Endless - Part 1

The levity seems to be over, so after a short moment of silence, Roxanne promptly continues, "Anyway, these robes are really well made." And she points to the inside of the gray robes, which are lined with pretty silver patterns.

Mages use robes lined with mana-conductive material (or made of a mana-conductive material itself) because the cloth can move around, which allows it to adapt its shape to the pattern of a mage's involuntary release of mana as they chant, increasing a spell's efficiency through a positive feedback loop, while plate armor is too stiff to do the same. This increase in efficiency follows a similar principle to a staff's crystal, which is filled with a material that's magically similar to the type of spell that a mage normally casts, and like boosts like, so since you always release some mana that's already attuned to the spell that you're casting (unless you have 100 in [Mana Efficiency]), every mage benefits from wearing a robe instead of plate.

And the craftsmanship of this robe is at a surprisingly high level.

--

['Item Info']

[.Material: 'Unknown type of plant-based fiber; high-purity silver; enchanting gems; plant-based dyes'.]

[.Quality: '90 for thread; 98 for silver; average of 98 for the gems; average of 55 for the dyes'.]

[.Anomalies: 'Silver thread that captures mana and circulates it around the robe, boosting a chanted spell's power'.]

[.Enchantments: 'Non-standard [Breeze]; non-standard [Wind Armor]; non-standard [Rainbow Shield]; non-standard [Swift Foot]; non-standard [Fly]; unknown electric enchantment; unknown enchantment'.]

[.Origin Insights: A masterfully crafted garment clearly oriented for use in battle. The robe's top is mildly tight-fitting but very elastic, displaying the wearer's body type without significantly hampering the robe's magical boost, while the bottom is loose for better movement and just short enough to not drag against the floor, implying that the creator values effectiveness the most but can't give up completely on appearance. The simple but solemn decorations imply a military origin and possibly even a level of military rank, though their shape could also imply a religious meaning. More insights require either very high 'Wisdom' or cultural knowledge about the creator's culture.]

--

Indeed, the robe's chest area reminds me of a military dress uniform jacket as it has broad shoulders and a neat, straight look. As for the decorations, it has three black crosses on each shoulder and one over the heart, which would make it easy to recognize the mage's rank without raising a sign that says, "assassinate me; I'm a high-ranking officer." Though, being the sole mage in a sea of tin cans didn't help in that regard.

Unfortunately, we didn't find a "flash and nail HE grenade" in the pockets, but at least we recovered a wand that we can also inspect.

But our merry time is interrupted as we get worrying news from the Horns.

They breached the tornado, but the first squad to do so was "teleported" to another level without noticing anything. They only realized it even happened because the fellowship bond insisted that they were in a "different, unreachable space," something that happens when a party member is in a different "level" of a dungeon than yours.

If not for the safety [Gate] board, they could've been permanently stranded there, which is exactly why Space mages are so important for dungeon exploration.

But the truly worrying part is how this seems like a trap made by the dungeon. If the Dungeon Master is hostile to explorers, what other dangers can we expect from a being that is kind of like the god of this place?

Even the horns understand this and call off the exploration for now to give us time to think this through.

Since the inspection got interrupted, Lily suggests we check up on Chesa, and we learn that the mergirl has rested enough to be able to speak properly, so we decide to go to her as she has some explaining to do.

--

After I give Kaatohe a brief visit to tell her that everyone's fine, we go to Chesa's room in the Carrier.

The pretty and very slender Thalanthro girl sits up the moment we enter. She's wearing a cute set of pink pajama shorts and a top, but her choice of attire seems to cover very little, considering her usual clothes, allowing us to savor her long, light-blue arms and legs and even get a peek at her lacy white panties. But then we notice that she doesn't seem to wear a bra, which is expected since she has literally no tits.

"How are you feeling? You gave us a bit of a scare there," Lily kindly remarks before I can attempt to huskily seduce the girl.

Chesa smiles softly, seemingly not noticing our lecherous stares, and begins spilling everything, "I'm doing fine, just tired. I don't know what exactly happened, but I suddenly felt like I could 'control' the lightning of the javelin, though I couldn't really control it, so I guess that means that it was through my Gift rather than 'Magic Power.'" Then she giggles girlishly, which is adorable.

