Danmachi – Card Wizard - Chapter 18

“Alright, we will work on improving your card magic by creating new cards and strengthening the ones you already possess.” Said Riveria as she showed a stern expression on her face. “First, you will explain to me how you create a magic card.” She continued as she waited for Aidan to start talking.

“To create a magic card, I need to mark the card, write the word and infuse magical power into it.” Answered Aidan concisely.​​

“Alright, show me how you mark a card.” She answered as Aidan immediately took out a card and put all of his concentration into it as he broke his previous record and managed to mark the card rapidly.

The moment he finished marking the card, Riviera took a look at the card, and after understanding what he had just done, she looked at Aidan before continuing. “Do you have a card you want to create currently? If not, I would recommend the word ‘arrow’ as it would create an arrow made of your magical power. It should take less magic power to strengthen as it only has the function to pierce, and there is no heat increase, an explosion at the end and the other effects such as in the fireball spell.

By using the word arrow, you should be able to create a more potent spell with less magical power invested in it. Moreover, you would only have to pierce the monster to kill it directly, and this card would have a better effect than a fireball if there are few targets.” Explained Riveria as she showed some excitement in talking about magic.

“I don’t have any problem using the word ‘arrow,’ but why would the spell be stronger?” Asked Aidan, not understanding.

“Well, it’s because from the moment you summon your fireball, its magical energy gets dispersed, which is shown by the increased heat, for example. On the other hand, creating an arrow would barely lose any energy as it would go straight to the target with the only purpose to penetrate and kill the enemy.” She explained patiently at Aidan’s confusion.

“Alright, I’ll start writing the word ‘arrow.’” Nodded the young boy as he focused on the task at hand after understanding the reason.

A few minutes later, after repeating the process another time to engrave the word on the back of the card perfectly, Aidan showed the finished product to his current teacher, who inspected it from all angles as if to discover some mysteries behind it.

After seeing the nod of the elf in front of him, Aidan took back the card and waited to see what she wanted him to do next. He was pretty confident she would like him to strengthen the card, but only to be sure, he waited for a bit.

“Alright. Now that the card has been created and engraved, you will start to strengthen the card. For this occasion, Loki decided to give you some magic potions. For the same reason Finn explained earlier, it is to encourage you to make a contract with the familia. After all, with your talent, drive and card magic, it shouldn’t take you more than a year or two to level up.” Explained Riveria. “Moreover, with your dungeon map card, your storage card and every card you could create in the future, it would give the familia a great boost, allowing us to do better expeditions.” She continued as she took out ten magic potions from a small bag she had brought with her.

“First, you will slowly strengthen the ‘arrow’ card. I want to verify the conversion rate. It would be the best if all the magic power you use entered the card, but if it doesn’t, it would be better to improve your control.” She said while Aidan took the card and started to infuse the magic exceptionally slowly.

As he was working on his card, the elf watched the card and sensed the flow of magic as best as she could not miss anything.

After a few minutes of work, she finally interrupted him. “Alright, Aidan, you can stop.” She said as she had an awkward look on her face. “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the flow with which you send your magic in the card is excellent. Typically, new mages have difficulty supplying the magic in their spells which is the reason that their attacks don’t function.

However, the bad news is that while the flow is perfect as you can send your magical power whenever you want, your control is terrible. You use only about 25% of your magic while you waste the rest.” She explained.

“Luckily, sending magic power in the cards is a great way to train. As such, our training today will be to let you increase your magic control. The way we will train it is by starting with a small amount of magical power that you will try to send into the card. The first thing you will have to do is imagine a small flow of magic leaving your body and entering directly inside the card.” Explained the green-haired elf.

Unfortunately, teaching magic wasn’t like teaching how to fight as they couldn’t directly help but could only slowly explain the theoretical.

As Aidan started to do as instructed, his teacher also started to give some tips. “When you start sending out the magic out of your body, find the magic flow and solidify it, imagine as if it was a tube which linked your body to the card. The stronger the tube will be, the less magical power you will lose during the exchange.” Explained the elf to the serious silver-haired boy.

Slowly but surely, Aidan managed to locate his magical power and the thin link between his body and the card. Focusing on it as the familia’s executive had just said, he did his best to create a tube she had told him about and make the magical power flowing through it, stopping the magic from leaving the line and going everywhere.

As he trained his control, Aidan took some magic potion to replenish his power. By the time he finished all of the drinks, he had not only managed to increase his control from 25% to 40%, but he had also managed to strengthen the ‘arrow’ card significantly due to the potions constantly replenishing his lost magical power.

By the time the training ended, his arrow card had the same strength as his fireball but with piercing power instead. Moreover, it did cost less to strengthen this card to make the arrows strong enough for the monsters from the first to the fourth floor. He could use the card a total of thirty-three times.

Whether it was his magical control or the potions, he did not doubt that with the training from both Finn and Riveria, his strength had increased.

“Alright, you can stop your training now. It’s already time for lunch.” She said as Finn’s training with Ais also finished. “You will have to work on your magical control whenever you can to improve it. Thanks to your high-human bloodline, you learn skills faster, so it shouldn’t be that hard for you to complete this small task.” She continued with a slight smile while the two approached Finn.

“Well, this will be it for today’s training.” Said the familia’s captain. “Do not enter the dungeon today. Instead, why don’t you two go and shop for some equipment? The armours lent by the familia are not very diversified, and they are not necessarily the best for the two of you. Due to your young age, young stature and weak strength, it would be better if the two of you could get some light armour from one of the shops of the Hephaestus familia. You can find some of their shops directly in the tower of Babel.” He finished before turning around with Riveria following right behind him.

However, she didn’t forget to give them both a slight glare as she said: “Ais, you better train your accuracy with your magic and Aidan, I hope you will increase your magic control.”

Looking at them both leaving, the two youngsters turned and looked at each other with Ais speaking first. “Let’s go eat and shop for equipment afterwards.” To which Aidan nodded as they both walked towards the cafeteria of the familia.

It was the first time the two of them were present at the cafeteria during lunch. There were many more members of the familia that they have thought as there was a line-up to get some food.

Looking at the line, the two of them got behind the last adventurers in the line as they waited for their turn. The atmosphere in the room was cheerful as most adventurers laughed and talked together, happily sharing news and drinking alcohol.

Seeing the other members, Aidan showed a happy smile as he sat down with his food once he got served with Ais and started to eat his lunch.