HP: Sacred Gear Chat Group (2) - Chapter 14 (Patreon)

Chapter 14 - Demon Continent

Sitting on the deck of our ship, the fresh and salty morning wind from the ocean blew against my face. An expression of concentration crossed it as I held my hands up, each palm facing the other.

Journeys on a ship, especially as a passenger, were dead boring. It was a cramped space with not much for us to do. Nothing like modern cruises, where you had a full entertainment program on board.

It would have been even worse if we didn’t have my tent with us. We would have been forced to cram together in a tiny cabin, and sharing those three bunks would have been an unpleasant experience. At least my tent fit into the cabin after I shrank the bunks down, making our journey far more pleasant than it was for everybody else.

Still, that didn’t change the fact that there was not much for us to do on a ship. We couldn’t spar on the limited deck space, or we would get in the way of the crew. Neither could we practice large-scale magic, or it would disturb the sea.

All we could do was read or work on relatively small spells, which was still better than the boredom Ghislaine had to endure. At least my tent had enough space for us to practice our swings, even if it was too cramped for a proper spar.

Neither could I drain my magic on a ship to grow my magic reserves. Sure, I didn’t think my Magical Core was growing. At least, I hadn’t noticed it. It kept producing magic at a constant but rapid rate.

I would never have noticed my Core if I hadn’t learned this world’s form of magic. It was like a Mana Generator, limited only by the rate at which it could channel magic through my body. In comparison to this world’s scale of magic, however, that rate was quite small.

No wonder most of our spells were so small-scale overall. Something like Fiendfyre probably required another source of power, such as our emotions.

The mana I gained in this world was like a network that had spread throughout my entire body. Normally, it had a very slow rate of mana regeneration, and the total magical output of the body was limited by the amount it could store, which was smaller than what fit into my Magical Core.

That was probably the reason why witches and wizards in the Wizarding World never seemed to run out of magic. Large reserves, fast regeneration, and small to medium magical output. It was an interesting combination.

Meanwhile, the mana network in the bodies of people here could grow with usage, but its growth slowed down with age.

Fortunately, mine seemed to have formed recently and was growing the more I drained it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible on a ship. My Magical Core was intimately interwoven with the new network of magic that had formed inside my body, since it had pretty much grown into my Core.

My Core was always refilling that network, which made me a unique wizard with large reserves, fast regeneration, and a relatively large magical output. At the same time, it made draining my mana network very difficult and meant I had to rely entirely on the scale of the spells I was using.

Since my Magical Core was always refilling my mana network pretty quickly, I reached a level of growth in days that would take others months or years. At this point, spamming Advanced Rank Spells no longer had any effect on me.

But the Saint Rank Spell I had just learned the day before our departure did. It was a method to train my magic reserves even further.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t just throw Saint Rank Spells around on a small ship. Even Advanced Rank and Intermediate Rank Spells were out of the question.

So I had to find something else to do, something that wasn’t a waste of time. Besides studying from my vast collection of books, there was not much worth focusing on. I had mastered the Beginner Rank Spells of all—and I mean all—schools of magic by this point.

I could cast them without a wand or any chanting, and I could freely modify their structure by now. I could also try experimenting more with Summoning Magic, which I had already done, but only with the beginner stuff. I didn’t see much point in it right now.

Summoning was one of the few forms of magic in this world that I wasn’t sure would work in mine.

A future version of Rudeus Greyrat, the protagonist who traveled 50 years into the past to warn his younger self about something, formed the hypothesis that magic in this world could accomplish anything as long as you understood the concepts behind it.

The current system of magic this world followed was pretty rudimentary and limited in scope.

That same future Rudeus also figured out how summoning and teleportation worked, or rather, he figured out the rough concepts behind them. That was, in fact, what allowed him to travel to the past, even though he didn’t have long to live after that.

After learning that this world was a Six-Sided World structured like a cube in some form, he learned of the existence of a seventh world: the Barren World, or Void World, right in the center of the cube.

All forms of teleportation and summoning magic used that Void World in some way to perform their magic.

But Earth and most other worlds were not structured like the Six-Sided World, which raised the question of whether I could use this form of summoning magic somewhere else. Not to mention the fact that a large branch of summoning magic was Monster Summoning, which involved monsters that lived in this world.

But I wouldn’t ignore the possibility that this world’s summoning magic also worked outside of it. After all, this universe also had an Earth that wasn’t part of the Six-Sided World, and characters had been summoned from it using the very same magic.

Instead, there were a ton of other cool forms of magic I could focus on. Future Rudeus was the biggest proof of that. He had not only figured out Time-Traveling Magic, but also Gravity Magic, Electricity Magic, and whatever else was never mentioned in the story since he only appeared for about a chapter.

In his timeline, he still ended up as one of the most powerful beings in this world.

And he was proof of just how much magic could accomplish.

Since I was trapped on a ship, I couldn’t try anything fancy like Gravity Magic. I didn’t even have an idea where to start with that. Maybe it was an advanced application of Earth Magic?

But I could easily try something small in scale. In fact, I had been trying to figure it out ever since I cast my first spell from this world. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much of a starting point besides a rough idea of how it worked.

Our protagonist was at least a victim of that form of magic himself, giving him a good feel for it before he figured it out himself in just a few days. I didn’t have that luxury. For me, it took several months.

Yet finally, just as my mana concentrated into a sphere of fire in the palm of my left hand, a bit of raw mana I sent from my right hand disrupted the process, canceling the spell.

It was a technique called Disturb Magic. Just before the mana could take shape as it gathered in my hand, I used different mana to disrupt and disperse it. While it had taken me months to figure out, I had finally done it.

