Danmachi: Hero Maker

10 days had passed since Ais's descent into the dungeon. Merlin brought her back up to the surface where she got some weird stares as she was carrying an unconscious child, but she just ignored them and went straight home.

When Ais finally woke up, her body was severely sore. She couldn't get up. Merlin had to care for her which reminded her of when she first found Ais.

When Ais mostly recovered but still bedridden, Merlin asked about the magic she used. Wondering if Ais had an idea of why she awakened it. Ais hesitated but finally opened up and revealed her past that she had kept quiet about. 

She told Merlin how she was the daughter of the Sword Champion Albert and the spirit Aria. This meant that she was half spirit, half human. Then she told how the one-eyed black dragon attacked and killed her parents and the reason she wanted strength so desperately was to get revenge.

While Ais sat on the bed, her head hanging down as she brought up old wounds, Merlin stared at her. While she was initially saddened by the story, she moved on. She doesn't have any experience when it comes to these types of things so she thinks that its best not to get to caught up in the sadness.

'Well I was right about the whole revenge thing. Other than that she is really hero material! Since she's half spirit, that means she should have great talent in magic. After all she managed to use wind magic for the first time despite having no knowledge of it or training.'

'Excellent talent in both the sword and magic! I'm happy I found this gem first! Who knows what would have happened if someone else found her. Wait! According to her story, shouldn't she be hundreds of years old...? You know what its probably best not to think of that.'

And so, when Ais was no longer bedridden, she continued her daily training. Though now the lessons she had about the dungeon and monsters was now replaced with magic lessons.

Ais sat at the table, in front of her was pen and paper. She looked up to see Merlin wearing glasses. As Ais was thinking why her teacher was wearing glasses despite the fact that she didn't need them, Merlin was a bit caught up in a dilemma. 

'What should I teach her first? The magic system of this world or the magecraft that I use? Since her magic does use this world's system, I should probably teach her that first but on the other hand my magecraft is so much better compared to what I have seen in this world'

When Merlin traveled the world, she researched heavily into magic and from there found how vastly different her magecraft was compared to what the natives of this world used. Instead of using mana and Od, this world's magic system uses mind.

The more she researched the more she found that the native system was much simpler and weaker compared to magecraft. Though she did find some exceptions, some spells she encountered were quite devastating when used right.

'I'll teach her the native system first. I don't want her to experience an ignis fatuus because she couldn't control her magic. And besides magecraft is complicated making it difficult for me to explain it to her right now'

Merlin turned her focus to Ais who was spacing out. "Alright lets begin!"

"First I shall go over some general information about magic. First off, magic requires 'mind' in order to activate. You can say that mind is a sort of mental energy. Using spells will make you mentally exhausted and overuse of spells will cause you to suffer mind down. You already experienced this during your fight with the wyvern."

"Chants are necessary to activate a spell. Spells will have their own unique chants. Usually the longer the chant the more potent the spell but there are some exceptions to this. Lets use your magic as an example."

"My magic?" Ais tilted her head.

"Yes, from what I saw from you fight, the magic you used was casted almost instantly. Can you remember what you said that could have activated the spell? Also don't say it out loud just write it down."

Ais looked back at her fight with the wyvern. She remembered the feeling of the wind wrapping around her. Then she remembered a single word that she said without thinking. The word naturally appeared in her mind.

"Temp-!" She was cut off as Merlin quickly placed her hand over Ais's mouth. 

"I said don't say it out loud. Just saying the chant even casually can cause it to go off. You would make a mess of the house, understand?"

Ais nodded.

"Good now write out the chant you think you used."

Ais grabbed the pen and wrote on the paper a single word. Merlin looked at the word.

"Tempest? A fitting name considering the type of magic you used. Now like I was saying there are exceptions to the rule. Some spells require only a single word or a very short chant to use. Usually, these types of spells would be weaker in firepower or potency, but they are still very useful due to how fast you can cast them."

"Now normally, manifesting magic is a huge pain in the butt for people, especially if they already have a low talent for it in the first place. Falna, a blessing that gods bestow upon mortals can help manifest magic or you can just use a grimoire like this."

Merlin pulled out a book with no title. "This is a grimoire, it forcibly awakens the readers magic. It doesn't have a specific spell that it gives only helping to awaken the magic that is ideal to the reader. Unfortunately, they can only be used once then they become a blank book. They're a huge pain to make but they sell for a lot."

"Teacher, did you make that grimoire?"

"Yep, I learned how to make one during my time in Altena, before I got kicked out."

Ais tilted her head to the left. "Why did you get kicked out? Did you explode another bar?"

"Cough! Cough! Ahem, no. You see a person no matter who is limited to only having three spells. And the elves in Altena who value innovation" Merlin said in a mocking tone. "Absolutely hate it when someone is able to go past that limit."

"I can only learn three spells?"

"Yep, but with me around you won't have this problem."

"Anyway, the elves petitioned for me to be banned from entering Altena. And Athena agreed! I was so mad that I wanted to blow up that stupid library of hers and recreate the burning of the library of Alexandria!"

Ais shivered at that last part. Did her teacher make an enemy of a god that rules over one of the strongest countries in the world?

"D-Did you do it?" She asked with a bit of hesitation. Afraid of knowing the answer.

"Of course not! Who do you think I am?"

Ais let out a sigh of relief.

"I blew up her Laboratory and stole some of her research."

Ais's face slammed into the table.

'Is it too late to find another teacher?' Ais thought.

"Yes" As if reading her mind, Merlin responded with a simple yes.

"Ahem, getting back on track with the lesson. From tomorrow forward you will be training your control over your magic. Control is very important, if you have terrible control you risk an ignis fatuus. When this happens you explode or the staff you use to cast the spell explodes. Either way something is blowing up."

"So tomorrow when we go back out to the field you will focus on this training. Since your magic is technically spirit magic, I don't have enough information to properly train you. There aren't many records of spirit magic, and the only records mostly talk about the magic that is used by a person who is contracted to a spirit and not magic directly casted from a spirit."

"But I don't think there will be any problems. Anyway that's the basics of magic, you better prepare yourself for tomorrow since your training doesn't stop until you hit mind down."

Ais's face paled. 

"Just kidding! Oh yeah we will also head to the guild tomorrow since you will be registering as an adventurer."

"Huh? I am?" Ais was confused by this. "Why?"

"Well I believe it would be best if you were responsible for your own equipment. You need money to buy and repair equipment, and what better place to make money than the dungeon."

Ais was happy with this. She could become stronger faster by challenging the dungeon.

"Also, I wanted to recommend a safer job but like... you don't have any skills that are beneficial to society other than fighting so no will hire you..."

~Swoosh~

An imaginary arrow struck Ais in the heart.

"Well I got somethings to take care so I will be heading out! Don't open the doors to strangers!" Merlin quickly left the room. A muffled slam could be heard signaling that she had left the house.