I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 331
Chapter 331: The Möbius Circle
This time when we went out, Xiao Mo didn’t carry me on her back or hold me in her arms like before. Instead, she summoned that incredibly beautiful floating magic circle in a quiet, deserted area outside the neighborhood.
“Wow!”
Seeing the magic circle appear, I almost instinctively ran over and jumped into the center of it.
As my casual little shoes stepped on the shiny runes of the magic circle, it wobbled slightly and sank a few centimeters before quickly rising back to its previous height, floating about twenty to thirty centimeters above the ground.
It felt like… stepping onto a small boat?
I tried bouncing around on the magic circle a few more times. It really felt like a small boat on the sea. Every time I landed, I could feel the hard surface beneath my feet rocking before quickly returning to its original state.
As I continued my “exercise,” my long hair, which I hadn’t managed much since entering elf mode, swayed with me, with some strands brushing against the bare skin around my shoulders, tickling a bit. My little dress also fluttered with gravity, opening and closing like a flower under the beautiful moonlight.
“Nuo’er is still that mischievous, adorable little kitten.”
Yin Xiamo chuckled softly at my antics, “So cute.”
“Come on!”
I bounced on the magic circle a couple more times, “Don’t you think this thing is amazing? Magic, it’s magic! It appears out of nowhere, so beautiful, sparkling, with so many runes. It completely fits my imagination of a magic circle! By the way, what are these strange strokes? Do they represent something?”
Yes, I’ve always been fascinated by Xiao Mo’s magic circle.
I might not be very interested in attack magic like fire and lightning spells, nor in martial arts with swords and spears for killing.
But this… this incredibly convenient magic circle, which can move vertically and horizontally at high speed, and looks so beautiful, like a piece of art—of course, I love it!
Imagine having this kind of flying magic. I wouldn’t need any transportation tools when going out, making long-distance travel and getting up and down floors extremely convenient. It’s completely natural and non-polluting, and you can just dispel it when not in use. Is there any magic more convenient than this?
“It’s basically a fixed-value magic formula,” Xiao Mo said, still with that expression of looking at a little kitten.
“Nuo’er… pfft, Nuo’er, I’m serious. Stop jumping around. Right now, you really look like a little kitten who has never seen a toy before and suddenly gets a giant cat climbing frame, smeared with catnip and emitting irresistible pheromones, making you all excited.”
“Really?”
I adjusted my dress a bit and sat down on the edge of the magic circle, gripping its edge with both hands.
“Even if that’s true, I don’t care… I just love it so much!”
Just like before, the magic circle beneath me felt like glass, hard and smooth, or perhaps like a computer monitor or phone screen? Anyway, it was a very slippery and cool semi-transparent flat oval material.
In the middle, there was a glowing pentagram and a lot of writing or magical runes that I couldn’t understand. These runes were mainly blue and purple, constantly changing and moving within this “LCD screen,” giving it a dreamy quality.
In my memory, Xiao Mo rarely used this magic circle. When we had to go far, she mostly carried me or flew with me on her back—I understood why. If we used the magic circle for travel, Xiao Mo couldn’t hold me and do naughty things to me, so she rarely summoned the magic circle for transportation.
“Its name is Möbius Circle.”
“Eh?”
I turned around. “What… does it mean?”
I know Möbius, a mathematician who proposed the “Möbius strip,” which is a paper strip with only one side.
“It’s not the same as the Möbius you’re thinking of.”
Xiao Mo explained, “In our world, Möbius was a very great archmage. Even among the demons, she was highly regarded. Thousands of years ago, most mages could only leave the ground using spells like ‘levitation,’ but those spells consumed a lot of magic power. Möbius traveled across several continents, learning countless floating spells and runes from various mages, and she developed a set of ‘adaptive’ flying techniques, which became the prototype of this Möbius Circle.”
“The reason it’s named this way is because shortly after Möbius selflessly published the methods for summoning and using the spell, she was killed by a fire mage under the Demon King’s command… Although there are still rumors that Möbius escaped at the last moment and went into hiding, at least until I came to Earth, there had been no news of Möbius.”
So impressive.
It’s like… a selfless scientist, a great person who publicly shares their achievements with the world?
