Chapter 17 - Chapter 16: Wind Magic
The day after the fish-catching experiment.
Mika was walking toward the place where he had practiced earth magic.
Thinking about yesterday's events, he couldn't help but smile to himself.
When he went to deliver some of the catch to Ninetiana behind the church, it seemed Diego had happened to be back home, and he and Ninetiana were both happy about it.
At home, Amalia and Loretta were wide-eyed with surprise, celebrating with such exaggeration that they praised him endlessly.
Since he usually wasn't helpful with anything around the house, he jokingly suggested bringing fish every day, but they told him to stop.
They said it wasn't good to monopolize the blessings from the gods.
Mika didn't think he could catch all the fish in the river by himself, but he did agree that catching too many was bad.
He realized that since he was using magic to catch them, it might be too conspicuous.
So when he said he would bring some occasionally from now on, Loretta told him she was looking forward to it.
Amalia, however, worried that the river was dangerous and told him not to push himself too hard.
Even so, the grilled fish the three of them ate together tasted unbelievably delicious.
It was just seasoned with salt, yet it tasted better than any high-class fish he had ever eaten before. Was it because of the frugal quality of the Noisheim family's meals up until now, or was it――?
Family.
Mika recalled his family from his previous world.
Ritsu Kuhashi's family had slightly complicated circumstances.
Well, divorced families weren't exactly rare, but due to the long-term discord between his parents since childhood, Ritsu had become somewhat disappointed in the very concept of "family."
That wasn't the only reason he chose to remain a single noble, but he simply couldn't bring himself to build a new family. Eventually, having others in his territory became painful, and he grew passive about getting a lover.
As he established a life where he could earn money with his own hands and live alone, this tendency became even more pronounced.
But what about Mika in this world?
It was impossible for him to live alone; he relied heavily on Amalia and Loretta for care.
On top of that, they showered him with so much love it was almost drowning, interfering with him to an excessive degree.
At first, he was greatly confused by the two of them and often wondered how to interact with them, but now he accepts it as a matter of course.
His slightly twisted view of family as Ritsu was being overwritten bit by bit at the Noisheim household.
While he felt happy about this, he also felt a sense of guilt.
This love was not something he was originally meant to receive, he thought.
He felt sorry for the real Mika Noisheim.
He also felt sorry for Amalia and Loretta, who were unknowingly being deceived.
Mika truly wished, from the bottom of his heart, that he would never lose this family, considering them irreplaceable.
Walking to the edge of the village, he found the remains of yesterday's "Earth Wall."
He stopped about five meters in front of it and raised his left hand.
"Limiter Off," "Stone Bullet."
He created three stones and fired them into the earthen wall.
After firing three more "Stone Bullets" in three sets, the earthen wall was blown away to the point where it was barely recognizable.
"............That is exactly why I will absolutely protect this family."
He muttered it to no one, alone.
Mika sat down in the grass and thought about the "Stone Bullet."
Its power was impeccable.
"......The only thing left to check is the effective range?"
Since the "Stone Bullet" was a magic spell that acted like a gun, common items regarding gun performance and specifications suddenly came to mind.
Effective range was necessary information for other magic spells as well, but he had never thought of it until now.
However, he couldn't do anything flashy within the village.
Checking the effective range naturally required a certain amount of space, and if he couldn't restrict access, accidents involving villagers might occur.
It was necessary information, but checking it right now was not realistic.
"In that case, it really comes down to developing magic."
He had tried the "Stone Bullet" a few times as a review of yesterday's lesson and reproduced it without difficulty.
He would continue practicing the "Stone Bullet" from now on, but today he would focus on developing new magic.
By the way, as a side note, Mika used three shots at a time for the "Stone Bullet."
In the basics of shooting, there are things called "double tap" or "two-point burst" where you fire two shots at a time.
If you fire only one shot, you often miss, or the damage is insufficient, allowing for a counterattack.
Therefore, you fire two shots at a time to ensure the target is taken down or to seal off counterattacks.
Separately from that, there is also a "three-point burst," which, as the name suggests, is a technique of firing three shots at a time.
