Boosted Continuation – A new world

Mira was still training Anna to learn how to better read the magic and power levels around her in preparation for making her own biome in Sophia’s domain. Even though the teal fox had a rather playful way of teaching her, the princess still made great progress and showed great potential on a level that even impressed the overseer.

“You’re doing remarkably well!” The two were still in the all-white dome, and Mira had nothing but praise for the princess.

“Thank you!” Anna seemed proud of herself, too. “That being said, my body is really confused! Exhausted in one moment after I released my magic and then feeling better than new immediately after when you reset my authority.”

“Sorry about that.” The overseer scratched her cheek. "A little warning on that, too, you’ll be feeling rather sore tomorrow. It's just like an incredible exercise for your body.”

“Ha.” She paused for a moment. “Well, I can deal with that much after having learned so much!”

“That’s the spirit.”

“That being said, the more magic there is around me, the harder it becomes to feel the exact amount. Is there anything I can do about that?”

“That’s a hard one.” Mira tilted her head. “Sophia also still has that issue even though she can see magic. At some point, it becomes so dense that it’s quite complicated to reliably tell the quantity of particles.”

“I mean, if even Sophia can’t do it, I’m happy enough!” As the blonde was the benchmark for her, Anna wasn’t upset in the slightest.

“Also, to be fair, you managed to sense up to 150 times your own authority in the area around you. I doubt there will be many opportunities, at least in the near future, where you’d need to be able to feel more.”

“That is true.” The princess nodded. “On top of that, it’s all contained inside this small dome. If I want to make my own biome, it will spread way further, and it will take forever to reach this density, right?"

“Correct.” Mira smiled at her. “If you’re able to amass this much environmental magic in a bigger area, you could feasibly create something on the level of Sophia’s cherry blossom forest.”

“Seriously?!” She got loud.

“If you spread it out enough, maybe not quite the same diameter, but I don’t see why not.”

“Let's go!” It was enough for the tiger to get even more excited.

“Do you want to guess how much magic there is around us now?” With a snap of her finger, the overseer’s expression turned cheeky.

“Yes!”

“Alright, how much is it?”

“No, that was my answer.” Anna shook her head. "How much; and my answer is yes.” She stared right at her. "This is clearly some four-digit or higher shenanigans you're showing me right now. No way I could ever make an educated guess here!”

“You get some bonus points for at least noticing the rough idea here. I liked the sass, too.” The teal fox gave her another thumbs-up. “Okay, let’s get rid of this dome to try a different approach and see when you can differentiate between magic levels." Saying so, she snapped her fingers again, which caused the all-white walls to disappear, and the green plain below their feet from before reappeared, as well.

“Okay?” The princess looked confused.

“The total amount of ambient magic will stay the same, but I ordered it to disperse in the area. I want you to constantly feel it and tell me once the density of it becomes thin enough for you to put it in a number based on your own authority.”

“So, basically, a reverse of what we’ve been doing before? Steadily increasing the magic to the point where it becomes too much for me?” Anna tilted her head.

“Close enough.” She nodded.

“Alright!” Nodding once, the princess then closed her eyes and began to concentrate on her surroundings to better feel the magic all around her.

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Around 15 minutes had passed since Mira removed the dome around them and had tasked the princess to feel the magic around them go down in density.

“How is it going?” The fox got curious about her progress.

“I think I’m getting there!” Anna nodded a few times. “The feeling is getting clearer! It seems around 200 times my power, but with each passing second, it's getting lower, and I can sense it better!” She closed her eyes for a moment. “I’m pretty confident in saying it’s about 175 now!”

"Oho, you even squeezed out an improvement over earlier, not bad!” Mira smiled at her. "There really is something about tigers being more sensitive to magic, after all."

“Mother mentioned that she’s good at sensing the powers of others, but it’s nowhere near this level! Well, I think, at least!”

“She has nowhere near your current authority, either.” She shook her head. “It gets amplified by that.”

“Ohh, I see!” The tiger understood the connection. “Wait, so if my authority grows, if that’s possible, my ability to sense magic gets better, too?”

“With a bit more training alongside it, yes.” Mira nodded.

“That’s so cool!”

"It's lovely to see how much all of this excites you~." The overseer liked how invested Anna was in the topic.

“Of course!”

“Anyway, shall we take a break for the time being? I’d say you earned it.”

“YES!” The princess liked the idea. “My body yearns for a comfy sofa!”

