Chapter 140: Water Magic and Spirits

“Stretch out your arm with your palm facing forward. Then prepare to release a small amount of mana.”

“Like this?”

“Yes. Then say [Water!] and cast the mana forward. Shouting as you do it makes the spell easier to activate.”

“[Water!]… Ei!”
“〈E-Ei!〉”

Water suddenly burst from in front of her outstretched palm, startling her.

But wow… That was impressive.
It looked a little like a horse urinating, but the volume was unbelievable. Nearly half a large ale barrel poured out in a steady stream before finally stopping. What kind of image had my sister been picturing?

“See? Now you understand why we came here.”

“I can use Water Magic?”

“Yes… It came out like a horse—I mean, as a huge stream. Not bad for your first attempt.”

“Hm? What about a horse?”

“About half a big ale barrel’s worth came out. Try again before you forget the feeling.”

“All right. [Water!]… Ei!”

That was close. I almost said something unnecessary out loud.

If she could do that, she should eventually be able to fire water spheres like Regina in Korché. She happily kept producing water, and it soon began pooling around our feet.

“Sis, stop! The water is reaching our feet… Wait, why are there spirits here?”

“Hehe, you noticed. Since it’s my first time, I asked them to help.”

“Ask them to leave. Try again by yourself this time. Now that they helped, you understand the feeling, right?”

“You don’t have to get angry. Thank you, spirits.”

Honestly… It almost feels as though she has a closer connection with the spirits than I do.

Since the ground was becoming soaked, I created [Ring!] and had her pour the water into it instead. It turned out that her image for [Water] was simply filling a cup.

Well, as long as she could produce water, that was enough for now. She only needed to learn to control the amount.
Perhaps I should teach her a few methods of self-defense too.

“Hey, what is this?”

“I call it [Ring!]. It’s Wind Magic. You could probably reproduce it with Water Magic, but it would take considerable practice.”

“I’m fine as long as I can freely use water.”

“Even so, it’s good to be able to do something like this.”

I created a fist-sized sphere of water with [Water].

“What is that?”

“It’s merely the everyday spell [Water]. But you can use it like this too.”

I threw it at [Ring!] in front of us.
Boing! It bounced straight back.

She stared at the water sphere in fascination. Yes, she was hooked. I handed her the bouncing sphere.

“Since you have Water Magic, you could launch this at enemies to knock them down or restrain them.”

“With something this soft? And how can you make this with an ordinary household spell?”

“I’ve practiced magic constantly ever since receiving it—even the most basic spells.”

“Then try firing it.”

“It’s only a basic spell, so I can’t truly fire it. At best, I can create it within about four meters of myself.”

I then produced a small flame with [Flame!] and poured [Water] over it from above to extinguish it.

“If you ask spirits for help, you’ll probably learn faster. Practicing won’t hurt.”

I threw another water sphere. When it struck [Ring!], it clung to the surface.

She gasped, walked closer, and poked it with her finger while laughing.
I had said four meters, but it felt as though the range was already increasing.

“When I can produce water freely, teach me that too.”

“Certainly. First, though, you need to practice releasing a precise amount of water into a wooden bucket. That is harder than releasing the whole torrent at once.”

“I know.”

“Alright, let’s head back to town.”

“Huh? What about practice?”

“You’ve already managed to produce water—that’s enough for today. Go back to practicing magic control for a while. Once you can do that, you’ll be able to produce water freely—whether it’s a cupful or enough to fill a pot or a barrel.”

We walked a short distance away, then I withdrew the mana from [Ring!] and let the collected water flow out.

“You really do use magic freely.”

“I’m simply withdrawing the mana from something I created so that it disappears. That is also part of mana control.”

“What about that?”

“We’ll deal with it after bringing the guards. They were saying suspicious things, so they need a proper interrogation.”

I had my sister wait inside a transparent [Shelter!] while I ran to the gate and called the guard captain. I soon returned with about ten guards and dismissed [Shelter!].

“So they’re inside here?”

