I am so happy for all the positive feedback! I'm glad I'm filling a hole that volume 24 left us, thank you for pointing that out XaiGRS. It was such a good story why should the wheel stop from turning?! To Cat Eyes in the Night, thank you! I'm so happy you like what I'm doing. To 321jaz don't worry, this chapter will explain your point. Also Kuroneko nnch to answer your point I have plans for the teleportation event as well as to explain why Rudeus is responsible for it, if not with a little bit of mystery. Biggest thing I have planned in this story is introducing a new character, someone far more powerful than Rudeus. But that will have to wait until we get to that point. Until then, enjoy the chapter!
Today was Rudeus's day off. He had insisted that one day be his to work on and explore out of the week. He had to tell Zenith where he was going and what he was doing because of the night he claimed to wonder off and get knocked out by Hollow. Rudeus would normally lay down and sleep at the tree him and Sylphiette studied and practiced magic at. He hadn't met Sylphy yet but it was inevitable that they meet someday.
Thinking back to the time he first met Sylphy he smiled. Rudeus remembered how she was bullied for her green hair as the other children thought she was a demon, called the Superds. And how Rudeus fought them off and later mistook her for a boy instead because of her shy tomboy attitude, including her short hair.
'Should I treat her like a boy again this time around?' Rudeus thought. Then he shook his head, no, it would be easier sure but it was a mistake that he still made in his previous life. This time around he wouldn't make any mistakes and always keep moving forward in his attempt to reach toward infinite. With that he fell asleep and waited until night.
Every night before Rudeus went to bed he would preform some magical task that required all of his energy to do. It was getting harder and harder to preform though. These attempts were not as devastating as the small sun he had made. Instead he focused on the air above him and separated the chemical bonds of atoms nearby, and before much time passed at all he reformed the bonds. If someone in the daytime saw Rudeus's magic being preformed they would see a cloud of water disperse and then reform. What they wouldn't know was that Rudeus was separating the oxygen from the hydrogen and then putting the bonds back together.
On the surface a mage could create a cloud with a simple incantation, but this was something different. Rudeus was doing this at the subatomic level and it required precise control. Most mages would collapse after trying to separate the atoms in a spoonful of water but Rudeus was doing this several times over with ease. It normally took him an hour for him to collapse into a state of unconsciousness from mana exhaustion. And the next day he would repeat the process, only every time he did it the cloud multiplied in size and then disappeared.
Rudeus worried though, if he kept doing this and fainted while leaving pure hydrogen and oxygen then that could spell trouble if there was an open flame nearby.
'When I keep growing I wonder if I will be able to do this on a worldwide scale without anyone noticing?' The young man thought to himself.
No that wasn't possible. There were a few people that could detect the presents of mana within a person or see the size of mana used for a spell. Orsted, Ruijerd, Ghislaine, and the Demon Emperor along with many other high ranking demons were all able to see mana much like how some animals could see ultra violet light.
However the fact remained if Rudeus kept doing this then someone would eventually notice, or worse he would fuck up the ecosystem in the atmosphere. Neither of those options sounded appealing. He would have to learn more about chemical bonds if he was going to put more strain on his magic without people noticing as he continued to grow.
'I wonder if it's possible to get textbooks from Japan about chemistry?' He thought. With the work of several members of the university of magic they had managed to summon a seedless watermelon. And if Rudeus got a head start on teleportation this would do two things, help his cause to grow stronger by expanding on his knowledge and getting a head start on bringing Nanahoshi back to Japan. Rudeus sat up from his bed and slapped his cheeks, building up his resolve as he continued to work on his magic. The early morning of Rudeus's one day off he wouldn't go to sleep. Instead he would take the form of Hollow and continue to work on his teleportation circles.
His knowledge on the subject was extensive from all the work he did with Nanahoshi in an attempt to send her back home. Many, many failures followed and Hollow could only preform 1/2 of Rudeus's full power because of the distance from his home, the connection was like a wifi signal and it was annoying how bad the signal strength was.
Nanahoshi, along with Cliff, Zanoba and Rudeus himself had managed to summon the fruit using 100 layers of teleportation circle. The stack itself was encased in a wooden rack which also had incantation circles carved into the wood. Later on they visited Perugius, the great dragon king in his floating castle and Rudeus got to experience a great deal there. Perugius himself had compared Rudeus to Laplace in terms of overall mana level and was very hostile in words toward the boy.
Hollow looked at his hands. This time around he would be millions of times stronger that his previous self once he had reached the age of 10. He should be able to cast God Tier level magic without many problems by that time, all in an effort to stop the teleportation calamity. However, that posed another problem, eventually his identity would be noticed early by people like Perugius, along with Orsted.
Being noticed by Orsted wasn't so bad. If they joined forces then Orsted could protect Rudeus's family that would be in the future.
'Shit…. I'm thinking too hard about this aren't I?' Hollow thought to himself putting his palm over his face and eyes in an effort to calm himself down.
"My first objective will be forming a network of teleportation circles that cover every continent. After that point travel will not be that hard as well as gathering knowledge on how to stop the teleportation event." Hollow stated.
On a different not Hollow had expanded the cave and worked on several rooms now. It was the size of a four story house and would be considered an estate in this world. It was mostly composed of stone furniture but some of the other objects were made out of living foliage and trees. There was a library and laboratory where most of the magical circles were stored. The shelves that stored the papers themselves were made out of trees nourished and grown by Hollow, the monster made the trees outside by planting the seed for it to be nourished with photosynthesis and then supplied the rest of the nutrients through healing magic, making it grow in a matter of seconds what would have taken years. Using water magic while at the same time chanting a healing spell was like patting your head and rubbing your stomach and riding a unicycle, tricky at first but easily do for someone that had practiced.
The next step for the wood furniture was to petrify it in order to preserve it. Hollow buried the wood furniture hundreds of feet below the ground, the sediment and lack of oxygen started the process of crystallization, turning the wood into stone and Hollow fueled the transformation with earth magic. Then when it could no longer feel the presents of the wood Hollow pulled the furniture out of the ground and cleaned off the surface. It then added the furniture set to the rest of the layout.
Chairs, kitchen tables, drawers, shelves, tabletops, and Hollows improved resting place were made. It took allot of magic to do all this but it meant that Hollow and Rudeus would both grow stronger, this would also help with how they manipulated multiple types of magic to produce the results they wanted.
When it came to Rudeus's and Hollows main form of research which was teleportation they started with some simple teleportation circles. Under Rudeus's bed was a hand drawn teleportation circle, this circle was directly linked to the cave system where Hollow resided. The circle could go both ways sending items and receiving them. Rudeus normally drained a portion of his blood using a knife, letting it fall into a small stone glass. He would then teleport the cup to Hollow and then it would use the blood to create more magical circles.
Blood was not unheard of when it came to an ingredient for a magic circle, in fact, the stronger the mana was from the original owner of the blood then the stronger the magical circle would be. However rare ingredients were preferred for better, more stable teleportation circles. In the meantime blood would have to do before Rudeus could get his hands on some rarer items.
The papers as long as they were intact would act as a teleportation checkpoint. All Hollow had to do was place the circle on the ground and activate it either by completing the circle or fueling it with mana. Soon their network would be in effect and they could travel the world in seconds.
