Chapter 63: Chapter Sixty-Three: Luring Away

Magic constructs, or simply magic armor, are a vital component of a Magical Girl's combat capabilities.

Senior Cuique had previously explained to two newcomers that as one blossoms to the Bud rank, total mana increases and magic constructs awaken, causing a Magical Girl's combat ability to leap forward.

Of course, all this has a prerequisite: the magic armor itself must be suitable for combat. After all, there are individual cases like Senior Cuique, who possessed almost no combat ability at the initial awakening of her magic armor, with only an increase in total mana.

And now, the most important thing is to see what Xia Liang's magic construct actually looks like and what abilities it possesses.

"So... how does one do it again?"

Raising her arm and scanning her surroundings, Xia Liang asked with some confusion: "They say it's my true form, yet I feel as though nothing has changed about myself? Although my mana is indeed much more abundant."

"Your true form is a part of yourself; how could constructing your true form make you feel strange?"

Still with arms crossed, Senior Cuique explained concisely: "As for using the magic construct, you must first draw out your wand."

Hearing this, Xia Liang obediently raised her wand, holding it level before her: "Like this?"

"No specific movement is needed; just as usual, try infusing your mana into the wand." Senior Cuique continued to guide her.

"Ha... like this?" Xia Liang followed instructions, releasing a small stream of mana.

Immediately, her wand reacted in a way completely different from before.

When her mana touched it, a pattern of light rapidly lit up on the wand's surface; immediately after, just like Xia Liang herself had a few minutes prior, overlapping phantom images emerged.

The wand within the phantom images flickered and jumped like a distorted image, its shape beginning to become utterly different from its original form.

Fine mana particles spewed forth along the light patterns, enveloping the amorphous wand, floating and rotating in mid-air like a nebula.

Xia Liang could not help but widen her eyes, admiring the scene with some awe.

Lin Xiaolu, who had previously shown little interest, finally picked up a bit of curiosity, staring intently at Xia Liang as well.

"The wand is actually the most basic form of a magic construct, an external manifestation of your own power; it's just that at the Seed rank, Magical Girls without a true form have no way to uncover its true appearance."

Gazing at the nebula formed by mana particles before Xia Liang, Senior Cuique said calmly: "But now, its state is proving to you that you have already earned this qualification."

"... And then?"

Xia Liang pondered while asking with interest: "What should I do next?"

"Chant your own codename."

Senior Cuique raised her chin slightly, gesturing to Xia Liang: "Then communicate with your magic armor, which is also issuing a declaration to your soon-to-awaken magic armor, extracting it from its current nest and causing it to reveal its true form."

Xia Liang composed her expression and nodded seriously.

Gazing at the mana turbulence in her palm, she controlled her somewhat nervous yet excited emotions and took a deep breath:

— "Xiao Jin, magic construct extraction."

The mana particles, originally flowing in groups, paused slightly, then began to move upward, exploding outward in their entirety.

The dispersing mana halted its momentum before reaching the ceiling, then fell in droplets like a rain of light; within a small screen of light, Xia Liang stared blankly at her palm:

The object that appeared was somewhat unexpected to her.

"So this is... my magic construct?"

For there, only a palm-sized dressing mirror lay.

In the imagination of ordinary people, since the so-called "magic construct" is a weapon for combat, it should logically be a tool that appears more lethal. But in fact, the appearance of a magic construct is not necessarily a "weapon" in the conventional sense.

Just as Senior Cuique's magic armor consists of thread and scissors, sewing tools understood by common people, and some Magical Girls' magic armors are even stranger: writing pens, watering cans, handkerchiefs... bizarre magic armors are what best reflect individual differences among Magical Girls.

Furthermore, the power of a magic armor has little relation to its image; it depends only on the user's proficiency, depth of development, and the magic armor's own potential.

Therefore, Senior Cuique was not surprised that Xia Liang's magic armor was a mirror.

On the other side, after a brief moment of surprise, Xia Liang picked up the mirror, looking at her face left and right, yet found no changes in it.

"Is that all?"

She muttered to herself, then a thought flashed through her mind: she wanted to infuse mana to try it out. She immediately raised her hand, releasing magenta-purple mana from her palm, attempting to make it contact the mirror.

— "While I agree with your attempt to use mana, I suggest you do not do so inside the house."

Seeing her act thus, Senior Cuique spoke up in time to stop her, then pointed toward the window, gesturing: "If you do not wish to accidentally blow up your own home, it is best to find an open space."

"Ah, sorry, sorry."

Coming to her senses, Xia Liang smiled apologetically: "I was a bit too eager."

After simply apologizing to Senior Cuique, she took Lin Xiaolu and Senior Cuique and left her home, heading to an open space she knew of.

Once outdoors and landed at a relatively open spot, Xia Liang impatiently took out her magic armor and began trying to infuse mana into her mirror.

As expected, driven by mana, Xia Liang's magic armor began to reveal its true abilities. Soon, the few of them discovered several simple functions of her magic armor:

The most primary was changes in shape and quantity; Xia Liang could control her mirror magic armor to increase its quantity or enlarge its area. The upper limit for quantity was roughly five, while the upper limit for area was only one square meter; she could manipulate its movement freely within a range of about twenty meters in radius.

Besides this, the mirror had two uses:

The first was to block and reflect mana to a certain extent, weakening mana contacting its surface and reflecting it in another direction. Through trials by Xia Liang and Senior Cuique, whether mana beams, scattered mana flows or particles, or even fixed-structure spells, could all be reflected back by Xia Liang's magic armor.

Although its current upper limit for withstanding force was only the strength of a casual mana beam from a Bud-rank Magical Girl.

The second use was transmitting mana; Xia Liang could make mana contacting the mirror's surface emerge from another mirror. Through this ability, within the controllable range of the mirrors, she could redirect mana beams originally aimed at any position.

The upper limit for this ability was significantly higher; even when Senior Cuique boosted the mana beam's intensity to nearly Leaf-rank standards, it could still be transmitted and redirected by the mirror.

It could be said that although this mirror magic armor lacked direct destructive power, it had great development potential in terms of functionality.

"Feels like a magic armor with strong supportive functions?"

After playing with all the various functions of the magic armor as if discovering a new toy, Xia Liang judged thus: "Although using it well in combat might require a lot of brainpower."

"For now, yes; it indeed has not displayed any lethal capabilities."

Senior Cuique was also studying the magic armor in Xia Liang's hand and gave her judgment quite fairly: "But based on my preliminary observation, if you wish to make it exert lethal force, after reaching Leaf rank, there will be many spells that can coordinate with your magic armor."

"So I should start aiming for Leaf rank now?" Xia Liang stuck out her tongue.

"How many times have I said it: do not aim too high."

Raising her hand, she tapped lightly on Xia Liang's forehead; Senior Cuique glanced at her and said: "Do not think so much for now; give your magic armor a name."

"Ouch! Oppose corporal punishment education!" Xia Liang shouted, covering her head.

"I didn't even use any strength," Senior Cuique said expressionlessly.

"But it hurt the girl's tender heart!" Xia Liang feigned anger.

"Did that tender heart tell you the name of the Demon Armor?" Senior Cuique didn't take the bait at all, asking with drooping eyelids.

"Oh, well, if you want to know the name, I actually already knew it when I awakened."

Xia Liang raised her head slightly, holding her Demon Armor; anyone could sense her excitement:

"Its name is 'Yinli'."