Kenja ni Natta Vol 1 Chapter 3

Chapter 1-3: Starting Off With Monsters and Terrible Meat

By using a similarly sized pebble, I easily managed to accomplish Magic that produced water.
“h.e.l.l yea! With this, I pretty much know how to use Magic now!” you can tell I was pretty excited about it. But in the end I still wasn’t able to accomplish that「Stimulation of Od」 thing.

I couldn’t activate my [Od], but it was possible for me to use [Mana].
There were two possible reasons for this.

The first reason was: the stimulation of [Od], it was something that your body fundamentally understood without anyone having to teach it you.
When a newborn baby is pulled out from its mother’s womb, in order to survive it must first take a breath so that it may cry out in a loud voice.
Although no one ever taught it to do that, the majority of infants must clear this step right after birth.
Similar to that, perhaps living things in this world instinctively know the method to activating Od.
In other words, since I am not an inhabitant of this world, maybe that is why I can’t accomplish「Stimulation of Od」.

The second reason is: Maybe it’s because I don’t have “Magical Power” in the first place.
After all, back when I was in j.a.pan, I was never conscious of things like “Magical Power”, “Odo”, or “Mana”. It wouldn’t be strange if my internal composition differed when compared to native residents of this world.

Whatever the case may be, one thing is clear. You could say that it was impossible for me to use Magic by myself.
Whether it be a pebble, or vegetation, or soil, as long as I had some sort of material substance I could use Magic but, “I” as an single individual would not be able to accomplish anything.

「So the result is, looks like I can’t use over half of the Magic written in this book huh」(Ayame)

Although I only flipped through a few of the pages, pretty much all of the Magics had the phrase「Stimulate Od――」 written in somewhere in them.
Only a few pages appealed to me. How to use Magics that utilized the [Mana] of the natural world was also written down, but that scale would be way too outrageous.
Things like “making an entire race obey you” or “extracting [Od] from dead corpses”, the sort of black magics that would thrill a Chuuni’s imagination, most of them required you to activate Od in order to use them.

However, just thinking about those things was frightening.
I might not be able to use those Magics, but inhabitants of this world might be able to.
Sucking out the [Od] from opponents that you touch, or freezing the blood inside their bodies, to be able to use such extremely offensive Magics―― I’m trembling from just the thought of it.

「To be transferred on top of a plateau… Perhaps this was an incredible stroke of luck」(Ayame)

What if I was transferred inside a colony of thieves or something like that, I would probably be lying dead on the ground by now.
In the worst case I might be sold off as a slave.
No――, I shouldn’t be saying it as “What if”. From here on out, there’s a high possibly that these things might actually happen.
Perhaps from now on, if I ever get the chance to come into contact with inhabitants of this world, I might have to proceed with extreme caution.
“I can use plenty of Magic too”―― I can use bluffs like that. I need to make sure that my weaknesses are not shown.

「But first things first, I absolutely need to investigate the level of offensive magic that a normal person can use」(Ayame)

On the contrary, if I used too many bluffs then a strong fellow might mistake it as me challenging then to a duel, in which case I would be completely outmatched.
Proper calculations were necessary. I have to conceal this ability that only I can use.
However, even if the scope of Magic I can use far exceeded the level of an ordinary person’s―― I would still bluff.
If there wasn’t much of a difference between Mana and Od, then it would be alright to approach others normally.
If by chance using Magic had it’s strengths and drawbacks, then perhaps this world has a fairly large number of people who can’t use Magic.

That’s why, the first thing I have to do is head towards a place with other people.
Although, before that I should thoroughly read through this book. At the very least, it was necessary for me to learn Magic that could be used to protect myself at a moments notice, but.

「In any case, let’s test out all of the Magics I can use before nighttime comes」(Ayame)

The climate and the ecosystem here, I have no information on any of this.
For all I know this place might become extremely cold, or perhaps frightening beasts might come out.
Before that happens, I must formulate some sort of countermeasure.
Fortunately I’m carrying a magic textbook with me. At the bare-minimum I should be able to survive for now.

Once it was decided, I immediately put the plan into action.
I turned the pages the magic textbook, and searched it from end to end for any Magics that did not involve using [Od] so that I could test them out.

Evening.
With the setting sun looking like a red salmon in the other side of the sky, I pretty much finished testing out Magics for the time being.
Glancing over at all the uprooted flowers and discarded pebbles, I let out a coa.r.s.e breath in order to calm myself.
Types of Magic that did not utilize [Od], through the results of my experimentation I pretty much figured which ones I could use.
Although this power had it’s own strength and weaknesses, Be it fire or water, wind-magic or earth-magic or healing-magic, as long as I was holding a substance from nature, I could at least use them for the time being.

With the Mana extracted from a plant, I tried making a pole using earth magic.
With the Mana extracted from a pebble, I was able to heal a torn-off fingernail as if it was brand new.
With the Mana extracted from a clump of soil, I was able to produce a soothing breeze around the level of a folded fan.

To confirm that it wasn’t by chance, I repeated the same Magic three times while varying the initial conditions. But the result was always the same, it was a success.
If it was only on the level of cuts and scratches, then by uprooting a single plant the injury could be healed.
I thought it was pretty cool since it resembled how you would use medicinal herbs in video games.

I originally planned to test out every possible magic, but this is quite tiresome.
Since it wouldn’t be a laughing matter if I collapsed from exhaustion, I decided that I would continue looking through the book at a later time.

