I Studied Mainly Textbooks! Chapter 9

‘This… is very uncomfortable…….’

Having eaten meat after such a long time, Abel had returned to the 89th floor of Northanc Tower. Looking at the mirror, he tried turning around. Inside the mirror was a figure of himself wearing a black suit.

He was planning to buy some casual wear like a sweater, but the place Reina took him to was a tailor shop that the Perelman family frequented.

“Whew… this is going way too overboard no matter how I look at it…….”

6 double-b.u.t.ton style bespoke suit. The striped pattern reminded him of secret agents seen in movies.

Abel really wanted to refuse, but he was dragged by Reina, who said that manners make a man. It was rather fortunate that he could decline the necktie at least.

“Comfort or coolness. That is the question…….”

Perhaps it might be on a different topic, but he was as serious as Hamlet in this matter. The training clothes were definitely comfortable, but they were ugly as heck, and the suit… he felt as though he wouldn’t even be able to sit properly.

Creak.

The door opened and Kyle entered. His two hands were full of books as he had just come from research.

“Hoho, very nice clothes. Is it from Perelman?”

Kyle spoke to the rather different-looking Abel and put down the books in his hands onto the desk.

Thud.

They were so heavy, that the thudding sound ran out.

“Oh, Reina picked everything from the materials to design.”

“You met Reina as well? She’s a good kid. Pretty and kind.”

Pretty, he could admit, but kind? He wasn’t so sure yet.

Abel asked in curiosity about the books.

“What are all those books for?”

“Oh! You told me you can help me with calculations, and I have brought them. These are the research I could not progress on all this time due to the complex calculations.”

Just the height of those piles of books were at least a meter. Even though a calculator was fast, calculating all of those and comprehending all of them – just thinking about that made him sigh.

However, Abel still didn’t know… that this was just an extreme minority of what Kyle had……. Forget farm serfs. He was now going to be a calculation serf.

“You’re going to do it now? Then I’ll go change my clothes. I don’t think I can handle all that wearing these.”

He would probably wear them when he goes out of the tower.

“Hoho, go ahead. Mages don’t wear robes for nothing. There is a reason for everything.”

“Eh? You have a reason for wearing tattered rags?”

He thought that all mages had horrible fas.h.i.+on senses, but it turned out there was a reason for it! Interesting.

“Mana innately does not have a form, but from the moment a mage bestows will to mana, it forms ma.s.s. Meaning, it can be controlled. However, there is a lot of mana that scattered into the air as it takes ma.s.s. As such, we wear robes in order to trap the mana around our body. When using magic, the robes flap around, does it not? Mana is the cause of that. If you wear tight clothes like what you’re wearing, it will be very hard to control them.”

“Then there’s a reason for the staff too?”

“Of course! It is also because of using the mana. Mana staves are made of materials that have strong affinity with mana. That will then attract the mana to them. My staff was made from a hawthorn branch that grew drinking the life water of Norest, while the head was created from the heart of a salamander.”

‘So that’s it…….’

Honestly, he thought it was because of bad knees.

The three items of a mage! Robe, staff, and the cone hat. He became curious about the final one as he continued his question.

“Then what does the ice cream cone hat do?”

Kyle didn’t exactly know what ice cream cones were, but predicted that it was the hat on his head.

“Oh, the mage’s hat? It’s just for looks.”

“…….”

‘It definitely doesn’t look cool at all!’

Abel thought that there must have been a profound reason for the hat as well.

Nope, nothing.

Then perhaps?

“Then is there a reason for muttering before you cast magic?”

“Oh the chant? Hm… there is, and there isn’t.”

What?”

That’s just like saying, I drank beer, but didn’t drink-drive.

“What do you mean?”

“To get to the point, there is no real need to chant while casting. As long as you calculate correctly in your head and shout the correct spell, there will be no problems in casting the magic. However, as the power of the tongue influences magic, all mages utter words while they cast.”

“The power of the tongue?”

