Chương 167: Chapter 157 - Spooky Baby Magic

Amber She couldn't let anyone know about this. At all costs, it needed to remain a secret. Amber sat propped against the pillows with the fourth book in the Advanced Magic Theory series resting open in front of her. She had finished it. All of it. From the second beginner book, she had learned how to deliberately filter mana without relying on a full spell to do it for her. That discovery had opened up an entirely new way for her to experiment. It had also resulted in a lot of sleep.

Apparently, draining your mana capacity completely to zero was the cure to insomnia. The first time she had done it, she hadn't even realized what was happening before waking up several hours later. After that, she'd learned the warning signs. Unfortunately, knowing the warning signs hadn't stopped her from doing it again. And again. Today's discovery had been worth it. This wasn't something she'd found written in any of the books.

Amber was familiar with all seven schools of magic now and had developed what she believed was a solid understanding of the theories surrounding each of them. She had read enough to recognize assumptions between different authors and enough contradictory information to realize that the people writing these books were just guessing half of the time. Most people who read them, probably treated them as gospel. Amber, not so much. There was too much that didn't quite fit. That didn't mean the books were useless.

Far from it. Some of the information had been incredible, and Amber was certain she already understood more about magical theory than the average illiterate mage who learned a handful of spells from someone else and spent the rest of their life throwing fireballs. Sorry, Ivy. No offense. Amber looked back down at the damaged page in front of her. Her discovery was simple enough to explain. Mana didn't have to be filtered. At least, not completely.

If these books genuinely represented the highest level of magical knowledge available, then what Amber had stumbled across might be enough to turn everything mages believed upside down. She still intended to filter mana normally. There was an obvious reason everyone did it. Filtered magic power was stable and designed to be used by the body. Raw mana very much wasn't. The first book she read, stating it was toxic wasn't far from the truth. It was more like…

Angry shards of glass floating through the world that could be used as a source for spells. Amber had gradually begun thinking of mana as something almost fluid. It was everywhere. Living creatures existed inside it constantly, but the mana didn't normally interact directly with their bodies. It surrounded them until a specific portion was drawn in and processed. Everyone focused on how much mana a person could absorb. Amber had started wondering why the mana needed to enter the body at all.

Her two passive abilities were her biggest clues about how mana could be used. Mana Manipulation. Chain Reaction Casting. Neither ability made much sense if all magic happened through a simple internal process. Amber had begun experimenting carefully. Or, at least, what she considered carefully. Her theory was that she could gather raw mana outside of her body and then use a small amount of already filtered magic power from within herself to interact with it. She figured this was what Chain Reaction Casting was.

It didn't have a description. Annoying. The goa was she would use the filtered magic power as the beginning of a reaction. If it worked the way Amber suspected, the amount of power involved in a spell would no longer be restricted entirely by how much mana her own body could process at one time. Her internal magic power could become the trigger rather than the fuel. The external mana would provide the rest. Amber had tested the idea with the smallest amount she could manage. She hadn't used an incantation.

She had simply gathered a tiny concentration of mana in front of her and pushed a trace amount of filtered magic power into it. The result had been immediate. A sphere formed above the book. Perfectly round. About the size of a quarter. Amber had stared at it. It wasn't glowing or some dept of the abyss. There actually hadn't been any dramatic magical effect surrounding it at all. It just sort of existed. The edge of the sphere touched the corner of the page. The paper disappeared.

It was like the mana was shredding existence where it was touching. For one horrible second, she thought she had accidentally created some version of void magic but she knew enough by now to rule it out. Void magic was technically part of the spatial school. It manipulated space itself and could create distortions or openings depending on how it was used. It was also super lame. In anime or Isekai books if the creator wasn't being particularly creative they would slap down the word void and call it good.

This wasn't doing void magic. There was no opening to another side. The material simply ceased to be where the raw mana touched it. Amber watched the sphere drift against another tiny section of the page. More paper disappeared. What exactly was it doing!? Destroying matter? Breaking it apart? Converting it? Removing it somehow? Amber didn't actually have the answer to that. The sphere remained stable for only a few seconds before collapsing.

