"Come on! Get out of this leglock!"
"Ack! I know we declared war, but your methods are a bit extreme don't ya think?!"
After our war started, Jagon's training become even worse than it already was. Somehow, something like that was actually possible.
I was still learning magic, but much slower and not for long. I had a Mind Overload, so casting magic too much ― or using external mana sensing in the first place ― was dangerous, so we cut back on that. Better safe than sorry.
My peaceful days continued, with pretty much nothing changing.
Was it weird that everything stayed practically the same after me and Jagon declared war? Probably.
But whether I liked to admit it or not, we were friends. And we wouldn't want our war to get in the way of our friendship.
Besides... I feel like nothing special happening is Jagon's strategy in the first place.
It was his way of saying "Things are fine now, even though you are still kind. What are you getting worked up for?"
Or maybe his scheme was so vast that I just couldn't see it at the moment.
Either way, the important part is that days continued without problems.
***
"Hey, Jagon, I have been wondering this for a while. How do I control existing objects?"
I had seen Jagon controlling existing things innumerable times at this point.
Sure, I could make a small ball of water appear in midair, but the moment my mana ran out, that water would disappear.
―Making lasting things with magic was impossible.
Even if you dropped a ball of water made of mana on some dirt, and that same dirt became soaked because of that, the moment mana ran out, the dirt would once again become dry.
As such, controlling existing objects seemed way too strong.
"Oh? Existing objects? It's easy. You can feel with mana sense that every object has its own mana signature, right?"
I nodded.
"You just have to take over that object's mana with your own. The moment the object becomes full of your own mana, you can control it."
"Okay, but where does that end? Like, if I took over a rock, would I be able to control it?"
There was no such thing as Rock Magic. So I couldn't help but wonder where that stopped.
"Yeah, you could control a rock. Of course, controlling something as rigid as that is difficult, especially if you want to mold it, but it's not impossible."
I raised my eyebrow.
"Then why don't people use that? It seems stupid strong."
Jagon chuckled.
"Try it."
I picked up a small rock and started replacing its own mana with my mana.
'―Difficult!'
Not only was it difficult, it was slow and mana consuming.
Not wanting to push my mind that was still recovering from Mind Overload, I stopped.
"I see. It's the same as the deal with Concept and Foundation Magic, huh? Too inefficient."
Jagon smirked.
"You bet. And it's not only that. If you don't keep taking over the object constantly, your mana will eventually be pushed out and you will lose control again."
As I stared at the rock in contemplation, my gaze wondered to Zelen. More accurately, below Zelen.
"Hey, bastard, creating permanent things with magic is impossible, right?"
He nodded.
"Then what about the plants Life Creator made? They are permanent are they not?"
He pursed his lips.
"It is not quite the same. You see, Wood Magic is pretty weird. Unlike other magics, it actually had a way of absorbing mana after the spell was completed. So it is not that they are permanent, it is that they are constantly absorbing mana to stay alive."
I see. Is that the reason why it stopped existing? Because the Gods thought it was too gamebreaking and they removed it?
'Gods...'
"Hey, hulk of muscle, can you tell me about the Gods?"
"Gods, huh? That's a big topic, how to start..."
He rubbed his chin in thought.
"Well, let's start with the easy stuff. Remember all the types of magic?"
"Ye."
"Let's just say that every God is responsible for one type of magic. Feuerinfa is for fire, Mivozu is for Water, and like that for every single type. There is an exception though. The creator of this world, Solevitasn. He is the God above all the other ones, the one who manages the world, and the one who gives out Miracles."
'So there are fourteen Gods in total. That's a pretty big amount...'
I wanted to learn the name of every single God, but there's a word that caught my attention more.
"What are Miracles?"
Jagon smiles.
"They are pretty similar to magic, but at the same time very different. If a person holds great belief in Solevitasn, then they can pray to him while offering some of their mana. If enough mana is given and the prayer is properly said, their prayer will be answered. People who hold even greater belief can just think the prayer instead of saying it."
"That's... just magic."
He wagged a finger in front of my face while clicking his tongue.
"Like I said, looks similar, but is very different. You cast magic by making shapes, but Miracles don't have that process at all. Your mana just seemingly disappears and the prayer is answered. Not only that, Miracles do things that would be impossible with any kind of magic, like: healing, strengthening other people and a whole lot of very niche things that I can't be bothered to list. Additionally, your prayers will not be answered unless you have strong enough belief. And unlike magic, you don't get better at it over time. The only way to make Miracles more effective... is to have higher faith. The higher the faith, the more effective Miracles will be."
