“What exactly do you have in mind?” Sheila asked.
“From our battle earlier, it looked like your magic sword sends you power, which you then wield yourself. Is that right?”
Her eyebrows shot up. “My... Color me impressed. I hadn’t realized you could analyze that in the midst of our battle.”
“Well, I’m pretty good at sensing mana.”
“You say that as if it’s so simple...”
“Between the sword passing you its power, and you unleashing it, much energy is needlessly lost between the processes. I’m sure you’ve noticed this, since you also use it yourself,” I explained. “If I had to make an analogy... Hmm... It’s like pouring alcohol from the barrel into a bottle, then again into a cup. Each time the alcohol passes through a new container, some of it spills out or gets left behind in the previous vessel.”
“I see... I understand now.”
“And since you specialize in speed, it’s not like you can prevent this waste by going slow and careful.”
“Correct,” Sheila replied. “My, this is all rather eerie. It feels as if you’ve seen through every minute aspect of my combat.”
“Oh, uh... Sorry.”
Sheila chuckled. “Oh, you silly boy. I wasn’t complaining.”
“You weren’t?”
“Not at all. The strong are always worthy of my respect.”
Respect...? Has she been showing me respect? I cast a sideward glance at Crimson Rose, the poor magic sword that had been discarded in the corner. Well, compared to that thing... I guess Sheila has been treating me respectfully.
“Relax. When it comes to humans like her, the absence of condescension is already a show of respect.”
Well, if Lardon said so, then I guess that was that.
“Now then,” Sheila said. “That is my current situation, yes?”
I nodded. Since my goal was to tell her how she could improve, it was important to first lay out the problem with her current way of doing things.
“Pray tell, what must I change?”
“Picking up from my earlier analogy... You have to eliminate the waste by drinking directly from the barrel.”
“Hmm... And how exactly must I go about that?”
“By removing the process of passing power entirely.” I stood in front of Sheila, held out my hand, and cast the spell I’d been using a lot lately—Covenant Summoning: Liam—to manifest another me.
“A magic clone?”
“It’s a little different from my usual spell. Originally, my clone utilizes the mana I used to cast the spell. If we split up while facing enemies, he would run out of mana much sooner, especially if he ended up facing the tougher bunch.”
“I doubt that would happen with you...but I do understand your point.”
“I could replenish his mana or resummon a clone, but I’d only be wasting more mana along the process.”
“Ah, just like me.”
“Yep. That’s why I made this new spell. This clone draws from the same pool of power as me, so there’s no need to pass it to and fro.”
“So, instead of passing power from one to another...it’s as if you’ve become one.”
“Right. Also, it seems like you’re better at applying magic to yourself, whereas the sword is better at unleashing it outward. If you two link up, you should be able to unleash your mana through your magic sword with much more efficiency.”
“My, this sounds far too good to be true. Is it really possible?”
“I’ve got two methods in mind.” I already had these sorted out in my head, so all that was left was to explain them to Sheila. “The first is body modification. We can practically merge you with your magic sword by making the veins in your body—the ones that carry your mana—more like Crimson Rose’s. The second is simply to connect you both with a pathway.”
“It seems like there would be much difference between these two methods.”
“Yeah. The former will keep you constantly connected. With the latter, you only need to connect yourselves during battle.”
“The latter, please.”
“Wow. That was fast.” She answered so quickly. Did she even think it through?
“Of course. Ah, I believe I’ve yet to mention this to you... You see, my current goal is to defeat you as I am now—with this human body. I’d rather not become part magic sword.”
“Oh... But you’re fine with me helping you now?” I got a little worried. Wouldn’t a prideful woman like Sheila actually be against this?
“Receiving your help and winning against you as I am now are not mutually exclusive.”
“Ah...” That was certainly an interesting way to look at things. She wasn’t really wrong either. “All right, then. Give me some time to make a spell.”
“Of course.”
I put some distance between us. The spell was already constructed in my head, so all that was left was to craft it into existence in one fell swoop. At their core, learning and making spells were both about trial and error—and by multicasting, I could get through all those trials and errors at once. Of course, I didn’t forget to boost the number of spells I could cast at once with an aria.
After four to five rounds of simultaneously casting the spell a hundred times, I compiled it into an Ancient Memoria ring for Sheila to learn from and handed it to her. “Here you go. Use this the same way as you would a grimoire. Any questions?”
“None. This should suffice. Allow me to stay the night.”
“Huh? Why?”
“I shall learn this overnight.”
“Can you?”
“Who do you take me for?” Sheila propped a hand on her hip and puffed out her chest. She looked like the very epitome of confidence.
However, I knew very well how hard it was to learn a new spell from scratch. I thought back to when I hadn’t learned multicasting yet—to when I’d just mastered my first spell—and I couldn’t help but take her words as bravado.
Still, there was no issue with letting her stay till she got it. I decided not to be a stick-in-the-mud and instead wished her luck.
Much to my surprise, however, Sheila splendidly lived up to her word. In just a single night, she was already wielding her mana much more efficiently. And the first thing she did after that power-up was charge straight into my room and attack me in my sleep.
“I suppose surprise attacks and winning with her own body are not mutually exclusive either,” I heard Lardon muse as I frantically gathered my bearings.