Chapter 14: Mind Magic (Patreon)

The Astraea Familia had always walked the elite path. Compared with the other top-tier combat factions, the Freya Familia, the Loki Familia and the Ganesha Familia, its coffers had always stayed at a rather healthy level.

On top of that, they'd only come back from an expedition a few days ago. They had sent their weapons off for maintenance, which now seemed a little wasteful, but the girls were still flush with cash.

So when Lyra, the Familia's chief steward, heard what the boy said, she stood up at once. "I'll go get it now."

Renan had actually wanted to wait until the Valis were safely in his pocket.

But not long after Lyra left, he felt a force dragging him upward from his right side.

He turned. The goddess Astraea, sitting beside him, was wearing a smile that said refusal wasn't an option. "It's getting late, Renan. It's time we updated your Falna."

With that, she took hold of him. Her divine power was sealed and she should have been no stronger than an ordinary person, yet from somewhere she summoned a monstrous strength and effortlessly hauled Renan up off the sofa.

Then, without a word of discussion, she looped both arms around his and began leading him step by step toward the bedroom.

"Um, Lady Astraea, I can walk by myself," Renan said.

Astraea answered with a 'gentle' smile. "Hm? Did you say something just now?"

Renan fell silent.

A sense of being locked in a natural predator's sights rose in him for no reason at all, and he folded at once. "No, I think this is just fine as it is."

And so, under the watch of Alize, Kaguya Gojouno, Ryu and the rest of the Astraea Familia, the black-haired boy was delivered inch by inch into the goddess's bedroom.

At last, with a "bang," the door shut.

Having never seen their patron goddess like this, the girls finally let out the breath they'd been holding.

"Ahaha~" Alize gave a dry laugh. "Lady Astraea really does love teasing people, huh."

"Right, right." Kaguya Gojouno nodded along.

Ryu, the 'honest one,' wanted to voice a different opinion, but the moment she opened her mouth, Noin, sitting beside her, forcibly stopped her. "Remember this: Lady Astraea is teasing him!"

As for the truth, the girls had all vaguely sensed it, but not one of them was willing to say it out loud.

Meanwhile, in the goddess's bedroom.

Astraea had made short work of stripping off Renan's shirt and pushed him face down onto the bed.

The brown-haired goddess took a silver needle, pricked her fingertip, and smeared the welling blood across the boy's back.

Then, with a flash of white radiance, Renan's Falna manifested:

[Renan]

[Lv1]

[Strength I33 → H141, Endurance I25 → H112, Dexterity I37 → H157, Agility I41 → H185, Magic I0 → I89]

[Magic]

[Mind Magic: 1. Rapid-cast magic, ultra-short incantation, no fixed chant; 2. The power of the mind affects reality. The firmer the conviction, the greater the power.]

[ ] [ ]

[Skills]

[Rabble: omitted]

[Thunder Breathing: omitted]

[Basic Magic Item Crafting: 1. Learn a type of script that holds power; 2. Use specific combinations of that script to craft magic items.]

[Novice Potion Brewing: 1. Brew potions with special effects.]

"…I knew it."

Astraea murmured softly.

When Renan had brought out those scrolls with effects like magic swords, she had already guessed that the boy had most likely awakened new skills or magic again.

Even so, not even Astraea had expected that after only three days, his Falna would suddenly show one extra magic plus two support-type skills.

'Basic Magic Item Crafting' needed no explanation. Those scrolls from before were surely products of that skill.

'Novice Potion Brewing' was probably much the same. The reason he hadn't shown any potions was most likely that they cost more to make than magic items.

As for 'Mind Magic'…

Astraea narrowed her eyes. The last time she had passed through Orario on Academy City business, she'd heard from a fellow god there about an elf child who had awakened a summoning magic that could cast every elven spell that had ever appeared, on the condition that she knew the incantation and the exact effect.

Because of this unknown miracle, something the lower world had never seen, the girl had been targeted by quite a few patron gods before she had even officially become an adventurer.

Astraea had been one of them.

But she put her faith in fate. If she truly met that elf girl and managed to invite her, she certainly wouldn't foolishly push her away.

And conversely, even if she failed, the brown-haired goddess wouldn't mind much. At worst she'd sigh and say it simply wasn't meant to be.

Yet now, a child who had awakened a magic with a similar effect stood right in front of her.

What's more, going by the explanation provided by divine wisdom, this magic's range was clearly even greater.

It was almost like…

'A weakened version of the authority a god wields.'

Astraea pressed her lips together. If Renan were one of her own children, then even though the Justice Familia already counted among Orario's top factions, she would not hesitate to lock his Falna down completely so that no one could read it by ordinary means.

What a pity…

As the thoughts flashed through her mind, the brown-haired goddess suddenly spoke. "Renan, would you like to formally join my Familia?"

The moment the words left her mouth, Astraea slapped her own forehead, regret flickering in her eyes.

She had existed for hundreds of millions of years. How could she not see what attitude the black-haired boy in front of her held toward the gods, thanks to all the stupid things Soma had done?

Sure enough, in the next second, Renan's unhesitating refusal sounded in the goddess's ear. "Sorry, Lady Astraea. I think the way things are between us now is already really good."

"Is that so? Then pretend I never said anything." Astraea sighed almost inaudibly, then engraved the Falna onto a sheet of parchment she'd prepared and handed it over. "This time you've awakened one magic and two skills. I won't explain what each does. I imagine you already knew in advance."

Renan took the parchment and skimmed it.

The rise in his five stats was within the normal range. After all, ever since he'd shared the strength of his Demon Slayer world self, he'd been running Thunder Breathing nearly every moment he wasn't asleep.

Besides, down in the Dungeon he had used close to a hundred of his homemade magic scrolls, guiding his magic power again and again, so the matching stat would naturally climb.

