The Strongest Gun Magus: I Cast Bullet!-Chapter 31: Restful Spirit’s Manual Blog

The pill immediately got stuck in Reynard’s throat, burning it with cold.

The desire to cough it up was immense, but he forced himself not to until it fell lower. At least, the melting ice wasn’t slippery.

Then it got worse.

Despite its slickness, the pill got stuck anyway. Reynard couldn’t breathe.

His eyes bulged, and he began to tear up. His hands went for his throat.

’Of all ways to die during refinement, dying by choking on a pill has to be the most stupid!’

"Mister Artemy! Mister Artemy! Should I—?!" asked Terence.

Reynard waved him off.

’Just... Just a little bit... I have to... R-relax... Shit, how do these people do it?!’

He stared into the sky and tried to think about something nice.

’I will never miss ice cream anymore.’

Finally, Reynard’s efforts and the pill’s gradually diminishing size pushed it farther below. Reynard felt its entire passage until it ended in his stomach.

He gasped for air, wiped away his tears, and then hurriedly sat down to meditate. The Azure Wind mana was about to enter his Crucible, and he had to ensure the fixation and the projection would go smoothly this time!

***

It worked.

It all worked.

The last drop of pure white melted mana went into Reynard’s Inner Athanor. From there, change went through the entirety of Reynard’s aura as a wave. Fresh mana, white and whole, filled his meridians.

His entire body became imbued with its strength. Partial became whole. This was the power stable enough to sustain magic for longer than a few seconds. It also made his own body more stable.

Bodies of Nigredo-stage magi were as fragile as any mortal body was, but Albedo-stage magi made their first step toward perfection and divinity.

He could sense the auras of other people more easily, too. His own aura wasn’t blocking his perception as much as before... Terence’s aura felt much clearer from where it was several paces away.

Reynard stood up from his meditative position and opened his eyes.

Terence was watching him with an awed expression. Then the kid blinked and bowed his head.

"Thank you, Mister Artemy, for letting me see this moment! It will help me with my own refinement... You are incredible! A genius!"

Reynard clicked his tongue.

"Yeah, I totally am. But don’t you dare to run off and spread this to the entire school! Or that I have reached the Albedo level."

"Huh? Why?!"

"Because... If teachers find out, then they will put me into higher-stage courses! I will have to sit in on every lecture from morning to evening again!" Reynard rolled his eyes. "I will do that, eventually, of course. But I want to spend my free time on other things first. So tell any living soul, Terence, and... And... And you will regret it, understand?!"

Terence nodded vigorously.

"I... I will be silent! I can keep secrets, I swear!"

Reynard doubted it, but what could he do? He sighed, then focused.

Under his conscious effort, his aura retreated deeper into his body, most of the mana hiding back in the Athanor. It felt like sucking in his stomach, and using magic like that was impossible.

However, unless someone of at least middle-Cycles Albedo was looking, they would only be able to tell that Reynard was hiding his aura. Nigredo magi might even mistake Reynard for an ordinary mortal.

So Reynard planned to avoid all teachers until he was ready to show off his refinement progress.

"Terence, I ask you to watch over the plants and Chili. I’m going to rent a room in the town and live there for now."

"Alright. But you know the teachers will expect you to come for practice... Even if I take over your school garden duty."

"Yes, yes. But we still have three days of holidays."

’And I have a lot of spells to practice in privacy. Especially the spell that I won on the Autumn Beast Hunt, Spirit Armor!’

***

The first day in town went in peace. Reynard re-learned his most-used Nigredo-stage spells.

On the second day, he sat in his rented room and opened the Spirit Armor spell manual.

The book was made on refined parchment, but it still showed its age. Reynard was careful with the pages.

’It’s fairly thick for a single spell...’ Reynard thought, examining it. ’Black Salt Tempering is also a white spell, and its manual was shorter.’

He found a reason for this as soon as he opened the book.

[I, Restful Spirit, wrote this book with a thought to all young magi who would one day go through a similar adventure as mine. This story began when...]

’Oh, for... Is this a spell manual or a cooking blog? Am I supposed to read this entire thing in hopes of finding something of wisdom?! I guess I have to... What if I miss something and then can’t cast the spell?’

The next three Chapters described Restful Spirit’s adventure defending his hometown from various misfortunes, which culminated with an assassin from a competing magus order stabbing him while Restful Spirit was in a bath.

[...At this point, I realized how important it is to have an armor that always stays with you, while also not impeding your ability to cleanse and relieve yourself. It took me a while to find the necessary Lore to base this spell on, but eventually, the red-class spell written by one of Loremaster Spirit’s students proved to be the most appropriate.]

And only then did the actual spell manual begin.

’This was such a waste of time...

To Reynard’s relief, the ACTUAL spell manual used mostly the same theory he studied for the Black Salt Tempering.

There was still some light outside. Reynard took the book and went outside, planning to practice the new spell in privacy.

***

Two streets away from his inn, he was stopped by a commotion on the street.

"Go away! I never liked you, ugly bastard, and I don’t care who you are!"

"You bitch! Don’t you dare to reject me after all the gifts I gave you!"

A man and a woman were arguing on the street; a few people were watching from the windows of nearby houses.

The man was middle-aged and tall, average-looking, with short brown hair and expensive, nice-looking clothing.

Unlike him, the woman, whose hair was hidden by her blue coif, was stunningly beautiful. Her supposedly modest blue dress hugged her figure tightly, only accentuating her full chest and wide hips.

Her eyes were on the verge of tears, and she moved to walk away from the man, only for him to rudely grab her by the elbow.

"Let me go!" she shouted. "Someone, call the town guard! Help!"