Get off work and become a magical girl

Chapter 209: Ritual
"Sorry, I don't quite understand."

Delphinium's hand moved away from the cup and placed it aside naturally. Her eyes also shifted to the side as her hand moved: "The meaning of this sentence is a bit too general."

The words came out of his mouth, but it seemed that they did not reach the other party, because Xia Liang was still just looking at Cuique and did not explain the meaning of his previous words.

This state did not last long, but in Delphinium's perception it seemed like every second was a year, and even the action of blinking seemed extremely long.

Then, with a "puchi" sound, Xia Liang covered his mouth and laughed.

"Why are you so nervous? The atmosphere is so weird."

She laughed for a while, then stood up and waved her hand: "Nothing special, I just have some ideas, about improving my strength."

"Look, haven't I recently reached the Huaye level? Young senior, you have already briefly explained some basic knowledge to me before. I think the time is ripe now, isn't it time to..."

"Do you want to officially start learning the technique?"

After blinking, Delphinium gradually came to its senses: "So that's why you come to see me at this hour?"

"……probably."

The smile faded slightly, but Xia Liang still nodded: "After all, the progress of the increase in magic power should not be enough for me to advance to the lei level in a short time. If I want to improve my combat ability, the technique is the best way."

"Improve combat capability?"

Upon hearing this, Cuiqiao pondered for a moment and said, "When you were promoted before, I should have told you that if you want to maintain the fastest promotion speed, it is best to just dabble in the techniques and learn a few necessary practical methods. Otherwise, studying the techniques will take up a lot of your practice time, causing your promotion speed to slow down."

"Yeah, I know." Xia Liang responded softly.

"So, when you say 'I want to learn the technique', to what extent do you want to learn it?"

Kuizi raised her eyes and asked, "Is it 'learning some simple techniques' to improve my ability to deal with actual combat; or is it 'taking the technique as the main research direction in the future' and making the technique my main way of fighting?"

"At the moment... it should be the first one, right?"

Xia Liang tapped his chin: "But I'm not sure, because I don't know how talented I am in the field of magic. If I'm sure I have a good talent, it wouldn't be a bad idea to go a little deeper?"

“It’s a very sensible choice.”

Delphinium nodded: "Many magical girls will understand the spell as the 'magic' in fairy tales, and think that after becoming a magical girl, mastering a variety of 'magic' is the right way. However, they don't know that this actually deviates from the essence of the magical girl's ability."

"In any case, the most important thing for a magical girl is her true self, that is, her magic power. The technique is just a 'tool', just a 'weapon'. Just like the fighting skills of ordinary people in hand-to-hand combat, no matter how superb the skills are, when faced with a huge physical gap, it is like a gnat trying to shake a tree, and it will not have a decisive effect."

She continued to explain: "Of course, because of this understanding, I did not study the technique in depth. You can think that this is just a conclusion drawn by an outsider out of ignorance, and there is nothing wrong with it."

"So, young senior, you don't actually recommend that I study the techniques too much?" Xia Liang asked.

"As you said yourself, it all depends on your talent. If you have an outstanding talent for spells, and even if studying spells is more effective than practicing magic, then you can still choose that path."

While saying this, Kuizi paused and added: "Or, if you say that your interest lies in the technique, then I won't stop you..."

"No, at least not right now."

Xia Liang waved his hand again: "Anyway, I already know it. Little senior, you just want to tell me not to neglect my magic training, right? Don't worry, I won't forget it."

Although Xia Liang's words exposed her intentions, Cuique didn't think there was anything wrong with it. She just leaned back slightly, leaning on the back of the chair, as if thinking about something.

After hesitating for a moment, she seemed to have made a decision and spoke again: "In this case, let me ask you, I say I will teach you the technique now - are you willing?"

Although it was Xia Liang who came over on his own initiative, it was already very late. It would be eleven o'clock in a little while. If he started explaining the composition of the ritual now, both of them would probably have to stay up very late before they could go to bed.

