“Anyway, what I meant about the general idea was that. Every ancient magic lets you manipulate some fundamental fact of nature, but until now, we didn’t realize which ones they all were. And in order to use concept magic, you have to understand the fundamental aspects of every ancient magic.”
“Mmm... Plus, understanding them all is so difficult that you need to be strong enough to clear every labyrinth to withstand the burden the knowledge places on your mind.”
That was the reason the Liberators had required potential challengers to clear every labyrinth before bestowing upon them the knowledge of concept magic. Now that Hajime and Yue had acquired all seven of them, they realized their understanding of each ancient magic had been lacking. Take for example creation magic, which had been Hajime’s lifeline all this time.
It wasn’t “magic that let you enchant ore,” but rather “magic that let you manipulate inorganic matter.” In other words, the polar opposite of metamorphosis magic. Now that Hajime knew this, he realized creation magic could be applied to water or salt too.
Furthermore, gravity magic was magic that manipulated the planet’s energy. In other words, those who knew it could interfere with a planet’s magnetic field or utilize geothermal energy like magma. It could be used to cause earthquakes or volcanic eruptions as well.
Spatial magic was magic that manipulated boundaries. Meaning it could be used to create entire dimensions as well as manipulate the boundaries between fantasy and reality. A skilled master could turn reality into illusion and illusions into reality.
Restoration magic was magic that manipulated time. Which explained why in her message, Meiru had described it as magic that restores and not magic that heals. However, it could do more than just restore things to a previous state. Since it could interfere with time directly, it could be used to look into the past or potential futures based on set decision variables. Shea’s Future Sight was, in fact, just one application of restoration magic.
Spirit magic was magic that manipulated the incorporeal elements of sentient beings. In more concrete terms, it could be used to manipulate the heat, electricity, and other matterless energy that circulated within a person’s body. That also included things like memories, thoughts, and consciousness. With enough skill, a spirit magic user could take those incorporeal elements, duplicate them, and create a new soul out of them. In other words, create another person.
Evolution magic was magic that manipulated information. When it was used to strengthen someone’s stats or skills, it effectively overwrote the “information” of their abilities with something of a higher tier. But evolution magic could also be used to view the information of any person or object, as well as interfere with their total mana capacity.
All the ancient magics had been given the names they had because those names best represented how that magic interfaced with people.
Incidentally, the Compass of Eternal Paths used spirit magic to read the users wishes, then used spatial magic to pinpoint the location of what they desired, and finally used evolution magic to process all of that information and display it accurately. None of those three things were possible with the more well-known applications of ancient magic. Hajime explained all of that to the others, and Shizuku frowned a little.
“I see. So every ancient magic can interfere with some fundamental abstract concept. I guess that’s too much for normal humans to handle. No wonder you can’t just make something to take us home... From the sound of it, it’ll be pretty difficult to combine all the right elements together...” Vol 10 p215