Chapter 2 - Groundwork
Mercedes had no combat instructor. Her mother and her elderly maid were vampires, but both of them had no combat skills. Therefore, she conducted her training in the nearby mountain without telling them.
There is no way I could ask them to teach me how to fight.
Even in my previous life, I had never experienced anything that could be called a real fight, so it can be said that I have no combat experience at all.
For Mercedes, who vowed to become strong in this world, this was not a trivial matter.
This is not the peaceful Japan of Earth. I have never been to a town before, but from the information I have picked up from books and such, I can at least guess that this is a world where killing and being killed is the norm.
This is a matter of life and death. I want power, but I don’t even know where to start. Luckily, I have the knowledge from my previous life.
The countless stories sleeping inside me.... are nothing more than fiction, unrealistic stories born from people's delusions and imaginations. But if you say that, this world is far too much like a fictional one.
Thus, Mercedes decided to try out various fictional training methods from her knowledge.
I know it makes no sense. To put it bluntly, it seems ridiculous or just plain stupid. I won't be able to deny it if people think that I'm a pathetic person who confuses reality with fantasy. However, I don't have anything else to rely on. I also don't intend to stagnate just because the thing I rely on seems ridiculous. I will conclude that it was useless only after I've actually tried it.
I will keep moving forward. That's what I have decided in this life.
*****
~Year One~
Mercedes started with exercising while using weights. Every night, she would wake up early and trained until morning. The main time of activity of vampires was at night. It was the opposite of when she was a human.
In my previous life, I would wake up around seven in the morning and go to bed around twelve at night, but it's different now. I wake up around seven at night and goes to bed around twelve in the afternoon.
In my previous life, my snack time was three in the afternoon, but now as a vampire, my snack time is three in the morning. I only got fruits as snack sometimes, but it can't be helped because we are poor.
In any case, because of this difference in activity times, I conduct my training in the middle of night. From the outside, it may look like a bit of horror, but once you get used to it, the strange feeling mysteriously disappears.
Mercedes, who no longer questioned the idea of being active at night, attached stones to her limbs and made them larger as she became accustomed to their weight. She continued to repeat this process until she could run to the top of the mountain while carrying a boulder on her back.
Using her unrefined and amateurish martial arts techniques that she only had learned from reading books, Mercedes practiced her punches and kicks hundreds or even thousands of times every day. She also trained herself by kicking trees and then knocking down all the countless leaves falling from the trees on all sides before they hit the ground.
When Mercedes got to the point where doing over a thousand push-ups no longer posed a challenge, she switched to handstand push-up, and when that also no longer posed a challenge, she started doing it with one hand.... and eventually, she did it with only one finger.
I sometimes get injured because I'm too reckless, but most wounds heal by the next day. I guess that's what you'd expect from a vampire. This body can handle a lot of strain.
In addition to working hard training her body, Mercedes also read books at home, looking for anything that could be useful to her. Language, history, common sense, society, culture, and.... magic. She read all the books she could find and turned them into her own knowledge. Studying was not a hardship for Mercedes, who had both the flexible brain of a child and the understanding of an adult.
In any case, now is the time to start building up. Whatever things you can pile up, just pile them up. You won't know until later whether they're useful or useless. The more stable the foundation, the taller the blocks can be stacked. This is the time to build that foundation.
"Magic is made up of four basic attributes and four derivative attributes.... Anyone can use magic, but its power depends on one's talent...." (Mercedes)
While reading a book in the study, Mercedes tried to memorize every words written in it.
It seems that in this world, a truly fantastical power called magic actually exists. Or at least it should be, unless this book is actually a light novel type of entertainment in this world.
According to the book, there are four basic attributes of magic. These attributes are fire, water, earth, and wind. Pretty standard.
There are also attributes derived from them, which are light, ice, iron, and lightning. Fire becomes light when enhanced, water becomes ice when frozen, earth becomes iron when strengthened, and wind becomes lightning when mastered. These eight attributes seem to be all the magic in this world. There is no dark attribute or non-attribute magic.
Each individual can only learn up to four attributes. This is the same for ordinary people and geniuses. We have our first and second attribute, and when combined with the attributes derived from those, we have a total of four attributes. The book says that this is the limit for living beings.
"To bring out your talent of magic, you should meditate in a place that matches your attributes and sense the energy. To find out your attributes, you need to go to an appraisal center and get them checked.... I guess finding it on your own would be a matter of intuition." (Mercedes)
For now, I'll try meditating at my usual spot in the mountain. There's a spring nearby, and of course there's soil around. If it's water or earth attribute, I should be able to get something.
The wind is always blowing there too, so it's a perfect place. For fire attribute, should I make a campfire or something? Well, let's give it a try first. Nothing will happen if I don’t even try it.
~Year Two~
Mercedes turned six years old. Even though she meditated every day, she still had not awakened her magic power or anything. Like usual, she continued to train by subjecting herself to activities that even she found a little questionable. Then one day, Mercedes noticed that the wound on her arm from when she got caught on a tree branch during training, had healed completely.
