Problems

Surprisingly, an extremely small amount of mana was lost. Savine expected at least 2-4% of her total mana to be lost, but what? She barely lost 1%? It felt like it didn't even reach that.

This was both good and bad news. The good news was that her mana was much larger than she first anticipated. But because of that, it was going to take a lot longer than she anticipated to purify her mana entirely.

And it wasn't just a progress bar that went from 1 to 100. During the process, naturally, some of the purified mana would revert. So although the final number was 100, the effort needed was about 200.

By that logic, the time needed for Savine to completely tame her own mana was 200 days. If she took a bit of risk and did the process twice every day, 100 days. Maybe even more. Definitely more. It wasn't like her mana was going to stop increasing.

If Savine was a normal person, she wouldn't have worried that much. She would only be happy at her absurd amount of mana. But Savine wasn't a normal person.

'Can I afford to wait that long?'

It was too risky. If possible, it was best to reach her full potential as soon as possible. She had made quite a few enemies, after all.

"Sigh…"

Once again, she needed to think of countermeasures.

"Should I ask if I could go towards the Wisdomtree by myself?"

There, she had more options. But that didn't seem likely to happen. Even if she managed to convince the duke, with how Fest duchy's standing was, it would be a miracle if a Count's daughter could go to the Sovereignty and do what she wanted to the Wisdomtree.

'Ah, why is life so hard?'

She thought she solved her problems, but many more popped up randomly.

<Lady Eliseline! Who was that white-haired girl?>

<None of your business. And stay away from her. Don't talk about her either. Not even at homes to siblings and parents. I'll know.>

<Gulp. >

<Sorry, Lady Eliseline... We'll go back.>

Ever since she came to the city, random conversations popped into her head, talking about 'That white-haired girl'. And after she tamed a bit of her mana, the strength of her Gift had just become stronger. It could be seen by a certain voice that kept leaking into her head.

<Who's that white-haired girl... who's girl?! If you're all fucking interested, then go ask her! Why do you have to send me formal letters for this shit?!>

Savine chuckled and dialed down the strength of her Gift.

"But at least I can use some magic now," she hummed.

The Vasa became filled. Savine exhaled and took control over the mana. Since it was separated from the main mass, and since it was inside Wisdomwood, it was quickly tamed.

Savine casually cast four spells in succession. First she ordered the mana to become flammable and spark. Then, she ordered them to gather the moisture in the air in one spot. Afterwards, she ordered them to move the air particles towards her face. And finally, she ordered the mana to change states completely and turn solid.

And each time it shifted properties; no amount of mana was lost. If a normal person did this, they would have to cast each spell, cancel it, and cast another one. Savine, on the other hand, could simply change water to fire.

Anyhow, the results were as follows.

A tiny wisp of fire, a palmful of water, a small blow of air, and finger-sized piece of mud.

'Hmm. This body's elemental affinity is Water.'

She then cast two other spells. One created a ray of light atop her palm and the other elongated the shadow from her fingers slightly.

'No notable talent for light-based spells. As for the rest of the spectrum… I'll need to do another test when I've filled at least ten other Vasas of the same size.'

She didn't bother casting more complex spells, as that would take a lot more mana than she could currently control.

"I wonder what the standard is for this world?" Savine wondered out loud. "It shouldn't be low, since there's wisdomwood around."

In some worlds like Earth, the spells Savine just performed were the peak. There, mana was as scarce as antimatter. Even if there were mages who could use it, there wouldn't be any around for them to use.

But here, things shouldn't be like that. She remembered how Eliseline cast a noise-cancelling spell and how the Initiate tried to shoot lightning out of his Vasa.

The first required either the creation of an invisible wall around the talkers or the creation of a thin layer of vacuum. The latter required a decent understanding of negative and positive charges of particles. 

But scientific knowledge was not the only way to cast spells. Imagination was just as good of a method to cast spells. Need fire, just imagine your hand going hot. Need water? Just imagine rainwater pooling on your hands. Need a lightning? Just imagine your hand as the thunderclouds and the enemy as a tall tree.

Mana was an extremely lenient form of energy. It didn't care for the methods mages used to utilize it. Similar to how electricity could be generated through various means and used in various ways, mana was the same. 

A mage could study natural phenomena and recreate it with mana. Or they could rely on their vast imagination and recreate literal miracles. Some inject mana into their bodies, enhancing their physique beyond the limits of humanity. While some even create cults or religions that require sacrifices and prices to be paid for magic spells. 

Of course, they each had their advantages and disadvantages, but the point was that mana was an extremely flexible source of power. 

And the more one studied it, the more powerful they would become, as a mage's strength was dictated solely by the amount of knowledge they possessed.

And as an angel who received the best education regarding mana, and as an old artifact who lived for nearly half a millennium now, Savine was undoubtedly the most dangerous mage in this world. 

Savine felt the heating Vasa and directed the mana inside herself again. She made sure to keep the small amount of tamed mana away from the untamed mass, so it didn't become contaminated.

Even with this little bit of mana, Savine now had more than enough power to save herself if need be. 

If she was king of the world, she could fill up as many Vasas as she desired and could be finished with the process in only a few days. Newbies needed to take their time with the process, but as an experienced mage, Savine did not have such needs. But she didn't even bother asking for extra Vasas. It was impossible for her request to be accepted, anyway.

'I could try buying it from other duchies… but that seems a bit hard.'

The fact that Fest duchy was in such a low point made it easier for Savine to bully them, but it also meant that her social status was one of utter garbage. Even if she was allowed to buy Vasas from other duchies, the price and favors she had to pay were immense.

Truly, you could never have enough money.

But even if Savine introduced various new products inside the Fest duchy, they weren't going to be profitable for one simple reason. The people of the Fest duchy were too poor. It was also quite damaging for her to hoard all the money in one small area.

She could try selling to the other duchies and countries, but thinking about it more, that wasn't a good plan. Since the duchy's political standing was simply too weak, it wasn't impossible for one of the big winning duchies to confiscate her businesses with the excuse of receiving war reparations.

She could create businesses in other countries and use that as her source of income, but it was impossible for her to move freely.

'Ah, this dog world!'

The more she thought, the more she felt her head spinning out of control.

'Screw it all, I'll just focus on gathering information and getting used to the temple.'

There was no point trying to find solutions to some problems. It was better to focus on something else.