Chapter 56. Even Grass Has Mana

While Rem’s golems were finishing off the remaining monsters, we found a quiet place where we could sit down and rest for a bit.

Although, to be honest, I didn’t feel tired. Considering how the battle had gone, most of the time we weren’t fighting directly—we were just waiting.

And right now, I needed to figure something out. I looked at Rem.

"What do you think—how did the dragon notice us before we even saw it?" I asked.

"What? The dragon noticed us? What are you talking about?" Rem asked, surprised.

"Well… I think it was the one that blocked my teleportation. Because of it, I couldn’t bring us back," I said. "At least, that’s what it seems like to me."

"Yeah, I’m almost sure you couldn’t teleport specifically because of the dragon," Rem said. "But I don’t think it did it on purpose."

She fell silent for a moment, then added:

"I actually doubt the dragon noticed us at all. To it, we were something like insects… or even less. I don’t think it paid any attention to us."

"What?" I blurted out.

"But then why couldn’t I teleport?" I said, not believing her. "And how could it block my teleportation unintentionally?"

Rem took a deep breath. From the way she looked, it was obvious—I was annoying her.

Well… most likely, I really was annoying her. As if I didn’t understand something completely obvious.

Maybe that was exactly the case.

"So, what’s your current Magic Defense value?" Rem asked.

I opened my status window and checked.

"3,151," I answered.

"That’s what I thought," Rem said calmly.

"Is that somehow related to me not being able to teleport?" I asked.

"Directly related," she replied. "I’ll try to explain how Magic Defense works."

"Magic Defense, as the name suggests, makes you less vulnerable to magical attacks. But that’s only one of its functions. Its main purpose is to prevent magical interference with your body."

"Any anomaly, any influence that tries to affect you directly, runs into your Magic Defense first."

She paused briefly, then continued:

"And the fact that you couldn’t teleport is explained pretty simply."

"Dragons have colossal reserves of magic. So enormous that their very presence distorts the environment. Mana around them becomes unstable."

"And when the dragon got too close, your body simply couldn’t activate the skill correctly. Not because you did something wrong, but because your Magic Defense is too low for conditions like that."

I frowned.

"But my teleportation doesn’t consume mana," I objected. I had never spent mana when teleporting into the Training Room. So it seemed strange to me that because of mana fluctuations, because of the dragon’s presence, I couldn’t use the skill at all. It felt… illogical.

"What do you think teleportation is—a physical phenomenon or a magical one?" Rem asked.

I thought about it.

Of course, teleportation can be explained with science or something like that. I’d seen similar things in sci-fi movies, heard theories about space bending and all that. But what I was using could hardly be called a physical phenomenon in the usual sense.

"I think… it’s a magical phenomenon," I answered, not very confidently.

Rem looked at me with obvious confusion.

"You’re not even sure about that?" she asked.

"How can you possibly doubt that teleportation is magic?"

There was no anger in her voice—more like genuine surprise, as if I’d said something obviously stupid.

Oh, it looks like Rem is right. Considering that in this world, magic and the system dominate everything, hardly anyone would doubt that teleportation is magic. I was just used to trying to think the way I did back on Earth.

"Alright, let’s continue," Rem said. "Even if teleportation doesn’t use your personal mana reserves, mana is still its fuel. It doesn’t matter where it comes from."

She looked at me and continued:

"And because your Magic Defense is too low right now, your skill simply couldn’t work stably. It was all because of the dragon’s presence. Its power was distorting the mana around it, making it unstable."

I think I began to understand her. It was like a small electrical device being too close to a huge power station. In my case—it was the other way around: an enormous source of energy came too close to a tiny device.

Because of that—because of magnetic fields or something similar—the small device starts working unstably and can even fail completely.

That was roughly how I understood Rem’s explanation.

"I hope I managed to explain everything to you," Rem asked.

"Yes, yes, I understood everything perfectly," I replied. "Looks like I did something stupid when I spent all my free attribute points on Strength, Defense, and Speed."

"Well, yes," Rem agreed calmly. "You did something very stupid."

"But wait, something doesn’t add up," I said. "What about those giant monsters? I used teleportation then without any problems. Why didn’t their magical pressure affect me at all?"

"Comparing those monsters, even giant ones, to a dragon is stupid," Rem replied calmly. "The difference in their strength is colossal. I think that dragon was Rank 7. Considering that adult red dragons usually have that rank."

Involuntarily, I looked toward where the bodies of the giant monsters had been lying just recently, and then—to the center of that empty stretch of forest. Now there was a huge fan-shaped crater there, and on the other side, far, far away, the forest had been flattened for many kilometers.

I turned my gaze back to Rem.

"Even though it’s only one rank higher…" I said. "The difference in strength is that huge?"

"Yes," Rem answered calmly. "The higher the rank, the bigger the difference."

She paused, as if choosing her words.

"Between Rank 5 and Rank 6, the difference is already colossal. But between Rank 6 and Rank 7—it’s significantly larger. And the difference between Rank 7 and Rank 8…" Rem shook her head. "It’s hard for me to even explain how enormous it would be."

I couldn’t help thinking: if Rank 7 can cause destruction like that, then what is Rank 8 even capable of?

"Still, there was something strange about those monsters," Rem said, pulling me away from my thoughts about Rank 8.

"Strange?" I echoed.

I understood she meant both the giant monsters and those devourer caterpillars.

"They didn’t have mana," Rem said and looked toward Sherial. "You noticed that too, didn’t you?"

"Yes," Sherial nodded. "I didn’t feel mana from any of them. Not even from those giants."

"What’s strange about that?" I asked.

It honestly didn’t seem to me that a lack of mana was something unusual. So they don’t have mana—and what? Monsters are monsters. In this world, there are probably plenty of creatures that manage without it.

But if both Rem and Sherial noticed it… then I didn’t understand something. And that meant it was better to figure it out now than to rack my brain later, wondering what exactly I’d missed.

Rem and Sherial looked at me, and Rem began explaining as if she were talking to a child.

"You know, Alisar, in this world every living being has its own mana reserves. It’s like life energy. Where there is life—there is mana," Rem said.

She pointed at a small blade of grass at our feet.

"Even this grass has its own mana reserve. Very small, almost unnoticeable, but it’s there," she continued.

I frowned, beginning to understand where she was going.

"And as for those creatures…" Rem paused for a moment. "At first I thought they were simply hiding their mana. There are monsters that can suppress their presence, conceal their mana reserves, or even become completely undetectable."

She shook her head.

"But after so many battles, I realized: they just don’t have mana. None at all. Not a drop."

Rem looked toward the ruined field.

"It’s like they’re not from this world."

When she said "not from this world," I involuntarily shuddered.

No, of course, I wasn’t afraid of Rem and Sherial. Even if they found out I wasn’t from this world either, they probably wouldn’t just kill me right now. At least, I hoped not.

But their conclusion still seemed strange to me.

Yes, maybe those monsters really weren’t from this world. You can’t rule that out. But the absence of mana by itself doesn’t prove anything. After all, I came from another world too—and I still have mana reserves.

I felt a slight unease.

So it’s not only about where they came from.

Should I ask about it?

No, I don’t think this is the right time.

Besides… if I believe them, then in this world mana exists in every living thing—even in the grass beneath our feet. Which means creatures that have none at all really are strange.

A system message suddenly appeared in front of my eyes, pulling me out of my thoughts.

[Quest completed.]

[Existential threat — Rank 6 has been destroyed.]

"Looks like we’re done," Sherial said.