Chapter 54
Supernatural powers didn’t have that good of a performance in its lower levels. That was why Heinrich’s Pyrokinesis was the way it is.
When it just awakened it was in a type of berserk state, so it exerted a lot of power, but now that it was in a stable state, it didn’t really do much.
“Did you feel your grip becoming stronger?”
“I think so. My palms are tingling.”
In fact, I clearly felt that my grip strength itself increased. If I just tried to crush it with my will power alone, my palms wouldn’t hurt to the point that I was about to faint.
“Well, then try to run to the other end of the swimming pool. Run at full speed.”
“Eh.”
Perhaps because it was determined that my power could enhance my physical capabilities, we ended up doing something that wasn’t that different from physical training. Because I did a lot of training anyway, my reluctance to do these kinds of exercises was seriously reduced.
I sprinted from one end of the pool to the other. Honestly, I wouldn’t really get tired by this much anymore.
The teacher seemed to check something, then shouted towards me.
“Now! This time, sprint back here. But use your power this time! Try to convince yourself that you’re the fastest runner there is!”
She was measuring my running speed.
Once without me using my ability and then once more with me using my ability.
After I got ready, I tried to convince myself.
I’m Usain Bolt.
After I finished sprinting about 50 meters again, the teacher slowly nodded her head.
“That’s amazing, Reinhardt.”
Did something change? I felt like my grip power got stronger, but I had no idea about my speed.
“Before using your ability, you took 8.3 second, after using it, it took you exactly 8 seconds.”
“…I honestly don’t know.”
I knew it was a little quicker, but did this actually have any meaningful effect? That might have been within the margin of error.
After that, the teacher gave me various other tests. They were mainly tests pertaining to my physical strength, endurance and agility.
And as I went through these, my mental state seemed to get more and more strange.
Self-Suggestion made the suggestions you had made to yourself become reality.
If I said that I was Usain Bolt while running, I’d actually be able to use his speed or more if my ability was at a certain level. On the premise that I absolutely believed in my words.
So, in the end, I had to keep thinking “I’m XX, I’m XX”.
Yes, I felt like I was transported back to my childhood.
This supernatural power which made childish stubborn persistence reality, and the more stubborn I was the better my ability would work.
So….
Rather than Self-Suggestion wasn’t this more like a winning mentality or something?
In fact, it did become true that I would have won anyway in the duel with Mayarton.
So did that mean that I’d win as long as I held a winning mentality?
Regardless of my ability’s efficiency, I was still pathetic.
“…….”
“What’s the matter, Reinhardt?”
“Well, I was seriously thinking that I could break this tree if I punched it, so I’m a little… How should I put it? It’s getting a little hard to bear.”
Lolol My fists can break down trees lolol look, look.
That’s how it should be! But it’s not happening! How could that be!
Perhaps because I discarded this setting, I didn’t really think about what kind of mental damage the person who actually used this ability would receive.
I actually used that kind of skill.
It was really pathetic.
“That’s the kind of ability you have. Come on, try it.”
Anyway.
I can crush this tree with my fists!
-Bam!
“Uwaark!”
I made a mistake.
I should have believed that I wouldn’t break my wrist if I were to hit a tree like that full swing.
* * *
Ms. Rollendria tested my ability all day long. In addition to testing my physical strength and athletic abilities, she also conducted other tests.
For example, we tested if I could derive other abilities from my ability.
If I believed that I could use elemental supernatural powers, including Pyrokinesis, she wondered if I could really use them. We also tried Telepathy.
Of course, it didn’t work at all. I didn’t know if I could do it later, but as of now, the level of my ability was very low, so other than strengthening my body I couldn’t do anything else.
Of course, since I always carried the Flame of Tuesday around with me, fire might actually come out, so I did the Pyrokinesis test a bit sloppily.
After all the tests were done, Ms. Rollendria slowly nodded her head as she took notes. We took until lunch, so this skill test really lasted throughout nearly all the classes.
“That’s amazing, Reinhardt.”
“I don’t think it’s that great….”
Obviously, it wasn’t actually as strong as I thought it would be, but Ms. Rollendria shook her head.
“Obviously, the power displayed in its current state isn’t very significant. But what is important is another aspect.”
“What do you mean? What other aspect?”
“The degree of body reinforcement is rather weak, but you’re actually pretty proficient in using your supernatural ability. From my point of view, although the level of your enhancement is still rather low, you are able to use your ability successfully multiple times in a row. Almost instantly.”
It seemed like Ms. Rollendria was more focused on my control on the ability rather than the ability itself. Even if the strengthening effect was pretty insignificant, it seemed that I still succeeded in activating it continuously.
“That means that you are quite familiar with activating your ability before you had it.”
