Another three months have passed since my two brothers and I started learning to hunt, which means I'm now five months old. I have now become accustomed to living as a fox. I've also been able to hunt my own food and eat my loot without intervention from other parties so I can be picky about my food and leave the rest to nature. Thus this looks like it will soon be a farewell event for the family. You see, my two brothers, who are getting older, come home less often. And more often spends their life wandering around the mountains, even though it's still around the house.

But isn't there still one thing we haven't learned from you, Mother?

That's right, it's magic.

I wonder when we will study it. Even so, it seemed that Mother had no intention of teaching him. Even my mother has started wandering around on their own, like finding their own food and eating it themselves. We, children, have indeed learned to hunt on our own, but aren't there many more dangerous things out there? At least teach us how to defend ourselves.

And then, a few days later, my family drifted apart...

I guessed that Mother would teach us how to use magic during her parenting time, but even after three months, and after the parenting time ended, we didn't learn anything more from Mother than hunting.

Looks like we (me and my two brothers) will have to learn magic on our own.

In the previous world, aside from my hobby of climbing mountains, of course, I also had a side hobby of reading. This is of course what I usually do in my spare time when camping. You know, I would die of boredom if I didn't have a side activity while camping. Therefore, I choose to read novels, especially fantasy novels because I like them more than contemporary dramas. And like that, the activity of reading novels in my spare time was what I usually did from high school until the end of my life. So obviously I've read various fantasy novels with various themes.

So, I hope that some of the magic that is applied in some of the novels that I read can give me clues to use magic.

At least I already have some hypotheses.

For now, casting spells is impossible, because after all we can't talk, but Mother can still use magic. So it wasn't chanting to activate magic, but approaching their wild reasoning or survival instincts. Thus, do I have to have experiences such as, near death to acquire survival instincts?

As someone who had lived a brilliant life in an era of peace, a fight that cost one's life was something I wasn't used to. I haven't even practiced self-defense yet.

For now, let's think of another way.

To activate magic there must be something that triggers it. In most fantasy novels, it's magical energy, or some say 'Mana', and in RPG games it's called MP or Magic Point. I don't know what it's called in this world, maybe there is something like that that can trigger magic.

All events in the world must have something to do with cause and effect. So to make a supernatural phenomenon like magic, which can bend the laws of nature, there must be an external factor in the form of energy that can create a miracle that bends the laws of nature.

For now, I'll refer to it as 'magical energy'. It's simple but OK.

I don't know the answer, but I'll try to find it by doing various tests that might create magic just relying on my knowledge and intelligence in my previous life.

Don't underestimate me who has read dozens of fantasy novels and myself as an environmental science student. At least I'm good enough to understand the basic laws of nature at work on Earth. So I will definitely find it and successfully learn magic.

For now, let's find something that can invoke magic. To use magic, some novel protagonists sometimes find something like a foreign feeling flowing or circulating in their body and then they can use magic by manipulating that foreign something according to some protagonist's imagination. I know it's just a way for novelists to not sweat the details and choose the easiest path.

But is such a possibility?

<...>

As expected, it can't be right.

Looks like I have to look for something like a foreign feeling that is in my body.

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The protagonists of the novels I read just said easily that it felt like flowing or circulating in their bodies, and then activated magic just by imagination.

So, taking that statement into account, does it mean that there is something like a magic circuit installed within the body? For example electric eels, there must be some sort of battery and circuitry built into their body, which allows them to discharge electricity. Or fireflies, which have a certain compound (luciferin), which causes a chemical reaction to enable them to produce light.

Thus how do I find out where the magic circuit is and how it works? If it's some kind of nervous system or circulatory system, surely I can't feel it because it's just a reflex that is influenced by the subconscious and is passive, right?

......

...

But several hours passed, and even though I concentrated and focused on one thought, I couldn't find anything. Even trying ancient ways, such as meditating, didn't work.

