Sorcerer Wants to Enjoy Poya Poya

Chapter 4 The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Tries His Hand at Magic

Ricardo was treated the same even after he became an apprentice. As usual, he was not freed from cleaning and chores.

The only thing that has changed was that he had been given permission to read magic textbooks.

He understood that Alexander was thinking of sacrificing him in place of Massimo.

But Ricardo had other plans—he did not want to become a sacrifice. And the only way to do this was to learn enough magic to fight the Erbil tree. He had already mastered the beginner magic of fire, wind, water and life.

Even if they were said to be beginner level, their level was lower than actual beginner spells and did not include offensive magic.

The most effective magic attribute for fighting against Erbil was [Fire], but the purpose for hunting it was for procuring catalysts. So it was not a good idea to use fire magic as it would kill the purpose.

However, it would be dangerous if there was no reliable way to repel it. [Fire] attribute had some offensive magic like fireball and flame thrower.

Erbil tree was weak against fire and ran away whenever it faced fire, so it was possible to repel it with these magic. However, it was pretty difficult to kill. Even though it’s a tree, its escape speed was pretty quick.

For the time being, Ricardo had learned to use a magic called [Flame Shot], which was quite similar to fireball. The catalyst he used for it was cheap charcoal since he couldn’t buy expensive catalysts from the small amount of money he had.

He decided to try [Flame Shot] and headed for the river that ran on the east side of the city. The river was about 20 metres wide and there were no people around the river bank. It was a good place to practise magic as he wouldn’t be seen by people.

Ricardo thrusted his right hand forward and released the magic power from his palm. From a wooden tube, some charcoal powder was sprinkled on the white-colored magic power. The catalyst was drawn around the magic and started swirling around it.

“Fana, spellogoma!” (Fire, burst forth)

The catalyst disappeared in a cloud of grey dust and the magic turned into a whirlpool of flames the size of a softball. The next moment, the whirlpool burst into flames. The flames exploded as they hit the surface of the river in the direction Ricardo was pointing at.

The sound of explosions echoed and water splashed high into the air.

“Ahahahaha!! It’s a success!”

Ricardo guessed that the attack power was about as strong as a full swing of a bat. The consumption of magic power was about 20 percent. If he shot 5 times in a row, his magic power would be completely depleted.

His magic power recovered to about half the original amount in 3 hours. As far as he had checked in the book, this amount of magic power was average.

It didn’t seem to be special just because he was a human being born on Earth.

(T/N: Ig author is making an Isekai reference here. As usually in isekais people born on Earth usually have higher power than that world’s native)

He tried it several times, but the power of magic didn’t change.

“How can I increase its power? How can I raise the temperature of the fire?”

He was not sure if it’s because he was spending more time alone, but recently he was talking to himself more and more often.

“Do I have to change the catalyst?”

The charcoal used for the catalyst was made from ordinary charcoal taken from the house after finely grinding it. He looked at the ground and saw the charcoal that had been used as a catalyst. It seemed like not all of the catalyst was consumed.

“What a waste!”

He refilled the empty wooden tube with the remaining charcoal and closed it with a copper stopper. These corked tubes were sold in catalyst shops and ranged in size from one to nine. Since the amount of catalyst required varied depending on the magic and the quality of the catalyst used, nine different sizes of tubes were required. No. 1 tube was the smallest, about the size of a pistol casing, and No. 9 tube was the largest, about the size of a 100ml energy drink.

Since the magic used was high grade [Flame Shot] and the catalyst was cheap charcoal, it was necessary to have enough to fit in a No. 8 tube. This was mentioned in the book “Theory of Catalysts in Magic”.

The cheap charcoal was a grade-8 catalyst, so even if one just used a higher level of beginner magic, they would still need a lot of catalyst.

Ricardo had taken a break and recovered some of his magic power, so he decided to practise a bit more.

He released the magic power and sprinkled the catalyst. All the catalyst that should have swirled around the magical power spilled on the ground.

“Why did this happen?”

