As Chara put an end to her musings and made her way back towards reality, the sight that welcomed her back was the now long-forgotten diamonds.

Eager to put her theories to the test, Chara immediately began an incantation!

Ah… Umm…

Despite all her contemplation, the one thing she hadn’t considered was what to say. After a brief moment to ponder over her statement, she began.

Ahem, little diamonds! Dig your way out of the earth and come to me!

Using her understanding of physics, she did her best to envision the desired result through her perception. She didn’t know if this was necessary, but it didn’t hurt to try.

In response, she could feel an ethereal weight manifest over her mind. It was the weight of her decision and a potential future. It wasn’t quite real and would not affect her. But she could tell it would be, but only once she took hold of it.

Almost intuitively, Chara took hold of this weight.

In concert, the presumed earth element mana around the diamond vein started to waver slightly. Taking this as a sign of initial success, she instinctively kept hold of the weight and started to push onto it.

In accordance, the earth element mana’s uncertain wavering started to become more organized. Very slowly, the precious stones started to push their way out of the hardened stone, just the way she envisioned.

Concurrently, she started to accumulate fatigue. If this went on for much longer, she might end up passing out for the second time. Nevertheless, Chara was unwilling to let her first experience with true magic end with failure.

After spending an eternity in silence, she could perceive as the shifting of the earth rippled the surrounding air and wind mana, causing the sounds of grinding stones to reverberate against her body. As the numerous diamonds grew closer and closer, the noises of grinding grew louder and louder, only intensifying her anticipation. Once the first diamond finally breached the earth’s surface, a dim light radiated from the gem’s surface, trying it’s best to illuminate her surroundings.

With one last push, the precious stone fully separated from the stone wall’s surface, leaving Gaia’s embrace… only to be confiscated by the Devil as it fell upwards and vanished into the darkness.

Eh?

Following the first diamond’s lead, the rest of the gems also began finishing their journeys as they too fell one by one, never to be seen again.

No no no no no! Stop! Stoop! Uwaaaaaaa!!

When she declared her intent to stop, the burden over her mind vanished, and the remaining gems stopped. Unfortunately, it was too little and too late. The majority of the diamonds had already left her zone of control, and even if they hadn’t, as their positions were no longer being fixed by the earth, they would have fallen regardless of her intentions.

What the hell! Why! Chara cursed the mysterious cavern for looking the same in both orientations. It was not that long ago that she approached an earthen column and followed its length to reach the bottom of the cavern. Who could have predicted that she had actually gone to the ceiling instead?

Before she knew what she was doing, she had already rocketed after the fallen treasure. Astoundingly, she could vaguely sense many of the diamonds even after they’d left her purview. Once she reached the base of the stalagmite and the cavern floor, she used this new radar like intuition to quickly locate the excavated gems.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

It was only after reaching the first diamond did a pertinent question finally cross her mind. Err… How am I going to carry these?

A sane person probably would have retorted why little miss cloud needed them in the first place, but Chara was far too tired from her excavation to realize the absurdity of her current goal. That aside, her thought process was very simple, “I found them. Therefore, they are mine,” and now she was simply going to collect what was hers.

Chara would make an excellent colonist.

If I can dig them out of stone pillars, then I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be able to pull them towards me…

Using her new intuition, she tried best to lock on to diamonds. She wasn’t sure what was causing this, but assumed it had to do with her earlier operation.

My precious diamonds, come to me~!

Using her imagination, she tried her best to envision the diamonds being pulled towards herself. In response to her proclamation, she could feel another ethereal weight manifest over her soul. With her budding intuition, she could tell at a glance that this use of magic wouldn’t be as burdensome as her previous.

But before she could act on this future, she was struck with a terrible sense of anxiety. Her instincts were screaming at her. Warning her that if she chose to proceed, she would be crushed under its weight.

If Chara was still a human, right now she would be drenched in cold sweat.

The last time she felt this much anxiety without a clear reason, was right before trying to scry the entire cavern. As she later found out, there was a good reason. She still doesn’t know what the reason is, however, receiving a soul searing headache and passing out was more than enough lesson to teach her not to ignore her instincts.

What… What did I do wrong this time?

It was only after hearing so many loud police sirens and seeing all the yellow tape that she decided that maybe it would be a good idea to take a look at her condition first.

Upon witnessing her pitiful state, it was like someone had poured a bucket of cold water over her head. Chara instantly realized that she had been too enamored with the allure of magic and diamonds. So much so that she hadn’t even considered what it would cost her.

Of course, the answer was something that she should have already been able to guess. In almost every single fantasy story, spells and magic are fueled by mana, and mana is precisely what she’s made of.

Although she couldn’t be described as a candle about to go out, Chara did guesstimate that she was less than a third of her initial density.

She was wondering what she was going to do when she felt a gentle disturbance ripple across the surrounding mana. Had she not been focusing on her perception; she would not have even felt the disturbance.

Chara instantly raised her guard to the max and went on full alert. However, even after expanding her awareness to its maximum extent, she still couldn’t locate the cause of the disturbance. For something to supersede her range and be felt regardless of the distance, it could only be something big.

Ideally, in a situation where the other party can sense you, but you can’t sense the other party, the correct response is to immediately stop everything you’re doing and run away. Unfortunately, she had yet to become aware of this vital piece of wisdom as she was fortunate enough to have not encountered any of the terrors that call this place home.

As she wearily waited in place, filled with both wariness and anticipation, the disturbance quickly closed the distance, zeroing and on her location.

When the assailant finally entered her area of perception, Chara could feel as all her weariness and fear were washed away. What was left was only curiosity and interest. When she finally snapped out of her trance, floating in front of her was a massive, dense, formless cloud of iridescent mana with illusory trails of mist weaving in and out of its ethereal form.

Although this mana contained the same iridescent quality as Chara’s, unlike her colorless mana, this mana clearly contained a bias towards a particular color. It evoked a gentle and refreshing feeling, like sitting below an umbrella near a spring while listening to the sound of running water under the light drizzle of rain.

It was the element of water!

Overcome with temptation, Chara did something that she normally would have never considered doing in such a situation. Her mind abuzz with information, she tried her best to quickly decipher the result.

[Curiosity Essence Spirit]

Eh?

Noticing her probe, the curiosity spirit did a little spin before releasing a magnificent shower of illusory water droplets that shimmered and sparkled before disappearing.