The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

~~Noon, Ninth Day of the Fourth Month, Ninety-Fourth Year of the War Demon Calendar~~

Today was one of those occasional days when the Magic University was on break.

Since Lina wanted some advice on her Swift Magic choices for the Blazing Dragon Staff, we headed to the usual vacant lot west of Beilanea.

Pochi, on the other hand, was in town with Lala and Tifa – the latter in a bad mood for some reason – to shop for some staves.

Perhaps Tifa didn’t like the fact that she had to miss today’s class?

“And the last one! Hellfire Wave!”

“Ohh, an advanced-level fire spell! Nice!”

“…Whew. Um… how was it, Sir Asley?”

“Hmm… High Cure, Hype Up, Speed Up, and Hellfire Wave… all fit with Rapid Fire Augment and Velocity Augment magecraft formulas. High Cure and Hellfire Wave are high up among the advanced-level spells, too. All those are good, but are you sure you don’t want to use a wind spell instead? Aren’t you most compatible with that element when it comes to attack spells?”

In response to my question, Lina put her index finger on her chin and proceeded to speak as if she just remembered what she’d wanted to say,

“Well… I did consider that before, but when I tested the Swift Magic with spells of all four core elements, fire turned out to be the most efficient, you see?”

“Really…? Oh, makes sense – it’s probably a reaction with the staff’s special properties.”

“It IS the Blazing Dragon Staff, after all.”

Exactly as said on the tin, yes. Makes perfect sense that it would be most compatible with fire spells.

And considering that, slotting in a fire spell for Swift Magic is indeed a nice choice. Since she’s good at wind magic, there’d be no demerit for her to just draw up her Circles, too.

“But then… wouldn’t you want to use water spells, Sir Asley? Since it’s the Torrent Dragon Staff and all…”

“Huh? Well, yeah. There’s no water around here to use for the spells, though-“

While I said that, Lina started to chuckle.

…Did I just say something strange?

“I-is there something wrong, Lina?”

“Hehehehe… Tifa showed me some of your old research materials the other day, you see. I just remembered that thing…”

What’d she mean by my research materials?

Was there actually something among the materials I’d tossed out at Faltown that was funny to bring up now?

As I thought that over, Lina raised her index finger and said,

“The thing that lets you invoke water spells without a water source, I mean.”

“Ah – AHHHH! Yeah, that! I might have done that sort of research before! Err – Rise, A-rise, Storeroom! …Hmm, pretty sure it’s right… here! Here it is! This is the one, right?”

Once I unrolled the parchment and showed it to Lina, she gave me a surprised look.

“It’s… very hard to read…”

“Huh, you sure? This is a clean copy by Pochi, though? The draft Tifa had on her should be way worse. At first I was going to bring that copy with me, but then Pochi got angry, so… yeah.”

Sometimes, one must heave a sigh even though they don’t want to – now was one such example.

“So my point is, don’t you meet all the criteria to try it out now, Sir Asley? In the list of criteria you need to fulfill here…

‘1: Incorporating Magecraft Formulas Into Magic Circle’

‘2: Maintaining Balance’

‘3: Reducing Information Volume of Items 1 & 2’

‘4: Drawing Formula of Item 3’,

‘Reducing Information Volume of Item 4’…?

Well, can’t items 4 and 5 be used recursively?”

“Yeah, just apply the info reduction formula to the info reduction formula. It could theoretically go on forever – wait a second…”

Could this work the same way as how I’d fixed the large-scale spell slotting problem?

“Sir Asley?”

Hey, wait…

And regarding the ‘water’ I’ll need, I think there was something in this section… yeah, the section that’s plagued with Pochi’s paw prints.

Let’s see here…?

Water magic spells [PAW] can only be [PAW] invoked to manipulate [PAW] pre-existing water. [PAW] If it is [PAW] possible to incorporate [PAW] the formulas of [PAW] ice-summoning magecraft, [PAW] such as Ice [PAW] Horn, with the [PAW] addition of fire [PAW] magic formulas to [PAW] melt it, then [PAW] the ‘water’ itself [PAW] would be easily [PAW] summonable. However, in [PAW] order to add [PAW] those to the [PAW] standard formulas – namely [PAW] quickening, materialization, movement, [PAW] and invocation – an [PAW] artifact would be [PAW] essential to provide [PAW] enough bandwidth. But [PAW] even with enough [PAW] bandwidth, digesting down [PAW] the whole information [PAW] content and invoking [PAW] it would still [PAW] prove incredibly difficult. [PAW] -Written and Edited by Pochi [PAW][PAW][PAW]

…Why’d I even bring this with me?

Even ‘hard to read’ ought to have its limits, damn it!