Ricardo looked at the catalyst tube. It was the same charcoal that had fallen earlier. His gaze alternated between the tube and the charcoal that had fallen to the ground.

“I see. Even if it’s charcoal, you can only say it’s a catalyst if it contains fire genko.”

He remembered the catalyst that was swirling around the white-colored magical power. It seemed like every catalyst contained some impurities from mixing with ones that didn’t have any genko. It’s the same charcoal dust, but if it didn’t contain fire genko, it’s not a catalyst.

The problem was how to remove the impurities. If he succeeded in purifying the impurities, the grade of the catalyst might rise.

The question was how to get rid of the impurities. It was known that catalysts were attracted to magic, but after a catalyst came into contact with magic, it would be altered and become unusable.

“No, if it were that easy to sort out, someone would have done it already.”

He decided to think about the problem later and resumed his magic practice.

The original magic was “fana” (fire), “spello” (burst), and “goma” (forth). Currently, Ricardo was trying to increase the power by adding something to the spell. For example, he experimented adding the word “skullde” (compress) and “brid” (become a blade) to compress it and make it a blade respectively. He somewhat succeeded, but there was no big difference in power.

Ricardo pondered about it.

He inserted the phrase “Lumeth”, which meant “to draw a spiral”, and tried it.

“Fana, lumeth, spellogoma.” (Fire, draw a spiral and burst forth)

The fireball spiralled into a spear-like shape and exploded when it hit the river surface.

“The shape has changed. Interesting, but the power is still the same.”

He took out his magic notebook and read the summary of “Fundamentals of Magic Languages”. The word was written in Opthorian script, which was the language of magic. He was intrigued by the word “rapiceravone”, which means “to shine like a sun”.

He decided to give it a try.

“Fana, rapiceravone, spellogoma.” (Fire, shine like a sun and burst forth)

The catalyst, which had been swirling around the magic, turned grey, and a dazzling mass of light was born and flew away. However, after only two metres away, the lump of light disappeared.

“Gone… Aahh! It hurts.”

The moment the mass of light was formed, Ricardo felt a scorching heat and an intense pain in his palm. It seemed to have burned. Ricardo put his hand in the river water to cool it down.

For a while, he cooled his hand in the cold water and waited for the pain to subside.

“Why did it disappear… Maybe it ran out of magic.”

The amount of heat released was quite large, so it was possible that his magic power was not enough to complete the magic.

He could increase the magic power a bit, but… he couldn’t just fire one shot and then call it a day. Moreover, he couldn’t use the magic if he got burned every time he tried to use it.

Had other sorcerers ever tried the magic word “rapiceravone”?

Yes, they had. But it was not as powerful as the one Ricardo had used. To others’ imagining, the sun was a warm and fuzzy thing, not a scorching thing with a surface temperature of around 600 degrees Celsius.

The difference in perception had affected the magic.

Is there any other  way to do this, even if it’s a little less powerful? He started searching for a suitable magic word written in Opthorian script from his magic notebook.

The magic words written in “Fundamentals of Magic Languages” were the same as those in the “Basic Concepts of Magic”. They were a collection of 278 words that were recorded by the sage Manuel, a name every sorcerer should remember.

As Ricardo looked at it again and again, the word “Ganubadur” caught his eye. This word meant “the one raging in the depths of the Earth”.

At first he didn’t understand what it meant, but then he realised that it could be magma.

“Once you know it, you definitely have to give it a try.”

He sprinkled the last of the catalyst he’d brought, making sure it swirled around the magic, and cast the spell.

“Fana, ganubadur, spellogoma.” (Fire, the one raging  in the depths of the Earth, burst forth)

A flame burst out. As it shrank, it condensed to become magma, but the transformation stopped midway and it disappeared.

“It’s a failure… What’s wrong with it? Is there a problem with the combination of magic words? Or is there a problem with the catalyst…?”

If the combination of magic words was impossible, it should be fundamentally useless, so Ricardo deduced that it was due to the catalyst. “Ganubadur” originally meant the thing raging in the depths of the Earth, so he tried using the catalyst of both fire and earth at the same time.

