“What do you mean there is no mana?”
“Yeah, what the heck kind of lame ass excuse is that?”
“How would we be able to cast spells and use magic then?”
“Yeah! Give me back my magic gear!”
“Do you wanna know how I can use magic or not?”
“Well yeah…”
“Then shut the FUCK UP AND LISTEN!”
Everyone immediately quieted down. Bel took off his tophat and revealed a glistening tin foil hat and started explaining.
“To cut to the chase, the organization I mentioned before: Aso has created a fake form of magic that is known as the only magic in the world due to an international conspiracy. They created this fake system of mana to assign high and low values of usable magic power to the poor and rich, non-respectively.”
“Why not just say it in the proper order…”
“SHUT UP! Let me exposition in peace!”
“Eh? Your whole er, um “theory” sounds like too much of a stretch, you know there’s no way we can believe you just from your words, right?”
“The people with the most money and nobles are always the ones that have the highest mana. Strange isn’t it? Well, that’s cuz it’s pay to win! The more money you have, the more profit the guild can make off of you and therefore, you are assigned a higher amount of mana. Judging from the equipment you guys had, you must be pretty stacked. Didn’t you all fill out a form before you got your m..mone…money…mana checked? It’s all just a massive marketing strategy.”
“But that can just be explained from noble families marrying and stockpiling magic power through genetics!”
“Nuh uh!” he wagged his finger back and forth. Everyone waited for 5 seconds in anticipation until they realized that there was no further elaboration.
“What bullshit! You don’t even have a counter argument.”
“And we abandoned our gear back there too!”
“I’m going to get it back!”
“Wait guys!” exclaimed Sharlan. “I believe him!”
“Well, yeah, you believe everything! That’s just you being gullible!” said Quinci.
“No! I have a good reason as well! As soon as I was accused of treason and the guards broke into my room, I couldn’t use my magic anymore!
“Hey it could just be some artifact blocking his magic!” exclaimed Quinci in doubt. Glancing at Sharlan she asked, “did you notice anything weird when they attacked you?”
“Uh no?” Quinci flew around him searching for any possible clues.
“Hey, what’s in that box?”
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Sharlan pulled out the box that the queen gave him as a reward, the last time that he healed her.
Hmm. I wonder if now is the right time to open this box? Well, I don’t see why not.
Sharlan opened the box and there was a single blank sheet of tattered paper inside. “Well, this isn’t useful at all!”
“Maybe that’s what’s blocking his power!” said Quinci.
“Nonsense! Give me that paper!” Bel grabbed the paper from Shalan’s hands and said “Ormr умножатся” and lit it on fire. The paper did not burn. “What’s going on?”
“It must be some kind of artifact” concluded Sharlan taking the paper back and putting it in the box. “I’ll figure it out later.”
“I think you should get rid of it. What if what Quinci said about it being a magic blocker or a tracker is true?” said Lloyd
“But I was able to use my magic even after I received this gift from the Queen. Unless it’s a remotely activated artifact….”
“Well, we have a bigger problem to deal with right now. Bel? Was that your name? If you really are saying the truth about the Guild being in cahoots with some sort of shady organization called the Aso and the magic that we are using being fake, then tell us how you’re using that strange magic.” commanded Lloyd
“Fine, I was gonna get to it anyway until you all interrupted again. In reality, every human can use magic and it doesn’t rely on anything stupid like magic potential.”
“Then wha…”
“Words.”
“Words? Like the weird phrases that you are saying?”
“Yes.”
“But aren’t those just some strange incantations? I don’t get it.”
“Every human has four elemental spells that they can use and at least one extraneous ability. To be able to use any of these spells, a human must figure out the String of words that is specific to their genetic code.”
“So you’re saying that I can’t just learn that same phrase you’re saying and imbue my mana into the words?”
“Go ahead. Try repeating it. You won’t get a result.”
“Ok then. Uhh. what was the phrase again?”
“Ormr умножатся y the 妖精 сгорит. 轉世是不可能的”
“Uh. Omr oomozasya ee the yose sor something?” tried Sharlan.
“See. Nothing happened, not just because you mispronounced every word.”
“But nothing happened when you said the phrase either!”
“That’s because everyone can load a phrase from each discovered element and use it once when needed.” He bent over and touched the grass under their feet. It all froze instantly.
Sharlan practiced the sentence a couple of times until the pronunciation sounded about right and then tried to touch and freeze a stick he found. Nothing happened.
“Well, are you satisfied?”
“No! That still doesn’t explain anything. Exposition for the rest of this chapter please!”
“The reason I can both light something on fire like you saw with that strange artifact before and freeze things like the grass and the water with the same spell is because this is my fire spell. Fire magic is actually the manipulation of heat. Earth magic, like what the Ogre was using, is the manipulation of all solid objects. Air is obviously all gasses and Water is all liquids. Because of this, magic is way too powerful for the public to know about it. Back when we were in the cave, had the Ogres used his Earth magic spell on that brute over there,” he pointed at George, “he could’ve split his body in half and he would already be dead by now.”
“The Aso has devised a way to conceal real magic from the public in favor of a magic that they can regulate. Real magic has no known limit to the strength available. If you noticed in the battle before, the Ogre used the same spell but with more words to destroy the mountain. The amount of words that you use in your spell is exponentially proportional to the power output available and that’s why that mountain is gone now.”
“So you’re saying that the longer your String is, the more power it has? Then how do you find the correct words or their correct order?”
“The Parse. This is the practice of extracting the next word in your String using your blood as the medium. It took me 36 years to figure out 13 words in my fire spell. But that Ogre was really young and had at least 14 words. There must be someone helping him so we are not safe.”
“I’m just getting more and more confused!” said Jolene.
“Sounds like a you problem.”
“So how exactly does this extraction of the words work?”
“Anyone who performs the Parse on their blood receives a clue as to how to find the next word in their String. Unfortunately, the complexity of the clue increases exponentially along with the total power output. This is why it took me 36 years for a measly 13 words. Switching to a different Element might not be as helpful as you think since the power is too low at first and the complexity still increases exponentially. With how strong my Fire is now, I can take on a small nation. It’s a system of high risk high reward.”
“Wait, what is the base for this exponential growth?” asked Sharlan
“Base 2”
“So that means that you have a 8192 power level?
“No, 4096. 2^ 0 words, correlates to 1 word, which is a power level of 1 and thus you shift the bits by 1.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense.”
“Someone plz explain!”
“Do you think you can teach me how to derive my String?”
Before they could continue, the sound of helicopters was heard approaching. At the moment they were quite far away, but it was clear that was not to be the case for long.
“Shit! I told you all to throw away your wands, that’s because they’re tracking devices. Who didn’t listen?!”
“Ahh!” Quinci dropped her wand while trying to hide it after getting startled.
“Quinci! What are you doing?!”
“I don’t trust him at all! He’s probably just using some kind of artifact and trying to gaslight us!”
“Then why did he save us?!”
“I-I don’t know, maybe to capture us alive?”
Suddenly, {insert cliff hanger}.