Do You Want to Learn Magic?

"Ah."

Chen De flopped onto the sofa.

He let out a blissfully comfortable groan.

His whole body sprawled out like dough thrown onto a cutting board.

Completely flattened.

With a light leap, Qubi landed on the coffee table.

Its emerald-green eyes stared at Chen De.

Its tail swayed lazily twice.

"Hey, Chen De."

Chen De turned his head to look at Qubi.

His brow immediately furrowed.

"What? That filler word always makes me feel like something bad is about to happen."

Qubi tilted its head.

It looked as innocent as a cat that had just stolen fish and licked its mouth clean.

"Do you want to learn magic?"

Chen De froze for a moment.

"What?"

"Magic."

"Learn magic?"

"Yes."

Chen De's expression shifted from wary to confused.

"Wait."

"The stuff I use to fight Calamities isn't magic?"

"Guns and knives aren't magic?"

"Light bullets aren't magic?"

"That all-white outfit when I transform isn't magic?"

Qubi nodded.

Then it shook its head again.

"Those are magical power, yes."

"But they aren't magic."

Chen De sat up.

"Explain the difference between magical power and magic."

Qubi's tail stood upright as it entered teaching mode.

"The way you fight now is by gathering the magical power in your body and then dumping it all out at once."

"Yeah, and doesn't it work pretty well?"

"It does work."

Qubi paused.

"But the way you do it, how should I put this..."

"It's like having a barrel of gasoline."

"You unscrew the cap, splash it all over your enemy, then throw a lighter at them."

Chen De blinked.

"Isn't that pretty efficient?"

"It is efficient."

"But normal people use gasoline to power an engine."

"You use it to splash people."

Chen De opened his mouth.

"You mean I've been fighting in the dumbest way possible?"

"Not the dumbest."

"The most primitive."

"Is there a difference between primitive and dumb?"

"Yes. Primitive people don't know there are better methods, so it's understandable."

"You know there are better methods and still use the primitive one."

"What do you call that?"

Chen De's mouth twitched.

"If you say that's called dumb, I'm flushing you down the drain."

"That's called wasting resources."

Qubi's voice was utterly calm.

"The magical power you consume in every battle is roughly three to four times that of a normal magical girl."

"Because you don't know how to control your output."

"You're a water pipe with no valve."

"Once you turn it on, it's at maximum."

Chen De fell silent for two seconds.

"So what you mean is—"

"You look efficient when fighting Calamities, but you waste a lot of magical power too."

"It's fine while you're fighting weak Calamities, but when you encounter strong ones later, you won't last many rounds with this fighting style."

Chen De recalled how he felt after every battle.

It did seem like he had never felt anything in particular.

Every time, he finished in a few seconds and ran off.

But thinking about it carefully, he did not even know how much he had consumed.

"So learning magic can solve this problem?"

"It can ease it."

"The essence of magic is guiding magical power in a more precise way."

"The same damage for less consumption."

"The same consumption for greater damage."

"That sounds like leveling up skills in a game."

"More or less. Right now, you're a character who can only use basic attacks."

"..."

"The kind with an empty skill bar."

"Enough."

Chen De rubbed his face.

"Fine. How do I learn?"

"Are you sure you want to learn?"

"You just said I'm trash who can only use basic attacks. How could I not learn?"

"I didn't say trash."

"Your tone did."

Qubi's ears twitched. It jumped down from the coffee table and walked to the open space in the middle of the living room.

"Come here."

Chen De climbed off the sofa and walked over.

He stood before Qubi.

At one meter sixty-three, he looked down at a cat.

Honestly, the downward angle was much smaller than it had been a week ago.

"Hold out your hand first."

Chen De held out his right hand.

"Feel the magical power inside your body."

"How?"

"Like how you gather magical power before transforming, but don't release it."

"Keep it in your palm."

Chen De took a deep breath.

He closed his eyes.

A warm force surged from his chest into his right arm.

It flowed through his veins.

Finally, it gathered in his palm.

His palm began to glow.

A faint silvery-white light flowed between his fingers.

"Keep it in your palm. Don't let it out."

"Okay."

A silvery-white ball of light condensed in his palm.

In appearance, it looked similar to the magical bullets he fired from his gun.

"Then what?"

"Feel the shape of that magical power."

"A shape? Magical power can have a shape?"

"Of course. What shape is the magical power in your hand right now?"

Chen De looked at it, thought carefully, and gave a plain, unadorned answer.

"Like a blob."

"...Could you be a little more elegant?"

"Like a round blob."

"...Forget it. Just think of it as a lump of modeling clay."

"What you need to do is make it flow according to the shape you want."

"Start by stretching it out."

"Sure."

Chen De nodded, considering that he understood.

It was just playing with modeling clay. He was great at that.

The experience of rolling hundreds of long clay worms as a child was finally going to come in handy.

He closed his eyes and concentrated.

