Gunmage-Chapter 272: Mana, metrics and mental instability

"As I was saying,"

Selaphiel began again, voice steady,

"Magic circles or incantations are required to cast spells. Incantations are basically tools of visualization, while circles are tools of output. Which is to say—"

"Okay, okay—I’ll explain it. Please stop messing things up."

Selaphiel fell silent.

Lugh could already see why she’d initially decided to let Zhou do the talking.

If the taller elf was going to interrupt every single time something was even slightly inaccurate, then just handing her the reins seemed like the only reasonable choice.

He found himself wondering—Was Zhou a professor once? With her age, that didn’t seem particularly far-fetched.

"Alright, Lugh, try to visualize what I’m saying,"

Zhou began, her tone shifting into something more deliberate, more structured.

"Imagine pure magical energy—that is, mana—as numbers."

She raised a hand for emphasis.

"A human mage has ten points of mana. Okay?"

Lugh nodded, saying nothing.

"You have mana, but you can’t use it. To turn that mana into something useful, a channel is required. In this case, that channel is the magical circle."

He nodded again, quietly attentive.

He had no reason to, really, but something told him showing that he was paying attention would earn him more cooperation from this particular elf.

Her voice carried clearly across the room, steady and confident.

"If I want to cast a spell of fire, I need to draw a circle of fire. It will take five points of my mana and convert it into five points of fire. In this case, no magic is lost in the conversion. A hundred percent efficiency rate."

"Okay."

Zhou gave a small nod of approval before continuing.

"This is the traditional form of magic. The one that’s been used for millennia."

"Okay."

"So. What happens if I want to deal out fire damage of... let’s say, twenty instead of five?"

Lugh blinked, then stared at her.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Well?"

"Oh. You wanted me to answer?"

"Yes I—why else would I ask?!"

He cleared his throat awkwardly.

"You’ll need to draw a fire circle of twenty, while also having enough mana to sustain it. In this case, twenty points."

She gave him a half-glare before nodding sharply.

"Good. At least you’re listening.:

Then, without pause, she resumed the explanation.

"That’s been the trend: if you want more power from your spell, you draw a more powerful circle."

"Okay."

"Could you stop saying ’okay’?"

"What else would you rather I say?"

"I don’t know... spice it up a little."

"Understood."

Lugh responded, voice as flat as ever. Zhou nodded in approval. Selaphiel and Jahira exchanged looks from the side, like they were silently placing bets on how long this would continue.

The elf pressed on.

"As I was saying. Powerful circles equal powerful spells. But there’s a bit of a problem."

"Oka—"

He caught himself.

"What problem?"

Zhou could hear Selaphiel trying—and failing—not to snicker in the background. She ignored her.

"The problem is that increasing the power of a circle isn’t easy. At a certain threshold, it becomes fundamentally difficult—sometimes even downright impossible."

"O—"

"Say it one more time. I dare you."

There was a beat of silence. Then another.

"...And this means?"

Zhou exhaled before continuing.

"This means that while you can freely make fire circles of ten, fifteen, twenty points, it reaches a hard stop at one hundred."

"O—oh. I see."

Zhou visibly unclenched her fists and carried on, her voice regaining its usual tempo.

"Making a circle above one hundred is the main focus of modern magical research. There have been advancements, definitely, but a lot of resources and time are being poured into trying to push those numbers just a little higher."

Lugh simply hummed, not trusting his own mouth to behave.

Jahira spoke up.

"As of now, fire circles of one-fifty—and even two hundred—are possible, but they’re closely guarded secrets. Like, sacred magic of the elven royal family kind of secret. And more research materials are still being poured into increasing their power."

She added,

"By the way, they have different ranks for different numbers."

Lugh nodded in acknowledgement, taking the information in silently.

But just as Zhou was about to speak again, a thought crossed his mind and escaped his lips.

"Hey, but why go through all the effort? Wouldn’t larger circles just drain more mana? Who in their right minds would use a spell that would leave them defenseless afterwards?"

The elves shared a look.

Zhou responded.

"While established human mages typically have a maximum of—and I’m being generous here—fifty to a hundred mana points..."

She paused.

"...Younger elves average at one thousand."

"...What?"

That was an eye opener. Even for Lugh.

"How on—"

"When we say humans aren’t really good at magic, we’re not exaggerating."

A new question pricked at Lugh’s thoughts. He leaned forward slightly.

"Using your scale,"

He began carefully, not forgetting the fact that they had specified "younger elves,"

"What would you rate Lyra at?"

The elves paused, thinking.

Jahira spoke first.

"Her hair manipulation doesn’t really use much mana."

Selaphiel added,

"Moving it doesn’t take any mana at all. It’s the extending that uses it—and only in miniscule amounts."

Zhou chimed in.

"Those explosions are what really drain her."

She folded her arms, thinking aloud.

"If we consider all that, then I’d place her at a solid fifty. Maybe less. Maybe more. This isn’t an actual system—we’re just using rough estimates—but you should be able to get the general idea."

Lugh slumped back into his seat. For a moment, he forgot what they were even discussing.

After a while, he blinked and asked,

"How exactly did Ophris gain independence?"

Zhou perked up.

"Actually, there are several facto—"

Selaphiel cut her off, unwilling to let the tangent spiral.

"There are many reasons. But it wasn’t through a battle, though."

"...I see."

Lugh nodded, and they quickly got back on track.

"Like I was saying—"

Zhou raised her voice slightly to command the room again.

"Enhancing output has always been the number one concern in elven magic research."

Then she took a deliberate, dramatic pause.

"This is where the innovative abilities of humans come in."

A hint of something flickered behind her eyes.

"A researcher onc—"

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