LCD The Book Eating Magician

o.0 interesting

 

Can't one make a new "original" by copying it by hand, without using the duplication magic? 50 gold seems to be a pretty good incentive...

Edit: Wow, next chapter answers it.

 

C2: If he keeps eating books, then someone is eventually going to notice that they're missing. I wonder how he plans to deal with that fact? Though I suppose he could copy the book first and then eat the copy.

C4: I kinda expected him to ask "why me?" Though I think I would have gone with "other than eating books, is there a way to improve my magic sensitivity?"

C6: I like that his gains are directly tied to his own understanding and he can't just absorb books at random. I just hope that the whole "original work" thing doesn't get abused later on, and that this restriction stays in place.

Won't Gluttony go to sleep without answering his questions before he gets back? After all, he should only have like ten minutes tops left before its nap time and the flashback will take more than twenty.

C8: It seems odd that a magic school cares so little about its library. Normally, the library is the most precious part of the school.

C11: Why doesn't he just say that he wants to take them apart to study enchanting or whatever? Or maybe there are pets that eat magic items that he could say he's keeping?

What was that necklace that tightened around your neck when worn if not cursed?

C12: He appraised 20 for Canis, yes, but he also appraised dozens for himself before even approaching Canis, so the cat's already out of the bag about him being able to appraise more than twenty.

He really needs to ask about increasing his sensitivity as soon as possible. Honestly, just finding out one such method that anyone could use would make him rich beyond his wildest dreams and he could straight up buy high quality magic items and reagents to consume. He could also buy any magic book below a certain level without difficulty and catapult himself and his family to the upper echelons of society. Basically, everything he's ever wanted could be obtained by asking Gluttony this single question.

C13: I suppose petty revenge will be the reason he doesn't just graduate right now. Honestly, I was hoping it was something more reasonable like wanting to hide his inexplicably rapid development.

C14: Why is he still being forced to attend classes? Everyone knows that he knows the material inside and out. He should just be allowed to stay in his room or the library and train like mad to fix his one and only deficit. Having him take classes is just wasting his time and theirs.

C18: I can't help but think that making that Oath was a bit hasty. There's no telling what sort of person Theo will become if his power grows too rapidly. Still, its nice that the MC is actually able to tell someone his secret and not be betrayed. I can't think of another series that has that on NU.

I wonder how long it'll be until he meets another person with a grimoire? It doesn't sound like there's only one. Also wondering if they'll also follow the seven sins, and exactly what Lust has its owner doing to gain power...

C19: It occurs to me that, since there's book copying magic, couldn't he just use it before eating them? Even if the magic is too high ranked for him, Vince should be able to do it, no problem.

C20: I think its probably a bad idea to plan on using Memorize in a public competition. He wouldn't be able to explain how he did it later, and he'd definitely have to explain.

Honestly, that seems like too good of a deal for the MC. Considering how hard it would be for him to obtain such a book on his own, a question per rare wouldn't be unreasonable, possibly with a clause to renegotiate once his economic standing was bother higher and more stable.

I wonder if he'll be able to open the other affinities later or if he'll have to stick to whichever one is deemed most suitable. Also wondering if the contracted elemental will have a personality and if he can raise its power or if he'll just trade it in for a stronger one later on.

C21: I wonder if the one of these authors will refuse the connection at some point? If not, there's really not much reason to mention their acceptance.

"if he had lived longer and succeeded in calling an elemental king." Didn't the book's description say that he did succeed in not only calling one, but contracting it too?

 

Isn't he alive though? I mean because he accepted the connection therefore it means he could have declined it, which implies he is alive cause to make a decision one has to have consciousness aka be alive

 

I'm not sure how that has any relevance to what you quoted? Also don't think I ever claimed that he was dead?

 

It says if he had lived longer, what I'm trying to say is that isn't he still alive

 

Ah, that still doesn't address the contradiction between the two chapters though.

 

I wonder if they'll get attacked in route? And if whatever attacks them will be strong enough to actually pose a threat? Though honestly, it would basically have to be a foreign army to be a threat to Vince.

Also wondering how long it'll be until Mitra starts talking in complete sentences. Maybe Gluttony could help speed up the process?

 

Maybe the contradiction came due to words of the mouth. The author went into isolation, and people thought that he died hence the common knowledge.

However, with Gluttony, we can trace the person real time (status, not location) which proves the knowledge of him dying otherwise. Therefore the contradiction can be explained away this way

 

Well, its not quite a foreign army, but its the next best thing. I wonder how many he'll wind up killing? And if he'll go around healing people afterward.

I considered that, but I presume that the contradictory passage was based on the MC's understanding, and the MC had already read the book's description.

 

He's a mage, why is he running towards his enemy? That seems like a very counterproductive thing to do.

 

I've been wondering this for a while now, but why is it that he can use Magic Bullet without it blocking his ability to use any other kind of magic? I thought that was the price for its OPness?