The captain and his men stared curiously at the dust-covered [Dome!].

To prevent their escape, I created [Ring!] around the outside of [Dome!], then withdrew the mana from [Dome!] and used [Strong Wind!] to clear away the dust.

Since they had heard voices earlier, they tried to run the moment the dome disappeared.

Too bad.

They slammed into [Ring!] and bounced backward.

“You can’t escape. I’ve already told the guards what you said, so they’ll question you thoroughly.”

“Damn brat!”
“You think you can mock us?!”

Oh—they drew their swords.

“You there! Stay where you are or you’ll regret it! Surround them!”

The captain shouted the order.

“It’s fine. I’ll make sure they can’t resist.”

One by one, I wrapped them in [Whirlwind!]. The guards stared in astonishment.

Seven men spinning helplessly in the air made quite a spectacle. After about ten rotations each, I released them.

They stopped spinning but were so dizzy they could barely stand.

“Go ahead. Now’s your chance to capture them easily.”

“Yes, leave it to us. We’ll squeeze every word out of them. Tie them up!”

After returning home and finishing lunch, I taught my sister a new method of magic control.

“When you used Water Magic earlier, you cast a fixed amount of mana all at once. That’s why such a huge volume of water appeared. To control the amount, do this.”

I lightly grabbed a rope tied to the tarp and slowly pulled it.

“Think of the rope as mana. Instead of casting it all at once, let it slide out gradually. When you want the water to stop, cut off the flow. Draw a thin thread of mana from your mana reservoir and send it outward.”

“That’s completely different from before.”

“The earlier exercise was only to make certain you could use magic at all. For most spells, that is enough—such as [Fireball!] or [Stone Bullet!]. But imagine producing the same enormous quantity every time you used Water Magic. Would you want to create an entire jar of water whenever you cast it?”

She shook her head.

“To produce only the amount you need, you must understand and adjust the flow of mana. Forget the thickness you used earlier. Practice pushing out a thinner thread.”

“That sounds troublesome.”

“You already regulate mana with Wind Magic. Water Magic is similar. I think advanced Healing Magic works the same way.”

“You understand healing magic?”

“It’s only a guess. Healing requires a certain amount of mana to activate. Too little and the spell fails. Yet the same injury sometimes takes two or three casts to heal, depending on the healer.”

“So they’re controlling their mana.”

“Exactly. When I dismissed [Ring!] and [Dome!] earlier, I withdrew the mana used to create them. That is mana control. Ideally, Water Magic should let you produce anything from a cupful to a barrel—or even more.”

“So what you did earlier…?”

“That was just the most basic application.”

“Maybe it’s easier if you just fill wooden buckets with water for me.”

“What are you talking about? You’ve already opened the door to magic. Now it’s just adjustment. Becoming an apothecary had difficult basics too, didn’t it?”

“…You’re right. And the spirits can help me.”

“Want me to show you something interesting?”

“That face means you’re plotting something.”

I took a potion case from my Magic Bag, placed two lower-grade basic potions on the table, and handed one to her.

“Call your Potion Compounding spirit and hold the potion up.”

She looked suspicious, but summoned her spirits. The Water Magic spirit and Potion Compounding spirit appeared and wrapped themselves around the potion. The Water Magic spirit soon drifted away, while the pale yellow-green Potion Compounding spirit circled the bottle.

“Sis, show the potion to the spirit and ask it to purify it.”

“Purify… the potion?”

After a moment, the spirit wrapped itself around the bottle in a soft glow—just as it had when Claudins performed the same purification.

I checked the potion with appraisal.

As expected, it had improved from a lower-grade basic potion to a quality between middle-grade and upper-grade basic.

“Wait… what just happened? And that potion—”

“It improved in quality—from the same lower-grade basic potion. Claudins had a spirit purify his potion in the same way.”

“That’s impossible…”

“If you master Water Magic and have the spirits purify the water even further… Well, clean water is essential to an apothecary’s work, isn’t it?”

“…I’ll do it. I’ll practice exactly like you said.”