In Another World with JUST MONIKA 52 The Distance Between Two Hearts

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No! Nononononono…!

I rushed over to pull Linze away and reached to feel the pulse by her neck. "Monika!" I screamed out.

/"[Diagnosis!]"/ she responded instantly. /"Pulse… elevated, but normal. Temperature, normal. No detected aneurysms. Breathing… normal. I need actual blood contact to inspect biochemistry, Player."/

Linze was breathing, but her face was just so… slack. It was the sleep of the flat-out drunk or the brain-dead.

Then Charlotte said "There is no need to be afraid. This is just magic exhaustion. She will come out of it soon enough."

/"Player, you're this close to a panic attack. Stop it."/

I forced air out my lungs and pulled away from Linze.

[Cure Heal] didn't do anything for magic exhaustion. There was a Light spell called [Revive] that worked for people knocked unconscious, however. But Charlotte said that we shouldn't try to forcibly revive people downed with magical exhaustion. It would only cause them more pain.

The feeling of magical exhaustion was exactly like that of a hangover.

Why? Why didn't we even think that the danger could also be for the caster, not just the recipient? Thank god this magic system seemed to have its own strange magic fuse for casting.

Really weird, that. But thank you for that.

/"Player, what happened?"/

"I don't know. The spell shouldn't have this effect. It should barely even use any magic power, because it just amplifies natural principles!"

/"Since when was there a Rule that said magic power is proportional to how much natural law is circumvented?"/ Monika answered. /"That… that just sounds like more visualization problem in the end."/

We had already explained with diagrams how blood vessels and bones worked. Surprisingly this world did actually have a decent idea of germ theory, likely because someone at some point had a [Null] magic ability that magnified their vision. Charlotte told us that in earlier times, those who possessed [Smallsight] thought they were seeing giant invisible beasts living inside rivers and lakes and were called to check for water demons.

But the soft tissue inside bones being responsible for making blood? That was new. That's why bones were hollow… and not just hollow, but porous! All bones! Charlotte said that the prevailing thought was to save weight, but this explanation not only fulfilled that reason but also gave another compelling reason why it was that way in the first place instead of thinner load-bearing solids. Marrow was for blood, not soft replacement bone as everyone had assumed.

Linze looked like she understood all of this because she had less old knowledge to unlearn. Visualization should NOT be a problem.

I began to bite my thumb.

"It can't be visualization. It can't. And it can't be affinity either, because Affinity influences Intensity and this one looks for only minimal effects. [Blood Maker] can't make more cells than available from nutrients in blood plasma."

/"With your infinite pool of magic, how would you even realize that?!"/ Monika retorted hotly. She reached over to protectively hug Linze, but her hands of course just vanished as soon as she left the 3D scanning area of the mist.

"I can't even reduce Aqua Cutter to normal size because of my uncontrollable magic intensity. This is one of the few things that actually gives me any granularity of output!"

Although it suddenly just occurred to me, just like with [Thrust Bell] and [Jet Boots] it's my custom spells that were easiest to modify. Learned spells seemed to have just one setting.

"Pardon me, but you are saying things that are just too stimulating," Charlotte interrupted. "P-please… tell me more about that!"

/"How nice for you, that you can use five magic affinities!"/ Monika said out loud while sulking. /"Player here can use all six external elements, including Dark. And his spell depth is just ridiculous. Spell fatigue? What spell fatigue?!"/

She threw me under the bus with no hesitation whatsoever.

"Oh! Ohh…! This has potential for my research…" Charlotte gasped.

Shamelessly I pointed at Monika. "She can use Null Spells! ALL the Null Spells!" And so I dragged her down with me. "She draws from ambient magic, she literally cannot get tired maintaining spells!"

"… that is very interesting too. And you're both always together anyway, is that correct?"

Wait. Crap. Now we're both under and too late we realized this was no bus, this was a freight train. I suddenly felt tremendously unsafe.

"… y-you're just bragging now…" Linze mumbled. "C-could you please stop? You're so loud… my head hurts…"

/"Linze! Oh thank goodness."/

She slowly opened her eyes and grimaced. "Um… what happened?"

/"You fainted. You used up too much magic power."/

"Oh..." Linze mumbled. "I was too weak. I'm sorry!"

/"No, that's not your fault. Something was wrong with our spell,"/ Monika answered. /"We're really sorry for this. Player, give her fluids. It may help, if the pain is similar to why hangovers hurt."/

I quickly filled an empty cup with water and handed it over to Linze. She sipped delicately from it, and curled into herself as Monika and I loomed protectively over her.

"Linze, how are you feeling?"

"… better, I think?"

/"How about your [Supercharge] your magic power a bit from Player's reserves. That might help."/

Yes, Linze had been able to repeatedly cast absurdly power-hungry spells before. Stuff that should have also knocked her out immediately.

Linze nodded and whispered "Supercharge please…" and gasped as her the feeling of her magical reserves refilled almost instantly. "We... we can try again. I don't mind."

/"No! No, not until we figure out what's wrong. It's not worth you getting hurt again."/

"I agree!" I said and reached over to pat Linze's knee.

She just looked even more discouraged for some reason.

Then I leaned back and began to think it over. "Hm. Well. Spells are composed of three parts. So… [Come forth, Light] [Life's brilliant rubies] [Blood Maker]. One or all of these are responsible for the spell failing."

"I don't think it actually failed, Mister Zah. The feeling I had was different from spell failure… if it failed, I would have stayed awake to know."

"So it did succeed but took an absurd amount of magic power for… reasons. Ugh."

"Pardon me, but how DO you think spells are supposed to work?" Charlotte asked.

Monika gestured for me to explain, and so I said "Well… you know the elements – [Fire], [Earth], [Wind], [Water], [Light] and [Dark] – when you cast them, something comes from somewhere. It is my theory that these physical elements have to deal with the transmission of matter."

I opened my palm out and a gust of wind flew up. "Where does it come from? Where does it go? Our own experiments showed that summoned [Earth] and [Water] disappear after a while… except when the water is ingested. Summons from the [Dark] element disappear when their caster dies. But what about [Light]? What is teleported when the element is about healing and purification?

Everything else makes sense from the perspective of teleportation and reassembly of atoms, particles, and complex molecules."

/"Meanwhile, my [Null] spells seems to be about a change in vectors and energy states. For example, [Slip]-"/ Monika flicked her arm out and cast [Slip] onto a vase.

Although the table was flat, it was not perfectly flat, and so due to that barely perceptible tilt the vase slid off the perfectly frictionless surface to fall to the floor.

Crash.

"Please stop breaking my things," said the Duke. "I know I said to feel at home, but even so…"

Oops.

Sue giggled.

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Chapter end