2-4 Days Of Training And Tinkering

“All right. Let’s go to the dungeon (as a leisure trip).”

I don’t know why, but after learning a ton of powerful magic, I was getting ridiculously cocky—even though I’m an old man.

Inside a dungeon, even if I go on a rampage, they probably won’t scold me, right?

And yeah—magic is basically cheat-tier, and I only have it thanks to the skills I already came with in this world, plus the fact that I used connections and brute-force money to learn it.

Still, I spent the equivalent of six to seven hundred million yen to learn it, so that’s no joke either.

And since I learned stuff that I should’ve needed more like 1.5 billion yen to acquire—at a discount—this was pure profit.

That, too, was only possible because Seventh Sense gave me full magical aptitude and absurd amounts of mana.

Well, I probably won’t embarrass myself like I did with Grion back then.

At that time I had zero knowledge about this world, and no mental preparation, so there was nothing I could do.

I was in a camping mood and half-drunk, too.

Back then, all I had was a weapon like a big knife, but now I’ve got powerful weapons like explosives and magic.

More than anything, this is like going on a safari with a guide—easygoing.

I’ll learn how to fight.

I do have a few ideas, after all.

If I don’t prepare, and just stay carefree, then in a dangerous world like this I’ll eventually end up in deep trouble.

So I immediately asked the staff member who guided me before for directions to the dungeon, and requested that they arrange an instructor to oversee my training.

There was a town for adventurers on-site, and if you applied there, they would issue a temporary explorer permit.

If you had that, you wouldn’t have to line up again when entering and leaving the royal capital—but first you had to enter the dungeon once and submit a kill to the local guild.

Then they’d issue the official explorer permit.

Once you got it, you could use it forever.

If you failed to get any kill on your first dungeon run, you’d be stuck lining up for over three hours again to enter the royal capital.

Yeah… no thanks.

Even if it’s pathetic, I’ll bring back something as proof.

Once you hit C-rank or higher, entering the royal capital becomes a free pass—you can just walk through without lining up.

Because “useful souvenirs” from the “resource mine” need to be brought back quickly.

That “other reason” the guildmaster mentioned for ranking up was probably this.

Since I was still just starting out, it sounded like he wanted to explain it properly later, once things settled down.

C-rank and above also gets you free entry into other cities besides the royal capital.

Apparently you can even enter other countries with strict identity checks.

Of course, if you abuse it, the penalties are harsh.

And your guild qualification gets revoked, too.

So my immediate goal is C-rank.

Up to that point, you can get promoted without taking formal exams—by the authority of each guildmaster.

For veterans and promising rookies, that’s the borderline where you tend to plateau.

With advanced magic, I can manage that much easily.

And I didn’t have to rank up solo, either.

Honestly, trying to raise rank alone in a dungeon that’s probably insanely dangerous—without party support—is just reckless.

If someone does that, isn’t it basically a one-way ticket to the grave?

My physical stats were skyrocketing—straight upward, red-arrow surge.

Even when bandits attacked me, ordinary arrows didn’t injure me at all.

Normally I would’ve burned to death then, or gotten shot dead.

Cheat power is mandatory in another world.

First, I did training with beginner magic at the training grounds.

I tried blasting exactly the power I intended into exactly the location I intended.

Using the radar map, I also tried avionics-linked shooting.

Thanks to that, my spells kept landing cleanly, one after another, right in the center of the lined-up targets.

Heh. This is perfect.

Kukukuku… if you want to get through the world smoothly, nothing beats cheating.

Elections, pachinko, and plenty of other industries—there are tons where you can only succeed through shady back roads.

Expecting a total amateur like me to reach the same position as battle-hardened adventurers through nothing but honest training is laughably naive.

I also tested self-buffs nonstop.

I’m an old Showa-born guy—if something exists, I use it.

I swing my magic sword every day, so that’s fine, and I got drilled in swordsmanship, spearmanship, archery, and shield technique yesterday, so they’ve become skills.

That guildmaster is genuinely an amazing teacher.

Then I did bow training with Arrow Boost and Accuracy Correction.

While I was training alone, the staff member I’d become familiar with came over.

“This afternoon, staff will be available, so we can do combat training. The fee will be one large silver coin.”

I quickly handed over the coin and tried saying, “I’d like to learn every day.”

“How many days would you like to train?”

The staff member asked while putting the money into a pouch.

“Until I’m approved as dungeon-ready. There’s a final check by the guildmaster himself.”

“Understood. Then today, please eat earlier.”

So I don’t throw up, huh.

All right—light meal.

About an hour after eating, when my stomach had settled, the instructor arrived.

A man around his thirties showed up and said he’d first watch my overall movement.

He seemed to be guild staff.

Apparently this kind of work is also one of the jobs retired adventurers can get.

