Needless to say, we didn't get much dry wood. We did have five peoples worth of manpower so we did get a lot of wood, but of course most of it was wet. Phil, being as experienced as he was since he was a merchant's son of course got mostly dry wood. I wasn't sure what type of life Ema and Ame lived but it seemed like they just grabbed whatever they saw seeing as they gathered the most wood with most of them being wet along with a few lucky dry ones. Jack... well he is a supposed rich kid so there wasn't much to expect. He gathered the least and all of them weren't good for fire starting.
I wasn't much better to be honest, but I did get the second most dry wood. I didn't live in a tent for years for nothing. It's just I wasn't used to gathering wood in a forest so I didn't get many good pieces. It's not like I'm that unskilled at finding wood after years in a tent. That had to be it...
By the time we had all gathered back around the wagon the sun was nearly gone. Ema and Ame were the last to come back with Ema chipper as ever but Ame visibly exhausted as she collapsed in the wagon. Phil was trying to get the fire started but it was difficult with cold wind blowing all around. Some sparks were made and it looked promising many times but it was never strong enough to make a full blown fire.
He went to ask his dad for help, but we could faintly hear his dad telling him to think and do it himself, otherwise he would never learn. We began walking back slowly deep in thought until his eyes lit up with another idea. "Hey Jack, you can use magic right? Doesn't look like I can get this fire started." Phil looked at Jack expectantly which much Jack avert his eyes.
"Well I can... But it's a little too strong..." Jack mumbled. It seemed like he really wanted to help, but couldn't bring himself to for some reason. We all wanted the warmth of the fire for the night so Phil kept encouraging him.
"That's good isn't it. Strong is exactly what we need. My small sparks couldn't start it so we need something stronger!"
"Yeah yeah do it Jack!" Ema chipped in. " Ame might have been able to help but she's a little worn out for some reason."
Jack turned towards me, almost begging me to disagree with them. He looked like just another boy who was out of his comfort zone but well... "Well I don't really want to be cold anymore either. It would be nice if you could help." I said with a smile. The light faded from his eyes at that moment. With a little more nagging from Phil, and agreement from the rest of us he made up his mind.
"Fine! But don't blame me for whatever happens! All of you take a step back." We walked a little bit further away but Jack yelled at us once again. "Ho even further! You know what? Just hide behind a tree." He was so insistent that we all ended up just doing what he told. Even Ema didnt argue or retort this time.
"Hey, hey Rui. What do you think he's gonna do?" Ema looked super excited at the idea of seeing Jack use magic. "And can use some magic too, but I really want to see what Jack is cooking up. He told us to go so far after all."
Looking back at the pile of wood, Jack was pacing back and forth, breathing in and out multiple times, then readying his staff before repeating it all over again. He was clearly scared of anxious about something. "I just want to keep warm for now, but I am a little excited. I've never seen anyone use magic before. What about you Phil?"
"Hmm? I haven't seen much magic either, but I heard from my dad before that it was awfully convenient so I wanted to see what it could do. If it doesn't turn out well then my dad can just make the fire. He told me to do it myself to learn, but if push comes to shove and I can't do it, he'll take over. It's not like her wants to be cold either."
It seemed like the fire was never a big issue to begin with and they just wanted to see how it worked close up. Hmm? Something struck me as a little odd. "Hey is magic that rare? Since you said you and your dad haven't seen it much. The stories I've read about adventurers always have magicians throwing magic around."
Ema as happy as ever jumped at the chance to answer the question. "Oooh, oooh, I can answer that! So magic isn't actually all that rare since everyone has mana right? But mana recovers pretty slowly so while adventurers can expend however much mana they want fighting monsters, they can't waste what they have on small everyday tasks you can do without magic." She paused for a moment looking like she was thinking hard about what to say next. I was honestly surprised how knowledgeable she was being.
"Oh yeah here's this example! So when you use magic, it's like you're using your own stamina to do something. So while you could say... use magic to make drinking water, you'll probably end up more thirsty in the end because you had to use your own energy to make it. At least that's what Ame told me!"
Ah. So that explains it. Phil nodded along silently until now before adding a more technical explanation. "Going back to the start, while everyone does have some mana, it usually is a small amount unless you were given a class with high mana growth rates. Ame probably explained it physically because well it was Ema she was talking to, but using mana causes more mental fatigue than physical fatigue. Of course there's also—"
It was a lengthy explanation, but it helped me understand much more about magic. It was more complicated than I imagined it to be. Essentially, because people have small amounts of mana, using most of it up to light a fire would leave you very exhausted. Unless you really trusted the people you were with, it wasn't something normal people did for their own safety. If Jack became exhausted after lighting the fire, he could be too exhausted to stop us from stealing his belongings and just leaving.
Besides that, mana was also very much like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it'll get. Using magic for everyday tasks like lighting a fire wouldn't put enough strain on your mana to be able to use stronger magic, but eventually your mana pool (the amount of total mana someone has) would get big enough to where you wouldn't feel very tired anymore. This explains why magic is very common among adventurers and their stories, but not elsewhere. It was because it was a profession that actively strained someone's mana and gave them enough Experience to grow. In normal life, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who was willing to exhaust themselves day after day just to eventually light a fire without feeling tired. Just some oil and flint was enough!
If I wanted to know more about magic I should probably ask Ame though. I wasn't sure how much of what we said was correct since none of us were actually magicians. She was still exhausted, physically, from following Ema around and was resting in the wagon.
"Shhh guys look! Jack's starting his magic!" We all looked out from behind the tree and saw Jack muttering under his breath and occasionally waving his staff around. He held his book in his other hand which opened by itself and flipped through it's pages. Soon the book game to a stop and small... dusts of light? — It was probably what mana looked like — started gathering at the tip of his staff.
With one final swing of his staff, he pointed it at the pile of wood and let out one last word.
BOOM!!!!
"Waaah!!" Ame screamed and leaped up in surprise, peeking her head out of the wagon only grow wide-eyed at the sight of a disaster. The first thing that reached her eyes was Jack standing unharmed in a crater, smoke and dust rising all around him. The second thing she noticed was the lack of snow in the area. The third thing that reached her was the distinct smell of burning and earth assaulting her nose.
There was rustling from all around. Birds began flying away, cawwing all the while. Nearby bushes started shaking as rabbits wanted to flee. In the far off distance, wolves could be heard howling. All of a sudden, the quiet, peaceful night had come alive with noise.
All of us stared in shock at Jack who just stood there unmoving, staring at the remains of the should-be campfire splinterred everywhere. Stepping out from behind the tree, my eyes widened when I saw shards of wood stabbing into the trunk. Looking a little closer at the wagon, the cloth covering it was shredded in places and splashes of ash gave it a makeover.
"Hey, what was that sound!?!?" From a little further away, Phil's dad came running over yelling and we all turned to look at him, heads empty. After seeing all of us safe he let out a sign and then took note of the situation. Ame was just as confused as he was meanwhile the rest of us couldn't help but guiltyly avert our eyes. Even Jack who was as still as a statue couldn't help it.
"So, care to explain this, kids?" One look at his eyes told us everything... we weren't getting out unscathed.