That surely would be considered great. Ability control was sometimes considered more important than the ability itself. I was already very good at using this ability of mine.
I should like that, but I didn’t feel so good about that.
“In other words, you are very gifted in self-suggestion.”
So all she was saying was that I had a great winning mentality!
Yeah, that’s it, anyway. As I wrote shitty novels like this, of course, I would have a great winning mentality to keep being a writer.
I got this ability because it was basically a cheat, but also because it suited me well.
The level of my ability wasn’t that high. However, activating it was quite easy for me.
I already had the mentality fitting for that flimsy ability called Self-Suggestion, because I lived my life completely reliant on that type of mentality.
It was like it was custom made for me…. That didn’t make me happy.
Anyway, I was almost able to convince myself that, if it was someone else who had this ability, they wouldn’t be able to use it as skillfully as I did.
Of course, since this is a fantasy world, I had an easier time believing that something would definitely happen. If I were in my old world, I’d probably be like „Supernatural powers? You crazy?”. So, as it was that kind of world, I could readily believe in certain things.
Ms. Rollendria said that we were done with the tests and that I could go back to my regular classes the next day, as she realized that my abilities weren’t capable of anything more than simple body strengthening for now. Of course, since its potential was tremendous, she would periodically check on my condition.
After class, I stayed in the dormitory for today. I was going to skip my evening training and focus on developing my ability.
At this stage, Self-Suggestion mainly had effects related to body strengthening. However, as I scrapped it after vaguely setting it up in the novel, I didn’t really describe what difficulties the person using it would go through.
In other words, there were a lot of things I didn’t know about this ability. For example, the mental damage one had to suffer for always keeping up that winning mentality. I’d feel pathetic all on my own for seriously believing that some nonsensical situation would actually happen just because of the ability’s effect.
There was one more thing.
If I believed that my punches were strong, they would be strong, however what if I get into a fight while believing my punches were strong, but I had to actually kick someone?
I would have to convince myself again that my kicks were the strongest.
I was proficient in activating it, but it was rather cumbersome. It would be more versatile to believe that my whole body became strengthened.
So, for example, I needed to generalize the way I used my ability a bit more to make it useful in a fight. Rather than focusing on punches and kicks separately, I needed to believe that my overall fighting capabilities were greatly improved.
Hearing that faith made me stronger, would make one believe that I was a paladin, but that wasn’t it, okay?
The god and religion I believed in was myself after all.
It was an unorthodox religion were the object of worship and the worshipper happened to be one and the same.
That was the religion I had to believe in.
I think I’m going crazy.
* * *
For now I could only strengthen my physical abilities a bit, but later, other actions going beyond that would become possible for me. It would be such a waste of time to apply the skill in such detail for each and every part.
Therefore, I should use it in a more comprehensive way and not just strengthen my punches or speed up my legs etc.
This required selection and focus however. If I used my ability to strengthen my whole body, it would become less effective than just strengthening my punches. So, rather than being too broad in what to strengthen, it would be better to be a little more specific, such as my body being familiar with hand-to-hand combat.
After my ability became stronger, it would be possible for my body to become proficient in anti-magic warfare or close quarter combat.
Ultimately, this ability was well suited for me.
I was a web novel author, and this action was no different from writing up character sheets in the end.
I wrote something down in my notebook at the moment.
Type A
Setting: Overall muscle strength improvement, swordsmanship level improvement. Improve cognitive ability, improve reaction speed.
I knew best that this was a necessary step. After setting up a Type A I also set up a Type B according to my own standards. So now if I thought about becoming Type A, not about which part to strengthen, my whole body would get strengthened as I should be able to remember the settings I set up myself. Self-Suggestion was literally the ability to become what I thought I was. If I memorized all the physical capabilities Type A should have, I would have these capabilities if I thought that I became Type A. That was the easiest way to use my ability.
Later, I’d obviously add Type Z: Can summon a Black Flame Dragon from right hand.
I was going crazy!
I didn’t even use that kind of setting when I was in middle school! However, after I grew older and left school, I actually ended up making that kind of setting lol.
I felt like dying.
I should think that things were good, but that wasn’t the case. Even though I should be the most mature among all the kids, I turned into the most problematic one, and now I locked myself in my dorm room writing up weird settings.
There was also my personality, but this ability gave me the final hit.
Just…. What is life?.
While I was immersed in my self-reflection, the pager in my room suddenly rang.
-Brrring!
A pager.
One could think of it as some sort of magic intercom. Someone was calling me. Who’d be calling me? I first thought it was Ellen, but Ellen wouldn’t call me just because I wasn’t in the gym today.
I turned on the pager. The voice was familiar and yet its tone felt wildly unfamiliar.
[Come to the main lobby]
It was Charlotte.
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