For sword and spear, we used wooden training weapons. I struck toward him so he could see.

For the bow, I shot at targets so he could evaluate.

Then he told me, “Next, without Accuracy Correction,” and I shot as-is— and shockingly, it still hit the target.

So this was what it meant for something to become a skill.

Before coming to this world, I’d never even touched a bow.

I’d fired guns overseas a few times, but I wasn’t talented at that either.

And yet, there are freaks who, on their very first time, hit near the center every shot purely off talent.

I remembered there was one guy like that at my company.

Doing it with a 12.7mm Desert Eagle, no less—insane.

That’s the kind of thing you call inborn sense—talent.

There are heights you just start at, and no amount of experience will ever let you catch up.

The only handgun I could reliably hit with was a .357 Magnum—low recoil, light, easy to handle—and even then it was only by using a cheat scope with a red dot, the kind that even an idiot can land shots with.

Come to think of it, what I’m doing now with magic and skills is basically the same kind of thing.

No—worse.

I also had him watch my shield usage and got advice.

In the end, we decided I should prioritize sword and spear for now.

Because I can use magic sword techniques, and that would fit.

As for the bow, my magical support is powerful—and I’m a mage with absurd amounts of mana.

With Accuracy Correction, I can just brute-force it and spray arrows and they’ll mostly hit.

My arrows, backed by magic, hit with accuracy and destructive power like guided missiles—like .50-caliber auto-tracking rounds from an anti-materiel rifle.

Of course, those can be made to miss with optical jammers and such, so if there’s magic like that, the bow becomes useless.

That kind of “aim disruption” effect might also exist against magic.

If anything, that’s the kind of spell I’d want.

Since I also use defensive magic, he advised that instead of relying on a shield, I should fight with mobility centered around Physical Enhancement.

“You can use Levitation and Fly too, so that’s even more true. And because you have Storage, if you need a shield in an emergency, you can just pull it out then. If you train properly, it’s not a dream for you to become an adventurer on the guildmaster’s level.”

That was his advice.

“So was that old guy a high-rank adventurer back in his active days?”

When I asked, he gave a wry smile.

“The guildmaster was an S-rank adventurer—the highest rank. This is the oldest, most prestigious Adventurers’ Guild, so normally someone like that becomes guildmaster.”

I had no idea how strong S-rank even is, but I’m sure he was terrifying in his prime.

The road to S-rank—starting from my mid-fifties.

A fantasy adventure that starts way too late—my heart didn’t pound at all.

Because I was E-rank right now.

There probably isn’t a single adventurer anywhere who starts at an age that’s practically “almost retired” even for a salaryman.

Even a JSDF soldier would be around retirement age!

Thanks to kind instruction that carefully assessed my traits and taught accordingly, my sword and spear both rose to Level 3 in half a day.

“With just this, someone like you—who can use powerful and diverse magic—could probably enter the dungeon alone and still be fine. But if the guildmaster is checking you, you should train for about two more days.”

I nodded, paid, and requested two more days of training.

He’s a hardass, after all.

But it’s from kindness.

Young people who don’t listen to what he says probably die early.

I may be old, but I can feel that in my bones.

And I even have a weird ability to understand things without logic.

I stayed behind on my own initiative and raised my archery skill to Level 3 as well.

At this point, even with ordinary arrows, I’ve got enough power to punch through the armor of an armored vehicle back on Earth.

That said, if you let your guard down, those things can probably be pierced easily—even by magical arrows, or even by .30-caliber rifle AP rounds.

With special tungsten-core ammunition, you might pierce a 50mm steel plate from a kilometer away.

If a .50-caliber heavy machine gun that can punch through 25mm steel targets your side armor, an APC with only about 9mm protection becomes swiss cheese instantly, and the fragments bouncing around inside wipe out the ten packed soldiers.

If it’s a place dangerous enough to be sniped, the soldiers might be safer dismounting and crawling in ghillie suits.

One rocket and it’s over, and stepping on an improvised mine designed to destroy tanks—worst case.

These days, suicide drones and unmanned aircraft carrying missiles exist, so AFVs are insanely vulnerable.

With magic fired using my mana, I could turn even a heavy tank into scrap in one hit.

Maybe I’ll develop mine magic someday.

If Seventh Sense helps, it feels like I could even create original spells.

After all, that thing is the creator of the magic PC.

Also, I cheated: I material-substituted iron arrowheads into magical metal and copied them in bulk.

Each arrow is worth more than a mediocre greatsword.

Of course, making ultra-expensive consumables out of rare metals and selling them is… questionable.

It looks even riskier than advanced healing potions or mithril swords.

Hehehehe.

I didn’t neglect preparation for diving into the dungeon.

