The Pacing is All Wrong!

The sound of splashing water woke him. James sat up and looked to his right. Just in time to see the last ripple on the surface of the lake. A fish, probably.

With the soft grass as his bed, he found it pretty comfortable. ‘Well, with how hard the mattress in my old house was, this is pretty nice.’

He had fallen unconscious near the lake, or perhaps the scroll had moved him here. It’s either one or the other.

He didn’t think too much about why he woke up near the lake, and just relished the warm morning sun shining on him.

When he properly felt his body, he could feel how it had changed. The quiet power he could feel inside his body, waiting to be unleashed, felt so real.

This flowing, cycling vitality made him feel somewhat uneasy. He felt like he could run a hundred laps around a gymnasium and wouldn’t even break a sweat.

He was never the athletic type, let alone in sports; he wouldn’t even get out of his room if he could.

More than his body’s restlessness, there was something else.

With a thought, he extended a small feeler or tentacle, depending on how one looked at it.

This tentacle wasn’t strictly in the shape of a tentacle; it could change shape freely following his thought.

“So this is M-Energy, huh?”

Before this, his teacher, the scroll, had explained to him that each path core converted N-Energy into other forms.

And for a magician, the sub-path of the Supernatural Path, it was M-Energy or mana.

He focused, trying to push the phantom-like hand outward, floating just above his hand.

A simple blob of glowing M-Energy rested on his hand, and with another thought, the blob of light split and spread, creating a simple triangle, hovering just above his palm.

Then, willing another shape into being, the blob followed, warping all around before settling into an uneven shape of circles and triangles, only to collapse and turn into formless wisps.

‘Hmm, it seems that I can’t do any complex shape for now.’

“So, are you having fun?”

James was engrossed in trying to create all kinds of shapes when his mentor’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.

“Oh, yeah, this new sense that you told me before is interesting. M-Energy, was it? It’s like having extra arms. Though it seems I can’t create more than one right now.”

He answered as he turned around. The figure of the usual floating scroll appeared before him, complete with its usual purple flames.

“Extra arms, is it? I suppose that’s one way of seeing it.”

The scroll’s comment prompted James to ask. “Hmm? Is there a proper name for these new phantom organs then?”

“Well, I’m not a magician per se, since spiritual and sapient creatures have different ways of progression. But I believe, the humans called your new sense Magic Sense.”

Summoning the glowing blob of light again, James inspected it.

‘Yep, this thing is not a sense. This thing’s an organ. Well, is there even any difference between sense and organ?’

Finally, James shook his head before turning his attention back to his teacher.

“Anyway, whether this phantom hand is a sense or an organ, it doesn’t matter. The point is, I can finally cast spells with this, right?”

Unfazed by James's blatant attempt at changing the topic, the scroll merely shook its rolled top.

“Although you have to learn about what each rune does, you’re more or less correct. But that’s not the reason I showed up this time. It’s about what you did yesterday.”

Upon hearing his teacher’s words, he hurriedly retreated from the leisurely burning scroll. Its purple flame had darkened, now mixed with grayish-black.

“Wh- oh, come on… I was just doing that because those energy-gathering calisthenics looked silly. What do you mean I have to wave my hand in that way and this way while murmuring some random bullshit?”

His teacher, hearing his excuse, exhaled a puff of purple flame before continuing.

“Alright, that’s a valid reason. But didn’t you consider the consequences of rashly trying something without consulting me first?”

The scroll’s flame flared brighter for a moment; its heat, which James had never felt before, intensified.

“I even gave you those energy-gathering techniques. With your talent, you would eventually feel the sensation of N-Energy sooner or later. It probably wouldn’t even take three days.”

Seeing how angry his mentor was, James desperately waved his hands.

“Okay, okay, I was wrong, alright? It shouldn’t be such a big deal, right? What? I was only about to turn into an Esper, and my soulscape blacked out for a moment, but that’s it. It was no big deal.”

“Oh, it was no big deal, you say?” The scroll’s flame flared once more before it dimmed again. “I guess so, yeah, almost living your whole life in a state of hypersensitivity and mania is no big deal.”

It paused. Silence hung heavily in the air for a moment.

“Then again, you wouldn’t have to worry about that. If the planewalker I have an agreement with hadn’t come, reality would just erase you. So, yeah, I guess it was no big deal.”

“What the— wait, what?! Holy shit! What a missed opportunity! Being erased, I mean.” James said, slapping his forehead in disappointment.

