Lord: Starting from a Goblin Nest

”Alright! Follow me. My Spellbook is in my room.”

Generally, a Mage’s Spellbook is an extremely private item. A Mage would never let another person, especially a fellow practitioner, see their list of Magic. Doing so would be tantamount to placing their life in the other’s hands.

But Lavinia wasn’t too concerned about that. For one, being a Mage wasn’t her main profession. For another, deep down, she didn’t believe a mere novice just starting out with Magic could possibly learn anything from her.

She had no intention of actually teaching him!

And Ron was completely oblivious to all of this.

”Here, take a look at this.”

Lavinia led Ron straight into her bedroom and pulled a book with a blue hardcover from her nightstand.

”You’re basically a Mage now, so you should have your own Spellbook,” Lavinia said, not forgetting to give Ron a few pointers. At their core, Half-Elves are kind, even when they’re being competitive. ”See, this one’s mine.”

”Real Magic is different from cantrips. Almost all of them have one or even several massive tomes of principles, known as the Original Text. A tiny, palm-sized notebook can’t even record the entirety of a single spell. Even the most veteran Mages can’t guarantee they can recall every detail needed for Casting Magic at a moment’s notice.”

”That’s why you need a Spellbook to aid your memory.”

”We write down our understanding, the details of the Casting, and so on in the book. This usually turns the Spellbook into a tool that assists with Casting. When we prepare our Magic, we remove the spells we won’t be using from the book and mark the ones we will. That way, we can cast them as quickly as possible in an emergency.”

The saying goes: three seconds to cast, three hours to consult your charts.

During a long rest in a tabletop RPG session, the players playing Mages are always the busiest—even if they still end up choosing the simplest and most brutish Fireball Magic in the end.

”So where can I find a Spellbook of my own?” Ron asked humbly.

”You definitely can’t buy one around here,” Lavinia said with a shrug. ”A friend from my clan gave me this one. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself.”

”Anyway, try this one first. Shield Magic. It’s a huge help in both experiments and combat. It conjures an invisible Mana Shield that floats around you for protection.”

”It has no offensive capability, but its advantages are fast Casting and high effectiveness. You can put up an effective defense even in the most hurried situations, and it can even block a Magic Missile. It’s absolutely the most beginner-friendly choice for someone like you.”

Lavinia just wanted to see Ron struggle, not get him killed, so there were no hidden traps in her spell recommendation. And Ron, of course, knew how useful Shield Magic was. He looked at Lavinia, his eyes full of gratitude.

”Besides, the Original Text for Shield Magic is relatively short, and the Common Language version has even been reprinted several times. Here, this is it—the book.”

Lavinia pushed a stool over and strained to pull a book, thick as a thousand pages, from a nearby shelf. When she dropped it on the floor, it made a tremendous THUD that echoed through the room.

”I have my notes for Shield Magic on this page of my Spellbook. If you can decipher my personal symbols, you might even learn it more efficiently,” Lavinia said with a mischievous grin. She was 10,000 percent certain Ron couldn’t do it.

Not unless he was fluent in the Half-Elf language—but that was impossible. No Half-Elf would ever willingly teach their racial language to an outsider. They used the Common Language to communicate with other races.

”Thank you so much!” Ron’s gratitude was plain to see. He immediately picked up the book and began to read and study.

”Don’t mess with my stuff!” Her prank a success, a satisfied Lavinia backed out of the bedroom and closed the door.

’In a couple of hours,’ she mused, ’Ron will definitely come running out, crying his eyes out, begging me and saying he never wants to learn Magic again!’

However, two hours passed, and Ron didn’t come out.

When it was time for dinner, Ron didn’t come out.

When it was time to go to bed that night, Ron still hadn’t come out!

”Are you still studying? Why don’t you take a break? Your companion is here looking for you!”

Lavinia, bleary-eyed, knocked on her own bedroom door. Now she finally understood the meaning of ”lifting a rock only to drop it on your own foot”—she couldn’t even get into her room to sleep!

And that goblin was even more annoying! He was insisting that Lavinia had kidnapped Ron and was going to demand a ransom!

’Only a goblin would do something like that!’

After a relentless series of knocks, the door opened from the inside. A refreshed and energetic Ron appeared before everyone.

”Sorry about that,” Ron said with an apologetic smile, handing Lavinia’s Spellbook back to her. ”I’ve already put the Original Text back where it belongs.”

”It would’ve been better if your handwriting was a little bigger, though. It was a real strain to read.”

”Oh... so, did you make any progress?” Lavinia perked up. This was the moment she had been waiting for!

’He’s chickening out! He’s making excuses! He didn’t learn it!’

”Let me test him!” Quest immediately jumped forward. Having heard about how fast Ron had learned cantrips, and now that he was even starting to learn real Magic, his shock was no less than Lavinia’s.

He threw a punch straight at Ron’s face. He had to see just how much this human had grown in less than half a day!

Had he placed his bet on a fraud, a common braggart, a genius, or a monster!

”Shield!”

How could Ron have expected a teammate he’d just met today to try and rearrange his face that very evening? He instinctively raised a hand to block, but thankfully, at the last second, he remembered the Magic he had just learned.

CLANG!

With a loud noise, Quest cried out in pain. He staggered back, grimacing and clutching his fist with his other hand.

The space in front of Ron distorted slightly as a Mana Shield, nearly invisible to the naked eye, appeared before him. It was this shield that had blocked the Tiffling’s punch.

”You... succeeded? H-How is that possible?!”

This time, Lavinia’s composure truly shattered. ’How could he have learned it? How could he possibly have learned it!’

’He couldn’t have learned it!’

But no matter how she tried to hypnotize herself, Quest’s reddened fist couldn’t be faked, and neither could the fluctuation of Mana from a moment ago.

’Maybe I’m just too tired? It’s all because of Ron’s experiment! I must not have rested well. Why else would I be having such an absurd dream!’

”Get out, all of you!”

With the foulest attitude imaginable, the Half-Elf girl chased the motley crew out of her room, slammed the door, and dove under her covers.

”What’s with her? She seemed really upset. I still had a lot of questions I wanted to ask her...” Ron was completely bewildered, unknowingly flexing on her.

”I guess she’s mad you stayed in her bedroom for too long,” the Half-Elf Warrior, who knew nothing about Magic, guessed blindly.

”Her kidnapping attempt failed!” Delaford spouted even more nonsense.

Only Quest, who had an inkling as to why, remained silent. He had nothing left to say about the human who, just this morning, had been an ordinary person.

There are absolutely no shortcuts to learning Magic. Therefore, there was only one answer:

This seemingly unremarkable guy possessed heaven-defying talent and learning ability. And it was far, far too heaven-defying!