To summarize, I can’t turn a pumpkin into a magical golden carriage, because the harder it is for something to happen, the more mana it requires to be done through a spell…
So then, what’s issue number two? Chara wondered.
“Well, I could tell you, but~ wouldn’t it be more exciting if you tried guessing it on your own?” Curiosity suggested with a playful voice.
Umm… could you at least give me a hint?
The little student stared at her teacher piteously, but the other spirit just looked at her quietly as if saying, How can I give you a hint before you’ve even tried!
Just as Chara was on the verge of swirling up a fuss, the spell that kept the ominous black rock afloat finally depleted its mana, allowing gravity to reassert its presence.
Seemingly awaiting this, Curiosity swiftly cast another “hold” spell using the two wisps of mana that had remained from her last demonstration. The ominous black rock, now safe and secure, ascended gently and floated toward its owner’s desk.
As Chara watched the piece of obsidian cross the distance between the teacher’s desk and her own, a phrase came to mind:
Distance from reality….
The little spirit’s swirling slowed, and her mana rippled thoughtfully.
Now that I think about it, the concept of “distance” only really measures the space between an origin and a destination…
In the case of spell casting, that’s reality and a desired possibility…
But how is a possibility or destination locked onto in the first place?
It was a line of thinking she hadn’t considered. The rippling of her mana subsided, before surging up again with even higher amplitude.
The obvious answer would be… during the first two steps of the spell casting process, envisioning and invocation. But… how do these processes even work?
How do these processes distinguish between possibilities where an object explodes into pieces, or defies the laws of gravity…
Or whether it melts into a puddle of goo, or melts into a slightly more viscous puddle of goo?
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Questions surfaced in her mind, one after another, like bubbles rising to the surface of a lake. She felt like she was onto something, but she was unsure how to describe it.
Sensing her little student’s burgeoning curiousness, the curiosity spirit pulsed delightedly, her mana accelerating into a cheerful swish. “Wow~! Little Spirit, you are so smart~! I knew you could figure it out if you just tried~!” she complimented generously.
Figure out what? Chara mumbled inwardly, resurfacing from her sea of thoughts.
“The problem of complexity! You see, unlike me—who is very curious, meticulous, and smart—mana is extremely silly and dumb~! It’s only capable of following extremely simplistic instructions like stop, go, burn, and freeze!” Curiosity exclaimed in a chastising tone, her form swishing and swirling animatedly.
“Because of this, the more intricate the possibility you try to grasp, the more likely it is for the mana powering that spell to become confused and settle for the closest equivalent.
“This outcome might be what you intended, but it also might not be…
“Regardless, there are actually quite a few ways to mitigate this effect. However, since this lesson is supposed to be about mana, I’ll only explain the variables pertaining to it,” she stated in a firm tone.
I see… The little spirit bobbed up and down cutely.
The swirling teacher had a hard time peeling off her gaze as she redirected it onto the giant stone whiteboard. Suddenly, the poorly drawn rock she had sketched previously peeled away from the stone’s surface, and it disappeared into a fine mist.
Curiosity took a moment to gather her thoughts before starting. “Just as every possibility has a distance from reality, it also has a direction. And mana, as the embodiment of possibility, also shares this characteristic. However, unlike possibility itself, which naturally extends in all directions, mana is primarily limited to just eight.”
The greater spirit lifted her writing utensil and drew a point.
“The important thing is, that when you’re casting, the first thing you’ll do is focus on a desired possibility. This possibility will naturally have a distance and direction.”
She then marked another point to the top-left of the first.
“Now then, Little Spirit, riddle me this. What do you think happens if the direction of your mana doesn’t point in the direction of your spell?” Curiosity giggled lightly, as she brought her writing utensil back to the initial point.
You miiiiiiiiiiss~! The little spirit extended forward a tiny mana tendril, and then whipped it to the other side. Bam! She bounced back from the recoil. Her tendril gun was too fierce.
The curiosity spirit giggled childishly. “Precisely. However, since the mana has already been activated, it will still have to manifest something…” She scrawled an arrow extending from the first point, but it had veered far off course.
“It just… it probably won’t be what you intended,” she concluded, marking a new point where the arrow ended.
Peeling away the arrows and clearing the whiteboard once more, Curiosity lifted up the ominous black rock and sketched out a giant black circle, followed by another smaller circle inside of it. Next, she drew a long horizontal line that cut across both circles, dividing them in half. Lastly, she drew four more lines, dividing the area between the inner and outer circles into six equally sized sections, three on the top, and three on the bottom.
When she was finished, the end product was what Chara assumed to be a thinking map, one that she had a vague idea of its purpose.
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