“I have researched into those principles as well, but no real reason has been discovered yet. The legendary Aladine race that live for 500 years despite being human, are known to have cast magic with just the power of the tongue, but that is just a fairytale.

In any case, chanting enhances the strength of the magic. But it has no real meaning.”

“Then I can speak just about anything I want? You also spoke of weird things…….”

At first, he thought it was some alien language.

“At first, it is normal to try different things, but generally most people use comfortable words. However, the chant must not interfere with the casting calculations. So, chanting is mostly just meaningless words. Using existing words subconsciously s.h.i.+fts the mind to think about that.”

“Wow… Mages have a hard life…….”

A homeless man fas.h.i.+on as well as a madman-style speech……. Oh well, it was to go home. What can’t he do? He resolved to become a 9-circle. He didn’t even realize his own talents……

‘The one who was born a genius can’t win against the one who tries, and the one who tries can’t win against the one who enjoys’. – Confucius.

Yup, go to h.e.l.l.

That was total bullc.r.a.p.

No matter how much effort was put in, a person who tries cannot win against a talented person. It’s like how Vegeta cannot win against Goku. Abel already felt that while he was back on Earth. In fact, hard-working people are even belittled as tryhards

And right now, Abel was also becoming one of those pitiful tryhards.

“Ah! Just why! Why! Am I not! Getting better!!”

It had been two months already.

No matter how hard he tried, it didn’t work. It was as though his body was extremely incompatible with mana.

‘Hmm… is it really innate? Even this Tardema cannot see any breakthrough…….’

Who would’ve known that he would be so insensitive? Abel was one of the most talent-less people he had ever seen. With that kind of mana affinity, it would require at least 2,000 years even if he gained enlightenment at the right times. However, he couldn’t say the truth; he couldn’t dare to tell him that Abel wouldn’t be able to go back.

“Hoho, let us use another way tomorrow! Do not worry so much. I also took a long time at first.”

That was a lie.

As one of the greatest geniuses ever, Kyle took 3 months to reach 3-circle. That was in extreme contrast to Abel, who was doing that for two months now.

“If it comes down to it, we can just use that potion ag-“

-h.e.l.l no!

Abel quickly interfered Kyle’s words.

“I’d rather go to the mountain and become a sage rather than drinking that potion again. Then as for my calculator… it would just become sc.r.a.p plastic exchanged for food, right?”

That was basically a threat. If he didn’t come up with a method, no calculations. Nope nope.

“Hohoho, that is nonsense… there will definitely be progress tomorrow. The item I’ve ordered finally comes after all! The burning ice of the northern Rosen Kingdom, ‘Hydraken’! With this, you will be able to grasp mana right away. I a.s.sure you on my name of Tardema!”

This was the fourth ‘a.s.surance’ from him. Even the lying shepherd only had three chances. This was the fourth time. He had lost all hope now. But it couldn’t be helped. Kyle was the only one who could help him. After all, he was the greatest mage in all of the continent.

Perhaps Abel was the unluckiest, yet the luckiest. He had the worst talent, but the best teacher.

“Ha… okay. Let’s just finish up today’s calculations…….”

Abel fooled himself again.

“Sh, shall we? I’ve already brought my books. Let us start immediately!”

Kyle waited for those words. It was a waste of time to try something that didn’t work. What was more important was his mountains of research.

Abel walked towards today’s portion powerlessly.

“I can just start from the top, right? Huh? This book looks different, what is it?”

Among one of the books on the desk, there was a rather old-looking book. Just the t.i.tle was not the same as Kornos common tongue, so it looked very out of place.

“Which one? Oh! It’s Srandriel’s Book. It seems like I accidently brought it because it was from an old research room. There’s nothing to calculate on there so don’t worry. It’s something I worked to interpret a while ago. It’s more than 20,000 years old.”

‘The Book of Thrandriel?’

An item from 20,000 years ago… wasn’t that the stone age in Earth’s terms?

He became curious.