Wow, couldn’t believe it’d been half a year already since I transmigrated. As I suspected, I had a much better knack for ranged combat than I do melee. I’d also become a much more capable outdoorsman. And thanks to my “superpower” of <<Perfect Recall>>, I had fully committed to memory the “Poisoned- Do NOT eat” list and the “OK to eat” list. And I’d improved so much while staying under the radar- I didn’t make friends (Roshan is an exception), I didn’t try to stand out, and I didn't make trouble. Things were scary at first, but I finally felt like I had my legs under me.

I had a much deeper understanding of my new home world after chatting with Roshan and cross-checking these facts with other sources. For example, I surmised that the Holy Artorian Empire had an agrarian-based economy, with an emerging artisan and service industry in cities. Its unit of currency is the crown. One copper coin is worth 1 crown. One silver coin is worth 100 crowns. One gold coin is worth 10000 crowns. Typical dinners cost 5-10 crowns; a night at an inn cost 30-50 crowns; and a basic elemental mana crystal cost 300-500 crowns.

Sadly, I also saw the medieval attitudes and norms in this society. The social and economical classes were heavily stratified, and people rarely got to go from rags to riches. The pre-draft “tournament” was one of many examples where the system favored the powerful at the expense of the weak. The mage system was another- only nobles could afford concubines with high innate mana to “guarantee” their children’s mana talent.

These folks have a very chauvinistic culture that valued power in men and silence in women. Women were discouraged from being anything other than maids, tutors, or housewives. Polygamy was widespread, and practically required for men with the cashflow to support it. In my opinion, chaining down half of your population like this was not an efficient way to run a society, but hey, not my world. However, the polygamy part I could definitely get behind (as long as it was consensual and non-abusive for all parties involved).

The Empire only had one officially recognized religion- the Imperial Pantheon. Apparently, they worshiped all the previous (ie: dead) emperors as a pantheon of deities. Psh, and I thought the Founding Father worshiping in America was bad. I wasn’t very religious in my previous life, and after I got murdered knowing that justice would never come, I got even less religious. But hey, these guys might be for realsies, since somebody was able to successfully transmigrate me for some reason.

Overall, I found the Empire to be a rigid society that prioritized order and orthodoxy above all else. There was little room for innovation and creative chaos. The guys in charge would never allow some nobody like me to shake things up. Hell, I might even get burned at the stake by these savages if I got careless with my experiments. Not that it’d stop me from trying to obtain the firepower required to achieve my dream of building a large family from a large harem.

OK, Rummy, focus. One step at a time! Focus on the super-important magic training today!

My fellow draftees and I lined up on the castle training ground, with Roshan in front of me. Centurion Keith walked up to the stage, followed by an adjutant carrying a large wooden box in his hands.

The adjutant yelled, “Attention!” The entire draftee squad snapped to and saluted in unison.

“At ease, trainees!” Keith shouts. “You maggots did well these past 3 moons. Hell, I can almost refer to you as soldiers and not have to vomit afterwards! But your training is not finished yet!” Keith pointed to the west. “Out there in the Wilds, swords and bows alone won’t be enough. You need more!” He then opened the wooden box and picked up a red crystal the size of a thumb.

“You need magic.” He triumphantly proclaimed.

Finally, a chance to study how magic works in this world! I’ve been looking forward to this moment ever since that snotty brat launched my ass into that rum cart with magically infused superstrength.

Keith held the mana crystal tightly in his left hand. Then he chanted, “Divine Majesties, please grant me the power to burn. <<Torch>>!” His right hand suddenly glowed, then ignited. A modest flame coated Keith’s right hand, but never actually burning him. He curled his hands into a fist, and smashed it into a wooden target. The target violently broke into smaller burning pieces as tiny embers slowly settled onto the stage.

Whoa! That was awesome!!! No, not the cringey chant or demonstration itself- it was a simple fire elemental damage tacked onto his physical attack. I doubt a Beginner-level spell like that could one-shot the mana-beasts of the Wild. I’m thinking about using this as a magic analog to a blowtorch or a way to heat ores and metals for smelting and casting. Making my own firearms didn’t sound like such an expensive pipedream anymore. This was huge!

Keith continued. “This is the Beginner-level fire elemental spell, <<Torch>>. If you focus with a mana crystal in hand, you can imagine a place to set fire, and that very place will ignite! And as long as you maintain vision and concentration, you can keep the fire going. Most Rangers would cast the spell on their swords, spear, or arrows to strengthen their attacks.”

He put the mana crystal back in the case. “However, these mana crystals have drawbacks. First, you have to maintain contact with the crystal during the casting. If you get scared and fumble it while a bear is charging at you, the casting fails! Second, every spell you cast shaves a little bit off of the crystal.” Keith then holds up a tiny pebble. ”This is called ‘dust’. When the mana crystal gets small enough, it’ll stop working. At that point, channeling mana to it would ignite it and cause an elemental explosion. So stop casting spells and start hunting for a replacement!”

Everyone nodded as they absorbed this piece of crucial info. Keith announced. “Alright, time for some practical training! While real Rangers could activate the spell without chanting, I want you newbies to chant. Without it, your spells will likely be greatly weakened due to your lack of experience with mana.”