Another field of research was on disruption magical circles. This type of magic was a new realm of possibility because he normally did this with just his bare hands. But if Rudeus did this correctly the disruption would be on a much larger scale than just casting it by hand. So far the circles were small but effective on small level spells. Rudeus managed to successfully test it by attempting to cast a water ball but the attempt was stopped by the active disruption circle. However when he tried to do something a little higher level in terms of magic the seal would break, the disruption magic would break and Rudeus could use the spell.
The reason why Rudeus did this spell and not in his Hollows body was because when he tried to use Hollows body to preform a spell to test disruption the creature collapsed instantly as the link between Rudeus and Hollow was severed. It would seem that disruption magic was Hollow's biggest weakness.
Disruption magic was allot like turning a radio wave into static but as soon as the interference was broken the radio wave was returned to normal. Meaning that if the disruption magic wasn't strong enough or the circle was laid out incorrectly then the mana behind the teleportation event would resume it's path of destruction. This also made Rudeus ask if the disruption magic temporally slowed down the teleportation incident could it also weaken the affect radius.
Months of repetition passed. Roxy had been with them for more than a year and Rudeus continued to follow her advice and listen to her word. Soon he would reach his final test and cast a saint level water spell, Rudeus's restriction though was that he had to make it the size similar to Roxy's spell and not something as destructive as his miniature sun.
On a different note Rudeus decided to wait until Darius made the next move, if he would choose to send another assassination contract against the Greyrat family or if he would leave them alone remained to be seen. So far it seemed that Rudeus was being treated like a coiled viper, if Hitogami got too close then the viper would bite him, but if the man god stayed away then the viper would continue to remain coiled and ever vigilant, it wouldn't kill unless it was in true danger.
Speaking of assassination attempts Hollow looked over at one of the displays in the cave. It was like a pedestal made out of carved marble in the style and shape of a roman pillar that you would see at the museum. Sitting on top of the pedestal was a glass jar that contained the head of Clive. The head itself was preserved in formaldehyde. Rudeus had learned how to make the liquid to preserve dead flesh when he worked at the magical university to study monster races. Hollow intended to give this present to Darius if he ever tried something against the Greyrat family again. Darius would wake up in his bed and instead of seeing one of his concubines he would see the decapitated head of the first person he sent to kill the Greyrat family. This would send a clear message that if he continued, Hollow knew where to find him and end him.
Every early morning on Rudeus's weekend Hollow continued it's work on the teleportation and disruption circles. Summoning objects from earth such as a watermelon required allot of effort and it was what Hollow was trying to replicate. Many trials and errors occurred but Hollow continued to push and try harder. But it made a discovery, using an activation circle which was like a pressure plate and putting a teleportation circle above that activated the circle. Even when the circle was complete and fueled with mana it wouldn't activate unless it felt some type of pressure on the surface of the paper. This would make the transportation activation instantaneous. Rudeus tried this several times on inanimate objects, then on himself.
It was a success. Rudeus was transported to Hollows cave and vice versa. That day Rudeus and Hollow also found another way to spend energy on depleting their magic. By using a magic circle, then filling it with mana again, then using it and repeating the process it would allow them to spend an intense amount of energy without anyone noticing. They could continue their growth.
Then the day came and Rudeus turned 5. On his birthday the house held a small party filled with food and Paul did a little too much on the alcohol but that couldn't be helped in a moment of celebration. Then the gifts came, Paul gave Rudeus a pair of swords, one was a real sword that was hand forged and sharpened, still it was too much for a 5 year old to carry, Rudeus would have to grow into it. The other sword was one made of wood meant for practice.
After a long speech by Paul he was interrupted by Zenith, she said his speech was too long. Rudeus received a book from Zenith.
"Because Rudeus likes learning and books I thought you would like this." Zenith said smiling down at her son and patting her head.
The book was an encyclopedia, specifically about botany (the study of plants). This would help Rudeus in some of his experiments.
'Maybe I should make a garden near Hollows cave.' Rudeus thought.
After hugging both his mother and father Rudeus turned to Roxy.
She looked at him smiling and pulled out a wand from her robes presenting it to Rudeus.
"Normally this is created by a teacher of magic who gives it to their beginner students to use elementary ranked magic. Once they get used to the feeling of magic they are taught to cast it without a wand or staff as to expand their capabilities. I'm terribly sorry for not giving this earlier." Roxy said apologetically.
"No need to apologize master. Any gift from you I am grateful for." Rudeus hugged Roxy but she showed a bitter expression getting called master, regardless she gave a faint smiled after a moment.
Rudeus took the wand but then something unexpected happened. The wand began to glow a bright red and it made a high-pitched noise when Rudeus held the wand. The ruby in the wand started to crack and a white light shot out from the cracks. Rudeus dropped it and the glowing stopped.
Everyone in the house was covering their ears from the high pitched noise and their eyes were closed from the blinding white light.
After a moment they all looked down at the wand. The red ruby was completely shattered and the wood that composed the rest of the wand was cracked in some places, and in other places it was in splinters.
Rudeus fell to the ground trying to put the pieces back together as tears began to flow.
"I'm sorry Roxy, I broke your gift, I'm such a child." He continued to try and put the pieces back together but it was of no use. It wouldn't return to its normal shape.
Roxy was at a loss for words, as was the rest of the household.
Zenith was the first to walk over to her son and embrace him. "It's okay Rudeus, you didn't mean to do it. And your tears showed you really loved Roxy's gift, so we know you didn't mean to do what just happened. So please dry your tears."
After awhile Rudeus calmed down and sat down on one of the dining room chairs looking at the floor aimlessly whispering how sorry he was over and over again. Roxy was going to say something but honestly this made her feel even more inferior to Rudeus, she would have to deal with her own feelings before she could say anything appropriate.
Later on after Rudeus had gone to bed Paul and Zenith inquired Roxy on what possibly happened.
"A magic wand or staff refracts the mana within the user amplifying it. It bounces around in the gem becoming stronger the more mana the user puts into the staff. Once a magician touches a staff they are connected to it and it is an extension of them. In this case, and at least this is my theory so do not take my word on it, Rudeus's mana is stronger than the gem can contain. His power continues to bounce around in the wand and crack should the power output be too great."
"Have you ever seen something like this before?" Paul asked looking worried.
Roxy shook her head as she continued to look down. Then a flash of fear showed in her eyes but she didn't say anything as to not worry Paul or Zenith.
"Rudeus is destined for greatness, that I know for sure." Roxy said positively to the parents. Both of them looked at each other and smiled, they were proud of their son.
'I'm worried his body can't handle the power that he can output.' Roxy thought nervously
Rudeus was thinking the same thing up in his room, visualizing himself as the wand, his body was capable of being destroyed at any second if he put too much energy into a single spell. His body would get to a point where it couldn't keep up with his magic, so he would have to hold himself back. The thought alone infuriated him. He then looked at his hands.
He had a few ideas to keep his mana under control. One way was to spread out his mana, expanding it beyond his own body continually until it reached its outer limits in distance. If you take a lake with all its water and spread it out the pressure at the bottom will be reduced. The other was to continually pore his growing mana into an object, but as that was demonstrated today, it was harder than it looked. Rudeus thought of it like a bank account, you don't want to keep all the money you own in your pocket.
No magical item that Rudeus knew of existed like that, an item that could keep and store vast amounts of many, so he would have to try and invent something if he wished to take that path. It was a better idea than expanding his aura. Animals and Monsters had a mild detection to mana, Rudeus would be a beacon to them screaming, "Come and get it!" While he was covered in whip cream and a cherry on top.
