Magic Crash Course

"What were you thinking talking about something like that where everybody could hear!"

"It's not that bad. Nobody comes around this time of day and it's not like it's that difficult."

"NOT DIFFICULT! The only person who could do that was the sage who ACCIDENTALY created the philosopher stone, and that was immediately smashed by his god! Nobody knows how to create gold! That makes you one of a kind a walking gold mine." She slowly calms down as she yells at me. Still she drives the point home, but there is one question.

"How could no one else have figured out how to make gold? I mean there are plenty of magic casters out there with high levels right. It shouldn't be that hard." I mean I've seen magic elevators, lamplights, and plumbing so the magic technology is rather advanced. Plus with levels allowing for greater magical powers and literal gods abounding you would think someone would have figured out alchemy by now. I mean it was pretty easy for people to make gold in full metal alchemist right?

"How much do you actually know about magic jack?"

"Well I know you can awaken it naturally or with a grimoire. Also every person only gets three magic slots in their status. People who do so have the chance to get the mage development ability which makes magic easier. Lastly most of the lights and devices around Orario are powered by magic."

"Okay so hardly anything. You see, because people only get three slots magic is very limited. Plus its almost impossible to know what magic a person could get. Sure there are some things that tend to be the same on a race basis. Elves getting light or nature magic and dwarves fire and earth magic for example. But no one has ever gotten a magic that could turn things to gold! Hell, I'm not even sure I've heard of a non-combat magic before." Wait what was that?

"Wait what do you mean you've never heard of non-combat magic."

"Ah I guess I should clarify. I've never heard of a magic that wasn't useful in combat. There is healing magic and support magic of course, but I have never heard of someone awakening a completely non-combat related magic in their status. A good example is your shapeshifting magic. Sure it's not directly combat related, but it can be used for combat. Also I wouldn't be surprised if some of the smithing familias had someone who awakened a non-combat magic. After all people keep that kind of knowledge to themselves. Still most people with status are adventurers. Even smiths need to dive in the dungeon to level up so most magic awakened helps with that."

"I see. Since magic is almost exclusively awakened by adventurers almost all magic is combat oriented."

"Exactly"

"But if that's the case why not just use magic outside of their status skills?" Naaza gives me this look like she can't believe I'm asking that.

"Well duh, because they don't want to die."

"Explain please"

"Guess you really don't know. You remember the dangers of magic we discussed right?"

"Yeah ignus fatus right. Where your magic goes out of control and literally blows up in your face."

"Right, and using magic not in your stats is almost a sure bet for an ignus fatus." I give her a perplexed look at that.

"Why would that happen?"

"Well unless your a spirit or perhaps an elf, magic is basically impossible to use for everyone else. One of the great benefits of a god's blessing is it allows the rest of us who can't use magic to do so. It's also one of the reasons why magic is so rare. For people like us it is next to impossible to naturally awaken magic even with a god's blessing. Take that away and it's as near to impossible as you can get."

"So I guess I'm pretty lucky then."

"Yeah, that skill of yours not only breaks the three magic limit but you immediately awakened it without a grimoire, really the devils luck." She gives me a cheeky grin at that one.

"Haha eat your heart out. Perhaps if you do I can make a deal with you." I grin back at her to try to lighten the mood.

"Well while we're here is there anything else you think I could use my shapeshifting abilities on?" I try to shift topic and Naaza seems willing to comply.

"Well if you can make weapons you could probably make armor as well. That's not something we could try right now so let's see if there's anything else in here you could practice on. Ah, here, lets see if you can use magic to prepare the ingredients!"

"That's a great idea." I get out the ingredients Naaza and Lord Miach will need to make more medicine and start trying the monkey talisman on them.

"Okay so you can do all the prep work in an instant. That's great! Now we can make more medicine."

"Yeah, just don't ask me to do all of it. I still need to go dungeon diving after all."

"Don't worry I still have to make the high level potions. You don't have the mixing development ability after all."

"Hmm, how does that work anyway? I mean it's just mixing different things together after all right? I should be able to do that even without magic."

"Not quite. You see in high level potions the magic in the ingredients becomes more important. Sure you could mix some high powered items and if you're lucky you could get a decent potion. More likely is that the magic reacts badly and you either get sludge or worse a poison. Mixing allows you to control the magic involved. Plus it lets you add your own intent into whatever you're mixing."

"Intent?"

"Well that's what I was told. Basically I just think about what I want the potion to do and the potion does it. It feels a bit like if I was convincing it to work the way I want it." She gets a thoughtful look on her face as she tries to describe it, and I can tell its more instinct than anything.

"Do you think I could do it with my magic?"

"I don't think so , but I guess you could try. I mean if you can make gold I don't see why a potion would be different."