Luna Village - 6

As I left the mayor's house, Coil was there waiting.

"Did you hear about it? You're quite the information broker, aren't you?"

"I'm not an information broker, but I'd be surprised if you hadn't heard. A girl with clearly swollen eyes, and suddenly an outsider from outside the village goes into the mayor's home. Anyone would be listening in."

I suppose that's true. I glanced around and saw villagers whispering among themselves, all glancing in my direction. I'm definitely standing out like a sore thumb now.

I wonder if they'll actually practice mana movement properly from tomorrow...

"Anyway, you—what exactly do you plan to do? It's utterly impossible for all of them to gain mana movement ability instantly."

"I'll develop the technique for sensing mana."

"Huh? Taro, I've told you before—countries have seriously researched this and failed completely. And you weren't succeeding either, were you? Besides, what exactly would you use something like that for?"

"To detect the flow of mana and figure out why the villagers can't use it effectively."

Coil stood with his mouth agape, staring at Taro, who was now deeply engrossed in serious thought.

Returning to the lodging they were staying at, he immediately began thinking about how to develop a method for detecting magical essence.

If he could accomplish this, he could pinpoint exactly where magical essence flowed within the body. With that knowledge, he might understand the difference between those who could and couldn't use magic stones effectively, and gain insight into the movement of magical essence—potentially enabling him to craft even better magical devices.

The value of creating such a detection method was immense.

Thanks to the accumulation of recent experiences, he could clearly sense the flow of magical essence within his own body.

He could also faintly perceive the magical essence flowing through others.

However, merely bringing magical stones or other tools close did not allow him to detect anything.

If he could sense the magical essence being manipulated by others, then the essence must be leaking out into the environment.

Now it was just a matter of how to receive it. He tried various methods, experimenting with different magic stones he had on hand to detect magical essence.

Night after night passed.

The next morning, to everyone's surprise, all those who had previously practiced moving magical essence had shown up for the session.

I had expected that, in such a closed-off village, no one would participate after the incident at the village chief's house—but that wasn't the case at all.

Curious, I asked why they were willing to participate.

"If we can learn skills that benefit the village, there's nothing better than that."

It was a genuinely pure and village-centered thought. Naturally, I felt I had to respond to such sincerity.

The villagers' proficiency in magical energy transfer has improved dramatically since the start of training—astonishing progress, really. Yet, it still feels like they're missing that final step.

They can now transfer a significant amount of magical essence from a normal crystal to a degraded one, but it's not perfect—some essence remains untransferred, causing the crystal to crack or produce lower output as a result.

If this continues, it'll actually end up consuming more crystals than necessary.

I must absolutely figure out how to perfectly transfer magical essence. While having them experiment with various ways of channeling the essence, I’ll also consider whether I can detect it myself.

A peculiar group had formed in part of the village, endlessly pouring magical essence into gemstones.

“Mmm… hmm…”

From next to me, a cute groan came. It was the youngest girl I’d helped restore a magic stone for recently. For some reason, she’s been clinging to me ever since, always practicing nearby.

She’s putting in her all, practicing hard. I can’t fall behind…

Regaining my focus, I activate the low-grade fire magic stone I’m holding in one hand with all my might.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to detect the magical essence response using the light magic stone in my other hand.

Concentrate.

Imagine the energy gathering and compressing within the magic stone in my hand, growing tighter and tighter until it forms a small sphere.

However, due to my excitement, too much magical essence flowed into the fire magic stone—more than expected.

“Guh…”

A tingling pain spread through my hand. The magic stone, now so hot it was unbearable, fell to the ground at my feet. The fire magic stone, which had become abnormally hot compared to normal, was emitting a hissing sound. It even seemed to have developed a few cracks.

Fortunately, I didn’t get burned. That kind of mistake is proof I was panicking.

Incidentally, the light stone shows no reaction at all. Feeling disheartened by how slowly the usual research is progressing,

"Wait... why is this happening?"

A questioning voice rises from beside me.

"What's wrong?"

Turning to look at the girl, she doesn't seem to have changed in any way.

"It's weird... I didn't do anything, but the crystal just lit up."

Could something like this happen—where a mana stone lights up even though nothing was done? Mana stones shouldn't activate without mana essence.

That means the glowing light from the girl's mana stone indicates mana essence must have flowed in from somewhere.

From where? The answer comes to me instinctively.

Me. I must have accidentally overcharged the low-grade fire mana stone with too much mana essence.

A hypothesis has been proposed: the excess mana overflowed from the fire magic stone, drifted through space, and entered a nearby magic stone, activating its effect.

