Chapter 254 – Magic got even more confusing

Chloe had finally fulfilled one of her dreams and blew something up with magic because she wasn't allowed to do so because of her overly serious teacher. The explosion ended up being much bigger than anticipated, though. For some reason, the fox-girl's magic, just as that of Sophia, seemed to be more potent than Fen had predicted when he suggested the amount of power she should use. Not only that, but her recovery speed seemed to be at least on par with the tiger, as well. As no one had any answers to those observations, Sophia decided not to pay any attention to that topic anymore, especially because she wanted to play some more with magic.

“Alright!” The blonde sounded highly motivated. “What do I have to do to make a 500-meter-tall tree?!” After she had heard that Chloe had let a tree grow over 100 meters tall with her magic power, she naturally wanted to go all out.

“Are those 500 meters set already…?” Maya wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“What?” Sophia tilted her head. “You want it even taller? A whole kilometer would be a bit too excessive, wouldn’t it? What do you think?” She looked over to Chloe next to her.

“Yes, that would definitely be too much!” She only nodded. "Any more would definitely be overdoing it."

“I hate you two.”

“Ehehe.” The tiger liked her reaction. “Okay, how about you go first and make a tree grow without holding back, and I'll settle for double of that! No fewer than that, though!”

“Doubling sounds surprisingly reasonable for you… Where’s the catch?” The cat-girl got a little wary. “What exactly does not holding back mean?”

“Hmm…” Sophia tilted her head while thinking about it. “Chloe, how much of your magic did you use to let that tree grow over 100 meters tall?”

“Around 50%. Feyfey wasn’t paying attention, so I used the chance to have some fun!”

“Alrighty! 25% of your power it is, Maya!”

“Eh?!” She didn’t like the sound of that. “Even though we just found out that her magic is more powerful, I still have so much more raw magic than Chloe! 25% of mine would probably end up with a 500-meter-tall tree already!”

“Exactly!” The blonde just flashed her a cheeky smile.

“Come on, Sophia…” Chloe stared at her. “If you double that… We just agreed that Maya's idea of a tree being a whole kilometer tall would be too excessive.”

"A-Ah…”

“I seriously hate both of you... Also, that’s not the issue here, you two idiots!” The cat-girl got loud again. “The fir trees around here are quite tall already, so I’m okay with growing one a little over 100 meters, maybe even 150. Knock yourself out and double whatever I did for your experiment.”

“Deal!” The tiger immediately jumped at the opportunity. “That’s definitely a start!”

“I can’t wait!” Chloe seemed to be looking forward to it, as well.

“Did I just make a mistake…?” Maya's bad feelings about the situation just got worse.

“Nope!” The other two girls just shook their heads.

“We really need to find a girlfriend for you soon…” The cat-girl let out a sigh while looking at Chloe. “You need someone else to influence because Sophia might actually explode if she gets enabled even more.”

“Hey!”

“Sounds good!” Chloe seemed to like the plan. “If possible, sooner rather than later! I was somewhat indifferent about, though always curious about certain things, but watching the two of you for just a day made me really want to get one!”

“That’s the spirit!” Sophia was cheering her on again.

“Okay, that’s not exactly what I was trying to say here…” Maya paused for a moment. “But, sure… We’ll definitely keep an eye open.” She just wanted to complain, but as she liked the fox-girl, she had no issues helping her out with that. “Okay, let’s get to the magic part! How does it work?”

“Yay!” The chaos duo was happy that the cat-girl gave up.

“It’s quite easy, actually.” Saying so, Chloe walked to the edge of the clearing the group was in, where she spotted a sapling. Afterward, she held out her hand, and a moment later, the sapling began to slightly glow in a green light. A few moments later, it grew by over two meters instantly and looked more like a tree already. "That's pretty much it~."

“That’s it, she says…" Maya let out a sigh. "I understood about just as much as when Sophia showed me some new magic. Just so you know, that means nothing.”

“Wow, it’s soo easy!” The tiger’s eyes started sparkling instead. “I can’t believe I’ve never tried that before! It’s so obvious!”

“Case in point.” The cat-girl just gestured at the blonde. “Would it be possible to get some more details for those who aren’t gifted with whatever the two of you have going on?”

“Yes!” Fen and Aura also raised their voices while nodding a few times.

"A-Ah.” Chloe clapped her hands. “Feyfey’s already used to my antics, so I tend to forget that my way of doing things can be a little weird to others…”

“Looked perfectly fine to me, though.” Sophia tilted her head. “I completely understood it.”

“Again, case in point.” This time, the wolves joined in on Maya’s reply.

“Ah.” The tiger averted her face. “Anyway, as Chloe just showed us, you have to evenly bathe the sapling in your raw magic without activating it while infusing it with your power. Once everything is coated and there’s an even cloud around it, you finally activate it by imagining it growing up to a tree.”

“Exactly what she just said.” The fox-girl nodded a couple of times. "You only have to make sure that everything on the sapling is covered in your magic or else it won't grow evenly."