Similar but different. Yeah, I think I get it now.
While magic is something we ourselves can do, Miracles are something we can only do when a God helps us.
"But what exactly do you mean by faith? Like, Solevitasn clearly exists, and faith is just believing in something. If it's something that exists, don't you just automatically have full faith?"
'Such a hard name to remember. Solevitasn, Solevitasn, Solevitasn. I'll have to write that in my notebook.'
Jagon chuckled.
"Tell me, do you believe in Solevitasn?"
"Yeah, of course I do."
He slowly shakes his head.
"No, that's believing in his existence. Do you believe in Solevitasn? Do you believe he will help you no matter the situation? Do you believe he looks out for you? Do you believe in Solevitasn?"
...How could I believe in him, if he's a prime suspect for my arrival here? Of course I couldn't.
'So that's what faith is. I won't be able to use Miracles at all then.'
It was a shame. Healing myself felt like a good ability to have.
I opened my mouth to ask another question, but I just had so many of them, that I didn't know which one to pick.
'I still have so much to learn. What the hell are demons? What are the names of all the Gods? How do Adventurer Guilds work in this world?'
I also barely knew anything about magic.
There was so much I wanted to learn, so much I needed to know.
'But for now, one at a time.'
"Hey, baldie, why don't I ever train with Angelica? She's not really busy, and she's strong from what you have been saying. Wouldn't it be a good idea for me to gain experience by fighting such a strong opponent?"
"No. No way."
I was a bit surprised at the instant rejection.
"Why tho? I know you weren't capping when you said she was strong. And she has a unique fighting style. Training with her at least once is a good idea, no?"
"Haaa, how come you don't get it, weren't you supposed to be smart? Listen, you're the kind of person who makes people go all out. You trick them and make them end up in situations where they have no choice but to use their all. I am familiar with that kind of fighting style, so I can hold back fine, but if it's Angelica, she most likely wouldn't be able to."
"For real for real?"
"Yes. Not only that, if I end up going all out, I'd at most break a few bones. If Angelica fails to hold back... your arm getting ripped off is the best outcome."
I coughed uncontrollably.
"Ripped off?! Not broken, but ripped off?!"
Jagon nodded.
"She's just that strong. Even at my peak I wouldn't win against Angelica. And at my peak I was capable of hurling fireballs the size of buildings."
...Just why is it that Angelica keeps surprising me?
Whether it be her past or her capabilities... why does she seem kinda scary now?
'An angel... Yeah, she's an angel alright. A guardian angel, and a stupidly strong one at that.'
I might have said she was scary, but now that I thought about it, she was reassuring instead.
I mean, the thought that a person as strong as that was looking after me... yeah, you can't help but feel safe in that kind of situation.
'...Feel safe, huh?'
Putting that thought aside, I now knew that Angelica was the stronger of the two of them. If we're talking about combat ability, that is.
Because if we were to go by my measure of strength, then Jagon would have her beat.
I opened my mouth to ask another question, but then I realized I was out of different ways to call Jagon.
This was something important, so I had no choice but to think in silence for a bit.
'How else can I insult him? I've already said practically everything... no wait!'
"Hey, nerd, you keep telling me that you can get better at everything the more you do it... but how exactly does that work? Like, do you just get better no questions asked and no answers given?"
I needed to know just how powerful old people were in this world.
Jagon tilted his head.
"Isn't it obvious that the more you do something, the better you get at it? That's just basic common sense."
"You're saying that like I'm someone with common sense."
Jagon heartily laughed.
"Well, you're right about that! Ah, honestly, you're such a joy to be around. Your personality is so dry and rich at the same time. Talking with you just feels nice."
With a stupid smile, Jagon looked at me.
'He complimented my rich personality.'
I looked into the distance... into my past.
"Of course talking to me feels nice. The only people who wouldn't enjoy talking to me are bad people, or people who have malicious intentions towards me."
The clear distinction between enemies and friends. That is what I needed back then, and the personality that achieved that goal is the one I have right now.
But the topic of me wasn't important. What I needed right now was information.
Or, well, common sense.
So, I continued asking question after question. I needed to know as much as I could, after all.
***
"Alright, you got pretty good at rotating the shape. It's time we go to the next step; fine-tuning."
These last few days, I have just been practicing on how rotate the 'Fire' shape as much as possible. It was quite boring, so I was quite excited for the next step.
