern warning from my mother, I ventured back out into the forest. My goal today was to find a place to practice magic away from prying eyes. I do have to say that I was much more relaxed going out today than I was yesterday. I guess it was because my father knew I was in the forest, and I was not completely hiding everything from my parents, but there was just so much more they did not know and would probably never know. Right now, I could only hope things kept the status quo.

I went about two miles into the forest, staying near the rocky area as my father told me to avoid any villagers. This side of the forest even seemed much more peaceful than the area I went to last time. I only ran into a few horned rabbits, but they all ran away from me, unlike before, when they would attack me. I am not sure if this was because of my level or what, but it was nice not to have to stop to kill the cute little things.

My stats are steadily going up as well.

[Name]: Faith Cyrilia

[Age] 7

[Level] 9

[Race] Dragonkin

[HP] 550/550

[MP] ∞

[Status Points] 40

[Strength] 55

[Vitality] 55

[Intelligence] 55

[Mind] ∞

[Agility] 55

[Skill Points] 7

[Skills]

{Appraisal (LVL 1)}

Being able to have such a massive increase in strength all around was really insane. The forty status points I had sitting there were nothing compared to my passive. But I was thinking of just dumping it all into vitality so I would have higher health. But I decided I would wait until it all capped out. For the time being, I would let my passive fill out my stats before trying to level any more. Of course, if I was forced to fight a powerful monster and had no chance of escaping, I would still kill it even if it meant leveling up. My life comes first before experimenting.

After a few hours of looking around, I finally found the perfect spot to train. There was a small horseshoe-shaped rocky protrusion that came out of the ground and towered a hundred feet or so into the air. The area inside was sparse with trees but had a wall of trees covering the entrance making for a perfect barrier from prying eyes.

I stood in the center of it and looked around. You would think such a place would be a perfect home for powerful monsters, but I could only see horned rabbits and a few other monsters, but none of them seemed to be bothered by me. The area had more rocks than trees which made for a perfect testing ground. The rocks were big and made good targets.

I found a good spot to sit and began deciding on what I was going to be doing for the day. "With my current ability to split a magic circle in two and also create multiple magic circles at once. It should be possible to fuse two elements, right?"

I pondered for a bit before finding a small rock and began drawing magic circles in front of me. I wanted to first draw them out to see if the runic equations could be mixed or not. "I do not think it is possible to fuse fire and water as they are two opposing elements, so I will leave that element out but fire and lightning…. The runic equation is almost the same between the two. If I were to tweak it here and here…."

My problem with fusing elements was getting the proper sequence. Which should be created first and which should be the more dominant one. From all the books I have read, the theory of magic fusion was only touched upon, and none of it was ever used in day-to-day practice. This was because the process would consume a lot of mana, and if there were people out there that could fuse magic, they were the ones at the top of the food chain.

Just by reading the runic equation, the fusion process alone would consume quadruple the amount of mana for creating the magic circle, and this was not including the mana sucked out of you to cast it. The more I learned about magic circles, the more complicated they got. Leaving out a single portion of an equation to speed up a spell cast would cause drastic changes to the outcome of the spell.

I have no idea how many times I have failed now while trying to make things instant. I still have not given up on making a spell instant cast. Because I know how much even a fraction of a second counts now while in battle after experiencing real combat.

I drew magic circle after magic circle, trying to figure out the correct formula, but even as the day went on, I still couldn't come up with anything that would work correctly. I leaned back and looked up at the sky. The setting sun was starting to turn the sky from the bluish hue of day to the orange hue of evening, so I knew it was time to go home. I used some water magic to wash away my scratches so I would not leave any evidence behind before making my way home.

The gentle breeze that blew by made my hair flutter slightly as I walked along the cliffside. Just thinking about how many years had quickly passed already made me realize how quickly time flew by. Seven years in a new world, and I have quickly grown accustomed to it. Not that I had any choice but to. But to be honest, I really do love this world. I do miss my life back on Earth as well, but I would never go back even if I was given a chance to. Well, maybe to tell Jen that I was okay. I have no idea how she was doing. Maybe one day, I will be able to create magic that will allow me to travel to or peer into other worlds. I just wished to know how she was holding up. I hope she is doing fine.

I do worry for my earthling mother and father as well. They loved me dearly. I hoped they did not do anything stupid after I died. Now that I was thinking about it, they might even blame Jen for my death as well… I sighed and stopped to look out over the valley below. I bowed my head and clasped my hands together. With my eyes closed, I said a little prayer for both my parents and Jen. I am not one to be overly religious. In fact, I was not religious at all. But that did not stop me from saying something. I just wanted to wish them all good fortune and peaceful lives.

Being a little emotional at times was not a bad thing. I just wished to keep those from my past life in my heart no matter what. I looked out over the beautiful scenery and smiled softly. If they could only see this, I am sure they would all be at peace.

"Faith!" My father's voice came from not far. I turned to see him walking toward me. He had a sickle in his hand that rested on his shoulder.

"Father? Is something wrong?" I was hoping I did not cause another scene somehow without knowing it.

"No, I just happened to come here to take in the fresh air and spotted you. How was it? Your training that is?" My father answered as he walked over and ruffled my hair. His hands were big and strong and actually made me feel kind of tiny.

"It's going. I have been trying to make my casting faster." I did not go into complete details because I was not sure if he would change his mind about my training in the forest if he knew I was trying to fuse magic.

"Just don't overdo it and run out of mana. Because if you do and I have to go searching for you, your mother will not let either of us off." For some reason, I had a feeling my father was more worried about his own well-being than mine when it came to my mother. Not that I blame him. My mother would never make me sleep outside when she was mad. But I also did not want to be subjected to the red bottom technique. Otherwise, I might be sleeping on my stomach for a few days.

"I promise. I won't overdo it." Not that I could. My mana never went down, thankfully. If it did, I do not think I would like magic as much. Now that I think about it, I wonder what would have caught my interest if I only had limited mana. Maybe cooking? Sewing? I have no idea, to be honest. But it probably would have been cooking since I do enjoy it a little bit. I just don't like doing dishes or the prep work….

Not that it matters. With my system, I can choose whatever skill I want and become a pro at it. I can go from noob to five-star chef in just a few seconds. Time dependant on how quickly I can add points to the skill tree.

"Hop on; I will carry you back." My father knelt down in front of me and motioned for me to climb on his back. I smiled and did just that. My father was tall, so seeing things from a new height every once and a while was not so bad. I hooked my arms around his neck and rested my chin on his shoulder. I wished days like this would continue for a long time.