The result was a failure. The flame lost its momentum and disappeared faster than when only using [Fire] as the catalyst.

He again tried to use the [Fire] catalyst and the [Water] catalyst at the same time.

“Fana, ganubadur spellogoma.” (Fire, the one raging in the depths of Earth, burst forth)

A flame the size of a basketball was born and began to condense. When it had reached the size of a softball, a spherical object was formed in the centre, glowing orange and resembling magma. The next moment, it started flying and hit the surface of the river. The magma caused a huge explosion on impact with the surface of the water. The temperature of the magma was about 1000 degrees Celsius, not much different from an ordinary flame, but it retained an inordinate amount of heat.

He struck a gut pose and let out a cheer. Although Ricardo was 40 years old mentally, he seemed to become a boy at heart.

“It’s a great feeling to be able to do this. It’s fun, but why did I succeed with the [Fire] and [Water] catalysts?”

Suddenly he felt a bit suffocated. This was the signal that his magic power had bottomed out.

For the time being, he named the magic [Magma Bomb] and returned to the mansion.

As soon as he returned, he was called by Massimo.

“What have you been up to?”

“Oh, I was practising the magic that my master told me to do.”

Massimo frowned, not a bit amused. Ricardo was studying magic so that he could be substituted with Massimo for the hunt, but Massimo still didn’t like it.

For him, studying magic was a privilege and a source of pride. And now, a little kid from the countryside was learning magic.

This selfishness was not a bit funny.

“Have you learnt to control your magic power?”

“Yes, I have.”

“What?”

Massimo was very surprised. It took me three months to learn to control my own magic power. But this brat had mastered it in less than a month!

Jealous of Ricardo’s achievements, Massimo did not give all of the five silver coins that Alexander had entrusted him with to Ricardo and instead only gave one.

“Use it to buy a catalyst.”

Ricardo took the silver coin and thanked him. A single silver coin would not be enough to buy a good catalyst. Massimo gave him a wicked smile.

“I’m sure you’ll have a great time.”

Alexander had instructed Massimo to teach Ricardo magic. But Massimo didn’t teach him much.

In the meantime, Alexander returned to the castle and went to the dining room used by the castle’s executives.

The castle was a stone building rarely found in the city. It had a solid structure with cylindrical towers and stone walls. Inside the cylindrical tower was a spiral staircase that led down to the first floor.

In the dining room, the sorcerer Flavio was eating. He was a man who looked more like a warrior than a sorcerer. He was pretty tall and his trained body could even be gleaned from outside his clothes.

“Alexander, will you participate in the autumn hunt?”

Flavio was a sorcerer who specialized in fire and wind magic. He had a hot-blooded personality and was looking forward to the autumn hunt.

There were many sorcerers who sent their apprentices in their stead to participate in the hunt. But Flavio loved actual battles, so he was more than happy to participate in it himself.

“No, I won’t join you.”

“Then, you’ll send your son?”

“No. I’ve got another apprentice this year. I’ll send him.”

Flavio snickered.

“Of what use would a novice be?”

“Oh, come on, it’s none of your business.”

Alexander showed his displeasure and glared at Flavio. Flavio continued with his questions.

“How old is this fledgling?”

“I think he’s nine.”

“Seriously, you’ve got to be kidding me. He will just get in the way.”

“He’s a country boy from the mountains. He won’t slow you down.”

“What about magic?”

Alexander’s face twitched. “He’s got a bit of talent. Don’t worry.”

Flavio noticed that Alexander was upset. There is definitely something fishy.

“‘As you know, the spring hunt was a failure. It will be a shame for the Viscount if he doesn’t get the tree this time.”

During the spring hunt, the Erbil tree struck back, and after claiming the lives of many, it escaped.

The only way to offer the gift was to offer the charcoal left over from last year’s Erbil tree. So, he had used up all the charcoal he had in stock. Now, the Viscount had put the order to kill the tree in the autumn.