When it disappeared, a perfectly curved hole remained in the corner of the book. Amber stared at the damage. Then she smiled. She had done something new that she was pretty sure no one else was doing. Whatever it was, none of the books had described it. Amber had exactly enough time to enjoy the discovery before the exhaustion hit her. Her body tipped sideways into the pillows. Amber was unconscious before her head finished settling into the bedding.

"Amber." Her dad called to her quietly. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. Amber slowly opened her eyes and found his bearded face hovering about a foot away. It took her a moment to remember where she was before recognition pushed the lingering sleep away.

"Dada!" she said excitedly. She leaned forward and mashed her face into his beard. Amber could say Dad now. It was one of the easier words she'd managed to figure out with the use of her stupid baby tongue, but Dewey always seemed much happier when Dada came out of the mouth of his baby girl. So Dada it was.

"Hi, baby girl. You're working hard. I can tell. Studying until you fall asleep. Good girl."

"Yah," Amber replied loudly. She pointed toward the books surrounding her.

"Mana feeota." Then she dramatically collapsed sideways into the pillows. Dewey nodded with the solemn expression of a man pretending he understood exactly what his four-and-a-half-month-old daughter had just told him.

"Bad news, baby girl. Littlest Niece says there are no books after that last one I got you." Amber pushed herself upright. A frustrated groan escaped her.

"Thas ah? But theh has ta be moah. It neva espains pocess foh convuht wisdom ta mana." Dewey stared at her.

"I, um…" His attention moved around the room. Amber had accumulated a considerable collection over the last two months. Five books from the Basic Magic Theory series were stacked near the bed. Beside those were both volumes of Magic Theory for Apprentices. She had flown through those seven quickly. The five books from the Intermediate Magic Theory series had taken longer. Amber had slowed down once the material became more complicated, sometimes going back several chapters before continuing.

Now all four volumes of Advanced Magic Theory were sitting among the others.

"Baby girl, this is a lot of books." Amber frowned. She had reached the end of what Chelsea could find that was actually helpful. Sure the library had thousands upon thousands of books on magic but these were the ones that were recommended. The others were volumes discussing specific spells in great detail. Something for her to worry about at another time. There were still entire parts of magic the books barely addressed.

Worse, some of the explanations simply ended once the authors reached something they didn't understand. Amber had questions. A lot of questions. Then she remembered what she'd discovered before passing out. Her frustration disappeared.

"I do new madic." Amber's eyes widened. She had just said that out loud.

"No teo mama." Dewey's mouth pulled into a smirk.

"Why can't I tell Mama?" Amber glanced toward the doorway. Fiona wasn't there. Good.

"I make new madic. Nevah done befoah. Weo… nah in boos… boos…" She grumbled, trying to say books.

"Nah in boos ah lease." She said with a shrug.

"Really?" he asked with surprise. Amber gave him a smirk of her own. She had his attention now.

"Teo mama? No teo mama? I show if no teo mama." Dewey thought about it for several seconds.

"What about Littlest Niece?" Amber considered that. Chelsea was different. Chelsea understood magic well enough that she wasn't going to confiscate every book Amber owned because her baby had discovered something she wasn't supposed to.

"You can teo Empiss." Amber gave a firm, decisive nod.

"Then I won't tell Mama. Show me the new magic." Amber straightened.

"Bing me someting OK bake." Dewey furrowed his brow.

"To bake?"

"Buh dake." Amber slowed the sounds and tried to force her mouth to cooperate. The stupid R still refused to work properly. A frustrated growl escaped her.

"Bake. Bake." She raised both hands and mimed snapping something between them. Recognition finally dawned on Dewey's face.

"Oh, break. Sure." He looked around the room. Amber did the same. She needed something Fiona wouldn't care about. Preferably something that wasn't part of a very expensive collection of magic textbooks. She would need to apologize to Chelsea for damaging the textbook. Dewey pointed toward a woven basket sitting on the desk.

"This okay?"

"Yah!" He crossed the room and emptied the fruit from the basket onto the desk before bringing it over. Amber reached for it. The moment Dewey let go, the basket dropped from her hands and landed on the bedding. Amber stared down at it. That was heavier than she'd expected. Or she was just incredibly weak. Probably both. She repositioned herself and placed her hands near the basket.

