I Am Not Goblin Slayer
Chapter 54: Familiar Feeling

Gauss focused intently on sensing the “protection” lost by the Mage Armor this time, gaining deeper understanding in his heart.  

This loss was much greater than the first time.  

The difference between the two was that the first time, he had only cautiously dragged his finger a very short distance, but this time he had dragged about ten centimeters across the back of his hand with much greater force.  

Even with the same weapon, different ranges and force of impact would cause varying degrees of armor loss.  

So, it was impossible to simply quantify the protection of Mage Armor by how many attacks it could withstand.  

It still had to be judged based on personal feeling and experience.  

Gauss continued testing for a while longer.  

Until he felt the effect of Mage Armor had grown very faint, he carefully placed the blade back on his finger.  

Applying slight force.  

the protective force field of the Mage Armor surrounding him shattered explosively!  

Gauss quickly lifted the blade to avoid cutting himself.  

“Mage Armor shattered...”  

Sensing the surrounding magical fluctuations disappearing, Gauss nodded.  

So when the Mage Armor’s effect was weak, it couldn’t be relied on to absorb damage because there was basically no strong protective effect.  

If necessary, he could dispel the spell and cast a fresh layer of Mage Armor again.  

After all, enemies wouldn’t stop their blades just because they sensed the Mage Armor shattering.  

“Mage Armor proficiency +1”  

“Level 1 Circle Mage Armor (2/10)”  

Seeing the prompt pop up, Gauss raised an eyebrow.  

So not only does a successful first cast grant proficiency, but subsequent testing and damage taken also increase proficiency?  

It seemed that in the future, practice would require not only successful casting but also continuous training through receiving hits and damage.  

Gauss was a little surprised to see the proficiency on the panel jump.  

Mage Hand and Magic Missile did not provide this kind of “process-based” proficiency accumulation.  

It looked like this spell would improve quickly.  

And unlike Magic Missile, Mage Armor could be practiced anytime, even inside a town.  

He had come out specifically today out of caution, considering it was the first time practicing this spell, so choosing an open, deserted area felt safer.  

But now it seemed this spell’s practice wouldn’t cause any damage to the surroundings, so it basically had no requirements for the practice location.  

Thinking of this, Gauss’s mood brightened quite a bit.  

Although Mage Armor had started later, it didn’t look too difficult to practice.  

Then, he would continue practicing!  

His internal magical power was still more than half full.  

It was enough for him to keep practicing, and Gauss had no intention of resting.  

When doing something, you must keep the momentum going.  

Riding the wave of the spellcasting feeling and drive he just found, he pushed proficiency forward in one go.  

With the first experience, Gauss tried several more times; the bone staff surged with magic and successfully released a second Mage Armor.  

The following operations followed the same process as the first time.  

He continued testing various damage types, including but not limited to dagger, rapier, fist attacks, wrestling falls, and other drop damage.  

The final conclusion was that various physical attacks could all be protected against by Mage Armor before it shattered.  

He just wasn’t sure about its ability to withstand magical attacks.  

That part, he couldn’t test for now.  

Although Mage Hand was a magical effect, its attack method was still physical in nature.  

As for Magic Missile, it was impossible to test.  

First, objectively, he couldn’t target the spellcasting at himself, so the action itself was unfeasible.  

Second, Magic Missile seemed a bit dangerous.  

His Mage Armor had only just begun practice; even if he had a way to test with Magic Missile, he didn’t intend to do so for now.  

If his unskilled Mage Armor failed to withstand Magic Missile, he’d end up dying by his own hand as a spellcaster.  

That would be far too frustrating.  

...  

When busy, time always passed quickly.  

Before he knew it, several days had passed.  

“Level 1 Circle Mage Armor lv2 (8/20)”  

Gauss glanced at the Mage Armor proficiency, then looked at the bald middle-aged man beside him.  

“Let’s end today’s practice here.”  

“This is today’s payment.”  

Gauss took out several copper coins and handed them to the bald middle-aged man.  

Watching him repeatedly thank him and then hurry away, Gauss couldn’t help but shake his head.  

On the first day, he had pushed Mage Armor proficiency to lv1 (10/10), successfully entering lv2.  

Although skipping the beginner learning phase usually allowed his spells to improve quickly at lv1, Mage Armor’s speed was undoubtedly the fastest so far.  

This Level 1 spell was even slightly faster in practice speed than Mage Hand, which was a level 0 cantrip.  

There were multiple reasons: his overall spellcasting quality had been steadily improving over time, and his magical power’s strength and quantity had increased quite a lot.  

From Gauss’s feeling, level 1 proficiency meant barely able to cast but not very skilled, unable to guarantee success every time.  

Level 2 proficiency meant that when focused and free from external interference, he could basically maintain a high success rate. The higher the proficiency, the stronger the resistance to interference.  

As for level 3 proficiency, he didn’t know yet.  

His other two spells’ proficiencies were Mage Hand lv2 (18/20) and Magic Missile lv2 (10/20).  

After Mage Armor proficiency reached lv2, Gauss specifically hired a laborer to assist with training, paying only a few copper coins per day.  

He found that being attacked by someone else was much more effective for training Mage Armor than attacking himself.  

This was also why Mage Armor proficiency continued to grow quickly after reaching lv2.  

“Unfortunately, the effect is gradually weakening.”  

After a full day of practice today, though most of the time was spent recovering magical power, proficiency only reached lv2 (8/20).  

Gauss actually had a vague suspicion about this.  

He recalled the knowledge about professionals introduced by Grom, the blacksmith shop owner.  

The most important point was that Rank was a rule product formed by the world; to follow a professional path, one must constantly and humbly practice the corresponding road.  

Professionals were like this, so as their prerequisite stage, professional apprentices probably experienced a similar influence.  

Thus, self-attack training, which was safest, had the lowest efficiency. Hiring an ordinary person who obeyed him but posed no real threat to his life to attack him was somewhat better.  

Only real combat training would yield the best skill training results.  

Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so difficult for ordinary people to become professionals.  

Even if others didn’t have a permanent adventurer’s manual panel like him, if mechanical training alone could steadily improve experience, despite ups and downs, it would still accumulate over time.  

Unfortunately, reality was that most apprentices found it hard to advance to professionals.  

A world full of malicious rules.  

To become strong, did one have to constantly put oneself in danger?  

Or was this invisible rule guiding living beings to fight and slaughter each other?  

Gauss put down his staff and looked up at the sky. For some reason, a familiar feeling quietly welled up inside him.  

No one responded to his inexplicable emotion.  

After staring for a long time, he withdrew his gaze.  

“If that’s the case, I can only keep moving forward.”  

“Next target: the fifth monster encyclopedia entry.”