Magna spent hours in his room, entirely absorbed in experimenting with his mana and training himself to cast spells faster, losing all track of time in the process.
Eventually, he grew quite skilled at both the Water Sapphire and Fire Orb spells, able to chant the honorific names of the Matriarch of Life and Death and quickly follow them with the right sounds, forming the mana pattern fast enough to cast a spell in mere seconds.
Fire Orb had also been a spell the mother goblin used to cast often, so drawing on that memory, he managed to recall the honorific names and right sounds and master it just as well.
’’O Eclipse of the Fading Sun, Darkness that has gathered since before the First Light, Blind Mother of Ash and Ruin. ’’
He chanted as fast as he could, adding the necessary sounds, and at the end, a small orb of fire appeared above his palm.
’I can cast each spell in 4 seconds now. Not bad at all.’ He checked his progress, timing his latest attempt.
That was already about as fast as he could chant and shape his mana into the right pattern for either spell.
Still, the honorific names alone took up a full 2 seconds, meaning skipping that part entirely could double his casting speed on its own.
While he was thinking all this through, a growl rose from his stomach, reminding him he was hungry. Only then did he think to check his mana reserves as well.
Mana 0.9%
He had used up 0.6% so far, which wasn’t much at all, considering how much experience he had gained from it.
Feeling stiff all over from sitting too long, and a little dizzy from the dark room, he got up and pulled open the curtains, only to find that evening had already crept in.
He was also slightly feeling that cold returning to his body, as now he was sure that low mana meant his body was going cold, but it wasn’t as bad as before.
He stretched his body while looking out at the inner garden, his eyes settling on the mother goblin’s frost coffin, resting there eternally.
"Thank you for teaching me your spells." He murmured with warm in his voice.
Then he turned and headed for the door.
The moment he opened it, the same maid from the day shift greeted him, offering to bring him a meal.
"No thanks, I’m planning to go to the kitchen myself." Magna politely turned down the offer.
It had become something of a habit for him lately, preparing at least one meal himself, or at least helping out, by heading down to the kitchen in person.
Because of this new habit, he had also grown fairly close with the maids.
It wasn’t just a chance to practice interacting with others, something he had barely done much of in his past life. It also let him keep an eye on any new ingredients coming into the kitchen, in case something offered him even more energy than others.
The maids had grown quite fond of him too. He wasn’t much of a talker like Faye, but in their eyes, he was adorable and clearly a hard worker.
—
"Hey, look who’s here." One of the maids, busy chopping vegetables on a cutting board, spotted him walking through the door and called out to the others right away.
"Hello, Elara." Magna greeted her back, letting her come over and pinch his cheeks like usual.
Being fussed over like this had become something of a downside for him, since the maids never missed a chance to coo over him like he was some kind of pet whenever they could.
’Well, I look quite cute and handsome, I guess,’ he sighed, watching the others drop what they were doing to come greet him too.
"Ohh, look at your face, did you lose weight? Why did you skip lunch?" Even Victoria, the head maid of the Winterborne estate came, cupping his face between both hands, clearly worried.
Magna skipping a meal had apparently become the main gossip of the day in their circle. Well, he had been the hot topic every day since he arrived anyway.
"I just got really into playing and forgot." He answered, avoiding eye contact, as he still didn’t used to direct communication like this.
The maids laughed at that, clearly amused.
"Well then, you’ll just have to eat double now. Come on, you’re lucky, we got a fresh batch of fruits and veggies delivered just an hour ago." Victoria grabbed his hand and pulled him free from the others still trying to pinch his cheeks.
Finally rescued from all that affectionate torment, Magna walked over to the wooden crates stacked along the side and started looking through the produce inside.
Most of it he already recognized, having already learned quite a bit about them by now. But something caught his eye inside one of the fruit crates.
"What’s this?" He walked over and picked up a small, round, yellow fruit.
Compared to everything else in the crate, its color was much more vivid, and its shape looked almost too perfectly round.
It looked quite familiar to him as well, resembling one of the fruits he had read about in one of the books, though he had doubts that an actual mana-rich food would end up in this ordinary kitchen.
"That’s a Sunberry. Very juicy, very sweet." She explained right away, though her expression tightened slightly as she looked closer at what Magna was holding.
"Hm? This one looks a little strange though. Look how perfectly round it is."
It wasn’t just its appearance that felt off. Something about it felt strange too, making Magna’s eyes lit up slightly.
’I can actually feel mana inside it.’
"Where does this fruit come from?" He asked, trying to learn more about its origin.
"The villagers gather them from the forest. They usually grow low, tucked inside bushes near the base of trees, so they’re pretty hard to find most of the time."
’From the forest?’ Magna thought, bringing the fruit to his mouth and taking a bite.
[New substance detected... Golden Sunberry.]
[Energy particles detected...]
[Converting nutrients into mana...]
Just as he suspected, this was one of the mana-rich foods from those books, as he could feel the energy inside him rising fast.
He checked his status to see the exact numbers.
Mana 2.9%
’Just one bite raised it by 2%?’ That was a pleasant surprise, to say the least.
He quickly finished the rest of it, leaving nothing behind since it didn’t even have a seed inside, then checked the total gain.
Mana 9.9%
Seeing that number, he immediately started searching the crate, hoping to find another one.
Victoria, noticing him hunting eagerly for a second perfectly round Sunberry, didn’t think much of it, since kids sometimes got obsessed with fruits like that.
She even helped him search for one herself.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t another one to be found.
A little disappointed, Magna turned to the maid and asked. "Do you think I could go into the forest and collect some fruit myself?"
Knowing the mana-rich fruit came from the forest, he was fairly confident there had to be more of them growing out there somewhere.
"Sure, I can let the village know tomorrow morning so they can take you along with them."
She answered right away, without a hint of hesitation, since like every maid in the house, she had already been told by Celeste that Magna was never to be stopped from going outside, no matter the circumstances.
With that permission secured, Magna could finally start working on solving his biggest problem with mana.
Assuming, of course, he could actually find what he was looking for in that massive forest, one that was still crawling with wild beasts and monsters lurking in its shadows.
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