Chapter 26: Garfield's Mana
Garfield wasn’t interested in combining souls with Thoron but he thought he should at least say it delicately. “I’m not interested in combining souls with you.” He ended up putting it bluntly.
“Birds combine with insects. Do they care about the insect’s interests?”
“Does a one-legged duck swim in a circle?”
Thoron tilted his head. Garfield moved on.
“I’m thankful for your help teaching these two about necromancy, but I’m under no obligation to join with you.”
“Don’t go.”
“Hm?” Garfield wasn’t expecting Thoron to plead like that.
“Let’s have a match.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“Your summoning magic interests me. I want to see it in action. If you win, I’ll relent. I’ll continue to leave the northern lands alone as well.”
“Tempting… What is the nature of the competition?”
“You summon one creature to face my champion. They fight.”
Garfield suspected Thoron was hoping for another summoning that releases divine energy. He didn’t think winning would actually derive any benefit, but it still felt premature to escape. “Fine.”
“Excellent.” A creature rose up from the ground. It shook sand off its body and revealed a demonic form. It wielded a large black sword. “Summon your warrior.”
“Very well. «Summon Creature of the Plains, a Beast, Furry Familiar».” A dog-sized fuzzball faced off against the demon warrior. Furry Familiar was a defender, and an extremely weak one at that. In Garfield’s original world, its main draw was that it was cute. Some players of a certain game liked to try to buff up the Furry Familiar as much as possible due to the hilarity.
“Your beast will not survive combat with my champion.”
“That’s only IF your champion is black-hearted enough to slay such a cute creature.”
The two fighters lunged at each other. The Furry Familiar was promptly sliced in two by the demon.
“Your champion is pretty black-hearted you know.”
“Leave us.” The demon sank back into the ground. “I won the match.”
“Congratulations,” said Garfield in a monotone.
“Furry Familiar, is it? You will regret summoning something so weak.”
“Why is that?”
“Furry Familiar is the last spell you will ever cast.”
Garfield would have loved nothing more than to immediately follow up that claim with a spell other than Furry Familiar. As he searched his memory for options, he suddenly realized that none of his spells were available. Wait. Furry Familiar was still available, but he didn’t seem able to cast any of his other spells.
Thoron asked, “How does it feel to go from being able to cast 419,388 spells to being able to cast one weak spell?”
Garfield laughed nervously.
----------------------------------------
“They’ve met.”
“Col.” Pandora didn’t appreciate the intrusion into her topical shrine. “How did your meeting go?”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Terribly. As usual, He was useless.”
“Oh? I had more luck.”
“I will monitor the situation from here.”
“Not a chance. I already advised Garfield to prepare a second shrine in this home.”
“Oh? That’s unusually thoughtful of you.”
“I suggest a ski resort.”
“…What?”
“I sense that Garfield is in trouble.”
“Do you think he will actually lose to Thoron?”
“Not a chance. He has those vampires with him. At worst, a tactical retreat may be in order.”
----------------------------------------
As Thoron lifted a hand to gesture menacingly at Garfield, Hannah and Solana grabbed Garfield’s shoulders from either side, pulling him back as they flew parallel to the ground at ever-increasing speed. Their judgment that it was time to escape was sound.
“You would let little girls save you!?” Thoron taunted.
“Yes!” Garfield raised his hand to gesture towards Thoron, who grew ever distant. His next spell darkened the land.
“«Summon Creature of the Plains, a Beast, Furry Familiar, x999,999,999».”
----------------------------------------
As soon as the trio crossed the threshold into the Dragon Mountains, they became able to teleport again. They immediately returned to Garfield’s estate.
“Garfield, that was impressive, but we almost got buried you know!”
“Yes, good job getting me out of there Solana, Hannah.”
“Did Thoron get crushed?” asked Hannah.
“I doubt it. Thoron must be pretty pissed off right now, though.”
“What will we do now?”
“I was thinking dinner and a bath.”
“Garfield!” both girls yelled.