With guns, there are limitations on ammunition, and considering the cost increase and potential malfunctions from increasing the number of gun parts, there is a trend of thinking, "If we have a 'two-point burst,' do we really need a 'three-point burst'?" But with magic, these are problems that can be almost ignored.
Therefore, he judged that the "three-point burst" was effective for ensuring the target was taken down or for dealing damage.
As his mana capacity continued to increase, he thought he might try firing continuously like a machine gun someday.
Sitting in the grass, he thought about wind magic.
He already had ideas for magic spells.
"Blast" and "Air Cutter."
He tried to extend his left hand to test the "Blast," but nothing happened.
He concentrated his mana, imagining sending kinetic energy to the air in front of his hand, but it wouldn't budge.
He tried creating a "Waterball" and imagining it flying in a parabola, and it flew exactly as he thought.
"Hm?"
He extended his left hand again and imagined the movement of the air, but still, nothing happened.
"......What is going on?"
For some reason, the wind magic wouldn't manifest.
What Mika was imagining right now was the movement of the atmosphere.
Wind was, needless to say, a phenomenon caused by the flow of the atmosphere.
Low pressure and high pressure, air currents rising when heated and descending when cooled.
Due to various factors, the atmosphere moves, and people call that flow of the atmosphere "wind."
While things moving horizontally relative to the ground surface are mostly called wind, vertical movement is also wind.
So, he was imagining the atmosphere moving and giving kinetic energy to the atmosphere in front of his palm, but absolutely nothing happened.
(Without even consciously thinking about it, it always converts to kinetic energy on its own. Why can't I do this?)
He crossed his arms and put his hand to his chin.
Hmm...... as he thought, something slightly caught his attention.
He picked up a stone lying on the ground and pinched it with his fingertips.
He imagined it flying like a "Stone Bullet."
He concentrated mana in his hand, and the stone was completely enveloped in mana, but still, nothing happened.
When he made a "Stone Bullet" with his free hand, he could launch it exactly as he imagined.
"............Can't I interfere with things that originally exist?"
Mana seemed omnipotent, but there was an unexpected pitfall.
It seemed he could interfere with kinetic energy and thermal energy in substances created by his own mana, but he couldn't interfere with substances that originally existed.
But, thinking this far, he noticed a contradiction.
He stared intently at his right hand.
"Then, why could I heal my burns......?"
His own body, under this classification, would also be a substance that originally existed.
Was his own body an exception?
(No, no, no, what foolish things am I saying. Don't talk about exceptions so easily.)
After all, what do I know about the nature of mana?
I've just become slightly able to use it; I'm still in the middle of feeling my way and learning how to handle it.
There must be some reason.
The reason I couldn't interfere with stones and the atmosphere, but could interfere with substances I created myself and my own body.
The basic principles of mana. Theories I haven't discovered yet.
"The reason I could interfere with my own body was simply that I met the conditions necessary to interfere. The reason I can't interfere with this stone is that I'm overlooking some condition necessary to interfere."
He didn't know what that was.
Ideally, a genius physicist should descend right now and explain it clearly, but that wasn't going to happen.
Then, he would have to accumulate empirical knowledge from now on to figure it out.
(......Don't decide you can't do it on your own. Don't set limits on the possibilities of mana yourself.)
Imagination is important for mana.
That means, if I think I can't do something, I won't be able to do even things I could do.
He wouldn't limit infinite possibilities just because he thought he couldn't do them.
Well, regarding the "Blast" magic that stumbled right away, he decided to try a different approach.
If he couldn't interfere with the existing atmosphere, he should just create an atmosphere he could interfere with.
"If I recall correctly, the ratio of the atmosphere near the ground was 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen, wasn't it?"
He thought there was a definition excluding water vapor, but roughly speaking, it was like this.
If he went into detail, there would be carbon dioxide, dust in the atmosphere, and various other things, but he couldn't go that far.
He would create an atmosphere mixed with 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen using mana and blow it out in a certain direction.
"............Is this okay?"
He couldn't deny a faint sense of unease.
