Teach me, Master D! Part 1

You said there’d be no role for the Maid.

That was a lie.

D "Greetings. Your favorite D is here."

Ming "What are you saying? You’re hated by nearly all of existence. And isn’t my name strange? What even is 'Ming'? What does 'Ming' mean?"

D "It’s unavoidable—because of the Lady of the Underworld."

Ming "Unavoidable? I don’t understand."

D "Leave the details aside. From here on, a new segment begins: Teach me, Master D! I will answer every question in the world—this is a splendid segment leading to truth."

Ming "A typical explanation episode."

D "Could you not phrase it a little more delicately? I think you’re being too blunt."

Ming "I don’t have time to play along. Just finish quickly and let me return to work."

D "My neighbor is a workaholic. What should I do?"

Ming "Work more."

D "Hiccup hiccup"

Ming "Pretending to cry with a blank face is only unsettling. Please stop."

D "Yes, I stopped."

Ming "……"

D "It hurts. Don't hit me in silence."

D "Let's restart. Today's memorable first lesson is on magic and sorcery."

Ming "Unexpectedly, this is fairly sensible."

D "When I'm joking, I go all out. But when teaching others, I'm quite serious."

Ming "Ah, right. You always liked lecturing, didn't you?"

D "Not lecturing. The truth of the world."

Ming "Yes, yes. That's wonderful."

D "My neighbor's personality is terrible. What should I do?"

Ming "Just keep being troubled by it."

D "Hiccup……"

Ming "Persistent."

D "Still, hitting someone to stop them seems unwise."

Ming "Yes, yes. It hurt, didn't it? Let's be serious now, so you don't feel pain again, hm?"

D "There is nothing to be done. Let us proceed seriously."

Ming "You should have done so from the beginning."

D "First, the difference between magic and sorcery—strictly speaking, they are the same thing."

Ming "What do you mean?"

D "Among sorceries, those aided by the system are called magic."

Ming "So magic is a form of sorcery, then."

D "Precisely. Not only magic, but skills and other powers are nearly all derived from sorcery. Think of sorcery as the broad framework, and magic as a smaller subset within it. Magic is sorcery simplified and made manageable through the system. While sorcery requires full activation from one to ten, magic can be triggered with just one and ten."

Ming "Convenient, indeed."

D "Convenient. Though, without the system's benefit, it cannot be used—effective only in limited circumstances."

Ming "Incidentally, what are one and ten?"

D "Selection and activation. Choosing the spell, activating it. That is all."

Ming "Simple enough."

D "In magic, selection, activation, perception, construction, connection, infusion, saturation, transformation, invocation. These nine constitute the foundation. The tenth slot varies by practitioner. Activation is the control of one's own magical energy—preparation. Perception is recognizing the groundwork for constructing magic. Construction is the most critical phase—building the foundation of the spell. Connection is joining together the constructed foundation. Once complete, magical energy is infused into the finalized circuit. Then saturated. Preparation for invocation is complete. From here, adjustments are made based on circumstance, but invocation is possible without change. This entire sequence was performed in Volume 103. Thanks to the pinnacle of magic, it was executed with extreme precision. However, as long as the system's auxiliary functions are active, merely possessing magical perception, magical manipulation, and magic skill is sufficient—beyond that, the system automatically invokes spells according to skill level. Of course, understanding the proper method of spell invocation at this stage is what allowed one to later learn magic through observation, a method entirely outside the system's conceptual framework."

冥「The remaining one among the fundamental ten varies depending on the school—memory, stasis, replication, and so on.」

Ｄ「Among the fundamental ten, skilled magicians often skip steps or perform them concurrently. The spider handles activation to connection as a near-complete set, and shortens the injection-to-activation phase significantly. They attribute this to mastery of magic, and initially, that was true. But now, after divinization, they produce spells at a speed equivalent to, or exceeding, system assistance—using only their own power. To a god, this would not be remarkable. Yet the fact that a spider who once did not even know the meaning of 'magic' performs such feats is abnormal.」

冥「That is likely due to your soul's influence.」

Ｄ「That is true, but my soul is hardly mixed in at all.」

冥「Is that so?」

D "That is correct. There was a slight infusion, but the influence remains minimal. The transformation from spider-like soul to human-like is significant, but beyond that, the change is merely a minor increase in skill aptitude. It is not as profound as the individual believes."

Ming "So, that means the majority of it is due to their inherent qualities?"

D "It could be said both ways."

Ming "What is this indecisive answer?"

D "The individual did possess skill aptitude, but the extent to which they became an outlier is largely due to the influence of Pride."

Ming "Ah, yes—the subtle effect that enhances growth potential."

D "Just hearing the description, it seems inferior to the other Seven Deadly Sins skills or the Seven Virtues skills. But in reality, it's the most extreme skill of all. That skill—basically forces an increase in soul capacity by brute force."

Ming "What is that? Wouldn't a normal soul scream in agony and worst-case scenario vanish entirely?"

D "Exactly. Rapid growth creates distortion. It's not surprising that the skill of Pride would consume someone entirely. Yet that spider followed without distortion. Pride combined with the individual's inherent qualities—resulting in an unprecedented leap forward."

Ming "You're still the one influencing it, aren't you?"

D "I'm not denying it. But the effect is negligible. Anyway, we've strayed off course. Time has come to conclude. Look forward to the next session."

Ming: "Then, let us return to our duties."

D: "Shiku... "