Chapter 8 – Fire magic

Sophia had successfully finished her earth magic training and perfectly recreated the cube that Fen tasked her to do to get a feel of the finer details when using magic. After she was done with a rather monotonous lunch, which was nothing but another feast of meat, the girl directly jumped back into her training.

"So, now that I have mastered earth magic, let's go with the next category!" She had taken quite a liking to magic.

"I wouldn't necessarily say mastered, but I do admit you've built a working foundation."

"Any tips to get started on fire? I've already seen you using it, but where should I begin?"

"Well, start by imagining, uhh, fire?" Fen himself thought his answer lacked elegancy. "Or no, instead, try to think about a heat source and slowly pour your magic power into it, letting it catch on fire that way."

"Basically, like burning fuel, huh? Yeah, I can work with that…" Concentrating on the task, Sophia tried to form a fitting image before adding her magic powers to it.

"Ah, but make sure to only use as little of your power as you can, and then half that again becau-"

"Hmm, did you say something, Fe- Ah!" Because she was so focused, she didn't hear his warning. Sophia then quickly noticed something was going wrong herself.

"Too late, huh?" He sounded calm but was at the same time retreating backward, trying to get as far away from her as possible.

"F-Fen, I don't think I can control-" Before being able to finish her concern, a gigantic fireball formed in front of her and shot forward. It created a pillar of fire and eradicated everything in its path while lasting several seconds. Because she was facing their campsite under a group of trees, only ash was left behind in the place where it used to be.

"It seems like we have to find a new place for tonight."

"Ahaha…" She awkwardly scratched her cheek. "Just what happened here, Fen?"

"Well… You used way too much of your power to fuel the magic. When I called out to you, it went berserk because you lost your concentration."

"I barely used any of it, though?"

"From our perspective, sure, but you just burned through the total combined magic power of at the very least 70 to 80 humans, you know?"

"S-Seriously?! That's surprising…"

"Now imagine using a much larger amount of it. Then, we're back to leveling a country again."

"You really weren't joking…" She had often heard Fen saying she wasn't normal, but this incident really made it sink in.

"Scared now, girl? Want to stop?" He tried to test her willpower.

"Eh? Why would I? Magic's fun! I just need to learn to control it better. Well… it is a bit scary, but that much won't bring me down!"

"A good answer. Okay, do you want to continue or try your hand on some other magic for now?"

"More fire first! I want to get at least basic proficiency before going on."

"Very well." Fen had no intention to stop the girl. "Right, train some more and get accustomed to it. In the meanwhile, I'll go look for a new place to camp. After all-," He didn't finish his sentence and simply glanced at the still smoking pile of ash where the two had spent the last night.

"O-Okay…" Sophia felt slightly bad about it.

"Feel free to go wild while I'm not around. Nobody's going to disturb you here."

"I'll try not to…" Once the wolf had left, she tried some other things to better control and limit her magic power.

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While Sophia was training, Fen sped through the area to find a new place to camp. Almost three hours passed since the two parted. Fen was currently relaxing at the new camping place he found. He had spotted a river and followed it until a suitable place showed up. A couple of trees and some larger bushes were growing right next to the shore. Together with the soft grass, it was the perfect camping ground. Eventually, he heard a loud rumbling and turned his head to look for the source, only to see a gigantic pillar of fire trying to reach the skies in the far distance.

"Ah, it seems like I can take my time." It didn't look like the girl would master her magic power anytime soon. "Still, what fearsome powers she has."

Once Sophia finished up her training, she reached the place the wolf found, as well, and lightly greeted her companion.

"Ah, there you are, Fen. Oho, it's quite nice here. Good job."

"Why, thank you. I wanted to come and get you in a bit, but it seems this wasn't necessary. How did you find me?"

"Your detection magic is very convenient."

"Really, you can already identify individuals?"

"Nope, still only red dots."

"You were just lucky then?"

"Uhh, not at all. You were my second try. First, I ended up visiting some huge and freaky-looking brownish-golden… animal, no… bird, I think? Not sure… Well, whatever it was, that thing almost scared me to death!"

"A bird that didn't leave this area even with our combined magic powers? That fellow must've been fairly strong. Were you okay, Sophia?"

"I have no idea how powerful it was… After realizing my mistake, I immediately burned that guy to a crisp because! I might've overdone it a little because it surprised me…"

"Ahh…" Fen remembered the massive pillar of fire he saw a little while ago and briefly felt sorry for the bird. "Have you become able to control it properly?"

"Of course~!" With a smug look, Sophia stretched out her arm and hand. Afterward, a small, about 15cm tall flame appeared on top of her palm.

"Oho, very impressive. Well done, girl, and the only collateral was a campsite and one innocent monster."

"Don't sweat the small stuff, Fenny~." Sophia was way too happy to care about any of that.

"If you say so." He wasn't one to criticize the easygoingness of others.

"By the way, what's for dinner? All that training made me super hungry."

"Hmm, let's see… Ah, there's a small herd of kows nearby, so-"

"Just meat again…? No way!"

"Anything plant-related around here is poisonous after all."

"How far do we have to go until the vegetation changes in that regard?" She really wanted some variation in her meals. The girl was tired of eating nothing but meat already, not even factoring in the nutritional side.

"Probably about half a day, maybe a little less if we hurry."

"Oh?" She had anticipated it being much further away than just that. "Can we go there tomorrow?"

"I don't mind."

"Then… I think I can tough it out without dinner today. I should be able to survive until tomorrow."

"If that's what you want. Don't mind me hunting some dinner for myself, though." Fen had no intention of skipping together with her.

"Sure, go ahead."

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Immediately after, the wolf went out to procure his dinner. It didn't take him long to return to the camp, carrying a magnificently slain kow in his mouth.

"I'm back. Huh…? What are you doing?" Noticing how Sophia was intensely staring at the river, he got curious and approached her.

"Ah, Fen, welcome back. I'm thinking about trying something out."

"Hmm…" Being slightly interested in what Sophia was up to, he sat down next to her. He watched the river together with the girl for a while. He occasionally noticed the surface of the water stirring, figuring Sophia wanted to try out some sort of magic. More time passed, and the water was becoming increasingly restless. Fen couldn't make out what she was doing and wanted to ask her, but she was faster.

"Ha, I finally got you!" She jumped up from her place on the shore, and a pillar of water shot up from the river. A few seconds later, a wet, thud-like sound could be heard on the ground next to the girl.

"Eh?" Looking at the noise source, the wolf found a fish helplessly flapping around on the grass. "What did you do…?"

"While watching the river, I was wondering whether any fishes are hiding inside. After concentrating for a while, a little red dot eventually appeared. After that, I tried to push it in a good spot by changing the current with magic. Once I had him where I wanted, I blasted him out of the water."

"R-Really?  Good work…" He was visibly surprised by the stunt she had just pulled.

"Fen?"

"Yes?"

"Descale and prepare this fish for me so that I can grill it, pretty please. Oh wait, I haven't caught anything poisonous, have I?" Sophia had no idea whether that fish she had caught is even edible.

"No, it's perfectly fine to eat."

"Great! Please do that for me then."

"Meat is no good, but fish is fine…?"

"Well… it's at least somewhat different, I guess? Better than skipping dinner."

"What a difficult girl."

"There might be some truth to that." There was nothing she could say in her defense.

Fen graciously agreed to prepare the fish for Sophia with magic. Even though it wasn't her sought-after vegetables, Sophia finally had a little variation in her meal. Interestingly, even though the fish had white meat and in no way resembled one, its taste almost perfectly resembled that of salmon. According to Fen, the name was Rasmon, netting another close enough reaction from Sophia.