Chapter 166 – Magic system

Sophia found out that she's using the same magic as Canir and how that effectively makes her a higher being, too. The tiger had already way too much going on for her and naturally didn't like this revelation. She apparently also had already used her powers on Ari when she blessed the jaguar with her magic. To make matters worse, it had some very slight similarities to Blessing magic that one normally uses to have kids with their partner. Naturally, Maya wasn't a fan of any of that, either. To finally drop the topic, Sophia jumped from one shocker to another.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Fen got loud. "Nobody actually really knows how magic works?!"

"Yep." Canir only reacted with a nod.

"T-That can't be..." He looked devastated. "Isn't it just because Sophia's a god that magic works differently for her, which then confuses her all the time?!"

"I am no god!" The blonde also got loud.

"Sorry, Fenny," Canir shook his head. "You got relatively close, but you're also missing some details."

"N-No way... But you said Sophia's able to break the limits of magic because she's using the same power..."

"That's true, but everyone misunderstood magic in general."

"What?!"

"Can you tell us how it really works?" Sophia looked at him with big and pleading eyes.

"Girl, you are a tiger. Puppy eyes don't work with you."

"A-Ah." She quickly thought about another way. "If I know how magic actually works, I'm sure I'm able to do even more ridiculous stuff. That, in return, means more entertainment for you."

"Alright, where should I start?" Canir was unsurprisingly easy to please.

"Activation words!" Sophia wasted no time. "Those things make absolutely no sense with the explanations I got so far!"

"Ahh... For them to make sense, I need to explain the whole magic system of this world."

"I have nothing else planned." Saying so, the blonde got up while urging Maya to do the same. Afterward, the couple walked over to Aura and sat down there while leaning against the soft and fluffy fur of her side. "Alright, the two of us are comfy; feel free to start explaining~."

"Ahaha..." The cat-girl let out a small laugh as she nuzzled against Sophia. "Yep, comfy and listening."

"Wow, and here I thought it's already too much sugar watching the two of you from above... It's something else entirely in person..."

"You'll get used to it." Fen and Aura let out a short sigh.

"Well, glad you found each other." He needed a moment before he was able to ignore the pink Aura around the couple.

"Ehehe~." The two were happy about that, too.

"Anyway, the magic system, huh?" Canir tilted his head for a moment before continuing. "Yeah, that's a weird one in this world."

"I figured that much already." This part wasn't new for Sophia.

"Even with an explanation, not everything makes sense to even me... It's commonly known that magic's grouped in three stages. Chants, activation words, and finally, chantless. For each, you need a better imagination and power for it to work. That much, the inhabitants of the world managed to find out."

"But it makes no sense that activation words are basically chantless magic with a little extra!"

"That's because no one found out why power matters. It's not because you aren't able to use it; you aren't allowed to. It's actually not really power, either, but rather authorization."

"Eh?" Everyone looked surprised.

"Allowed...? By whom?" Sophia tilted her head.

"Magic."

"H-Huh?!" Her expression changed. "There's just no way that my stupid joke about magic's being conscious, or Ari's equally idiotic guess about magic not wanting to be bossed around is true, is there?!"

"Eh." He only answered with a shrug.

"Seriously?!" Everyone got loud.

"That jaguar of yours pretty much hit the nail. You're not quite right, Sophia."

"N-No way..." The tiger couldn't believe his words.

"Magic is not exactly an, uhh... fully conscious being, but it's an integral part of this world. It is, in a way, intelligent and able to make its own decisions. You can compare it a little with artificial intelligence in your old world, Sophia."

"Are you for real...?"

"Artificial...?" The other members of the group were naturally confused.

"Hmm..." Canir tried to think of an analogy for them. "Maybe like the golems around here? Technically not alive, but they're capable of thinking and making decisions to some degree. They're actually controlled by magic, too, but by such a low amount that all they can do is wander around and attack stuff."

"Are you for real...?" Once they had a rough understanding of what was going on, the three had the same reaction.

"Sure am." He gave everyone a nonchalant answer. "Sophia was exempt from it in the beginning because she's using my power, but magic decides what type of application you can use. The more power you're born with, the more advanced magic it'll allow you to use. While your powers may increase a bit over time, it's rarely enough to change your authorization. Exceptions like the jaguar aside."