It was hard to believe that the released mana had interfered with this girl, unintentionally causing the magic stone to glow.

Driven by a single desire to uncover the truth, I speak to the girl.

"Hey, I want to try something. Can you try activating this magic stone for me?"

The stone I pulled out was a high-purity light crystal—a magical gem used for transmitting strong light or detection spells, which wouldn't respond at all without a sufficient amount of mana infused into it.

Given her skill level, she wouldn't be able to light it up. As expected, there was no reaction whatsoever when I observed her.

Then, I channeled my own mana into it. If things went well, I might be able to activate the crystal and make it glow.

I recalled the boy who unleashed a powerful spell upon the ship. I think I also channeled mana into a single gemstone back then, though I can’t remember clearly—it was too desperate at the time. I always assumed that was only possible because he was a genius. But if the girl can do the same, we might be making real progress.

Simply pouring magic essence randomly didn't produce any light at all. However, when focusing on the magic essence flowing from the girl, and matching the rate at which it flowed, emitting a consistent amount, the gemstone began to glow.

But this drained an enormous amount of stamina—after just one attempt, I collapsed to my knees, breathless and gasping for air.

The effort was worth it. What was particularly interesting was that, within the gemstone, I could clearly perceive not only the presence of the opponent’s magical essence but also how much was flowing.

I had always thought gemstones were meant to be used by one person alone, but it seems that through a gemstone, one can clearly sense another person’s magical essence—though skill is required.

This time, I tried drawing the magical essence in reverse.

To my astonishment, I managed to obstruct the flow of the other person's magical essence and concentrate a portion of it within the gemstone. Though utterly exhausted...

After going this far, I've come to understand a few things about magical essence.

It seems that magical essence isn't a different substance for each individual—it appears to be the same for everyone. Additionally, it seems that one can control another person's flowing essence to some extent when it's inside the gemstone.

The exact nature of control remains unclear, but it's likely due mostly to differences in skill level.

Next is whether it travels through space.

Based on the sensation from earlier, if more mana than what the gemstone can withstand is channeled through it, the mana seems to flow through space instead.

Then...

I created an imperfect gemstone by transferring just a small amount of mana into a degraded gemstone.

It shouldn't be able to hold much mana, anyway.

"This is a light magic stone. Could you try activating it for me?"

I handed the imperfectly crafted magic stone to the girl.

She took it without hesitation and began concentrating. As expected, the poorly made stone couldn't contain the mana, and it leaked out into the air.

I held the deteriorated light crystal at close range and, using the technique of mana movement, attempted to draw in the mana that should have leaked out.

In short, I managed to absorb a small amount of the mana floating in space. However, I felt utterly exhausted—far more so than ever before—and simply couldn't have done it again even if I tried.

How exactly I did it, or how much mana I absorbed, I have absolutely no idea.

When an excessive amount of magical essence flows—more than can be converted into physical phenomena—it seems to strongly overflow from the magic stone, just like water poured into a cup.

The next day, I had the villagers practicing magical essence transfer try the same thing I did yesterday with the girl.

Thanks to this, I've learned a few things.

First, if two or more people attempt to channel magical essence into a single magic stone, it basically won't activate at all.

It was thought that when two people channel magical essence into a single magic stone, the essences collide within the stone.

It was discovered that one person controlling the flow of magical essence could deliberately enhance its effect or disrupt it entirely by interfering with the flow.

Next, it was found that magical essence leaks out from the magic stone. Particularly, when an excessive amount of essence is channeled into the stone—more than its capacity—it tends to leak out into the surroundings.

The closer I got to the magic stone, the stronger I could sense it. But when I was farther away, I couldn't perceive it at all, and trying to absorb the leaking magical essence left me utterly exhausted—without actually absorbing anything.

Honestly, it's completely impractical to try using this state for sensing magical essence.

Trying to sense magical essence from a distance? That's out of the question.

At night, I reviewed all the information I had gathered so far.

"How about it? Researcher, think you can sense the magical essence?"

Coil asked with a teasing tone, as if he already knew the answer was no.

"Not really. I did pick up on a few things, but in the end, none of them led to a practical method for sensing magical essence."

"Ah... finding something new in such a short time—remarkable. I'd love to hear more about that. Please, do tell."

I thought he was being unusually clingy, and it turned out he’d had a bit to drink. Since ignoring him seemed likely to make things worse, I just went ahead and told him what I understood.

Upon hearing my words, Coil grinned mischievously.