In Another World with JUST MONIKA 51 The Price of Magic

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"… I have a question!" Linze said suddenly.

We all turned to her. She blushed and fidgeted. After a few moments to gather her courage again, she asked "Practice and casting the same spell over and over. Is that really the only way to improve one's magic reserves? There's no other way?"

Charlotte nodded. "There is no other way. The strength of your main affinity affects intensity, so it requires less effort to reach the same effect. It means that it requires much less time to improve your control over how much you can release in spells. But secondary affinities can certainly still be made easier to cast."

I thought: Get a larger Magic Stone? No, wait, while that would ease the problem it doesn't actually address the underlying issue.

"And if not, they could at least be made faster to cast," Charlotte continued, returning to the well metaphor. She formed a circle shape with her fingers. "It may improve recovery time from spell fatigue. Some have reported being able to cast at least one more before feeling drained. Widening the well also increases the amount of water in it, maybe?"

/"Despite how it may look, magic doesn't really come that easily to us,"/ Monika offered. /"I don't need to sleep at all, and so can spend all that time while everyone else is sleeping with only my thoughts and my spells. And Player… well, you ever wonder why he doesn't sweat going around with so many layers of clothes? He's constantly practicing with small results from the many magic stones he has embedded into parts of his clothes./

/"Even his steps barely touch the ground anymore, which eases a lot of the effort from walking. But really I think that's just lazy and will give him fat beer belly. If the rest of him becomes fat and jolly I would actually be fine with that, but a big gut alone is unbecoming."/ She glanced at me. /"I know you like to ham it up, Player, but don't go Full Shatner."/

"I see…" Linze replied. She stared intently at the court magician's serene smile. "I have… I have to work hard to catch up. Thank you for answering."

Charlotte nodded. "It is all right. Those who work hard will surely see improvement. That is the fairness of magic." She turned to us again and asked "Now, may I ask?"

/"Please do."/

"First of all, while I am very interested in the hidden inner workings of the human brain, it was also intriguing to hear about how you healed Mister Reim. Where did you learn the spells for that?"

I pointed to Linze. She eeped and quickly shook her head. "N-no, it wasn't me! I didn't do anything!"

"It was a team effort," I had to say. "It was surgery. I think I already said that the [Cure Heal] was standard?"

"I think she's talking about [Blood Maker], [Blood Bend], and [Resuscitation], Mister Zah! I certainly never taught you that."

Ah. Well. I wondered about the wisdom of telling people I could invent spells. It could be a lot of hassle down the line if people would bug me for custom spells.

I held out my hand with my fingers out, the left shaped like an 'L' for "Lie?" and the other like an 'O' for "Honesty?" towards Monika.

She looked back at me quizzically, and then after a while made gestures back with the fingers on one hand showing a 'V' and the other with three fingers out showing a Roman 'E'.

Ahahaha…

Charlotte smiled. "Yes, what is most interesting about them is that TWO OF THEM are not Light element spells! Please explain how they work!"

Monika blinked, and her expression turned to one of horror. /"That's… that's right! [Blood Maker] is a Light Spell, but Water and Wind don't have the protections against overload that Light Spells have! Were you taking an unreasonable risk with untested spells? Explain yourself, Player."/

"… Not completely untested..." I objected weakly. Self-experimentation counts, right?

/"You fool…! You… you double mon-keigh!"/ Monika groaned out. /"How did you even hide that from me? Of course… the fact that you needed to do that means that you knew you were doing something wrong."/

She turned to Charlotte and asked, /"That's a thing that can happen, right? Imagine casting Water directly onto someone's veins. They would just… explode!"/

Sue eeped at Monika's shout. The butler, standing behind the Duke and Daughter Ortlinde, flinched even though he had already lived through that.

"It's not that bad. I mean, actually because Healing Spells are so general purpose is why they're bad at specific results." I touched two fingers of my hand over my wrist. "What [Blood Maker] actually does is to stimulate the bone marrow production.

"But because blood has four main components – plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets - [Blood Maker] is not producing blood from nowhere, which is why it gets around the restrictions of other spells. It has to be cast in conjunction with a Water spell because part of what [Blood Maker] does is to replace water lost from blood loss while the marrow goes overtime producing cells."

/"But overload would still be dangerous, isn't that right? Bone marrow failure is just as deadly. And Blood Bend could burst vessels if improperly applied."/

"But unlike Light spells where you just throw magic power in there hoping something will happen, you can at least feel and regulate the flow of magic. Because it's Water, you can feel movement. You don't get that feedback with Light. So, [Blood Bend] is important to keep the blood moving, to increase blood pressure, and so prevent the advent of shock."

/"Then what about [Resuscitation]?"/

"That's even safer. Yes, there's bone and skin and muscle tissue in the way… but because of the oddities of basic [Wind] spells, the produced air will appear in the nearest empty space out from the pointing fingers. It's really just basic elemental Wind at minimal output. I'm actually surprised no one has tried it before."