"W-Wow..."

"It's basically the more power you have, the more you are accepted by magic and can use it to your heart's content. The magic inside of you can be used on its own, but it's actually more of a baseline multiplier that determines how much environmental magic you're allowed to use." Canir gave them some time to let it sink in. "The three tiers of magic work on a completely different basis. With chants, you basically ask magic to help you out. It does only the bare minimum for you, though. Activation words, more or less, order magic to do stuff for you. Still, it doesn't fully cooperate with you at this point yet. The chantless or silent usage directly manipulates magic itself to make your imagination happen."

"T-That's quite something..." Sophia spoke for everyone.

"Technically, you also don't run out of power when you use a ton of magic. Rather than that, you lose your privilege to use it. It's not your power that recovers over time, but you become allowed to use magic bit by bit again. That's the reason why Sophia's magic lasts longer and recovers faster, too. Our magic, or authorization, is more important, for the lack of a better word, than the native one."

"Yay, me?" The tiger was too confused to fully understand everything.

"Absolutely." Canir nodded. "If I had to summarize magic… Magic is magic. It's everywhere. Inside the air, trees, grass, dirt… Even living beings sponge it up inside their bodies. Magic is an element like everything else. Actually, it's the primary element of this world. People don't actually use magic, though. They use their power, or authorization, to let the elemental magic work for them. With varying success."

"W-Well, now activation words make a little sense, I guess? It's not because you can't use chantless magic. Instead, you're not allowed to use it?"

"That's the gist of it. Think of magic as something that wants to get impressed by you, and it makes a bit more sense."

"I see..." Sophia could accept it to some degree. "Then, what did you mean when you said that magic is intelligent and can make decisions?"

"Ever used some magic when you had no idea how it works?"

"I occasionally don't do that." She was pretty familiar with the concept.

"I am well aware of that." Canir let out a chuckle. "Anyway, when you imagine something, you're unconsciously talking or negotiating with magic. As magic is part of everything, it knows how the world works, too. If you think about what you want to do, magic knows how it has to do it. You basically help out magic to decide what to do. If you do things half-heartedly, leave out details, don't actually know what you're doing, or rather don't know what you want, magic, too, gets confused. It doesn't know what your goal is, after all. That then leads to magic misinterpreting your intent."

"T-That actually makes some sort of sense. It probably gets even more confused when it tries to recreate stuff from my old world, huh?"

"Yep, you overwhelmed it a couple of times already. Great fun to watch, too." Canir had a good time. "Another example of why details are important is the lake you turned to ice. You wanted to increase the surface tension, but you never thought about that, did you? The only thing that went through your head was a hard enough surface to walk on, right? Ice makes a lot more sense there, doesn't it?"

"Yeah... I really didn't put much work into that one."

"By the way, it's still frozen solid and is causing quite the commotion in the area because no one knows what's going on."

"S-Seriously?"

"Yep. You never told magic to make the surface soft again, did you?"

"A-Ah..." She paused for a moment. "M-Maya, when we revisit your home, we'll be taking a detour and stay away from that lake, okay?"

"Gladly!"

"The word of it has reached there already, though." Canir didn't give her an easy way out.

"I never heard of such a weird lake!"

"What lake?" Maya joined in on it.

"Exactly!"

"You two really are made for each other."

"Thanks~!"

"Anyway," Canir got back to the topic. "While most of the time a rough idea is enough to use basic magic, you have to be careful when using detailed or complex magic."

"I see."

"I mean, wanting to be a tiger-girl and wanting to look like one are two very different things, are they not?"

"Y-Yes..." Said tiger hung her head. "W-Well, I'm glad that it happened. So, in the end, I learned absolutely nothing~."

"Glad to hear. Your mistakes are a delight to watch, too. I would be sad if you were to stop with them now. As long as you listen to the magic of your tiger side when reaching limitations, a little, I look forward to a lot of semi-catastrophes."

"O-Okay..."

Afterward, everyone needed a break. It was a lot to take in, and it took the group a while to wrap their heads around.