Then there was his third option. Invest in his body and develop a Touki or in other words a battle aura. This type of aura would affect physical strength, speed, reflexes, and finally it would grow a shield around the wearer that minor attacks would not be able to cut through.
It was true that Rudeus was not able to develop a Touki last time because of the Laplace factor, while his magic was much larger than the average person he couldn't use a touki much like Laplace. As the saying went, the definition of insanity is to try the same thing over and over again. Rudeus would still try to make a Touki happen but if he wasn't successful he would use his mana in a different fashion and one that would mimic a battle aura. This would help protect him from his growing mana or so he thought.
All three of these options would be pursued in order to preserve Rudeus's body.
Hollow on the other hand had more work to do as it went to work on more and more circles.
"Thank you for the meal." Paul said smiling at Lilia. The morning sun illuminated her humble smile as she nodded walking away.
Everyone was at the breakfast table excluding Rudeus. Zenith was worried at first, he wasn't in his room. She took a look outside and saw Rudeus doing pushups in the yard. Sweat stained his pants as he continued to push himself.
"Look Paul, our son is trying to be more like you." Zenith said smiling sweetly admiring her son.
Paul laughed. "five years old and he won't slow down in growing. He would make any father proud."
Rudeus came inside after his workout and Lilia handed him a towel soaked in cold water.
"Thank you Lilia." Rudeus said smiling at her. She was always so kind to him. The young boy then sat down and ate his breakfast.
"You are going to grow big and strong someday Rudeus!" Paul said laughing, he tried to pick his son up in an effort to throw him up in the air.
Rudeus laughed along with him while his father threw him up in the air, but it was clear Paul was surprised by Rudeus's weight. Instead of the average weight of a 5 year old he was twice as heavy as expected.
What Paul didn't know was that Rudeus was working out to break his muscles, then he used his alteration magic to fix the partially torn muscle tissue making it larger as well. The process was even harder when Rudeus used his gravity magic against himself. After that was done his increased the density of his muscles. In essence he looked like an average child but with twice the muscle mass. He had been doing this throughout the past year but not as hard as he pushed himself this morning.
'How many pushups did I do? How many sit ups? What kind of juice did I drink!?' Rudeus thought to himself hilariously thinking of Dragon Ball Z and the 100G chamber for training Saiyans.
Roxy walked over to Rudeus and without saying a word Rudeus smiled at her and then got ready for the trip. They were going to go to the field that Rudeus had first made his miniature star in, there they would perform the saint class water spell typhon.
After an hour of preparation, they were off on the horse. While on the horse Rudeus looked at Roxy.
"Sensei, what do you think of me?" Rudeus thought. He was a little concerned that Roxy was more intimidated than every at the young boys powers and he would push her away. She didn't have as big an inferiority complex as Eris but it was still an inferiority issue with Roxy and Rudeus.
"You are amazing, over the past year you have grown so much. After this is done I am going to continue to teach but I think I will try to reach king class in magic. I may not be able to reach your level when you are all grown up but I feel I need to grow too."
"I'm sorry I give you that feeling. I don't mean too, power and skill isn't everything you know. You are kind and knowledgeable, and above all you're a really good person."
"Thank you Rudeus. I do have a question though. Why do you insist on calling me master?"
"It is out of respect, you are the one teaching me. No matter the skill or strength difference our roles are clear, I am the student and you are the master, I learn and grow stronger because of your teachings. And even when I am an adult and strong I will still see you as a goddess because you helped make me strong."
Roxy looked down in silence. She smiled contemplating his words. His logic was pure, her own feeling of being weak were wrong and it was clear Rudeus would be grateful for her teachings no matter what accomplishments he did. Still, she couldn't stand his radiance without the desire to be determined to grow. She would become better.
They reached the spot Rudeus had previously cast his storm. The surrounding area had already started to be replanted but the earth was still uprooted and not solid yet. Specks of grass and saplings were starting to grow. Nature was claiming the land that had been taken from it.
Roxy helped Rudeus down from his horse much like before and she smiled faintly at the small boy. It was time to cast the spell.
The blue haired witch took a deep breath and began. "Grand spirit of water and imperial prince of lightning who ascends the heavens. Grant my wish and bring about a savage blessing. Display your might to insignificant beings."
Roxy held her staff close to her as she closed her eyes and pored her mana into the staff. It's crystal glowed and resonated with her will. Clouds and wind began to rise up and blanket the sky, shielding the earth below from the suns rays.
"Strike awe with a blow of your divine hammer on the anvil, and cover the land in water. Ah Rain! Sweep all else away and expel everything!"
Rain began to pore and then Roxy outstretched her staff and cast the spell outward releasing the final word.
"Cumulonimbus!"
Before the spell was fully completed Rudeus cast a rock dome around the horse. Good timing too because a lightning bolt struck the top of the dome. The horse would have been struck by it had it not been for Rudeus.
After the storm had faded Roxy looked at Rudeus. He smiled at her.
"That was amazing!" Rudeus said with tears in his eyes.
"Rudeus why are you crying?"
"It's nothing, I'm just so happy that I get to make this memory. I won't forget it."
She smiled back at him not understanding his tears of joy but she still understood that she was important to him. He was always so kind.
He then cast his spell. It quickly grew in size but Rudeus kept it under control as the winds tried to push him and the surrounding area away. Intense rain and clouds blew outward but Rudeus held it. Then he let it fade away. He made it the exact same size as Roxy's.
'He really is amazing.' Roxy thought to herself. She knew that Rudeus could make a cumulonimbus several times larger than her own. Hell, it might have even been seen throughout the continent but he kept it contained. There was a massive difference between having power and being able to control said power.
"Congratulations Rudeus you have officially graduated; you are a saint class water mage." Roxy shook his hand in an official display of congratulations.
Rudeus embraced her around the waist and smiled up at her. She patted his head. Without saying much, they left back towards the house. After Roxy was done packing her things, she departed waving back at the family and Rudeus.
The young boy held back a few tears. After all, he would see her again. And he couldn't wait until that day came. Tomorrow however would be the day he met Sylphiette.
Didn't expect to see me back so soon? Well guess again. After I get past the teleportation event though I intend for my chapters to be allot longer since I will be doing multiple character arcs with some new characters as well as old ones. My goal is to do 10k words every two weeks when I get to that point. To XaiGRS yes I intend for Sylphy to learn and grow more as a person, she will also have the ability of flight as Rudeus continues to train her. Showing her gravity as well as disturb magic. With that being said enjoy the chapter.
Today was the day. Rudeus ran back inside after his morning workout with his father. Sword practice was still important and he wanted a muscular body like his father in this life too. The boy took a cold shower outside and then got himself dressed after drying himself off. His heart was racing, soon he would see her. But first he had to get rid of the bullies that would be bothering her.
"Dad. May I go out to play?" Rudeus said looking at his father with eyes of excitement.
Children around this age would normally run off but it was appropriate to ask the leaders of a household where they would be going. And since Zeniths command to Rudeus he would take extra care in asking for permission from his parents.
"Alright Rudi, you can go out and play just be back in time for dinner. Pack a sandwich if you think you need it." Paul said smiling at him and giving the young boy a cartoonish thumbs up.
