Chapter 58
"Boss! Boss is awake, nya!"
Marshall slowly opened his eyes and found himself lying inside Porlyusica’s house—a place he hadn’t visited in quite a while.
’Why am I here?’
The last thing he remembered was...
’Oh no.’
’OH NO!’
’Please tell me I didn’t just publicly humiliate myself!’
Marshall shot upright in alarm, only to discover a crowd gathered around his bed.
Cana, Erza, Mira, Levy, Wendy...
Even Makarov and Porlyusica were there!
His heart began pounding. Then he sensed that something else was wrong and asked in confusion.
"What... happened to me?"
"Marshall! You’re finally awake!"
Cana’s eyes were red as she wrapped both arms around him.
Her body trembled slightly while she explained,
"You suddenly collapsed and wouldn’t wake up no matter what we tried! If Virgo hadn’t carried you back to the guild, we wouldn’t even have known where you were..."
Porlyusica stepped forward and calmly explained the situation.
"You’re suffering from severe magical saturation. Your body is constantly absorbing magic power from the surrounding environment, but your internal capacity is limited. Any magic power you can’t contain continues circulating through your body and placing pressure on it."
She frowned.
"If you didn’t have that spell continuously consuming magic power, you might not have woken up at all."
"Oh, so that’s what happened. It must be an effect of Meditation. I’ll just turn it off—uh..."
Marshall’s face suddenly went pale.
He couldn’t control the Meditation skill anymore.
It continued operating passively no matter what he did.
He could feel magic power pouring into his body from the surroundings, but there was nowhere for it to go.
The excess energy kept surging through him, leaving even his skin prickling with pain.
"I... don’t think I can stop it."
"We drained your magic power several times while you were unconscious," Porlyusica said. "But you appear to possess some unusual ability to absorb energy from light. Your reserves filled again almost immediately."
She crossed her arms.
"Now that you’re awake, try actively consuming the excess."
"O-Okay! The spell that consumes the most is Crush Mag—"
"You idiot! Are you trying to demolish my house?!"
"Ahem. Sorry!"
Marshall hurriedly changed spells.
"Metal-Make: Gundam Creation!"
Molding Magic was a form of creation magic, and producing physical constructs required enormous amounts of energy.
Among its various branches, Metal-Make was especially expensive.
That was why Marshall rarely used it.
He clapped his hands together.
Outside the house, a steel giant more than ten meters tall rapidly took shape.
A vast amount of magic power poured out of him, and the swollen pressure inside his body finally eased a little.
Only then did Marshall have time to inspect his changed attributes.
[Magic Power: 1,000↓↑/5,350]
The number representing his current magic power was constantly rising and falling.
His recovery speed was terrifyingly fast.
More importantly, his maximum had suddenly exceeded five thousand!
Was this some kind of joke?!
"How long was I unconscious?"
"Three days," Cana answered.
He had slept for that long?
That meant Meditation had continued raising his maximum magic power throughout the entire period.
No wonder his body hurt.
His reserves had grown by nearly two thousand in only three days. It was astonishing that his small body had endured the strain at all.
Marshall finally felt a lingering sense of fear.
He had expected a Level Four skill to be powerful, but this was ridiculous.
And why did all his Level Four skills insist on activating themselves?!
Telepathy Magic had done the same thing, and now Meditation had joined it.
None of them listened to him.
He had only recently discovered a few methods of controlling his Telepathy, and now Meditation had become a new problem.
Did magic in this world have lives of its own?
Marshall’s head hurt just thinking about it.
Makarov reluctantly pulled his interested gaze away from the steel giant outside and approached the bed.
"Marshall, how do you feel now?"
"Not too bad. My magic power simply recovers much faster than before."
Marshall considered it for a moment.
"That isn’t really a bad thing, is it? As long as I keep consuming magic power and maintain a balance between income and expenditure, I should be fine."
Although he temporarily couldn’t control Meditation, it was clearly another form of extraordinary talent.
The benefits far outweighed the disadvantages, so Marshall quickly stopped worrying about it.
"That’s good."
Makarov studied him seriously.
"Maintaining Meditation automatically is an extremely advanced magical technique. Even I haven’t completely mastered it, yet you appear to have awakened the ability by accident."
He sighed.
"Your talent truly is frightening."
"However, this is also a considerable burden for you. It isn’t an ability someone at your current stage should possess."
Makarov raised one finger.
"It isn’t necessarily harmful, but you must learn how to control it. Understood?"
"Yes, Master."
"When Gildarts returns, ask him for advice. He can do something similar."
"Understood!"
The amount of magic power drawn in by Level Four Meditation was excessive for Marshall, but it was probably perfectly suited to Mages with enormous reserves.
Someone like Gildarts, for example.
Compared with the ocean of magic power inside him, Marshall’s current reserves were barely a drop.
"There’s one more thing," Makarov continued. "You need to strengthen your body."
"Your magic power seems to have entered a rapid-growth phase earlier than expected. As it continues expanding, it will place increasing pressure on your body."
"If your physique can’t keep pace with your magic power, you may develop permanent health problems."
After thinking for a moment, Makarov added,
"You could also study Transformation Magic more deeply. The Giant Magic I taught you is one branch of it."
"Transformation Magic could help solve your current problem. It’s especially useful for people who possess enormous amounts of magic power with nowhere to use it."
[Giant Magic LV1 → Transformation Magic LV1: 3.1%]
"Uh... I’ll try it when I have the opportunity."
Marshall scratched his head.
He already possessed more magic than he had time to study.
For now, he preferred focusing on Body-Conditioning Magic and raising it to Level Three.
His magic power was clearly no longer a problem. Even if he ignored it entirely, Meditation would continue driving it upward.
His physical condition was the part that remained far behind.
Had he finally begun walking the true path of a Fairy Tail Mage?
"All right, the brat is fine now!" Porlyusica snapped. "Every one of you, get out of my house!"
Her expression changed instantly as she began driving everyone toward the door.
Then she pointed at Wendy.
"The blue-haired girl stays. Yes, I mean you."
"Huh?"
Wendy froze, caught between nervousness and excitement, before turning toward Marshall.
"Master Porlyusica, why do you want Wendy to stay?"
"Who are you calling your master, you lazy little brat who abandons everything halfway through?!"
"Hehe~"
Porlyusica struck Marshall lightly on the head and sighed.
"A friend named Grandeeney entrusted me with something. She asked me to give it to the girl who uses Sky Dragon Slayer Magic."
She looked toward Wendy.
"That girl is you, isn’t it?"
"Grandeeney?!"
Wendy’s eyes widened.
"Really?! I knew it! I could feel Grandeeney’s presence coming from you! I wasn’t imagining it!"
After speaking with Natsu, Wendy had discovered that both of their dragon parents had vanished on exactly the same day.
Beyond that, neither of them had learned anything.
Wendy had remained depressed for quite some time, never expecting to hear news of Grandeeney here.
Wendy’s situation was wonderful.
Marshall’s, however, seemed increasingly dangerous.
He looked at the ring of girls surrounding him in ominous silence and felt his scalp go numb.
Rather than worrying about Wendy, perhaps he should worry about himself.
’Damn System!’
What kind of worthless cheat knocked its owner unconscious during an upgrade?
That was horribly user-unfriendly!
Fortunately, it seemed his embarrassing little "experiment" with Virgo had remained secret...
’Thank goodness.’
Marshall could endure being beaten to dust, but he refused to let his reputation die with him!
He had made his decision.
From now on, he would never lend Virgo’s key to anyone else.
He would remain the master of the Maiden’s Gate forever!
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