"HIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI! Oh wow, that's the funniest thing I've seen a human do in a while!"
Arata awakes to a sickening laugh followed by a loud crunching sound… it was obvious who it was. He looks upwards as now the once-empty theater has a disturbing scene playing on the stage, a hologram of Arata, who was fighting the bugs when he set himself on fire. Arata felt like vomiting watching the pain on his face in a gruesome final moment. Ravenna was loudly chewing popcorn while she watched the sadistic show.
"You really suck at living, that's the one thing you humans are supposed to do." Ravenna is acting as if Arata's painful death is the funniest thing imaginable.
"Fuck you," he would be angrier if he wasn't mentally exhausted, trying to collect himself so he could throw out a better insult.
Ravenna stops wheezing to comment, "It's not the fact you died, it's how you died… that was your first time using magic! The first time you cast a spell, you set yourself on fire!"
Arata let himself lie down on the floor, staring off into the distance at the technical equipment on the ceiling of the theater. Very useful… that would've been suuuuper nice to tell me earlier! When you told me about my powers! She's probably not on my side here, omitting vital information and mocking my death. Is she even human?
Ravenna creeps up closer
"Angels are beings of empathy… I can feel your uuuuuuh… something, I suppose it was a little misleading… how about I teach you all about magic as an apology." She pleads hesitantly as if she were just trying to be a little silly for getting him killed and laughing at it. Arata wondered was the purpose of angels being empaths was when they were so indifferent to human suffering.
"Well, let me explain, magic is the physical manifestation of the mana which resides within the soul. The ability of magic can be manifested due to a gene present in only 10% of the human population. That Mutation in your case is likely very strong."
Arata moves his face uncomfortably close to her face, raising an eyebrow as Ravenna begins to sweat a little. "Furthermore, magic is cast through knowledge of the world; there's a really complex language to the spells, which you express through sigils. I couldn't even tell you how it works since it sounds different to everyone. Luckily, base effects can be achieved through simple raw emotions, no incantation required. Most people don't go further."
Arata raises an eyebrow at the implication of the magic's limits, and he isn't going to let it go. Ravenna had already cost him his life once, since she had a habit of never fully explaining things. He looks irritated, "Tell me more."
Ravenna glares at his rude commands, "Do you really-"
"More!" Arata groans out.
"Fine then! Since you take mana from your soul, it's a limited resource and when you try to cast without it, you die. I figured it wouldn't matter since you'll just revive. You need to get used to dying anyway." She states in a seemingly arbitrary manner, but it was obvious that it was a far more calculated decision.
She thinks this is a game. Are you kidding me? It's already stressful enough coming from a modern society into this hellhole. I wanna eat Ren's mapo tofu, sleep in and procrastinate on school assignments-
"Hey, Ravenna, you can replay scenes of me in the dungeon. If I may see that recording? I still don't know why I caught fire." Arata explains to Ravenna as she scratches her head.
Ravenna exclaims, "Didn't I just explain, it's magic… what else could there-"
She is cut off when Arata explains, "Something doesn't add up, play it now." Ravenna walks over to the stage, using a spell. Mannequins wander onto the stage as their forms contort in various manners before magic paints over the scene. First, the human figure of Arata is filled out. Finally, the scenery as the wooden figures contort into the form of the large bugs, sporting new limbs. The scene is played back as Arata watches himself, stumbling forward in panic with his foot caught under a rock. With his trip, the chemical-smelling liquid covering his chest caused his face to contort due to the strong-smelling liquid. The bugs back away with an exaggerated look of rage on Arata's face as he spots the very moment in which his body catches fire. The flames didn't actually instantly cover him. A spark lit up in the palm of his hand as a spark spread from a singular point, where his hand gripped his sword and a spark flew. It hit the liquid as flames danced across the liquid. The magic came off the doll as the animated wood smoked, as its suffering remained animated. By the end, the object was reduced to ashes. Arata couldn't tell if it felt pain as it had no face nor a voice to express itself with.
"I need to head back. I need to confirm-" Arata has a surprisingly excited look when he suddenly is warped back, quickly dashing off through the prison. Yet again calling attention to new details, the discolored stone, the truth corpse with the bottle as he ran back to smash the door open. He opened the bottle to smell it again.
Gasoline, the bugs fear fire. That's why the corpse wasn't eaten. They scream when attacked as well… and take advantage of their numbers. I was too fixated on their appearance. They operate nothing like Centipedes, almost more humanlike in a way. They feel not only fear but rage when one of their own dies.
"Ravenna, is there any way I could stay here for a bit? I need to do some testing." Arata questions her again with a reinvigorated look.
Ravenna lets out a purposefully obnoxious whine before turning to Arata. "Up until you close your eyes, sure, I won't force you to sleep either as long as you don't bother me, I guess."
After hours of practice, Arata "finally got it down," as in, he COULD use magic but basically became a glorified lighter. Damn… my magic is really that bad? What should I even do at this rate?
Finding his way back into the dungeon, he decides to repeat the steps. Recreating each and every step, grabbing weapons, grabbing the gasoline bottle and spotting the group of bugs. The creatures are unsuspecting of the blazing sword about to impale them.
Even though Arata had no way to create a bigger flame, he had gasoline, pour it carefully and it does the same thing… right? Arata spots a bug before it spots him, swinging down with his sword, and the bug is swiftly bisected.
The corpse begins to swell, bubbling with overheated orange fluid, the corpse turgid with the energy needed for an explosion. Shit- I need to run!
Arata's other world logbook entry #1: Magic
Magic in this world sucks, hard to learn, slowly kills you and all the things that can kill you have magic too. It took me 2 hours to learn to create sparks. The process is a lot like learning to snap your fingers. It's a gesture that you learn to get a feel for once you do it once. Unlike learning to snap your fingers, you need to learn how to control your soul. I didn't even know souls were actual organs.
Update: I asked Ravenna for more information and I'm pretty sure she called me an anti-human slur. Apparently, I'm shit at manifestation, the process of drawing magic out of your body. There's another type, augmentation, of altering your own form with mana. The second type is mostly deemed as being better despite apparent limitations, since you can just return the mana to your soul after you're done using it instead of killing yourself.