Thus, I try to get my focus back and drill down into the soul. I know because I've experienced it, as a drifting soul until I was put inside a baby white fox.

So if I trace it now...

When I searched into my soul, I found something like a bright light centered inside my stomach. By touching it, I felt a warm energy coursing through my body.

It was so warm and comforting. A nostalgic feeling that makes me want to feel it again.

Immediately, I tried to redirect some of that energy to my right forefoot, which I used instead of a hand.

Because I was so excited about finding something like energy, I was so nervous, and I couldn't focus.

Thus I created the image that a small flat piece of ice would be created in front of me.

But...

*BLAR* (Loud explosion)

*Kaa!* (Shocked sound or )

But instead of the small flat ice I was expecting, instead, it was an explosion that occurred in front of me and it made me scream out loud. Luckily the explosion was small, if it was big, I would have been hurt. I'm grateful to always rely on small trials for something so important. If you hurry, it can have a big impact.

For now, let's try to calm down and think about why this experiment failed and ended in an explosion.

As for why there was an explosion, I guess that I didn't go through the magic creation procedure and messed it up, which made the magical energy disorderly and explode. It was common for novel protagonists to learn magic from the beginner level. So I can accept it.

Right now think about why it failed and how to fix it to suit the magic creation procedure.

To my knowledge, magic is a phenomenon that defies common sense and the laws of nature. But, it seems that it can't just destroy rationality and violate the rules of natural law.

If so, could magic be created by gradually bending the laws of nature, rather than arbitrarily using magical energy to instantly create miracles? For example, to make ice I need to first draw out the heat gradually and then increase the pressure. I also need to know how the law of heat flows in nature.

According to the second law of thermodynamics, heat can naturally flow from a hotter source to a cooler source, but it cannot the other way around. It is necessary to use external energy to force heat to move from a cooler to a hotter source, as in the application of refrigerators and air conditioners. In that case, if I use magical energy instead of electrical energy and forcefully draw heat from a cooler source, then I can lower the temperature of that source and even freeze it.

Excitedly I immediately ran at full speed to descend from the mountain that was only filled with snow to a place filled with vitality.

But before reaching the water source, I encountered a rabbit-like creature first.

...

Thus, I caught the rabbit with easy movements. Although rabbits are also fast animals, we foxes are much faster. And with my small body, I can be more agile and do various tricks to get closer to prey.

I carried the rabbit's corpse, bleeding around its neck, over to some rocks I could use as a substitute for plates.

If it's done, now just do the experiments that I have planned.

As planned, I'll try to coagulate the rabbit's blood on its neck that's still trying to flow. By using the magical energy that I accumulated in my forelegs, as a driving force. I tried to remove the heat from the blood to bring its temperature down to its freezing point. By imagining the blood as the system, and the surrounding air as the environment, I try to transfer heat from the blood into the environment.

And then, I saw the surrounding air starting to condense and the temperature of the blood starting to drop. The blood flowing from the rabbit's neck also slowly slowed down, and soon, together with the condensed air, they froze and turned into ice.

*Kyuu!**Kyuu!**Kyuu!* (excited screech)

Successfully creating a magic miracle in front of me, I unconsciously growled excitedly while jumping and circling myself. If it was me before, of course, I wouldn't because it's embarrassing. But here no one can see, though there may be other animals, who cares, they're not people. So I'm free to rejoice as I please.

*GROWLLLL* (Stomach rumbling)

Then I started skinning the rabbit roughly using my teeth and claws. Because I still don't like eating disgusting things, like furry skin that might get dirty, until now I've only tolerated meat, even if it's raw. So, for the hairy skin, which is definitely unclean, and the disgusting internal organs, I would either let it be eaten by insects or swallowed up by the earth. After all, I can hunt myself already, so I can hunt as much as I can. And now I understand the concept behind magic. So, if I can master various magics as a means of self-defense, I can get out of the safe territory zone my mother created and go hunting in other territories.