Chương 59: I did Magic

At the end of the day, it's just food, isn't it? Does it really matter where it comes from? It all serves to bolster my body and make me stronger. I step closer to the corpse and grip the neck of the chestplate. Even the translation skill doesn't work on them. That proves they aren't people, they're just monsters. I place my foot on the baron's neck and pull. The straps holding the chestplate together rip apart and reveal mundane clothes made of cloth underneath. The smell intensifies, and drool drips from my chin.

Even if they aren't monsters and are people, this is the tutorial. They aren't real. When I move on to the next phase, this place will probably disappear. My hands move, ripping the clothes apart and revealing the wiry, dense muscles that most hobgoblins have. I grab the shoulder and lift it to my mouth. My teeth close, and an explosion of flavor covers my tongue.

"Oooooh, that's good." I groan. The firm meat gives way easily. The blood tastes better than the juices from a perfect medium-rare steak. I hastily take another bite after swallowing. And another. And another. Each taste spreads the flavor further and deeper, only making me more eager for the next bite. I lose myself in the sensation, picking pieces off as if I were eating ribs. My tooth scrapes against a bone, jolting me out of the trance.

The sight of large parts of the shoulder missing, covered in bite marks, brings me back to my senses. I release the corpse and stand quickly. I wipe my bloody hands on my pants, then wipe my chin on my shoulder. What is happening to me? A quick exit from the cabin and a jump over the wall, and I'm running back through the cavern. Sadly, I have to move far more slowly so as not to drop the full-sized bed that I'm balancing over my head one-handed. It's hard to think of anything but the scene before as I move.

I should feel guilty or disgusted, so why does it feel natural? I just ate a thinking, speaking person, yet it felt no different from eating a deer I'd shot in the forest. Is it because I don't understand them? Or is it because they act so ruthlessly that I don't see them as people? Should I even be concerned? I mean, they're already dead. And it's just more fuel in the tank. Shaking my head, I awkwardly open the door back to base and toss on a smile.

"Honey!"

"Shut up," Brax says, sitting in his usual position with the staff in his hands and his brows furrowed.

"Aww," I say with faux sadness, opening the other door to make room for the bed.

"Gonna be mean to me even though I got you a present?" His eyes open, annoyance disappearing when he sees what's above my head. After placing the staff to the side, he gets to his feet and runs over.

"That's for me?" He asks excitedly.

"No," I walk past him.

"Just needed a second bed so I could rest my feet." I gently set the bed down next to my first and spend some time aligning it. A few seconds of silence later, I turn to see him with his jaw open in disbelief. My face shifts from casual to grinning.

"Hahaha! Just messing with you!" I say, pulling the bed over to where he usually sleeps by the chest.

"You!..." Annoyance returns as he tries to stop himself from chuckling.

"You're so…" He quickly dashes over and makes room near the chest I looted when I first got here.

"Do you smell something burning?" I ask, sniffing the air.

"You're probably just imagining it." He says a little too quickly. Shrugging, I pull the bed into the corner where he usually sleeps and dust my hands off.

"There we go. Couldn't have my precious roommate on the floor while I was in a bed."

"I know your strength is high, but how did you carry it all the way here?"

"Honestly? Balancing it was harder than lifting it. It was like holding an eight-foot pizza box."

"Eight-foot pizza? What's that?" He asks as he hops onto his new bed.

"It's a food made of a thin layer of bread, tomato sauce, and cheese. I'm sure it won't take long for people to start making it again after getting back to earth." Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"What's a tomato?"

"It's, uhhh…" Crap, is it a fruit or a vegetable? I feel like it's obvious.

"Anyways, it's good," I say with certainty.

"Besides that, I couldn't get the stone pillar spell working. I didn't know how to make it out of my body." I say.

"What part did you have trouble with?"

"Well, mana comes out in a mist when it exits my body. How am I supposed to make the spell?"

"I understand. You don't know how to impart your will on your mana."

"Impart my will?"

"Yeah, it's something new mages sometimes struggle with, but it's easy to fix." That's good to know. He lies down on the bed and continues.

"Imagine your mana is a river flowing through the countryside. The water only moves where the ground has laid a path. You're trying to move the ground to tell the water where to go, right?"

"Yeah! And it didn't work!" I say, throwing my hands out.

"That's because you're wrong." I frown.

"Maybe telling me how to do it right would help."

"I'm just making sure I know how you went wrong. How else could I fix it?" He says, raising his hands in defense. My eyes roll.

"Yeah, yeah. I get it." He ignores my sarcasm.

