A pop, a crackle. Perhaps a bit lackluster, but that was all my magic could amount to now.

Still, it had only been an hour since I discovered my magical ability. So my current ability does not reflect my potential very well. 

Having repeatedly practiced creating small sparks out of thin air, I’ve finally managed to be semi-consistent with the activation of my magical ability, with the ability working four times out of five when I try. However, the explosions created from my magic are really quite small. On a battlefield, these would best serve as either distractions or a means of communication. Any actual damage would be very limited even if the opponent wasn’t wearing mithril for protection. 

“How are you feeling right now?” Zeph asked me after I created another small pop. “Are you feeling nauseous? Hungry?”

“Maybe a bit hungry but I’m not feeling nauseous,” I replied. “Well I have been taking short breaks in between each blast so I think that slows down my mana intoxication.”

As for why Zeph is asking about my hunger, it’s due to fire magic consuming the caster’s own fat and sugar to fuel the flames. Which is probably why I’m more inclined for a snack now. However, I could probably practice for a while longer before taking a break. 

“Hey Zeph, can you help me out with something?” I requested my instructor. “I want to try creating an explosion using leaves, but I need you to help put out the flames if it starts getting out of control.”

“Sure thing,” she answered. “I was actually going to try out something like that with you.”

“Then let’s proceed,” I said as I motioned towards a pile of leaves on the ground. 

After taking in mana then using it to push a concentration of the energy around the pile of leaves, I visualized the explosions that I had been performing so much. 

Without warning, a loud snapping sound rang through the air as the pile of leaves was engulfed in a brilliant orange red flame before almost instantly dissipating into ash. The force of the blast was enough that it sent bits of earth and ash flying a very short distance away from the original area. So it certainly had more than the force of a slap, though nowhere near a lethal amount. 

“That’s really strange,” Zeph declared upon witnessing the explosion. “Normally fire magic is supposed to cause a long continuous flame. Not instantly incinerate something while blowing it apart.”

“I assume this is one aspect of Aentaerope’s power of destruction,” I answered. “So it might be better to say that it isn’t flame magic, rather a destruction magic that is accompanied by flame.”

“Most likely,” Zeph replied. “I think we should do some testing in that case. How about you ignite another pile of leaves? But instead of putting them on some wet mud, we’ll set the leaves on flammable grass.”

“You better be on guard then,” I reminded her. 

“It’ll be fine,” she brushed off. “Besides, unless you have a sudden jump in power, it won’t be a problem for me at all.”

Well it is true that Zeph is just substantially more powerful and talented at magic compared to me. Though it’s still a bit annoying to be reminded of such, causing me to heave a sigh. 

Once I set up another pile of leaves on the verdant green grass, I flooded the area with my mana before igniting the leaves. Well, it took me two tries to ignite the pile, but that was just a slight delay. 

Just like before, the targeted foliage went up in a cascade of orange flames. But instead of sputtering out, the fire immediately spread to the nearby grass, torching the nearest into black ash while the blades further away transformed into a small inferno. Still the area that was torched was only around a meter in diameter so it wasn’t particularly impressive in terms of destructive power. 

“Shit, shit, shit,” Zeph sputtered as she violently swung her arms, prompting a bulk of wind to choke out the burning grass.

“I told you to be on guard,” I snickered, earning a pout from Zeph. 

“Fine, that’s my bad,” she conceded. “I was expecting something like that to happen. But I didn’t expect it to happen that fast. Anyways, how are you feeling?”

“I’m not nauseous yet,” I told her. “Though I do feel some slight strain from intaking mana.”

“I see,” Zeph remarked. “That would mean that your ability doesn’t require too much mana to use. But we should experiment to see how much physical energy it consumes, since it appears to be a type of fire magic.”

“By the way, what about visualizing it better to release more power?” I asked her. “I remember you telling me about how developing a stronger comprehension of your ability makes it stronger. Like I’ve already made my explosions fairly more powerful, but I feel as though I can still improve.”

“We should only do that if you’re feeling well,” Zeph told me. “Since a greater activation of an ability requires more mana to be used. So you’ll have to move more mana into the area of reaction than before.”

Smiling, I walked over to Zeph and gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 

“I’m feeling fine right now. If anything changes, I’ll let you know right away.”

“In that case, I recommend developing a sort of body movement,” Zeph informed me. “You know how fire and lighting mages pump out their arms, water mages make wide fluid movements, and earth mages use strong bursts? They do it not just to visualize it better, but each element is sort of empowered by specific movements.”

“So that’s why I see you waving and pushing your arms,” I remarked. “But how come you don’t move sometimes?”

“Convenience,” she replied with a smug smile. “I’m skilled enough that I can generate a fairly powerful wind without moving about. And sometimes it’s hard to wave my arms around when I’m riding a horse and shooting a bow.”

“Fair enough,” I replied. “I assume I won’t really be able to do that?”

“Probably,” Zeph answered with an apologetic look. “Anyways, I assume that your motions should involve something like a quick violent burst. Try stomping your foot on the ground or something similar.”