A moment later Paul frowned. "This is one of those rare moments you have acted like a child. We helped you with arbitrary things like magic and sword practice but you haven't really had any toys or friends to go up with and enjoy life."
"That's why I want to go out now, to make friends." Rudeus said nodding his head.
Paul just responded politely, nodding his head. However there was a layer of disappointment to his eyes. Rudeus knew what it was, Paul wanted a young baby son to raise and care for. Instead he got someone that was unnaturally mature and rational. It felt like the person in front of him stood taller than him, even though it was someone 1/2 his height.
Rudeus thought about trying to comfort his father but he knew if he tried to help Paul's feelings of envy would only be solidified more. So he chose not to say anything, acting like an naive child.
Waving goodbye with his book on plants in hand he began to explore. He knew where he should go but he didn't want to make it look like he had a clear sense of direction. Road after road, hill after hill, as he joyfully reminisced on his childhood. The reason for all this exploration was originally to know the landscape enough to not get lost but he knew this place well. Nostalgia at it's best.
After a few good minutes of enjoying the views he heard the sound of mud hitting an object in the distance. It was coming on the other side of the hilltop. He run to the top and saw three boys throwing mud at a white coated child. Her hood was covering her facial features but Rudeus already knew who was underneath that hooded jacket.
They shouted things at the child that any bully would shout out.
"Get lost!"
Or
"Eat this mud pie!"
And whenever one of them hit the child on the head or any part of the body the bullies cheered and congratulated each other.
Before one of the boys, their leader, could throw a rock or finish his sentence about the child going back to the demon continent Rudeus dropped his book and ran forward throwing a water ball. It hit the boy square and direct on the side of his face. He fell down clearly surprised by getting slapped in the face with a puddle of water, it stung a little.
One of the remaining bullies shouted at Rudeus. "Get lost punk! This doesn't involve you!"
But Rudeus didn't stop running at the bullies as he punched the kid that told him to get lost in the jaw. Rudeus did it softly though. If he did it at full strength it would be as devastating as an Eris sucker punch.
Still the boy tumbled to the ground. The last one standing tried to throw a rock at Rudeus but he caught the rock and threw it at the boys shin, it hurt like hell but it didn't break anything.
Rudeus grabbed the leader by the collar and pointed at the kid they were bullying "That's what that kid feels like!" Rudeus said staring the bully in the face.
"Kneel down and apologize!"
"Huh….. but that kid is a demon, they deserve to be punished." The bully said trying to make himself sound reasonable for assaulting an innocent child.
"The sins of their ancestors do not transfer over to newer generations. They are their own people and can choose their own life to lead. Apologize to the kid before I break your nose!" Rudeus growled lifting his clenched fist up in the air.
After a few moments of grumbling Rudeus got all three boys to lay down and bow on all fours. The gravel scraping their kneecaps.
"We are sorry for causing you trouble! We know what we did was wrong and we promise not to bully you!" They all said in unison.
"Good now run to your mothers." Rudeus said glaring at all of them, they got up and ran away at that point.
Rudeus went over to the person he knew was Sylphy.
"Hey, are you alright?" Rudeus said outstretching a hand in her field of view.
She saw it and gently reached for it, Rudeus got her to stand up so he could get a good look at her. He smiled but had to keep himself from crying at the beauty he saw. Her hair was a grass green color just falling down far enough to touch the nape of her neck. Ears were pointed and long, incredibly adorable. Her nose and chin were chiseled and her skin color was a porcelain marble white. She looked like the purest definition of innocence and beauty. Well Rudeus in his first time around said that Sylph looked like a tomboy but now all he could see was a cute girl.
The girls expression looked like a frightened rabbit which only added to the cuteness.
"Um….um…. I'm fine." Sylphy says shyly. She was surprised by an embrace by Rudeus.
"I'm so sorry that those kids bullied you." Rudeus said trying to comfort her. He quickly pulled away to not increase the awkwardness and he then moved onto the next subject on hand.
"Your hair is covered in dirt. I can use magic to clean it for you. Bend down please."
She looked caught off guard at the command like a deer in the headlights but she obliged his request.
"Close your eyes."
He made some hot water and pored it over her head. She was surprised at first and tried to run away but he held her down by the back of her jacket. After her head was clean he blew hot air onto her hair, cleaning every strand and then the rest of her face including her ears.
"Take off your jacket. I will clean that too." Rudeus again commanded.
He made the jacket float in the air and created a wall of water. Then passed the jacket back and forth between the wall of water until the water was dirty as the mud was coming off of the coat with each pass. He then repeated the process with several other water walls until the coat was spotless. Using fire and wind he dried off the coat until it was fresh and warm.
"Here you go." Rudeus said handing the coat to Sylphy.
She was just staring at it with awe.
"How did you do that?"
"Magic, or as I like to see it the direct manipulation threw one's own energy."
"I only know some of those words. I've heard of magic but I haven't really seen it used like that before." Sylphy said confused.
"Would you like me to show you?" Rudeus said.
Her eyes lit up as she nodded enthusiastically. Rudeus smiled at her and she smiled back at him.
"My name is Rudeus but you can call me Rudy." He outstretched his hand in a formal greeting and an attempt at friendship.
She reached out her hand and shook his.
"My name is Sylph…" But she was interrupted by a gust of wind.
'No turning back now, no more mistakes.' Rudeus thought to himself.
"I'm sorry Sylph sounded like a boy's name. But I couldn't here the rest of your name because of the wind. What was it?"
After a moment of hesitation, she responded.
"It's Sylphiette."
"That's a beautiful name! Can I call you Sylphy for short?"
She nodded.
"Well then, how about we be friends Sylphy."
"Friends? I've never had one of those before…." Sylphy said looking down sadly.
"Well there always has to be a first time for everything."
"Why would you want to be my friend, if you hang around me people would bully you too. People think I'm a Superd."
"If I had to choose between a world of bullies and someone like you, I would choose you any day." Rudeus said with a cheeky grin.
Sylphy was taken aback at that response. She never knew someone could be so nice to her and she started to tear up a little bit at the boys kindness. She smiled weakly at him and he smiled back at her. Thus their friendship began again.
They played together out in the fields, running, playing hide and seek, tag, all the sorts of things that children play when they are together. Rudeus was a bit nervous now that he knew Sylphy was girl from the get go. There always was a barrier between boys and girls no matter the age. And when adulthood came around anytime a man hung out with a girl of the same status people would start rumors. But Rudeus didn't care, for right now he would pace himself and let things happen naturally.
That night he had to deal with Paul and the fact that he beat up three boys, the leaders mother came to their house to scold Paul for teaching his son to hit other children. But Rudeus was prepared for the argument. Which baffled his father. He then apologized to his son for not taking his side to begin with and they had a heart to heart.
Days pasted, Sylphy and Rudeus looked and tried to find the different plants the book gave a description on, they took the seeds of some none poisonous ones and planted them, nurturing them. Rudeus didn't use magic to grow them, something was just so satisfying about seeing a flower bloom slowly day after day, like a baby growing up and stretching it's legs then learning to walk. They skipped stones, ran through the fields, and did all the games Rudeus wished he could play in his first life in school. These moments were replayed in his mind and his heart felt so warm. Something was plaguing his mind that dampened the moments of joy.
