112 Chapter 112 Oranges (2/2)
”You got sick of fish, but still like the fruits?” Joseph asked from where he was stirring the soup pot.
”Girls like sweet things, Master Joseph,” she said in a very serious voice.
”Can you grow any plant you want?” asked Virion, to Joseph.
”Yes, as long as I know what it is, or have seen it before. But that doesn't mean that it will survive. The area here should be fine on water, but I worry it may have gra.s.s fires and burn these trees up in a few years.”
Stella looked at the trees.
”Master Joseph?” she asked.
”Yes, Stella?”
”I would like some of these when we have a permanent home.”
Joseph laughed. ”Of course.”
”That is possibly the most extravagant use of magic I have seen in my entire life,” said Elwin.
Joseph sighed and Stella felt sorry for him. This must be an incredibly hard thing to endure. The elves were nothing like what they used to be.
”Please do not lecture me on magic, when even your mage has no interest in using, or even learning about mana. Mana is produced as things live. If those trees live for a few years, they will generate far more mana, than the gra.s.s below them. More than enough to pay for every spell I've used today, many times over. Also, even if you cut those trees down this moment, the life force in them merely turns to dead mana, which will gradually be converted back to normal mana as long as things are alive.
”If you are experiencing a depletion of mana in your forest, it must be because someone, or something, is intentionally siphoning it off. In fact, I could sacrifice that grove of trees myself, and get back more mana than I used to create and grow them, in order to create a larger grove, that I could then sacrifice to create a larger grove, ad infinitum. However, I have no need to kill them, and also no desire to.”
”That shouldn't be possible. You speak as if you can create mana from nothing,” said Virion.
”Virion, you are centuries old, and never really attempted to use mana. I am eight, and in the last year, have spent over a thousand hours learning how mana works and how to use it. I do not think you are qualified to correct me if you can't show proof of your claims.”
Elwin looked at him.
”You seem far different than when we first met.”
Joseph sighed again.
”When we first met, I a.s.sumed the elves would actually be able to teach me something. I have struggled to understand dozens of spells and magic theories over the last year. My father has powers, Stella has powers, Selena has powers. All of them are useful as references, and I have used things I learned, observing them to increase my understanding and break through bottlenecks. I regularly go to the world of runes to interact directly with the magic of origin itself. But throughout all of that, I have had to teach myself, and sometimes re-invent, long lost and forgotten magics. It is exhausting. I a.s.sumed the elves would finally be able to provide a proper teacher so that I wouldn't have to struggle so hard. A proper teacher could cut my time learning new magics in half, of what I currently spend.”
Stella was startled by that. He was already learning at an extraordinary rate! She knew from her memories, that it normally took those of the ancient fey, years to get to where he was at. Surely most of the credit could be attributed to the system?
Joseph continued, ”Currently a group of beings, who want the destruction of the world, or at least to offer us up to demons, seek the life of myself, and all the people I care about. Now, instead of a chance to advance rapidly in power to fight them, once I get to the elven forest, I need to save the elves from whatever is killing you, because you can't even do proper magic. Naturally, I could hide my immense disappointment in how this is turning out, but I simply don't care to. If I, an eight-year old human, can fix your issue which your race has failed to fix for a thousand years, I expect all of your elders to feel properly ashamed of themselves.”
Virion frowned and the other elves seemed to be getting quite angry. Stella held her knife a little differently in case she needed to act on that anger.
”You seem quite arrogant,” said Elwin, surprised.
”I have reinvented the lost study of thaumatology. I created a GATE with the aid of a thousand people and moved 50 thousand people through it. I am eight. If I sound arrogant, I would question if you aren't perhaps just lazy.
”In the worst case, you could have snuck elves into the human lands to practice magic using mana while under guard. You took 2,000 elves across the borders of two human kingdoms, during war time, without a problem. How could you just give up on it?
”Here, you can all eat dinner.”
Elwin looked at her, as Joseph moved away to prepare his blankets for sleep.
”This soup is for us? You don't intend to eat any?”
She tilted her head and squinted her eyes at him. ”Master Joseph didn't say he dislikes you, only that he is disappointed he can't gain a powerful teacher to learn more quickly. Had you faced winter wraiths, and monsters fas.h.i.+oned by evil G.o.ds, you too would wish for strength quickly.”
She watched as they cautiously gathered the offered food, and then shook her head sadly as they murmured about how good it was. They a.s.sumed it was just magic. How sad it was that these elves had fallen so far.
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