Following Zeph’s advice, I activated a clump of mana in the air while slamming my right foot onto the ground. 

To my surprise, the normally small crackle transformed into a sizable blast about half a meter in diameter. Although smaller than the blast on the grass, I noticed that all explosions made in only air were quite a bit smaller than on foliage. 

“Nice, very nice,” Zeph applauded me when the heat in the air died down. “Though I think that we need another movement if you plan to use magic on horseback.”

The two of us stood still, quite stumped, until I had a rather obvious revelation. 

“I’m going to try snapping my fingers,” I told Zeph before immediately testing it out. 

Compared to stomping my foot, the blast was a bit weaker. Though it was a marked improvement from not moving so it was clearly a success. 

“It worked,” Zeph commented. “We really did make a lot of progress today. Apart from finding out more about your ability, you’ll mostly be working on developing your skill. The power should increase a fair amount, but the most important part is understanding how to apply your power as well as how to best manipulate mana.”

“I’m assuming that’s going to take quite a while,” I sighed. 

“Pretty much,” Zeph replied. “I mean, I’m still learning despite how experienced I might seem.”

“So have you discovered any new tricks recently?” I asked her. 

“Not really,” she admitted. “I guess I’m getting better at guiding projectiles that aren’t my own, but that’s really just intuition.”

Come to think about it, I wonder how Mikhael’s magic is going. While he started out just blasting out lighting with brute force, he slowly honed his skill so he could shoot out fast accurate bursts or switch to powerful sustained streams. 

But as for myself, I think I’m limited to violent bursts considering how my power seems to just create explosions of flame. However, I’m curious about how it could be applied. 

“Hey Zeph, how about we try the foot stomp but I target a pile of leaves this time?” I suggested.

For a moment, Zeph looked quite conflicted, pondering about how much damage I would inflict to the surrounding landscape. 

“You know what, let’s do it,” Zeph declared with a look of almost reckless abandon. “Though we probably shouldn’t do this somewhere with too much grass.”

Nodding in agreement, I went to collect another pile of leaves for our test. 

When Zeph signaled that she was ready, I gathered up a substantial amount of mana around our third pile of leaves before igniting it with a quick stomp.

Just like before, the former occupants of a nearby tree’s branches instantly dried up and transformed into blackened ash. Accompanying their transformation was a blast of not just sound but also debris around the explosion. Bits of earth and ash flew through the air, though not with much force. And by the time that Zeph stifled any remaining flame, there was a visible gouge in the ground where the leaves were. Well, calling it a gouge was an exaggeration. It was much more accurate to call it a very slight scrape of a crater that only seemed to minorly inconvenience the earth. 

“Very cool, but I don’t think it’s something that could kill someone,” I pointed out.

“Would probably hurt a lot though,” Zeph added with a very slight grimace. “Perhaps we should test it out on ratmen?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” I agreed. “But let’s do that another day, I’m feeling a bit more fatigued than I would like.”

“In that case, let me get you a treat,” Zeph declared with unusual cheeriness. 

When the two of us went back into Damask, Zeph led me to the marketplace and bought a few meat and vegetable skewers for us to share. And although I was only a bit famished, I eagerly tore into the succulent bits of pork and the juicy vegetables that had been covered in meat juices. 

The rest of my day was occupied by my usual schedule of resting and spoiling Minerva and Sekh. Though it was certainly inconvenient that I was affected by very slight feelings of dizziness and irritation from repeatedly using magic. 

On the morning of the next day, Zeph and I decided that it was a good opportunity to find some ratmen to use my magic on. And considering the nature of my ability, there was no doubt that it would likely be gruesome. 

After prowling through a sparsely occupied area of farmland, we came upon three ratmen, most likely survivors of the constant attacks by the local militias and sellswords. 

Swinging myself off my horse, I had to run towards the diminutive ratmen as they tried to flee from me. At the very least, I was able to move a large clump of mana directly onto one of them which I promptly ignited by jabbing my foot onto the ground. 

The resulting explosion was horrific. The black matted fur on the ratman’s chest immediately blazed with fire and the creature was sent sprawling to the ground from the sudden force. After the smoke cleared it became visible that the monster only had a chunk of flesh burned off, the ragged wound demonstrating the messy nature of the explosion. Worse, the creature was still very much alive, now screeching in pain as it desperately tried to regain its footing. 

Running towards the prone creature, I quickly mercy killed it by slitting its throat with my knife. As that happened, Zeph had slain the remaining two ratmen with her bow, an obvious grimace on her face. 

“Let’s...let’s not do that again,” Zeph said with visible disgust. “I don’t think this is something meant to be used on living things.”

“It’s definitely horrible,” I remarked with a frown. “A useful distraction, but horrific for the opponent. I’d prefer not using this on people, but I’m not going to exempt monsters on the basis of fair treatment. Especially against something that poses a threat to people.”

“You’ll need to develop this ability further in any case,” Zeph remarked. “Because it can certainly be useful. I just don’t think blasting individuals is the way to go.”

Perhaps it is a cruel and somewhat ineffective ability, but if it proves to be useful then I’m willing to use it for the betterment of the people around me.