23 Magical Girl Hears About Magic Stones

Author: Kumanano
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7313mj/23/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“Created works, huh. Well, that’s fine. I don’t know if they’re the same as the magic stones in your created works, so I’ll explain.”

Sarche stands up and takes one magic stone in her hand.

“Magic stones are, as the words say, stones with mana packed into them.”
“How do you get magic stones?”

In manga and novels, you got them by defeating monsters, or mining them in mines.
Depending on the story, the way you obtained magic stones was different.

“We need an explanation from there, don’t we.”
“Is this general knowledge too?”
“Wouldn’t people ordinarily know it?”

I don’t know the things people of this world know.

“Well then, today I’ll explain about magic stones.”
“Please do. Teacher Sarche.”

When I call her teacher, Sarche starts explaining with a happy face.

“There are two ways to obtain magic stones. One is obtaining them from mines. And the other is obtaining them from monsters.”
“There are monsters?”

I thought there might be, but there really are.

“Yes, there are. Living things that have mana, we call monsters. Incidentally, are there any in your world?”
“There were things called magical beasts, but even if you defeated them they didn’t have magic stones, so I think they’re different.”

And more than anything, magical beasts are animals in a state of being tainted by miasma.
Dragons like the ones that appear in manga and novels aren’t in my world.
I want to ask about monsters, but for now I ask about magic stones.

“Is there a difference between magic stones mined in mines and magic stones taken from monsters?”

In the manga and novels I’ve read, there were no works where you got them from both.
It was always one or the other.

“Do you understand magic circles?”
“I don’t know this world’s definition of magic circles, but only about using mana to activate a magic circle.”

Mana is changed into matter.
But the Cat God said magic circles are an application of mana.
Charging a phone and such is like that.

“That way of thinking is correct. Then, do you know how those magic circles came to be made?”

I don’t know the details about magic circles either.
I can only handle the magic circles I was granted by the Cat God.
I’ve heard about the mechanism and such, but it was hard.
But in manga and novels.

“Researchers researched and made them, didn’t they? Genius mages, or something. Or people from long ago made them?”

Sometimes people from long ago made them, they’re passed down through generations, and no one understands the mechanism.

“Half correct. The origin of magic circles is monsters.”
“Monsters?”
“From a monster that breathes fire, you can take a fire magic stone. A fire magic circle is carved into that magic stone. Look at this magic stone.”

Sarche holds a red magic stone out to me.
I take the magic stone and check it.

“Something, writing? Shapes? are drawn on it?”
“That’s a magic circle. Not all monsters, but on magic stones taken from some monsters, magic circles are drawn.”
“Some monsters?”
“On monsters that handle fire, magic stones with a fire-attribute magic circle drawn on them, and on monsters that handle water, a water magic circle is drawn. But on monsters that don’t have an attribute, often no magic circle is drawn.”
“No-attribute monsters, you mean?”
“You can come to know that kind of thing in due time. So, the difference between monster and mine magic stones. On magic stones mined from mines, that magic circle isn’t drawn.”
“So they’re just stones with mana packed in?”
“Yes, but by carving a magic circle into a magic stone mined from a mine, it becomes a magic stone with the same effect.”
“In other words, a magic stone mined from a mine becomes a fire magic stone?”
“Yes. In the same way, from a monster that breathes water, a water magic circle is carved. And by carving that magic circle into a magic stone mined from a mine, a water magic stone is made.”

In other words, on magic stones taken from a monster that uses wind, a wind magic circle is drawn, and if you draw that wind magic circle on a magic stone mined from a mine, it becomes a wind magic stone, it seems.

“People researched the magic stones with magic circles that monsters have, and made it so they can use magic stones mined from mines.”
“What about the effect? Are they exactly the same?”

The monster magic stones have a higher effect, or something?

“It differs by definition, but if the amount of mana packed into the magic stone is the same, they’re the same.”
“Then is the value the same too?”

Even as a kid, I know that real diamonds and artificial diamonds have different value.
But I don’t know how it is with magic stones, so I ask.

“If it becomes a transaction, monster magic stones have more value. Even magic stones of the same size, the amount of mana that goes in is different. So among nobles and the wealthy, there are many who seek monster magic stones.”

The amount of mana that goes in is different.

“Also, large magic stones that are rarely mined from mines have value. You can’t take large magic stones from monsters.”

Well, I think you couldn’t take a large magic stone unless it was a large monster, and I think large monsters are rare, and defeating them looks hard too.

“I get the effect, but can you tell by looks whether it’s a monster magic stone or a mine magic stone?”

You can’t judge just by looking at a real diamond and an artificial diamond.
I might even be fooled by glass.

“There is a way to confirm, but ordinarily you can tell just by looking.”

Sarche places two red magic stones about the size of a thumb on the table.
One is a magic stone with roundness.
The other is square? An angular magic stone.

“The round magic stone is a magic stone taken from a monster, and the magic stone that isn’t round is a magic stone taken from a mine.”

It’s true, with this it’s easy to tell.

“These have been properly processed, but magic stones mined from mines have a more warped shape.”

Even with gems, the raw stones have a weird shape.
You process them, cut them nicely, and a gem is made—I’ve seen that on TV.

“But if you process a mine magic stone round, it would look like a magic stone taken from a monster, right?”

I don’t know if you can change the shape of a magic stone.
The angular magic stone has been processed. Then you should be able to make it round too.

“There’s no merit. Making it round costs more than making it square. It doesn’t pay off in time and labor.”

That’s true.

“And if you sell a magic stone mined from a mine, faking it as a magic stone taken from a monster, and that gets found out, you become a criminal and get caught. Even if the value goes up a little, there’s no merit.”

It’s like selling artificial diamonds as real diamonds.

“But if it was a large magic stone, they’re hard to get from monsters, so you could lie that it was a magic stone taken from a large monster—”
“A magic stone that large would be appraised. You can easily tell whether the magic circle carved into it was carved artificially or not.”

Then you can’t lie that you defeated a large monster and got a large magic stone.

“So, is there anything else you want to ask?”
“Can magic stones be reused?”
“They can. Only, if you use them over and over the effect thins, and at the end they crack and become unusable.”

Like a phone battery, maybe?
I don’t know a phone battery’s lifespan, but I wonder how long magic stones last.