But yeah, we expected that explanation.

She isn't done, though, and after a moment of consideration, she quietly adds as she cutely grabs her chin, deep in thought, "But once I let the lightning course through me, I felt so full of energy, which was a first, like, seriously, and then starting the storm became so easy that I just did it."

The only time the wives and I have experienced something like that was when Ciel received a Boon from the God of the Sun and erased an entire encampment from existence, and we're pretty sure that isn't what happened with Chesa, so we can't really relate to her.

"Well, you guys' Gifts are similar to each other but not mine, so you should know what it's like," I wryly remark with a shrug.

Lily lets out a sigh of relief and hums in agreement, "Yeah, we do. I just wanted to make sure she didn't overexert herself because it sure looks like it's easy to."

Samkelo also hums, but in understanding, and then he explains, "It kind of feels like a muscle that you 'pull,' and then it hurts to use it for a while."

"You, overexerting yourself?" Yunia questions with a scoff, still feeling like his ego is a delightfully squishy target to step on with her pointy heels.

And the gnome manchild doesn't seem phased, though he fails to hide a mischievous grin as he reminisces, "What? It was fun to use it at first, so I conjured a bunch of stuff, but I was pretty bad at it, and I ended up 'pulling the muscle.'"

Then Lily mercilessly exposes an embarrassing moment, "You also poisoned yourself trying to conjure weed directly into your blood, or something."

He does have the decency to look away in shame, but it barely lasts a second as he owns up to it, "It was edibles, and I conjured them directly into my stomach. But yeah, it's easy to conjure 'partially-magical' matter, which behaves a bit weirdly in your stomach if you don't specifically 'build' the matter to be eaten."

Ciel is reminded of a funny moment, so she kindly shares, "Exactly, it's like eating 'solidified mana.' Dungeons with a theme are often made of it because it's a cheap way to mimic matter, and since they also mimic food, basically every new adventurer eats some when they get tired of [Conjure Bland Meal], so then they soon come running back to the temple because they think they got poisoned." And she gives Aoi and me a pointed look as we ate some sausages during our first delve into the Legado dungeon.

"Technically, it is poison; I can make antidotes for that," Roxanne suddenly chimes in.

And the chocolate angel makes a skeptical face. "Yeah, but it's not… poison poison, the bad kind that monsters use. It's just indigestion."

Then the gnome turns to the succubus and asks an honest, curious question, "Wait, what exactly is your degree in? I thought you were just a chemist?"

"Alchemist, and I specialize in potions and antidotes," she proudly corrects him after a telepathic prompt from me.

His eyebrows rise up, and his mouth widens in a very "Samkelo" grin as he comes up with a stupid idea. "Does she know what weed is? Is there weed in this world? I want to know if there's magical weed."

Alissa suddenly blurts out an innocent question with a cute, confused frown, "We do have weed-…" -then I share a bit of information with her, and her pretty eyes open wide in realization- "and I just realized that 'weed' is slang…"

And this talk unearths some memories from Hana. "Oh, we have that! It's called 'hash'! But it's only common on the Mainland," she happily exclaims and basks in the nostalgia of her memories.

I read her mind, and I'm surprised but also not really that she showed her boobs to some teens in exchange for hash when she was younger.

The gnome makes a pensive look as he comments, "Huh… well, it used to be called 'hash' or 'hashish' on Earth, too."

So I kindly explain, "Some words here are the same as those on Earth, but I believe it's mostly just ancient words."

The Earthlings raise eyebrows at that, but they make no comment as it seems that none of them share my fondness for etymology.

Then Roxanne chimes in too, "Back in Rabanara, I know that the expensive leaf 'cake' or 'bush' used for smoking has hash in it along with other stuff."

And Samkelo's grin returns. "You guys have it good! Can you believe that the Chimeras hardly smoke stuff? They like some alcohol and fermented stuff, but aside from that, I only found a psychedelic leaf that you eat."

"We don't do well with psychedelics because of our telepathy," Ciel states and flashes a stiff smile.

Yeah…

"Huh, that sounds fun…" Lily hums curiously.

So I flatly explain, "The last time we tried that, Aoi accidentally fried herself, Hana, and another person with a fully physical lightning strike."

