I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 6: Mage Hand

The next day, early morning.

Before the first bell rang in the town, Gauss had already woken up early, sitting cross-legged on the bed with a serious expression.

“Mage Hand!”

The newly mastered cantrip was still not proficient.

He had been up for over half an hour, facing nothing but repeated failures.

However, maybe due to the experience from repeated attempts, or perhaps sheer luck—

After many failed efforts, Gauss finally managed to succeed once by chance.

The moment a spell succeeded was quite wondrous, as if his consciousness had input the correct command, causing the mana within his body to surge and entwine along a certain route, releasing a strange magical fluctuation.

That peculiar wave pulsed outward, finally forming and solidifying in front of him, mana reshaping into an invisible ghostly hand.

It worked!

Gauss sat on the straw bed, smiling as he felt the invisible spectral hand in front of him.

He controlled the Mage Hand with his mind, letting it float and drift around the room.

The invisible arm grasped the dagger on the table, wobbling as it slowly floated into the air.

Excitement and an indescribable sense of accomplishment surged in Gauss’s heart.

He had actually succeeded in casting a spell!

This was magic—something that only existed in fantasy stories and movies in his past life.

The shock brought by this event was no less than the mental impact he felt when he first realized he had transmigrated to another world.

Unfortunately, before he could continue experimenting with curiosity, the invisible arm in the air suddenly collapsed.

“Pa!”

The dagger wrapped in cloth fell back onto the table.

Clearly, the spell was still unskilled—he had to keep practicing!

Mage Hand Lv1 (2/10)

Noticing the skill proficiency had increased a bit.

Feeling the feedback from his practice, Gauss became even more motivated to train the spell.

He didn’t step out of his room the entire morning, focusing solely on spell practice.

The vast majority of his attempts ended in failure.

Which was to be expected—if every cast succeeded, he wouldn't have stayed in his room all morning.

After all, his newly awakened mana couldn’t possibly sustain such long durations of actual casting, even if cantrips were the least mana-consuming category among all spell levels.

Fortunately, his practice proved effective, possibly due to his 7 Intelligence stat.

By the time it neared noon, just before his mana was completely depleted, he could already cast Mage Hand with relative proficiency.

Going from zero foundation to being able to cast a spell in half a day—without contact with other Professionals and lacking reference cases, Gauss couldn’t tell if this pace was fast or slow.

But either way, being able to grasp a spell was enough to satisfy him.

Putting on his boots, Gauss’s stomach let out a dry gurgle at just the right moment.

He was hungry.

“Clack clack clack——”

The soles of his wooden boots creaked against the stairs.

Sophia, who was wiping the wooden front desk, heard someone coming downstairs.

She instinctively looked up and, seeing who it was, showed a trace of surprise on her face.

The one coming down was a lean figure with black hair and emerald eyes—his irises extra bright today, looking more spirited than usual.

It was Gauss, the most diligent and hardworking among her long-term lodgers.

He seemed a bit different from before.

Sophia looked up and studied Gauss, though she couldn’t pinpoint the exact change.

And—had something happened?

Sophia wondered silently.

In her memory, this was the first time she saw Gauss at noon.

Usually, he was out before dawn.

But she held to her principle of not prying into guests’ privacy.

Though curious, she didn’t ask.

“Sophia, please get me some lunch. Uh, no—make it two portions.”

Although he wasn’t quite used to the meals served at the inn, with little money to spare, Gauss had no choice but to make do.

He really was a bit hungry now.

Probably because his body had started using energy to replenish the mana lost earlier.

“Two portions? That works out—I was just about done selling lunch from the kitchen. I’ll bring everything out to you. The extras are on the house.”

“That’s really appreciated.”

Sophia waved her hand, indicating there was no need to be polite.

Soon, she brought out a tray from the kitchen.

Today’s lunch was oatmeal porridge, stewed beans, and pickled beets.

Perhaps the brick-like black bread with wood shavings from yesterday had left too deep an impression—he found today’s lunch unexpectedly agreeable.

The beets had been cold-pickled in a tangy sauce, giving them a unique fruity aroma and flavor.

In a flash, several days passed.

Over the past few days, Gauss had been practicing Mage Hand near the town, switching to weapon training whenever his mana ran out.

The spell’s proficiency increased rapidly through constant practice.

Mage Hand Lv2 (10/20)

Looking at the level on the panel, Gauss nodded.

After several days of training, Mage Hand had reached mid-level of Lv2.

In fact, he had already leveled Mage Hand to Lv2 on the first day, but after that, just mechanically repeating the training led to slower proficiency gains.

It took several more days of grinding just to reach 10/20.

Did it require real combat to improve more quickly?

Gauss headed in the direction of the town.

At Lv2, he could already control Mage Hand very smoothly.

For example, right now, the bag he carried was floating beside him, held aloft by Mage Hand.

Over the past few days of training, besides improving his proficiency, the mana within his body had also increased rapidly. If he were to describe it, it had grown from mere threads to something that could now twist into a rope.

Of course, that analogy wasn’t quite accurate—mana wasn’t a tangible substance like liquid or gas, but rather an invisible, formless energy.

In addition to his own internal mana reserves, the world was also filled with magical energy—ever-present like leylines, rooted in every corner of the world.

In his perception, the process of casting a spell was a kind of special magical effect.

Using his internal mana and the spell etched into his will, he could reshape the omnipresent magical energy in the world, manifesting it in a specific way within a specific area.

The magnitude of a spell’s effect depended on both the quality and quantity of his mana, as well as the type of spell.

As a cantrip, Mage Hand consumed very little of his mana.

Its casting range was about ten meters around him.

Beyond that, the spell would naturally collapse and become unsustainable.

Mage Hand wasn’t a combat-focused spell; it was more of a utility tool.

For example, reaching through a doorway to unlock a door from the inside, or quietly retrieving an object.

As for its use in combat, the best idea he had so far was using the spell’s roughly 10-pound (9-jin) weight to unexpectedly interfere with an enemy’s actions, giving him the chance to strike.

Or maybe, preemptively sneaking a dagger over the enemy’s head with Mage Hand, then letting gravity do the rest as it dropped to deal damage.

Of course, this kind of attack was likely limited in effectiveness—after all, it was constrained by distance and required the enemy to be completely unaware to land successfully.

Still, he believed that using Mage Hand cleverly to assist in battle could be quite effective.

Tugging at an enemy’s ankle, giving a push or a pull—even if the force wasn’t strong, well-timed interference could be deadly.

Combat wasn’t always a back-and-forth exchange—it often hinged on fleeting moments where the outcome could be decided instantly.