An assig? I’m being given homework?!

  At that moment, Chara automatically imagined herself turning around and leaving. Little had she fotten, that as a spirit—a magical being whose essence flows in accordah her thoughts—the swirling mass of iridest mana f her body actually started accelerating toward the doorway.

  Startled by ued movement, she abruptly stopped, her thoughts thrown into disarray. However, before she could think further, a faint glimmer of water mana da the edge of her perception, vanishing the instant it caught her attention.

  What was that?

  Feeling like she had to take a better look, she pounced in its dire, only to e to her senses a moment ter as she halted in front of the curiosity spirit’s desk. The little spirit’s swirling became turbulent for a sed before pulsing with sudden realization.

  She had been tricked!

  “Little Spirit, I know you are eager to plete your assig, but I o give it to you first~!” Curiosity chided pyfully.

  “…”

  Who is eager to plete what assig!

  Feeling aggrieved, Chara gred at the greater spirit.

  Ign her silent protest, the swirling teacher tinued, “Your assig is to explore the building and find five different kinds of essence mana,” she expined as she marked five dots.

  “You don’t actually have to collect them or anything; just memorize their overall impression and describe them to me ter. Oh, and of course, none of the essences I mentioned during the lesson—including curiosity essence mana—are allowed~! Other than that, css is dismissed!”

  The little spirit’s mana wavered slightly, her form shifting nervously in the air. After a moment’s hesitation, she looked at the swirling teacher and excimed, “Thank you for the lesson!”

  However, you are still a devil… humph! she added inwardly before swiftly departing.

  Curiosity stared at the door bnkly. After a beted pause, her swirling accelerated into a cheerful swish.

  I… I’m being aowledged as a teacher~!!

  Uo tain her joy, she floated from one end of the to the other. She repeated this over and over, the room’s mana swirling around her curiously as though it had bee affected by her overflowing passion. As she returhe piece of obsidian to its p the mottled bck et, she couldn’t help but have some thoughts.

  Hmph, I was going to interrogate you ter to figure out where you got so muowledge…

  However, since you are such a cute and atteudent, I guess I overlook some of your uniqueness…

  But only for a little bit~! I will reveal your secret eventually~!

  Don’t think you vince me with just this!!

  The curiosity spirit was very fused.

  ***

  Meanwhile, just outside the , in the periphery of the cloister’s internal garden.

  Chara, unaware that her manners had just spared her from a lengthy interrogation, had entered an ued set back.

  At first gnce, her assig seemed fairly straightforward; just float around, look for some essence mana—and really, that’s all it should have been... that is, if not for one minor issue.

  Uuu… How I plete the assig if I ’t even sense essence mana…?

  That issue being, that she was incapable of doing the very thing that was being asked of her.

  To her frustration, this was one of those circur dilemmas where the solution to the problem… was to just stop having the problem. It was like someoh no money and no assets being told that in order to escape poverty, they o i in a stock portfolio.

  The little spirit cast a suspicious goward the before suppressing her doubts. While she didly trust the curiosity spirit, she also didn’t see any sense in giving her an assighat she couldn’t plete. All it would garner her would be more animosity.

  With this vi, she fell into thought.

  Why ’t I sense essence mana. Could it be that I just never entered any up until now?

  Hmm, I kind of doubt it. That seems almost impossibly unlikely…

  If I remember correctly, Curiosity said that essences are essentially just elements, only more specific. For instance, curiosity being an essence of water…

  The little spirit’s deliberation stopped, and her mana rippled suspiciously.

  e to think of it, Curiosity is a curiosity essence spirit. Could it be, that both the water element mana f her body and the water element mana filling the are actually curiosity essence mana?

  It was a bold hypothesis, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Furthermore, it also aligned with her own experiences.

  For instance, when she first discovered how to use perception, all she could really sense was a chaotic blur of sensations, remi of ahereal dream-like fog. It wasn’t until she put in a scious effort that she gradually realized that these impressions could be divided into several distinct hues—or as she ter reized them, elements. sidering this, it wouldn’t be unusual if she had to follow a simir process to differentiate essences from their parent elements.

  The little spirit resurfaced from her thoughts and swirled fidently.

  In that case, the solution is obvious. All I have to do is take the time to familiarize myself with the impressions of various kinds of essences—and before long, I’ll be able to distinguish them from elements in no time~!

  She had it all figured out. Or at least she thought she did, before realizing that implementing her idea would require her to have the samples of essence mana to familiarize herself with first.

  …

  This assig is crap!

  She was back to square one.

  Feeling frustrated, Chara decided to ge her approach. Rather than examining random samples of mana and trying to distinguish whether or not they tained essence mana, she would find a sample of mana that she believed had a strong likelihood of taining essence mana first, and then exami afterwards. This way, she could focus exclusively on improving her senses.

  Now, the question is how…

  Not having a good idea of where to begin, she reached out with her perception, thhly iing her surroundings.

  The ground and crystal flora were infused with earth mana. The air carried a mix of dark, ice, and wind mana, especially in the areas shrouded in shadow. Meanwhile, light mana surged to fill the spaces illuminated by the glowing crystals embedded evenly throughout the cloister, keeping her surroundings well-lit.

  Inexplicably, mana of various identities seemed to have naturally coalesced in locations where its presence felt the most fitting.

  Upon realizing this, Chara felt like a child who had just discovered the cept of gravity. Intimately familiar with its existence, yet unaware of its underlying aspects.

  How could she have ignored such a spicuous and prevalent behavior? Was it because she thought it was natural? Was it because it was so closely aligo her expectations, that it had never even caught her attention?

  Ever since she first observed mana, she’d noticed its tendency to verge. This was ter firmed by Curiosity, who further expihat each element of mana will attract itself, along with three other elements, while repelling the remaining four.

  This informatiorue. However, now that Chara was taking a closer look, it became painfully obvious that there were other forces influeng the position of mana, beyond just elemental patibility. It was only a matter of ‘what’.

  The little spirit pondered over this deeply before suddenly recalling a critical piece of information. Among the knowledge imparted to her by Curiosity, there was an expnation that expihe current situation perfectly.

  The formation of identity!

  Chara recalled the information.

  All mana is initially reserved mana. However, as it enters various kinds of phenomena, it gradually cultivates ay, the personality of a mana particle. When this process is plete, it transitions into being normal mana, which could be either elemental or essence mana.

  In which case, the issue of finding a certaiy of mana became only a matter of finding the right enviro.

  The question is, what makes an enviro suitable to cultivate essence mana?

  With practiced ease, she willed her perception into the shape of a e and swept it across her surroundings. Within seds, she quickly identified several distinct patterns.

  Solids taih element mana, while gases carried wind element. Darkness element mana seemed to envelope every shadowy er, while light mana shown fidently where there was light. Meanwhile, ice element mana seemed to permeate everything, instilling her surroundings with an ever-present calm and chilly impression.

  Acc to Curiosity, each element represents a distinct aspect of reality. These include, the four states of matter, as well as temperature and brightness…

  Whether it’s at the ter of a p, or the farthest reaches of outer space, if it exists iy, then it be characterized by at least one of these fual aspects…

  Given that the identity of mana is shaped by the phenomena in its surroundings, then it makes perfect sehat these aspects of reality, which are nearly universally present, are the most prevalent…

  Which means, that if I want to find essence mana, I o find a pce that embodies some kind of phenomena, more distinctly than any of these base aspects!

  maury