Chapter 164 – Types of magic

The group planned to stay another night at the crater they were turning into a lake with magic, but something unexpected happened during dinner time. Canir himself had actually decided to pay them a visit. They chatted for a while, but the overseer eventually addressed something very serious sounding.

"W-What do you mean...? Fen and I almost destroyed this continent?" Sophia couldn't make any sense out of his words.

"Not destroyed, erased." Canir corrected her. "Just like the crater here. Everything would've been simply gone. Also, I'm heavily, like super heavily downplaying by limiting it to the word continent."

"H-Huh...? B-But this creepy sphere that was eating everything stopped right before it got to us...?"

"Y-Yes..." Fen, looking equally shocked, agreed with the tiger. "It seemed to be growing for a while, but everything was eventually wrapped into a pure white light, and it was gone afterward."

"And just who do you two think was responsible for that white light that stopped the sphere from swallowing you and everything else?" There was nothing playful in Canir's voice for a rare change.

"O-Oh..." Sophia just now connected the all-consuming white she saw so many times before with the overseer. Fen, too, was aware of Canir's powers.

"Anything you two want to say?" He stared at the duo.

"We're deeply sorry!" Fen and Sophia hung their heads. "Also, thank you very much for saving us, and, more importantly, everyone else! Something on this scale definitely won't ever happen again!"

"Perfect~." His voice turned cheery again. "Even more than I wanted to hear. Both of you are forgiven and allowed to play again."

"T-Thank you very much."

"Err..." Maya and Aura looked extremely confused.

"Creepy sphere that ate everything...?" The female wolf hadn't heard about that detail from the duo.

"E-Erased continent...?" The cat-girl, too, was shocked.

"Well, it's a bit hard to explain." Canir tilted his head. "Long story short, your idiots overloaded and almost destroyed the magic system, which, as a reaction, ran amok after having reached critical mass."

"Seriously?!" All of their voices overlapped.

"Yep, they went all out."

"..." The group needed a break after this revelation.

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The four watched their campfire burn for about 30 minutes. As it had a very calming effect on them, they eventually were able to work again.

"But, wow, this group sure is something else." Canir looked at all of them. "The strongest member of the beastfolk, well, who was born as one, someone who reached the natural limit of magic, and then the duo who almost destroyed all of it. Fen, who's basically a leader of this world, too, in terms of power, and we don't even need to talk about Sophia."

"..." The destroyer duo stayed silent.

"Eh...?" Maya didn't. "I'm... the strongest member of the beastfolk...?"

"By far. Normally, exceptions are around the level of the little tiger princess who will awaken relatively soon. There's no one else like you in your folk, cat."

"W-Wow..." She had no idea what to reply to that.

"You've found the perfect group to join."

"Ahaha..."

"Wait," Aura joined the conversation. "What do you mean by me having reached the limitation of magic?"

"Your teleportation accident."

"You know about that?"

"Partially. I saw it happening and then heard about it once you joined this group." Canir apparently had also lost track of her.

"So, you don't know what happened, either?" She had hoped to finally get some answers.

"No, I do. We'll get to the details later, but long story short, you wanted too much."

"I absolutely did..."

"Magic itself basically saved you. You didn't have enough magic to teleport yourself and somehow managed to be allowed to use way more than you were supposed to. As a result, you became authorized to use as much magic as a living being from this world can. After the teleportation, this increased capacity became a part of you and changed your entire being in that regard."

"l-l see..." It was a lot to take in.

"That's also the reason why I couldn't help Fen with finding you." He looked at the male wolf for a moment. "I identify and search for individuals by using their magic power because they're all one of a kind. Because yours had completely changed, I had no idea that you still existed. While I often peek at the demon continent, our paths, unfortunately, never crossed. Sorry about that, Fen."

"It's alright..." He also needed a moment. "You tried, and that's all that counts if you ask me."

"Thanks."

"Soo..." Aura tried to get back on topic. "Does that mean I'm the most powerful being in this world?"

"Native to it, yes. It's impossible to have more magic of this world. It's also a safety mechanism because if you condense any more magic in the vicinity, stuff happens." He stared at Fen and Sophia towards the end.

"Wow..."