He had never done scuba diving, but he had heard of "nitrogen narcosis" and "oxygen toxicity" from accidents during diving.
Such accidents tend to occur in environments with depths of tens of meters, and he predicted they were caused by changes in pressure environments or fluctuations in the concentration of nitrogen and oxygen in the blood.
On the ground, and at concentrations almost equivalent to the atmosphere, inhaling it probably wouldn't cause problems, but risking his life on half-remembered, incomplete knowledge was a bit hesitant.
After all, there was no guarantee that the atmosphere he created was actually nitrogen and oxygen.
Was he really okay......?
"Well, I'm not going to do scuba diving with the 'created atmosphere' right away. It'll definitely be fine. ......It should be."
He gathered his resolve and tried the "Blast."
Although he named it "Blast," he didn't intend to create wind of that magnitude right now.
Of course, the final form would aim for wind capable of felling large trees, but he wouldn't test that now.
Probably, if he created such wind all at once, he would be blown away in the opposite direction.
Mika, who hadn't realized things until he tried and failed, knew this failure would likely result in a fatal injury.
It was wind capable of felling large trees. If it hit Mika's body, how many tens of meters would he fly?
He wanted to praise himself for realizing this before trying.
"It's just a test. A dryer level should be enough for now."
He extended his left hand, aiming at the weeds in front of him.
Create atmosphere, imagine giving it kinetic energy forward.
"Blast."
Then, the weeds in front of him began to sway vigorously.
When he pointed his left hand at his right hand, he could indeed feel the wind on his right hand.
"Oh wow. It really is like a dryer."
Since he hadn't done anything with thermal energy, only wind at room temperature blew.
Next, he blew the wind on his neck and face.
"Ahahaha. This is good. It's quite cool."
In a world without even air conditioners, let alone fans.
Being able to blow wind wherever he wanted might be more useful than he thought.
Although it was limited to summer.
After playing around for a while, changing the wind speed like switching a fan's switch between "strong" and "weak," he remembered there was another magic spell left.
In fact, he could say he postponed the development of wind magic because of this spell.
"Air Cutter." The thing that cuts targets using wind as a blade.
It was also called a "whirlwind," that phenomenon said to create a vacuum and blah blah blah.
"......No way. That's impossible."
The "Air Cutter" was a staple of fantasy magic, but he didn't feel it was achievable at all.
Although he had just thought about not limiting the possibilities of mana himself, he couldn't help but think this was a bit......
He wouldn't say you couldn't cut with air.
For example, if he modified the "Blast" he just tried, he thought it might be possible to cut something.
If he made the air outlet as thin as an injection needle and sprayed it at pressures equivalent to hundreds of thousands or millions of atmospheres, he could probably cut off his own arm.
Well, with this logic, using water pressure rather than air pressure would be more reliable and exert higher effects.
(Blade....... A blade, huh.......)
If he just wanted to cut, that method would work, but it wouldn't take the form of a blade flying through the air.
Since he was deciding the shape of the magic himself, he could do whatever he wanted if he just wanted to settle for something casual.
But, precisely because of that, he wanted to be particular.
He wanted to finish it in a form that satisfied him and proudly use the "Air Cutter."
There must be no compromise whatsoever!
"Having said that, impossible things are impossible......."
Mika lay flat on his back in the grass.
With the sudden movement of air, it was probably possible to tear something apart.
If he did that within a very thin range, it might look like it was cut by a blade.
But, how much mana would be needed to cause that phenomenon?
Since he could easily create substances, obtaining that level of output might not be a problem, but somehow, Mika himself couldn't convince himself that "this will work."
Cutting something with air didn't quite make sense to him logically.
"Alright, I'll just cheat then."
He quickly changed his plan and cheerfully got up.
Actually, he had considered an alternative plan from the beginning.
The moment he chose to learn the "Air Cutter," he couldn't help but feel that cutting with just air was "unconvincing."
And he had carefully thought about what form would satisfy him.
"Air Cutter."
He extended his left hand, aiming at the weeds in front of him, and dozens of weeds were cut in a straight line without difficulty.
Mika smiled with satisfaction.
A whirlwind.