I'm still not seeing why charging was the right idea. He clearly had a way to deal with the thrown spear, and in fact, he could have dealt with it after the first blow by having Mitra suck it into the ground and hide it. Even without that though, he still had the triple wall, and who knows how many control spells. Its not like he actually had to kill it after all. He just had to disable it for the mercs, or keep it busy until Vince showed up. Though obviously, killing it would have been totally possible too, and much more easily managed at range.

Also, why do none of the mercs have bows/crossbows? And if they do have them, why weren't they using them on the chief? If they were willing to take this mission, then that should mean that either they and the merchant are incredibly stupid, or that they had some way to deal with a chief hobgoblin. Chief hobgoblins may be rare, but it doesn't seem like they're so rare that an intelligent person wouldn't prepare countermeasures for them.

 

Pretty sure the magic bullet he's using is a downgraded version so that he doesn't have to focus primarily on it. I believe even the "memory" of the guy who made it warned him not to follow his path as well.

 

Why thus magic bullet remind me of something
Ray gun anyone lol...

 

That was a pretty interesting battle. Good on Theo to win his first battle in a pretty solid way.

That being said, I'm not quite sure how I feel about the whole memory inheritance. At least not in the way that it is seemingly being depicted. If it allows him to easily master the technique that he's learning, then that's fine, but if it also allows him to gain access to memory that's unrelated to the skill, then to me it seems like it's just a convenient plot device to allow Theo to exercise combat ability above what he would be able to do otherwise. But given that he's already got the OP power in the form of Gluttony, as well as his solid foundations as it is (in terms of theory and his level headedness), I just think this additional boost is unnecessary.

Well, I rationalised it by thinking about what kind of benefits getting away would do for him. While keeping a distance away from the chief might have enabled him to be able to defend for a while, it likely would not have been able to last long. It was also unlikely that he'd be able to successfully attack the chief if he stayed at a distance, while relying on the mercenaries to help was out of the question, given how they ran away, and hoping that Vince would catch up is pretty naive, in that there's no guarantee of it happening (especially when we already know that Vince didn't even consider going to help him).

Going in and closing the distance allowed Mitra to be utilised both defensively and offensively (as we saw). If a distance was kept, then the situation likely wouldn't have allowed for Mitra to be easily switched between defence and offence. As for him hiding the spear, I guess he didn't think of it, lol.

 

Why didn't Theo Analyze the Monster Berry? They could have found out its uses instantly. No need for any cryptic remarks or guesswork.

I wonder if the various towers will fight over Theo before the contest even begins?

Their souls are linked. I doubt that small amount of distance would affect their ability to communicate. If it did, then there's not much point in elementals from a mage perspective since they will almost always be attacking from a much greater distance than that, especially in a war.

I'm just going to have to disagree with you about there being any merit to him running up. He simply had far more options at range and the chief had almost none, which is an ideal situation for a mage who's got a good variety of control spells (which he should if he's as smart as they keep saying) and even one spell capable of actual damage.

 

It seems odd that they didn't try to confirm Theo's identity after they made such a big deal about how thorough their checks were and how carefully he had to fill out his application form. I also don't get how the clerk didn't already know what circle he was when it should have been on those forms, nor why he's not already signed up for the Pupil Tournament since there are many good reasons for that to have been included in the initial paperwork and none for why it wouldn't be.

Its also odd that rule changes weren't mentioned in the invitation or by the clerk. Even so, they could find out about them from the clerk. There's no need to trust someone with such obvious animosity.

I wonder why the other towers weren't explained. I assume Water is all about healing, but what are Earth and Wind? Construction and messenger services maybe?

 

I wasn't referring to that. I was referring to Mitra's ability to act and react. If the two of them are far away from the chief, then Mitra would only be able to defend Theo, or if Mitra was sent to attack, she wouldn't be capable of defending as well if at all within a short period of time. Removing the distance between them improves that aspect.

That's fine. Still, to be fair though, Theo is limited in which spells he has access to. It's only whatever low level ones are in the library, and whatever he understood, as well as if he's had enough time to eat them all. Not to mention this was his first real fight. It should be understandable if he couldn't think of everything or didn't make the best of decisions at all times.

 

I can understand where you're coming from, but he's been shown to be very adaptable, especially in battle situations and he's had something like half a year with Gluttony. That means that he's absorbed more than three hundred books. Even if only one third of those contained spells, he'd still have more than a hundred to choose from, and comprehension has never really been a problem for him, so he could basically learn any lower tier spell that seemed like it might one day be useful. Heck, even the First Circle Grease spell would have been helpful in that fight if used properly and he definitely knew that one. And that's ignoring his proven ability to create new spells on the spot to match his current needs.

 

I am really hoping that Theo will get shitload of trouble from what the blue bastard is about to dish, at least make this entertaining for us readers. I mean Theo can easily be like Breaker's Shutra, gaining powers left right up down centre easily, all he needs is loads of cash to buy books and artifacts. If not he can go XIANXIA MODE and start stealing/robbing/murdering for those stuff...