And this piece of magic would be really useful. Just imagine me canceling other wizards’ spells while they had no idea what I had just done! I had wanted to learn this ever since I got here. All it took was sitting down and actually putting in the effort instead of playing around with it from time to time.

It was also an extremely convenient piece of magic that didn’t cost much mana.

As a small pebble that had started forming in the palm of my left hand dropped to the ground after I disturbed it with my mana, I realized that wouldn’t work either…

It was like I was playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with myself.

I might have figured out the general concept of how to disturb spells, but I always knew what kind of magic I was casting myself, making it very simple to disrupt. I would need someone else to help me actually practice and master this magic.

Maybe it was even possible to block Disturb Magic. Although it would be rare for me to need to use it, it was still better to be prepared for every situation.

Time to look for Roxy. She wouldn’t be as bored, at least.

———

— Wind Port —

“We are at the Demon Continent at last.” I sighed as we stepped off the ship onto the docks of Wind Port, the southernmost and only port city on the continent. Immediately, I noticed something I had already seen at Zant Port.

The people moving around were extremely diverse. There were all kinds of different members of the Demon Race inhabiting the streets of the city. Unlike at Zant Port, it was immediately noticeable how few humans were actually walking these streets.

And this was probably the one place on the Demon Continent with the most humans. Overall, this continent was far more dangerous and deadlier than any other continent in this world.

It was so dangerous that there weren’t even any low-level hunting jobs at the Adventurers Guild, because the weakest monsters here were at least C-Rank. It wasn’t an environment that many humans would enjoy.

This dangerous environment also made the continent quite poor overall. There wasn’t much of a profit margin to be made here.

Even if there were many high-level monsters here that could be hunted for valuable materials, that didn’t mean those monsters didn’t exist somewhere else in the world. The only difference was that it was far harder to get started here.

“What is the plan?” Ghislaine asked as we moved further into the city, her gray-furred ears twitching as she took in all the new sights around us.

“Maybe registering at the Guild to update our Adventurer Cards for the continent? We can also get more information there. Maybe someone has seen your target?” Roxy suggested quietly, a nostalgic look in her eyes.

It had been quite a few years since she had left this place behind.

Should we head to the Guild for some information first? Good question. It would be good to be aware of any dangers.

I was really not interested in meeting some of the people inhabiting the Demon Continent, especially the members of the Immortal Demon Clan and their Demon Kings.

Someone crazy like Atofe trying to enslave me into her personal guard with a Magical Contract if I caught her attention would be just bad. She was far too powerful for any of us to resist at our current level.

And while I was interested in those Magical Contracts and had been searching for information about them, I had no desire to learn about them from her.

There were also some herbs I was interested in getting, like Sokasu Grass, which could be used to make a tea that dispersed magic from one’s body. It could have some interesting applications in potion-making.

I had been eagerly collecting different plants throughout this journey, especially those with some form of practical application.

My plan was to increase my family’s wealth in the long term by building a business empire with exclusive goods that only we had access to. Collecting those plants was just the first step in that rough plan.

Casting my Clairvoyance Spell while focusing on the target I was looking for, I watched as a glowing path appeared in my field of vision, leading me further into the city. I couldn’t tell how far away my target was, only the direction of the path. But maybe I was lucky and could find it in the city?

They had been here before, and I knew they would be here again in a few years.

Unfortunately, my target was moving all over the Demon Continent. If I was unlucky, it could be completely out of my range, especially since I had less than a month left.

We had already traveled at a very fast pace, abusing every advantage we could get. The only faster method of getting here would have been teleportation, which we didn’t have access to.

“I just used Clairvoyance, and I can’t tell if my target is inside the city or outside since the path only leads into the city.” I admitted easily before coming to a decision. “How about we first check if we can find it here? Maybe we are that lucky. In that case, we could accompany Roxy for a bit on her way home.”

“That sounds like a good plan.” Roxy nodded, giving me a small smile. Ghislaine also easily agreed, having no strong opinion since she mostly followed me anyway.

Now that I thought about it, what was she going to do once I left?

While she could barely do math or read right now, she had only learned to read the Human Language. She didn’t know the Demon Language at all.

I hadn’t thought of this at all.

This could be really bad. Maybe she could go with Roxy, and we could part ways here too?

Following the path Clairvoyance had been showing me, we soon arrived at the edge of the city, while the path continued further north.

That would have been too easy. It wasn’t here.

“Nope, seems like we aren’t that lucky.” I sighed in disappointment. “But at least it seems we can accompany Roxy for a while. The trail is leading me further north, so you should be heading the same way if you want to get to the Migurd Tribe.”

“Then I would be happy to have you accompany me on my journey.” Roxy replied kindly.

Then my eyes fell on Ghislaine. “Maybe you want to travel with Roxy once we part ways? I will probably leave pretty abruptly and won’t be able to bring you back here.” I offered honestly.

But to my surprise, Ghislaine shook her head, quite firmly, if I had anything to say about it.

“I am going with you. You saved my life.”

“You don’t speak the Demon Language, nor can you read it. You will be completely reliant on yourself in this unfamiliar continent. And Roxy isn’t going to stay on the Demon Continent forever.” I reasoned. She would be in real trouble once I had to leave.

Yet Ghislaine remained firm in her decision.

“I am going with you.”

Didn’t she realize that she would be stranded in an unfamiliar region? But who was I to dissuade an adult who could make her own decisions?

“Fine, let’s go to check out the Guild.” I sighed, accepting her decision for now. There wasn’t much I could do about it.

[-- End of Chapter --]