"Is that so…? Do you mind explaining how I know whether I have evenly coated and infused the sapling with my magic?" Maya still hadn’t fully understood it.

“You just look at it?” The duo tilted their heads before Chloe continued. “Once you see that your magic is evenly around the sapling, you’re good to go.”

"You can see your own raw magic…?" The cat-girl couldn't follow them. "I mean, sure, I can feel it and am aware of the amount present in the vicinity, but I can't see it… How are you supposed to know whether something is evenly coated in your magic...?”

“Exactly!” The wolves joined in with her.

"Eh…?" Sophia and the fox-girl got even more confused. "You can't...?"

“No!” The three got loud. “Wait, you two can?!”

“Yup.” The duo just nodded.

“Eh?!”

"That's what I've always been doing with my magic when I used it to cover my surroundings like the air thingy or incinerating a tree with my raw magic." The tiger didn’t understand their surprise. “I thought this is normal…?”

“It is not!” They managed to get even louder.

“Really…?” Chloe also had a questioning expression. “That’s also how Feyfey taught it to me, though…”

“Something happened with Feyanis, didn’t it?” Aura turned to look at Fen.

“It has to…” He nodded. “We used to be on the same page when it came to magic…”

“How does the raw magic of someone look like?" The female wolf got interested in the topic.

“Hard to explain…” Sophia thought about it. “It kinda looks like, uhh… fancy dust in the air when you release it…?”

“Fancy dust…?” The wolves just stared at her.

“Wow, that is so fitting!” Chloe smiled at the tiger. “Concentrated magic looks like small sparkly particles swirling around the owner when they release it. Though, compared to dust, sparklines aside, it has a bit of a purple color.”

“That’s why, fancy dust!” The blonde repeated herself.

“Fair.” The fox-girl gave her an understanding nod.

“Purple, swirly and sparkly particles…?” Maya repeated after her.

“Yup.”

“Kinda reminds me of… you know what…” She looked at Sophia. With Chloe around, she didn’t want to mention the portals and cut her sentence short.

“Very similar to that.” The tiger still understood her. “Raw magic’s not quite as purple, it’s a bit lighter, and the particles are much smaller.”

“Hmm…?” Chloe just tilted her head.

“It’s nothing.”

“Okay?”

“So… The two of you can actually see raw magic before it gets used by the owner…?” Fen still had a hard time believing them.

"Yup." They simply nodded again.

“Why did you never mention that?!” The wolf stared at Sophia.

“I, uhh… didn't know I had to? I thought that was normal… I had no idea that I was the only one in our group that could see it. Do you three really can’t?!”

“No!”

“Chloe, explanation please!” The tiger turned to look at the fox-girl.

"Even if you ask me… I only just now found out that there are people who can't see it, either… I mostly chatted with Feyfey about magic, and she can see it just fine, too… She never mentioned anything being abnormal about it when she was teaching me how to use magic while I was growing up.”

“Very interesting…” Sophia paused for a moment. “I have so many questions for this Feyfey!”

“Yeah…” Fen and Aura nodded a couple of times.

"Anyway," As not understanding what was going on was not a new feeling for the blonde, she lost interest in it soon enough. She got back to the main topic as she spotted another sapling not too far away from the one that grew up thanks to the magic of Chloe. "Let's continue with our experiments!”

“Yes!” The fox-girl was all for it.

“S-Sure…” Maya was still a bit confused about the whole being able to see raw magic thing, but she knew Sophia well enough to know when it was time to pause a topic. “I need a bit more help to try it, though. As I can’t see magic, I have to go with feeling it. Chloe used 50% of her magic to let a tree grow over 100 meters tall. At the same time, her magic seems to be twice as powerful as it’s supposed to be, just as our Sophia… In the end, I have to use the same amount of magic as 100% of our dear fox because my magic doesn’t have any extra power behind it. Am I right with that?”

“Too much math…” The blonde decided to stay out of this conversation.

“Fenfen…?” Chloe also only looked at the wolf for help with a questioning expression.

“Hard to say…” He gave it some thought. “She has a little under 1/10 of your power, but it's twice as effective… OH!" He suddenly raised his voice. "Maybe that's the reason why our fox here can use chantless magic! Her effective power is above the threshold of being able to use it!"

“Focus, Fennyfenny!” Sophia didn’t want to hear about that right now.

"For you, out of all people, to say that…" The wolf rolled his eyes before continuing. “Well, as I just said, her power’s supposed to be a little under 10% of yours. So, if you use that much, it should net the same result as Chloe using 50% of her actual magic.”

“Hmm… I don’t think 10% is enough…” Sophia wasn’t a fan of the plan.

“How does 5% sound?”

“10, it is!” The tiger quickly changed her opinion.

“Good.” With a slight smile on her lips, Maya got closer to one of the nearby saplings and tried to recreate what Chloe did earlier while hoping that nothing ridiculous would happen.