Everyone Else Has a System

I observed her curious face and just gave her a mysterious smile before speaking,"who knows?" as I then moved towards the kitchen as she kept looking at me without any change in her expression.

Inside the kitchen, I cooked some meat jerky along with other similar dishes and brought it out and served it on the dinner table as I called out to her, "Dinner is ready!" and she responded from her research room,"coming in 5."

'Why does it feel like we are husband and wife?' I kinda wondered at the awkward stance I was in, but oh well, I don't think there is anything to worry about here.

A few minutes later, I saw her coming downstairs from the research room with the same smile she always had whenever she comes for dinner.

We sat at the table, said our prayers, and finally we began eating the food. With every bite she took, she had a blissful expression on her face and I could only chuckle a little at her reaction that hadn't changed one bit from the reaction she gave on day one.

"So, did you find anything?" I asked as I initiated the topic of the research on the various elements present in this planet Vermillion and she, hearing my words, looked at me as she swallowed the food all at once.

Then she nodded with a thoughtful expression before speaking,"I actually did find something this time."

I could see her mystifying look and I couldn't help but get curious too as I asked,"Oh! Let's hear it then, what did you find?" and she nods at me as she first questions,

"Do you remember the theory you hypothesized when you first came here?"

I recall the theory I told her when I first came to her home; it was a simple but quite a solid theory.

There are elemental energies present in this world, which are normally termed as mana, which include Water, Fire, Earth, Air, Ice, etc. Under normal conditions these are readily interconvertible, though the process differs.

Except that the mana which people use here is actually infected with some parasites that live off of the mana of the people. These parasites eat up mana and release even more mana of the same type, or perhaps not more, but same.

There is one known con and one known pro about this situation.

The con is that a person can't change from one element to another because it might kill the parasites and not only that but also the parasites readily consume the mana of the person if that person tries to use any other element. Hence, the premature tiredness and mana exhaustion when Ariel did what I told her to do, that is to use another form of energy as if it is her own.

The pro is that, since those parasites release mana readily, the amount of mana one can use is generally more than what it normally should be. All the more, since using the parasite generated mana can make up for the loss of mana if used the right way.

Ariel and I, carried out many experiments and found out that the theory still holds true, howbeit, without a definitive proof, no matter what we do it will still be guesswork, and we can't be hundred percent sure.

"Today, I tried forcing mana of the opposite nature into the parasites. Normally that shouldn't be possible, but with your artefacts, I was able to pull off something," Ariel spoke as she took another bite from the steak and then continued under my constant gaze,

"Actually, I tried various things, first to remove the air and to do the experiment, the other was to forcefully remove the mana in which they were surviving. There were other conditions too, but directly getting to the point, it worked."

As she finished her words, I could only look at her with my mouth slightly open as I asked her to reassure myself,"it what?"

She smiled again as she spoke,"It worked. As long as you remove the already present energy from the place, you can use the other element to kill the parasites and then use the desired energy."

And then I saw tiny icicles floating all around her before they slowly vanished into thin air as her smile grew even more.

I could only look blankly at her, as I couldn't help but praise her as,"that is… really… something." She nods at me and I couldn't help but ask again,

"How did you remove all the mana from here?"

While the other processes were cost effective, I don't think removing the mana of the place is an easy task. It would be no short of a miracle to actually remove all the mana present in a room, and only one particular mana at a time at that.

She looked at me with another mysterious smile as she devoured her food and then said,"Leranati," and I felt like such an idiot for a moment to actually forget about that. Leranati, the metal that can absorb the magic of this place… but wait!

"Doesn't Leranati absorb all of the magic it can? How did you pull it… like… how were you able to use your magic in the presence of Leranati? And that fire magic from the artefact wasn't an exception to Leranati's properties," I asked with a really puzzled yet curious mind as I put my hand on my chin as I pondered over that.

She then makes a slightly confused expression before speaking,"I don't know what you know about Leranati, but if you fill it with a particular amount of mana, it won't absorb any more mana of that type. I actually filled it with all the other mana except water mana to do the experiment."

I just kept gazing at her and she really had a confused expression and I could only cough a little before speaking,"there are areas in which I lack knowledge too."

At that, she just shook her head as she spoke,"it is one of the most abused properties of Leranati, as it helps in maintaining your own power while weakening your enemies' power. If you are going to lie about something this simple, you should just keep quiet," before standing up from there and then moving away from the table.

'She is upset about me hiding stuff from her, isn't she?' I thought as I made a slightly apologetic expression as I looked at her back, walking towards the research room.

'Well, I can't really tell everyone about me coming from the future, can I?' I thought as I too stood up and began cleaning the dishes. The fact that she didn't invade my privacy and minded her own business is actually something I respect her for, but honestly, there is a limit to how close I will get to her.

After finishing the minor household work, I made two cups of coffee and began moving towards the research room, where I saw her working with the elements. Not disturbing her, I placed her cup on the table and began drinking mine as I observed her work.

She was repeating the same process once again, with a different element this time. Though, the fact that you can (normally) use only three or four connecting elements at once is something that I still haven't told her. That too, depends on how much the other elements are related to your original element.

For example, a water user can use ice and smoke, while to some extent he can use steam and heat too. But ice and smoke will be less powerful than water and steam will be even less powerful and the effect of heat will be negligible.

The only reason I can use all the elements at once is probably because of the Refractive Fragment of Space.

I then saw her trying to use fire magic and waited for her to fail and yeah, not long after she failed at it miserably as her mana ran out even before she began. I then pick up her cup from the table and walk towards her.

She looks at me with a slightly angered and annoyed face. I kind of understood that the reason for her annoyance was me not telling about me… or perhaps I was lying to her. Some people do accept truth over lies, no matter how absurd it sounds.

"I have my reasons," I said as I brought her cup of coffee towards her and she looked at me with a deep gaze before she asked,"can I ask you a question?"

I kept looking at her for a few moments before speaking,"I may not be able to answer it." She, hearing my words, smiles a little before asking,

"How strong are you?"

I looked at her for a few moments before pondering if I should answer it or not and after thinking it through properly, I said again,"it depends if I am prepared to die or not."

She looks at me and then asks again,"without dying?"

"I think I can handle Azem if I go all out with everything I have… though I can't really put it to test," I say as my eyes turn crimson and I use charm magic on her. While she will remember everything I told her, she will forget it as soon as she tries telling it to someone else.

This is the least I can do for the trust she had shown me… though, I found her smiling at me with such a beautiful smile that I have never seen since I met her.

"Zero, can I ask you for a favour?" She spoke again and this time she had a really tense look on her face. I observed her face for a few moments before asking,

"What kind of favour?"