Kays Translations

Chapter 111: The Arcane Secret of the Magic Spiral

The concept of controlled experiments we learned back in elementary school is truly powerful. Even now, it proves useful in cutting-edge experiments involving leyline connectivity.

At Professor Ohinata’s suggestion, I gathered my cheerful companions from Okutama and conducted an experiment connecting to leylines using a golden spiral structure. Based on Mamono-kun’s insights, we created dozens of versions of magic staff with slight variations in materials and spiral scales. We then tested them one by one, gathering data.

First, we had the two witches—Spider Witch and Blue Witch—as the transcendents. Comparing one with excellent magic control and one who’s pretty bad at it gave us great contrast.

Fuyou, Mokutan, and Mamono-kun made up the elemental group. With a transcendent’s child and a gremlin-implanted origin, it was well-balanced.

Professor Ohinata and I were the human group. I was a beast-mutated type, while he was a true, regular human—again, a useful point of comparison.

Incidentally, Gazer-kun broke the golden spiral staff I handed him with his tentacles out of sheer curiosity, so we removed him from the experiment. He’s currently obsessed with playing with stone statues, so we left him alone.

“Dairi, I may have eight legs, but equipping eight of these spiral staff doesn’t multiply the effect by eight…”

“Oh, it didn’t work?”

“Yeah. You saw how the Blue Witch didn’t feel any different using two staff instead of one, right? It’s the same for me… If I keep holding it, I just start to feel nauseous…”

“Same here. When I try to draw leyline magic into my body, I get nauseated. It’s kind of like magic depletion, but more like the feeling you get when you’re full and still try to eat more.”

“Yeah, that’s it exactly… Like, ‘Nope, can’t take any more…’”

While the witches complained of nausea and fullness, Professor Ohinata and I exchanged staves and tilted our heads in confusion.

“Sensei, try this one next. Do you feel anything?”

“…Hmm. No, nothing again. Is this a matter of magic control?”

“I don’t feel anything either. Since neither of us feels it, it’s probably not a gender-based difference.”

“The witches and elementals can refuse the blending of their own magic with leyline magic, right? So if it blends automatically for us, it means the nausea isn’t caused by the mixing itself. Fire away! …Hmm. Even with mixed magic, chant-based spells still work fine. Dairi-san, I’d like to measure changes in magic reserves. Do you have a magic power gauge?”

We didn’t have a newly made magic power gauge, so I handed her the Demon King’s Staff Reficle, which had a built-in one, and called out to the elemental group who were playing around.

“Hey! Stop goofing off and help with the experiment, will you?”

“Okaaay♡”

“Look, Fuyou, dual-wielding staff! Mamono-kun, prepare yourself! Mimi-mi-mi-mi!”

“Whoa, I surrender! You win, Mokutan-san, you’re so strong!”

“Victory is mine! You’ve got a great beak, Mamono-kun, but still a long way to go!”

Mokutan insisted on playing staff duels with two golden spiral staves, and Fuyou and Mamono-kun happily went along. It was heartwarming… but what about the experiment?

Now that Mokutan could hold a staff—unlike during the fire lizard phase when she was quadrupedal—she was overly excited, playing like a kid during a science lab.

Well, I figured if Mokutan was enjoying herself, it was fine. Just then, Mamono-kun quietly came over, having left Mokutan to Fuyou.

“We’re not feeling any nausea either. Actually, we can’t sense the leyline at all. That’s probably a matter of magic control precision. However, we can tell when leyline magic travels up the golden spiral and blends into our own.”

“Huh…? So even with mixed magic, you don’t feel sick?”

“Not at all. But, hmm… It’s hard to describe, but when the mixed magic enters, it’s like eating or drinking something. It’s a kind of synesthesia. Like drinking mineral water or rice gruel.”

“Ah, so the magic has a bit of a ‘flavor’ to it?”

Mamono-kun nodded thoughtfully and looked toward Mokutan, who was laughing and showing her belly after Fuyou tickled her with a vine.

“Mokutan-san’s comments were a bit vague, but she seemed to feel the same as me. As for Fuyou-san, she says she doesn’t feel anything in particular. Or rather, what she does feel is the same connection she’s always vaguely felt with the earth. She apparently used to think she was sensing nutrients in the soil.”

“Wait. So she thought she was absorbing nutrients from the earth, but she was actually tapping into the leyline?”

“In a way, yes. She’s absorbing both—nutrients and leyline energy. As for the difference between the staff based on Fuyou’s innate golden spiral structure and the one based on Spider Witch’s, I’d like to test that next.”

“Oh, to compare Fuyou-material and Spider-material. Yeah, that’s worth trying. Mamono-kun, draw up some blueprints. I’ll go get the materials. Hey Spider Lady! Got any shed spider skins or something similar that could be used for staff materials?”

With so much experimenting, theorizing, and testing, data on the golden spiral structure piled up rapidly.

But because this was a cutting-edge experiment in a new field, it couldn’t be wrapped up in a day. As the sun set mid-experiment, the kappas (and Gazer) and the stoat reluctantly went home. But they each took a Fuyou-type wooden spiral staff and a spider-type chitin staff with them, so they’ll likely bring data next time they visit.

