"First point."
The Fairy King Semirys’s voice rang out by the forest lake.
"Understand how dangerous this world really is."
Smack. Smack.
Using magic, Semirys conjured a transparent blackboard floating in midair and slapped it hard with a pointer in her hand.
"Hey. You over there. Pay attention."
"Huh? Yes."
Shulim immediately sat up straight, though the curiosity on her face did not fade in the slightest.
How did she just go whoosh and make a whole blackboard appear...?
Yesterday, Semirys had decided to stay behind and teach Shulim.
Of course, that teaching was not meant to disrupt her normal life. Shulim could still go to school as usual every day, then come to the lake afterward.
On weekends and holidays, the lessons would simply run longer.
"Question time, little Shulim. What are the dangers in this world?"
"Yes."
Shulim shot her little hand high into the air.
"Monsters."
"Very good. That’s one."
"Bad people."
"Excellent. That’s two. Keep going."
"Keep going?"
Shulim tilted her head.
"That’s all you’ve got? And both answers are that broad?"
Semirys put a hand to her forehead, then immediately started rationalizing it to herself.
"...Well, that’s normal. She’s still just a little baby."
The moment Shulim heard that, she puffed up her cheeks.
"Shulim is not a little ba... no, wait. I’m not a little baby."
"Sure, sure. You’re not."
Semirys waved it off without thinking, then fell into thought.
"So what do I do here..."
She was just too young. Even if Semirys told her outright, she probably still would not fully understand what any of it really meant.
"Hm. Yes. I guess there’s only one way."
Having settled on her teaching method, Semirys slowly broke into a deeply suspicious smile.
A huge question mark seemed to pop up over Shulim’s head.
She had absolutely no idea what kind of misery was about to begin.
...
Semirys took Shulim up onto a mountain.
"That was amazing. I was flying."
Shulim’s eyes sparkled. It was her first time flying, and she was thrilled.
"Oh, right. Why did you bring me here, Semirys?"
"Hm? Why?"
Semirys smiled brightly.
"Shulim, I’ve decided to change the way I teach you."
"Change it?"
Shulim looked up at her, puzzled.
"That’s right. If you want to know the fastest way to make someone learn certain things in this world..."
Semirys spread her arms dramatically.
"It’s to let them experience it for themselves."
She pointed down the mountainside.
"See that lake down there? The one we were just at?"
Shulim rose up on tiptoe and peered down, then nodded.
"Yeah. I see it."
"That’s your finish line."
"Mm."
Shulim nodded again.
Then...
"Huh?"
She looked back up at Semirys in confusion.
"Finish line?"
Semirys answered with a smile.
"That’s right. Shulim, in a moment, you’re going to run for your life while being hunted by a shadow beast. You’ll have to do whatever it takes to reach that lake. Only once you get there will it stop chasing you."
Gurgle. Gurgle...
At that exact moment, a patch of darkness spread over the ground behind Semirys. From that shadow, a black wolf-like creature rose up out of the earth, its eyes glowing red.
"Rrraaah."
The wolf-shaped shadow beast let out a roar at Shulim.
"Huh?!"
Shulim’s face instantly went pale.
Scary. Scary. So scary.
Semirys, meanwhile, completely ignored the trembling, teary-eyed child in front of her. She simply flew up into the sky and left Shulim standing there.
"S-Semirys?"
Shulim looked up at her in terror.
"Do your best."
Semirys gave her a bright, encouraging smile.
"This one isn’t going to hold back, you know. If it catches you, you’re done for."
Done for?
Shulim... would be done for?
Her little face went even whiter.
"Don’t worry, though. I’ll rescue you right away. Even if it bites your throat out, I should still be able to save you. So there’s nothing to be afraid of."
B-bites my...
"My throat?!"
Shulim was now even more horrified than before.
"Ah..."
Semirys put a hand to her chin and murmured to herself, just loudly enough for Shulim to hear.
"Though if you die instantly on the spot, even I probably couldn’t do much..."
Huh...?