“So Möbius Circle is this…”
I gestured to the magic circle beneath me. “This distant floating magic device?”
“Yes, you can also call it Möbius’s Circle.”
At this point, Xiao Mo paused deliberately. “Want to learn it?”
“Can I?!”
I instinctively stood up, but then I remembered Xiao Mo’s earlier remark that ‘there is no magic on Earth.’
“But I… Xiao Mo, didn’t you say I can’t learn magic on Earth?”
“Möbius’s Circle isn’t a forbidden spell, I can assist you.”
Xiao Mo gave me a ‘you silly little thing’ look and walked over. “Come down first.”
“Okay.”
I jumped down from the magic circle.
“Nuo’er, you can now freely switch between elf mode and human mode, which means your body can store a certain amount of magic power. This amount of magic is usually only enough for the most basic magic apprentices to practice. But since Earth has no magic, and practicing requires numerous releases of magic power, the most suitable spells for you are small ones like Möbius’s Circle.”
While speaking, Xiao Mo had already walked behind me. She grabbed my wrist and said, “I also need to correct one thing: magic is not created out of nothing. It’s similar to energy conversion on Earth and requires us, as ‘humans,’ to drive it.”
“It’s like when we pick up a stone and throw it. Our muscles exert force, giving the stone energy, causing it to fly out and create an impact. This force doesn’t appear out of nowhere. For our arms to exert force, we need to be alive, and to be alive, we need to eat, which gives us strength.”
As Xiao Mo explained, she used her other hand to embrace my waist. “Magic works the same way. In the other world, there are magical elements in the air that we can use. But Earth doesn’t have magic, and living beings here haven’t evolved organs to use magic since the beginning of their evolution. So even if there were magic on Earth, humans here wouldn’t be able to use it without professional training.”
“Nuo’er is different in elf mode. The elven body can use magic, and elves are arguably the original magicians. Teaching Nuo’er to use magic in this mode is much easier.”
Feeling a bit dizzy from all the information, I instinctively asked, “So if there’s no magic on Earth, does that mean once I use up the magic in my body, it’s gone?”
“You can slowly recover it by eating, just like Fei Luo and the others, provided you’re in elf mode. As for you, Nuo’er… you eat very little, so your magic reserves have been replenishing very slowly these past few days. But you should still be able to try using the Möbius Circle.”
The girl holding my hand from behind gestured for me to look ahead.
“Do you remember the conditions for using magic? It’s similar to AI drawing on a computer. First, you need a processor, which is the medium that can use magic, like your body. The operating system is your mind or soul, the stronger your understanding, the better the results.”
“Next is the computer’s graphics card, which can be compared to a mage’s magical talent. The higher the talent, the faster the final image is processed and the more content can be handled simultaneously. And then… magic power, which is like the computer’s power supply.”
“I remember.”
I nodded. “So do I meet those conditions?”
“For generating the Möbius Circle, yes.”
Xiao Mo paused. “But you’re a beginner, so the magic you generate probably won’t be as fast as mine, nor as easy to control, and it won’t last as long.”
“That’s enough!”
I felt a bit excited. “I want to try!”
I knew that Xiao Mo’s decision to teach me magic was something she had thought long and hard about. Because once she taught me magic, especially this kind that allows me to fly independently, I wouldn’t need to ask her to hold me anymore whenever I had a similar need.
I suspect she might have been a bit dazzled by my earlier sweet talk, which led her to make this decision. But regardless, since Xiao Mo has decided to teach me, I definitely can’t let her down.
“Alright then… I’ll now teach you the basic runes to start the Möbius Circle.”
I could hear a slight hint of melancholy in Xiao Mo’s voice, but she still tried to maintain her usual speaking style. She leaned close to my ear and said, “The Möbius Circle is an adaptive magic. Each race, soul, personality, and individual magical talent will influence the final appearance of the magic circle. For beginners, especially, there’s a lot of randomness.”
“Eh?”
I was a bit stunned. “You mean… the small circle you just created, with purple patterns, represents your lightning attribute and devilish personality?”
“Silly, I told you it’s for beginners. I’m already an archmage, I can easily design its appearance. You don’t believe me?”