'How do I get Sylphy to the capital of Ars to protect Ariel? If she doesn't get there in time the future queen of the Asura kingdom will die. Should I kill Darius before that happens? No, If I do that Hitogami will find another apostle to try and kill Ariel, Darius is much easier to track. I will have to prepare something with Hollow in order to see events unfold the way I want….. shit. Is this how Orsted thinks all the time?' Rudeus scratched his head trying to clear his thoughts.
"What's wrong Rudi?" Sylphy said, a look of concern was written over her face. She looked so loving that way.
Rudeus shook his head and sat up from where he was laying down. They sat at their favorite tree. It would be nice if this tree stayed here, where Rudeus and Sylphy could lay down together when they became adults, they would be huddling together hands intertwined as they sipped wine and ate food on a picnic blanket, kissing every now and again. The thought alone gave Rudeus butterflies. With that happy fantasy in his mind he looked at Sylphy and smiled.
"No, everything's alright Sylphy. Say why don't I teach you those spells I used when I fought off those bullies."
Sylphy nodded her head vigorously. Since she also had the Laplace factor incantations and then later on silent spells would be easy for her. Maybe Rudeus could teach her allot of things and help to grow her magic, maybe even more than his previous life. For now they would start small and summon a water ball.
She beamed when she summoned a water ball after multiple attempts with her hand but felt a little faint afterward.
"Why was I faint but when you did all those amazing things you didn't seem to struggle?" She asked tilting her head.
"Well magic and mana are allot like a muscle, you can grow it by constantly working it out until you're exhausted. Your magic can double if you get yourself to go unconscious by using too much magic, if you keep doing that imagine how big it will be!" Rudeus said stretching his arms out to the sides as far as they would go.
"Wow! That's amazing! But I'm a little nervous to fall unconscious. What if the bullies come back, or wolves or something like that come after us?"
"Don't worry, I will protect you." Rudeus said looking at her, giving her a childish thumbs up.
She hesitated for a moment. After all they had only met a few days ago. After a moment of silence she excepted. It only took six water balls that she threw in the air to make her fall asleep. Rudeus was only a 1 year old or less when he felt like that. Time had moved by slow at first but when he managed to get a huge supply of mana the days were packed one after another.
He didn't do anything perverted to Sylphy while she rested peacefully. He kissed her forehead lightly as he stroked her hair and that was it. They lay there underneath the shade of the tree on the cliffside as Rudeus looked over the valleys and hills. Everything was peaceful and perfect.
They lay there for hours as Rudeus read through the book of magic that Zenith kept in the Attic. Rudeus and Sylphy used the book to study and grow more. However Rudeus had edited some parts with red ink either highlighting or scratching out segments that needed to be corrected or were outright false. This would help Sylphy grow when Rudeus went away to teach Eris. He still had another two years before that happened when he turned seven.
'Two years huh. What should I do before that time comes?' Rudeus thought looking up into the sky.
He had many options, so many options. But for now they could wait. To be honest this was his first real day off in his third life. Life itself was precious and deserved to have itself appreciated from time to time. Moments like these with Sylphy leaning against his shoulder. He looked over at her while she slept, and instead of putting on his normal perverted smile all he could do was feel his heart about to burst from love and innocent joy as he looked at the person he needed to protect. She was a gem, no, more than that, a pure goddess. And he would worship her.
"I bet this would be the perfect time to play a piano song from Studio Ghibli." Rudeus whispered.
A few hours later Sylphy woke up and she felt exhausted.
"Your mana will replenish the next day. For now let's take you home Sylphy it will be getting dark soon." Rudeus said.
She nodded and they left for her house where her parents would be waiting. They waved at Rudeus wishing him a safe trip home. When he got passed the hilltop Rudeus flew back home enjoying the peaceful breeze of the approaching night.
But something was going to be tested tonight. Hollow and Rudeus after months of work were ready to test the dimensional teleportation spell.
Rudeus went up into his bedroom and used the teleportation circle under his bed to teleport him to his second home underneath the mountain. The hallways were lit by crystals, inside those crystals were beams of energy that were reflected, bouncing around similar to how a staff or wand worked. But Rudeus used these to refract light. The lights were a lot like lightbulbs but not quite like them.
Rudeus walked into his lab and looked at his masterpiece. The lab itself was circular and it was two stories tall. Shelves of petrified wood stored hundreds of teleportation and disruption circles as well as diaries and lab notes detailing past failures and possible successes. Several vials of blood were also stored in cabinets that were encased in ice and insolation mimicking a fridge so it could keep the blood preserved.
In the center of the room was a stack of circles. This one was composed of 200 pages instead of the 100 that Rudeus and Nanahoshi used to summon a seedless watermelon. The pages themselves were composed of circles containing both blood and crushed ingredients that the book on plants had described would have magical properties. Each page Rudeus had tested and used, each one gave it's own failure until he reached success. The bundle itself was bound with a metal cage, intricate magical circles were engraved into the metal, this work would be decades ahead of its time.
Rudeus had already been storing as much energy as he could into the pages, making himself go unconscious with transfer of energy. Now all that was left was to complete the final page. He hoped to summon a textbook on chemistry. The search itself to summon an item was rage inducing enough, it was like trying to make a search on the internet while everything was blurry and gave terrible search results, like when you try to search for funny cat videos but instead get a compilation of a AI potato saying how evil birds are. Vague things like that.
A magical circle could disintegrate after a single usage however Rudeus had found away around it, if the circuit was properly built and it had a larger storage of energy than required it wouldn't be destroyed. Normally this would not be possible if the circle was completed but using an activation rune would allow this.
As a counter measure Rudeus carved a large disturb magic circle in the center of the room that could activate if the magic was too strong. He didn't want another teleportation event to happen. He made a silent prayer, not speaking to anyone but hoping that the world itself was listening to his plea for success. And then he activated it.
A loud hum could be heard as if building up momentum in a motor. Then a bright light came from the circle. Once the light faded a single book on chemistry was floating in the air. It was a success.
Rudeus opened the book. "It's in Japanese!" Rudeus jumped for joy as he yelled into the air screaming about his success.
Without pausing he activated it again, it produced the same book. It made sense that this circle would produce the same result, after all it was making a very specific search and it would be a bad sign if Rudeus didn't get the same book.
Rudeus's plan was to be able to change out any page he wished in the bundle of pages to change the search results, the first one hundred pages just singled out the search result to Japan and then after that it narrowed the results down which were specified to his desire.
This book could help Rudeus fuse science with magic, offering the ultimate combination of the two. The young boy teleported back to his home and began reading.
The first actual page after the introduction was a broad description of the elements. Then it showed a display of the periodic table. The table also listed an index into where to find each element listed on the numerous pages in the book. It was appropriately listed into 19 chapters representing the 18 groups of elements, the 19th chapter was for the F block group of elements. Each element in these groups had similar properties to the ones in same group but the reaction changed with the increase or decrease of the three things that composed an atom.
Rudeus would be able to use this book as a basis for helping with a large quantity of inventions such as light bulbs and electronics. As the saying went, give a man a fish feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and he will never go hungry again.
'Should I share the technology of my world with the people of this one?' Rudeus thought. It was true that he could accumulate a massive amount of wealth with the knowledge that he could summon but at what cost. This could dramatically shape the landscape if he did this incorrectly.
Rudeus decided he could try to start simple, such as with the printing press. This would greatly expand on people's knowledge and allow education to flourish allot faster, effectively kickstarting the world into an age of invention by producing more gifted men and women.
