Gizmo pov—

That little slime, I swear. If it could talk, I’d no doubt that I would make multiple brake thoughts! Like with the eyes, everyone knows you need light to see, but the idea of the eyes telling the brain what it sees, and it’s not a simple intake of light either. It- she had let me observe her eye’s enchantments, even popping one out of it’s socket and handing it to me. She could even still see out of it!

Not only is it unfair that she could just will an enchantment onto something, but having such knowledge to draw from. Truly, her sage title is well granted. I stand before a wider table with a wooden body stretched out on it.. The little slime was watching me for once, instead of laying in her dish. Maybe I’m just getting sentimental in my old age, but she’s been like the granddaughter I never had. Being an infamous inventor doesn’t let you live a normal life.

I begin to work on it with my many tools, carving out cavities, laying the groundwork out for enchants. Unlike others, I use a lighter and easier to work with material, and embed sturdier materials to house the enchants. It’s cheaper and time saving. Time that gets used with the enchanting. I don’t do that half-wit shit other golemancers do. Every golem I make is to embrace and improve my understanding, not just pushing out an object.

As I work on the golem, my mind goes over what the little slime had tried to convey. Light it a physical object, which was concerning to say the least. It seemed to be true otherwise her eyes wouldn't work. Many live by the idea that light is a physically intertwined expression mana. But to not have anything to do with mana? It’s making me think of everything in a new light. Heh.

I finally have the ground work laid out, and the conduit material can now be inserted. I pull out a time stone and check it. It was lightly purple at the bottom, yellow encompassed the entirety of the upper half of the stone, with orange peeking at the top. Roughly noon, just barely.

“Say, I’ve got to ask, if light isn't magical in nature, then what about sound?”I ask pocketing the time stone and giving her my full attention. She had been watching me closely. This is the first time I think she’s shown so much interest in my wok. I’d caution the guess to see if I use what she’s shown me.

She rests her head on her arms, which where crossed and on the table top. Rolling her had side to side a moment before stopping and shakes her head no. After she holds one of her arms up, and mimics talking. As she does she holds her arm out and causes it to roll in… waves?

“Are ya saying sounds are air waves?” I asked surprised. The shock must have been apparent on me as she pointed at me and shook in silent laughter. She nodded yes though.

“Well I’ll be a orks hut brother…” I said trying to run the information through my head. She tilted her head at my remark.

“Oh… uh… A hut brother is a… well… its some one who lays with the same woman as you.” I had never felt as flustered about explaining something as I had just now. She makes a surprised face and mouthed an “Oh.” In response.

“Eh, I was just surprise at the revelation… Sound and light where always thought to be magic in nature because they are basic parts of the worlds existence.” I started. She chopped her hand onto the table cutting me off. She then waves her hand around as if to cast a spell, and then pretends to put a blind fold on. Is she saying what I think she is?

“Are… you saying magic is blinding us from the truth?” she bobs her head up and down.

“So how much of the Is magical then?” I ask. I want to call her a liar. But the way her eyes work suggests there is at leas some truth to this. She shrugs and flashes seven fingers, with a so-so and sign, and then holds up eight fingers before chopping through the air with her hand and then holding up all ten fingers.

“Around eight tenths of the world is magical?” I ask feeling more relived. She nods her head no, and holds out her fingers before circling her hands swapping positions.

“Backwards? That… three or two tenths of the world?” I stumble on my worlds. How? She must have seen my face, what a panic face I must’ve been making. With a lot of energy she shrugs and points to her head before shaking her head no and shrugging again.

I nod, but I feel a little at a loss. What’s next,, is she going to tell me fire isn't magic?…

“Is fire magical?” I ask. She sheepishly hugged her arms around her self and nodded no. If this is true then…

“But what of the magi-plane? Accessing it is how anyone or anything can use magic.” I say. She cups sher chin before holding her fingers close together and then flexing her arm as to show off her “muscles”. Which was cute considering how small she was. She then pointed to her head, and then pulled slime into her hand forming a cube, and then turning it into a sphere. After some more clarification I finally got a correct interpretation of what she was trying to convey.