"K, wats. I gadder mana in bah." Amber slowly circled her hands around it. Creating the ball. She activated Mana Manipulation. The mana surrounding the basket responded. She could feel it now. That was another thing the books hadn't explained. Mana wasn't something she could physically touch, but Mana Manipulation allowed her to gather it instead of waiting for her body to absorb whatever happened to pass through it. Amber concentrated. More mana collected around the basket.

The amount was far greater than what she'd used during her first experiment. Dewey couldn't see it, but Amber knew it was there. She stopped adding more. There was no reason to get stupid about this.

"Den feotuh diffint mana." Amber focused inward. This was the part she had figured out after reading the advanced books. She spoke the new incantation she'd created and forced a small amount of mana through the normal filtration process. Magic power formed inside her.

"Den use to feotuh mana bah." She pushed that filtered magic power outward into the ball. It touched the collected mana. The reaction happened instantly. Amber felt the surrounding energy collapse inward until a perfectly round sphere formed beside the basket. This one was roughly the size of a half dollar. Dewey's eyes went wide. Amber looked up at him. His entire attention had locked onto the tiny sphere. She looked back down and the sphere was already gone.

A perfectly smooth section had vanished from the basket's side, leaving a curved hole through the woven material. There were no broken fibers around the edge and no debris scattered across the bedding. The missing portion simply wasn't there anymore. Amber stared at it with satisfaction. She had reproduced it. That meant the first time hadn't been an accident. Then came the annoying part. Her body suddenly became heavy. The room blurred slightly as the exhaustion hit all at once.

"I seep now." Amber felt herself falling backward. The pillows caught her before Dewey could. Her eyes closed against her will.

"Amber." That was a different voice. Amber slowly came back to consciousness. Her eyes cracked open, and the first thing she saw was a bright glow directly in front of her. She blinked several times until Chelsea came into focus.

"Toes?" Chelsea stared at her.

"Toes? Really? Toes is the best you can do for my name?" Amber pushed herself upright. Her arms wobbled slightly from the effort, but she managed to settle into a sitting position against the pillows.

"Not gonna say Empiss. Das we-uhd."

"Better than Toes." They both laughed. Amber was getting much better at speaking, but some sounds were still completely beyond her. Chelsea required too many of them. Whoever created the "Ch" sound could rot in hell. Chelsea moved closer to the bed and looked over the books scattered around Amber.

"So my uncle tells me you are practicing new magic?" she asked.

"Yeah. Who wote dose boo's?"

"The more elementary editions, I have no clue. I do know the mage who wrote the advanced books. He's the guy who summoned me here. His name is Alexi out of the Nordrak Kingdom."

"Alesi," Amber repeated carefully.

"He good?"

"As far as I know, one of the best. He lent me those books. He was excited that we had someone advanced enough to understand them." Amber's eyes widened.

"Oh! So not Toes boo's."

"No. Not my books, why? Did you spit up on one?"

"Funny! Baby doke. Hahaha. No." Chelsea laughed. Amber glanced toward the stack of books before looking back at her.

"I might a deweted a bit." Chelsea's smile faded.

"You deleted a part of the book? Like the words?"

"No. Da book." Chelsea stared at her. Amber decided she really didn't want to attempt that explanation right now. Talking was exhausting enough. Magical theory? Forget about that shit. She looked around the room.

"Whaya Dad?"

"He went to grab some food. You've been asleep for an hour." Amber nodded slowly.

"Tahking is hod. He espain when back." Chelsea's expression softened.

"Oh gods, you are so cute. You're what, six months old now?"

"Ah-most fife and I'm uh madicow deenis!" Chelsea furrowed her brow.

"Denis? That anything like a penis?" Amber glared at her.

"Sut up, Toes. You oh-fin Empiss. You donno abow penis." She started giggling before she even finished. Chelsea joined her laughter.

"Speaking of which, you do remember your sister Ashleigh?" Amber's amusement faltered as Chelsea continued with the same smirk that usually meant something terrible was about to leave her mouth.

"She can change gender at will. I know all about flavor and textu…"

"Sut up, sut up, sut up!" Amber slapped both hands over her ears. Chelsea burst out laughing. A second laugh joined hers from farther inside the room. Amber looked over and discovered Sir Liam standing nearby. She hadn't even noticed him. The Forgotten Sir Liam was laughing at her too. Amber kept her hands firmly over her ears. Some things didn't need to be discussed with family.