Aiming for a Cozy Life in a Dangerous Forest in Another World! - Chapter 15
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- Chapter 15 - Let’s Study
Chapter 15: Let’s Study
Lost in thought about magic, I eventually spotted the cliff where the cave was located.
I spotted a Fangrabbit nearby and quickly dispatched it with a 『Stone Bullet』 to the head, as usual.
I created stairs and climbed up to the open area in front of the cave entrance, where I found Kaito cleaning up the debris from the 『Cell Fruits』.
“I’m home, Kaito.”
I said, and Kaito beamed,
“Welcome back, Onee-chan!”
He replied. It’s been a while since anyone said “welcome back” to me.
Not after my mother died, of course, but even when she was alive, she would work late, and no one would be home when I got back.
Lost in these memories, I noticed Pola was missing.
“…Where’s Pola?”
“Ah, she’s sleeping in the back of the cave. She was so excited about being able to use magic that she used it too much and ran out of magic power.”
Ran out of magic power? I was a little concerned, but Kaito didn’t seem worried, so I figured it wasn’t anything serious. I was relieved she was sleeping soundly in the back.
For now, I asked Kaito to go back down the cliff and butcher the Fangrabbit for me.
I told him I could now create ice and asked him to cut up more meat than we needed for tonight. I also asked him to extract the magic stone and bring it back with the meat.
I burned the rest, as usual.
Back in the open area in front of the cave, I helped Kaito clean up and asked him about this “running out of magic power” thing that I was curious about.
“Hey, Kaito. What does it mean to ‘run out of magic power’, like what happened to Pola?”
“Well, if you use too much magic, the amount of magic power in your body decreases, and then you can’t move. …Has that never happened to you, Onee-chan?”
“Hmm, I don’t think so.”
“…Is that so. You use such amazing magic, and yet you never run out of magic power…”
He gave me that slightly dumbfounded look again.
But even if he said that, I had no recollection of ever feeling tired after using magic, no matter how much I used.
Like on the first day when I was playing around with it, or earlier when I was hunting.
I didn’t know for sure, but I thought I was using more magic than Pola was when she was playing around with it.
And the scale and intensity of my magic was probably greater than Pola’s too.
Which meant, logically speaking, I should be using more magic power than her.
…Speaking of which, magic power?
Whenever I used 『Appraisal』 on things, it seemed like it always mentioned mana.
Like what 『Physical Armor』 was made of, and what 『Amaju Fruits』 were rich in.
Was mana different from magic power?
Curious, I asked Kaito.
“It’s been a while since I learned about this, so I might be a bit fuzzy on the details,” he said, thinking hard as he gave me a thorough explanation.
Mana was the source of everything. It existed everywhere, in the air, water, and earth.
Magic power, on the other hand, was what living creatures accumulated within their bodies by converting the mana they absorbed.
When living creatures used magic, they used their magic power to send commands to mana, activating the magic. When magic power was used to activate magic, the accumulated magic power would be depleted. And then, it was replenished by converting mana once again and accumulating it in the body.
And the amount of magic power consumed varied depending on the magic activated. The stronger or larger the magic, the more magic power it consumed. Basically, the bigger and stronger the thing or phenomenon you created, the more magic power it used.
Also, the amount of magic power each creature could accumulate in their body, and the efficiency with which they could convert mana to magic power, differed.
Magical beasts and monsters, who had magic stones in their bodies, were superior in both accumulation and conversion. When magical beasts and monsters converted mana into magic power and stored it in their bodies, the magic stone in their body controlled the flow and process. As a result, their accumulation and conversion efficiency was far superior to that of creatures without magic stones.
Next came races like 『Demons』 and 『Elves』. While they didn’t possess magic stones, they had a high affinity for mana due to their physiology, which meant they had superior accumulation and conversion efficiency.
Lastly, 『Humans』. Humans were inferior to magical beasts, monsters, elves, and demons in both accumulation and conversion efficiency. Furthermore, their affinity for mana was so low that the power of their magic and their recovery speed were inferior compared to demons and elves.
That’s where chanting came in. It seemed like spells had been created to prevent humans from wasting magic power and scattering their commands to mana by imagining unnecessary things during activation. They helped them focus on the desired outcome.
Even with chanting, it was generally believed that most ordinary people didn’t have enough magic power to activate magic. Only nobles, who had been selectively breeding for generations, even dozens of generations, with other magically adept individuals, were said to be able to use magic.
Only those with superior magic power, like demons and elves, or a select few humans who had dedicated their lives to the study of magic – like those called Archmages or Sages – could use magic continuously with only their imagination, meaning without chanting, or with only simple chanting.
So the reason I had never run out of magic power was because I was a 『Dragon Demon』? I definitely felt like I was closer to a demon than a human…
…Still, it made sense that humans placed such importance on chanting, considering their limitations. Spells were probably created to help them reach the essence of magic: imagination.
But then I couldn’t explain how Kaito and Pola had been able to use a little bit of chantless magic.
Pola possessed “Intermediate” 『Magic Power』 as a unique skill. This skill must have given her some kind of advantage when using magic. Perhaps it made it easier or more efficient to send commands to mana with her magic power.
But Kaito didn’t have the 『Magic Power』 skill. Even so, he managed to activate magic, albeit imperfectly, on his first try.
…Hmm, I didn’t understand.
♢ ♢ ♢
Thanks to Kaito’s explanation, I gained new knowledge about magic power and mana. I was able to update my understanding of this world, based on my own experiences and hypotheses. There was still a lot I didn’t understand, but I would figure it out eventually.
I thanked Kaito for teaching me, and without thinking, patted his head and said, “You’re so smart.” He blushed, looking both happy and embarrassed, and averted his gaze.
So cute.
I then checked on Kaito and Pola’s progress.
It seemed they had successfully extracted salt by crushing and boiling the 『Cell Fruits』.
The cup I had made for storing the salt was full, and there were three more similar cups, all full to the brim.
“Did you make these containers, Kaito?”
“Yeah. I tried to make them like the ones you made, Onee-chan. I messed up a few times at first, but I got the hang of it.”
“I see. You really can use magic, Kaito.”
“Yeah… But Pola seems to be better at it. She handled the water and fire for boiling the 『Cell Fruits』. And while we were waiting for it to boil, she imitated the magic you used, Onee-chan. She made a light with 『Light Magic』 and even created a 『Fire Wall』 with 『Fire Magic』. …Well, she got carried away and used up all her magic power and fell asleep.”
Kaito explained with a hint of frustration, yet pride in his little sister.
…Pola really was good at magic.
As we were talking, we finished cleaning up, and I noticed the sun was about to set.
“Let’s go inside and have dinner. I’m sure Pola will be hungry when she wakes up.”
“Okay!”
We went to the back of the cave.
……Oh no, I forgot to introduce Rin to Kaito!