“So, even though magic is proportionally makes up less of the world, it’s a strong force. That’s new… mages always new that magic let them enact their will in various ways… but this means that we’re manipulating the non-magical with our intention, fueled by magic… we… is intention and will the key to magic? Other wise bricks could do what I do!” I ask. This could be the brake through of the century. With this I could make golems that could react and do things in ways others couldn't even dream of!

With that she just nonchalantly nodded with a shrug. For once it feels like she seems to give off the impression that that’s her theory, more than something she believes in.

“Okay… I need a break. Let’s head up and make lunch. How does that sound little sage?” I ask. She looked a little embarrassed once I called her that, and by the gods, if she wouldn't make the cutest granddaughter. Even if she is a slime.

We have to be careful though, I know too many mages that would want to execute whoever says things like what she’s telling me. Pride over progress is a destructive and blinding mindset. I would know, I’ve hurt myself, and others, and held myself back because I was too proud and didn’t want to be wrong on my theories. But that’s in the past now.

I get off my stool, and I see her drop back down from her stretched position. We both head up stairs, and I recall how things have been the past couple days since she had grown. Having an intelligent humanoid slime living in your house took some getting use to.

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“Oh, go check outside by the garden. That should be where Borus, and Howl drop off what they hunt.” I said to her. She nods and makes her way to the front door. I make myself a simple stew, still recalling her.

It was nice having someone around who wasn’t trying to steal my work, or buy me off. I don’t mind her being reliant on me, I guess that’s my duty now raising a monarch. What a exciting new chapter in my life. A welcome one compared to just returning insults to other beast tamers at the colosseum.

She returns after a while and gives me a thumbs up before sitting in the corner. Her favorite spot here in the kitchen. I focus on the stew after shooting her a nod and a smile. My mind returns to the previous track of thought. I appreciate that she seems to be of the same mind of me as well, being inquisitive and inventive. She tends to focus more on information when we communicate, as apposed to feelings, or other things. I’m not good in those subjects.

I bring the goggles down from my head and stare at the flame. It was no different than the ambient mana. I return the goggles to their place on my head.

“Mages always wondered why magic couldn't be perceived in fires, assuming many tings in the process. One of which was that the ambient mana was being converted into a physical form, but that theory doesn’t hold up to well. With mana being observable when spells are cast and all that. You can see the mana in a mages fire spell, but not and mana in a hearth fire. Heh” I say as I resume mixing the stew. A cast a glance back at here and see her just shrug.

After a short while I’m sitting at the table eating my stew with some bread. Normally the slime would have joined me at the table in some capacity, but she seemed preoccupied.

“What’s on your mind?” I ask her after wiping my mustache from some lingering stew. She looked at me for a moment. She always takes a moment before she tries explaining something. It’s honestly cute, like a kid trying to think of how to explain why they like their favorite animal. The little slime melts my heart. Maybe I am going sentimental in my old age.

She finally starts her charades, pinching onto her mass, and widening her arms to indicate size. Then she increases the size of her arm to the size of an adults, and shows trouble trying to wield it. Acting as if the limb was unresponsive. She then shrunk the limb back and showed that it obeyed her every command. She then pointed to the front door, and indicated eating, followed by her pointing to herself, and then motioning for large size again.

“Hmm, let me think. If you eat to much, you cant control your slime? Tell me, do you think you can only control a volume of slime, as apposed to a density of slime? I mean, I see how you push slime into your membrane, and you can undo the process. So maybe the problem lies within volume and not density? Have you tried undoing your condensing? Just to see if your control remains the same?” I ask.

I’’m not entirely sure if my advice is sound, but she cups her chin and thinks. She motions for later, and points towards the lab stair way. I give her a nod and continue working on my stew. Maybe when I go back into town, ill buy some cute clothes for her. At least something she can wear. I want to spoil the little slime honestly. I can just imagine her in a rain coat, smiling up at me, asking about things like normal. Bah! Who would of thought this old fool would have grown a soft spot.

