Finally! It’s done!
This chapter took longer to translate due to Rarashik speaking in a very slang-ish way.
Also, thanks for your kind words, readers.
If once a week is fine, then let’s do it.
Anyway, here’s chapter 258.
"What is life force? In a technical point of view, it is the HP portion of the many 《Status》 we have, but to put it in simple words, it's body power."
Hiiro and Camus were quietly hearing the lecture of life force discussed by Rarashik personally.
How it all happened? The favor was all thanks to Hiiro's cunning bribery of using a branded ale in exchange for such a lecture.
And due to that, she seemed quite satisfied with the parcel she received as she continued to discuss in a very good mood.
"In the first place, it's no exaggeration to say that a person can have two powers inside them. The first one is will power, or what we also know as magical power. And the second one is life force, which is the body power we speak of right now."
While moving slowly from left to right, Rarashik moves her mouth as she raised an index finger.
"The formal term for life force is body power. So body power and will power, these are the 2 innate power residing in a person's body. Do you understand everything so far?"
Hiiro nodded quietly to her question.
"Good, now in order to control one's own body power, one has to first know what body power is all about."
"…. do you know?"
"Yeah, knowledge is very important in all aspects of our lives. Hiiro, why don't you tell me your understanding regarding body power."
Because he had always used his magic when needed to be, he had trained in himself in mastering the control of his magical power, but for the first time, after being asked about body power, he noticed that he couldn't answer anything about it.
When leveling up, it was natural that body power and magical power would rise up similarly, but since he was only conscious of his magical power at that time, he had no prior knowledge in handling the body power he just recently knew.
Then Rarashik smirked as if she had foreseen his lack of knowledge on it.
"You don't have any idea, huh?"
"……"
"But I guess that's natural. The basics of a magician is improving their mastery on their magical power so they are ignorant regarding their own body power."
That was exactly what he did. As a matter of fact, he only used his recovery magic once he deemed necessary from the damage he received, he never considered his body power more than a necessity to it.
"However, body power and magical power are the same form of power you know? Am I too assume that you're developing a technique by learning the usage of body power?"
That was news to him. Certainly, magical power is more famous in this world as most residents could use it. That's why he improved his mastery on his magical power.
However, using that analogy, if one would forge their body power to the limit, one could turn it into a powerful weapon as someone proficient in magic could become a practitioner of it.
"I know because we beastmen couldn't use magic. That's why we struggled desperately to obtain arms that utilizes our body power which resulted to the 《Binding》 technique we have right now."
"……."
"However, this 《Binding》 technique can't be used by anyone other than beast men. That said, if one could control their body power, they could do a lot of other possible things. And I'm pretty sure those stubborn wizards didn't notice this one out. "
It is certainly true that many of the people, majority from the 『Humas』 & 『Evila』, thinks that magical power is superior to any other methods of convenience. Hiiro had also thought similarly.
But as she said, if there is a technique that utilizes magical power, there must be a technique that utilizes body power too. Because both are two sides of the same coin.
"Well, in the case of body power, it is very difficult to handle compared to will power, that's why those magic-obsessed people would definitely not notice it as they don't seek it necessary, making them ignorant until this present time."
So that means magic is convenient and easy to handle. Even if they did not know any techniques utilizing their body power as long as they have magic, it's certainly true that it wouldn't be necessary for an ordinary person.
"But you, on the other hand, noticed it. Not bad Hiiro! Nahaha!"
It felt like he was being looked down from above, but Hiiro remained silent and continued to listen to her. He didn't want to ruin the mood right now.
"Now then, since the Hero of 『Evila』 had troubled to come here, let this genius me indulge you with some short lecture."
She held an appearance as if she was humbly boasting of herself while puffing her chest with pride.
"First off, do you know where magical power can be extracted from?"
"Yeah, blood right?"
"Correct. Blood = Magical Power. Then, how about body power?"
"No idea."
"Nahaha! What a straightforward fellow you are! Arnold desperately tried to answer it and said 'brain tissue'! Nahaha!"
However, Hiiro was relieved deep inside. He was almost about to hesitate and answer brain tissue just like Arnold had done.
"How about you? Do you know the answer?"
Rarashik also asked Camus who was next to Hiiro.
Camus also shook her head softly.
"I see, then I'll tell you. For body power…..it's everything."
"…..ha?"
Everything…? What did she mean by that?
Although it was a simple word, it felt like it had leaped a lot of steps to arrive to that answer, hence his confusion.
"What do you mean by 'everything?' "
"Hm? Like I said, everything is everything. Your whole body, from your head to the tips of your feet."
"….so you mean to say that body power arises from every parts of the body?"
"Exactly. Your hair, your skin, your bones, and even your internal organs, are all sources of body power."
"I see."
Camus who was besides him also nodded in that moment.
"So the first thing you need to know: What is body power and where do you draw it from? Usually we unconsciously recognize this as physical strength, but understanding the true nature of it is our first step on this."
It was as she said, even when he discovered he had magic, Hiiro tried to learn the everything related to magical power. And due to his current knowledge, he could use it with precise control of it.
"Knowledge are principles. Knowledge is also power. With knowledge, there's no great difference between the unknown."
"I see. As expected of someone who had lived a long time…"
At that moment, something grazed Hiiro's left cheek. Apparently, it seems Rarashik threw a surgical knife.