After that point Rudeus would introduce things like lightbulbs, refrigerators, more effective sewer systems, medicine, irrigation, and methods of industrialization but that would take decades upon decades to create. If he did this millions would flourish. But once again he was getting ahead of himself. For now he could continue his experiments.
He would begin fueling mana into each element so see their reaction wither it was stable or unstable. Some of the metals listed on periodic table Rudeus already assumed would work well when paired with magic such as tungsten but he couldn't exclude any element from his experiments for that reason.
The reason for this was to make more and more effective magic circles such as disruption magic, or a magic circle that could absorb mana like a sponge and then redirect it. These two magics paired together against the teleportation event would be an incredibly useful tool.
The teleportation event seemed to be centered around a dark red orb which had two rotating belts that continuously grew overtime ever since Rudeus started his job working with and teaching Eris along with Ghislaine. For three years the floating Orb in the sky would grow until it released all it's mana that it had built up, removing everyone and everything from a good portion of the continent. But before those three years were up Rudeus would be able to study the orb and understand it's properties. Potentially reversing them.
As the night continued to progress and turn into day Rudeus had already produced helium, which was composed of two nucleus', two protons and two electrons. After forming a large quantity of those atoms his voice started to change. He couldn't breath in the gas for long, doing so would cause side effects and if he did it for too long then he was at risk of depleting his lungs of oxygen. Still it was utterly hilarious at how high pitched his voice was. It gave him a little bit of a headache so he stopped. It would be funny if he showed Sylphy his new talent.
Give me feedback and I will respond to all your questions and demands in the next chapter. I will not spoil my intentions for the biggest plot points though.
Once again thank you to all for the positive replies, they fuel my fingers to type some more. XaiGRS glad you like it! Also Zairyo I intend for Rudeus to remain anonymous as much as he can but he might play a few pranks on the prince for being an absolute piece of shit. 321jaz, I'm so happy about your responses and concerns. So far I have two new characters I will introduce, they will not be like in the DBZ universe where one OP character is introduced one after another, honestly so many anime have this issue, DBZ, Fairy Tail, Bleach, Seven Deadly Sins, as long as there is a number to their power level the anime will eventually get boring in my opinion. These characters that I will introduce will be on a similar power level to Rudeus, not necessarily world explosive, but they will be able to do OP things on a small scale. Many people in Rudeus's life thought his rock bullet was an emperor level of magic but he used such a small amount of mana to create them. Also Rudeus might create a transportable home or floating castle much like Perugius however that will be later on in the story. The new character I am creating and coming up with will have something much cooler than any floating castle though so I can't wait to see what you all think.
With that being said enjoy this next chapter.
Rudeus walked peacefully along the path, approaching the tree that him and Sylphy hung out at. He wanted to surprise her with his high-pitched voice using helium but knew she didn't really like surprises, if anything she would be incredibly concerned that his voice had all of a sudden changed. He had a high chance of meeting her if he continued to hang out at the tree overlooking the country side.
Right now, Rudeus was thinking back to the time he used to train in an effort to defeat Paul. The man himself was an absolute scum when it came to women but he still tried his best, plus Rudeus couldn't be mad at the man, after all Rudeus followed in Paul's footsteps even more and had gotten three wives. This wasn't by Rudeus's design it was just one mistake after another, like thinking Eris had ghosted him, that Sylphy was a boy named Fitz, and Roxy trying to sooth his pain and depression at the loss of family after the labyrinth incident. All of these were mistakes and Rudeus believed that had they been any other women they surely would have left him alone and in the dust.
'Still, what should I do this time around? All of my relationships were created by mistake.' Rudeus looked at his hands and chuckled to himself. 'I guess that's life, huh, you never know when it will happen.'
Sylphy walked up along the hillside and they practiced wind magic together. They leaped back and forth as they shifted side to side using the wind as their ally, increasing their movement speed. Sylphy still had to use incantations but she was getting better. On the subject of magic Rudeus originally thought that mana was expelled from the fingertips but later on he found it could be expelled from any part of the body. Pores in the body radiated mana when Rudeus focused, perhaps this was a way to create a battle aura. Fingertips were still the exit point for the most amount of mana but pores on the skin also leaked energy.
The next phase to wind magic was jumping up in the air. Rudeus took a running start and leaped upwards, seeming to fly for a brief moment. Sylphy was utterly amazed at the display and Rudeus gave a faint blush at her appraisal. She tried it next and it was a success. Next they would pair fire with wind magic to go even higher. But to do this Sylphy first had to learn silent spell casting.
For whatever reason she couldn't do it. Then Rudeus remembered what Roxy had told him.
'Normally a teacher will give a wand or staff to their students to learn what it feels like to use elementary magic and then remove the said staff or wand when told to replicated the spell.' Roxy said in his mind.
So a staff or wand in this case would be like training wheels.
"That's enough Sylphy, you are doing great but you look tired."
"No Rudi I'm good! I think I almost got it." Sylphy said as she continued to try and summon a water ball without talking.
"Well I have an idea. It can help you learn how to cast silent magic, and more than that it can make your magic allot stronger. Please Sylphy, your efforts are amazing but I think we should play another game for now." Rudeus said.
She lowered her head in disappointment, her ears drooping, but Rudeus patted her head trying to comfort her.
'She is like an adorable puppy.' He thought laughing to himself.
They played some more games and once they were out of breath from running Sylphy went home. Rudeus had allot of time to spare because they stopped their playtime early. Since that was the case Rudeus would start work on his present for Sylphy.
A new wand just for her.
It would look like the wand that Rudeus had received. He knew how to make wands in his previous life, he made them for his children when they were learning magic and he got pretty good at it too. The hardest part was the gem.
Rudeus went down to a riverbed and picked up a small stone. An incantation was used to create a normal looking stone into a magical gem, they were difficult incantations and not everyone could do them but Rudeus could create as many as he wanted. The more mana that was put into it the stronger the stone would become and eventually it would turn the color that the user desired, in some cases it would be a reflection of the soul of the creator and it would change color depending on the users emotion.
The boy spun the small stone around and around until it glowed bright red from the force being applied. He then compacted the stone until it crystalized, then he expanded it until it formed the shape and smoothness he wanted. Next he polished it. The stone was now complete.
Out of curiosity he touched it for a brief second and it glowed, making the same high pitched noise that he had heard before with the wand that he had destroyed. At least this way Rudeus knew it was good.
'What was that saying….. can god create something he can't destroy?' Rudeus thought. Well he wasn't a god by any means necessary and he would never call himself one but it was a quote that fit the situation.
The next step was creating the base of the wand. The top part that would hold the gem was made of metal which would encase it, then the handle was made from carved oak which Rudeus stained a dark mahogany color. To make this an above average wand Rudeus planted several enchantments composed of magic circles into the wand that were hidden beneath the surface and directly inside the wood. Most of this was detection magic, such as when monsters were with a 100 meter radius the wand would glow a light blue.
'I feel like if a certain short person wearing no shoes trying to throw a ring into a volcano saw this he would sue my ass off?' Rudeus thought.
