"Then let's move in, let's see how much of yesterday's talk you remember." Nanny Mary smiled as she turned to Trixie, that was no good! Whenever someone said 'Let's see how much you remember of X thing' it always ended badly for Trixie!

  But Trixie would answer anyway! For she was... supposed to answer like a good girl...

  Nanny Mary had said that she would understand Trixie, surely she wouldn't... she wouldn't be mean... right?

  "Magic is the power to turn the wishes of good girls into reality!" Trixie said closing her eyes and raising her hand towards the sky!

  "Good," Nanny Mary said nodding, not that Trixie could see it, since her eyes were closed, but she knew because the ToyBox was telling Trixie! "You remember, that is correct. Or at least one way to look at it."

  Nanny Mary then pulled out a whiteboard from her all-purpose purse!

  The whiteboard was set up easily enough on the floor in front of the bench Trixie was now sitting on, while Nanny Mary pulled out a marker for the whiteboard.

  "In a nutshell the Magic is brought upon our reality by the use of Mana, we spoke briefly about it yesterday." Nanny Mary moved on to... cute drawings! One was a person, and it was surrounded by farts?

  "Why is that person farting?" Trixie asked confused, "Is their tummy hort?"

  "... This represents mana in the atmosphere," Nanny Mary said as her hand faltered for a second, "Imagine it as wind."

  "Okay!" Trixie nodded, not everyone could be a genius at drawing like Shiori-sama after all, Trixie would be the biggest person and understand Nanny Mary's deficiencies.

  "A mage after forming their first circle and being able to interact more easily with the ambient mana will start pooling the mana into their core." Nanny Mary then drew a rock candy in the stomach of the person, "They will pool the mana into the core to trigger the phenomena that allowed them to generate the first circle and like this, create a second circle."

  "And the Knights?" Trixie asked after raising her hand, "Nanny Mary said that they are the same at the start right?"

  "...They will start the process but instead of pooling the mana in the core, they will move it to wherever they plan to make the second circle." Nanny Mary answered, shaking her head, "I would advise you not follow their example. But that is a decision for when you are older and can actually build up your circle count more responsibly."

  "Le gasp!" Trixie gasped, "Trixie can't become a Magical Girl?!?!?!?"

  "... We can practice the exercises and if your father gives the go-ahead, can prepare you for some of the most common viable first circle spells." Nanny Mary said, sighing, "I will advise against this, because it will decide most of your career as a mage, but that is up to your parents."

  "Papa will decide what's best for Trixie!" Trixie said nodding sagely, Papa would know what was best, and what was best for Trixie was becoming a Magical Girl! She would have SO MANY frens like that! A pink one, a blue one, a red one, a green one, and maybe even a shy black-haired one!

  "Right..." Nanny Mary said turning to her whiteboard again, "Either way, when a person pools enough Mana in their Core, they can start building the new circle. They will have decided to enhance their previous circle or start building a new one."

  Nanny Mary then drew a circle at the side of the person, and then drew an extra circle around it.

  "This would be a reinforced first circle." Nanny Mary then drew a more complex magic circle beside it, "And this would be a second circle."

  Wasn't that... just the same circle but with more or less decorations?

  "The first one would increase the power of the magic while ensuring that the mage remains on the first circle." Nanny Mary pointed to the circle that had just an extra circle around it, "And this one would create a new totally different spell, what is more commonly known as a second circle."

  But both were basically the same!

  "What do you think is the difference here?" Nanny Mary asked turning to Trixie, she had a knowing smile on her face.

  "There is none!" Trixie said proudly, "The other just has more decorations!"

  Trixie hadn't fallen for the trap!

  "If you look at it from here then yeah, you are right." Nanny Mary nodded, and then without much fanfare she tapped the whiteboard with her marker, "But if you look it like this..."

  The circles started floating away from the whiteboard!

  "This is the reinforced one." Nanny Mary then spinned the first one, it was literally a circle spinning, "While the other one..."

  And bringing Trixie's attention to the other, she spun it and...

  "It has two circles!" Trixie noticed at once that one was standing up, and the other was lying down! One was tired and eeping while the other was standing up! "It's like there are two circles stacked one above the other!"