A couple of hands raised up in the crowd. Keith ignored them and added, “And don’t worry, you won’t end up burning down the forest if you use this spell in the Wild. The plants here are rich in mana and therefore resistant to these elemental spells. A Beginner-level spell isn’t gonna be enough to start a fire.”

The draftees were visibly elated by this. Some of them even jumped up and down in excitement.

Uh… you guys missed the key implication: the beasts in the forest are probably also rich in mana, so adding a little heat to your stabby-stabs isn’t the game-breaker y’all think it is… If anything, you’re doing the beast a favor by cauterizing and disinfecting the wound.

Keith followed this up by demonstrating the beginner-level spells <<Frostbite>>, <<Air Blast>>, and <<Reinforce>> for the elements ice, air, and earth, respectively. He also mentioned that there are 4 “Higher Elements” (ie: Life, Force, Time, and Space) and that the mana crystals for them were so insanely rare and expensive that only nobles and Knights own them. In addition, with sufficient mana talent and a bigger mana crystal, you could cast an Adept-level spell for each element. However, all of that seemed out of reach for now. I should focus on what’s available to me here and now.

Out of the 4 spells, <<Air Blast>> seemed to be the most combat-capable one, aside from the fact that I have an affinity to the element. By adding an extra oomph on my loosed arrows, I could make my ranged attacks penetrate harder and more accurately. I supposed <<Reinforce>> could be used to strengthen my crappy standard-issue spear for melee combat. And <<Frostbite>> could be helpful in slowing down a prey on the run. But realistically, if a mana-beast ever got within melee range, I’d be fucked 6 ways from Sunday. And what mana-beast was gonna run from me?

The long-term strategic value of <<Torch>> (and to a lesser extent, <<Air Blast>>) was game-changing. Manufacturing a modern firearm under the radar seems way more feasible now. Without those spells, I just didn’t see how I could afford the firewood/coal/coke required to start and keep a furnace going; or to be able to buy that much stuff without people asking questions. I’d still need to find a way to source a lot of raw materials- iron ores for starters, but I saw a viable path forward.

But back to the training session. Since I was only allowed to try 1 mana crystal, I picked the air elemental mana crystal for obvious reasons. I grabbed a transparent mana crystal from the box and started practicing. I chanted the cringey phrase while visualizing a blast of air. Strangely, I felt a surge of energy from my body to the crystal, then from the crystal to the target dummy.

“<<Air Blast>>”

A small blast of air similar to Keith’s hit the target dummy. Oh shit! It freaking works!

Yer a wizard, Rummy~

But this also makes me wonder, “Since I don’t believe or worship these so-called gods, why would it still work?” So for my next attempt, I quietly chanted, “Oh Holy Harem, please give me the power of air. <<Air Blast>>!”

And lo and behold, the same <<Air Blast>> erupted out of nowhere and toward the test dummy.

So the cringey chant to the gods was bullshit. What a surprise. Now let’s try it without chanting. After all, only braindead anime MCs scream out their attacks during live combat. To compensate for the expected drop in output that Keith warned me about, I focused on the chant while visualizing about launching a big bubble of air towards the target. I gripped the mana crystal in my hand and shouted, “<<Air Blast>>!”

*BOOM!*

A large bubble of air shot through the air, instantly blasting through the target dummy and leaving only the bottom half still standing. The sonic boom that followed scared the shit outta me. I immediately felt a weakness in my legs, as if something suddenly sapped all of my strength. All of the draftees stopped their practices and looked at me. Well, shit. So much for staying under the radar.

Keith pointed at me and yelled, “You, trainee, get over here!”

[mark_cuban_fuck.gif]

***

“What’s your name, maggot?” Keith asked me in a commanding tone.

“Rummy, ser.”

“Funny name. Now, tell me why did you turn my training dummy into a pile of firewood?”

“It was an accident, ser. Didn’t even know I could do that.”

He looked at his aide, and the man scurried over with a leather book in his arms. Keith took the book, looked at it, and chuckled out loud.

“Street beggar with a 6 star talent. Hah! You don’t see that everyday.“ He chuckled to himself and handed the book back to his aide and turned around. Before he walked away, he said, “You’ve got real talent, boy. Talent like that doesn't grow on trees. Stay with the Rangers and you just might make something of yourself.”

The aide followed Keith back to his post, but not before yelling, “Alright, show’s over. Get back to practice!”

“Yo Roshan, you have any idea what Keith is talking about?” I sincerely hope it’s not what I think it is- that I just became the #1 recruit target for every gang and faction out here in this dump.

Even the ever-cheerful Roshan gave me a worried look. “The good news is that you are very talented!”

“And the bad news?”

“That everybody now knows about it. Including gangs like the Yellow Shirts…”

“The Yellow Shirts?”

“Yeah, they wear yellow shirts and armbands, so that’s what everyone calls them. But they hate being called that. They insist on a really fancy-shmancy name for their gang. I’ve seen them get into fights all the time- they’re nothing but trouble...” Great, I’ve attracted the attention of the arrogant assholes. These types of people historically have tough times taking “no” for an answer.

Sigh, it looked like I might’ve triggered a plot event of my isekai journey. Overall, I’d say the plan to stay under the proverbial radar was going rather poorly. Dammit, I could feel a headache coming on…