BOOM!
One week after Ur vowed to train harder, inspired by Ide's insane progress, a powerful surge of magic energy erupted from Ide's body.
Yes, after a week of grueling training, he had broken through again.
[Magic Origin:]
First Magic Origin:
Gains 1 MP every 3 minutes in Deep Meditation.
Gains 1 MP every 10 minutes while Sleeping/Resting.
Current Total MP: 0
[Magic:]
Ice-Make Magic: LV3 (+)
"Leveling up is so slow."
"Judging by the previous requirements, I'll probably need 10,000 Magic Points to get from LV3 to LV4."
"Even if I meditate non-stop without eating or sleeping, it would take over twenty days to break through."
Ide sighed. Magic was profound stuff. It was way harder to pick up than Haki, swordsmanship, or the Six Powers had been.
Then again, at the same level, those skills couldn't hold a candle to magic.
"Magic fluctuation?"
Ur, who was also meditating in the snow nearby, sensed the burst of energy from Ide. She snapped out of her trance and looked at him sharply. "Ide, are you okay?"
"Did you break through again?"
"You seriously broke through again?!"
Once she realized he hadn't lost control but had actually leveled up, she looked at him like he was a monster.
"Ide!"
"Spar with me!"
Ur took a deep breath. She abandoned her meditation and decided to switch to combat training.
While I can still beat him, I need to get as much combat practice in as possible!
"You're on!"
Hearing the word "spar," Ide lit up instantly. Back in the One Piece world, constant battle was the exact method he used to reach the top in record time.
"I'll count to three."
"Then we both cast magic."
"Whoever gets hit first loses. Deal?"
Ide and Ur stood in the snow, about twenty meters apart. Ur patiently explained the rules.
"Got it."
Ide nodded.
"3, 2, 1!"
"Ice-Make..."
"Ice-Make..."
As the countdown ended, both of them cast their spells almost simultaneously.
"...Rose!"
"...Lance Volley!"
Because Maker Magic relies on the user's imagination, their spells took completely different forms. Ur created roses, while Ide created weapons.
BOOM!
A torrent of ice roses clashed violently with dozens of ice lances.
The impact unleashed a shockwave of freezing air!
Ice crystals shattered and flew everywhere, pelting their bodies and faces.
"Interesting."
Ur smirked, her fighting spirit ignited. Several more magic circles formed around her. "Take this! Ice-Make: Rose Garden!"
BOOM!
Ur was getting serious now. The roses she unleashed were on a completely different level than before.
Massive ice roses bloomed right in front of Ide, radiating intense cold. Although Ide conjured an ice shield, the roses shattered it effortlessly, sending him flying. Before he could react, the freezing aura from the flowers encased him in a block of ice.
"Oops."
"I got too serious."
"Ide, are you okay?!"
After knocking him away, Ur suddenly remembered she wasn't fighting a veteran wizard, but a newbie who had only been learning magic for a few days.
She cursed herself internally. How could I use such powerful magic on a beginner?
CRACK!
Just as she was starting to panic, black lightning crackled from Ide's eyes, shattering the ice that imprisoned him.
"Good hit!"
Ide used his Haki to break free, then immediately struck his casting pose again, grinning. "Ice-Make: Rose Garden!"
BOOM!
Ide perfectly replicated the spell Ur had just used, sending a garden of ice roses hurtling toward her from a hundred meters away.
"Rose Shield!"
Ur reflexively conjured a shield of roses, easily blocking his attack. She stared at him in shock. "Ide, did you just copy my magic?!"
"Haha!"
"Magic isn't so rigid, is it?"
Ide laughed.
Although Maker Magic is personal and every user has a form that suits them best, that doesn't mean they can't use other forms.
To Ide, "freedom" meant using whatever shape he damn well pleased.
"You..."
Ur shook her head and prepared to cast again.
"Stop, stop."
"That last move drained all my magic power."
Ide waved his hand. He didn't have enough mana left to keep fighting her.
Continuing the fight using only Haki would defeat the purpose. His goal was to improve his magic through combat.
[Current Total MP: 10]
He checked his panel. After less than ten minutes of fighting, his MP had jumped by 10 points. He smirked. "Fighting really is the most efficient way."
Meditating gave him a max of 3 points every ten minutes. Fighting gave him 10 points in the same amount of time—more than triple the efficiency.
"Recover mana."
"Then fight again."
Realizing this, Ide sat down immediately to speed-recover his magic power.
Five minutes later, having crudely forced his mana to regenerate, he jumped up and grinned at Ur. "Ur, let's go! Round two!"
"Again?"
Ur looked at him, feeling a headache coming on. She was starting to think asking him to spar was a huge mistake.
BOOM!
And so, their daily routine of "Fighting is Awesome!" began.
By compressing eating, resting, and sleeping into 11 hours, Ide cleared 13 hours a day to pester Ur into sparring with him.
This allowed him to rack up 586 Magic Points per day.
The only downside was that he gained zero points during the recovery phase after depleting his mana—it didn't even count as "Resting." That was a bit of a bummer.