  "Correct," Nanny Mary nodded and let both circles spin around there as if nothing was wrong, "The first method increases the tolerance and speeds up the mana generation, while the second method grants access to more refined and dense mana."

  Nanny Mary then wrote those same words on the whiteboard... Not that Trixie knew what they said... Since she had already said that she didn't know how to read...

  Was Nanny Mary okay in the head?

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  Anyway, she wrote:

  -Normal Mana

  -Refined Mana (2)

  -Dense Mana

  -Refined Dense Mana (2)

  "Now, which one do you think is better?" Nanny Mary asked. The first two lines of weird letters stood below the two circles that were spinning, while the second letters stood behind the first normal circle that just was there like nothing was wrong.

  "These ones?" Trixie pointed to the ones that Trixie didn't know what it say, but it read 'Dense Mana'. "Since it was the first one that Nanny Mary showed Trixie."

  Usually when it was something like this, people used to always put as a trap, and the answer was the first one! Trixie would not fall for their tricks.

  "Why?" Nanny Mary asked with a proud smile on her face. "Why do you think so?"

  She had been had!

  "Trixie doesn't know!" Trixie admitted her mistakes, "She just guessed!"

  "...That is also skill I guess." Nanny Mary sighed, "The normal method, that is to say, this one."

  Nanny Mary picked up the weird two circles that stuck together, spinning around as she spoke.

  "It's easier on the user, since it allows them to build up their power faster." Then picking up the first circle that she had drawn, "While this one is slower. But the one I like to use since it has a few perks, such as this word here."

  "I see..." Trixie nodded sagely, she still didn't know what it said there, "It makes sense."

  But Trixie was a pro at this, she knew that people smarter than her liked when she nodded at what they said, even if Trixie didn't know what that was!

  "...Trixie." Nanny Mary suddenly turned to Trixie, suspicious paitned all over her eyes, "What did you see, how does it make sense?"

  ....Dang it 2: Electric Boogalo.

  "..." Trixie didn't know what it said, or how it made sense! At all!

  "*Sigh* Trixie, you don't need to pretend to understand or even know this." Nanny Mary said kneeling in front of Trixie, "If you don't know something, you can ask. These lessons are advanced for most kids your ages, but I will explain it to you if you don't understand. Sometimes kids like you have the most wonderful takes on these topics, so I start with these. But if you don't know or don't want to learn about this we can learn about something else, whatever else you want."

  "...Trixie... Doesn't know what that says." Trixie said pointing at the weird mystical words (Dense Mana), "She just likes how the [D] looks like a happy face."

  "... Oh right, we had scheduled reading classes too." Nanny Mary laughed, "Sorry, I just hadn't needed to teach someone to learn in quite a time, this will be just wonderful. I will get to teach someone properly."

  Nanny Mary nodded and smiled at that. Weird, usually when people found out that they needed to teach things to Trixie they always got mad at Trixie.

  "Well, for now let's move on this class since we already started it. This here says 'Normal Mana' and the one you picked says 'Dense Mana'." Nanny Mary said pointing at the words, "This is the keyword here, Mana and the thing used to describe them, between 'Normal' and 'Dense' which one do you think is better?"

  "...Whatever that is not normal?" Trixie said confused, "Because if it isn't normal it means its special right? Like Trixie!"

  Papa said that Trixie was special because she wasn't normal too! The other maids were in the wrong since they all were the same! It was better to not be normal after all. It was why Shiori-sama also preferred Trixie!

  "Correct," Nanny Mary said nodding at Trixie's answer, "In this case, since it's denser it means every unit of it is worth more than the others."

  Then Nanny Mary drew two spheres on the whiteboard, below them she put more weird letters (10 Normal Mana Units & 5 Dense Mana Units).

  "A normal fireball spell consumes (Usually) ten normal mana units," Nanny Mary started speaking and pointing at the normal one, "But if you go with the denser mana condensation method, you can get away using half of it, in the best case scenario if you go all the way to getting the full first circle filled again before moving to the second circle anyway."

  So... you worked half to get the full thing? Trixie loved this approach.

  "And if you reinforce it again..." Nanny Mary said drawing a third circle on the first circle, now it had two external circles, "You get three times as dense the Mana. Not many would go this far, of course, since you will spend three times as much on the first circle."