He slowly stretched the ball of light in his palm.

Thinner.

Thinner.

Thinner still.

"How does it feel?" Qubi asked.

"Not bad. I think I've got quite a tal—"

Pop.

It exploded.

Silvery-white fragments scattered in every direction like fireworks.

Half of them splattered onto the ceiling.

The other half splattered across Chen De's face.

The living room filled with the smell of scorched air.

Chen De's expression froze.

Silvery-white flecks hung on his face.

Paired with those delicate features, he looked like the victim of an explosion at a cosmetics counter.

"What was that you said just now?" Qubi's voice carried obvious suppressed laughter.

"Shut up."

"You said you had quite a—"

"I said shut up."

Chen De wiped his face.

"Why did it explode?"

"Because you stretched it too quickly, and the magical power structure collapsed."

"Couldn't you have told me in advance that it would explode?"

"If I told you, you wouldn't have made this mistake."

"Wouldn't it be better not to make it?!"

"You remember it better after making the mistake once."

"Your teaching methods are cut from the same cloth as your philosophy on charging service fees."

Qubi flicked his tail, utterly shameless.

"Again. Slower this time. Like kneading noodles."

Chen De gathered another ball of magic.

This time, he had learned his lesson.

Slowly.

Bit by bit.

The ball of light stretched out.

It turned into a thin, silvery-white thread of light.

Floating above his palm.

About fifteen centimeters long.

Crooked and twisted.

Like instant noodles someone had stepped on.

"Mm." Qubi nodded.

"Is that an 'mm, not bad' or an 'mm, is that all'?"

"Mm, not bad."

"Are you praising me or mocking me?"

"Objective assessment: you achieved shapeshifting, but the stability is poor. The thickness is uneven, and your control is deteriorating rapidly."

Chen De took a careful look.

It was true.

The end of the light thread had already begun to tremble.

"How long can you hold it?" Qubi asked.

"About—"

Pop.

It exploded again.

This time, the fragments flew even farther.

One splattered onto the TV screen.

Chen De looked at the shimmering silver dot on the television.

He, the ceiling, and the TV formed a perfect triangle.

If he could control the direction of the explosions, he could moonlight as fireworks.

"Six seconds," Qubi announced.

"What's the average duration for a normal magical girl's first practice session?"

"It takes at least half an hour just to barely make magic change shape."

"Your talent really is impressive."

"Of course it is."

Chen De shook the remaining specks of light from his hand.

"I can do in six seconds what takes other people half an hour."

"Yes. But don't celebrate too soon."

"Shapeshifting is only the first step. After that come setting the form, compression, rotation, and multi-stage control."

"Right now, you can only maintain even the first step for six seconds."

"So what's the passing time?"

"You need to remain stable for at least sixty seconds before you count as a beginner."

"Sixty seconds? I only lasted six!"

"That's only a tenfold difference."

"You make that sound so easy."

Chen De looked at the silver spot on the ceiling, then at the one on the TV.

"How do I clean this stuff up?"

"Wait for it to dissipate naturally. About two hours."

"Two hours?!"

"It's residual magic. Your magic reserves are relatively large."

"If I've got a glowing spot on my ceiling for two hours, won't the neighbors think I'm livestreaming paranormal stuff?"

"You don't have upstairs neighbors."

"What about the TV?"

"Isn't the TV just background noise?"

Chen De opened his mouth and realized he actually had no comeback.

He really did not watch much TV.

Whenever he turned it on, he only played the evening news as background noise.

"Practice again," Qubi said.

"Now?"

"Yes. While you still have the feel from that last explosion."

"What do you mean, the feel from an explosion? Do you think I'm making popcorn?"

"More or less. Your current magic control is at popcorn level."

"If you don't control the heat properly, it's either undercooked or the pot blows up."

Chen De took a deep breath.

He gathered his magic again.

Third try.

This time, he went even slower.

Like using a needle tip to pick a single thread out of the air.

The ball of light slowly stretched longer.

Ten centimeters.

Twelve centimeters.

Fifteen centimeters.

It did not explode.

His hand trembled slightly, but the thread of light remained intact.

Seven seconds.

Eight seconds.

Nine seconds.

Ten seconds.

"Ten seconds." There was a hint of genuine approval in Qubi's voice.

Chen De gritted his teeth.

Eleven seconds.

Twelve—

Pop.

The third attempt exploded.

This time, the flying fragments hit the curtains with pinpoint accuracy.

Now there was a glowing patch on the ceiling, one on the TV, and one on the curtains in the living room.

Connecting the three points formed an isosceles triangle.

One more try, and he could probably make a constellation.

"Twelve seconds," Qubi announced. "You improved by double."

"My living room got twice as bright too."

Chen De looked at the silvery, sparkling marks all over the room.

He sighed.

"Qubi."

"Mm."

"When I make it to sixty seconds, is my house going to turn into a nightclub?"

"That possibility cannot be ruled out."