"So you can make anything with that ink?" Azel asked, watching his head dissolve into a thick black liquid that floated mid-air like smoke.
"Not anything," Ira said, raising a finger.
"The more complex the creation, the more mana it consumes. For example, a simple human head like yours…" she paused, realizing how strange that sounded, "is easier to form because it has ordinary human features: eyes, bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and basic neural lines."
She gestured, and the ink hovered again, reshaping briefly into a rough skull diagram to illustrate.
"But a monster's head?" She sighed. "That's an entirely different story. Their anatomy is layered with special membranes and organ clusters that regulate mana flow, specialized glands that secrete elemental fluid, and sensory nodes that help them channel power through instinct instead of reasoning. Reproducing that kind of biological system is… complicated."
Azel blinked slowly.
'Wow, she's a nerd.'