She herself didn't care about it - after all, the paperwork had been almost done, and staying up late was normal for her. But Xia Liang was still a child after all, and sleeping too late was not good for her health or studies.

"sure."

However, I don't know whether he hadn't considered it or didn't care at all. Xia Liang himself seemed to have nodded calmly without any thought: "After all, there is not much time left, right? The competition with those people in Bai'an City."

"…I'm sorry for assigning you this kind of mission without your permission."

"It doesn't matter. Senior and Ms. Aso must have their own considerations. I knew it from the beginning."

Xia Liang chuckled: "Rather, it's because I'm very motivated about this matter. Whether it's the competition or the next assessment, I want to win, so I came to you."

"The next assessment..."

Hearing this, Kuizi couldn't help but raise an eyebrow: "Can I understand this sentence as 'I have decided to take the test'?"

She didn't expect that the first person to express his opinion to her about this matter was Xia Liang.

After all, both Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan seemed to be more impatient. Whether they "want to go" or "don't want to go", it should be the two children who expressed it first.

As for Xia Liang, this child obviously thinks more about various things, and her progress in magic training is also very smooth. Judging from the current situation, she does not need to be in a hurry to obtain a small qualification certification card.

"Of course. After all, only when you get the certification card can you be considered to be the beginning of 'standing on your own feet', right?"

Xia Liang tilted her head and said, "I have already become a magical girl. If that is the case, I must aim to do better. There is no reason to stop now."

"But next year's assessment will be very dangerous compared to previous years..." Delphinium subconsciously tapped the table with her fingertips again.

"No matter how dangerous it is, it is held under the supervision of the Magic Kingdom and under the protection of many examiners, right?" Xia Liang asked back: "In other words, no matter how dangerous it is, there will be someone responsible for the bottom line, right?" "That's right in theory, but there may be accidents after all."

"It's just an accident after all. No matter what, it's safer than facing a real crisis."

Xia Liang responded seriously: "Maybe you think I am taking this for granted, but I think if we don't even dare to go to this heavily protected 'simulated great beast disaster', won't we be even more at a loss when facing a real disaster?"

"You may not know the extent of the Great Beast Disaster." Delphinium tapped the table, frowning slightly: "Even if it is just a simulation, it should not be underestimated."

"But it's just a simulation after all, right?"

Xia Liang's lips curled up slightly: "If we encounter a real beast disaster in the future, will the magical girl who has experienced the simulation be better able to adapt, or will the magical girl who encounters it for the first time perform better? There is no doubt that it will be the former, right?"

It is simply sophistry. It sounds really strange to throw yourself into a crisis that can be avoided instinctively in order to rehearse a major crisis that is unlikely to happen.

Delphinium really wanted to say this, but she had no way to refute it - because when she looked deep in her heart, she had similar thoughts.

If her subjective inclination was more to criticize and reject the content of the assessment when she first learned about it, then after calming down for a few days, she actually had a better understanding of the content of this assessment.

No matter how worried she was about the children's safety, no matter how uneasy she was about it, the rationality in her heart told her that what Xia Liang said was right.

If she really didn't want her juniors to participate, she could just find an excuse to forbid them to go. She didn't even need an excuse. There was no need to give an excuse like "respecting free choice" like she was doing now.

The reason she was so entangled was that her rationality could not overcome her sensibility, and her sensibility could not completely overwhelm her rationality. To be honest, even she herself felt that her series of decisions were all upside down and had no normal logic at all.

"Besides, you will go there yourself, young senior, right?"

Xia Liang, as if he could see through Cui Que's thoughts, leaned forward slightly, with some inexplicable emotion flashing in his misty eyes: "Young senior, you have gone, do I have any reason not to go? I believe in you from the bottom of my heart."

The emotion in the girl's eyes made Delphinium unable to help but look away once again.

She had no way to respond to this emotion, and perhaps the best way was to play dumb.

"...Since you have made your decision, it is getting late, so let's talk about the technique quickly."