Huh?!
In that moment, it felt to Shulim as though the world had gone dark and all the light was rushing away from her.
I’m going to die...?
"Anyway, good luck."
Semirys said it with truly astonishing cheer.
"And don’t get lost on the way down. If you do, it’ll just keep chasing you forever."
"..."
"All right then. Begin."
The moment she made the announcement, Semirys vanished from the sky in a flash.
That was it.
Shulim had lost the last scrap of support she had been clinging to. Her final hope crumbled right along with it.
The shadow wolf let out a low, threatening growl and slowly advanced.
"D-don’t come any closer."
"Howl."
"Waaah."
A little girl’s shriek tore through the forest.
...
Some time later, by the lakeside...
"Waaah. Waaah. Waaah..."
A seven-year-old girl sat by the shore crying her eyes out.
"All right, all right. Stop crying. The scary one’s gone now."
The instant she heard Semirys’s voice, Shulim threw herself at her and clung to her so hard that tears and snot ended up smeared all over Semirys.
"It was scary. So scary. Waaah..."
"There, there. It’s gone now."
Semirys rubbed Shulim’s head while soft green light kept flowing from her hand.
Once that light entered Shulim’s body, the fear in her heart gradually began to settle.
A few minutes later, she had finally calmed down completely.
"...You really are a little baby after all."
The moment Semirys said that with a grin, Shulim’s face turned red as a ripe apple.
"I-I am not. You are. You’re the baby, Semirys."
After shouting her protest, she turned her head away in a huff.
"Yes, yes. Shulim isn’t a baby."
Semirys humored her casually, then went on.
"But still... this won’t do."
Shulim snuck a glance at her.
"You really won’t do like this, Shulim."
"Ugh."
Her cheeks puffed out again.
"All right, all right. I apologize. Little Shulim isn’t hopeless..."
It took quite a bit of coaxing before her puffed cheeks finally went back down.
Then Semirys continued.
"Your biggest problem right now is that you’re lacking physically."
"Physically?"
"That’s right. If you want to escape danger, you need a strong body. Back there, you ran less than a hundred meters before you ran out of energy. After that, you were practically crawling."
The only reason Shulim had made it to the lake at all was because the shadow wolf had only been there to scare her. It had never been intended to actually attack.
Of course, at the time, Shulim had been so terrified she never noticed that.
"..."
Shulim’s face turned red again with a little pop.
"So from now on, we’re adding physical training to your routine."
Semirys thought for a moment.
"Hm... yes. Good."
She clapped her hands, having made up her mind.
"We’ll start with ten trips up and down the mountain."
"...Huh?"
...
From that day on, Shulim began a level of training no child her age had any business enduring.
Weighted running.
Obstacle courses.
And...
"Waaah. Help."
"Howl."
...racing shadow beasts.
There was also willpower training.
The crash of water thundered down over her.
"Steady your mind. Don’t let the outside world shake you. Focus and control your mana. That’s the fastest way to strengthen your mental force."
"I-I can’t... glub glub..."
And after that, the sharpening of magic itself.
"An excellent mage refines their craft at every moment. Chasing stronger and stronger magic blindly is meaningless. Only when your foundation in basic spells is built solidly enough can you truly go farther and faster later."
"Too slow. Again."
"Mmh... I’m out of mana."
"Are you? Then go meditate under the waterfall and train your mind."
"No."
...
Time turned.
Days slipped by one after another.
And the little girl grew at a speed that almost defied belief.
"Howl."
Several shadow wolves raced through the mountain forest in pursuit of a young girl ahead of them.
Her movements were quick and fluid as she darted through the trees, always keeping just enough distance between herself and the wolves behind her.
Whoosh.
When she finally burst through a clump of brush and reached the lake, every shadow wolf behind her stopped at once and vanished where it stood.
"Nicely done. That was faster than last time."
Semirys flashed into existence in front of her as if appearing from nowhere.
By now, Shulim was completely used to that sort of thing.