It looks like several hours have pa.s.sed huh―― I haven’t eaten a single thing.
The flowers that sprouted from the ground were way too bitter so they weren’t something you could eat. Neither did another person nor even a foolish animal pa.s.sed by this area.
Before it gets any darker, I need to search for something to eat or else I’ll starve.

「The sun hasn’t completely set yet so there’s still some time. In any case, meat or edible plants or even fish, anything is fine. I’ve got to find something」(Ayame)

Grabbing one of the poles I created using earth magic, I faced the setting sun and ran across the plateau.

―― A few minutes after I started running.

I started to hear some sort of conversation coming from in front of me. I held my breath and stood still.
But the footsteps continued.―― It wasn’t just two or three people. It was a mob.
Since the vast plateau extended out towards the horizon, there wasn’t anywhere I could hide myself.
As a last resort I spread out my entire body on the ground and crawled forward. And I caught a glimpse of the thing that was talking.

「…………」

Walking together in a line was, It wasn’t human beings but monsters instead.
Because of the setting sun I couldn’t get a good view, but judging by the silhouettes I figured that they were something similar to Goblins.
With shabby cloths wrapped around their bodies, they were talking about something in hoa.r.s.e voices.
In the center of the group were two Goblins carrying rods, and hanging from them was something that resembled meat from some animal.
They were probably returning home from a hunt or something like that.

「…… That sure looks tasty」(Ayame)

Sensing the rumbling in my stomach, I slowly got up.
This is perfect. Creatures of this world―― These monsters, what level of Magic can they use? I wanted to find out.
I pulled out the rocks concealed in my pocket, and shaped my form into a throwing pose.
While the Goblins faced each other and exchanged glances, they were conversing amongst each other―― But, since they were non-human creatures, their language was different to begin with. I still couldn’t understand what they were talking about.

It’s common sense I got from j.a.pan, but animals should generally be weak to fire.
Especially in Light Novels, it was often said that the job of flame-cla.s.s Magics was to defeat non-human creatures of the Goblin-cla.s.s
After I scare them a little with fire, I’ll help myself to a bit of that meat.

Perhaps they sensing my intent to strike, the Goblins began hideously snorting. They bared their sharp rodent-like front teeth to intimidate me.
As I held the iris-colored Magic Textbook in one hand, I once again reviewed the method for lighting a fire from a pebble.
Placing five or six small pebbles in my hand, and by extracting the dormant Mana from within those rocks, the appearance of “Fire” materialized.

It was a fire about the size of a candle, but here on this plateau―― countless numbers of low growing flowers were living here.
Since plants were weak to fire, they would surely burn up. Even though it was a small flame, if it spread to these combustible plants, then a large blaze would be created because of that.

―― At least that is what’s suppose to happen.

The small flames lit by these pebbles, the moment they came into contact with the wet ground or the morning dew, they were quietly extinguished.
Now that you mention it, just how damp is this place?

「Even though it’s fire made with Magic, it disappears with just dew or moisture!?」(Ayame)

Not expecting an accident to happen right from the start, my mind was on the verge of going blank.
――But, I still have this. A stack of papers with methods on how to use various Magics, I had the Magic Textbook.
A plan to break the deadlock in this sort of situation, I needed come up with something else right away.

Knelling down, I grasped the ground with my left hand.
If I remember correctly, I should also be able to draw up power from the ground and soil.
I used my right hand to desperately turn the pages of the Magic Textbook, I searched for anything that would work.
During the time the Goblins arranged themselves in preparation for battle, and they all simultaneously leapt towards me.

「Uhhhh, Ummmm. There’s got to be something, There’s got to be something――――!?」(Ayame)

There it is. I found it.
By extracting the vast amounts of [Mana] within the land, Magic that constructed a wall of earth. After using it the wall would immediately turn back into sand. As if the Mana was returning to the universe, it was an Earth Magic that was environmentally friendly.

Throwing aside the Magic Textbook, I thrusted out my empty right hand in front of me.
Aiming along the trajectory of the snarling Goblins that leapt through the air, I extracted the Mana from a clump of earth and released it.
Originally, a splendid slate-like wall should have been made, but since I panicked while making it the result was a bit misshapen.
An enormous wall that could hide you from the glistening sun. I’m the person who made it but still, I could only stare blankly with my mouth gaping wide open at the ridiculous size of the thing.

What suddenly appeared was an earthen wall.
The Goblins that kicked off the ground and leapt through the air, they heads all collided with the mud wall at the same time, and they lost consciousness.
Foam started coming out of their mouths, I almost LOL’d when I saw their eyes whiten as they fainted.
It’s something that I did myself, but I somehow felt bad.

「Uh, uhhh, I’m sorry this was so sudden……」(Ayame)

As I threw out some words of apology to the collapsed Goblins with large b.u.mps on their heads, I s.n.a.t.c.hed a bit of the meat that they were carrying.
A feeling of guilty surged through me as I stole some of their hard-earned meal, but in the end my hunger won me over.

―― From now on, I should go search the forest and harvest some sort of fruit to eat.

While remembering that “From now on” sounded very close to the clique phrase 『Tomorrow I’m gonna go all out!』, for the first time since coming to a different world I innocently indulged in a meal.

It was something I stole but, as expected, when compared to things like chicken or pork, it wasn’t very tasty.

Extra TL note: Author baited us with the dragon :(. At least this isn’t a cliffhanger though.