I just let her look at me for a few moments without blinking at all before she finally speaks,"how can… how can a human like you… how can a human like you be able to use spirit magic? It shouldn't be possible at all!!"
'...' I just blankly look at her registering her words into my brain and when I understood that what I heard was exactly what I heard, I spoke to her,
"How did you know that I am using spirit magic?"
'Did I miss something once again? I tried using it as passively as possible though…' I thought and Zuriel looked at me with a slightly taken aback expression before speaking,"you truly… don't know anything about this world, do you?"
And then once again I was tempted to know what exactly I didn't know that gave away the fact that I can use spirit magic…
Understanding my confusion, she once again spoke,"let's forget altogether about the fact that you can cook monster meat that is so deadly, even more than the deadliest artificially created poisons, and focus on the energies that exist on this planet.
There are three primary energies which are geographically restricted to various planes of this world.
At many places you will find dense mana energy that existed long before the world came into existence and is a major part of its natural energy system, on other places you will find unsustainable monster energy which can be converted and used to increase the efficiency of the artefacts and weapons made out of special materials like Leranati and stuff.
While normal mana can be used by almost all the races, some races with low mana will mostly depend on special materials like Leranati and the weapons made out of them for survival and stuff.
The last energy is the spirit energy, created by natural beings, which doesn't have any definite forms. They are called spirits by many and you can find them in the deepest of forests or the places where energies are densely concentrated. Though, wherever they exist, they create their own energy system, pushing down the other energies, making it their domain where their energy is at peak."
She finally stopped as she looked at my face, which was attentively listening to her words, and I could more or less make out what kind of place this is. Then again, I still don't get why and how she knew about me being able to use the spirit magic?
"The reason I was able to figure out that you can use spirit magic was because of the way you use mana without any hesitation. Your power level rises abnormally high at times before starting from the state you are in right now. The only plausible explanation which can be given to that is spirit magic," she speaks with a questioning expression as she wanted to know why I, not being a spirit, could use that magic which was only specific to Spirits.
She continues again as she gulps a little before observing my face,
"At first, I thought that it was some sort of your special characteristic that allowed you to reach higher power at the cost of something, but the more I observed you rising to a greater extent without any visible limits, I got terrified of you. It didn't hit me before but then I recalled about this forest being a domain of a neutral dormant spirit of Serenity, which gave me a small hint.
Even then, it was difficult to come to the conclusion that it is that magic you are using cause… well.. It is not common at all. Furthermore when the fight was over, I saw your power level going down again, similar to that of spirits.
Afterwards I turned my focus on my own plans and how to strike a deal with you, and only until I saw you using the same power up magic to catch up to Dion, who was using god knows what kind of magic, I was finally sure that you were using spirit magic. That purifying magic which you used to cleanse the poison from the meat only further confirmed my theory."
After she speaks, she finally takes a deep breath as she was tired after speaking for so long. I saw that she was more relieved and relaxed after she had finished her explanation and I chuckled a little at her words before I pointed at the food I made.
"Eat it first, let's talk about it when we are closer," I spoke with a smile and she narrowed her eyes at me before sighing in defeat. She then proceeded to sit in front of the steak, cut a small piece of the meat and threw it at me as she spoke,"you eat it first."
'Makes sense. She won't be eating it before she is completely assured that it is safe' I thought before chewing down the food. Then I saw her smelling the food for a few minutes before saliva started dripping from the corners of her mouth.
Hurriedly she wiped the saliva before gulping a few more times as she stared at the food before…
-Chew
She bites the food slowly and carefully but moans loudly as soon as she eats with a blissful expression on her face. Dion, looking at Zuriel making such an expression, proceeds to take a bite from the food too and then…
He, too, had the same blissful expression on his face. Soon, they both started chomping down on the food before they finally finished all of it and I could only chuckle out loud at their behaviour. It was amusing to see both the calm and composed one's lose their composure over just a piece of steak…
After they finished their food, they both looked at the empty plate with a gloomy expression and I smiled before speaking,"I have some more meat… should I make some more?"
The second they heard my words, they looked as if they had gained their life back with that one sentence. I smiled again before proceeding to make some more food. It was quite a lovely atmosphere, to be honest.
After I cooked some more food, we all ate as we shared a few more details about the city of Asul and what kind of place it is.
According to Zuriel, it is a place located on the top of a mountain, with each layer of the mountain carved out to hold a small village or town. The mountain itself was humongous and would be visible a day before we reached that place.
The city of Asul is at the topmost point of that mountain, Mountain of Heaven, where the most powerful and the wealthiest among all the people lives. It has everything you can ask for, from the rarest of artefacts to insignificant expensive things, everything you could think of will be there, though the city welcomes only two types of people.
First is the wealthy class. It includes people who could buy mountains or expensive stuff just because they were bored and people wealthier than that.
Second is the strong class. People above the strength of High Guardian are allowed to enter and leave the city, meanwhile only Royal people are allowed to stay there.
There was a castle at the topmost part of the city where Azem and his Royals lived with him. He had many wives and children, though the weaker ones were labeled outcasts if they failed to show comparable strength. The Royal family wasn't big but it was still powerful with a mix of wealthy and strong as they, mostly the rich ones, often mated their children with that of Azem's family members.
The area outside the Asul city wasn't any different from the inside, given the fact that the amount of power or wealth you have determined whether you could stay there or not. It wasn't as strict as the main city but you still needed to fulfill one of those.
As you go down the power demand and the wealth demand decreases with the weakest ones living at the bottom most of the mountain. While this also means that the whole Mountain of Heaven was divided in planes by the amount of power and wealth people had. The higher you go up the stronger the people would be.
One more important piece of information that I found was that the spirit magic is greatly reduced in that place. Given that Zuriel asked me how much of an effect it would have on me and I ended up thinking over her words for a few moments.
This new piece of information made me change my plans drastically, as I sighed before I told her that it would affect me depending upon what kind of place Azem is. She didn't ask me any more questions after that, as she then turned to her own work.
While it was true that having no or very less spirit magic could hinder my power level… it wasn't necessarily true given that special weapon we have here… Leranati was it? I think with a sufficiently powerful weapon, I could still take at least one Royal if not a couple. Still, that needs proper planning and strategizing.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om