Chapter 352 : Forced Skydiving
「AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaーーー!!」(Mark)
I couldn’t hold my scream when my body continued descending at high speed.
The folnir threw me off its back, but I could tell that it didn’t have any ill or murderous intention toward me.
Still… Is this how folnirs teach their children how to fly? This is insane!
I’ll die if I don’t do something!
「ーLevitation!」(Mark)
I quickly wrapped my entire body with my wind-attributed mana and cast Levitation.
However, the wind at this altitude was extremely strong. It interrupted my wind-attributed mana. As a result, I couldn’t control it properly and continued descending.
「Dammit!」(Mark)
『What’s wrong? Control your mana!』(Folnir)
I turned my face and saw the folnir descending next to me, matching my falling speed.
「I know but the wind is interrupting! It’s too strong!」(Mark)
『What are you talking about? Of course, the wind at this altitude is strong.』(Folnir)
「I’ve never flown this high!」(Mark)
『Neither had my child when I trained him years ago. If you can’t survive this easy challenge, you can’t be a full-fledged folnir that can fly freely in the sky.』(Folnir)
「But I’m not a folnir!」(Mark)
『Ah… Right.』(Folnir)
Oi, oi! What’s with that reaction!?
Have this bird completely forgotten that I’m a human!?
Are you kidding me!?
『Although you’re a human, you have the potential to be able to fly like us. The current lord of the Walltrail Family, Tryon, spoke highly of you. You seemed to be his favorite. He said I would like you. That’s why I came to see you. He also said that if I gave you a test, you would definitely overcome it.』(Folnir)
Wait… What!?
So it’s that man’s fault I’m skydiving without a parachute right now!?
I do still think that he’s a good feudal lord and he helped me many times, but, damn! I don’t think I can ever get along with him!
First Celine, then Tryon, and lastly this folnir. Why do people think too highly of me?
I’m aware that I have a better talent for magic than other people, but it’s strange that I have to risk my life every time because of it.
No, no. It’s not the time to complain. I’m still rapidly approaching the ground. I need to do something.
At times like this, I have to calm down.
First, deep breath…
「Hmmpp…!」(Mark)
I can’t even do it properly…
It was hard to take a deep breath because of the low air pressure but I managed to calm myself down.
Now, it’s time to think.
To be able to fly with Levitation Magic, first, I have to wrap my body with wind-attributed mana, and then control it to fly.
The problem is that I can’t control my mana because of this annoying wind. The wind is so strong.
In that case… Perhaps I should increase my mana output. If I boost the power of my wind-attributed mana, it might be able to endure the wind.
Alright. I should try it…
I began to concentrate and gradually increased the output of my mana. The wind-attributed mana enveloping my body then became stronger and stronger to the point it became powerful enough to endure the wind.
However…
「Waaa! Wawawaaa!!」(Mark)
The mana output was too much. It became uncontrollable.
As a result, my body was moving wildly in random directions like an unstable kite.
Realizing it wasn’t working, I immediately returned my mana output to its original amount.
「Ugh… I feel like I’m gonna throw up…」(Mark)
『Mark, that’s not how you do it. Increasing your mana output won’t work. No matter how genius you are, you will have a hard time controlling that much mana.』(Folnir)
「How do you do it, then? Can you at least give me some hints?」(Mark)
『Listen. Don’t be controlled by the wind. You are the one who is supposed to control it, not the other way around.』(Folnir)
「Control the wind?」(Mark)
『That’s right. Before you control your mana, you should control the wind first, or else it will keep interrupting your mana.』(Folnir)
Ah, I see. I’m not supposed to fight back this annoying wind, but to control it.
I understand the folnir’s point, but… How can I do that?
『Feel the wind, Mark. Feel it. Nature is magnificent. Everything in this world has mana. Including the wind.』(Folnir)
「…Aa!」(Mark)
That’s right! I remember Nicola said a similar thing when I practiced making an earth wall with earth magic for the first time a long time ago.
At that time, I had just learned earth magic and was not able to use it well, so I followed her advice. She told me to utilize the mana in the soil as well, not just use my own mana to make a wall.
By doing so, I managed to make an earth wall with less mana and much faster than normal.
I’ve gotten used to it, so whenever I use earth magic to make walls or buildings, I will unconsciously utilize the mana in the ground as well. It became like a muscle memory, so I’ve never really thought about it.
I wonder if I can do the same thing with the wind.
Wind magic is not my forte, but I will keep falling if I don’t try it.
I closed my eyes and spread my limbs, trying to feel the wind. As the strong wind hit my body, I concentrated and tried as hard as I could to grasp the presence of mana in it.
「Feel the wind… Feel the mana in it… Focus…」(Mark)
The more I focused, the more I could feel the faint presence of mana in the wind.
Somehow I could tell that the quality of the mana was a bit different from the wind-attributed mana I created from my body.
It seems that this slight difference is one of the reasons why the wind kept interrupting my wind-attributed mana.
Alright. Now I know how to fix the problem.
I slowly changed the quality of my wind-attributed mana to match the mana in the wind and started mixing them together. They eventually became one and transformed into an invisible armor of wind-attributed mana that enveloped my entire body.
As a result, I could no longer feel the disturbance from the wind. It seems that I’ve nailed it.
Nice. So far so good. The next step is to control it.
With my eyes still closed, I imagined myself soaring in the sky at my will and strongly thought of one word…
“Fly!”
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