  But wasn't that better? Trixie had found out that spending more time in a task was better because you could ensure it was done right and people wouldn't send you to do more extra work.

  "It had, however, a nice advantage that not many people find, since barely anyone would follow this approach, and the Tower does not spread this method, not willingly anyway." Nanny Mary said with an evil smile on her face, picking up the eraser, she erased the inner circle, the one at the beginning, "What would happen to the mage in this example?"

  "...He would no longer have... No but if he reinforced it, he still has his magic?" Trixie asked confused, she had erased the magic, but the outer circles remained, and those were made to reinforce the spell right? So the spell was still there? Kinda?

  "And if I do it here?" Nanny Mary said turning to the other example, only this time she had frozen the circle so it no longer spinned around.

  "He no longer has the first circle!" Trixie said immediately, since it didn't have anything else, the contents of the circle spread, and after Trixie spoke, the second circle also started to collapse for some reason?

  "Correct," Nanny Mary nodded at Trixie, "In the case of the other, since he still has the outer framework designed to reinforce the circle, the mana will have something containing it, this will not last forever, but at least the mage will have some time to fix the issue that caused the erasure of his circle."

  Then turning to the other example, "For the other one though, since they lose the foundation of their circle, the second circle will collapse faster than they can build a first circle. Unless they prepared for it that is... But the pain will be unbearable and most will collapse on the spot."

  Yikes.

  "So the only people that can survive losing a circle are those that reinforced it, but not many would go out of their way to do this, since collapsing a circle is something almost impossible to do unless you do it willingly." Nanny Mary turned to Trixie, "But, here is the important bit."

  She went ahead and drew in the center of the first circle, the one that she had erased. Only this time, she drew something different!

  The first time the circle had a square inside it, but now it had a triangle!

  "You can change the contents of the circle, it will need to be compatible with the reinforcement done to the first circle of course." Nanny Mary turned to Trixie, "If the reinforcement was one that increased the power of fire, it would be incompatible with a Wind Cutter spell, but if the reinforcement was 'Increase the speed of the spell'... Chances are most spells will be compatible."

  So... Reinforce it with stuff that was general?

  "So why doesn't everyone do this?" Trixie asked, "Even if it takes longer, isn't it better?"

  "Because... How long do you think it takes in average to get enough Mana to go from first circle to second? Or in this case, to reinforcement." Nanny Mary asked turning to Trixie.

  "Like... an afternoon?" Trixie asked, it felt like it was the work of an afternoon to Trixie.

  "On average, a first circle mage takes between 48 hours and 56 hours to fill their circle." Nanny Mary said in an even tone, "If you reinforce it, you will have twice as much capacity for mana, but it will be first circle mana, albeit denser, not quite second circle quality."

  ...FORTY EIGHT? That was like... forever!

  "So if you reinforce your first circle, you need at least 48 hours of dedication. Then after doing that, you need twice as much (96 hours) to fill it again and go for your second circle." Nanny Mary wrote the numbers on the whiteboard, "That is assuming you don't use your mana for anything else."

  "Is there... a way to get it faster?" Trixier asked, she didn't like the idea of that many hours doing... "What do you need to do to fill it like that?"

  She didn't know how the magical girls recharged their energy, they never showed them doing that.

  "Depends on the methodology you follow, some refill it with prayers to their gods, some meditate, I know at least three mages that use food to refill their magic." Nanny Mary said, lifting a finger with each answer, "Some take it from other people too, and a few use the power of other people believing in them to accelerate the absorption of mana; everyone does it in the way that benefits them the most."

  How did other people believing in you help you get more Mana? Was it like how people took Trixie's lunch?

  "I will teach you a few methods and you can test them to see what one fits you the best." Nanny Mary spoke while pulling out the drawings back into the whiteboard and using the eraser to... well, erase them. As she said that she started packing up the whiteboard into her purse again. "For now, we have finished this small lesson on magic!"

  They had?

  That was tiring, so many things that Trixie didn't know! Wonder what would be next?

  "Do you want to practice your letters here? In the lounge? The Library or we can do it in your room." Nanny Mary smiled as she had pulled a notebook from her purse.

  Letters?

  What letters?

  Trixie had no letters!

  Anyone that said that Trixie had letters was lying!

  Dirty lawyers! that only knew how to lie!