I woke up feeling like I had a massive hangover, only this time my entire body was also in shreds.
This body heals quickly, but apparently not fast enough to fully mend broken bones overnight, I thought.
Even without a dedicated regeneration skill, I estimated I would heal completely within three days.
In the meantime, I would keep moving forward and continue training my spells, which had shown some glaring issues during yesterday’s fight.
And just like that, three days passed, and my wounds healed completely.
During that time, I traveled another 120 kilometers and kept training my magic, completely depleting my reserves twice a day.
It turned out that physical injuries didn’t affect my core’s functionality, which was incredibly convenient—another detail noted.
As for my spells, I focused heavily on casting speed and control.
My battle with the bear had made it painfully clear how vital it was to cast quickly and maximize the output of each spell.
Seriously, though, that fight three days ago did not go well.
Now that some time has passed and I can think with a clear head, I can admit I made several rookie mistakes—which is only natural, considering I’d never fought to the death before.
Getting distracted mid-combat and failing to anticipate a wild beast’s defensive instincts almost cost me my life.
While I don’t know exactly where I stand in the food chain of this massive forest, one thing is clear: I need to actively seek out combat experience, though I’ll stick to manageable risks for now.
By now, I’m fully operating under the assumption that I am indeed in the world of Tensura.
The skill I instinctively unleashed before the fight was-without a doubt-Coercion.
My mistakes aside, my physical stats seem to have improved quite a bit.
It’s not quite a Saiyan Zenkai boost, but it feels equivalent to about four or five days of intense, uninterrupted training.
However, the most substantial leap was in my magic.
My overall capacity had grown immensely; I’d estimate the 20 points from before the fight had risen to a solid 30.
This growth wasn’t just my natural limits expanding; my core itself had evolved slightly.
This confirmed that all three of my known abilities could improve over time, though I still didn’t know their upper limits.
After cleaning and butchering the bear meat as best I could, I now had a steady, reliable source of protein.
I decided to start eating at least once a day to help my body develop as rapidly as possible.
Since hunting more monsters was already part of the plan, securing meat wouldn’t be an issue.
To establish a solid reference point and organize everything I’ve discovered so far, I decided to formally name my three abilities.
Note: From this point forward, I will refer to these abilities by their official names.
>Speculator
Description: Allows me to analyze my surroundings far more deeply than an ordinary human.
By utilizing my knowledge of other works of fiction (like Naruto, Jujutsu Kaisen, or DanMachi) as a baseline, I can “speculate” and hypothesize on how to replicate various magical phenomena.
Limitations: It is entirely “blind” to the native skills of the Tensura world.
I must also understand the basic elemental properties of a spell before I can formulate a hypothesis to replicate it.
Furthermore, I cannot learn anything that exceeds my current power level or comprehension.
>Filter
Description: A degraded version of the personal pocket dimension I originally requested, integrated with a defensive function.
It acts as a strict checkpoint between my physical body and my spatial inventory.
I can extract, isolate, and categorize any substance, toxin, poison, or element that touches my body or that I choose to absorb.
Additionally, it turns my inventory into a temporary stasis zone (functioning like a perfect refrigerator where items never spoil).
The storage capacity scales in proportion to my total magicules.
Limitations: Highly lethal or concentrated toxins cannot be isolated.
If I attempt to absorb a substance that exceeds my current capacity, I will take physical damage proportional to the excess.
It cannot absorb direct magical attacks.
>Blind Core
Description: An internal magicule reactor that autonomously generates, stores, and amplifies my energy.
It also optimizes my body’s metabolic efficiency, parcially eliminating my biological need to eat or drink.
Limitations: The core is completely sealed and isolated from the atmosphere, hence the name.
It does not interact with environmental magicules to recharge, relying entirely on self-contained, independent generation.
So far, all three of these abilities have shown potential for growth, even if their development feels a bit unpredictable.
I decided to classify them as “Unique Skills.” Even if they aren’t quite on par with a true, world-grade Unique Skill yet, their sheer utility and growth potential certainly earn them the title.
For now, I’ll focus on honing Speculator’s analytical capabilities while gathering hands-on combat experience.
With my post-battle review complete, I fell back into my daily routine for the next 24 days, keeping up my steady march westward.
Several things of note occurred during this period.
First, after traveling another 1,000 kilometers, the scenery finally began to shift.
The flora and trees looked slightly different, though it wasn’t enough to tell me if I had crossed into a new territory entirely.
Secondly, my physical capabilities had finally doubled compared to when I first arrived.
However, I’ve started feeling a faint, nagging discomfort deep within my body.
It isn’t limiting my movements yet, but I can’t shake the uneasy feeling of not knowing what’s causing it.
As for my magic reserves, going by my previous scale, I’d estimate I’m sitting at around 45 points.
It’s a rough approximation, but until I find a precise way to measure magicules, this numerical system will have to do.
Not a bad trajectory, honestly.
During these 24 days, I also developed three new spells while mastering my existing repertoire.
I could have learned more, but I preferred deep mastery over simply collecting half-baked techniques.
The first two spells I recreated were the basic hexagonal barrier from Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (which I simply call Magic Barrier) and Bakudo #61: Six-Rod Light Prison (Rikujukoro) from Bleach.
I chose these two for practical reasons: a reliable barrier is indispensable for defense, and a binding spell like Rikujukoro is incredibly useful for crowd control.
Furthermore, both required me to study different elemental concepts.
Since I wanted to sharpen my observational skills, studying light—an element that isn’t easily grasped—was a perfect exercise.
It took me several days just to manifest basic light from my palms, but the effort paid off.
To construct the Magic Barrier, I had to learn how to solidify external magicules by sensing and understanding their flow through the atmosphere, then letting Speculator reconstruct the formula.
For my third spell, I originally tried my hand at spatial magic, but it was a total bust—clearly beyond my league for now.
Instead, I focused on analyzing and observing water and ice, eventually using Speculator to replicate Uraume’s Frost Calm from Jujutsu Kaisen.
I haven’t fully mastered any of these three new spells yet, and their output depends entirely on how many magicules I dump into them, but their utility is undeniable.
More importantly, I can feel Speculator’s analytical and observational processing speed sharpening.
As a side hobby, I’ve been using Filter to store and analyze miscellaneous objects I find, dissecting their properties to feed more raw data into Speculator.
The only skill that hasn’t shown any signs of improvement is Blind Core, and I have no idea why.
During this time, I also started hunting small, fast game like rabbit- and otter-like creatures for fresh meat.
The first few days of hunting were a complete disaster, but on the 18th day, I finally bagged my first catch.
Man, those little things were deceptively fast.
I’ve been eating my fresh catches immediately after skinning and cleaning them with Speculator’s guidance, which is why I still have a massive stockpile of bear meat sitting safely inside my inventory.