The next was if the wand was pointed at a poisoned item or food it would glow a lime green. If the wand was waved in a square like motion going from corner to corner to the ends of the room then it would glow pink if the room was clear, it would blink red if the room was not and was occupied by someone in hiding, this spell could be done on unopened doors as well so the user didn't have to go into the room to inspect if it was clear. Each of these circles were so small they could only be seen by a microscope but hundreds of them were etched together in an intricate pattern.
However the final and most important piece was inside the wooden part of the wand. The inside had a sliver carved out of it, the part that was carved out stored two condensed rolls of paper and a summoning circle in it. If the wand detected that the user was in life threatening conditions then it would deploy a healing circle on the owner of the wand, while at the same time summoning Hollow, at the cost of destroying the wand. By this point in Rudeus's mana capacity he could expand it over an entire continent so if Rudeus kept growing soon it would be possible to connect to Hollow anywhere in the world. He had some dangerous ideas on how Hollow could actually be active full time without the use of Rudeus expanding his mana but that would have to wait.
Chemistry had also progressed to a point that Rudeus could turn air into a liquid which was both thrilling and terrifying. Chemistry had another factor in it according to the book. Heat was just the movement of atoms and if enough heat was applied flames would be produced in something that was combustible. There was no limit to heat, it could just get hotter and hotter, cold on the other hand was a different story. There was in fact no such thing as the term cold when it came to chemistry, just the absence of heat. And so if an atom was slowed down enough then it would alter the behavior of its physical properties. Water could easily become a liquid, gas, or a solid regularly such as clouds, rain, or snow. But oxygen itself when brought to a temperature close to -273.5 on the Celsius scale would begin to liquify.
Thank goodness Rudeus didn't have a candle nearby. If he did he would be dead. Liquid Oxygen was highly flammable as it worked as a great fuel source. If it was controlled it could be used with Acetylene welding, the book pointed this out as a practical application for uses of liquified or condensed Oxygen.
If the Oxygen was in a pressurized insolated container it would be stable and could be stored away for future use. If he wanted to do that Rudeus would have to learn how to make pressurized welding tanks. It's not like he needed to learn how to do welding, he could do that just by vibrating two pieces of metal together really fast making the atoms forge a bond between them and making it a perfect fusion. This method actually existed in his first life too, it was called friction welding. Still it was fun to learn how to do something a little more complicated than rubbing two pieces of metal together.
On a different note, copper was a good conductor of magical circles and when mixed with Rudeus's blood it formed a stable bond of magical properties. He had tried different ratios of blood and copper mixture, finding that a 10:1 ratio produced the best results. While allot less powerful than a circle made of pure blood is didn't break or crack when preforming a spell. Rudeus would have to implement this into the 200 pages, unfortunately this involved changing out all the 200 pages. Still it was something he would have to do eventually, either he replaced the circles now or he would have to rewrite them all later once the stack of paper had been used too much and began to tear.
He put the 200 pages on hold and instead drew up a design.
This would be the largest room in the cave system so far. The room itself was a long distance from the rest of the cave, a long, dark hallway connecting the room to the rest of the house. The room would be shaped like a sphere with the entrance being in the outer edge or the equator of the sphere. It would be 5000 square meters, and would be the size of a large warehouse. The walls blueprint was to be an intricate pattern of large gears, cogs, hydraulics, and magically powered motors that would give the observer of the room an impression that they were inside a large spherical clocktower. 12 mechanical robotic arms would be built and would all be on an x, y railway system going around the circumference of the sphere. They would be able to retrieve thousands upon thousands of copper blood magical circles stored and organized in alphabetical order, these robotic arms would have the purpose much like a classical jukebox player, retrieving a record to be played and a song to be heard.
Instead of a record being played it would lay many magical circles on top of the already premade 100 page stack that would be laying down in the center of the room. The entire purpose of the room was to change the search results to fit what the user desired, wither they wanted to summon a seedless water melon, or if they wanted to summon something a little more complicated such as a piece of technology like a cellphone. Rudeus would then work on more complicated magical circles that would summon living animals, but that was an entirely different subject matter.
Once he was confident that the objects he desired could be summoned he would add another 100 pages that wouldn't be used by the mechanical arms, instead when the middle pages had been laid down he would put the remaining stack on top of it. The reason for this final stack was that it would stop the summoning 1/2 way through the transportation and would make a perfect copy of the object being summoned.
It still would feel wrong for Rudeus to be essentially stealing something that wasn't his to begin with and he didn't want to steal someone's computer or expensive item by mistake. So this would copy everything about the object and replicated it.
The project alone would take years but Rudeus would continue to summon more books and consume more knowledge while at the same time expelling all his energy to summon said objects. He was confident his capacity would continue to grow. Essentially Rudeus was going to be building a computer that could reach between worlds and copy them into his own.
The other project was finding a way to store his energy safely without destroying himself. So far he was thinking of a storage room that would be directly linked to a ring he could wear on his finger. The room would contain hundreds of thousands of gems that Rudeus would create by the riverbed much like how he did with Sylphy's wand. But on a much broader scale. There he would put allot of his energy into said gems until he felt he was no longer about to explode with the amount of energy.
This concept was similar to a room full of computer servers, storing vast amounts of data as the human race continued to create, store, and use said data, ever expanding and never ending. Then when newer efficient methods of data storage were found Rudeus would create newer server rooms to store even more magic in the same given area of space. If this storage room ever ruptured Rudeus would have safeguards in place to keep the world from ending in an explosion caused by the pollution of the pure mana.
Rudeus finished a portion of his blueprints. Honestly the only a small portion of his time was spent making concepts for the magical teleportation clock room. The rest of the time he was in the cave he just wrote down in his journal on future ideas for the floorplan of his lab away from home. Sylphy's wand was the hardest to make but it had only taken a few hours or so. Since he could manipulate objects with precision carving magical circles into something was child's play.
He stored the wand in a wooden case so Rudeus didn't directly come into contact with the wand. He would give it to her tomorrow underneath the tree they hung out at.
The boy made it back home by the time he promised, it was almost dark but not quite. Zenith was waiting for him and she smiled when she saw him, taking her son inside to wash up and have a dinner that Lilia had helped prepare.
Nighttime came and Rudeus read through more on the chemistry book. Chemistry could be used to alter, purify, morph, or change the physical properties of anything. In his first life learning about chemistry was boring since he was just learning about it. But now Rudeus could use and practice chemistry in this life and apply it using magic without the need for large amounts of steps that would normally be required. Every page of the book opened up a new world of possibility and use for his abilities.
He continued to practice them until once again, and just like all the thousands of days he had been here in his third life, he collapsed into unconsciousness.
The next morning Rudeus continued his training with his father outside. He had decades of basic sword training behind him so his fathers movements were predictable but Rudeus never pushed in to finish the fight, always letting his father parry, deflect or dodge. After a while Paul started to notice this.
"Why don't you press in to finish the sparring Rudeus? you seem to hold yourself back." Paul said, he was a bit concerned his son was going easy on him.
"I just don't want the sparring to end dad. After all it's allot of fun training with you." Rudeus said as he continued to swing and sweat dripped down from his eyebrows and chin as he panted.
Truth be told he was enjoying the moment with his father, trying to remember the time of when he first started to spar with his father out in the yard. A feeling of nostalgia flooded his heart. This experience was allot like the feelings he had when he first started his second life, a chance for redemption but also the feeling that life was easy going and more like an RPG game.
"Don't go easy on me son, I can take it." Paul said sternly. He didn't want his son to stunt his growth for one second, at least that was what he was thinking.