After somewhat awkwardly changing the previous topic, Kuei-chih spoke in a hoarse voice, "I don't know many techniques myself, so I will start by teaching you the simplest, and most practical, techniques."

"Young senior, you are so cunning." Xia Liang narrowed his eyes with some dissatisfaction.

"The first technique is one you should have come into contact with many times before. It can be said to be the most basic of all techniques and the one that most significantly improves the combat capabilities of magical girls - the magic barrier."

Cuiqiao pretended not to notice Xia Liang's little emotion, and continued to tilt her head and said calmly: "Using the magic barrier can block the opponent's magic attack and reserve a better position for yourself. At the same time, the magic barrier also has many advanced and variant forms. When you have mastered the study of this technique, whether it is the attack of the magic suit, the attack of the technique, or even the nest of the remnant beast, it can be blocked to a certain extent."

"For most magical girls, mastering the technique is also an important lesson to make up for their own shortcomings - because not all magical girls' magic costumes can provide very comprehensive capabilities. Some lack offensive means, while others lack defensive capabilities. The magic barrier is crucial for those magical girls whose magic costumes cannot provide protection."

Raising her hand, Cuique placed her palm in front of Xia Liang, and then, from her cuffs, a string of tiny, rune-like magic condensates emerged. After being arranged neatly in the palm of her palm as if being controlled, they suddenly burst into light.

Almost at the same time as the light burst out, a barrier invisible to the naked eye suddenly appeared around the Delphinium, presenting an arc-shaped appearance, separating it from Xia Liang.

"This is the process of the formation of the magic barrier. You must have seen it before. However, in actual combat, its formation will be much faster than before."

Maintaining the magic barrier around her, Kuei-Ching said calmly, "I just slowed down the entire process of the spell. Can you see what the most critical part is?"

"The most crucial part..."

Xia Liang blinked his eyes: "Is it the kind of magic flow that looks weird?"

"A strange flow of magic?"

Delphinium twitched her lips when she heard that, but soon regained her composure: "That's not wrong, but I should have mentioned before that this kind of magic flow has its own name, which we usually call 'rune'. And the one used by magical girls in rituals is generally called 'Favo Rune'."

"The Favor Rune is the basic unit that makes up the spell. We carve the magic power into the shape of the rune, and then arrange and combine these runes to guide the flow of our magic power, thus forming the spell."

"In other words, the Favor Rune can be understood as the text of a spell. After we use the runes to piece together the name of a spell, all the magic power we use afterwards will be injected into this spell until we activate the runes to activate the spell, or break up the runes to stop it."

"I don't quite understand." Xia Liang said bluntly.

"I don't understand... Then just understand the Favor Rune as a foreign language."

Delphinium did not find this strange: "Just like when you learn a foreign language, you need to master the letters first, then the words, and finally learn how to spell them into sentences. Favor Runes are a language of the magic kingdom. Runes are the letters of a foreign language. You need to learn how to spell words with them, and high-level spells are equivalent to sentences, which are a combination of a large number of words."

As she said this, Delphinium took the initiative to disperse the surrounding barriers, and once again gathered the runes in her hands, arranging them neatly: "Just like now, the structure formed by these runes represents the meaning of 'barrier'."

"Eh..." Xia Liang looked at the rune in Cuiqiao's hand and uttered a meaningless sigh.

"However, just arranging the runes does not actually complete the ritual. It can even be said that the ritual is only half completed."

Delphinium suddenly said, "If we don't proceed to the next step, the runes will just be neatly arranged, fancy-looking magical structures, without any practical significance."

"Obviously, the Favor Rune is not the spell itself. It is just a command or a key for us to use the spell. In other words, until we have constructed the rune, none of the mana consumed has been used in the spell."

"In order to turn the key into a spell and make the order a reality, what we need to do in the end is very simple."

As she spoke, the Favor runes on the palm of Delphinium's hand gradually glowed: "Inject magic power and make these runes come alive."

(End of this chapter)