She simply stretched where she stood, loosening the ache in her arms and legs.
"That’s because I run faster now."
She answered calmly.
"I see..."
Semirys tilted her head.
"Then I suppose I’ll have to raise the difficulty again. What do you think about moving the starting point deeper into the forest? The terrain might get trickier. There could even be other dangers."
"That’s fine. I can try."
Even at the mention of harder training, Shulim’s expression barely changed.
All that training had not only made her stronger. It had also gradually worn away much of her fearfulness and childish innocence.
She was not so composed that nothing could shake her, but she was no longer the kind of girl who screamed the moment anything happened.
After that, the intensity of her training increased yet again.
More weight.
Harder obstacle runs, stretched longer.
And harsher waterfall training.
Come to think of it, why did the waterfall keep getting stronger?
That leads to another important detail.
There was no waterfall anywhere near Mente.
Semirys made that waterfall from scratch every single time.
That meant she could freely adjust the force of the water to exactly the level best suited for Shulim’s training.
And...
In Semirys’s words, the waterfall had been infused with special magic. By constantly resisting that magic, Shulim’s body would gradually build more magical resistance as well.
On top of all that, during breaks in training, Semirys would teach her about the world of Hymriel itself. Legends, creatures, strange lands, forgotten stories.
Without quite noticing when it happened, Shulim’s understanding of the world grew at astonishing speed too.
And so...
A year passed.
...
In the forest outside Mente, a Shulim now a full head taller than she had been a year ago made her way to the lakeside with practiced ease.
There, a great being known as the Fairy King lounged lazily atop a large rock by the water, one smooth leg crossed over the other, reading a newly published book.
To her right sat a beautifully wrapped box filled with fried snacks.
"Hahaha. This is so stupid."
Completely unaware that anyone had arrived, Semirys laughed at the crude little story in her book while grabbing pieces of greasy food from the box and tossing them into her mouth. Her oily fingers went straight into her mouth afterward, and she simply sucked them clean. She did not even notice the grease at the corner of her lips.
If the devoted followers of the churches who revered her ever saw her like this, the shock would probably destroy them.
"Semirys, what are you reading?"
"Haha... oh. Shulim. You’re here."
Semirys put the book down and casually wiped the corner of her mouth with the edge of her sleeve.
Shulim said nothing.
"Humans are way too entertaining. I had no idea there were people this stupid. I guess living a long time really does mean you get to see all kinds of things."
Shulim glanced at the cover.
Yes.
It was exactly what it looked like. A collection of low-grade comedy stories, most of them obviously made up.
"Those are fictional stories. None of the people in them are real, so don’t get too invested."
"Huh? Really? I was actually thinking about going to find the person from that book."
Semirys looked genuinely crushed.
"Forget it."
With one careless flick of her hand, she tossed the book away to some unknown location.
"Oh, right. Want a snack? I just bought these from the Southern Federation. They’re really good."
Shulim looked at the fried food she was offering, which seemed to have been soaked in oil, hesitated for half a second, and firmly shook her head.
"No."
"Aw. Too bad. These are really popular with the beastfolk lately."
Semirys did not push. With another wave of her hand, the snack box vanished to wherever the book had gone.
"All right. Down to business. First, let me see how much you’ve grown."
As she said it, that familiar light appeared in her eyes again.
A fresh set of words quickly came into view.
[Shulim Hayeral
Race: Human, Female
Age: Eight
Vitality: Rank D
Mana: Rank D+
Magical Affinity:
Fire Affinity: Rank S (the Fairy King’s Boon of Fire)
Water Affinity: Rank S (the Fairy King’s Boon of Water)
Earth Affinity: Rank S (the Fairy King’s Boon of Earth)
Wind Affinity: Rank S (the Fairy King’s Boon of Wind)
Light Affinity: Rank S (the Fairy King’s Boon of Light)
Dark Affinity: Rank S (the Fairy King’s Boon of Darkness)
Void Affinity: Rank S (the Fairy King’s Boon of Void)
...]