The Earthlings give the little big blue dragon a surprised look. Then Chesa shyly confesses, "I've done that…" And the girl flashes Aoi a wry smile.

"I meant 'fun,'" Lily corrects herself and makes air quotes.

"Good thing the three of us were all dragons, so it just made us pass out and burned our skin a bit," Hana proudly states.

"A weaker person could've died…" Ciel concernedly adds.

So Hana smugly brags, "A weaker person would've pissed their panties when they saw the storm going on above their head and then ran away before it hit."

But she's kind of right, so Ciel hesitatingly agrees, "That's… fair, I think…"

--

After that, we leave the Earthlings and return to the room with the bodies so that we can investigate the enchantments crafted by the pseudo-orcs.

I focus on the wand while Roxanne inspects the robe again and Lina the burnt-up javelin. Yunia will stay with Hihiriwa to oversee the clean-up of the fortress, and Alissa will get someone to repair our airship. Hana, Ciel, and Aoi don't have much to do, so they just gather up the Companions that are still willing to fight, then go help the rest of the Lordsguard with the golems watching their backs.

The wand can cast [Fire Arrow], [Lightning Bolt], and [Telekinesis]. Pretty standard stuff, but the way it does it isn't standard. System spells all have a similar structure, where they use five distinct "phases": gathering, conversion, building, expulsion, and trigger.

In a standard [Fire Arrow], you'd first gather mana in your heart because your blood is the most mana-attuned part of your body, and though the mana comes from your mana organ, it actually physically manifests anywhere in your body. So it makes sense to gather mana in your heart, right? It does, and that's the standard way that most system magic is cast, but it's different for enchanting. Not only is it simpler to make an enchantment that gathers the mana inside the gem, but they're also already attuned to the type of spell being cast, making it more efficient to gather the mana in them.

But the pseudo-orc's wand doesn't do either of those methods. It gathers the mana in the caster's body, and it does so in the head. There are some benefits of gathering mana in that area (if you ignore the higher chance of getting a headache), like the spell being boosted by mental "Stats" like "Wisdom," "Intelligence," and "Willpower," but unless it's a high-level spell, the "boost" isn't that noticeable compared to the higher efficiency of gathering the mana in your heart. But [Fire Arrow] is a level 10 [Fire Magic] spell, so what the fuck is the purpose of having a gem gather mana in your head?

It's not just the wand's enchantments that do this; the ones in the robe also gather the mana in your head. It's just such an odd choice that it puzzles us. And now I feel like I should've captured the mage instead of killing him, but he was a pretty dangerous one, so the feeling is fleeting.

"Okay, but this is even more puzzling," Roxanne remarks as she inspects the gem sewn into the robe's hood (which has been deep [Clean]ed of blood and brain matter).

We give her curious looks, and she feeds the enchantment some mana. After a second, a black sphere appears in front of the hood, right where the mage's face would be, and the sphere is definitely made with the monster version of [Illusion Magic]. Then we sense another magical spell being cast, this time inside the gem in the hood, and it feels very… [Space Magic]-y.

"Hmm…!" I hum in sudden interest.

Trying to unveil the inner workings of a spell is like solving a puzzle. You can't really "look into" spells you haven't cast yourself, but there are many ways you can get "insights" into its inner workings.

Sensing the mana it exudes only gives you a "hint" of what it might be, an idea of the "intent" behind the spell, like how [Abyssal Fire] gives some eldritch vibes as it's a fire that consumes everything, but it doesn't work as well with purely physics-based spells, like a simple [Fireball].

This spell is the latter as the [Illusion Magic] bit gives the feeling of a "gathering light" (as in photons), while the [Space Magic] thing going on inside the gem is more like an [Eternal Gate]. This is so interesting… but then there's a very obvious question that I must ask.

Is this spell a fucking remote camera?

It's technically possible to interrupt any spell, not just the ranged area of effect type. It's just that it's extremely difficult to do so unless you're literally hugging the mage and trying to overpower their "Magic Power" with yours, and even then, your MPower has to be much higher than theirs. But there's none of that here, and it's safe to use [Redirect Mana] to steal the enchantment's mana, allowing me to better sense its "flavor."

And so, I do both.

