BXBX NOVEL Chapter 5: Do You Understand Me?
"Sigh... Guess I will file the report of the loss of my boat to the insurance company tomorrow," Lucau was obviously tired. That was truly an eventful day for any person, let alone someone old like him.
Suddenly, a different vehicle approached, landing near Lucau. A young man, probably around his teens, quickly came out and hugged Lucau. "Dad! How are you?! Are you hurt?!"
It was obviously Lucau's son. "No, but you will definitely break a few of my bones if you don't release me soon," said Lucau.
The young man nodded and let go. "What happened? I heard you were attacked by a Level Two Magical Beast! I came straight from the academy when I received the news. How could a Level Two Magical Beast appear there?!"
As the father and son talked, Linfel looked curiously at the Familiar on the young man's side. It was quite easy to identify it since it looked just like the charm Lucau had in his boat. "I believe you are Felia, right?"
The Familiar nodded at Linfel. "That is correct. But what about you? Why are you with the old master?"
"I'm Linfel-"
Before Linfel could continue, Lucau called everyone's attention. "Alright, we can talk more at home. Let's go back, and then we can talk about all of it."
Everyone entered the young man's car, which was a self-driving vehicle. Even if the young man wanted to, he didn't have the license to drive it anyway. Lucau's son noticed that Linfel followed Lucau, which he found strange. He didn't know his father had acquired a Familiar. "This is..."
"Home," Lucau stopped his son. "We can talk at home."
The young man understood his father's intentions and entered the car with his own Familiar. The car he used wasn't his but provided by the Magus Academy instead. To make sure they weren't used for anything illegal, they had cameras inside, so their group could only stay quiet all the way.
They arrived at a coastal district of the city where one could see many other boats, just like the one Lucau lost. One of the houses near it was Lucau's, and that's where the car left them all out. It then took off on its own, leaving the group behind.
Inside the house, the group could finally talk again. "So... can someone explain to me why all this secrecy?"
Lucau smiled and introduced the wisp. "This is Linfel, a Wisp... whatever it might be." He also did the opposite. "Linfel, this is my son, Alvin. He is fifteen and a Level One Magus. You probably noticed it already, but the Familiar on his side is Felia."
Linfel didn't mind being introduced as a Wisp. If Lucau trusted his son, then so did he. "Hello, Alvin, Felia. Your father saved my life and is helping me out. As he mentioned, I'm a Wisp."
"I used Felia's name to make a name for him," Lucau also added.
Well, Alvin and Felia were obviously confused. "Alright, let's start from the beginning. Hum... first, what is a wisp?"
"A Wisp is a Wisp..." Linfel answered. "I don't know how to explain better than that since my race was supposed to be quite famous... for how good a source of energy they are for other races."
"Never heard about," Alvin and Felia answered at the same time.
"Alright, let me tell you everything that happened up to this point," Lucau took the chance to start his explanation.
Alvin found the story quite weird from the start. However, when Lucau mentioned how the Wisp cleaned the Magical Energy of the Stone, Alvin's eyes changed. "Wait! What did you say? He cleaned the impurities of the Magic Stones?"
Linfel nodded. "Yeah, but the process isn't exactly that good. I lost around 90% of the Magic Energy due to it. This Magic Energy of yours is just too impure."
"Fuck that!" Alvin still couldn't believe it, so he quickly ran to the back of the house. A moment later, he brought a few Magic Stones. "These are the same Magic Stones my father used in his boat. He probably explained to you they are low-level ones. To be more specific, they are called Yellow Magic Stones. Let me ask you.
After you cleaned the energy, did the energy you released into the sea change color?"
Linfel thought about it for a moment and confirmed. "Well, there was very little of it left, so it was hard to spot any color whatsoever. Nonetheless, I think the cleaned energy was somewhat red? Maybe a yellowish red, but definitely more towards red."
"Show me! You can use all these Yellow Magic Stones if you want," Alvin asked in a hurry.
Linfel looked at Lucau, who nodded at him. "Don't worry, you can absolutely trust my son. Well, that's if you trust me as well. I told you before I didn't know if this cleaning process of yours was something impressive or not. Seems like it was."
Linfel could only accept and take the Magic Stones. It took a few minutes for Linfel to clean that energy. Well, at least clean it to the same level as before. "This is the most I can do at the moment. My Primordial Pool doesn't have more space." Finally, a feeble red-ish energy gathered in the middle of the room.
It was very little, but because Linfel concentrated it all in a few centimeters of space, it was easy to see its color.
"It's really red!" Alvin's heart almost stopped. He looked at Lucau, who seemed concerned, and then at the Wisp. "Linfel, you must absolutely NEVER tell anyone you have this capability. Do you understand me?"
"Red Color..." Lucau remembered something. "Isn't Red Magic Energy the next level after yellow?"
Felia nodded. "Yes, old master. This is truly unbelievable."
"Definitely!" Alvin agreed.
Yet, Linfel was puzzled. "Can someone explain?"