"Pardon me, but… may I say something?" Charlotte inserted herself into our little exchange.

/"Oh, sorry. This is supposed to be your interview. Please, go ahead."/

"There actually is a spell like that. But it is called [Inner Breath]."

I raised both arms. "Yay."

/"So you already knew that it was possible to have healing spells that are not in the Light element?" Monika figured out that it was a test. "Is it possible to overcharge that?"/

Charlotte nodded. It wasn't a test of our knowledge, she just wanted to hear our thoughts about her field of study. "Inner Breath is applied with the palms, not fingers. And the results of spell failure is still just wasted energy. This is because the effects of the spell are defined in the chant… 'Come Forth, Wind! Living air, [Inner Breath]'!"

Charlotte opened her palm out and a slight breeze issued forth. "It is a spell that works best when cast without a magic stone, because it will have a lessened effect… but also much more fatiguing because of that."

Then she laced her fingers together and asked "Could you please share the full version of the spell?"

Monika leaned towards me and made a whispering pose covering her mouth, and spoke through my earphones, /"Player, I think you might actually be allowed to ask for a fair price for this. Spellmaking might be lucrative venture?"/

"Yeees, that is what I was worried about. We haven't actually tested if it's safe for anyone but me to use. How much of it is actually visualization and how much is the incantation?"

"Excuse me, but I couldn't help but to overhear what you just said, and I would be happy to help test the spell!" said Charlotte.

/"Two people are needed, one to cast the spell and the other to face mortal peril!"/ Monika answered.

Charlotte touched a finger to her lips and then smiled. "I choose to take the life of danger~."

Dang it. Which meant that since we needed someone who could cast Light, and since Sue was disqualified as an utter novice, that just left…

All of us slowly turned our heads like turrets to stare at Linze again.

"No!" she yelped.

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Now we all sat much closer together. Linze and Charlotte sat facing each other on the sofa. Charlotte had her jacket sleeves rolled back and Linze traced with her fingers the blue lines of her veins. Linze did have Water affinity, so she could perform [Blood Bend].

"Remember, just utmost minimum of energy," I instructed while sitting on the table facing them. Monika was on the floor, projecting up and looking like she was leaning over to take a look. "Too sudden increase in blood pressure can lead to anything from shortness of breath, nausea, varicose veins, mini strokes, blindness, or heart attacks."

"Mister Zaaah…!" Linze wailed.

/"Stop scaring her Player. The worst I think may happen are some unflattering varicose veins. Those happen as a result of damaged valves causing blood to flow back into the vein, causing pooling and swelling. (ʰᵗᵗᵖˢ://ʷʷʷ.ᵐᵃʸᵒᶜˡᶦⁿᶦᶜ.ᵒʳᵍ/ᵈᶦˢᵉᵃˢᵉˢ⁻ᶜᵒⁿᵈᶦᵗᶦᵒⁿˢ/ᵛᵃʳᶦᶜᵒˢᵉ⁻ᵛᵉᶦⁿˢ/ˢʸᵐᵖᵗᵒᵐˢ⁻ᶜᵃᵘˢᵉˢ/ˢʸᶜ⁻²⁰³⁵⁰⁶⁴³)

/Also called incompetent valves instead of healthy valves. Yes, it's those big bulging veins that happen in the leg due to age and too much standing or walking. Yes, they are quite ugly."/

Uh, why are you emphasizing that part, Monika? Also, couldn't that be fixed with [Cure Heal] as recent damage anyway?

"So… it's not dangerous?" Linze asked.

I nodded slowly. "Just try to feel something happening. I designed this to have feedback to your own blood in your fingertips. The greater the pressure in the vein, the greater the pressure you feel in your own fingers."

Charlotte looked up sharply. "Wait, what was that-"

"W-water, come! Attend life's flows! [Blood Bend!]" Linze chanted.

Linze traced the court magician's shapely arm from wrist to elbow. Charlotte's fingers twitched, as if tickled.

"I felt something, but it was not really very different from being touched. Did you…?"

"No, my fingertips were away from your skin at all times!" Linze answered.

Charlotte experimentally twitched her fingers some more. Was it going numb or was she just imagining things?

"You know, it occurs to me that this experiment would be much more usable with blood in a tube," I said far too late. The girls all groaned at me. What, Monika thought you needed two people too! I shouldn't have to take all of the blame!

Then, [Blood Maker].

Linze put her fingers on the meaty part of Charlotte's forearm. Then she began to chant "Light, come forth! Life's brilliant rubies! [Blood Maker!]"

A bright flash of light appeared from under her fingertips.

Then she slumped down onto Charlotte's breasts. She began to drool. Linze was suddenly and completely knocked out.

Shite. There was something wrong with the spell!

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Chapter end