Did you know that I usually sleep for only 3 hours? Most humans need a full 8 hours so they can reset their bodies, but thanks to Reverse Cursed Technique constantly refreshing my brain, I am basically in an eternal state of "well-rested."
So if I ever tried sleeping 8 full hours, I am pretty sure I would wake up feeling like some ancient fossil dug out from the earth. Over-rested. If that is even a thing.
Unfortunately, that also means trying to sleep is… annoying. You lie down, close your eyes, and your brain immediately goes: "Alright, that's enough. Get up." Even though you just started.
I wanted to go buy something to pass the time, but every food stand and shop in this town closes ridiculously early. It is like living in a fantasy village run by stern grandparents.
After the brief conversation with Heiter and his group, I found myself thinking about each of them. Frieren especially.
She was incredibly interesting. The moment magic was mentioned, her eyes lit up more than any human I had ever met. It was like someone flipped a switch on her. Apparently, there was something about me that caught her attention too, which was flattering, I guess. She was easily the most fascinating of the group. Maybe it was because she was an elf, or maybe because she was one of the world's best magic users.
Either way, she was… special.
Eisen, on the other hand, reminded me of Nanami. If Nanami had been shrunk in the wash. He was calm, mature, and observant. Actually, extremely observant. Like he could sniff out trouble before it began. It was refreshing to talk to someone who didn't try to pry into everything or boast about themselves.
Though the calm atmosphere he gave off sometimes got a little boring, it was still a nice change of pace.
After discussing plans and having a quick lunch break with the group, I was finally dismissed, sent "home." Well… not home, but back to my inn. My current priority was clear:
Re-create Limitless in magic form.
Now… is it smart to show someone your ultimate and most deadly technique?
No. Absolutely not. It is an objectively terrible idea.
But in exchange, I might learn dozens of unique spells. Potentially even rewrite my understanding of mana in this world. So if Frieren truly was not a fraud, I would benefit far more from this than she ever could.
From the way she talked about magic, though, there was zero doubt. Her passion was too genuine. Every detail she explained was layered with centuries of experience. It was almost intimidating how natural it came to her.
And the only other thing she seemed equally passionate about… was Himmel.
Himmel this and Himmel that.
It was subtle at first, but after hearing her speak about him for the thirtieth time, I came to one very clear realization:
The cute elf absolutely had a crush on him. Whether she knew it or not was another story.
And based on the stories they shared, Himmel obviously admired her too. The two of them were basically a poorly-written romance novel waiting to happen.
As someone whose entire life revolved around embarrassing people and taunting them until they broke… I was like:
…oh, I am going to have so much fun with this.
But first… I needed to figure out how to recreate Limitless using mana.
A simple task, really. Only required bending the laws of physics, rewriting magical theory, and performing calculations that would have to be re-wired to suit magic.
Easy.
Totally.
…Right?
I had been working for hours, trying to recreate Limitless through magic alone, only to fail every single time. I was not the type to admit defeat easily, yet even I understood that some battles required patience.
This was clearly one of them. In terms of manipulating space and time through magic, I was still closer to a beginner than I cared to admit. I had experience manipulating them through cursed energy, but translating that knowledge into a completely different system was far more complicated than I expected.
The core problem was simple yet infuriating. Magic did not operate like cursed energy at all. It demanded an entirely different set of inputs and reactions to achieve the same phenomenon. With cursed energy, Limitless was instinctual. It was my technique. It was a built-in mechanism, something like a silent command etched into my mind since birth. All I had to do was think and it would follow.
Magic, on the other hand, felt like reaching for a scratch on my back that my fingers could never reach. No matter how close I came, there was always a gap. That gap was the worst part. I could not rely on trial and error with something as delicate as distorting space and time. One mistake and I would end up blowing a hole in the inn or accidentally folding myself into a pocket dimension. Neither outcome was appealing.
At first, I foolishly believed it would be easy. If I combined the Six Eyes with my own brilliance, and considering how naturally magic came to me in basic forms, I thought I only needed to refine a few details. That confidence evaporated quickly.
With cursed energy, I had grasped the fundamentals of manipulation because my technique and the Six Eyes guided me toward the correct answers. It was like seeing the entire formula written out before me.
However, just as I could not replicate a magical flame through cursed energy, I also could not reproduce my cursed technique through magic alone. The two systems overlapped in theory but were fundamentally incompatible in practice.
The result was a complete failure. A disgusting, humiliating failure that settled in my chest like a heavy stone.
For someone like me, a man who was called the strongest more times than I could count, it was a rare and bitter taste. No matter how I looked at it, I had accomplished absolutely nothing.
And the worst part was knowing that the problem was not the world. It was me.
"Frieren… I might be in trouble."
.....
A/N: This is not a nerf, I just didn't feel like it was fair that magic was able to do stuff that cursed energy wasn't able to do. While, I'm not saying limitless won't be able to be converted to a magical technique, I just don't think it should be easy. Law of equivalent exchange typa shit.