Rudeus hesitated for a second, then he closed his eyes and nodded. Opening his eyes, he stood in a defensive stance. Paul would do the first strike.
He leapt forward using water god style to launch himself as the ground beneath him pushed him forward. He did a sideways slash at Rudeus's ribcage but Rudeus didn't block. Instead he closed the distance between him and his father.
The end of a swords blade had the most force behind it. The most speed, and the best chance of doing damage against an opponent. Much like how a baseball player would always try to hit the ball at the end of the bat to achieve a home run.
Rudeus on the other hand thought of a sword much like a fist only with a longer extension, reach, and sharpness. If the fist was stopped from moving in the first place then the fist itself would do little to no damage other than applying an opposing force with no momentum.
Paul was caught off guard by the boys movements. He thought he was about to be tackled at first by Rudeus because he closed the distance so quickly but instead Rudeus hit Paul with the pummel of his wooden sword right in the diaphragm, the muscle responsible for controlling the intake and exhale of air from the lungs.
The sudden shock to that area of the muscle caused the man's lungs to stop working for a brief moment, kind of like getting a hiccup in the worst way possible. Paul fell down gasping for air, it was Rudeus's win.
Rudeus patted Paul on the back trying to help with his recovery. It wouldn't take long but it was still enough of injury to temporarily cripple anyone.
"Where did you learn that?" Paul asked still gasping for air, thinking his son had some secret trainer or something like that.
"No one taught me. I normally dodge or block your movements so if I did something my dad wouldn't expect then the sparring match would yield to my advantage." This was true. Rudeus had to learn this on his own in his numerous training lessons and practice with Eris. She was an aggressive fighter too and when he performed that same move on her she was almost caught off guard at first. Later their skills with the sword greatly divided and he never won a match against her again.
Eris, the thought alone made him happy and scared at the same time. She was the very definition of a Tsundere, the biggest difference between her and most Tsundere characters was that she actually took the initiative when she finally acknowledged her feelings toward Rudeus. Before they got to that point though numerous fractures and bruises were waiting to happen in the near future for Rudeus. He wondered if he could improve his healing magic in this life too, he would definitely have allot of practice and opportunities to work on it since he would become a human punching bag.
Paul looked down in a moment of weakness, his pride damaged. After a moment of reflection he got up and beamed at his son. He was still so young and he had caught Paul off guard enough to actually win in a fight. But he wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. If Rudeus attempted that move again he would be prepared.
Hugging his son they went inside for some morning breakfast. Paul later on had to do some routine monster hunting around the perimeter of the valley he protected. Paul did this every month and depending on the amount of monsters it normally took him a day or two to return home, however if it was badly infested it could take a week. Still Rudeus saw to that with Hollow.
Hollow had cleared out most of the forest already leaving some of the weaker monsters in the forest so Paul wouldn't let his guard down. Monsters were a result of mana corrupting an animal's body, in other cases monsters were created from a failed magical experiment, the result of this were monsters that were abnormally powerful since usually advanced sorcerers attempted such mutations but failed at the experiment. In many other situations monsters were just large predatory animals to begin with that were not afraid to attack people.
Mana pollution was the reason why so many strong monsters existed in the demon continent. They were the byproduct of the war that was waged between the demon god Laplace and the armored dragon king Perugius. Even after 400 years of that war happening the land would take many more centuries to fully recover.
Rudeus would have to conduct some experiments on monsters once his schedule was freed up after the magical teleportation event was stopped.
'Should I say if I stop the teleportation event, or I will? I shouldn't be cocky but yet I should be direct in my actions to stop the event….. ahh this is so frustrating to think about.' Rudeus thought to himself as he took an angry bite out of his bacon. Looking out thought the window leaves began to fall. They were already starting to change color and the weaker leaves on trees were already beginning to flutter down onto the ground.
'Winter will be approaching soon, and next year around the same time in the winter we will have to have that emergency family meeting.' Paul was going to cheat on Zenith with Lilia.
It was difficult for a maid to bear hearing the moans of a husband and wife within the hollow walls of the modestly sized home. Rudeus had caught Roxy outside the hallway fantasizing while Paul and Zenith were going at it in their bedroom so he couldn't blame Lilia for being pent up too.
'Why is everyone in this world so horny!? Was it like this in mid-evil times on earth? Constantly fucking without discretion?' Rudeus humorously thought. 'No no, maybe religion got in the way of how men and women truly want to act around each other, that or maybe the people of this world just have a higher sex drive.'
Rudeus left the house looking up at the sky. Bringing his gift for Sylphy along with him as well as the magical incantation book. They would continue to practice.
"Hey Rudi!" Sylphy said waving in the distance standing next to their favorite tree.
Rudeus broke into a run of excitement.
"Sylphy!" Good grief, this was like the cheesy beginning of a romance novel.
The boy hugged the girl and she blushed with surprise but before she could say anything Rudeus handed her the box.
"What is this Rudi?" She said putting on a puzzled expression.
"It's a gift, I hope you like it Sylphy." Rudeus said smiling back at her.
She opened it and held a hand to her mouth in surprise. She fought back tears but it was no use as she reciprocated Rudeus's hug with one of her own thanking him for his gift without having to say any words.
"Thank you Rudi! Thank you…. I'm so, so." But Sylphy couldn't speak another word as she continued to cry. No one in her life had given her a gift like this so she just continued to sob and embrace the boy. He patted her head as they continued to embrace each other. It was innocence at its best.
"I'm glad you like it Sylphy. I also put some cool enchantments on it, can I show you?"
She nodded wiping the tears from her eyes. And thus Rudeus taught her about the various signals the wand could give in certain situations. He also talked about the healing scroll but did not mention that Hollow would be summoned as well to her location to try and protect her. He didn't know how she would react to his monstrous side but he hoped Hollow wouldn't terrify her too much.
"Don't forgot if you are in a life threating condition the scroll will be summoned but at the cost of the wand. So please try not to get into danger." Rudeus said pointing at the wand with worry.
"Don't worry Rudi, there isn't allot of danger around here so I think I will be safe, other than those bullies."
"Speaking of, I may not always be around, so you need to be strong and fight them off okay."
She looked down at her hands nodding. It wasn't a nod of courage, it was a nod to boost her determination.
Bullies sometimes caused trauma, Rudeus knew that from experience in his first life, but that shouldn't have stopped him from growing, instead he let himself be consumed by his fear and he became a shut in. It took allot of work in his first reincarnation to even muster up the courage to go outside, allot of the help was given by his goddess, Roxy.
Rudeus hugged Sylphy in an attempt to bring her more confidence.
Then they began to practice.
"Rudi look! I did it! I did it!" Sylphy said with joy as she performed a water ball spell without using the incantation. The ball fell to the earth and she made another, and another. Rudeus clapped along with her as they both ran down the hill into the fields laughing all the way.
They collapsed on a pile of leaves as they looked up. It was a nice and cool weather.
Practice continued after their momentary celebration as the hours pasted by quickly, one after another.
Not that big of a chapter I know but I feel I should make a filler chapter now and again to pace the story. That being said, questions and requests are highly encouraged so let me know in the comments section and I will give a shoutout to you in the next chapter. Soon Rudeus will get to go meet Eris in the next few chapters, and that is where his real work will begin. Like I said I won't spoil anything major though.