*>System Quest: Tame a powerful monster - Complete!*
*The hell?*
Had I even received such a quest?
*>System Message: This quest has been completed before being dispensed. "Hidden Quests" are not required to be found.*
*Huh.*
Though "dispensed" was a bit of an odd word choice, this gave me some valuable information.
*The list of quests is predetermined.*
If the exact list itself wasn't predetermined, it at least implied there was a fixed quest bank.
*System, how many quests are there in total?*
*...*
No response.
*System, how often are quests generated and/or dispensed?*
*...*
I sighed.
*Doesn't look like I'm getting any more responses...*
That aside, I had a new problem.
"I'm your master now?"
"Y E S."
"So... are you going to follow me around, or..."
"Y O U R , W I S H , I S , M Y , C O M M A N D ..."
"Okay, good. Let's heal her first, then we'll discuss the future."
My primary concern was that this thing would try to follow me around which would be problematic whenever I entered cities or settlements. However, if it would truly obey my word, I could just leave it sitting here forever.
*But now...*
"If you can measure Maryokku, can you tell me how much I'm putting in as I cast a spell?"
"E A S I L Y."
"Good. Now watch me," I said, turning to Hazel Blaze. "Blazel, tell me if it's getting too hot."
"That's... impossible..."
"We'll see about that."
*I've practiced this twice now. I got this.*
Just like I did in the carriage with Emma, and just like I did moments before, I channeled my imagination and consciousness into igniting a spark. I once again pictured the existence of a metaphysical superfluid in the atmosphere around us. A small flame sprouted in no time, and using this mysterious force circulating within me, it expanded into a raging blaze the size of my entire body.
Hazel Blaze's eyes widened in shock.
"Heh," I smirked. "Perhaps I should be the one named Blaze."
"M A S T E R , T H I S , E X C E E D S , 10.000 , M U R Y O K K U , P E R , S E C O N D ..."
"Hm... I see. If that's the case, let me know when I reach 7,000."
*It's Muryokku, not Maryokku? That's a bit strange, but what else can you expect from another world...*
Slowly, I reduced the amount of "muryokku" exiting my body through my finger.
"Mauve," I said, addressing the Obsidian Basilisk. "Your name's Mauve now. Tell me when I reach 10,000 maryokku/sec, 9000, 8000, and 7000."
"V E R Y , W E L L..."
To me, this was always one of the most interesting parts of learning precision skills.
What I called "precision" skills were unlike rote knowledge or memory, as they were skills that one manifested into the world with high degrees of, well, precision.
It wasn't like learning history or solving equations, but more like shooting top bins or balancing on a longboard.
The process of learning these skills was straightforward, but that didn't mean it was easy. Fortunately, much of it came down to mastering bodily control. The better you were at controlling your own body and mind, the faster you can learn such precision skills.
I didn't want to brag, but...
*You know what? I do want to brag. I'm very adroit at precision skills.*
These were among my favorite things in the world, party because their true extent could not be conveyed with words.
*It's hard to solve difficult problems, but it's easy to punch with the perfect technique.*
I knew not everyone felt this way, but perhaps this was because I wasn't very "smart" in the common sense?
*Oh well.*
"M A S T E R , Y O U , H A V E , R E A C H E D , 10.000 ..."
"Thanks, Mauve," I said, taking note of my current state.
*So this is what casting 10,000 Mk/s feels like.*
A flame the temperature of a campfire the size of my body burned from the tip of my finger. I ingrained the feeling of the rate of "muryokku" loss into my memory.
*If I estimate it like this...*
"M A S T E R , T H A T , I S , 9.000 ..."
"Haha, bingo."
It wasn't a gradual decrease, but rather a near-instant jump.
You see, if I could perfectly feel 10k mana/sec leave my body, then all I had to do was mentally calculate nine-tenths of it and project that instead.
In practice, this was infeasible. But as long as the phenomenon could easily be explained with words, I felt like I had an easier time accomplishing it.
"8.000 ... 7.000... M A S T E R , T H A T -"
"Yes, I know. It's a perfect 7k Mk/s. Now, tell me what to do with this flame," I asked Hazel Blaze.
I gently kicked her to prevent her from going catatonic again.
"I... Um... Use the Grimmia..."
"Like this? ... Ah, shi-"
*WHOOSH*
It all happened so fast.
The moment I turned around, the pile of Grimmia burst into flames.
How could I have been so stupid? I cancelled my flamethrower spell immediately, but damage had already been done.
"N- no...!"
Hazel Blaze nearly went into a seizure as she panicked.
Fortunately, Mauve's flames, despite being nearly invisible, were hundreds of times more deadly than these ones. So naturally, I threw myself onto them.
*Stop drop and roll, baby!*
I rolled around the pile of flaming Grimmia trying my hardest to smother all of it.
*You know what, this smells kinda nice.*
It didn't take long before all that remained was a bit of smoke and a few untouched strands of Grimmia.
"*Hic*- Why... What... waaaaaa..."