"Wait, why didn't this safety mechanism work on us?" The male wolf was confused.

"Because of Sophia-"

"What did I do this time?!" The tiger got loud. It was becoming her new signature quote.

"-and myself." Canir wasn't done yet.

"Eh...?" She turned silent again.

"Our Sophia's a little different-"

"She sure is." Everyone agreed with the overseer before he could finish his sentence.

"H-Hey!"

"You have some loving companions, girl." He let out a small chuckle before continuing. "Say, did you notice that your magic power increased a bit after you turned yourself into a tiger?"

"Now that you mention it... It did increase slightly, but I already had so much that I didn't pay much attention to it. I think it was around Princess Anna's normal power that I gained."

"Yes, when you became an actual, full-fledged tiger-girl of his world, you also received the magic power of a tiger."

"Oh, I see."

"It was also the first time you received magic of this world."

"E-Eh?" It naturally made no sense to her.

"You see, you're not the first one I brought over to this world, girl. You are the first one I didn't reincarnate, though. Everyone else started new in a body native to this world."

"Okay...?"

"While I made a ton of changes, like the boosts or adjusting your age, the body itself was still from a different world. Before you became a tiger, that is."

"So...?" Sophia couldn't follow him.

"Earth had no magic. You had no magic. There was nothing I could boost. 0 times x is still 0."

"Ahh..."

"As I took quite a liking to you, I've let you keep your old body, but I had to supplement your magic from somewhere."

"And I'm very thankful for that. Ignoring the part where I changed my entire body myself soon after..."

"I don't mind. I have so much magic to spare that it wasn't that big of a deal to give away some of mine for you to use."

"E-Eh...?" The entire group froze up.

"D-Does that mean I use the same magic as a god...?" Sophia wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"Overseer." He corrected her.

"Same difference!"

"Is that why Sophia's magic feels different, is more powerful, or how it regenerates so fast and all that...?" Fen was slowly piecing it together.

"Yep." Canir didn't try to hide it.

"Wow..." The wolf had no other words.

"It also means that most limitations are more like guidelines for you, girl." He focused his attention on the tiger again. "My, no, our magic stands above the one of this world. We can feel the limitations of the world, but we can overrule them if we want to. A lot of the time, it's a terrible idea, though." He glanced at the new lake. "It doesn't care if we're higher beings above this world; magic still goes out of control if it gets pushed past its boundaries. Once that happens, oh boy. Why do you think it took me way over a day to visit you? Yep, I ran basically out of magic myself while I was fixing your catastrophe. I had to recover first. It was that bad."

"…" The blonde had nothing to say at the moment.

"Back when you blew up my joke dungeon, it almost happened there already. But your usage of magic was still way too crude back then, together with the place having some safety mechanisms. You also didn't rely on your power to use magic. Rather, you literally burned it, making it way less effective."

"..." Sophia needed a couple of minutes more to wrap her head around that information. "Is that why I was able to pour my power into Fen? Because those limitations don't apply to me?"

"Yep."

"Also, how I was able to increase the power of- AH, Ari?!" She got loud again. "I gave Ari a portion of my power! Does that mean she also uses the power of a god now?!"

"Overseer." He started pouting again. "Not for long. Except inside of you, my power doesn't regenerate on this world."

"Oh, I see..." She sounded relieved, but only for a second. "Wait! Does that mean she's going to lose her power again? That would be way too sad and cruel!"

"Don't worry, while she'll lose my specific power, the authority of her body still has been permanently increased. Once my magic's gone, she'll start regenerating her own."

"T-That's good..."

"Still, you shouldn't do that too often, girl."

"I know..."

"It dampens the amusement when you lower your ability to use magic for a while." He had no intention to hide his true motive. "As long as you don't cause magic to destroy itself, that is." He glanced at the lake once more.

"You... Wait a moment!" Sophia wanted to get angry but then remembered something else. "Earlier, you said that we are higher beings... T-That almost sounds like I was one, too... I-I'm sure you just misspoke, right?"

"I did not."

After hearing this, the alleged higher being called Sophia stopped working, and her group, who wasn't any less shocked, needed to take yet another break. Needless to say, Canir was having a great time watching the chaos he had created.