Thomas Prest: A Simple Magician

Chapter 70: Everything bad is good for something else

"George Weasley! The smarter twin!" The right twin cheerfully stuck out his hand and Tom raised his eyebrow at him, taking his hand and shaking it...

But nothing happened.

Tom gave George a questioning look but the boy just innocently smiled as he pulled back his hand.

'Hmm... what are these two up to?' Tom wondered as he approached the other twin.

In a very similar manner, Fred also stuck out his hand for Tom and exclaimed with a cheeky grin, "Fred Weasley! The prettier twin!"

Tom accepted the offered handshake and his eyes slightly widened as he felt a small tickle of magic trying to mix subtly with his own reserves.

'The handshake, huh?' Tom inwardly mused as he easily countered the effect of whatever the twins tried to use on him.

Unfortunately for the twins' prank, Tom was not a wizard. Wizards were notoriously known in the Supernatural World for being uneducated folk who had no control of their own magical energy. It was the truth too.

Wizards still believed notions like their magic was in the blood or that they could not control it without focus or... and Tom had to facepalm that some wizards actually believed this... that there was no reservoir of magic in their body and they could cast spells because they are special, not because they had some kind of magical energy in them.

This was the theory that magic was like a muscle, which was laughable.

It might seem like that to some uneducated caveman since depleting your magic depleted your reserves, which inadvertently increased said reserves ever so slightly. So, if someone didn't believe or know there was a reservoir of mana in them, the process could be likened to exercising a muscle that grows stronger the more you exercise it.

Still, magic... a muscle. Heh...

The whole notion rubbed Tom the wrong way. For a magician, rules mattered. Energy conversion was the most damnably unbendable rule that existed and it didn't matter if it was science or magic, it was there and it always worked. It was not easily noticeable in most cases but most magic indeed worked on this principle too.

Not even magic casters could have an effect without a cause.

Magic wasn't something that fulfilled your wishes without being supplied enough energy.

Even though Tom tried to find a way around these rules, he knew he was too weak to break the biggest rule of all when it came to magic. Even if he pushed the limits of possibility, it was still important to show humility and know when something is impossible to the current him. The arrogant notion that wizards, the biggest race of weak cannon fodder, could cast magic not through using mana but by using some stupid magic muscle was... offending to him.

Not even Gods in this universe could pull miracles out of their collective asses without putting enough of their special divine energy into it. Wizards believing they could do miracles by just flexing their magical muscles and warping reality because they were simply born more special than even Gods was the height of arrogance in his books.

Tom suddenly blinked, getting back to reality as he felt Fred's hand squeeze a bit while the boy was staring at Tom in surprise.

Realizing that Fred was most likely wondering why his prank didn't work, Tom just smirked at the boy, "You are too young to be pranking me, kid." He smugly said and turned around, leaving flabbergasted Fred and Gorge who were stared at by a very unamused Arthur Weasley.

Tom had no idea how they put the magical effect on him through the simple handshake. He had a few assumptions and he knew both Fred and Gorge had to have a part in that so it was not only Fred's handshake that triggered the effect.

Still, it was interesting. The two managed to sneak a magical effect on him despite him being on guard against them.

But it doesn't matter how smart you are with your use of magic if your opponent can just shrug it off without even paying much attention.

If Tom had no idea how to sense and control his own magic pool? Then sure, even if he was on the level of Satan, he would be unable to stop it simply because having massive magical reserves didn't mean being resistant to foreign magic.

That's why even experienced wizards fell for these little pranks.

And that was also why the wizards were so utterly helpless against most supernatural races out there. Their lack of sheer power was just the tip of the iceberg. There were more issues with their current way of using magic. Like their inability to properly consciously control it without a wand.

Tom turned to Natasha as he picked up a bag where their new wizarding tent was folded, "Shall we set up our temporary house?" He smiled at her with a bit of excitement.

"Er... you can stay at our house. We can afford to empty one room fo-" Arthur decided to interject when he heard what Tom said and realized they intended to stay in a wizarding tent.

"No, thank you." Tom promptly refused. Realizing that his refusal came too abruptly and could make Arthur feel awkward, Tom threw the man a placating smile as he added, "Our tent is a bit bigger and has both a massive bedroom for me and Natasha alongside a room for Hermione. There is no need to inconvenience yourselves because of us."