For the next two weeks, I focused entirely on studying the golden spiral structure. I obsessed over the materials and design. Thanks to Hiyori and Spider Witch providing immediate feedback, adjustments progressed smoothly.

What I eventually learned was this: the golden spiral structure wasn’t the best shape for leyline connectivity.

Fuyou and Spider Witch were both born with golden spiral structures—but their spiral shapes were slightly different. Even the direction of the spiral was reversed: Fuyou’s was left-handed, Spider Witch’s right-handed.

I came to see this as a case of convergent evolution.

For example, sugar gliders and flying squirrels are different species but look very similar, hence both are called “squirrels.” Water lilies and lotuses are also vastly different in taxonomy but visually alike.

This phenomenon, where unrelated species evolve to resemble each other because it’s advantageous, is called convergent evolution.

In the same way, Fuyou and Spider Witch’s species—both magic beings—must have evolved golden spiral structures via different evolutionary paths because it benefited their survival.

I used their examples to design a new, different golden spiral structure.

In terms of results, the structures Fuyou and Spider Witch had were just steps along the evolutionary path toward the optimal form. Specifically, I discovered that the ideal shape was a spiral based on a number sequence that inserts Fibonacci numbers into the golden ratio.

Hiyori said, “This one lets me feel the leyline the strongest,” so I knew I was right. It was worth the high school flashbacks of burying my head in math and wrestling with number sequences.

Between geometry and numerical sequences, magic really does love acting like a math nerd. But hey, I can handle it. Which makes me a genius, right?

I leaned back in my workshop chair, letting the heavy exhaustion take over. I felt like I’d used a year’s worth of brainpower in just two weeks.

The era of blindly brute-forcing things with dexterity is over. Times have changed, and magic studies has advanced. All the obvious ideas have already been tried. From now on, I’ll need to really use my head.

Well, even back in university, I did the crafting while the others handled the brainwork. So I’ve always used my head… but still…

As I dozed off in my chair, the doorbell rang, signaling a visitor.

When I got up to see who it was, I found Mamono-kun holding a shrunken Gazer-kun, accompanied by Hiyori.

It had been two weeks since I last saw Mamono-kun, and he was visibly excited, talking rapidly.

“Hello, Dairi-san! A huge discovery! This is a huge discovery. I still need to conduct follow-up experiments, but I’m almost certain—this is a major breakthrough. I had to tell you first!”

“Whoa, calm down, Mamono-kun. Are you about to cast some kind of fire spell?”

I didn’t know what he had discovered, but he was so excited it was clearly lowering his IQ. Gazer-kun also got worked up by Mamono-kun’s excitement, squealing nonstop, but quieted down after Hiyori poked him with the tip of Kyanos.

Seems there’s a pecking order now. Hiyori really is the apex lifeform.

Mamono-kun petted Gazer-kun to calm himself with some monster therapy, then began explaining this so-called great discovery.

“When I was assigned to the Chichibu Ranch, I underwent a full checkup—health exam and physical tests. My magic power was measured as well. This is that data, combined with follow-up measurements taken every five days over the past fifteen days.”

He handed me several sheets of documents.

They contained various measurement data for Mamono-kun, along with a summary graph.

“Uh… let’s see… Your magic power has decreased… but your grip strength has increased. And your sit-ups. Broad jump… lung capacity… Looks like your physical abilities have generally gone up. What about it? Were you doing strength training or something this past week?”

Looking over the graph, I could see Mamono-kun’s physical stats, measured every five days, were slowly but steadily improving. There was nothing strange about the rate of increase. The changes weren’t small enough to be chalked up to fluctuations in physical condition, but not large enough to be surprising either. It looked like the kind of growth you’d expect from normal training.

The drop in magic power was mildly concerning, if anything.

When I tilted my head in confusion, unsure of what the data was supposed to mean, Mamono-kun traced the graph with his finger, clearly itching to explain.

“No, I didn’t do any training. In fact, I was mostly doing desk work and not getting much exercise. Look here—my magic power is gradually decreasing, right? Meanwhile, my physical strength is gradually increasing. I haven’t taken any magic power recovery potions, and I haven’t contracted Shadow Loss Syndrome. I’m not suffering from magic depletion either. So there’s no known reason for the drop in magic power. The only thing I did was absorb the mixed magic power—my own and the leyline magic power—into my body. Or, you could say, I assimilated it.”

“…Wait, are you saying you used the leyline to passively cast some kind of chantless body-enhancement magic?”

I wasn’t sure what he meant, so I asked for clarification. Mamono-kun shook his head.

“No, that’s not it. This isn’t a temporary magic enhancement. It’s a permanent physical upgrade. In exchange for a decrease in my total magic power capacity, I’ve gained a permanent increase in physical function. I believe this is a kind of training mechanism. The secret behind the impossible physical feats of monsters and transcendents likely lies in this.”

Only after he said that did I finally understand.

I realized why Mamono-kun was so excited—and I was stunned.

No way. Seriously?

When I first heard about leyline access, I had hoped maybe we could endlessly draw magic power from it.

But this… this was way beyond that.

I never imagined we might be uncovering one of the secrets of the transcendents.

Mamono-kun, still petting Gazer-kun enthusiastically, said with excitement:

“They’ve been mixing their own magic power with leyline magic power through the golden spiral and assimilating it into their bodies—magically enhancing their physical capabilities!”

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