Uhe rhythmic king of tumbling diamonds, Chara tried her best to keep up with the advang spirit while also carefully avoiding the myriad of crystal ns.

  Hwee~! What a smart and obedient spirit. I would much rather teaeone like her than that zy and selfish light spirit. That zy spirit won’t do a thing, even if I beat her up… thought Curiosity.

  Still, although she had said she was going to teach Baby “something iing” on their way to their destination, she wasn’t actually going out of her way to do anything unpnned. Instead, she was just following up on a preexisting lesson pn that had gotten interrupted as a result of Baby’s tantrum. Except this time, she had cleverly beled it as a “cession” to show the little spirit how generous and magnanimous she could be.

  To this end, she had been taking advantage of her sheepish little follower’s low vantage point, ckluster spiritual perception, and the chaotic maze of mirrors, to subtly adjust their traveling dire the eime.

  Unbeknownst to Chara, she was being led around by the nose once again!

  As the pair of spirits navigated deeper into the translut maze, the density of crystalline pilrs was increasing little by little. Accly, Chara had to allocate increasing amounts of her attention just to keep up.

  Soon, it was almost every three seds that she had to adjust her path to avoid an oning collision. It was to the point where she had begun to suspect that the greater spirit might have chosen a difficult route on purpose.

  Before long, the pair of spirits had arrived at a narrow corridor made up of many brang and interseg pilrs. Even at Chara’s reduced size, she would have to be extra careful if she didn’t want to actally bump into anything.

  The little spirit gred at the greater spirit full of incredulity. Are you stupid? How are you going to squeeze iween all those crystals when you are so fat?!

  Sensing her little baby’s doubts, Curiosity let out a shiggle but didn’t expin a thing.

  Without any pretense, she entered a profound state of tration. Her mana, like a refle of her state of mind, ceased its unscious swirling, being as calm as a ke.

  Intrigued, Chara unsciously focused all of her attention on the greater spirit.

  Suddenly, as if Curiosity’s previous state had been only a facade, a torrent of mana surged out from her body and rushed into the corridor. With perfect precision, a stream of Curiosity accurately maneuvered its way through the fusing series of crystals, as if being guided by an invisible tunnel.

  Ohe curiosity stream had reached an area where there was a bit of open space, it abruptly stopped. With o go, the still-moving mana crashed, causing all the non-moving mana to colpse in on itself and form into a whirlpool. As if nothing had happehe chaotic vortex of ma funneling in more and more mana, until a new curiosity spirit had swirled ience.

  Ehh!?

  Astohe little spirit quickly shifted her attention to the curiosity spirit o her, only to witness her st remnants being sucked into the stream of mana and soon joining the reformed Curiosity.

  Uwaa?!!

  Chara was so astohat if she had eyeballs, they definitely would have popped out of her head like a cartoon character by now.

  What?! I thought she was trying to shoot a magic spell or something! Who could have guessed that what she had actually shot had been herself! Wait! I—I’m a spirit too! If she do that, then shouldn’t that mean I do it too!? Surely that has to be the case… wondered Chara.

  Basking itle spirit’s curiosity, the curiosity spirit swirled proudly. Having cluded her performance, she looked over at Baby and said, “Now it’s your turn~!”

  Perplexed, Chara shot an incredulous gaze from all the way oher side of the long and fusing corridor, even pierg through several crystals.

  …What? …How am I supposed to do that?

  The curiosity spirit’s mana pulsed. Even without verifying, she could immediately guess what Baby was thinking. Still, she held back from answering right away. She didn’t want a repeat of the previous i. So, in an effort to be more prudent, this time she took a moment to carefully review what she was going to say before speaking first.

  After a brief silence, she started, “Movement is simple. Just [Imagine] where you want to go, and how yoing to get there.

  “Altering your form is simir. First, [Imagine] your current form. Then, [Imagi def into something else.

  “Once you have a clear [Visualization] of both, you just have to [Envision] it,” expined Curiosity, while taking special care to pause between each expnation to avoid any potential misuandings.

  Finished with her expnation, she quieted down, carefully how her little student would react. After a short pause, she could feel a disapproving gre.

  What the heck is “envision”…? I still don’t know what this means... glowered Chara.

  Stuhe curiosity spirit rippled in fusion. ……What?

  Actually, her perplexity was fairly warranted. When she first entered Baby, it looked like she was trying to cast magic. The thing is, Envisioning is the first step of casting. And ter, when she was given instrus on how to speak, she was very specifically told to Imagine, and not to Envision.

  At this point, how could Curiosity not believe that Chara khe distin between Imagining and Envisioning? But trary to her expectations, the little spirit’s curiosity appeared to be genuine.

  At a loss, Curiosity didn’t know whether to feel gd or troubled.

  Jeez, look at how helpless you are without me. I guess it ’t be helped… thought the greater spirit with feigned pity.

  For her, it didn’t matter how sad, silly, and pitiful a spirit was. As long as they had the willio learn, she would be more than willing to provide. They just weren’t allowed to leave.

  Suddenly in a good mood, Curiosity expined, “Well, to expin envision properly, I’m going to have to expin Imagination first.

  “Imagination is the act of f new ideas, images, or cepts, that may or may iy. In other words, when I ask you to Imagine, I am asking you to form a mental image.

  “Envisioning is Imagining, except, with one key difference. I!

  “When you Envision something, you are not merely thinking about the idea of something; it is something you io aplish!

  “Just keep in mind that this aowledgment be either subscious or deliberate.

  “For things that aren’t dangerous, like movement, perception, or [Speak], this aowledgment is usually granted subsciously, which is why I asked you not to envision when I instructed you on how to speak.

  “However, for things that are plicated, things that require a price, and things you’ve never done before, your apprehension will work as a subscious barrier, making it so that you ot perform those as on act.

  “As you grow more fident, these mental barriers will naturally disappear, until you perform super plex operations like it’s sed nature. At this time, you will be able to bee an expert floater, like me~!”

  Curiosity was about to tinue her expnation by giving numerous examples of all the things that were possible, but then she froze.

  Oh no! It happened again…! I—I talked too much!

  maury