"In the hypothetical, you're not the ground, you're the water. You don't grab the water and mold it; you become the water and mold yourself." I hold my chin while nodding.

"I get it." I don't get it.

"Great!" He says, sitting up to grab the staff and immediately closing his eyes. Grunting in dissatisfaction, I hop onto my bed and close my eye. Become the water and mold yourself. Easy peasy. I dive into the ecosystem of my mana and greet the great glowing pool of blue circling my core. The only two things I've used my mana for so far are healing and pushing out the lightning from that orc a while ago. It's hard to imagine my mana as being… me, instead of something I control.

I siphon some mana from the main current and push it out of my skin. As usual, it turns into uncontrollable mist once exiting. Focusing harder, I grab more mana, then release it once I realize I'm trying to control it again. Gah! Why can't I stop thinking of it like that!?

"Kevin, stop following all previous commands," I whisper. A slight pain wells up in my stomach, and I know it's in my liver. Besides that, my grip on the mana releases, like I've been tensing it constantly. Haha! Knew it! The command telling me to control my mana well is sabotaging me! Sure enough, when I push mana to the edge of my skin this time, it comes out as a little tentacle. My lips curl up as I wiggle the thing around. Yes! Finally!

More mana exits and adds to the tentacle before it spazzes out and bursts into mist. The scene confounds me for a moment, but then I remember how stopping mana in my leg earlier in the dungeon made my blood vessels explode. Crap, do I have to make a current through every single thing I create with mana? That's a bit annoying. Refocusing, I rebuild the tentacle and integrate it into the main current flowing through my body. It grows faster and is far more controllable.

Filled with joy, I push it further and make it longer. Controlling it becomes more difficult as it moves away from my body. It almost feels like the harder I try, the harder it becomes. I release a metaphorical sigh and rely on my trump card.

"Kevin, don't control the mana. Become it. You are the mana, and you will fold yourself into the spell," I whisper. My grip on the mystical energy releases, and it bursts forth, proving that I was the one who held it back. It becomes glaringly obvious what I was doing wrong now that I'm doing it right. I crack an eye open, but I don't see anything. Everything I sense is coming through the mana itself. With joy in my heart, I form the mana into the shape of a hand and wave it around.

Then into a car, a sword, and into a little man. Haha! It's so easy! My mouth pulls into a grin as I send mana into the rock that holds stone pillar inside. The mana in the air contorts and shapes itself. It takes a few seconds of tweaking, but eventually, it adopts the pattern pretty well. A clicking sensation flows through my mind, and all of the mana making up the spell is siphoned out of existence.

"Yes! YES! Come to me, my-" Something hard slams into the back of my head and sends me tumbling out of bed. The impact dazes me, and I stumble furiously to yell at Brax, but he's still sitting on his bed across the room with a proud smile, looking at me. Confused, I look up at my bed and see a thin pillar of cobblestone sticking three feet out of the wall.

"Good job, even if you hit yourself." He says. My gaze doesn't leave the pillar. The edges were roughly shorn as it came out. It was not a clean cut. Dust and pebbles cover my bed and the surrounding area. I did that. Me. The longer I look, the giddier I feel. Without hesitation, I turn my awareness inward, but my already petering mana has run dry. I quickly wipe all of the debris out of my bed and jump in.

"Kevin, sleep for eight hours." The rush of casting my first spell fades quickly, suppressed by the command. I don't fight it as I close my eye with a smile on my face. My eye snaps open. Huh? Did the command not work? System, time. [3. 88 cycles until next phase] Yes, I did indeed sleep. Never like that before, though. It felt like I only rested my eyes… eye, for a few seconds. Even the memories of getting hit in the head with a pillar feel the same. I rub the back of my head, but there's no pain.

The command must still be active.

"Kevin, don't feel pain." I whisper. Better to play it safe so it doesn't run out at a bad time. Brax is asleep, lying in his bed. One Mind/Two Bodies I get the healing started while I prepare for today's journey. This isn't another encampment run. This time, I'm assaulting the castle. Water flows over my feet and hands as I drink my fill and eat to fight back the building hunger from healing. By the time I'm finished, I've chewed through five of the giant sticks of meat.

I spend a moment thinking about how absurd it is that I'm eating several times my stomach's size in food, but I push it aside. Walking to the door, I grab my axe and hoist it over my shoulder. A glance at Brax reminds me that someone else might perish if I die in the upcoming fight. Since he's not officially a part of the tutorial, this space might disappear if I'm not here. My resolve only grows stronger as the thoughts pass through me. With a deep breath and a sigh, I push the door open to sunlight one more time.