In Mushoku Tensei with an A.I. Chip

Luke calmed down after a few seconds. Why did it matter the differences between the two worlds' magic systems? He was here now, and he only needed to care about the Magus World insofar as how he could make use of knowledge from there to supplement what he had access to now. 

Continuing on the tome, Luke quickly found another point of contention in its contents. 

"Mana is inherited and the amount one has is determined at birth. Thus, the talent of a spellcaster is largely proportional to the amount of mana they are born with…" 

Luke's brow furrowed slightly. Was this true? Could meditation techniques from the Magus World be able to break through this? 

"A.I. Chip, has my magic power been stagnant since birth?"

[Beep! Analysis of magic power was completed 1 year and 38 days ago while Host soul was hibernating. Since completion of analysis, host magic power has grown by 3.5 units.]

This single statement disproved the so-called factual information in the tome. Was this just an inaccurate book written eons ago? He checked the cover. 

Nope, published 12 years ago. 

It was also possible that the author had misinterpreted or misunderstood something. An individual's mana might slowly increase as they grew but the maximum capacity was already predetermined at birth due to genetics. 

More data necessary. 

First things first… 

Luke flipped through the book and stopped at an Elementary rank spell the author recommended for a beginner's starting point.

Water Orb. A simple spell that simply created a ball of clean water. It was designed primarily for the creation of water for consumption and hydration or extinguishing small fires and such. 

"Currents gather, pure and still. Let water flow." Luke held out a palm and chanted as instructed. 

It was a short, simple incantation. Apparently the more potent the magic as it went up the ranks, the longer the incantation. 

Luke's keen senses could feel a movement of an energy within him that he had not noticed before until right this moment. It was like someone never having experienced what air felt like before until wind started blowing at them.

As though a faucet had just been loosened, the mana in his body moved like a small stream of water released from its previous bondage. 

Instructions were not necessary as the A.I. Chip recorded the process of spellcasting in this world for the first time. 

A drop of water appeared in mid air above Luke's outstretched palm, before rapidly multiplying in number. Within a split second, a small orb of water the size of a cantaloupe had been generated from his mana. 

"How interesting." Luke commented to himself. 

There had indeed been no need for a spell model. With only the intent to cast a spell, and the incantation spoken, Luke's mana had moved by itself to create the water orb. 

Hence, Luke could only postulate, anyone could cast a spell, provided they had the necessary incantation and magic power. And from the A.I. Chip's observations, every one was innately born with mana, though the quantity differed from person to person with large deviations. 

Magic was so free and accessible here, Luke mused. It was just a little bit irritating, that's all. 

"A.I. Chip, how much Magic Power did that spell cost?"

[Beep! 0.5 Magic Power was consumed.] 

"10% of my Magic Power was consumed after casting the most basic spell? How frustrating. Though it is interesting that I still have so much control over the spell even after pulling the metaphorical trigger."

Unlike the offensive version of the spell - Water Ball, which would have launched the ball of water like a liquid cannon ball, Water Orb created only a stationary glob of water meant for consumption. So the mana expenditure was naturally much lower. Handily, the tome had also outlined that Water Ball cost roughly five times as much mana as Water Orb. Which meant Luke could have only cast Water Ball four times before completely running out of mana. 

Throughout Luke's musings, he had held the orb of water in mid air with his Spiritual Force. He had felt that the moment the orb of water had completely formed, the connection from the spell to his Magic Power should have been severed and the orb of water would subsequently be subject to gravity's pull. 

But he consciously maintained the connection, letting his Magic Power slowly feed into the spell to maintain its levitation to sate his curiosity. He was using raw mana to hold it in place, a nascent form of telekinesis. 

It was an application of his incredibly potent Spiritual Force, giving him the aptitude to exert control over the spell and his mana with expert ease. 

He gave the orb of water an experimental mental tug, willing it to move from its previous stationary position. It drifted across the air, and at the same time being deformed into different shapes by Luke's will. 

The amount of Magic Power it took to maintain this control was much smaller than it took to create the Water Orb in the first place, and his high Spiritual Force allowed finesse in his manipulation of the water. 

"I wonder…" Luke hummed, and allowed more mana to flow into the orb of water. The sphere froze in place and began hardening, forming a translucent shell of ice on its surface. 

Affecting an existing phenomenon with mana while not having needed to chant an incantation? This should not have been possible according to the book he had just read. The metaphorical bullet, having left the barrel, should not have been affected by the gunpowder left in the gun. 

Of course, the book was merely a guide for beginners attempting Elementary-rank magic for the first time, perhaps this phenomena would be illustrated in more advanced texts? Luke was making many assumptions without having complete information at his disposal. 

His outstretched palm was slowly closed into a fist, and the ice encrusted sphere of water slowly shrank before disappearing entirely. Not wanting to make a mess, Luke had instead dismissed the spell that was still connected to his mana pool via his Spiritual Force. 

[Beep! 7.7 Magic Power remaining. Warning! Continued expenditure of Magic Power may result in side effects including but not limited to: nausea, fatigue and loss of consciousness and in extreme cases, death.] 

"A.I. Chip, analyse the spellcasting process. Has the mana flow for the Water Orb spell been recorded?"

[Beep! Yes, mana flow for the Water Orb spell has been recorded.]

"Create a three dimensional simulation of my body and highlight the mana flow for a visual representation."

