Chapter 63—Lightning Magic Rune
"Elder, all my power and strength have been reset, but my Will stat hasn’t. Why?" Slime#47 asked doubtfully.
"It’s because Will is linked to the strength of the soul, not the physical body... but time‑rewinding powers should normally weaken your soul as well....since it’s past," Elder Slime explained patiently.
Then, with a grin, he glanced at Young Slime. "It seems your trait is not an ordinary one."
’My soul remains the same across loops... so my Will stays the same...’ Slime#47 mused, feeling joy that at least one of his stats would be carried over every time. He didn’t realize yet that this would turn out to be a weakness, not a blessing.
He glanced at the trough in the farm and Wob!—bounced toward it. ’
So weak,’ he thought, feeling how slow his leap was and how powerless his body felt.
He couldn’t even jump higher than a meter now.
He placed his tiny palms on one end of the trough and—"Iron Body! Ahhh!"—pushed with all his might, pouring aura into his skill.
Gzz!
The trough shifted bit by bit, but after moving barely an inch, his vision began to darken.
’Damn... I forgot I’m on low battery...’ He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Elder Slime just watched, silently doubtful of his actions.
Young Slime shook himself and muttered, "I need to take my time and push it slowly."
’There should be around thirty to forty crystals in that crate...’ he estimated. He hadn’t counted them separately, so he didn’t know the exact number.
He explained the situation to Elder Slime, and they agreed to push the trough aside, dig out a crater in the ground, and drag the crate up.
----
In the combat training area...
"Elder, I want you to teach me lightning magic," Young Slime pressed, determined.
He wanted to aim for becoming a Lightning Slime in this loop and clicked his tongue immediately as he remembered it wasn’t that simple, ’I need Lightning Magic Rune Mastery to reach Tier One... That will take so many loops...’
But he was determined to try out the lightning slime.
"Can you sense and control your mana?" Elder Slime asked, "We are starting from the basics."
"Yes, I can," Slime#47 nodded.
"Fireball!" He cast a human baby‑fist‑sized Fireball to prove it.
"Good," Elder Slime wobbled with approval. "Let us begin with a basic lightning spell: Lightning Ball."
He cast the spell.
A light‑purple magic rune flashed in front of his tiny palm, and a small, few‑inch-sized orb of condensed light‑purple lightning manifested.
ZZZ!
He hurled it at the wooden fence—Bam!—leaving a dark, scorched spot where it landed.
"Go ahead," he said, turning toward Young Slime.
"I need a lightning magic rune first," Slime#47 said, his tone serious.
"Oh... looks like you know the fundamentals of magic," Elder Slime said, with a slight smile. "First, you control mana. Next, you acquire runes—basic runes like fire, water, lightning, and so on. Third is visualization, and finally, fourth is spell chanting."
He gave a short explanation. "If any one of those is missing, casting magic turns into embarrassment."
Young Slime’s eyes twitched. ’Here he goes again... It feels like I’m back at school.’ Elder Slime’s image overlapped with his old math teacher in his mind.
"Fine... Lightning," Elder Slime said, noticing Slime#47’s expression.
A light‑purple magic rune flashed on his tiny palm, and from it a ray of lightning burst out—ZZZ!
He simplified the process. "Close your eyes. Visualize the rune I just cast, and imagine lightning coming out from it."
Young Slime nodded, took a deep breath, and cast, "Lightning!"
He visualized the rune’s shape exactly as he had seen it on Elder Slime’s palm, then imagined a condensed thread of lightning emerging from it.
He channeled mana to his palm, and a light‑purple magic rune flashed there in the same shape as Elder Slime’s lightning rune.
From within it, a ray of lightning shot forth—ZZZ!
[ Ding! You have acquired the Lightning Magic Rune Mastery! ]
[ —Masteries—
—Lightning Magic Rune Mastery {Tier 0}—
—Proficiency: 1/100 ]
He grinned at the shimmering panel in front of his eyes. In this life, the best moments were the pop‑ups of new power.
"Good. Now we can begin," Elder Slime announced and cast, "Lightning Ball."
A human baby‑fist‑sized ball of lightning manifested as he did so.
He then explained the principles behind Lightning Ball: condensing lightning into an orb, maintaining its shape, and what could go wrong if the visualization didn’t match and broke mid‑cast.
’Let’s try...’ Slime#47 thought. He wanted to do something different. "Lightning Ball!"
He cast the spell as usual—but instead of visualizing a ball, he visualized a chain.
The light‑purple magic rune flared on his palm like always, but just as the spell was about to manifest, cracks spread across the rune, and it shattered into dust.
A sharp jolt tore through his entire body. "Ouch, that hurts," he winced.
Elder Slime, who had been watching closely, wobbled his body in disapproval, "I told you not to visualize randomly. You’re not the first to try something different."
"Others have tried it?" Young Slime exclaimed, then face-palmed. "Right... Magic has existed for so long in this world... Magic researchers must have tried things way crazier than me."
Elder Slime grinned. "Oh, they have. Let me explain the basic logic. A rune is linked to its element—the lightning rune to lightning, the fire rune to fire, and so on. If you noticed, not just the color but the rune shapes are different."
"While we chant the spell name, the rune connects to our visualization and helps manifest the spell, while also boosting its power. If the spell name doesn’t match the visualization, the rune cracks and disperses instantly."
"It also strengthens the spell?" Slime#47 asked, as he’d just felt it was normal for casting.
Saying spell names out loud during battle felt like broadcasting his moves to enemies. As for aura skills, he’d noticed that shouting names out loud gave a slight strength boost.
"Yes, it does. Your voice affects your energy reserves. Casting a spell out loud empowers it; this is why even after learning chantless magic, many go for chanting magic in frontal battle," Elder slime explained.
He continued with an eye closed, "And even shouting aura skill names gives them a bit more force. The voice makes aura and mana move faster and hit harder."
"Yes...I noticed it," Young slime nodded.
Old Slime took a deep glance and said in a cold tone, "This was just a basic spell, so it didn’t hurt you much. But if you try something like that with high‑level spells, it could kill you."
"Let’s us..."
End of the Chapter.