Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 218: Arc 4, Act II, - 63: Magical Proficiency
Bits of the page blackened, but luckily it was still intact. "Phew..." Niah looked to Asobi, "I promised not to assault visitors of the library again, but I’m getting such a temptation..."
"Sorry!" Asobi chuckled... The butterfly upon her wand had become an illusion once more.
"Can you make it fly around?" Jotou squinted.
"Sure-sure!" the illusion lifted off the wand and phased through the table with no effect.
"With your manifestation affinity..."
"Oh, that makes much more sense! But... I don’t know how to do it..." her eyes fell as her hands shied away. "It was really, really hard. I tried imagining, but uhm, I don’t know how to put it."
"Blessed by the heavens and hells, Asobi’s become speechless," Fumeko flipped pages through her book.
"Use your emotions as magical crutches to make your spells easier to cast, you know that your drawback is that it has to be a trick and has to be made from your illusions first; it’s merely a matter of time.
I firmly believe you will be proficient in it sooner than you think... Most people with an affinity do."
"Thanks Niah!"
"Plus it’s your secondary affinity, it’s bound to be difficult, but you’ll always have help with us," Hotaru smiled.
"I do, I do! What do you think I should do then? I always make up my spells, but this one’s a tough cookie to crack. Ooo... cookie, can we bring food in here?"
"Depends on the type, sweets and some food is fine, but anything that leaves crumbs or spills are not allowed. Anyhow, I found a book in the registry that might interest you on the topic of lightning-based spells."
"Well, Jotou can go check it out. As for Sobi, I think reading more’ll give us some good; I’ll help you."
"Thanks Hotaru! You too Meko?"
"I’ll follow Jotou."
Hotaru side-eyed for a second, her ears pricking. It was not unnoticed by the detective whose eyes had sharpened to the redhead’s glare.
"Let’s go," Jotou announced.
_
They descended down a spiral staircase near the corner, "What affinity do you have?" Fumeko asked of the cat-girl guiding them.
She halted her steps for a moment, her tail falling lower and lower, "I, don’t have an affinity."
"Really? Did you work in the Ordinate by any chance? I know their members are very knowledgeable about these things," Jotou queried.
"Hmph, the Ordinate’s a non-governmental organization across all the countries," Niah continued to walk. "They strike accords and have connections to the country they’re in, but have no obligation to be of aid.
At the end of the day, they’re magical researches and run private businesses such as providing enchantments and other magical aids for a hefty price. Even this palace pays for enchanted wards made by them.
They’re nothing more than spinners of threads that make it hard to see how simple they are—elitists.
They like to pick and choose who gets to be a member, use overtly complex terms to scare off anyone who’d want to learn of magic and like to keep it out of the commonfolk’s reach by safeguarding their knowledge.
With the rise of mana dust and magi-technology, the era of magic is coming into a new age." She scoffed, "I have no time for closed-minded purists who believe people with affinities are superior."
She looked up the shelves of books they now stood by and pulled out her bar. Swiftly grabbing the book she tossed it back down and landed.
The binding had withered, the stitching of the pages to the spine were loose and the pages were yellowed or browned with little tear marks on the edges.
Fumeko placed her book onto a small round table, Jotou following behind. "Maybe it’s just the Cravoltan Ordinate that makes it seem like that," Jotou posed.
"One branch or the other, they’re all the same tree. I know generalizing has its own biases, but it’s always been the organization’s ideology whether their members know it or not."
"Well, I know someone who worked at the Ordinate. She had no affinity, but she was better than those who even had them; so I’m in no way disagreeing with you," Jotou smirked.
Niah paused, her ears looked in every direction while her tail swished. A smile grew—tiny, but present. "Thank you. In any case, I much prefer working here.
Under my authority, no knowledge shall be kept away from those who seek it."
"Your authority as a librarian?" Fumeko raised a brow.
Niah cleared her throat, "Head Librarian in Training. Next promotion’s coming in a month or so. I can finally retire the old hag and get a new bookkeeper so she doesn’t exhaust herself."
"You should hold a class on magic for the staff," Fumeko mocked.
"Hm, hm... that might be a good idea." Her eyes widened, "Maybe someone might even have a dormant affinity. Have you heard tales of such things? People only find out they have affinities in their later ages.
Usually it stems from late development of affinities within the individual that show themselves in odd scenarios. I find myself fantasizing about- Uh... I apologize, ahem," she hid away her excitement.
Jotou grinned, "I won’t tell anyone~"
"I don’t care," Fumeko scanned the pages.
"I don’t care either, tell it to who you want, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest," Niah’s mouth ran as she crossed her arms and looked away.
"Sure," her eyes sparked. Jotou took a seat and inspected the glossary of the book. Lightning-based spells and magics, pertaining to many affinities.
’Maybe a grandmaster level spell would help? ...Skip a level... If Frost got it from me, no reason I shouldn’t. What’s the level after grandmaster again? Haros, right.’