"Mm-hm. You’ve grown fast, Shulim. In less than a year, your mana’s increased by a huge amount."
"Really? I’m growing that fast? I only kept practicing magic the way you told me to."
"Constantly using and refilling mana naturally expands your capacity. That’s why your mana has been growing so quickly."
"I see."
Shulim nodded with sudden understanding.
"Good. Since your mana has now grown enough, it’s time for you to begin learning second-circle magic."
Shulim’s eyes widened in surprise.
"I can start learning second-circle magic now? Then why didn’t you let me learn it earlier?"
"Heh."
Semirys smiled with deliberate mystery.
"Shulim, you’re still a little green. You absolutely could have started learning second-circle magic earlier. You could even have made it your main focus. But did you think about this? Back then your mana was only Rank D, and second-circle magic consumes far more mana than first-circle spells. If second-circle spells had been your main practice, how many times a day do you think you would actually have been able to cast?"
"First-circle magic is different. With Rank D reserves, you can sustain a huge amount of practice. That means faster growth, and faster gains in spell proficiency too."
"And don’t underestimate first-circle spells just because they’re weak. Even the strongest mages use first-circle magic more than anything else."
"Training with first-circle spells gives powerful mages only the tiniest improvement, sure. But the cost is almost nothing, and they can control them even while distracted. So even if the gain each time is tiny, once it builds up day after day, it becomes enormous experience."
"Especially for top-tier mages, practicing magic nonstop, whether they’re eating or sleeping, is basic stuff. And if you want to keep that up without it interfering with everyday life, first-circle spells are the obvious choice."
Once Semirys finished explaining, Shulim understood immediately.
"So you’re letting me start second-circle magic now because my mana has improved enough that I can handle practicing it in large amounts?"
"Exactly. More or less. By this world’s standards, your mana is already Rank D+ now. One more step and it’ll be Rank C."
Semirys snapped her fingers.
"All right then. Next, I’ll teach you second-circle magic. Let’s see... which spell should I start with? Knowing too much really is such a burden."
While Semirys thought it over, Shulim sat properly in front of her, eyes full of anticipation.
What kind of spell would Semirys, the Fairy King and the strongest being beneath the gods, decide to teach her?
Would it be one of those lost ancient spells Semirys had mentioned before?
"I’ve got it. Since the first spell you ever learned was fire magic, we’ll start with fire."
Semirys’s voice snapped Shulim out of her imagination.
"And when it comes to fire magic, well, obviously it has to be Fireball. It’s the face of fire magic. Everybody knows it. Everybody uses it. Never once lost through all of history. Yes. That’s right. Fire magic is Fireball."
Shulim stared at her blankly.
She had absolutely no idea what to do with the sudden burst of bizarre enthusiasm coming from Semirys, so she chose the safest response possible.
"Ah... I see. So we’re starting with Fireball."
"Exactly."
Deep down, Shulim felt a tiny bit disappointed. It looked as though she would not be seeing any lost magic just yet. Or maybe low-tier magic really had not changed much throughout history after all.
"Now, Fireball may be the iconic fire spell, but the mana circuit itself is on a completely different level from the first-circle fire spells."
While Shulim was still turning that over, Semirys had already begun the lesson, and Shulim hurriedly focused.
"It’s not just fire magic either. For basically every element, the difficulty rises exponentially with each circle. A third-circle spell, for example, can be nearly a hundred times more complex than a first-circle spell. Without the proper talent, mastering them is simply impossible."
"I’m going to show you the mana circuit for Fireball and the incantation that supports it. Watch carefully and get a feel for how much harder it is than first-circle magic."
As she spoke, Semirys created a projection in the air.
It was the mana circuit of Fireball.
Shulim widened her eyes and studied every detail of it. Just as Semirys had said, compared with Ignite, the circuit was at least ten times more complex.
Even so, that towering cliff of difficulty and the even greater heights still waiting beyond it did not scare Shulim away.
Because this was the road every mage had to walk.
A peak every mage had no choice but to climb.