Ch 78 -- My Blessings (Small) Turn Out To Be Really Useful After All

Right then, next up is the verification of the changes to my own magic powers. There are various things I want to try and they'll take a bit of time. In that case...

"Hey Fer, I want to try out my magic powers and it may take a while. While I'm doing this can you go find a Black Serpent and hunt it for me?"

"Oh, is that about you wanting a Black Serpent skin? You said something about it earlier."

"Yeah, that's it. Lambert-san talked me into agreeing to wholesale him a Black Serpent skin. Can you catch one for me?"

"Yeah, no problem. I'm not doing anything else anyway. I'll be right back." Fer hesitated. "Yes, I've put up a Barrier for you. I know how you worry about such things." Condescension doesn't suit you, Fer.

"Oh Fer-sama, thank you thank you thank you." Fer ignored my sarcastic riposte, dashing off quickly into the distance. He could really move when he wanted to. Right, to work.

"Lessee, let's try fire magic first." There was a danger of fires if I shot off Fireballs randomly in the forest so I first tried changing the size of a Fireball held on my palm. I started with a regular Fireball.

"Wow!" The Fireball I made was double the size of the ones I could create before.

"Is this the power of the goddess' blessing?" OK, dial it back a bit... I tried to deliberately make a Fireball of the usual size, using a lot less magical power... Oh, I made it. That looks good. So if I cut back on the magical power I feed into the Fireball it gets smaller. More power, it gets bigger. I kept pumping magical power into it and eventually I ended up with a Fireball about a metre in diameter.

"It takes a lot of effort to keep it this size." I muttered.

"Wow, Aruji is amazing-" Sui commented.

"Sui, this is a Fireball and it's really hot so you shouldn't get too close to it."

"I understand-"

While Sui was telling me I was amazing I saw the Fireball growing and shrinking. I had to concentrate to maintain its size.

"Next up, another Fireball at the same time..." I created two smaller Fireballs, one on each hand. That worked too. I spent about 15 minutes trying assorted combinations then I paused, puzzled by the way I felt.

"Huh? I'm not at all tired?" I would feel tired by now normally. I'd want to sit down after expending so much magical energy but it's no problem now.

"Is this reduction of magical power consumption from the blessing? The Goddess mentioned something like that... I'm OK afterwards even though my fire magic is a lot stronger too."

It turned out it was difficult for me to maintain a Fireball with a diameter of about a metre and half so I decided I'd only create a big one like that in an emergency. Whaddayaknow, the Goddess' blessings (small) looked like they were going to be useful after all.

Next I tried out my earth magic. First of all...

"Stone Bullet." Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk... I went up to the tree I had used as a target and counted seven pebbles (Stone Bullets) embedded in the trunk.

"Seven Stone Bullets at a time is a big improvement, and they're embedded deep in the wood. It looks like their striking power has also gone up."

I kept experimenting, firing off Stone Bullet several times while increasing the magical power I fed into the effort. At my limit I could shoot nearly 30 pebbles at a time.

"It's a bit like a shotgun." I mused. It seemed to be quite powerful but again I decided I'd reserve that amount of effort for an emergency.

Next I tried using some new Earth Magic I had acquired. "Stone Wall." A stone wall about 2 metres long and tall and about 10 cm thick appeared on the ground in front of me.

"Oh, it worked." I was a bit surprised, I had only put a small amount of magical power into it since it was my first attempt at using this spell. I felt I could put a lot more power into it if I desired. It certainly felt different to the Stone Bullet spell.

Was it worth expending magical energy to simply create stone walls? Well maybe, perhaps if I thought I wanted to be somewhere for a long time. I decided to try something more elaborate but first I decided take a little break and restore my magical power levels again. Checking my Status, my magical power was reduced to nearly half from all the experimenting I had done. I also felt a bit tired and hungry now so I decided to eat something to restore my energy levels while I relaxed. I bought some sweet buns from the Net Super.

"Sui ~ Let's rest for a while." I called. Sui who had been busy practicing water magic came over at once. "Here's a snack for you." I offered her a sweet bun.

"It's not dinner-time, is it OK to eat just now?" Sui wasn't sure she was allowed to snack between meals.

"Yes you can, but only this one time." Sui-chan's a good girl, she deserved a treat now and then.

"Yay!-" Once Sui started eating, I started eating too, with my usual canned coffee accompaniment to the sweet buns. Yeah, sweet things when I am tired are delicious. After nearly an hour's break I checked my Status again. It wasn't totally restored but it had recovered to about 90%. Sui got sleepy as usual after she ate sweet things and she took a nap in her bag. I moved away a bit to avoid waking Sui again before I continued experimenting.

"Fu~, I finally managed to do it." It had taken a lot of trial and error but since I now had Stone Wall I thought I could perhaps make a house with earth magic. I only had the blessings (small) of Earth Goddess Kishar so I wasn't sure I could do such a complicated thing, but this is really useful.

The 'house' I created (although it's doubtful whether you could actually call it a real house) was a box-shaped room of roughly 10 tatami mats in size. It had walls, a doorway and a roof, nothing elaborate or complicated but the difference between having it and not having it while travelling would be more than you'd think at first.

Fer's Barrier spell guarantees me a perfect defence and rain and breezes are kept off but because it is transparent it doesn't provide me with the reassurance of a solid wall. My biggest problem is when I go to sleep. I know that the Barrier is safe and reliable but since I can see through it I continue to worry and I can't rest easy. I want a wall between me and the world outside when I go to bed so I can sleep well, so this will be like sleeping at home. Good enough.

It took me about two-thirds of my magical power to make this 'house' though, but if it reassures me and helps me sleep better it'll be worth it.

It may only be a blessing (small) but it's doing a really good job. Well done! I was kinda worried this change in my Status would cause me problems but yeah, having it is good for me after all. I'd not be able to do this sort of thing otherwise, probably so in the end I'm glad I got the blessings (small).

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