“The exhaustion from the training is setting in, huh? Again, look forward to tomorrow. You’ll feel it in every fiber of your being.”

“…”

“Okay, let’s relax for a bit!” Smiling at the tiger with the complicated expression, Mira snapped her fingers again, and the two instantly disappeared from the plain. They suddenly found themselves in the living room of the overseer's cottage.

“You sure know how to brag, don’t you?” Anna just looked at her. “That was awesome, though!”

“Ahaha.” Mira scratched her cheek. “With great power comes great need to show off.”

“Is that why Sophia always wants to be in the center of attention?!” Everything suddenly made sense for the princess.

“No, I think that’s just who she is.” The teal fox shook her head. “I can’t imagine her not being in the middle of everything regardless of her powers.”

“Fair enough.” Anna nodded. “She probably would try even harder to make up for it.”

“True.” Mira thought so, too.

Having agreed that there’s no possible constellation where their favorite blonde would ever not be in the center of attention, Mira served something to drink before the two got comfortable on the sofas while chatting some more.

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“By the way, I’m still not quite done about those crystals that store magic.” Anna came back to the very first topic she had and the reason why she visited the overseer. “Also, thank you very much for the training! I learned so much!”

“Even though you have a better alternative now?” The teal fox tilted her head. “You’re very welcome, too~.”

“No, I’m generally speaking here.” She shook her head. “For my biome, I’ll definitely use what I just learned.”

“Then, what do you mean?”

“Can those crystals be used in the regular world outside those domains you and Sophia have?”

“They can.” Mira nodded. “They’re incredibly rare, though. After all, they usually form in areas with high exposure to magic in the first place. Outside of our domains, magic tends to be spread out equally. There shouldn’t be more than the ones below Sophia’s cherry blossom forest, either, so I doubt she’d like to part with it.”

“Ahh, I see.” The tiger nodded. “Wait, incredibly rare doesn’t mean nonexistent, right?”

“Correct.” The overseer smiled at her. “There are around five places on the entirety of the beastfolk continent where you could find them. Three of them are in hard-to-find underground caves. One spot is at the bottom of a massive lake, though the last one is somewhat accessible in a giant crater, so there’s that.”

“That is incredibly rare!”

“If not for you, what do you plan to do with the crystals in the regular world?” Mira got curious about her motivation.

“For my people!” Anna entered princess mode. “I feel like those would be incredibly helpful for a variety of things! Especially for people with magic powers on the low side that have to rely on others! They could save up whatever magic they have left at the end of the day and use it in time when it's needed. With small crystals, there would be little to no danger, either, because even if the regular folk, who aren't gifted or have been boosted, or whatever like Sophia did for me, even saving up a week’s worth of magic is nothing in the grand scheme of things. It would make all sorts of convenient things possible, though!”

“That’s a tiger for you!” The teal fox seemed impressed. “Always thinking about the others~.”

“Thank you very much!” It was a compliment for her.

“By the way, those crystals are part of the same family as the heating ore you use for your stoves or the light stones that are used in the streetlamps. You power them with your internal magic, and those then slowly radiate warmth or light.”

"Ohh!" Anna's eyes started sparkling. "That means it really could be used by everyone after a bit of training. The scarcity issue aside.”

“It’s a lot more dangerous, too. After all, with those fixed elements, the result will always be the same. You can’t oversaturate it, either. With the unattuned crystals, people could forget how much they charged or misinterpret the glow level and accidentally burn down their house when activating it with something fire-related.”

“Ah.” The princess hadn’t thought about that part. “Well, you have a point there. Wait a moment!” She suddenly got loud.

“Yes?” Mira tilted her head.

“There’s a mineral that stores and emits pure magic. There's one that emits heat, one that radiates light..."

“That’s how it is.” She nodded.

“There has to be others, right?!” The tiger got excited again. “Like something that spews out water when magic is put into it! Or wind!”

“Wouldn’t that be something~?” The overseer reacted with nothing more than a cheeky grin.

“That’s 100% a yes!” Anna had only one explanation for Mira’s expression. “Let’s go! That actually would be even handier! So many quality-of-life things that could be done with those! I have to talk with Sophia about those!”

“You’d have to find them, too.” The overseer found a flaw in her plan. “If those exist, I mean, of course.”

“Minor details!” The princess was too fired up to care.

Once she was set on the topic and felt the need to discuss it with her fellow tiger, Anna thanked the teal fox for the training again before heading back to the cottage.