Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter3 (section)

===Part 7===

They had forgotten this was a world where swords and sorcery reigned supreme. Academy City’s level system wasn’t going to apply here. The estimation of strength worked entirely differently.

“Which makes it all the weirder that they speak Japanese and use decimal numbers.”

They didn’t understand that part, but those questions could wait.

It was unlikely the elf here would know all the answers.

This was a delicate issue, so Mikoto and Shokuhou kept their voices low.

“(But if an elf who’s probably lived for centuries is Level 11, how does it make sense for that slaver of 20 to be Level 35? If you gain levels from experience, wouldn’t a long-lived race have the strongest people in the world?)”

“(Maybe their race just isn’t interested in levelling up? Battle ability seems to be managed by a job system, so maybe you don’t gain experience unless you continually defeat enemies as part of a combat-oriented job. Maybe you stay the same level forever if you just live peacefully eating fruit in the forest.)”

“So you can’t become an expert of anything if you lie around napping for 100 years?”

“Exactly.”

If they had managed to live for a hundred years without feeling the need to fight, they sounded like a much more mentally advanced race than humans.

“Oh, right.”

With sudden realization, Mikoto crouched down to the elf’s eye level.

She had a soft spot for girls with a chest smaller than her own.

“We never introduced ourselves, did we? I’m Misaka Mikoto and you can call her Fat Chest.”

“My name is Shokuhou Misaki!!” protested the Queen, but Mikoto ignored her.

“What’s your name?”

“You can just call me ‘slave’. If I’m caught using my name, the patrol will ''punish'' me.”

“Just tell us.”

Mikoto realized after she said it that she was pushing a little hard.

The way the elf spoke about herself after being so harshly abused reminded her of the dead Sisters, causing her anger to rise to the surface. Even though frightening the girl wouldn’t help anything.

On the other hand, doing what was considered “natural” in this world was the same as accepting the existence of the slave trade. Not pushing hard enough to break free of that wouldn’t do the girl any favors.

Eventually, the elf nervously answered.

“P-Patissiet.”

“Hello, Patissiet. …But why?”

“?”

The small elf named Patissiet tilted her head.

That name sounded so much like a slight modification of the French word pâtissier. Mikoto thought it must have some special meaning in the elf language, but that didn’t quite fit either since they could understand each other.

Shokuhou held a hand to her cheek and chimed in.

“I saw similar names in that slate. The Brand Mountain Range and the Snowdome Continent both had English names, for example. Not to mention that this world is called Celesaqphere, which sounds like someone took the English words ‘celestial’, ‘aqua’, and sphere, and then squished them together. I don’t mean to be rude to the people living here, but it seems very lazy.”

“You mean the names are just randomly taken from Earth languages?”

“But how could that happen?”

Perhaps there was some way of passing information or matter between the two worlds, like divination or summoning. That could be a valuable hint toward getting them back to Earth.

(And then there was Salinagaritina. That goddess seems like the only one that rule doesn’t apply to.)

Was that because the Reincarnation Goddess wasn’t from this world and existed on a higher level “outside” all the worlds?

That aside, there were a few things they wanted if they were going to travel through this world.

For now, some money and a compact collection of the daily necessities.

“I’ve always wanted to try being a bandit. Y’know, living outdoors and gathering a bunch of friends to help you out. Since we’re in another world, I’d rather go on an adventure than stay in a single town.”

“And I thought you preferred being a phantom thief sneaking around the city at night,” replied the #5 even as she helped rummage through the nonhuman trafficker’s luggage.

Mikoto gathered up all the luggage the elf had scattered across the ground and gathered her thoughts concerning what she wanted to ask about.

She knew there had to be a lot to ask while she could.

“So what is magic? How is it different from Academy City’s esper powers?”

That was her first question.

It seemed about as important as a visitor to Earth learning about petroleum, gunpowder, and electricity. It was the foundational technology of this world’s weaponry. Whether or not she could use it herself, she knew it would be dangerous to remain ignorant of it.

“Hmm...I don’t know what an esper is.” The elf sounded troubled. “But magic is…well, it’s magic, so, uh…”

Was it such basic knowledge she had a hard time explaining it? For the people of this world, it may have been as basic as the times table, but all the talk of magic meant nothing to Mikoto and Shokuhou.

“To start at the very beginning, magic has the four magical elements of fire, water, wind, and earth and physical actions have the four physical elements of slash, pierce, impact, and constrict. Sometimes constrict is also known as squeeze. Swords, axes, and even projectiles are all bound by these elements. For example, throwing a big rock is of the impact element and launching an arrow is of the pierce element. Now, attack magic is usually created by combining magical and physical elements. Explosion magic is fire and impact. Whip magic is impact and constrict. As you can see, some attack magic is a combination of physical elements, so watch out for that. Elements that come first in the list are strong against the next one in the list, with the last one being strong against the first, except the magical elements go fire, wind, water, earth in that sense, despite usually being listed as fire, water, wind, earth, so don’t let that confuse you. Also, there is armor and defense magic specialized for a specific element, which can weaken or even nullify an enemy’s attack magic. In addition to attack magic, there is recovery magic and higher magic. Higher magic increases another magic’s power. It is signified with an S, U, or L at the front, which stand for Super, Ultra, and Legendary respectively. Some magic has other versions like SS or an intentionally weaker version denoted C for Common. There is also Spread magic for covering a wide area or Rapid magic when you want to attack twice, but only experts can use those. And with the magic called S Ice, the S stands for Super, not Spread, so don’t get those confused.”

“Sorry, but it would really help if you could give us a demonstration.”

Mikoto wasn’t sure how to respond when she received a much longer answer than anticipated.

