by DB King
The pulling sensation returned and….
Nothing happened—the magical energies seemed to reach out towards the rock and then retracted immediately afterwards. Jin hummed. Okay, that rules out telekinesis.
Obviously, his magic was trying to pull something towards or into his hand; the only mystery now was what. What was his magic trying to pull? How did this magic even function? Ugh, if only Hamada had given me access to the family library, this would’ve all been answered with a simple book.
Well, that was, assuming, that magic was well-known and widely studied in this new world, instead of just being an object of superstition and myth and wonder. His old world had formal magical academies, where children were trained in the arts of the arcane and where most of the world’s problems were either created or solved.
For now, however, he’d have to proceed with the most antiquated, but also the most entertaining, method available to him: good ol’ trial and error.
Alright, maybe it’s akin to that life-binder spell that only works on living creatures? There were a few, very strange, spells in his previous life that specifically targeted living beings; everything else was excluded from the spells’ effects. One of those was the life-binder, which allowed one to sort of telekinetically grip any living thing, even trees. Rocks, however, were unaffected by the spell.
At this point, I might as well just try everything and anything I can possibly think of.
The bushes rustled. Jin blinked and turned towards the sudden sound. There was something glowing underneath all the green—something small, likely as small as his hand. It was… a slithering piece of what appeared to be magma. Jin knelt down and parted apart the blades of grass. There, slithering on the soil, was a Magical Beast—a fire salamander. He’d recognize one at first glance; his father had caught one a week ago when they went out to fish for salmon. It tasted horrible, but it had been the first Magical Beast he’d ever encountered in this new world.
This one did look kind of different from the one his father, Hamada, caught back then. There were tiny bumps on the top of its head, and even bigger bumps on its back. Was it injured? The way it moved towards his left foot certainly indicated that it was injured.
These things were dangerous. That tiny little thing his father brought home nearly killed one of the servants when it unleashed a gout of fire that swallowed her whole. Thankfully, the servant-girl leapt into the family’s koi pond and saved herself from any serious burns. This tiny creature, which was barely larger than his own hand, could burn him to death if it really wanted to.
And yet something drew him towards it.
“Hey there, little guy…”
Jin reached down and placed a single finger on the top of its head, like petting a hamster. The fire salamander cooed at his touch. Purring, almost vibrating, noises emanated from its chest, which pulsated with fiery colors that were brighter than its skin. Like a cat, it pushed its head against his finger, almost brushing its scalp. “Do you like that?”
“You’re a cute one,” Jin muttered softly. “Did your mother leave you all alone?”
The fire salamander was small. If he had to guess, then it was likely a very recent hatchling that got lost in the woods and was never found by its mother. Do fire salamanders lay eggs?
A curious thought suddenly came to mind. The pulling obviously didn’t work on the pebble, which meant that it wasn’t a typical form of telekinesis—if it was one. He could test his earlier hypothesis on the fire salamander; after all, it walked right up to him and he wouldn’t be hurting it if all the magic did was let him grab it. Closing his eyes, Jin reached for that familiar wellspring of power and allowed the arcane energies from his core to coalesce around his left forearm once more.
His eyes snapped open; there was a magical feedback. So, living things are the right target?
His energies reached out of his hand and wrapped themselves around the fire salamander, like the tendrils of a cephalopod, pulling in prey. The tiny, lava-like, creature didn’t react; instead, it cooed even more and was allowing itself to be pulled by… whatever was going on with his magic.
With a brief, golden flash, its burning skin turned white, alongside its whole body. In the next moment, the fire salamander had turned into golden particles that raced towards Jin’s left forearm as his magic retracted. His eyes widened. A sudden rush of heat raced through both his hands as though he had dipped them in boiling water. He took a single step back and prepared to scream; the tiny, three year old body was not accustomed to pain as of yet.
However, as quickly as the pain came, it disappeared and, when he looked upon his left forearm for any sign of damage, all Jin saw was a tattoo of a Fire Salamander, etched between his wrist and elbow, with its head pointed at his hand, its mouth wide open. But the sudden arrival of a very obviously magical tattoo paled in comparison to the fact that the fingers of his left hand were now aflame.
Magical energies lingered over his left arm, though a tiny bit of it seemed to trickle to his right. What the- is… is that how magic works in this world?
With an experimental swing, Jin let loose a cone of flames from the fingertips of his left hand. With his right, he was able to produce tiny sparks that briefly set the air alight—insects would probably be afraid of that one. Absently, his lips spread outwards into a grin. His hands shook and Jin couldn’t stop the dark laughter that escaped his throat. Finally! Finally!
It was… a very strange system, truly. Though he’d need to perform several more tests to determine the true nature of this world’s magic; for now, his hypothesis was that offensive magic functioned by acquiring and absorbing Magical Beasts, thereby gaining their innate abilities for oneself. It was… very strange, but also incredibly interesting; there were so many possibilities open to him, but also about a hundred questions. Chief among them, being: how many Magical Beasts could he absorb? Did he have control over what abilities he could receive? Would the magical effects advance on their own or did they need some sort of catalyst to grow stronger?
And lots of others….
No matter… Jin raised his flaming left hand, grinning, and pointed towards a nearby tree. By rough estimation, the strongest gout of flame he could produce—at the moment, at least—was only about as powerful as the strongest gout of flame a fire salamander could produce, which—in the grand scheme of things—wasn’t all that powerful. But there were other Magical Beasts out there, which were far more powerful than his tiny little salamander. Though… he’d keep this one for experimentation purposes and… sentimental value; it was, after all, the first one he ever got.
Still grinning, Jin unleashed a ball of flame—roughly half his body size, which wasn’t much—and released it at the tree. The mass of fire crashed against the old oak, but did little more than singe the edges of some old leaves and dried sticks. Regardless of its weak results, Jin was elated; he now had access to offensive magic at three years old—even his previous self couldn’t say the same!
Now, what else could he do with this power?
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About the Author
DB King’s stories feature competent main characters, magic and skill progression, and nothing too dark. While he doesn’t shy away from violence, he mostly avoids cursing and doesn’t have any adult scenes. When he writes a character, he’s always interested in “what would I do in this situation?” and not forcing them to be dumb and/or ignorant just for the sake of the plot. Most of his stories aren't strictly Gamelit/LitRPG, but a
lot of his magic and progression systems often feel like something you might find in a video game.