"You do know those words are taboo for a woman, right?"
While she was expressing a smile, there was a dense aura flowing out from behind. It seems he stepped on a landmine, Hiiro immediately decided not to say words that would make her old.
"Well then, why don't I demonstrate it to you for the time being. So that you'll see what I can do by controlling my body power."
Due to that, she invited Hiiro to her basement. The place seemed to be the spot where she makes most of her research as it was a considerably vast area.
He had been in here before, it was the place where Muir took her apprenticeship exam.
"First of all, try controlling your magical power, and condense it to a small sphere."
When she instructed so, Hiiro began to concentrate as he raises his palms up. Then, pale blue magical power gathered at Hiiro's palm and condensed at a central point.
And then, it became a splendid blue globe.
"Nice, it became a perfect sphere with no sense of distortion. As expected of someone who has mastery over their magical power."
Rarashik admired his work as her rabbit ears went up and down.
"I've done this a lot of times due to training. This kind of task is a piece of cake."
"I see, then there's no problem."
"Hm?"
"Do you think it is possible to do the same with body power?"
That was an unexpected question. To be honest, he really doesn't know the correct answer to this. However, since he learned that body power is similar to magical power, he thought he could probably do the same thing as well.
"….probably?"
That's why he answered with positive confirmation….but Rarashik who was broadly smiling at him, was,
"Unfortunately, that's the wrong answeeeee~r"
In face of that expression that was making fun of him, Hiiro couldn't help have a cramp on his cheeks from irritation.
"I certainly said that magical power is similar to body power. But it doesn't mean what it can do is necessarily the same, no?"
"I…if you say it like that, it makes sense."
"Isn't it? Now let me show what 'it' can do."
When she said so, Rarashik did an imposing stance by placing both her hand on the pockets of her coat. And when she took out her right hand, she raised up her index finger.
*buuun….*
The space around the index finger began to destroy very similarly to that of a flickering warm flame.
"Can you see it?"
"The distortion?"
"No. I mean body power."
"….not really, I can only sense the space flickering every now and then."
"Me too…."
Camus also answered similarly as he stared at it quietly. Hiiro felt that something was gathered on that space, but he couldn't see it even if he says it looked like a flickering pale light.
"Fumu, that's relieving. I was worried that you could see even this."
"What do you mean?"
"No need to mind it for now. First, look at this."
Rarashik gently touched the ground with her fingertip and pushed it as it is. The finger pushed through easily as if the ground had forgotten the concept of resistance.
It is without a doubt that the ground was hard. Of course, if he striked it with his full power, Hiiro could also open a whole without problems, even with the use of his fingertip.
However, it requires a certain amount of power to execute that kind of action. What Rarashik did however, was as if she submerged her finger under water.
While Hiiro and Camus were dumbfounded from amazement, Rarashik pulled out her finger and gazed back to Hiiro, eye to eye.
"That phenomenon just now was me wearing body power."
"…..was it possible that your finger was strengthened using body power?"
"Nahaha! You're smarter than Arnold. That's right. Though I said this, there are only few who could condense this kind of amount to do such a thing. Even until now, this remained a mystery to me."
Hiiro gulped as he looked at ground once again where a tiny hole was now present. It's as if it was stabbed by a very sharp sword.
"You get it right? If you use body power, you can literally strengthen your physical capabilities. For example, if you concentrate your body power on your eyes, you would gain a perfect eyesight and so it would have similarly with your nose or ears. If you cover your whole body with body power, your defensive power would surely rise."
At the mention of those words, he remembered the 《Grand Red Aura》. Whether it was capable of raising his defensive power or offensive power by wearing the 《Red Energy》, it was possible that body power played an important role in this.
No, it is in fact true that it was. Because the process is a mixture of body power and will power that created this 《Red Energy》, it's natural to have that kind of effect. Although strength-wise, there is a big difference.
"And you said you couldn't see it right?"
"Y-yeah."
"That's natural. In order to see it, you have focus your body power on your eyes."
"Now it makes sense why you were troubled if I could see it or not."
"You got it. But there are some people out there who can do this naturally."
…..was she perhaps talking about Ornoth?
But he hadn’t talked anything about body power. There's a big chance he doesn't even know that term. And yet, he could handle his body power without much training as if it was an innate talent of his.
(Tsk… this is why geniuses are so…)
Although he could accept the explanation, he couldn't help click his tongue regarding the unfair existences known as geniuses.
"However, there is a problem with this."
"A problem?"
"If you use your body power like this, your physical strength would be exhausted. To be exact, it's quite an inefficient technique."
"Hoh."
"That's why I created a the 《Binding》 technique which utilizes not only body power but a combined effort of both will power and body power. With this method, I could suppress the consumption of it."
"Do you exactly know how much it consumes?"
"You can tell it once you experienced it. Why don't you try it for yourself?"
"So I have to do it already, huh?"
"I have already given you the knowledge needed for it. Now, you only have to make the best use of it."
Well, it was a better explanation than Ornoth's, so to be honest, it was life saving of her. But to try it out in a field test…
(Can't be helped. For the time being, I'll try doing it…)
Hiiro closed his eyes in a natural posture and tried to pull out his body power from within him.