Chapter 22: The frog’s last wish

Josh began feeling his magic presence.

'A tank. The feeling of pressure.' Josh tried to remember the feeling he got again from Sir Rico and the first blessing he had.

After a while, he controlled a very little amount of mana, coming from his magic presence reserve, to flow in his body toward the mark.

When he noticed that the mark glowed slightly, highlighting the small snake into bright gray color, Josh muttered while pointing at a nearby rock,

"Erase~"

The rock he pointed at slowly vanished. Part by part, little by little until it's completely gone.

"So… my 'erase' spell really erased my target. When I was at the training room, it instantly erased the robots… maybe, the duration of erasing decreases as I increase the amount of mana that I poured…"

Josh, having a new hypothesis, tried adding a half more mana compared to what he used earlier, then poured it to his mark.

He focused his gaze on a nearby rock, but to his surprise, it did not vanish.

"Huh?"

He then approached it.

"Not even a scratch…" He then looked around it,

"A half frog??"

Josh got confused momentarily as he saw a bleeding frog with half of its body gone.

*Croaka-* Translation: *I'm still a vir-*

The frog tried to croak for the last time, but it died without having the chance to say its last wish.

With all the evidence in front of him, Josh concluded that he misdirects the spell into the frog behind the rock.

"Then how am I supposed to use this spell, good thing I did not try this at the dorms… If my neighbor is accidentally in front of my sight, and we're just separated by a wall… and I used 'erase'… oh god."

Josh then sat at the top of the rock and thought of what happened.

'When I used 'erase', it affects what's in front of me… my line of sight specifically.'

'Then, how do I target something without the risk of affecting those near it?'

"I'm sorry Mr. Half Frog, but I'll finish properly what I have accidentally done to you, uhh… with some experiments."

With the same amount of mana earlier, he poured it to his mark. And when he noticed that his mark glowed slightly, he closed his right eye while leaving the left eye open and muttered,

"Erase~" He focused his gaze on the rock wherein right behind it laid the dead frog.

It did not vanish again, and when Josh looked right behind it, he noticed that the frog was gone.

"Tsk! The sniper tactic is not working..."

Josh searched for a little rock and placed it behind the boulder. He then used 'erase' at it using with his arms mimicking that of a telescope.

"Telescopic focus!"

After that, the small rock behind the boulder vanished.

Josh tried more bullshit tactics to try to target the boulder while something stood behind it, and he only stopped when he felt that his magic presence got to half of its full reserve.

"Shit! Why can't I erase the thing in the front? Why do I keep fucking the back? Fuck!"

With a slightly irritated mood, Josh sat on the boulder.

He sat up straight and laid his arms in the boulder.

"How do I focus my spell… I tried all the tactics military tactics I've heard from my classmates back in high school and middle school…"

"Erase! Why can't I use you-"

Without Josh noticing, he practiced too much on controlling little amounts of mana that saying 'erase' got ingrained in him, automatically making his body retrieve mana from his magic presence reserve and pouring it to his mark.

The rock he is sitting on slowly vanished from the top where Josh sat.

"-properly. I've done all. ALL! And... why am I going down?"

Josh looked at the boulder he sat on, and to his surprise, it is slowly getting leveled until the rock vanished and he sat on the dirt with pure shock on his face.

"Right! Why do I have to keep on using my gaze to focus my spell?! I can use my hands! My legendary hands! My comrade right hand in times of need and left hand for the support!"

"Mwah! Mwah!"

He kissed his left and right hands alternatingly expressing his pure joy of finding a possible way to use his 'erase' spell properly.