By now, even Alvin thought the Wisp wasn't from their planet. Nonetheless, he decided to explain. "Linfel, Magic Energy is graded through their quality and color in this world. The higher the level, the different the color."
Felia continued from there. "The Colors are Yellow, Red, Brown, Green, Blue, Purple, and White. Each color has its own sublevels as well. You can determine them by the intensity of that color. For example, the Magic Stones you used were the worst ones you can find. They are Low-Grade Yellow Magic Stones, and they obviously have Low-Grade Yellow Magic Energy inside.
Then you have Medium-Grade and High-Grade Yellow Magic Stones."
Alvin nodded. "Once their quality increases, they change color, obviously Red in this case. This Magical Energy you showed us is pale red, which means it is a Low-Grade Red Magic Energy. You would need Low-Grade Red Magic Stones to get access to it."
Lucau remembered it. "You brought one of these stones home two years ago, didn't you? I remember you were all smug about it, like a kid who just got a new toy to play with. You even went to take a bath with that thing."
"Father!" Alvin's face immediately turned red. "Can you just forget that dark past of mine, please?!"
"This Red Magical Energy can even change the color of your faces, so weird," said Linfel, genuinely impressed.
"Hahaha!" Lucau couldn't help but laugh. "Trust me, the red color on my son's face has nothing to do with Magic Energy. He's just embarrassed."
"Enough of me!" Alvin intervened and tried to compose himself. "Ahem! Anyway, Red Magic Stones are indeed very expensive. I got one when I joined the academy and I was... let's say a little bit too happy back then. The higher the level of magic Stone, the easier it is to absorb.
Above all, they can create a better foundation for your Magus Power for the exact same reason you mentioned. They have a lot less impurities."
Linfel pondered a bit and reabsorbed the Magic Energy back into his core. "Give me a second." He processed that energy even further before releasing it back into the middle of the room. This time, the Pale Red transformed into a normal red. "When it comes to refinement of energy, this is the absolute limit of my capability.
Keep in mind that around 99% of the Magic Energy was lost to get this little bit."
Alvin was even more impressed. "Medium-Grade Red Magic Energy! You can make this level of Magic Energy with those useless Low-Grade Yellow ones. Unbelievable!"
Felia got confused, though. "Wait, didn't you mention a moment ago the Pale-Red was your limit? Were you lying?"
Linfel shook his head. "No, what I said was that my core could only hold that amount of energy inside. I was talking about the Yellow Magic Energy. As you can see through the color of my body, I'm using this Low-Grade Yellow Magic Energy at this very moment to keep myself alive."
Alvin understood. "I see... In that regard, you are definitely just like any other Familiar out there. My Felia here also uses Low-Grade Yellow Magic Stones as her source of power. Of course, she could also absorb the Magic Energy present in the environment, but that would take a few hours every day to replenish her body.
It is not worth the trouble, so it is better to simply use the Magic Stones instead."
"The same goes for me," Linfel was happy to see the similarities. "I can also absorb the energy of the environment now that I know what Magic Energy is. It's just that there is truly too little of it, so I would rather use Magic Stones as well. Can you tell me more about Familiars?"
"Felia can tell you more. In exchange, you can tell us more about you as well," said Alvin.
"Yes, master." Felia then began to explain.
It turned out that Familiars were created through the use of artificial intelligence, so they could already speak and control Magic Energy normally from the moment they were born. That was definitely different from Wisps. Wisps were born from Heaven and Earth, and if they weren't hunted down straight away, they would go through the same learning process as any other intelligent race kid.
However, although they were very weak in the past, they still had high intelligence and learning capabilities. By the time Linfel was five years old, he already had the mind of an adult. Linfel even commented that he was only eight at the moment, which truly didn't look to be the case when compared to an eight-year-old human kid.
He just... lacked some common sense...
Felia then explained that Familiars also had several different levels, just like Magic Stones. The higher their level, the different their body colors. The highest level Familar she met in the academy was a Green one, which would be equivalent to a Level Four Magus. Judging by Felia's color, she was definitely a Level One Familiar.
Linfel was still curious about what a Magus is, but he decided to ask it later and hear more about the Familiars first.
"How does a Familiar increase its level?" Linfel asked.
"That part is pretty much the same as us humans," Alvin explained. "Just like Familiars, Maguses have their own Cores in their bodies. It's just that a Magus Core only manifests itself around the age of ten while a Familiar is born with it. Anyway, to increase our level, we need to absorb Magic Energy and slowly integrate it with our cores.
It is a hard process, and the quality of Magic Energy greatly determines the speed. For someone like me and Felia, it will probably take over ten years before we manage to reach Level Two."
Linfel focused on the Magic Energy in his body. "Integrate with the Core..." Although the Magic Energy was there, it wasn't merged with his Core. "How do you do that?"
"Well... that's where I can't be certain," Alvin sighed. "You are not a human or a Familiar, so I'm not sure if our methods would work for you. After all, you are not an artificial life, but you are not a flesh-and-blood living being either."
Linfel nodded. "I guess I will just have to try both."