As she spoke, Xiao Mo pointed to a big tree not far away. “See that tree? I can use the Möbius Circle…”
“I get it, I get it, stop.”
I quickly interrupted her. “This is beginner magic, but an archmage like you can modify it freely. For beginners, the effect varies greatly, right?”
“Yes.”
Xiao Mo, clearly pleased by my compliment, turned her attention back to me.
“Since you understand, let’s start. First, the initial gesture… Nuo’er, think about how it feels to shift from human form to magic. There’s a sense of ‘strength’ or ‘energy’ different from when you’re human. Remember what that feels like, and be ready to call upon it at any time.”
Following Xiao Mo’s instructions, I tried to sense the “energy” within my body.
Got it.
“Do you feel it? Next, for the starting gesture of the Möbius Circle, imagine pouring that energy out in front of you.”
“As a beginner, Nuo’er, you’ll have to use the simplest method for now. Watch closely, I’ll draw a stroke and then you follow.”
“When generating magic as a beginner, remember not to use very detailed descriptions. For example, a fire mage shouldn’t start by drawing runes for ‘create explosive magic,’ as that would drain all your magic power and only produce a small flame.”
“Follow me in drawing these runes… levitation, yes, this rune represents levitation and void in the rune language. Then a small circle, keep drawing, maintain the magic output, use your mind to draw it in the target position. Your hand can assist in the motion, then the adaptation of power, yes, good…”
“Small, magic control, talent adaptation, small load-bearing, cat ears…”
“Why does this magic circle need a ‘cat ears’ rune?”
“No, I misspoke. This rune actually means ‘elf.'”
“What do you mean ‘misspoke’? That word definitely means cat ears, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, just ignore that and keep drawing.”
Under Xiao Mo’s guidance, I drew various strange circles with one hand while channeling the “magic” from my body, imagining the scenes of rune energy.
Before my eyes, the previously invisible energy cluster began to take shape little by little.
A green, four-leaf, translucent, irregular magic circle gradually floated in mid-air.
“Finally, the last two words: magic circuit control, bind.”
“Whew—”
As I channeled the last bit of “magic” into the green magic circle in front of me, a cute little leaf-like platform, just big enough for one person to sit on, appeared in a faint green light.
This…
I examined the “magic circle” on the ground. Rather than a magic circle, it felt more appropriate to call it a “floating clover.”
Is this the so-called “Möbius adaptive magic”?
Because I’m in elf mode now, is that why the magic circle turned out so green?
Speaking of which, drawing all those runes with Xiao Mo just now felt like it took at least ten minutes, whereas Xiao Mo can conjure a levitation magic circle in just a thought. Truly worthy of being called an archmage…
“Huh? Where did the cat ears go?”
Xiao Mo seemed puzzled as she looked at the floating clover, which had a diameter of only about fifty centimeters. “It shouldn’t be like this…”
“So that word earlier really was cat ears, right?!”
“Ugh, I was hoping to see a pair of cat ears appear on Nuo’er’s head. Turns out beginner mages can’t control such detailed magic.”
I knew it…
Although I felt a bit annoyed at Xiao Mo’s trick, seeing the magic circle successfully formed made me happy. I ran over and sat on it cheerfully.
Immediately, I felt a sensation similar to an “external organ being touched.” This little leaf is really under my control!
“Cheer up, Xiao Mo!”
Looking at the small leaf beneath me, only big enough for one person, I adjusted my clothes slightly and opened my arms to the girl in front of me. “Come on, this time I’ll hold you.”
“Huh?”
Xiao Mo was momentarily stunned, then quickly walked over. “You… can manage?”
“Of course, no problem!”
Seeing that Xiao Mo was still a bit hesitant, I took the initiative to pull her into my embrace.
“Momo…”
“What?”
Maybe because she didn’t expect my tone to be so gentle, Xiao Mo turned her head. “What’s wrong? Am I too heavy?”
“No.”
I smiled and reached out to brush Xiao Mo’s bangs aside. “I just… wanted to thank you.”
In the moonlight, someone’s face blushed slightly.
“You’re being sentimental.”
After a brief silence, Xiao Mo sat down without hesitation.
“I’m hungry, let’s get going.”
“……”
……