It was great to know that instead of following vague instructions on how to cast magic, I could use science principles instead. However, this also means I have trouble casting any magic that seems to defy laws of science. Thinking of magic as some energy source works well for light, fire, and wind magic, since modern technology already does that all the time with electricity via lightbulbs, heaters, and fans.

The problem comes with the supposedly basic water spell. Please show me a machine that can spawn water on demand. Assuming mana equals energy, there is the famous e=mc*c equation, which means I need a ridiculous amount of energy to create any mass, which means that won’t work for creating water. I actually tried it, and mana just left without anything to show for.

Instead of trying to create water, I tried gathering water from the air and condensing it. It worked, sort of. I spent all my mana trying to squeeze out water from a roughly cubic meter of air, and all I got for my hard work was 10 drops of water. This wasn’t purely an issue with my low capacity of mana, but rather, it feels like a cubic meter of air only holds around 10 drops of water, since repeating it on a smaller volume of air didn’t change the ratio.

On the plus side, after months of casting random spells and heating up my rock, I had at least enough mana and mana output to operate the stove myself. Unfortunately, I still needed Anortha’s assistance as a water dispenser.

With my newfound skills in magic, Anortha tried to play games that required magic with me, but it became boring really fast since my magical abilities were absolute garbage compared to hers. Soon after, Anortha started assigning me homework, which simply was to fill these magical rocks with mana a certain amount of times. It got so tedious that I started to develop a dislike for magical rocks.

The months quickly passed and the end of the year was approaching yet again. My magical abilities improved enough so I can ignite a pile of wood safely, but that was about it.

What was a bit more concerning was the fact that I seemed to have stopped growing. Sure, my growth was relatively slow to begin with, but that was just in comparison to my peers. Ever since I started living with the elves, I don’t think I even grew at all. My clothes fit me just perfectly even though it’s been a bit more than a year. Although I suppose that does make my proclaimed age of twenty something more credible.

While I do have enough money to eat at the Golden Toad again, I’d rather not waste my money. Instead, I decided to gift Anortha a drawing of herself. I used to do that in my previous life to my friends, since it costs no money and it’s a personalized gift that everyone seems to like.

Although when I tried doing it here, I realized that drawing with a tablet and computer software is very different from drawing with pen and paper. Where’s my ctrl-z? My lovely brushes? My layers? After wasting a pile of paper, I settled on something that looked recognizable at least.

I did consider gifting her something that would cost some of the money I had a good amount of, but since Anortha did talk about her desire for a Ferina and how she plans to leave the town, I thought it would be a good idea to have a mount for traveling. Especially since they were tasty and could make a good emergency food source. Unfortunately, even if I didn’t spend any money, it’ll take years to accumulate enough money to buy one.

“Happy founding day!” I wrote, and then handed Anortha the sheet of paper, upside-down of course.

Anortha looked at the blank piece of paper quizzically before flipping it around. She stared at the portrait of herself for a good while without saying anything. That got me worried, but she eventually said, “Thanks! I didn’t know you could draw so well.”

I had no idea whether that was lip service because of the long pause, but I decided to assume it was genuine.

The elf handed me a box and said, “Happy founding day!”

Lifting off the lid, I saw a whole bunch of bright red berries.

“I had my mom bring me to her workplace, where I hand picked these chielberoy. These particular ones aren’t that spicy, but were bred to be sweeter. You did say that you couldn’t taste the spiciness anyways, so maybe these would taste quite nice?”

I threw one of them into my mouth. The signature aroma was the same as the one at the restaurant, but it did indeed taste sweeter.

“Thanks,” I wrote, “These taste great.”

For the usual end of the year song, I made sure to not laugh this year, with resounding success. The elves' singing quality remained the same though. After that, the end of the year light magic show began, which wasn’t too much different from last year. How time flies. I wonder how my old family is doing?

binarysoap

Sorry for the numerous time skips and shorter chapter. I intended to fill it in with some meaningful content and came up blank. On the plus side, this means that the adventure part of their journey will be happening sooner. The next chapter will be in a completely new POV, and will also take place about two years later. I was originally planning for it to be in Cabbage's POV but since so many of you seemed to have forgotten him, I decided to do something different. And yes, when I write Cabg, I pronounce it as cabbage. Blame the fact that the medical professionals I worked with pronounce Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (cabg) as cabbage.