Aito was confused.
Aito pondered.
Aito suddenly understood everything.
After several days of extensive testing, Aito finally figured out the logic behind gaining [Inspiration Points].
His previous theory had only been partly correct.
The “inspiration” involved in creating new magic really could increase his points dramatically, but that wasn’t the true reason.
He had simply been misled by the name at first.
Aito felt that [Inspiration Points] would be more accurately called [Pleasure Points].
As long as something produced positive emotions and made him happy, he would gain Inspiration Points.
The greater the pleasure, the more points he received.
In other words, creating magic itself wasn’t what generated Inspiration Points.
Rather, it was the excitement and satisfaction he felt while creating magic that produced them.
And this theory wasn’t baseless.
It perfectly matched one of the fundamental rules of this magical world— Emotion was power.
Makarov, a member of the Ten Wizard Saints, had personally explained it to Aito.
Powerful emotions could unleash equally powerful Magic Power.
The heart itself was magic.
And so, Aito understood.
No wonder his Inspiration Points slowly increased even when he did absolutely nothing.
As long as he maintained a positive state of mind, he could continue growing stronger.
‘Hahaha!
What could possibly be better than this?
Life really can be wonderful!’ When Aito finally understood how his cheat truly worked, the intense joy of the discovery earned him almost a thousand Inspiration Points at once.
That only strengthened his theory.
And his current reserve was— [Inspiration Points: 3712] Enough to instantly learn four LV1 spells.
But then Aito glanced at his signature ability.
[Telepathy Magic LV4, 5621/10000000] “Hmm…” A drop in the bucket.
Nowhere near enough.
The discovery was exciting, but he still had an incredibly long road ahead of him.
Fortunately, Aito was only six years old.
He was young.
Time was on his side.
Besides, the ability to allocate points was never supposed to be his main path to strength.
Training normally was still the proper way forward.
[Requip Magic LV1, 1021/10000] At LV1, Requip Magic allowed Aito to switch clothes anywhere within five kilometers of his Requip mannequin.
That covered most of Magnolia, making it an extremely convenient ability.
Aito had learned this magic entirely through his own efforts without spending a single Inspiration Point.
Although a full week had passed between first encountering the spell and successfully casting it, he’d only spent about two days actually studying it.
His talent for magic was genuinely quite good.
When Aito first used Requip Magic inside the guild, it caused quite a stir.
The older members immediately started joking that another little monster had joined Fairy Tail.
Requip Magic might be a convenient utility spell and wasn’t particularly difficult, but most people still needed one or two months to learn it.
Someone like Aito, who mastered it within “one week,” naturally looked like a genius.
Once a spell truly reached LV1, Aito could repeatedly cast it to accumulate experience points.
That meant progressing from LV1 to LV2 should be relatively quick through ordinary practice.
There was little reason to waste Inspiration Points there.
The places where Inspiration Points were truly valuable were the LV0-to-LV1 stage and probably anything beyond LV3.
The former offered the best value, while the latter would otherwise require endless grinding or some miraculous breakthrough in battle.
So…
‘Deep Blue, add points!’ [Crush Magic LV0→LV1, 0/10000] …
Beside the river running through Magnolia, at the training ground Gray often used, Aito arrived alone to test his newly learned magic.
Crush Magic was Gildarts’s signature spell, an extremely powerful high-level destructive magic with an equally absurd learning difficulty.
Aito had seriously tried studying it before.
Unfortunately, its experience bar barely moved, so he’d temporarily set it aside.
Now that he understood his cheat and had enough Inspiration Points to spare, there was no reason to ignore such powerful magic any longer.
He already possessed high-level Telepathy Magic and plenty of Magic Power, but almost no offensive capability.
That left him feeling extremely insecure whenever he went anywhere alone.
Now that he finally possessed a powerful attack spell, naturally he wanted to see what it could do.
“All right.
Nobody’s around.
Let’s see what this magic can actually do~” Telepathy Magic also worked surprisingly well for reconnaissance.
Aito could now roughly estimate how far away the source of a mental voice was.
The closest passerby was more than three hundred meters away.
Nobody should interrupt him.
Standing beside the riverbank, Aito carefully felt out his newly acquired power.
Forcibly raising Crush Magic to LV1 hadn’t magically given him complete mastery of it.
His cheat displayed experience, not proficiency.
And because he’d never properly learned the spell, Aito didn’t completely understand its activation method or exact effects either.
What he possessed was more of an instinct.
An inexplicable feeling of— ‘I reckon this should work.’ He simply felt that he possessed the power to crush whatever stood in front of him.
It was similar to when Telepathy Magic first awakened.
He had no idea why it worked.
He just knew that it did.
“Okay.
I’ll start small.
Hit the ground…
No, maybe a wall would be safer.” In truth, a riverbank wasn’t exactly an ideal place to test destructive magic.
But Aito was still cautious enough that he didn’t dare wander outside town into the forest alone.
Testing it near Fairy Tail seemed much safer.
If something went wrong, he could always scream for the Guild Master to save him.
“Phew…
All right.
Let’s try the minimum output…” Aito took a deep breath and faced the embankment.
He gathered Magic Power around his tiny fist.
Following his instincts, that Magic Power automatically began constructing a Magic Circle.
Then…
Release!
The instant Aito threw his little fist forward, he knew something was wrong.
The magic attached to his fist began sucking away the Magic Power inside him.
And it showed absolutely no intention of stopping.
‘Oh…
Oh no!’ BOOOOM!!
The moment Aito realized he’d screwed up, Crush Magic activated successfully.
The brutally unreasonable spell shattered the embankment in front of him.
Cracks raced across the ground as though a small earthquake had struck.
“WAAAH!
MASTER, SAVE ME!!” Before Aito could react, the earth beneath his feet split apart and swallowed him.
River water immediately rushed into the newly opened fissure.
Aito vanished beneath the surface.
In his panic, he suddenly felt something enormous close around his body.
A gigantic hand pulled him straight out of the water.
“Cough!
Cough, cough!” “Aito?!
What happened?!
Did a Dark Guild attack you?!
Where’s the enemy?!” Aito opened his eyes and found himself sitting in the palm of a giant hand.
Makarov had heard his emergency Telepathy call and rushed over.
Seeing the Guild Master’s anxious expression, Aito guiltily avoided his eyes.
Instead, he looked down at the riverbank where he’d just tested his magic.
The once-neat shoreline looked as though someone had scooped a huge chunk out of it with a spoon.
A crater more than ten meters across now sat where Aito had originally been standing.
Fortunately, there were no houses or pedestrians nearby.
Aside from considerable damage to the landscape, nobody had actually been hurt.
Aito let out a breath of relief.
Then his drenched little body went completely stiff.
He slowly looked back at Makarov and raised two fingers, leaving the tiniest gap between them.
“Um…
Master, there wasn’t an enemy.” “I was testing some magic, and there was just a…
tiny little accident.” Makarov’s face grew darker by the second.
Aito’s neck seemed to shrink farther and farther into his shoulders.
Even his angelic cuteness had apparently stopped working.
“M-Master, I think I can explain…” “It really was just an accident…” “Ai—to—!!” …