None of the three can come out with an answer to my question.
This doesn’t mean that they are ignorant.
For humans, mana is something we take for granted.
Even people who have no connection with magic are aware that there is mana in the air.
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This is what’s known as common sense.
For something so natural, few people would raise any doubts.
“Now that you mention it, what happens to the magic afterwards? We just take it for granted.”
“That’s definitely something we can’t explain…… Somehow, the more I think about it, the more mysterious I think it is……”
“Mm-, even you two don’t know this about magic huh-. When I learnt magic from sis Lain, we didn’t talk about this too-“
All three of them look confused.
“This isn’t something unreasonable for you guys to not know about, so don’t be too despondent. In the first place, it’s rare for anyone to have this kind of doubt. Among the most advanced explorers, there’s probably no one who knows this. I think even the top magic users in “Night Sky’s Silver Rabbit”, Selma, Lain, and Lucre, probably don’t know anything about it.”
“My sister too……?”
“Probably, I guess. That’s why you don’t need to be embarrassed about now knowing. You can become a top class explorer even without knowing this. On the contrary, this isn’t something that makes you better at magic the instant you learn about it. The things you need to do to improve don’t change in the end. However, knowing this does make you more proficient at handling magic, without a doubt.”
Why am I talking about this while giving a lecture about seirei? That’s because seirei and magic, and thus by extension, mana, are closely related.
Rather than just explaining seirei alone, I think this way will help them better understand.
“I’m not trying to criticise, but you guys felt you understood magic, didn’t you? But in reality, there’s still much you don’t understand. Though, don’t be discouraged. If there’s things you don’t know, you just have to learn from now on.”
“””Yes!”””
They couldn’t answer my question satisfactorily, and were giving off a gloomy air, but my follow-up seems to have lifted the mood a little.
“Well then, I’m going to start the explanation now. Let’s start with the answer to my question. What happens when magic finishes its work? It returns to being — mana.”
“Return to being, mana?
Log repeats my answer.
“I think it’d be easy for you to consider mana as a kind of ‘universal worker’. For example, if we invoke [Fire Bullet], from the perspective of mana, the mana has been ordered to ‘advance to the designated location while burning in a spherical shape’ and faithfully carries out that order. So after completing this order, it enters a state of standby until an order comes again. We call this waiting state ‘floating mana’.”
Strictly speaking, there are conditions for returning to this standby state, but I won’t go into that because explaining that would confuse matters.
“I thought that after you activate magic, the mana will disappear. The mana doesn’t disappear, huh.”
Sophie mutters in understanding.
Up to this point, I’m sure everyone can still keep up.
“This is where it gets a bit unclear, so take it with a grain of salt, but mana follows our formulae — in other words, executes our commands. What do you think would happen if the majority of the commands that this mana were to receive are mostly fire-based?”
Incidentally, offensive magic is divided into six types: fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, and ice.
Other than offensive magic, there are systems like recovery magic and support magic, but these aren’t relevant right now, so I’ll skip them.
“Hmm-, I don’t think it really matters, right? It’s simply just following orders, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. Ten or twenty times doesn’t change things. But when repeated a hundred or a thousand times, a certain change occurs in the mana.”
“…… You’ll only be able to use that type of magic, something like that?”
Logs speaks his thoughts.
“Close. The changed mana still can perform all types. However, it’ll become better at executing that type of magic. We humans are the same way, right? If you do something over and over, you should get used to it. Think of it the same way. And that altered mana is what we’ve called ‘seirei’ or a spirit.”
“The changed mana…… Does that mean that magic used with this spirit is faster and more powerful?”
Sophie asks.
“Correct. That’s why if there’s a certain spirit in the space, it would be more efficient to use that type of magic.”
“I see. If you know that, that would be an advantage….. So, how do you check whether that spirit is there or not?”
“For the method to check — there’s none.”
“Eh…….”
“Spirits are the same as mana. We humans can’t sense mana, so it’s only natural that we can’t sense spirits, right?”
“Eh-, what the-!”
Carol looks disappointed and lets out her dissatisfaction.
Well, that can’t be helped.
“That’s why I told you at the start. Even if you knew this, it won’t improve your magic. –But I also said that if you knew this, you can handle magic better. Especially for explorers who make their living searching labyrinths, it’s definitely something good to know.”
“Ah, I see.”
Sophie sounds like she’s noticed something in my comment.
“Sophie, what did you realise?”
Log asks in response.
“Um, well, spirits are mana that have done hundreds and thousands of the same type of magic, right? And in a labyrinth, there are certain kinds of magical beasts that appear at each floor of the labyrinth. In other words, if there are many demonic beasts weak to fire that appear on a floor, don’t you think there would be fire type spirits? Because everyone would be using fire magic.”
“Mm-. In that case, there might be, but isn’t there no point? I mean, if it works, then whether you know about spirits or not, everyone’s going to be using that type of magic, right?”
“Carol, what you’re saying isn’t wrong. But, didn’t Orn also say? You can handle magic better. If there’s a demonic beast that you can defeat by casting magic with ten units of mana, you’ll cast it with ten units, right? But, if those spirits are there, even though you wanted to cast magic with ten units of mana, you might actually end up using eleven or twelve units. On the other hand, even if you use less than nine units, you can still beat that demonic beast. In other words, if you can cast with less mana than usual, that means you’ll be more efficient!”
……Amazing.
What I was about to explain has been mostly covered by what Sophia said.
“It is true that if you lower the power, it becomes easier to construct the formula, and the burden on your head can also be reduced. There’s quite a big difference between knowing and not knowing!”
“Umm, Orn, am I right in my thinking?
“Yeah, you’re right. You did well to arrive at that.”
“Hmm-? But still, that’s weird.”
Carol seems to have caught on to something.
“What’s weird?”
“According to Master’s explanation, a spirit is basically mana, extension, right? Then, what did that sis mean when she said, ‘Seirei told me’”
“Now that you mention it, that is true…….”
“I haven’t explained that to you yet.”
“Hmmm-? What do you mean, Master?”
“As I explained earlier, we can’t converse with spirits. But there’s an exception.”
“An exception?”
“Right. They’re classified as spirits, but they are sometimes referred to by another name: ‘fairies’.”
“‘Fairies’, like those in the fairy tales that cooperated with the Hero to defeat the Evil God?”
“Yes. But it’s been said that only a small percentage of them existed from the times of those fairy tales.”
“Hmm-? So does this mean that she can talk to fairies? But aren’t spirits the same as fairies? Then she shouldn’t be able to sense them, right?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t touch on things related to that. For now, this is all I have to explain regarding spirits. Well, there’s no harm learning about spirits, even if it just stays unused in a corner of your mind.”
“””Thank you very much.”””
This day has ended with some unexpected things, receiving gifts from my students and explaining about spirits.
And finally, the martial arts tournament begins.
–
