Struck by Ye Chui's 【Lightning】 spell, Quinn crashed with a great clatter into the shelving beside him. The shelves toppled, and the trinkets displayed on them went tumbling to the floor with a clatter and a bang; his longsword was knocked flying too and stuck fast in the wall. Quinn, sprawled in the wreckage, kept groaning. The padded cloth armor over his chest was scorched black and was still smoking with a certain flair. He didn't seem to have taken a fatal wound, but there was no way he was standing up again anytime soon.
Inside Anthony's Magic Cottage, everyone else was once again staring, dumbstruck.
【Lightning】 was the most basic first-rank spell, with limited destructive power—and yet Ye Chui had just used it to blast Quinn, a rank-two novice swordsman, clean off his feet... That could only mean Ye Chui had reached a state of complete mastery over 【Lightning】.
Only a spell template with not the slightest error in it could draw out a spell's full power. That was common knowledge. It was just that... a moment ago Ye Chui clearly hadn't been able to cast 【Lightning】 at all!
"An accident... it must be an accident..." Boss Busca finally snapped out of his daze and jabbed a finger at Ye Chui. "His casting that spell just now was nothing but a fluke! I've done my research—this kid may be a mage, but he's hopeless with attack spells. Locke, attack him, quick! He can't cast another one..."
"Lightning!" Ye Chui leveled his wand at Busca and gave it a light flick.
Zzzzt—
A silver-white bolt of lightning blasted straight at Busca. Ye Chui held nothing back; he felt an indescribable disgust for the man and was of a mind to teach this short, fat, greedy merchant a proper lesson.
But just as the lightning reached Busca, there was a flash of white light, and a wall of light like a pane of glass appeared before him. Then, with a crack, the wall shattered into fragments.
Shattered along with it was a crystal pendant hanging at Busca's chest.
Clearly some kind of defensive item on Busca had been triggered and blocked Ye Chui's attack, but stray arcs of electricity still crawled over him, making his curly red hair stand straight up, adding several charred patches to his face, and wringing a series of agonized howls from his mouth.
Terror was written all over his face. "This... your attack actually shattered the 'Crystal Guard' charm I paid thirty silver coins for... and you can cast that spell proficiently, too... this... this..."
Ye Chui's body swayed almost imperceptibly. He frowned, then pulled his gaze away from Busca and looked, with a smile, at the big man holding a longsword and squaring off against Debbie—he now knew the man's name was Locke.
Locke flinched as Ye Chui's eyes fell on him, and instinctively gripped his greatsword two-handed and held it up in front of himself, his face full of terror. "As a swordsman, I will absolutely never fear your magic..."
"Before you talk, do me a favor and stop trembling," Ye Chui said with a cold sneer. He tapped his wand toward Quinn, who lay groaning on the floor. "I'll give you one chance: take your companion and get lost, or else... heh!"
Seeing that Ye Chui had no wish to fight, Locke was instantly overjoyed. Ye Chui was a rank-two mage and he was a rank-two swordsman; their class rank was the same, but a mage's attacks were endlessly varied, and most importantly they could strike from range.
Master a few attack spells and a mage was basically invincible in the early stages of any class. Locke was nothing but a lowly rank-two swordsman; the only reason he hadn't been afraid of Ye Chui before was that he knew Ye Chui hadn't mastered a single attack spell and only knew harmless, everyday household spells.
But now he knew Ye Chui had 【Lightning】 completely down, and against that kind of spell attack he had no way to defend himself.
Keeping a wary eye on Ye Chui and Debbie, Locke helped up his companion Quinn, half his body still numb, from the floor.
Then he looked at Busca.
Busca cut a rather comical figure now, his hair a tangled mess, his face smeared black and gray in patches. He fixed his eyes on Ye Chui and said coldly, "I won't let this go. In three days my son comes back from the City Lord's estate—he's a rank-four intermediate swordsman—and I'll have him come down here and flatten your Magic Cottage!"
"Believe me, or should I char you to a crisp right now?" Ye Chui waved his wand and said to Busca with a cold sneer.
Busca jumped in fright and scurried out of the shop double-quick.
Locke, propping Quinn up, hurried out after him.
Unwilling to let it go, Debbie brandished her greatsword and made to chase them down. "Hammerhead, don't let them get away! I haven't used my ultimate move yet—watch my Great—"
"Hold on a moment." Ye Chui hurriedly caught Debbie by the shoulder. "Let's just let it slide this time..."
"No way! Yours truly can't swallow this!" Debbie said with a fierce look on her face, both hands hoisting that greatsword that was taller than she was.
A weak smile appeared on Ye Chui's face, and he tilted sideways and collapsed. "Attack spells really do drain your magic..."
In his current state, he could fully cast 【Lightning】 at most twice, and once he was done, every drop of his magic power would be spent. The reason Ye Chui had put on such a show of bravado for Busca just now, instead of pressing the advantage, was that he'd already realized he was at the end of his rope and could keel over at any moment.
Under normal conditions, Ye Chui could actually cast 【Lightning】 three times without passing out afterward. But this was his first time in this body, and on top of that he'd already had four failed spell casts earlier—failed or not, a cast still burned spiritual power—so his spiritual power was now utterly drained, which was why he was about to pass out.
As he lost consciousness, Ye Chui used the last shred of awareness he had left to fall, without a moment's hesitation, toward Debbie, the greatsword girl.
If he was going to faint, he was going to faint onto the girl.
That was the last thought in his mind.
Mmm... shame about the washboard.
When he opened his eyes again, Ye Chui found himself lying in a bed. His head still felt a little swollen, but the dizziness that came from draining his spiritual power to nothing was gone. He stared blankly at the wooden ceiling, turning over in his mind the bizarre things that had happened to him: as a hacker he had died on the spot and been reborn into this world as Hammerhead, becoming a mage—and picking up a greatsword-swinging little junior sister into the bargain...
It would have been nice if this were just a dream, but when Ye Chui turned his head and saw Debbie asleep, slumped over the edge of the sickbed, he knew it wasn't. Every bit of it was real.
So it seemed that after he'd spent all his spiritual power and passed out, Debbie had carried him onto the bed. Considering how well the girl could swing a greatsword, Ye Chui had not the slightest doubt that this was true.
He sat up carefully from the bed, but even so he woke Debbie, who had been sleeping slumped over.
"Hammerhead, you're awake?" Debbie said, her face lighting up, rubbing her eyes with both hands. Honestly, if the girl weren't carrying a greatsword bigger than she was, she'd be quite pretty and cute, very endearing.
"Yeah, my spiritual power's recovered," Ye Chui said with a smile.
"You're really not hurt at all anymore?" Debbie pressed, her face full of concern.
Ye Chui smiled. "That's right, I'm fully recovered."
"Do you need to rest a bit longer?" Debbie asked, still full of concern.
"No need, I'm completely recovered," Ye Chui said. My little junior sister really does care about me.
He was just basking in how sweet it felt when he saw Debbie take a deep, deep breath and, her smiling face blooming like a flower, go on: "Since you're completely fine now, what are you still lying there for? Go make lunch! I'm about to starve to death."
Ye Chui: "..."
I just went back and revised the earlier chapters a bit and added a prologue—it feels like it has more flavor this way. If you have time, do give it a reread; it should be even more fun~~~~~ New book starting out, please recommend and bookmark~~~