Vol 7 Chapter 20

"Yes. The will to believe it will happen that way."

Perhaps reading Kapros's skeptical expression, Superior answered once more with certainty.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Superior looked at Kapros and smiled brightly. Despite the ugly scar on his face, when he smiled like that, Kapros thought for the first time that he looked quite similar to his younger self from the memories.

"You already know the answer. What qualification do mages of this continent have?"

The moment he heard the question, an identical question he had heard before echoed in his mind like déjà vu. Those words he had heard when he first changed jobs to mage, which had now become so obvious.

"To imagine."

"That's exactly it."

Superior smiled with satisfaction.

"Someone who wants to see things bigger can use the same magic bigger. This doesn't just apply to form. The imagination that magic requires is connected to will. Create the form with your mind, and add power with your heart. Right here."

Superior slowly tapped his head and chest.

"Who dreams of what no one else has thought of with stronger will. That difference makes the power vary greatly between people even when using the same Fireball. This is one of the most basic fundamentals you can quickly notice when training with other mages."

Hearing this reminded Kapros of a post he had seen online before. It was when MIST had just been released. That post which had drawn many people's admiration by concluding that magic's power varied depending on how one imagined its manifestation. Who would have thought he would hear its contents again here.

"You've barely seen other mages, right?"

Superior suddenly threw out a sharp question.

"How did you know?"

The only other mages Kapros had seen were basically just the guild members of Magictopia he had met in Zagreb.

"It's obvious when I see you taking such roundabout paths despite having such clear will and original images, not knowing even the most basic things. In magic training, there are definitely things you need to realize by watching others' magic. Among those, the best partner is a master, but..."

Superior stopped mid-sentence and suddenly made an expression as if realizing something, then looked at Kapros with mischievous eyes. Kapros felt somehow uneasy.

"You. Want to know how I did that magic just now?"

"...Why suddenly bring that up..."

Of course he wanted to know. After all, he had originally been drawn here by Superior's out-of-nowhere offer to 'teach him a thing or two.' Still, his premonition wasn't good, so he answered while being slightly wary, and Superior gently put his arm around Kapros's shoulder.

"I have a basic training method I learned when I was young, and it's extremely effective. Once you know how to do it, you can do things like earlier with your eyes closed. But it wouldn't be right to just teach something like this for free, would it?"

"..."

"Since this is properly a relationship between teacher and student, how about master and disciple? If you fill that boring face with reverence for me and call me Master~, I might even teach you my secret magic."

If that had been sincere, Kapros might have considered it. But all he could sense from Superior's face was mischief, wanting to tease him thoroughly at this opportunity.

"Get this off me."

When Kapros sighed while pushing Superior's arm away, Superior clicked his tongue but surprisingly backed off cleanly.

"Hmph, no matter what. Sometimes I wonder if my successor isn't actually a golem."

That was Kapros's line. Though this situation was formed by his own whims and it was obvious he didn't really mean it, he sure talked well.

"Well, fine. It's true that training method would be most suitable for overcoming your weakness. Simply put, it's about habitualizing proper control of magic's power and type. Once you learn it, you can properly control your magical power and will to achieve maximum effect with minimum investment. I mastered all this when I was five."

For a moment, Kapros thought that even for an NPC, age five seemed like a fraudulent setting. At that age, he had probably just been playing at Master's dojo while dragging around a sword.

"Think you can keep up?"

When Kapros nodded solemnly to convey "of course," Superior said "Good" and snapped his fingers once more to restore the devastated field to its original state while declaring:

"We start now."

The first thing Superior had Kapros do was shoot Fireballs of different power levels at the surrounding trees.

"Weak power, normal power, strong power. Let's divide it into these three levels first. Start with weak power. Just enough to leave a slightly scorched mark on the bark."

"Fireball!"

Hearing Superior's words, Kapros chanted the spell while imagining a Fireball with weak power.

'Weakly... just weak enough to slightly burn the bark...'

Bang!

However, the moment the Fireball hit the tree, the quite thick tree was ridiculously shattered to pieces, making a mockery of his intention.

'Huh?'

"Normal power. Just enough to pierce through the tree normally."

As Kapros was taken aback by the unexpected power, Superior nonchalantly pointed to another tree and gave the next instruction.

"...Fireball!"

This time too, the Fireball that flew like an arrow instantly pierced through the targeted tree trunk and even knocked down another nearby tree.

'...Why is this happening?'

"That one next. Send it strongly and destroy it."

"Fireball!"

Boom!

This Fireball not only instantly shattered the tree Superior had pointed to, but also took three nearby trees as companions on the journey to the afterlife by burning them.

"Can you see what the problem is?"

Superior, who had calmly watched all this devastation, asked.

"The power..."

"It's not a power problem. You can't control it. Strong is fine, but you can't control the weak side at all."

This was a control problem?

"If you don't believe me, watch properly. I'll show you what proper control is."

Superior, who had lightly stretched out his hand in front of the contemplating Kapros, pointed to three trees in succession with a casual expression.

"One. Two. Three."

Pop pop pop! Boom! Bang!

The three Fireballs that shot out almost simultaneously showed completely different results. The first tree was literally just lightly scorched on the outer bark, the second tree had its trunk pierced about halfway through. And the third tree was cleanly and perfectly shattered.

As Kapros was left speechless looking at results that perfectly matched Superior's explanation, Superior smiled at him mischievously.

"Watched carefully? Since you won't call me Master, here's your homework. Practice hard until you figure out how to control this. I've given you all the hints, so I believe you can naturally do it. Don't worry, I'll make the trees regenerate right away when they fall."

Having said that, Superior left behind the speechless Kapros, muttering casually "Ah~ I'm tired from moving around so much after so long. Maybe I'll take a nap" as he went to a large tree quite far away. It was a spot where the shade looked good for sleeping.

'Ha...'

Kapros let out a hollow laugh watching this.

If that had been an attempt to provoke his competitive spirit, it had been quite effective.

'Right. What's there that I can't do?'

Kapros clenched his fists and walked forward while glaring at the surrounding trees. If this was something that could be done with practice, there was no way he couldn't do it.

That was what he had thought at that moment.