13 - Training supplement

Studying the spell based on the variation of leaves is at the same time much more complicated than rearranging the branches, but it's also much easier than rearranging the branches.

When rearranging the branches, every little change in their position affected the way the spell reacted in a way that was almost unpredictable for me.

Controlling the leaves on each branch, although more complicated and tiring than working with the branches, was much more predictable and easier to understand.

So even though it was more tiring, I got much more satisfaction from practicing the spell in this way than rearranging the branches.

And that satisfaction from practicing it certainly paid off, since after a week of practice and a total of 80 attempts and tests on the spell, I had finally reached a point where the spell had its cost reduced by 50% while the effect for the given injury was amplified by 15%.

This meant that I now needed a rest of only 45 minutes between each patient I treated, and even if the spell used part of the patient's life force, this was still at a level where they would only feel minimal discomfort that would disappear after a few hours of rest and a good diet.

Considering how cheaply I charged for treatments, it wasn't unfair, right?

Needing less rest time meant that I increased the number of patients I saw in a day from 7 people to 12, which also increased my average income from 16 copper coins (with tips) to 30 copper coins a day.

Considering the family's previous expenditure on good food of 8 copper coins a day, theoretically I should have had an extra 22 copper coins every day, but now that money was no longer an issue, I decided to increase our meals even more.

Our current diet is satisfactory based solely on my magical development and recovery, but with my physical development in mind, this would have to change: I would have to eat more, and preferably more protein.

With meat accounting for 80% of the value of meals, increasing protein would also increase how much I spend daily by a large margin.

But it's a necessary expense.

Over the last few weeks I've had a lot of time to reflect on what I want for my future in this world.

A medieval world where the law isn't applied fairly, where nobles do what they want with commoners, where wizards are as arrogant and powerful as phoenixes, where being poor or weak is a sin...

My curiosity and interest in magic, which used to be just something fun in my eyes, was now proving increasingly crucial for my future development.

Without the freedom and power that magic provides, I would still be working with my father and starving at home.

So what I should do is keep developing in that direction.

Not just focusing on healing magic, but improving my magic in general to the point where others fear offending me and my family.

'And to continue this transformation...' I thought as I looked at my reflection in the large barrel of water in the backyard of our house. 'I have to evolve.'

In the reflection in the water was a boy with straight, messy black hair that covered half his eyes with his bangs.

Underneath this black fringe were a pair of bright purple eyes that rotated slowly, precisely analyzing everything that came into range.

The remaining features of my face were a little above ordinary...

If it weren't for my eyes and the thinness of my face, I might even be considered cute, but the aesthetic part didn't affect me that much.

Just for not being extremely ugly I was grateful, everything else could be compensated for by being well-groomed and having a good personality.

But looking 10 with such a small body was something I couldn't accept.

So even if I had to spend even more money on food, I was going to give this body the nutrients it needed to grow healthy and develop well.

Closing my eyes and trying to feel my insides, I realized that my Mana pool had grown slightly compared to how it had been since I came to this world a month ago.

It wasn't a huge increase, but it was still noticeable, showing that exercising my magic and nourishing my body was really helping me.

And the best thing about it was that the increase in the Mana Pool wasn't restricted by my eyes, making all this new Mana completely under my control, which made this improvement that much more significant.

A 2% increase in my total Mana might not seem like much, but considering that I could only use 20% of my total Mana because of my eyes, this converted the 2% increase into 10% more Mana that I could use on a daily basis...

Such a huge increase in such a short space of time was something that made me very happy, but not completely satisfied.

'I need to find a way to accumulate more Mana or unlock the rest of the Mana in my body so that I can use it for whatever I want besides my eyes...' I thought worriedly.

-

My 'Evolution ' was starting to happen.

With more money and more meat on the table, my body, which had been small and thin, was now starting to develop more muscle with my new training, while my height was also showing signs of increasing.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, the more my body developed, the more Mana my body was able to produce and even my Mana recovery was speeding up.

Finn and Milla were also taking advantage of this abundance of meals very well.

Milla was no longer the skinny, depressed little girl who just followed my mother around, but a healthy, playful little girl, since her body now had enough energy for it all.

Finn also started to recover well, and with good nutrition the hunger that the eyes made him deal with disappeared, his body also started to have more energy to the point that he could get out of his chair by himself and go wherever he wanted now.

Unfortunately, even though my 'Evolution ' was happening fast, I still wasn't satisfied with the speed of it, so I shifted my focus to an external means that could speed up this process.

[Nutrire Vitae], the spell that Lady Greta used on Finn when she came to treat him, something that transformed ambient Mana into nutrients for the body.

Even if the body used nutrients to recover Mana, the amount spent was less than the amount generated by the spell, so I saw the possibility of using this spell as a development supplement!

Even though this spell had 13 branches, making it the spell with the most branches I've ever used, with my recent development I believe I can use it, so after waking up and eating a hearty breakfast, I sat down under the tree in our backyard and started practicing this spell.

“Nutrire Vitae...” I said quietly as I used the magic words to help me replicate the spell, while focusing all my attention on remembering what the tree looked like from Lady Greta's hands.

If I were Kael who had just arrived in this world, remembering and replicating this spell perfectly would be impossible, but considering the hundreds of spells I'd done over the last month and how much I'd practiced my magical control, replicating a spell from the same healing tree as [Levare Vitae] that bore so many similarities to it was easier than I'd imagined.

The Mana drain that [Nutrire Vitae] had on me was as intense as I imagined, completely consuming my Mana reserves, but as soon as the Mana entered my body with the spell formed, the feeling of satiety I felt was more intense than the breakfast I ate!

As I stretched out my hands I felt as if my body was completely energized, even though my mind was exhausted by the lack of Mana, to the point that without my realizing it, my body lowered itself and I began to do push-ups.

After the push-ups I held onto a branch of the tree in my backyard and started practicing pull-ups, sit-ups... it was only after a full workout that my body started to show signs of fatigue, something very different from my normal workout over the last few days.

'[Nutrire Vitae] has a lot more potential than I imagined... if I can develop this spell with the ideal branches and leaves, my recovery process and body evolution will be much faster! ' I thought excitedly. 'With my body recovering and evolving so quickly, I'll be one step closer to the freedom and security I want in this world.