With an expression like that of a teacher ― which looked very wrong on him ― Jagon cleared his throat.
"Fine-tuning is the process of... well, fine-tuning the spell until it fits your needs. To do that, you have to understand how each part of the shape works and what it is responsible for."
He made the shape I was all too familiar with at this point.
"For example, this part―"
A certain part of the shape detaches from the rest.
"―is all about size. If I were to put more mana into it―"
The mana inside that part becomes more dense.
"―the moment I cast the spell, it will be way bigger."
The part reattaches itself to the rest of the shape, and once it completes a rotation, the spell is cast.
A huge flame appears above our heads.
"Now, of course, this drains mana way quicker than normal, so it doesn't last long."
The flame only stays there for a second before going away.
"Which is why we do a wee bit of trickery. We once again put more mana into the part that focuses on size... but we also take away some mana from the part that is responsible for temperature. Now, if we cast the spell, it will stay for way longer."
Another huge flame appears above our heads, but this one stays for a good fifteen seconds.
"Every spell has different amount of parts. For example, this spell only has two parameters: size and temperature. The length of how long it stays depends on how balanced these two parts are in mana density, and how much mana you put in overall."
...Wow, so cool! It was so interesting, and this had so much potential!
'I wonder how many parts complicated spells have? Probably dozens, no?! That's so many parameters! So many different combinations!'
Just something as simple as a fireball probably had hundreds of different ways of using it!
Argh, I wanted to cast cool spells and see their different combinations right now!
'Why did I have to go ahead and get Mind Overload?! I'm such a dumbass!'
I took a deep breath to calm down. My excitement was getting to my head.
'Alright, let's put what I learned in a more digestive form.'
Each spell has different parameters, and each part of their shape is for a different parameter. By controlling how dense the mana is in different parts, I can control the output. And depending on how these parameters are balanced, the time the spell is alive will differ.
But what exactly does it mean 'balanced'?
"Hey, smartass, what do you mean when you say balanced?"
"Think about it like this. The mana density of each part is multiplied by each other, and the result is how much mana is drained from your spell every second."
I see. So if I put 2 into one part and 2 into the other, the total mana drained every second is 4. And if I put 4 mana into one part and 1 into the other, the result will also be 4.
But, wait. Couldn't I just put 0,0000000001 mana into one part and 20000000000 into the other? Wouldn't that make it too overpowered?
'Let's try it out.'
"Feuerinfa, God of Fire, give me your aid. Create the fire to set everything alight, and so graciously allow me control of it."
A shape appeared in front of me. I couldn't quite make the shape on my own, mostly because I was too scared to push myself too far again, so I had to rely on chanting.
'Now, this part is responsible for size, and this one for temperature.'
I'll make the size part as dense as possible, and the temperature part as... sparse(?) as possible.
'Wait, is there even an antonym for dense? I'm pretty sure there's not. I'll just use undense then, don't care if the word doesn't exist!'
I tried my best... but couldn't get what I imagined. It was for one reason.
Controlling undense mana was hard. No, more accurately, I couldn't control mana that was too undense.
At some point, the mana in the temperature part become so undense, that controlling it became impossible for me.
'So that's why I can't just make one part a really low number and the other a really high number. I can't control mana that has too low of a number...'
"That's right. You weren't the first one to think of this, you know?"
I jolted in surprise.
I wondered whether I once again mumbled out loud, but then realized that Jagon just saw my whole expiriment.
'Of course that's what it is. Jagon can't read minds after all, and I'm not so careless as to mumble around him anymore.'
"Yeah, it would honestly be surprising if I was the first one to think of such an obvious thing."
That said, the way he said it makes me wonder...
Did someone apart from me also notice that Natural Body-Strengthening is bad?
***
I look at the ceiling which was being illuminated by the moon.
'...My translation is weird.'
I was, of course, talking about the automatic translation I had.
The language people of this world spoke was clearly different from mine. And yet, I could understand them perfectly, and they could understand me back.
It was not as though information about this language was in my head, no, it was a translation and it was happening in real time.
If I said slang, which people of this world shouldn't know, they still understood me. This weird translation thing was doing all the heavy lifting.
Not only that, sometimes, people talked to me back with slang too. Things that they had no idea knowing.
This was probably once again the translation taking liberties to make it easier for me to understand everything that was being said.
'...Let's just hope this translation isn't taken away from me at some point in time. That would be a disaster.'
While raising a very obvious flag, I went to sleep.