Hazel Blaze suddenly burst into tears, and I just stood there unable to stop them. She was just a planetary humanoid, so why did I feel so bad for her? Naturally, it was because I had made a promise to save her, and I was about to screw it all up.
I clenched my fist.
"Blazel," I said. "You're not going to die here. I'll figure something out."
But...
*Planetary humanoid?*
Had I just thought something strange?
*Meh, probably no big deal. In the meantime...*
"Blazel. Stop crying," I demanded.
"*Hic*- Grimmia... it's all gone... waaaaaaaaaaaa-"
I slapped her on the cheek.
"Wha- Why... waaaaaaaaaaaa-"
*SLAP*
"Stop crying."
"*Sniff*... What the..."
"Do you want to die?"
Hazel Blaze stared at me blankly with her crimson eyes. Tears stained her face, but no more came out.
"Tell me what the process is."
"..."
"How do I heal you, Blazel?"
"But-"
"Just TELL ME."
*CRACK*
"Eep!"
I punched the ground next to her easily creating a fist-sized crater. To me, the stone floor was softer than sand, so I could only wonder how soft a human head was. Regardless, the point was made. I could take her life any time I wanted - I didn't have the the proclivity to mess around.
"F- Fine! You need to... take some Grimmia and... crush it... feed it to me..."
I scraped together what was remaining of the intact Grimmia and showed it to her.
"Do you think this will be enough?"
Hazel Blaze carefully assessed the quantity before responding with a weak nod.
"Good," I said, crushing the leafy lavender-gray herbs with my fingers. After rolling it around between my hands for a bit, the stuff was as fine as dust. "Open up. Don't choke."
Hazel Blaze didn't hesitate to follow my orders this time, and I poured the powder directly into the back of her throat. I forcefully covered her mouth to ensure nothing came back up. She squirmed a bit, but in the end, step 1 was successful.
"Now what?"
"Um..."
I was getting more impatient by the second. Even after everything that happened so far, she still wanted to drag out the process.
*I'm seriously this close to snapping her neck.*
"Set me on fire!"
"Uh, what?"
Maybe I was too harsh on her. She must have been frightened by the look in my eyes or something... right?
"Just do it! I won't die."
"... Okay..."
This was a strange process to say the least, but I obliged. I once again started up my flamethrower spell, and a flame like one you'd get from a lighter sprouted from my fingertip.
"You said it needs to be 7,000 muryokku per second, right?"
Hazel Blaze nodded.
I expanded the fire to surround Hazel Blaze, making sure to keep the temperature slightly lower than earlier.
*I'd called her a little girl before, but is her body actually bigger than mine?*
It was strange, but calculating my exact usage of mana, or "muryokku" as these creatures called it, allowed me to get an exact measurement of her body size.
*Yeah, it's true. Hm. Maybe it's just me who's small.*
"This... is perfect," Hazel Blaze cooed. "It feels so nice..."
She closed her eyes peacefully.
"Is that so."
A flame of this temperature could have easily burned a normal human alive, but I digress.
Suddenly, her eyelids flew open and she flailed around. "Wait a minute... Grimmia!"
"What is it now?" I asked without breaking my spell.
"You need to burn me with Grimmia flames! A normal one won't work."
"Okay... How do I do that?"
"We need Grimmia..."
"..."
We both looked at the pile of jet-black ashes spilling from the obsidian geode-like rock.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I'M DEAD WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
Hazel Blaze's tears evaporated the second they left her eyes.
"Great."
*Think. You can do something. Emma said something like "Magic is the power to convert will into reality". The system told me that "Magic = imagine".*
This wasn't a lost cause. There had to be something I could do.
*What did the Grimmia smell like?*
When I was rolling around in it, I'd told myself that "it smelled nice".
*Is that how you do it?*
With all my focus and imagination, I tried to shoehorn that "nice" smell into the flames. However, nothing happened.
*Maybe I'm going about it the wrong way.*
Fire only smelled like something because of what it was burning. The way I was doing it, it was like trying to sprinkle a bonfire with an incorporeal perfume.
*I have to change the composition of the fire itself.*
This begged the question, what was Grimmia made of?
*Wait a minute.*
If I could just observe Grimmia being burnt, couldn't I just copy it?
"Blazel. Hope's not lost," I said.
I got as close as I could to her exposed stomach and ran my hand over it.
"Eh? Ehhhh????" Hazel Blaze flushed red and nearly had a seizure. I secured her with my grip, and her efforts to escape my grasp were futile. Even iron cuffs were no match for me.
It was time to perform a new type of magic I hadn't tried yet.
*X-ray vision.*
Most people might think that staring at girls with x-ray vision is inappropriate, but the pop culture version of x-ray vision was far removed from the real thing.
Real x-ray vision was...
*You know when you go to the doctor's? Yeah, it's just that.*
And, the funny thing was, someone here had already taught me how to use it.
I stared into Mauve's eyes.
Yes, my friend Mauve had been using ultraviolet-frequency electromagnetic radiation this entire time.