Chapter 6: Mage’s Hand
The next day, early morning.
Before the first bell rang in the town, Gauss had already awakened, sitting cross-legged on the bed with a serious expression.
"Mage’s Hand!"
The newly mastered 0th Ring Trick was not yet proficient.
Having been up for over half an hour, he faced only continuous failure.
But perhaps it was the experience gained from continuous attempts, or perhaps a stroke of luck.
After many defeats, Gauss finally succeeded in casting it once.
The successful casting was a magical moment, as if his consciousness had input the correct program command, the magic power within him began to surge along a certain path, intertwining and releasing peculiar magical fluctuations, which extended outside his body and quickly wove together in front of him to form an invisible ghostly arm.
Success!
Gauss sat on the straw bed, feeling the invisible ghostly hand in front of him, a smile appearing on his lips.
He used his thoughts to control the Mage’s Hand to float around the room.
The invisible arm grasped the dagger on the table, and with a sway, the dagger began to float slowly.
Gauss felt a surge of excitement and an indescribable sense of achievement in his heart.
He had actually succeeded in casting a spell!
This was magic! A fantastical power that could only exist in fantasy works like movies and novels in his previous life.
The shock it brought him was no less than the mental impact of finding out he had crossed over to the Otherworld.
Unfortunately, before he could continue to explore the Mage’s Hand, the invisible arm in the air suddenly collapsed.
"Snap!" The dagger wrapped in cloth strips fell back onto the table.
Clearly, the spell was not yet proficient and needed more practice!
Mage’s Hand lv1 (2/10)
Noticing a slight increase in skill proficiency.
Feeling the feedback brought by practice directly, Gauss became more motivated to practice spells.
The entire morning, he didn’t step out of the room, focusing on practicing spells inside.
Most of the casting attempts ended in failure.
This was to be expected, if he could succeed every time, he wouldn’t be able to stay in the room for an entire morning, as the magical power he had just awakened could not withstand such a long duration of actual casting, even though the 0th Ring Trick was already the lowest consumption spell among many levels.
Fortunately, his practice was effective, perhaps aided by his 7 points of intelligence.
By the time it was nearing noon, just before his magic power was completely exhausted, he could relatively fluently activate Mage’s Hand.
In half a day’s time, from zero foundation to being able to cast spells, without having contacted other professionals and lacking reference cases, Gauss couldn’t tell if this level of mastery was fast or slow, but in any case, he was satisfied to be able to master the spell.
Putting on his boots, Gauss’s stomach timely grumbled with emptiness.
He was hungry.
"Clack, clack, clack——"
The wooden soles of his boots creaked as they stepped on the stairs.
Sofia, who was wiping the wooden counter at the front desk, heard someone coming downstairs, and instinctively looked up. Seeing the visitor, a hint of surprise appeared on her face.
The person coming downstairs was thin, with black hair and emerald-green eyes, his pair of emerald irises particularly bright today, seemingly more spirited than before.
He was Gauss, the most diligent and hardworking of the guests she frequently rented to in her impression.
He seemed a bit different from before.
Sofia looked up and gazed at Gauss, but couldn’t pinpoint the exact difference.
Was something happening? Sofia thought to herself.
In her impression, this was the first time she had seen Gauss at noon. Usually, he would be out before dawn.
However, her principle was not to overly pry into the guests’ privacy. Although curious, she did not ask for specific reasons.
"Sofia, please bring me lunch, um, never mind, make it for two people."
Though not very accustomed to the inn’s food, Gauss, being short on funds, could only make do for a while.
He really was quite hungry now.
It should be that his body started consuming energy to replenish the magic power that had just been drained.
"Two servings, huh? Just as it happens, the kitchen is almost out of today’s lunch servings. I’ll bring everything to you, and anything extra will be a treat."
"That’s truly much appreciated."
Sofia waved her hand, indicating he needn’t be polite, and shortly brought out a tray from the kitchen.
Lunch today was oatmeal porridge, stewed beans, and pickled beetroots.
Perhaps because the black bread mixed with wood chips like bricks from yesterday left such a deep impression, he found this lunch unexpectedly quite to his taste.
The beetroots had been cold pickled in a tangy sauce, possessing a unique fruity aroma and texture.
Time went by swiftly for several days.
In the past few days, Gauss had been practicing his spell, Mage’s Hand, near the town, casting until his magic power was depleted, and then practicing with weapons.
The spell proficiency also rapidly improved with frequent practice.
Mage’s Hand lv2 (10/20)
Looking at the level displayed on the panel, Gauss nodded.
A few days of practice brought the Mage’s Hand proficiency to the midpoint of lv2.
In fact, he had upgraded the Mage’s Hand to lv2 on the first day, but after reaching lv2, simply relying on mechanical repetition slowed the pace of accumulating proficiency, and it took him several days to barely reach 10/20.
Is it necessary to practice in real combat to quickly improve then?
Gauss headed toward the town.
Currently, at lv2, he could smoothly control Mage’s Hand.
For instance, right now, the bag he carried was suspended and floated following him, controlled by the Mage’s Hand.
In these days of training, aside from the growth in Mage’s Hand proficiency, the magic power within him also rapidly increased, now able to be described as forming a thick rope compared to the previous few strands.
Of course, this is actually an inappropriate description as magic power is not a tangible thing like a liquid or gas, but an intangible and formless existence.
In addition to the magic power stored within him, the world is also infused with magical energy, omnipresent, rooted like leylines in every corner of the world.
The casting process, in his perception, is a kind of special magical effect, involving reshaping the omnipresent magical energy in the world through his own magic power and the spell engrained in his will, finally manifesting in a specific way in a designated area.
The size of the spell’s effect is closely related to the quality and quantity of his own magic power, as well as the type of spell.
As a 0th Ring Trick, Mage’s Hand consumes very little of his own magic power.
The casting range is about a ten-meter radius around him, beyond which the spell effect naturally dissipates and becomes difficult to maintain.
Mage’s Hand is not primarily a combat-centric spell, but more of an auxiliary tool.
For example, passing through a door to unlock it from the inside, or quietly taking something away.
As for its performance in combat, what he currently thought of was using its approximately 10-pound (9 kg) weight to unsuspectingly disrupt the enemy’s actions, giving him an opportunity to launch a surprise attack.
Or sneakily, using Mage’s Hand to place a dagger above the enemy, then causing damage by letting it accelerate downward due to gravity.
Of course, this type of attack is likely limited, as it is affected by distance constraints and requires the enemy to be unaware to successfully hit them.
He believed that using Mage’s Hand effectively in combat to assist him could achieve quite satisfactory results.
Dragging the enemy’s ankles, giving a little push or pull, even if the force isn’t great, choosing the right timing could still be lethal in a fight, since combat isn’t just about back-and-forth exchange; it’s often decided in a moment.