Although she had created magic before, those spells only reached a stage of understanding that they worked, not how. Thus, she was unable to compile them into grimoires. But today, under the influence of that wondrous sensation, she had finally succeeded.
What a massive gain.
Fíliya cried out with joy in her heart.
To put it in perspective, [Magic to Create Water from Thin Air] and [Water Manipulation Magic] combined would have cost around 2.5 million points in the System's shop. Yet, after exploring them from the ground up, she had fused the two into one, creating a completely new, integrated spell.
This wasn't just about saving money; what she cared about more, of course, was the prefix of this magic.
[Fíliya's Water Magic]... Ehehe...
[Fíliya]... slurp~~
The moment she thought of those three words, Fíliya subconsciously licked her lips.
Fíliya felt like she was about to drool. To think that a newly created magic would actually be crowned with her own name.
Even if this grimoire were given to others to learn from in the future, they would forever remember her name.
Ah... she was almost tempted to donate it to a magic academy as a textbook. Wouldn't that count as leaving her name in the river of human history?
And doing so would surely earn her a lot of emotion points.
Ah, all for one and one for all. What a wonderful outcome.
Besides the grimoire, there was something else that surprised Fíliya even more.
She discovered that her maximum mana capacity had grown by a truly absurd amount.
To what degree, you ask? If her original total mana was only one-fifth of that Miss Ehre's, now it was about one-half... although it still seemed to be less than Miss Ehre's.
But one must understand, the mana growth she had achieved in this short period already surpassed the accumulation of her previous ten-plus years.
For an oddball like Miss Fíliya, who never trained her mana at all, this was even more exhilarating than learning new magic.
At the same time, Fíliya also discovered a new method of training her mana that was perfectly suited for her.
That is, to understand a magic from its fundamental principles, recreate it, and then compile it into a new grimoire.
...If this method could be replicated and consistently work, she could become stronger by an unknown multiple in no time.
Ehehe.
Just as Fíliya was lost in her own world, Solitär slowly walked over to the grimoire Fíliya had written.
She slowly reached out her hand and, with a smile, stroked the cover of the newborn grimoire.
"How impressive... Fíliya, you truly are special. I have lived for a very long time, but this is the first time I have ever witnessed the birth of a grimoire."
Solitär did not hide her praise. After all, grimoires are creations unique to humanity. The concept of passing down knowledge is utterly alien to the Demon Race's way of thinking, so no matter how powerful a demon is, they are incapable of writing a grimoire.
"Mmm, I'll accept your praise for now. Solitär, don't you want to take a look?"
Fíliya crossed her arms, a confident expression on her face.
"Eh? Fíliya, you want me to be the first to learn your magic?"
Solitär raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Of course. Grimoires are made to be learned by others. Besides, you witnessed the moment of its birth. It's only fitting that you be the first to read it."
Fíliya said casually, jutting her chin to indicate that Solitär could look at it whenever she was ready.
Solitär then took on a thoughtful expression. She was different from other members of the Demon Race.
Most demons in this world only ever study the innate magic they are born with.
But Solitär chose to learn a bit of everything, to be a generalist. She even took the initiative to understand the evolution of human magic, learning the iterated human spells like Ordinary Attack Magic and Defensive Magic.
She recalled how effortlessly Fíliya had cast her water magic just moments ago and understood at once. Fíliya's new spell integrated both 'creating water from nothing' and 'manipulating water,' and its application was even freer and more flexible.
Mmm, it was undoubtedly a powerful magic. Logically, she should learn it.
But Solitär simply placed her hand back on the grimoire's cover, stroking it, and stroking it again. It was unclear what she was thinking. Then, she picked up the book and handed it back to Fíliya.
"Eh? Solitär, you're not going to learn it?"
Fíliya took back her grimoire, looking a bit puzzled.
"Mmm, this is magic that you, Fíliya, created. It's a crystallization of human wisdom; it would be better for a human to see it first. Besides... if I were to learn your magic, according to human customs, wouldn't I have to call you 'Master'? I'd rather not do that."
Solitär said with a light chuckle.
Fíliya raised a slight eyebrow, then silently put the grimoire back into her travel backpack.
Her mood right now was truly joyful, ecstatic even.
Because, after Solitär had spoken those words, a very distinct notification sound echoed in her mind.
[Gained 500,000 Emotion Points]
...But more than the points themselves, what Fíliya clearly cared about was...
This was the first time since meeting Solitär that the System had announced an emotion point reward.
In other words, what Solitär had revealed in that moment was, without a doubt...
An emotional fluctuation.
And so, Miss Fíliya had a wonderful day.
In the days that followed, finding herself terribly bored, Miss Fíliya began to frantically experiment, deconstructing and re-understanding all sorts of other magic.
The results, however, were not very significant, much to Miss Fíliya's deep regret.
Even though she had personally experienced that profound sensation once, there was no way to replicate it indefinitely.
As expected, an opportunity for a moment of divine insight can't just be summoned at will... Fíliya thought.
Of course, it wasn't as if she had gained nothing at all—she successfully wrote her second grimoire.
[Fíliya's Pain Control]
To the original pain amplification, Fíliya added methods for pain reduction and even complete pain nullification.
This achievement elevated the magic from a common spell suitable only for torture to the level of mind magic.
With this magic, Fíliya also caught her first glimpse through the gates of the mental domain.
Fíliya really had Solitär to thank for being able to write this grimoire.
She had combined her own experience in torturing the Demon Race with Solitär's experience in torturing humans and other creatures and Monsters. She even acted as a test subject herself, letting Solitär cut her up quite a bit before she finally, completely understood the nature of pain.
Of course, the process was rather bloody. Little activities like severing tendons in her hands and feet, piercing her brain with a needle through the eyeball, pulling out all twenty of her nails, and making decorative cuts on her body were all 'games' the two tried repeatedly. Fortunately, both Fíliya and Solitär were 'inhuman' individuals. Moreover, Solitär's mana was incredibly strong, capable of achieving healing effects on par with low-level divine arts, which is how the two were able to complete these great achievements.
By the time she completed this grimoire, Fíliya herself was on the verge of death. It took a full month of recovery under Solitär's care for the various physical injuries to finally heal.
Solitär had, of course, considered capturing a priest for Fíliya, but doing so would have meant breaking her promise to her.
After all, she could not allow her name to reach the human world. If she captured a priest, she would have to kill the priest in the end.
Therefore, Miss Fíliya could only recover slowly without a priest's aid.
And throughout this process of mutual experimentation, Miss Fíliya felt that the emotional distance between her and Solitär had closed just a little bit more.
The proof was... she had already managed to squeeze 2 million points out of Solitär.
Getting emotion points from a demon was as hard as she'd thought. For over a month, she and Solitär had been torturing each other daily, and she had even written a new grimoire. Even with the bonus from such events, she had only managed to get 2 million points from Solitär.
Still, getting something was better than nothing. At least Miss Fíliya was enjoying herself.
Because she had truly confirmed her hypothesis.
This type of greater demon, who had lived for hundreds or even thousands of years... was fully capable of developing emotions.
______
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