I went around buying delicious food, then automatically copied it in huge amounts.

That’s the most important part.

Not camp food—dungeon food.

Like camping, this will probably become the best part.

Because unlike those serious hard workers, I’m going for leisure.

If you’re going on a leisure trip, you need a great boxed meal.

And like a game, if there’s a dungeon, you’d be crazy not to enter it.

Honestly, there isn’t that much to do here.

It’s pointless to sit in an inn playing smartphone games all day in another world.

I also bought (and copied like crazy) weapons and armor.

Then I material-converted everything into mithril and orichalcum copies, and even embedded mana-amplification magic stones.

I copied clothes and bedding endlessly too.

I also built “gun-shaped” magic staves.

They look like metal toys.

I processed car parts into gun-like shapes, then used material substitution to turn them into magic metal.

Then I embedded magic stones and applied various enchantments.

I made a sniper rifle, machine gun, submachine gun, and pistol types for better usability.

For the sniper rifle, I made a scope by processing binocular and camera lenses so it could deliver ultra-precision shots.

The machine gun can rapid-fire using my mana.

It’s way faster than casting by hand.

Rapid-firing large-scale spells would be brutally insane.

I also made a light machine gun (like a squad support weapon) and a mounted heavy machine gun.

The SMG was perfect for spraying magic around in a narrow dungeon.

The pistol type was mainly for close combat.

They’re all rough-looking and needed improvement.

They’re as crude as that “Liberator” single-shot simplified pistol from WWII—sent to support France, but unpopular and rarely used.

If some gun nut who demands beauty in firearms saw this, they’d probably shout, “Apologize to guns!” and come at me.

At a major corporate group in my hometown, there were even guys who got arrested for making guns during overtime hours using company equipment.

Now, with 3D printers, those guys could probably manufacture any gun they want at home.

It’s an era where individuals can build firearms with ideas that blow past old common sense.

Of course, if the police find out, you’re done.

If you use leaked blueprints online, even elementary or middle school kids could probably make 3D-printer guns.

Anyway—this was my “fake” level of magic gun-making.

I just made all kinds of stuff as I pleased.

Then, before I knew it, I gained a skill: Fabrication Crafting.

My long years in Earth’s manufacturing industry probably paid off.

This seems like a unique skill derived from the magic PC—something that emerges based on personal aptitude or traits.

Someday I’d like to build a large-scale magic cannon too.

For the remaining two days: mornings were pure crafting, afternoons were training, and on the way back I’d shop.

Then back at the inn—more crafting.

Thanks to that, Physical Enhancement hit Level 10, and I reached two million HP.

Even with my absurd correction, it feels like leveling is gradually slowing down.

Maybe the HP correction is nearing cap.

I feel like it’s a huge number, but I honestly don’t know what it means in reality.

Since it’s concealed, other people shouldn’t be able to see these numbers even with magic tools.

Combat skills across the board rose to Level 7.

Maybe my “rare person” correction is working there too.

Shield and enchantments leveled insanely fast, reaching Level 5.

Beginner magic also hit Level 5 across the board, and since I can level that alone, I’d been postponing it.

For me, I can always brute-force boost with overwhelming mana anyway, so it’ll probably work out.

Because I did so much crafting, my item box evolved.

It was already cheat-tier, so I thought that was the end of it.

But a new skill appeared: “Image Creation.”

Basically, it bundled the processes of crafting-related skills and magic into a single skill.

It’s like “Observe,” in a way.

I’ve gained so many skills that it probably evolved because it needed to consolidate them.

Used as a skill, it feels like I’ll be able to do all sorts of things I couldn’t do before.

Because now I can process things using all the functions inside the item box—rather, inside the magic PC.

And then it became day sixteen in the other world.

So it’s already December.

It’s gotten pretty cold here too.

This country faces the northern side of the continent.

In terms of latitude, the area around this royal capital feels roughly like around Nagoya, so it’s not brutally cold like Hokkaido or Tohoku/Hokuriku, but it’s not tropical either.

This is inland, so even at the same latitude it doesn’t do the weird “hotter than Okinawa in summer, as cold as Tohoku in winter” thing that Nagoya sometimes does.

I showed my face at the guild in the morning and booked the guildmaster’s check.

“I’m busy today, so afternoon.”

“Yes, sir.”

Until then, I trained alone.

Carefully repeating the fundamentals I’d learned over the last three days.

At my age, I’m not exactly good at remembering things (I forget, if anything), but I learned it with my body, so it was fine.

My body has rejuvenated.

Maybe my brain cells got younger too, because my memory has become clearer.

Only my way of thinking is still that of an old man in his fifties.

Compared to young people, I inevitably move more cautiously—more carefully.

Even if you think your heart was still young, an experienced old man was absolutely different from a reckless young fool.