"This would usually have taken a full day to heal before...." (Mercedes)
Mercedes' injury rate was not low. In fact, she got injured quite often, but the vampire's regenerative powers help her body to heal faster. However, this time, the speed at which her body healed, was clearly even faster than before.
"Vampire's regenerative power, huh...." (Mercedes)
Even in my previous life, there were many stories about vampires. Among those stories, there were vampires who would come back to life like nothing even after they were stabbed in the heart or beheaded.
Mercedes was far from being immortal. Although she had never tried it, she was certain that she would die if her head was chopped off.
When I hear the word ‘vampire’, I imagine them as immortal creature. However, in this world, vampires can die too. It’s safe to assume that we don’t have an undead-like immortality.
Suddenly, a certain idea crossed Mercedes' mind
Maybe if I keep getting injured, my body will get used to injuries and my regeneration speed will increase.
It was a really stupid idea. Basically, Mercedes thought, 'Okay, let's get injured some more.'. There were indeed cases where deliberately damaging the body made you stronger. The most well-known example was supercompensation in muscle training, that involved intentionally putting stress on the muscles, which caused repeated damage and regeneration of muscle fibers, and making them stronger. However, this would only be effective if you exercised and rested appropriately. It was definitely not something that should be put in the same category with such a silly thinking that injuries would make your body heal faster. Normally, one would stop here, but not Mercedes.
Let’s try it! I can regret it later.
Having come to this conclusion, Mercedes started to injure herself from that day on. Luckily, vampires seemed to have a high tolerance for pain, so it didn’t become such a big deal. Pain was a danger alarm from the body. Because vampire bodies have high regenerative powers, their alarms didn't go off easily.
~Year Three~
This world.... no, it seemed that vampire body was more idiot-friendly than one might think. Mercedes's self-inflicted injuries, which was just a random idea, had paid off in a big way. The more wounds she inflicted, the faster she healed, and the more resistant her body became. The healing speed of the same wounds would gradually increase, and if she inflicted a deeper wound, her body would learn to heal it faster. Nowadays, most wounds healed completely in less than a second.
I once overdid it and made a cut that went all the way to the bone, but it healed completely in about five seconds. However, it hurt so much that I don't want to do it again. And it seems like the time I spent meditating wasn't in vain.
When Mercedes meditated, she was able to sense the power of the planet she lives on and felt the breath of earth beneath her feet. It seemed that she had a compatibility with earth attribute.
Now that I know my attribute, the next step is to learn magic spells. However, from what I've learned from the books in the study, the earth attribute is indeed a miss. It's considered to be the most dull attribute, and is generally not seen as playing an active role. Making the earth rise, sending stones flying, making the ground collapse --- that's basically all the things earth-element magic can do. None of them are particularly flashy.
The books also said that its offensive capabilities are inferior compared to other attributes. But on the other hand, it's highly evaluated as an attribute suitable for support. For example, you can build a wall with rocks to protect your allies, or you can destroy the opponent's footing to create an opening.
Mercedes pondered as she read a book about magic.
Is there anything? An effective magic that makes full use of the power of the earth. For example.... that's right, what about gravity? This is also the power of the earth.... no, the power of the planet to be precise.
Or rather, I couldn't help but wondering why there was no magic to manipulate gravity. But if it doesn’t exist, I can just make one myself.
I don't think it's impossible. The magic spells that exist today must have been created by someone in the past. For example, there's a spell called Stone Edge in the book. It's basically a spell to send rocks flying to attack your opponent. I don't think that this usage or name existed from the beginning. There must have been someone who thought of it and popularized it. So, let’s create it, the gravity magic!
From that day, Mercedes started to train magic to manipulate gravity,
~Year Four~
Mercedes' physical abilities had reached an astonishing height. A single blow of her fist could shatter a boulder into pieces, and she could run through trees at the speed of the wind. Minor wounds healed instantly, and she could jump over even the tallest tree with ease. However, her greatest achievement was that she had successfully created the gravity magic.
You can accomplish anything if you try hard enough.
Every day, I meditated while feeling the power of the planet and imagining the gravity around me getting stronger. Nothing happened at first. However, by the third month, I felt a slight heaviness, and after six months, I felt a clear heaviness.
I continued doing this, and after a year, I was finally able to create a gravity field that was so strong that even I, the caster, couldn't move. I can only make a very small area heavier for now. However, it’s already a complete magic spell. That being the case, I guess it’s time to give it a name.
"Hmm.... Okay, let's call it Druck." (Mercedes)
It may sound a little too simple and straightforward, but since it's my first time naming a spell, something like this should be fine.
From the day it was completed, Mercedes had started using her original magic Druck (pressure) on herself while training.
A certain national hero had also grown stronger through gravity training, so this method must be very effective.
~Year Five~
Mercedes Grünewald was ten years old. This was where her story began.