“If you insist, then bath first.”
“What about Thoron?” said Hannah.
“He can wait until tomorrow.”
“Are you sure?” asked Solana.
“Fairly. He went through all the trouble of luring us there. He even kept his orc subordinate in the dark from what we could tell. Thoron probably just didn’t expect you two to extract me quite so quickly. He can wait until tomorrow.”
“Is your magic back?”
“Yes. It seems like he can control what magic is usable in the Badlands. That will be tricky.”
“I can help you with that,” a voice echoed in Garfield’s head.
----------------------------------------
The three arrived back at Chrissy’s house.
“So you really can observe everything, huh?”
“So it would seem,” Chrissy replied to Garfield. “I want to help you so you can use your magic again against Thoron.”
“That would be useful.”
Chrissy smiled and then explained why Garfield’s magic was ineffective in the Badlands. “Thoron blocked all magic that can be cast without using mana. Well, all magic except for that one spell you used.”
“Ah. There’s probably nobody beside me who can cast magic without using mana like that. How can you help me use magic, though?”
“I can give you mana.”
“Give me mana? How?”
“Directly. Your body doesn’t produce mana and it also blocks any attempts by others to forcefully insert mana. If you want to receive the mana, though, your body won’t block it.”
“If I have mana in my body then I can modify my spells to use a small amount of mana in order to cast them?”
“Yes!”
“If that will work then let’s do it. I’m not sure I’m visualizing exactly how this works, though…”
“Give me your hand.”
“We’re not even married!” Despite Garfield’s protest, he extended his hand to Chrissy. She held his in both of hers and then closed her eyes.
“Can’t I give him mana?” Hannah asked but Chrissy just shook her head.
“Now relax and accept my mana.” Chrissy then pushed her mana into Garfield’s body through his hand. She had intended to start with a trickle and up the flow after it was established, but the mana oozed out of her all at once. “What?”
Garfield’s muscles all tightened up, locking him in place for a moment. He then fell on to his side, caught by Hannah and Solana shortly before reaching the floor. The vampires both bared their fangs at Chrissy. “What did you do to him!?”
“Huh? That’s odd. I didn’t mean to give him so much mana… His body didn’t react how I expected…”
“Will he be all right!?” Solana barked at Chrissy.
“Uh, yes. Give him a minute.”
After a few moments, Garfield’s body relaxed and he woke up again. “Uh, is it like that every time you hold hands with someone?”
“If that would be useful to you, then yes.”
“…Forget I said anything.”
“Your body was like a sponge… probably because you come from a different place.”
“I don’t totally get it, but let’s go with that. Here, let me try casting a spell using mana. What type of cute animal do you like, Chrissy?”
“Bears!”
“Bears? Oh, like the bear cubs?”
“Them too…”
“I think I have something that will work. «Summon Creature of the Forest, a Beast, Himalayan Red Panda».” A pint-sized "bear", perhaps 5 kilograms, appeared. “I think it worked. I used a small bit of mana to cast that spell.”
“It’s SO CUTE!” Chrissy was in love.
Garfield pointed at Chrissy. “Go! Snuggle!” The "bear" launched at Chrissy and attempted to defeat her with cuteness and body contact. It’s not clear who won but Chrissy didn’t care.
“Thanks, Chrissy. I think I can take it from here.”
Chrissy was too busy laughing as the "bear" licked her face to reply. The three returned to Garfield’s estate.
----------------------------------------
“I want one.”
“Me too.”
“We have two cute bear cubs already!”
“It’s not the same!” Hannah and Solana both shouted back at Garfield.
“Let’s move on. I need to plan for our engagement with Thoron tomorrow. The order will be dinner, bath, and then plan.”
“What should we do while you’re planning?”
“Hannah, do you two really need me to keep you occupied every minute of the day? Figure it out on your own!”
“…Okay. Let’s go, Solana.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere fun.”
“Okay!” The two girls disappeared.
“Why do I feel like I’ve made a terrible miscalculation somehow?”