If you really want to enjoy another world to the fullest, it’s probably better to come while you’re young— but if you want to live long in another world, I strongly recommend coming after you’ve aged.

Otherworld life wasn’t accomplished by reckless bravery.

I silently sweated.

I pushed for two hours.

Yeah… that’s probably my limit.

Even when I went to the gym in Japan, that was about it.

Then I ate early and waited for the guildmaster with tea.

Eventually, the guildmaster arrived prepared, and the test began.

Oh. I can move better than before today!

Maybe because my HP level rose.

If that’s the case, it’s just brute force, so content-wise it’s not ideal, but still.

“Come at me from anywhere.”

He waited, and I attacked him hard with a wooden training sword, moving properly.

My leveling paid off.

And receiving formal training was huge.

More than anything, the skill conversion is doing work.

“Now I’m coming at you.”

I switched to defense, and after about five minutes of intense wooden impacts echoing, I got the pass.

“This should be fine. But you’re going to a dungeon. And you haven’t trained sensory skills much, have you? Do that part in the field. You’ve got money—hire a solid party and work with them so you can get used to dungeon conditions. Are you going tomorrow? If so, I’ll speak to a suitable party for you. Stay in the guild all day.”

“Roger.”

So I occupied a corner of the guild cafeteria and spent the whole time crafting.

Using online images as references, I refined the gun-related stuff into more accurate shapes.

The effect of “Image Creation” was incredible.

If I do it by hand, my design sense was catastrophic.

I’ve always been a copy specialist, after all.

The feeling of working like I’m using scissors, hammers, and knives… turned into something like using metal/plastic 3D printers, lathes, drill presses, milling machines, DIY tools, rotary tools, carving knives, grinders—precision processing.

I also tried making a Japanese sword.

Imitating blacksmith work from online videos, I used Image Creation and completed a reasonably forged orichalcum blade.

I did kendo and reached shodan.

Sport kendo where you can get rank through kata probably won’t help in real combat, but western swords just don’t fit me.

A lot of them evolved as blunt-force weapons meant to smash opponents.

There are many kinds of western swords, but in a world where enemies wear metal armor, swordplay tends to become about swinging heavy greatswords/longswords in big arcs.

Even in western films, the forms look like that.

Even “cutting” looks like big swings.

It’s clearly different from Japanese sword choreography.

And here, you may even fight monsters.

If you’re just going to smash, a morning star or an axe is way better.

A spiked iron ball on a chain sounds fun too.

Maybe I’ll make one myself sometime.

I don’t see those in shops.

A kusarigama was another option.

There are cutting swords in the west, and styles that use them—but there’s nothing like a katana, specialized for cutting.

I learned the local way of fighting with swords, but it’s still just a quick patch.

Personally, I want a blade that cuts with draw-slashes.

Even just the grip felt wrong.

My hands and handling were tuned to Japanese kendo.

Even that’s sloppy, though.

A thought-controlled, high-performance universal machine is functioning by burning magic nonstop, so even sword-making is cheating beyond belief— but still, I’m itching to test-cut something.

Was this what the guys who went street-cutting in the Edo period felt like?

Only when I absolutely have to—and only bad people, okay?!

I also built magic by image.

Magic itself was all about image.

I don’t know if that’s truly how it works, but I learned it through Seventh Sense, so it ends up that way.

Napalm, cluster, missiles, MIRV, lasers, concentrated sunlight magic, beam reflection magic, flamethrowers—

I kept constructing spells inspired by Earth knowledge.

Most of it is overused ideas from real weapons or fiction—nothing original.

But that makes them easy to create because the images are so clear.

I also created aerial mobile units: flying platforms enchanted with Fly, loaded with Stone Bullet and other spells to fire.

The body is orichalcum, so its durability is high.

In case I can’t show orichalcum in public, I made mithril versions too.

They’re easy to make—shape the chassis, enchant Fly/Levitation for movement, and add firing mechanisms—then you’re done.

But whether I can truly control them is another matter.

Still, I can probably at least make all units deploy a barrage in a specified direction.

I can control what I make using mana.

I built these in case there’s a scene where monsters rely on numbers.

In stories, there are endless cases where people get overwhelmed that way.

Complacency is deadly.

I also made units with Barrier enchantments.

Those should be immediately useful.

Just keep them floating around me.

They’re moving via mana control anyway.

And I also made an aerial unit with a camera mount for recording.

This was just an aerial chassis with my video camera functions enchanted into it.

Image Creation can even do things like this.

Recording information matters.

I’ve always been the type who prepares absurdly thoroughly before going out.

And it gets worse as you get older.

Because you get more and more anxious with age.

Even if I bring this level of insane equipment, the first dungeon enemies will probably be goblins and slimes.