As Tom said that, he could see that Arthur was still hesitating but grudgingly nodded at the logic, whereas the kids were relieved at not having to share their rooms.

Not that Tom could blame them. He would not like sharing his room either if he was in their place.

The Weasleys then dispersed to do... whatever they did, while Tom, Natasha, and Hermione stayed back, unfolding their tent.

It wasn't anything hard as the original design worked automatically with just a bit of injection of wizarding magic.

Tom naturally bought ten of those tents at once and tinkered with them a lot since then. The tent in front of him was his only successfully modified prototype that fully worked on his neutral mana.

Studying the tents gave him quite a few ideas on how to better use his own alchemy too so he had a lot of fun tinkering with them.

Tom had so many bad things to say about wizards and their magic... but at the end of the day, this wizarding tent was massive proof that wizarding magic could also be marvelous.

There was no other faction in the wider Supernatural world where mid-rank beings could twist space enough to create an entire house in a small tent or set up an entire zoo in a briefcase.

Only wizards were crazy enough to do that as Tom could imagine even a small mistake during the craft of these tents would result in twisting of space and most likely grinding the crafter into a bloody mush if he was too close.

It was honestly a ridiculous situation. From what Tom knew, wizards overall had the best general knowledge of magic. They had an overview of many ways of utilizing their magic through their wands and the general knowledge of a Hogwarts graduate was perhaps even superior to some long-time magic users from other factions as far as the studied number of magical fields was concerned.

Unlike, say, devils, whose magic-users usually picked a field or two and became the absolute best they could in their chosen fields, the wizards studied most magical fields their magic system was offering them. They seldom went beyond basic understanding but their knowledge was more focused on quantity than quality.

This paired with their general lack of knowledge about mana and how it all worked, and their misconception about their own powers, resulted in some crazy discoveries simply because the wizards were not aware of certain rules of magic and lacked common sense.

Of course, hundreds of wizards died when they experimented with their magical ideas but occasionally, some lucky and smart guy actually discovered a loophole once he haphazardly plastered several spells together and rejoiced when it didn't explode in his face.

Mid-rank beings twisting space was crazy. Creating a portkey? That might be possible to be done with just a wave of a wand. After all, even low-rank devils had their own means of teleportation and group teleportation through the Magic Crest of the Pillar Family they served.

But making something bigger on the inside? That would require more effort than just a casual flick of a wand. That was serious spatial manipulation.

But... after being unable to discover much, Tom made use of his useless wealth and paid the tentmakers an outrageous one million galleons for their secrets. He knew when he was beaten and sometimes it was better to discard his pride and just ask questions to people who knew how these things worked.

Tom came to know that in the creation process of these tents they used runes, wards, enchantments, and many more fields, all working in tandem to create this wonder of magic.

Nobody in the wider supernatural world could ever hope to make this kind of tent. Not because they would be unable to but because the magic users would usually never focus on so many magical fields at once.

And to be fair, no wizarding warder or enchanter could ever hope to match the prowess of a specialized warder or enchanter from another faction, but they made up for that with the sheer utility and versatility of their creations.

It's just a pity that these creations usually worked on wizarding magic and other factions could not be bothered researching how to adjust them to their own energy source. That wasn't as easy as flipping a switch.

Even Tom's prototype that worked on his mana was more or less him sending mana to a wardstone that converted his mana into wizarding magic that then powered up the tent. Fully adjusting the tent to work purely on his mana would take a very long time and could have unforeseen consequences.

Tom wouldn't want to be inside of his tent when the space within collapsed on itself because of some minor spell failure.

'I guess, everything bad is good for something else. If the wizards had full conscious control over their magic, they would have never experimented so much with what they could and could not do and discovered so many magical wonders.' Tom thought as he finished activating the tent, and watched as it unfolded and set up itself in front of him.

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Author Note:

Eh, kinda meh chapter but it is what it is :D.

I've got no idea how you receive me putting such a huge emphasis on portraying the differences between various magical systems and energies, and how my MC perceives it, but...

If you don't like it, I am sorry, but since I am doing a world crossover, I kinda have to build the world properly and portray the situation at least somewhat logically.

With this chapter, my general explanation of the difference between wizarding magic and other types of magic is mostly over so rejoice!

There will be some other explanations but I will try to insert them into the story, using a paragraph or two for those, and not do it through a massive chapter-long info dump.