The World of Magic

Yoruhi silently poured over the books splayed out on his bed, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the girl from earlier today.

Her father seemed like a very knowledgeable man and he had recommended not one, but three different books for Yoruhi to study over. His daughter must’ve taken closely after him, but something about the mention of a ‘condition’ that caused her to collapse as if it were a natural occurrence made him feel bad for her.

He recalled her bright red eyes and how her father’s were the color of white silver instead.

Could the eye color be the result of the disease she has? He wondered, but her mother could have red eyes too. And what about the flower on her head?

He couldn’t get out of his mind how grotesque it looked. As a self-proclaimed flower expert, he found it strange that he was unable to identify it, but ultimately chalked it up to the fact that this was a different world and that different flowers could exist in it. However, that wasn’t everything that bothered him about the flower. He wondered why she had it on her head in the first place.

He initially assumed that like how Nene placed a flower in his hair, her father must’ve done the same to help keep track of her, but when he saw that she instinctively never strayed too far from her father anyway, he began to suspect that the flower must’ve also been the result of the disease.

This world is creepy, he thought with a shudder.

Trying to get it out of his mind, he focused back on his studies. The book the Altair’s father had picked out for him was mainly filled with pictures, but it also had some simple words in it.

The man had figured out that Yoruhi possessed at least some level of literacy because he had been able to navigate himself to the right section, and he had to be at least literate enough to be confused by the subsections written on the signs.

Indeed, he was a scarily smart man, and Yoruhi wondered what his occupation was.

Nevertheless, Yoruhi flipped the page on the book titled ‘The Elements of Magic: For Beginner Mages’. It was a simple introductory book that gave a basic explanation on how to obtain each element from the magicules.

Like Mizuki had explained to him yesterday, there were a total of 7 elemental classfications: Fire, Light, Frost, Storm, Life, Earth, and Wind.

Each element was obtained through distinct but generalized interactions with the magicules.

Fire Magic was obtained through causing the magicules to combust.

Light, through changing their chromatic properties.

Frost, through causing them to slow down.

Storm, through forming a conduit with them.

Life, through modifying the magicules that exist inside an organism’s cells.

Earth, through their solidification.

And lastly, Wind, through causing them to be released and moved around freely.

The book additionally mentioned the existence of subelements; the more specific classifications of unique elements that could fall under more than one elemental archetype.

Lastly, it mentioned that most people can only wield up to three elements, and that what those three elements were, were decided at birth and can be found out through the use of something known as an Attunement Crystal when a person came of age.

Yoruhi found the book to be very helpful because it made him realize that he should absolutely be focusing on being able to detect magicules first. If the elements he could wield were decided at birth, then trying to replicate what Mizuki did by forming a conduit wouldn’t be helpful for him at all if he was never meant to wield Storm Magic in the first place. He instead planned to ask her about the Attunement Crystal tomorrow.

The next book he picked up was titled Mana and You: A Novice Guide to Understanding the Magicules in Your Body.

Yoruhi was beginning to realize that the sections for Novice, Beginner, and Introductory were not so different from each other after all, and that they probably only existed to mess with people.

The book talked about the concept of mana: one of two main fluids that ran through a person’s body, the other being blood. It existed because when people breathed in magicules from the air and it entered their bodies, it would initially condense down into mana and be pumped through their blood stream. Because of their internal body temperature however, when they breathed back out, the evaporated mana would release back into the air as magicules, creating a constant chain of supply.

When a body’s temperatures aren’t balanced properly however, the flow of mana could slow down or be disrupted entirely.

Lastly, unlike blood, mana wasn’t limited to the volume of a person’s body. In fact, it was very common for people to hold more mana than they had blood. The excess mana would emanate through the pores in the skin, and form something known as a ‘mana barrier’ around a person’s body.

Mana barriers were very reactive to the presence of magic, and protected a person from taking damage from them at the cost of consuming a portion of their mana. A person’s mana barrier being tied to their excess of mana also meant that when they used up too much mana, their mana barrier could disappear.

When a person ran out of mana, they entered a vulnerable state known as ‘mana fatigue’. In this state, they were susceptible to magical attacks and could feel very nauseous until their mana naturally regenerated.

Yoruhi reached the last page of the book, where, along with the credits to the author, it pointed to two different books written by them: Restoring Mana: A Simple Guide to Mana-Based Delicacies, and Capacitas: Increasing Your Measly Mana Supply Day by Day.

Geez, these authors are pretentious in their promotions, Yoruhi thought as he closed the book.

He was preparing to reach for the last book in the collection he borrowed, when he suddenly felt a strong wave of sleepiness fall over him. It had only been the third day in this body, and he hadn’t gotten used to how sleepy it got so fast.

Back in the old world, it wasn’t uncommon for him to stay up past midnight, but in this younger body of his, he couldn’t even muster staying up past 22:00.

Deciding there was no use fighting against it, he went to sleep for the day.