‘Hmm? He’s not lying? Is he not afraid of getting erased?’ The scroll noticed that James's unique ability had activated.

Then its flame flared for a moment as it recalled a small nugget of information from James’s memories.

“I forgot you’re not exactly enthusiastic about living a whole new life. But I wonder, are you really not afraid of it? Or was that just some bravado?”

Moving his hand to his chest, James closed his eyes, trying to feel the surge from his ability properly. “Afraid, is it? Of course not. There’s no way I’m scared.”

Then, he felt it, the dizzying penalty of the energy from his buff rushing out.

The scroll’s purple flame flickered slightly.

‘Ah, this time he lied,’ it thought.

“I see, so that’s how you’re going to manage your ability’s auto activation. Not a bad idea. Anyway, let’s go back to the topic at hand— the consequences of your action. Both the good and the bad.”

While James was still reeling from his ability’s penalty, the scroll calmly created a rotating corona of nine perfect spheres of fire behind it.

Each one radiated intense heat, causing the surrounding air to warp and shimmer like a desert mirage.

The burning red fireballs grew larger before settling to the size of a basketball. Their color shifted from red to orange, then yellow to white, before finally settling to blue.

“Uhh, teacher? I thought you were about to explain the consequences? So… what’s with the scary-looking fireballs behind you?”

James took a few steps back, ready to bolt away at the first sign of danger.

“As you may have guessed, I can read through your memories. Just like reading a book, I noticed how you pretty much had no sense of responsibility, so any advice I gave would just go in one ear and out the other.”

Like a villain having a monologue, his teacher floated left and right. Its corona of flaming fireballs followed behind, still aiming at James.

“I have never been a teacher before this. So I asked myself. What’s the best way to teach such a student?”

Then it suddenly stopped, shook its rolled top, and let out a long puff of purple flame.

“Skimming through your memories, I found the answer. And that is, punishment. Surprisingly enough, it seemed you were the kind of student who had to be punished and forced to learn the lesson properly.”

“What are you even talking about? There’s no way punishment is a proper method of teaching! I vehemently disagree with your opinion, teacher!”

Seeing how his teacher didn’t respond, James continued desperately. “Let’s talk about it calmly, okay? You can even make it a proper question-and-answer session like before. This time— this time I’ll properly listen!”

Whoosh! A streak of blue light grazed his left ear before crashing straight into the middle of the lake, followed by a loud booming sound.

He slowly raised his left hand, trying to feel his ear.

‘Oh… It’s still there,’ he thought, then turned around and saw that the explosion had literally caused the lake's surface to bubble.

“Wait, wait, wait! You’re joking, right?! That’s not a fireball! That’s a goddamn laser!”

In response to James’s accusation, the scroll merely regenerated the used fireball and created more fireballs around itself.

The numbers kept climbing—twelve, fifteen, eighteen. Eventually, all James could tell was that they kept increasing by threes.

“Just because I was conjuring fireballs, it doesn’t mean the attack itself will be a fireball, no? Tsk, tsk, tsk, you’re still way too gullible for someone who has lived for 27 years, James!”

The scroll declared as it let more bluish flame lasers shoot towards James.

The moment James heard his mentor’s statement, he dashed. He ran, trying his best to dodge each laser.

But where would he run? Thinking so, he dashed ahead, straight ahead toward his teacher.

‘If I’m standing next to teacher, then he— is the scroll a male or female? Damn English and its pronouns! Anyway, using teacher’s body as a shield, then teacher won’t be able to hit me anymore.’

He thought that in doing so, he could take a break. One thing he forgot, though, was that his teacher’s body was a projection.

So there really was no point in using his teacher’s body as a shield.

But ‌noticing what James was about to do, the scroll let out a puff of flame, flew upwards, made a 90-degree turn, and floated to the middle of the lake.

“Now, let’s start with the lecture. First, your unique ability. As you have learned before…”

As his mentor began the sermon, James frantically ran around, bending and twisting his body like a professional limbo dancer having a seizure.

‘Oh God! Did it have to start from there? Damned scroll! How long will you yap before you finally reach the main point of the problem?!’

The ground erupted behind him as he dodged another near-miss laser, sending chunks of scorched soil flying around.

He threw himself sideways, his gleaming, glossy black hair singed at the corner. Weirdly enough, despite all the awkward movements so far, he didn’t get any injuries or cramps.

“What the hell?! If this were a webnovel, I should still be in the info dump phase! Not getting bombarded by lasers! I know that real life isn’t a webnovel, but this pacing is crap!”