The appearance of the two support-type skills was also only to be expected.

His Harry Potter-world self had, after all, attended Hogwarts for a full year. He'd had no talent for potions, but through practice in class after class he had still managed to brew quite a few novice-level potions.

But compared with magic items, which cost less, learning and improving at potions took money, so it didn't suit that other self's development.

Of course, it didn't suit Renan either, who had been a pauper half an hour ago.

And the ingredients for the potion recipes Renan currently knew might not even exist in the DanMachi world.

Rather than waste effort hunting for cheap substitutes, he'd do better to make simple, practical rune scrolls that were easy to sell and use them as startup capital.

And then there was 'Mind Magic: Fragment'…

Renan narrowed his eyes, then raised his right hand in front of Astraea and jabbed his index finger forward.

"Lumos!"

A little of his magic power drained away. At his fingertip, compared with three days ago, a very faint flash of white light appeared for an instant.

The Falna's inscription had indeed strengthened, to some degree, the effect of the spells shared from the Harry Potter world.

But clearly, even in the Harry Potter world, a cast like this couldn't count as a success. Never mind that normally, once a Lighting Charm was cast, it could last a long time without much control.

'About what I expected. For now, I really do need a wand,' Renan thought with a sigh.

At the same moment, Astraea's voice, tinged with wonder, sounded beside his ear. "So this is the 'Mind Magic' you awakened?"

Renan nodded calmly, then shook his head.

"My cast just now didn't work. If… well, if my guess is right, I'll most likely need to get a wand."

The brown-haired goddess's face lit up with understanding. "So that's why you chose to make those scrolls and sell them in small quantities?"

Renan smiled and didn't answer.

They were all smart people. There was no need to spell everything out.

Astraea swatted the boy beside her on the head in exasperation. "You little slyboots."

She still very much wanted to witness the actual effects of Mind Magic with her own eyes. She stood up and led Renan back out of the bedroom.

In the living room, Lyra had already fetched the pouch with 50,000,000 Valis and set it on the tea table.

The other girls were still sitting on the sofa.

When they saw their patron goddess and Renan come out after only a few minutes, they all breathed a sigh of relief at the same moment.

Astraea looked at the green-haired, bespectacled elf girl among them. "Celty, I remember you usually keep a spare wand. If it's all right, could you fetch it and lend it to Renan for a moment?"

The goddess herself had asked, so of course Celty didn't refuse. "No problem."

Two minutes later, she brought a rather worn wand from her own room and handed it to Renan.

He thanked her, took it, and, without hesitating, jabbed it forward in his right hand. "Lumos!"

This was the fourth time he had cast the 'Lighting Charm' since sharing his Harry Potter-world self's power. Unlike the first three attempts, this time, as the incantation left his lips, a soft, not-at-all-dazzling ball of white light finally appeared at the tip of Renan's wand.

Seeing it, the heart that had been hanging in midair finally settled.

As for the Astraea Familia, they didn't think much of it. They only assumed the boy their goddess had taken a liking to had awakened some kind of support magic.

But they soon realized they were wrong, completely and utterly wrong.

The next moment, Renan spoke again. "Scourgify!"

In an instant, a gale whipped up inside the living room, then vanished before the girls could even react.

It took the dust from the floor, the tea table and the sofa along with it.

"?" x11

Renan didn't stop his demonstration. He was happy that he could finally cast properly after three days of waiting, and besides, since he'd be heading to the lower floors with the Astraea Familia afterward, there was no way he could hide the effects of the magic he'd mastered anyway.

So he went on to cast, one after another, the Armor Charm, the Mending Charm, the Unlocking Charm, the Fire Charm, the Summoning Charm…

When Renan cast the first spell, the Astraea Familia's reactions were calm.

When he cast the second, they were surprised and impressed. An adventurer who could awaken two magics at once, even if both were support types, certainly couldn't be lacking in talent.

But when Renan cast the third, the fourth, and then the fifth, the whole living room fell into an eerie silence.

A little over a minute later, the black-haired boy finally finished unleashing most of the Harry Potter-world magic he had mastered.

The brown-haired goddess standing beside him gave a small nod.

Both of them wore perfectly satisfied smiles, though one was satisfied from casting spells and the other from watching them.

Alize, who had finally snapped out of her shock and bewilderment, couldn't help speaking up. "Renan, kid, how do you know so many spells? Or is it like the 'Nine Hell' of the Loki Familia?"

"Renan has only awakened one magic." It was Astraea who answered. She glanced at the boy beside her, and when he nodded, she went on. "It's called 'Mind Magic.' As the name suggests, so long as one's conviction is strong enough, one can interfere with reality."

"Huh?!"

On hearing this, every last one of them wore the look of 'Lady Goddess, you can't be pulling my leg, can you?'

After all, that adventurers could awaken only three magics had been common knowledge ever since the gods descended to the lower world a thousand years ago.

Even Riveria, the 'Nine Hell' who could use nine spells, had in essence only split the three magics she first awakened into versions with shorter chants and weaker effects.

And now Lady Astraea was telling them that the single Mind Magic Renan had awakened could match the effects of dozens, hundreds, even thousands of spells.

Only because Renan had just demonstrated it did they believe her. At any other time, they would have taken it as a joke.

"There really are such unreasonable guys in this world," Kaguya Gojouno sighed.

Alize, Lyra, Ryu, Noin, Celty and the others all nodded in agreement.

Renan returned the wand to the bespectacled elf girl. He didn't puff up with pride at Astraea's words. He had a pretty clear sense of where he actually stood.

For now, without a wand, he couldn't use the Mind Magic shared from the Harry Potter world at all.

And it had to be backed by the correct gestures and incantations.

How far he still was from truly having every wish come true, where a single thought set all things in motion, he had no idea.