Patissiet spread her fingers out and raised the her soft palm overhead.

“For example, um, if I go like this…Blaze!”

The noise was quite loud for such a cute action.

Shokuhou was so shocked she fell onto her butt (with her legs parted cutely below her). It didn’t look like she could get back up. A fireball several meters across shot straight up from the elf’s small palm and burst in the sky. If a light car took that from the side, it would probably be sent rolling.

(Not bad.)

That was Mikoto’s honest opinion.

The standard, and thus weakest, form of Blaze was this powerful. To be blunt, it looked to be about as powerful as a shoulder-fired anti-tank rocket.

What would happen if that had Super or Ultra tacked onto the front?

If anyone could use that if they studied or trained enough, then at the very least, this magic seemed a lot more deadly than Academy City’s esper powers. …But what about at the very most?

“The foundation of magic is the incantation,” said the elf. “There are magic circles and staffs too, but those have simply replaced the incantation with a picture or 3D object. A lot like writing down a song or piece of music as a musical score. Every element begins with the incantation and countless modifications can be made from there. That is the basic idea.”

“Hm. Elements, huh? Sounds like people aren’t limited to one type of magic, then.”

“Also, magic produces its supernatural feats by consuming the SP in your body. So everyone has their own limit, but if you don’t level up and learn new magic, all you have is SP with nothing to harness it.”

“What’s SP?”

“Spiritual Power Resources, or SP for short.”

That explained what it was an abbreviation of, but it was still a mystery why this world used Japanese and English like it was normal. Did both worlds use the same languages, or was Mikoto speaking Japanese and the elf was hearing this world’s language? There were so many issues Mikoto was putting off until later.

“SP itself is not a rare power. It fully recovers after a night’s sleep without needing any kind of special potion.”

“Hm.”

(The basic forms of attack magic are fire, water, wind, and earth along with slash, pierce, impact, and constrict. But they can also be S, U, and L for Super, Ultra, and Legendary.)

None of it felt real, but Mikoto still aimed her palm to the side.

And with her head still tilted…

“S Wind!!”

“Bwahhhh!?”

A mass of compressed air the size of a wrecking ball shot straight out and barely avoided hitting Shokuhou, sending her flipping away and blowing her short skirt up to reveal her adult see-through panties. Her skirt looked just like an umbrella during a typhoon.

(Wow, I tried it and it worked.)

Mikoto was as surprised as anyone.

She of course hadn’t done any training at all. This world really did seem to operate on rules they weren’t familiar with.

…This also seemed dangerous. All you had to say were the English words “Blaze” or “Wind”, which seemed like something that could show up in everyday conversation or talking in your sleep. And it wasn’t clear why just adding “Super” was enough to increase the power. That had been powerful enough to kill someone. Instead of seeming convenient, it felt more concerning, like being handed a gun without a safety.

(Blaze and Wind aren’t English words we use all the time, but Water and Ice are common enough. That seems really dangerous to me!)

Asking for some mineral water could easily end up killing someone in this world.

But hadn’t the elf said “S Ice” or “U Ice” during her explanation without anything happening? Was there some kind of trigger like saying “Hey, Seri” or “Okay, Jungle”? Or could Patissiet not use those since she was only Level 11? More mysteries.

Shokuhou tearfully sat back up.

She was blushing bright as she protested.

“What do you think you’re doing, you barbari-”

“W-wow, that was incredible!!”

The elf leaned forward with eyes sparkling, cutting off a certain someone’s complaint. It wasn’t often you saw Shokuhou sit and bite her handkerchief because she couldn’t lash out at someone.

“I can’t believe you mastered the link between the magic incantation and the supernatural phenomenon so quickly! Lady Misaka, are you a reincarnation carrying the soul of the great Library Witch!?”

“Is everyone in this world dumb as a brick?” wondered an exasperated Mikoto.

Patissiet tilted her head.

“Hm, but this is odd. Warrior Women are supposed to be muscular fighters who swing around a heavy sword. They are a physical job that can’t use any magic.”

“You’re still calling me that!? Where do I go to change jobs!?”

“?”

“Oh, no. When a local looks confused by the very concept, I get the feeling there isn’t any way to change or reset your job here!!!”

But did that mean you were stuck with your job from birth? Maybe she needed to send her protests to Reincarnation Goddess Salinagaritina who had set things up here.

(But she did say ''changing things'' to give us overpowered parameters or skills would break the balance. You’re kidding, right? Does that mean it’s an indelible part of my soul that I’m a meathead Warrior Woman who can never use any kind of magic?)

That was a depressing discovery.

That said, magic.

It would be best if she avoided using it.

It was convenient, but she was afraid of accidentally triggering attack magic during conversation. And using magic as a Warrior Woman was apparently a bug in the first place.

Plus, she had apparently used some of her SP (whatever that was), but nothing felt different. She didn’t feel hungry or sleepy and she didn’t sense anything being sucked out of her. Instead of feeling lucky it didn’t cause pain, it was worrying, like the disconcerting movement of a silent organ. She didn’t want to find out she had unwittingly destroyed some of her brain cells or her luck.

Something else caught her attention too.

(Um, she said the magical elements are fire, water, wind, and earth and the physical elements are slash, pierce, impact, and constrict, so…)

“Wait, is there no lightning magic?”

She sent a crackle of electricity from her bangs and the elf’s eyes widened.

Apparently that was an unusual phenomenon even in this world of magic.

Which would mean…

(She said magic could be weakened or nullified with elemental defenses, but if there is no lightning element, do my attacks belong to a superior element? That is, are there no magical or physical defenses against them? Not even one?)

She grinned as understanding dawned on her.

Oh, so this world ''almost seemed designed specifically for Misaka Mikoto.