Humans and Fairies

Nami soon got over her shock and immediately wanted to bombard Max with a lot of questions. However, not knowing where to even begin, she ended up only conveying one question. 'How?'

Max raised a brow. 'What do you mean 'how'? Can't you see I just used kinetic mana to grab the mana waves? I don't see why that's a big deal. If you could see mana, you would be able to do the same. Oh wait, can fairies see mana? You seem super attuned with the mana waves around you I would assume you have high perception of mana.''

Nami furiously shook her head and then nodded. And then shook her head again. She looked as if she wanted to respond right away, but didn't really know how to convey it. After thinking for a bit, she finally explained more things to Max.

Apparently, the only way for mages to cultivate was either by collecting mana naturally attracted to the heart's gravity or by absorbing potential mana inside mana stones, since it was already condensed and contained within a medium. Of course, robbing the stones of their potential mana would render them useless.

But absorbing potential mana that was ever-present in the atmosphere? As far as Nami knew, no mages had been able to achieve such a feat.

One didn't simply 'absorb' mana in the air. How would that even work? They couldn't just sit down, meditate, 'inhale', and then expect mana to automatically flow into their bodies as if being pulled into a vacuum. It didn't work that way.

Or maybe they could use mana from their Mana Regulator, send it out to 'fetch' potential mana in the air? That was even stupider. Once mana was out of their bodies, it was truly out there. The energy had been used and altered. Gone. They couldn't retrieve it back.

Unless of course, they deployed their mana to pull in potential mana from mana stones. Now that was doable. That was how it normally worked, anyway.

Potential mana was trapped inside mana stones, condensed and ready to be used for any purposes. And once a mage sent in their mana into the stone to then latch onto the potential mana available, both the mage's mana and the stone's potential mana would still be contained within the stone. And what the mage needed to do next was pull in both their and the stone's mana, and store it inside their body.

But for some weird reason, Max was able to use kinetic mana to 'grab' mana in the air. Well, it was technically not the motion of grabbing, although it looked like it. What he did was employ kinetic mana to move the mana waves so that they clump into his grip.

Nami understood this, as mana normally could only be directed, altered, and manipulated, not held or restrained. It was ever-moving. Even the mana inside Mana Regulators must always perform rotations in order to remain within a mage's body. The only exception would be the special property of mana stones; for some reason, it was the only material in both Ardeim and Nami's world that was able to contain mana.

Now the question was, how was Max able to move mana waves, if even the most powerful mages Nami had ever encountered wasn't able to do so? Mages were only able to utilize mana within their own bodies to perform techniques, while potential mana in the air was too 'wild' or raw for them to use, if they knew how to use it all.

Even if they attempted to use kinetic mana to control potential mana, the same way Max did, the kinetic mana would just phase through the mana waves and eventually turn into potential mana itself, forever lost in the atmosphere. Which was why kinetic mana users were only able to use their power to move matter. As to moving other types of energy? That was the job of other types of mana. Light mana was responsible for manipulating light energy, heat mana for heat energy, electric mana for electricity, and so on.

And yet here was Max, using kinetic mana to do all kinds of tricks that would normally take several types of mages to perform. Exactly how was he able to tap into all types of energy using only kinetic mana? It couldn't be just because he could see them, although he might believe so. Nami knew there was something more to it.

In a way, he was similar to fairies. Fairies too, could see mana. Fairies were beings of flesh and magic, after all. They were a hybrid. To reproduce, fairy babies were conceived by using male fairies' mana, not their sperm like most living beings. By doing that, the males would often sacrifice almost all the mana that composed their bodies, in other words sacrificing their lives. Which was why female fairies greatly outnumbered the male ones.

Fairies were perhaps the only living beings that could tap into potential mana in the air. Well, technically not 'tap into'. What they did was simply connect the mana making up their own bodies with potential mana. After all, they themselves were made of potential mana, so being one with potential mana in the atmosphere was natural.

Yes, they were able to move mana in the air, but the method was different from Max's. They moved mana by being one with it, not by applying a certain type of non-potential mana. Besides, fairies didn't cultivate. So there was no need to absorb mana into their bodies.

'Fairies don't have to cultivate? They can naturally control mana, while other beings need to learn and cultivate? That sounds unfair,' Max couldn't help but remark.

Nami glared at him. The boy clearly didn't know what he was talking about! 'Us, fairies, suffer, much.'

Since their bodies were not designed for the concept known as cultivation, since birth, fairies' level of power remained the same until their death. Well, despite not aging, fairies could still die from many causes. Though as long as there was mana in the atmosphere, they could survive. That was how Nami was able to stay alive in the wooden chest for so long. She basically ate and breathed mana.

Fairies' level of power strictly depended on their environment. They could only become as powerful as the amount of mana available. And when it came to magic techniques, at most they could do simple tricks like enhancing their voices, illuminating the area, and so on.

In other words, they were essentially weak beings. That was the reason why in The Ancient Ruins, before mass extinction wiped out almost all the populations, fairies had been enslaved by mages. Since half their bodies were made up of condensed potential mana, they were used in the same way as mana stones, only more sustainable. Once three-fourth of their potential mana was absorbed, they could recharge themselves, as opposed to the easily disposable mana stones.

They were not completely defenseless, however. Nature had a way to arm living beings so they could defend themselves, despite how weak their constitutions might be. A fairy's most powerful defense mechanisms were their ability to manipulate other living being's minds and to conceal their own presence. Plus, they had their rare fairy dust that could grant any wishes.

However, the former two tricks could only work against those with lower to middle level of cultivation. This equated to up to the second layer's Rotational Friction, particularly around the Initial speed. But depending on the density of mana in the air, it could go up to the Advanced speed.

Back in The Ancient Ruins, however, there were many powerful mages that went beyond the limits of fairies' invisibility and mind control level, so these defense mechanisms were pretty much useless. This resulted in the huge number of enslaved fairies.

Nami had been a young fairy when she was captured by the slavers and was separated from her mother. But she had understood enough about the world of cultivation to be able to guide Max.

The atmosphere became a little awkward after Max found out how the fairies were treated back in The Ancient Ruins. He also now knew a little bit about Nami's past. She told him that she had been 'used' for about a few months before The Great Disaster that would cause mass extinction on the planet happened. A fairy friend then put her in the wooden chest and hid her someplace safe. However, not knowing how to open the chest, she was practically trapped in it.

And somehow, after The Gatemaker connected that planet to Ardeim, the wooden chest must have gone through many hands before ending up in Daryl's Magic Barrell, and eventually in Max's hands.

'So, humans in your world were cruel to your kind. And yet, here you are helping me. You even used your treasure, the fairy dust, on me. I'm not sure I deserve this much just by getting you out of that chest.' Max hadn't even intended to free a trapped fairy initially. He was just curious!

Nami hovered in place for a few seconds, not saying anything. It could be that she was also wondering why she had been willing to help him so much. She had been mistreated by many humans before, so she was supposed to feel a repulsion being near him. However, that was not the case. In fact, she not only felt safe around him, but since this was her first interaction after the longest time being alone, she also felt happy being able to talk to someone.

In the end, she could only come up with one answer. 'You, sincere human. Not want much, not feel threatening.'

In other words, Max was basically the opposite of the people in The Ancient Ruins. They were all hungry for power and always wanted something much more than they deserved.

'Humans, not all same,' Nami added.