“Say, Would you take offense if I started calling you my grand daughter?” I ask avoiding looking at her for a moment. It seemed unreasonably silly for me to feel as nervous as I had, but there was no harm in asking. Also I would be telling the truth in the future about buying stuff for my grand daughter in the future.

When I finally look at her, she had her hands in front of her moth, seemingly shocked if her wide eyes where anything to go by. But I could see a wide smile behind her transparent hands. She then nodded vigorously, and bounced over to me, before hugging me. I let out a hearty chuckle before returning the hug, awkwardly albeit since I was still sitting.

I don’t know what I did to please the gods for this blessing, but for once I felt like I had a family, even if it was just this small slime. My heart felt ignited, and my chest warm from the foreign sensation, but I couldn't help but to be anything but merry at the development.

After the long hug had concluded, I had a question that's been on my mind.

“Say, you wouldn't happen to have a name would you?” I ask, as she sat at the edge of the table. Like normal, she had stretched up, to rest her head on her crossed arms. She just shrugged her shoulders.

“Ah, well we can’t have that. Lets see….” I start. She deserves a fitting name, something that both says who she is, and maybe something referencing her relation to me as her, grandfather! At least in some way.

“Hmm, it’s not much, but how about Guinevere. It means white wave. I thought it was fitting, because of how you textured your hair, and well, it starts with a G like my name.” I say after finishing the last of my stew. I set my head down on my hand and look at her. She seems to be vibrating again. It doesn't take long before she nods vigorously with approval.

We had headed back into the lab after lunch, and she wanted me to observe her before I got started back on my golems. So I did. I wasn’t expecting what came next. She started to bloat and grow. It turns out she needed me to water her to undo her condensing all the way. When she was finally done, she was big enough to engulf the wagon that I take into town.

Though I was troubled at the lack of motion. It seems she could control this much volume. I’d say she stopped being as responsive as she normally was at a third of this size. Which was double her normal size. After a while she started shrinking, saturating the lab with humidity as she shed any excess water.

“So it is a volume issue, and not a mass issue?” I ask as she got back to her cute size. I also handed her the poncho as she seemed to get her bearings back. She put it on and nodded at me.

“I didn't know you had that much in you, it’s actually really impressive. But you couldn't move anything past half that volume, could you?” I ask. She shyly nodded no.

“Aaahh, don’t be so down, you found out something important. Now the question is, How do you better control more volume? And at that, I’d experiment and see if theres some sort of practice to increase the volume you can control. And if there are no results, we can see if eating more magic things helps. It could simply be related to your cores size, and purity.” I say listing off things for her. She tilts her head and points to her core.

“Oh, purity?” I ask. She nods.

“Well, how do I put this. Cores form in different tiers. They refine the longer a monster is alive, and with the amount of mana they intake. Since your a smart little monster, I wonder if there's a way for you to actively work on your core. Wild monsters hunt more dangerous monsters and beasts to eat their mana drenched flesh, and cores.” I say, turning this little sit down into a lecture. She cups her hand to her chin and nods.

“We humans don’t have cores like beasts and monsters so I cant help you there. What we do however, is bring in more mana to stretch our max capacity. It can be dangerous, and our reserves do shrink, but the end result it a max capacity that is slightly higher than it was before. Many simply opt to fighting however. In the heat of battle it happens incrementally for mages. But I don’t think that’ll be the best path for you. Your core isn’t a brain or heart. I don’t want to think about what the backlash could do to that gem of a heart you have there.” I say pointing to her core.

“So focus on refining, as apposed to expanding. That's my expert opinion.” I say after a break. She says she thinks faster, but I gave her a minute to digest what I told her before continuing. At that she nodded and went to her dish. I pull my goggles down over my eyes to see what she’s doing. Nothing as of yet. Well, she did just start, maybe I should get back to my work as well.

If I can use what my little Guinevere showed me, I could redirect mana from the sensory and navigation enchants to maneuverability output and combative enchants. This is only possible if I can correctly translate the physical input into magical input, but will take less mana than a strictly magical approach. I can’t wait!