Niah sat with her hand propping up her chin, lightly closing her eyes. "Hey, maybe you should look for the spell teleport if you’re feeling daring; it’s grandmaster level," Jotou advised.
Fumeko beamed, "Skip a couple of levels? Now that I can do." The brunette bookmarked a page in her own book, flipping the pages to find the spell.
"Webbing Lightning," the blonde’s eyes paused on a lengthy Chapter.
"Found something?" Fumeko looked up, but then turned... She narrowed her glance to an empty space; she swore there was a light shimmer of something...
"Haros level spell, offensive and minor mobility."
"No you don’t," an invisible force took away the book from Jotou’s hand. Niah’s tail spiked awake just as she did.
"Hotaru!?" Jotou glared around her.
"Asobi! Drop the invisibility right now!" Fumeko searched around her.
"She’s upstairs studying a spell she can train for and not injure herself grievously. I knew you two’d do something like this," the invisible redhead scolded.
"Quit your nagging wolfy, we need powerful spells if we wanna stand a chance!"
"Yes," the invisible floating book flipped through the pages delicately, "That’s why you should learn more expert and master level spells for your arsenal, not jumping fifty steps ahead.
Might I remind you what happened last time? I might not be a few steps away from you this time to heal you if you’re bleeding out."
"That’s why I gotta practice. These elite soldiers aren’t going to be pushovers with intermediate level spells."
"She’ll be fine wolfy," Fumeko glared.
"I understand; rushing from intermediate to master is one thing, but master to haros? Sorry, that’s just too much, I’m sure Niah would agree."
Niah saw both eyes glance towards her. "Hm, learning spells takes time. If you wish to learn a spell higher than the level of the spells you know, it is safer to level up the spell you already know to that level before attempting a brand new one."
"See?"
"However, the power of magic is its unpredictability. Risks have to be taken if one hopes to be more powerful. Grooming your affinity slowly is safer yes, but much more time consuming; it could take years if not decades.
Haros level casters are extremely rare; the majority of people with affinities die before they even reach grandmaster level, and there are affinity users who just don’t wish to practice their magic.
The reason for the former being, caution. For someone from the Ordinate, there is no reason to even learn magic beyond expert level. But for adventurers and this battle to come, some amount of caution has to be sacrificed."
"I see it very clearly," Jotou stuck her tongue out to the floating book.
"However... leaping from master to haros level, is a bit much. Maybe grandmaster at most."
The blonde with the glazed over eyes couldn’t see her... But she’ll be damned if she didn’t feel Hotaru’s grin looming over her. "This book’s ancient..."
"Rarer the element, rarer the documentation; and you’re looking for specifics. You’re lucky this is the Grand Library," Niah replied to the redhead.
"Ah, there we go, this should be good," Hotaru placed the book down.
Jotou sighed, "Shoulder-Charge, master level, offensive and minor defensive." Jotou skimmed through, "Basically, I slide forward with my shoulder, charging a few feet while lightning energy forms around me.
It’ll shield me from most things and anything I hit’ll have lightning discharging onto it."
"Perfect for bullets and especially if you’re out in the open. It wouldn’t hurt to learn it, would it~?"
Jotou pouted... "Fine this spell seems useful, you’re not wrong. I can probably force anything away from me and stagger people to get an advantage on them."
"That clever brain’s already strategizing," Hotaru hummed. "That goes the same for you young lady, no skipping levels."
Fumeko looked to Jotou, then to the disembodied voice, "Ugh, okay. I had something already," she turned to the bookmarked page, "Just an expert level; Spider Walk.
I can scale any surface with it. I figured since there’s plateaus and canyons..."
"How’s your blink spell? Is it expert level yet?"
"How the hell do I tell that?"
"It’s just a feeling, gauged mainly by yourself. There’s no numbers to it; the more proficient you get, the more powerful your spell becomes. Think of it as an evolution; it may even get alternate effects."
Fumeko held a hand to her chin and disappeared, reappearing forward to the shelves. She blinked again to where she could see. A few more times as shadows took over her legs. "I feel like, it is?"
"Alright then, learn that spell I guess. Should we borrow the books and practice? It’s almost lunch-"
Fumeko blinked back to the book and shut it immediately with a, "THUMP!" "Let’s go get lunch."
"Uh, let’s go get Sobi and make her visible first?"
"Jotou, why don’t you go get her?" Fumeko replied. The blonde knitted her brows, then connected the dots.
"Okay then. Hope we’ll meet again Niah."
"If you’re going to peruse spells in the library, it is more than likely. Good luck practicing, make sure to register the books with the old hag before you go," with a swish of her tail Niah bade farewell.
The blonde waved to the air and left, leaving Fumeko and a... "Wolfy, you still there?"
"Yes?"
"Uh, hm..." Fumeko fiddled with her hair. "After lunch, can we talk?"
"We can talk right now, what’s up?"
"It’s uh, private... Maybe in my room, please?"
The redhead saw what she saw back in the chaos of Kria. With a smile in her voice she said, "Of course; after lunch then."