All right, better put my Philosopher brain to work. Reconstructing the text is gonna take just a second…

Water magic spells can only be invoked to manipulate pre-existing water. If it is possible to incorporate the formulas of ice-summoning magecraft, such as Ice Horn, with the addition of fire magic formulas to melt it, then the ‘water’ itself would be easily summonable. However, in order to add those to the standard formulas – namely quickening, materialization, movement, and invocation – an artifact would be essential to provide enough bandwidth. But even with enough bandwidth, digesting down the whole information content and invoking it would still prove incredibly difficult. -Written and Edited by Asley

Heh heh heh, I even replaced the signature part in my head. Take that, Pochi!

And… there we go. Build up a formula to regulate information, tie it up with the invocation formula, and then put the Time-Limit Termination magecraft into the whole package… I see, I see. All right, as the old saying goes, strike while the iron is hot!

“-sley! Sir Asley?!”

“Hwah-?!”

Brought back to my senses by Lina’s call, I realized that I’ve been sitting on the ground, holding research documents in both my hands.

“Um, are you all right?”

“Y-yeah. C’mon, let’s give it a try, Lina.”

“Huh? Uh… yes, sir!”

I’ll need to start with an ice magecraft, so my options here are Ice Horn, Frysa Boundary, and Absolute Zero, with the last being the most powerful. First, incorporate its formula, and then… melt it down with a fire spell, so that comes after… but wait, do I even have a fire spell that can melt Absolute Zero? -Aha, the large-scale spell Heaven’s Vermilion should work. But the information volume… wait, no, it’s fine. Just use Time-Limit Termination to force it in. Next, the quickening formula. Gotta go fast – oh, I think the version used for Sharp Wind Asteriskos is a good one. Copy and paste that here… and here comes the materialization, movement, and invocation formulas. I see, I see… Let’s tie them all together and use Time-Limit Termination here… All right. There we go. Now, here comes Rapid Fire Augment and Velocity Augment crafts… heh heh… hehehehehe…!

“-It’s done.”

“Then…?”

I gave Lina a thumbs-up.

“But you’ll have to wait fifteen minutes before you can use it.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Oh, this is the perfect time… I’ll teach you how to use large-scale spells as Swift Magic, Lina.”

“Huh…?”

The theory was simple enough, and Lina was able to understand the function of Time-Limit Termination just from a brief explanation.

She proceeded to unslot Hellfire Wave and High Cure from her Blazing Dragon Staff, replacing them with the large-scale spells Hell Inferno and Hire Cure Adjust. She only put in two spells that needed Time-Limit Termination, so the processing was finished relatively quickly, enabling her to try it out now.

“High Cure Adjust!”

And so a gentle wave of arcane energy poured down on me. Looks like it’s a success.

“Wow… I never thought it would be this easy…”

“I know, right? I know, I ought to make this known to more people, what with how useful it’ll be when the Devil King is here, but it’s still too early of a prototype for that. You’re the only one I’ve taught it to so far, Lina.”

“W-wait, I’m the first one?!”

“Ah, uh… yeah. I’m planning to pass this on to Sir Gaston, Miss Irene, and Sir Billy pretty soon, though…?”

“I see, I see… I’m the first to……”

“…?”

Lina seemed quite happy as she put her hands on her cheeks… whatever could have prompted that?

Oh, so she’s THAT happy to be the first to learn this cool stuff, huh?

Right, I do get super happy whenever I’ve successfully invented a new magic spell. That’s probably the same feeling.

“Still, these are large-scale spells we’re dealing with, aren’t they? The arcane energy consumption must be quite high, so I’ll have to be careful not to shoot them willy-nilly.”

That’s… true. Considering Lina’s arcane energy pool, she should have around ten shots.

It’s fine and all for short-term battles, but she’ll need to be super careful when we’re up against the Devil King’s army.

I, on the other hand, probably could afford to use them more liberally…

…Oh, it’s about time the spell in my Torrent Dragon Staff is done processing.

“Ah – looks like this is going to be a completely new spell, so… um, have you decided on a name yet?”

“Well, the water’s coming out of the Torrent Dragon Staff, and I’ve designed it to look like the thing that’s all over the research documents, so… “

“Design…?”

“Well, let’s just give it a try! I’m going to shoot it at the Forest of Deep-rooted Sins!”

“Y-yes, sir!”

It’s just a deserted forest there – no casualties, no worries!

LET’S GOOOOO!!

“Pochi Pad Breath!!”

“Pochi?!”

The Torrent Dragon Staff materialized a giant dog paw stamp twice of Baladd’s size. Composed completely of water, of course.

It busted through the trees of the forest, showing no signs of even slowing down.

The giant paw stamp ate into the Forest of Deep-rooted Sins and drowned out the monsters’ screams – by the time it started to slow down, it distorted the earth, eventually destroying half of the forest and flooding the entire area.

It was a hastily slapped-together prototype, yet it has already left its mark on the landscape.

“No way…”

Lina covered her mouth in awe – or rather, mute amazement.

“Wow… That was awesome…”

Just as I was about to check my trembling hands, the mass of water exploded with an ear-rupturing shrill.

“……”

“……”

The Forest of Deep-rooted Sins just… got wiped off the map.

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