Like augmented reality, the A.I. Chip projected an outline of his body in Luke's vision three feet away from him. The simulated Luke held out a palm and began chanting the incantation. 

"Currents gather, pure and still. Let water flow."

Golden orange streams of light were subsequently highlighted within the body, illustrating a flow of golden light streaming from certain nodes towards his palm. 

The visual representation of mana was then extruded from his palm and into the air, before forming the metaphysical structure of the water orb that was created. A thin stream of mana remained between the orb and the simulated Luke's palm that occasionally surged as the simulated Luke moved it around, changed its shape, froze it and finally dispelling it. 

The golden orange mana was not retrieved back into Luke's body after dispelling the water orb, but instead dissipated into the air when the connection was severed. 

Luke's eyes flashed with a gleam of understanding. 

Magic was, in essence, the manipulation of mana. Incantations were verbal spell models that directed the movement of mana, and the spells are the final result of mana taking shape in the world after having moved under the direction of the incantation.

"Is it then possible to move one's mana without incantations?" Luke mused aloud. 

The pool of Magic Power within him had not been noticed by Luke before casting his first spell, likely because of its miniscule capacity and because his body had been so used to the mana inside him that it was as familiar as feeling the air on one's skin. 

Only once it started moving did Luke notice its existence. 

And after having realised it now, it was impossible for Luke to not notice it anymore. Even now, despite the lack of chanting an incantation, his abundant Spiritual Force could still perceive the diminished puddle of mana that rested within his body.

"Was it… something like this?" Luke willed his mana to move, like he had done before when casting the Water Orb spell, and it flowed under the direction of his Spiritual Force. It was the particular pattern of circulation that caught his notice. His mana didn't move from the closest path along his circuits to his palm as though efficiency of energy conduction wasn't the point. 

The pattern of movement, Luke realized, was under the direction of the Water Orb's spell model. 

The mana flowed out of his palm and formed a ball of water the size of an apple in the air before Luke cut off the magic power's flow, not wanting to waste his Magic Power for an experiment given his very limited capacity. 

Luke had just tried to and succeeded on his first attempt at casting a spell without verbalizing an incantation. 

Willpower and visualization, Luke realized, was the conductor's baton that directed the symphony of mana. The use of a verbal spell model, i.e. the incantation, was akin to a shortcut that allowed the formation of a spell without the necessary control of mana manipulation and visualization. 

"A.I. Chip, calculate the efficiency coefficient of the two invocations." 

[Beep! 1st attempt: energy coefficient of 0.65]

[2nd attempt: energy coefficient of 0.60]

The A.I. Chip had just calculated the ratio of output energy to the input energy. Simply put, casting the spell using the verbal spell model had wasted 35% of the mana consumed due to various inefficiencies. 

Whereas casting the spell without an incantation had wasted 40% of the mana consumed. 

This was not a surprise. An incantation provided a shortcut, like pipes laid out to direct the flow of magic power. It exchanged speed of invocation and control for ease of activation.

And while Luke had mostly emulated the mana flow of the verbal spell model, he had not been able to perfectly replicate the movement of magic power entirely, which resulted in a greater waste of mana and inefficiency. He wasn't an A.I. with immense computing power after all, not being able to perfectly execute a mimicry on his first try wasn't surprising. 

However, with practice and fine tuning from the A.I. Chip's data, Luke would definitely be able to not just close the gap with verbal spellcasting, but exceed it in efficiency; possibly even reaching a perfect energy coefficient of 1 - meaning not wasting even a single drop of mana in his spellcasting. 

Luke picked up the book that had given him his very first introduction to the principles of magic in his primitive world, , and quickly flipped through the entirety of its contents within a minute. 

The A.I. Chip would record all of its contents and organize it into a more palatable form and archive the data in its database. Actually reading the book with his own eyes and flipping through its pages with his own hands would be slow and cumbersome.

Then he turned his gaze to the rest of the library. The contents of the library were mixed, of which Luke categorized as 'useful' and 'not useful'. Only a fraction of it contained magical knowledge. There were a few martial manuals, but most were shelves of historical accounts, archives and ledgers, and valuable first edition manuscripts consisting of poetry, blueprints, designs and such. 

Though there was also an entire section that Luke labelled as 'not useful'. He honestly didn't know why in the world he would ever have the need to delve into an entire series of erotic novels titled 'The Lusty Demon Maid'. 

The illustrations looked interesting though. Naturally from the viewpoint of a scientist looking into the biological anatomy of demons, of course. 

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Author's Notes: A key concept - there are three orders of information and knowledge in this story. 

1. The lore that we know to be true. Example: It is possible to grow your magical capacity as a child through training. This is the highest order of truth as it is part of Mushoku Tensei canon. 

2.The information that Leylin/Luke believes to be true. Example: Most nobles in the world are aware that mana capacity can grow through training, but keeps it a secret in a grand conspiracy to suppress commoners. 

3. Common sense knowledge that is false. Example: Mana capacity is determined at birth and cannot grow afterwards. 

The point being, sometimes Leylin/Luke may come up with theories for something that we know are not true, but enough evidence points in that direction that he can take it as truth. But also sometimes the author might have missed something in his research and confidently state something as lore though it is misremembered or misinterpreted. At these times, please be understanding. Both Luke and I are just humans.