It is famous for being a phenomenon where injuries are made without one knowing due to a vacuum, but the prevailing theory is that it is actually something like chapped skin.
The fact that reports are frequent in cold regions is one of the reasons for this.
But there is another strong theory.
That is the theory that it is caused by sand and small stones picked up by strong winds.
He probably thought most cases were due to the former, but he believed there were surely some cases due to the latter as well.
So, for the "Air Cutter," he adopted the latter.
First, he would send out mana in a flat state like a slightly rounded ruler. In other words, a boomerang-like shape.
This shape manipulation could be called an application of the "Ice Javelin."
Then, he would turn that launched mana into countless tiny stones smaller than 0.1 millimeters.
This was made possible by the "Stone Bullet."
He would move those tiny stones at high speed within the flat ruler-shaped range.
If there were too many tiny stones, they might be visible, but if there were about 100 stones for a 30-centimeter ruler, it would be impossible to see them.
This became a wind blade that could easily cut weeds, but just how much could it cut?
In his imagination, it could even tear through full plate armor, but physically there would be limits.
After all, they were just tiny stones.
Well, improvements to the power could be thought about little by little later.
First, establishing the "shape" was important.
"Air Cutter."
Although it was called wind magic, the content was almost earth magic.
But that was fine.
If he was satisfied.
If he wasn't satisfied, he wouldn't allow any compromise.
But if he was satisfied, he would tolerate any cheating.
This sensibility might be misunderstood if he said it was polished during his time as a programmer, but it was a fact that programmers had such nature.
Programmers are determined by specifications, but there isn't just one way to achieve that.
There are countless means to get the same result.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that even with exactly the same specifications and exactly the same results, if there were ten programmers, the program contents would be ten different ways.
Or rather, that is exactly what happens.
The specifications Mika sought for the "Air Cutter" this time were――.
1. Not visible.
2. Specialized in cutting ability.
3. Maintain the effect range in a rod-like shape.
4. Fly to the target drawing a straight line or a curve.
These four points.
He satisfied all of them.
That was why Mika could say with his chest puffed out.
This was the "Air Cutter."
"Finally finished."
Mika muttered deeply.
The completion of the basic four-element magic.
Of course, he would continue to develop magic that seemed useful from now on.
But for now, he wanted to celebrate the completion of the four-element magic, which was his goal.
There were several points to improve for each.
But that was a trivial matter.
Even if the required mana was too great to use now, that would be solved automatically when his mana capacity increased.
Right now, he just wanted to praise this great achievement of mastering magic by his own power.
"Well, the 'Earth Wall' and the 'Air Cutter' seem like they'll be sealed for a while."
What was surprising was that, although not as much as the "Earth Wall," the "Air Cutter" required a lot of mana.
Because of the specification of materializing tiny stones and having those countless tiny stones repeat high-speed movement in a narrow range, it consumed a considerable amount of mana.
"I guess I'll focus on mastering other magic for a while. That way, my mana capacity will increase too."
Mika lay down in the grass and gazed at the sky.
Thinking back, the first time he manifested magic was also when he was lying down like this.
Suddenly, a large amount of water attacked Mika, and he panicked, wondering what was happening.
Magic manifested unintentionally, and his vision went dark in a nightmare-like situation.
Remembering that time, he couldn't help but laugh.
"That was a real pain. I seriously wondered what to do."
Not even a month had passed since that day.
It had been only two months since Mika came to this world.
"......It's gotten so far away."
He muttered deeply.
It wasn't about the distance being far or the world being different.
He felt that his existence had drifted far away from his previous self.
He recalled himself in his previous world.
He was an ordinary, tired old man, just like anyone else.
" nostalgic, huh......."
He wasn't satisfied with his former, mundane life.
But he didn't have the will to change anything either.
Just living every day out of inertia.
But he didn't have any dissatisfaction with that either.
He had long forgotten to think about the meaning of living.
"Yo!"
With a shout, Mika got up vigorously.
He lightly patted his clothes, brushing off grass and dust.
"......Where am I heading, I wonder."
Muttering that, he started walking while looking up at the sky.