First, I interrupt the black sphere, giving me the sensation that I've "broken" something and also that I've "plugged a drain," returning reality back to normal. Then the mana from the sphere hits me, and I sense that the sphere isn't just about "photons"; there's, like, a whole "recreation" aspect to it. The sphere might not be just a "camera." It could even be a whole damn 3D hologram of the area around it, and who's to say how "big" that area might be?

Then I interrupt the [Space Magic]-y spell inside the gem, and I sense that I've "broken a window," but instead of opening a hole to something, I've actually closed it, somehow. The mana from it hits me next, and I feel like it's basically the same shit as an [Eternal Gate], but… lighter…?

Goddamn, this is so vague. I get such… random sensations that I can barely find the words to describe them.

And Roxanne remarks with a shrug, "That's magic. If the spell has even just a small amount of complexity, all you'll get is a vague idea of what's going on because of how deeply an area needs to be altered for something as simple as a [Fireball] to be able to exist."

Right, spells are basically violations of the laws of reality… but are these "laws" actually something written? Can I quantify how many laws a spell breaks? Can I measure them in any way?

Roxanne raises her thin black eyebrow high on her unnaturally pale forehead, but this is right at the edge of her magical knowledge. "That's the mana cost. The more 'laws' you 'break,' the more expensive the spell is," she explains a bit hesitantly.

And I frown pensively as I deliberate, "Still can't really quantify the laws, though I guess we could make some equations to predict the mana cost based on 'Stats' and skill level."

"Ew… [Math]," the lazy succubus moans in disgust.

And Lina actually raises her head to give her the stink-eye.

But then my gloomy loli turns it towards me and makes a request, "I prefer 'glare' because 'stink eye' sounds disgusting. Nothing about me should be 'stinky.'"

"As you wish, my love," I huskily agree.

Roxanne flashes a warm smile at us, then continues with a more sober tone, "Anyway, now that we're talking about it, I think I've heard about an encyclopedia of 'mana use efficiency,' or something like that, which lists every individual alteration of reality that the system spells use and their mana cost."

I hum thoughtfully, but then I just shrug. "Would be interesting to read, but not exactly useful for anything I want to do."

Then we turn our attention back to the robes and begin investigating the unknown electric enchantment, but we easily determine that it's the same [Electric Shield] that the Hippogryph riders had, though Aoi suddenly feels interested in it as she has a passing interest in electricity. She's in battle, though, so she finishes eating her pseudo-orc and goes for the next.

Lina's investigation takes longer as she can't just feed mana into the gem at random since the "circuits" are broken and some dangerous stuff could leak out, which has a small chance of starting a Runaway Mana Reaction, and we don't want that because it's very explode-y. What she does instead is identify the "components," which are voids inside the gem where the walls have been attuned to a type of mana called "code."

This isn't like programming with computers; it's more like a "symbol" that evokes certain memories for the enchanter, helping them infuse their will into the mana that they release onto the walls of the void, attuning them to the "code." The enchanter's "will" is so strongly infused into the area that it now converts and manipulates any mana that comes near it just like a mage would, allowing non-mages to cast spells just by feeding mana into the gem.

Enchanting "code" is learned through entering a trance by repeating mantras so intensely that it becomes ingrained within your mind, and then you just need to remember the "symbol" to trigger the trance again. It's similar to how [Alteration Magic] requires absolute concentration, but enchanting has a much greater margin for error since you're only dealing with the highly reactive particle that is mana instead of real matter, which is naturally resistant to being altered through magic.

So Lina has to find these "components" and either: create channels in the gem so that she can send mana into the components and only the components, or open up the gem and try to sense the "flavor" of the attuned area just like I do with [Sense Mana]. The former is riskier but easier to analyze, while the latter is completely safe but harder to draw concrete information from.

She does the latter first, and then the former if she deems the component safe enough, but there are quite a number of them, so it takes a while to go through each one. The enchantments aren't particularly complex, though, so she eventually manages to reach a conclusion.

The javelin's main purpose was to contain large amounts of their unique "angry" magical electricity and then release it all in a very chaotic way to best use its specialty "wild" aspect to cause as much destruction as possible.

Quite the interesting use of magic, I must say.

--

--

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