Sophia and Steph visited Mira to ask her about gifting their parents the language skill of their new world so they could talk to everyone when exploring the place. The overseer agreed and was also looking forward to meeting them as they were also the family of her daughter's girlfriend. Once Sophia was alone with Mira, she then brought up the desert they had visited a little while ago and wanted to know about the secret hiding there.

"So, who is this Kel, and why is a dragon sleeping in the oasis lake there?"

"He's a sleepy aquatic dragon." Mira scratched her cheek.

"That answers about as many questions as it raises new ones." The tiger wasn't entirely sure what to do with this information. "Why would an aquatic dragon sleep in a lake in the middle of a desert?"

"Because he likes deserts." The overseer just shrugged.

"Again, he's an aquatic dragon, right?!"

"Ah, right, you haven't seen any dragons yet, right? They're quite an eccentric bunch. Especially the powerful ones." Mira then looked at the blonde. "I think you'd get along with them pretty well."

"Hey!" The eccentric girl raised her voice.

"What? They're a fun bunch!" The overseer didn't see the issue.

"Is he the one who created the lake?" Sophia ignored her follow-up. "The depth and location did seem a little unnatural, after all."

"He did, yes." She nodded. "In fact, he's responsible for the entire oasis. Before Kel came here, it was all just desert."

"Wow! I guess that means he's also a bit older, huh?"

"That's a matter of perspective, but in your eyes, he definitely is."

"I see!" For her own mental health, Sophia decided not to ask more questions on that specific topic. "Why does he have so much magic, though? I still remember how you mentioned that Aura was pretty much at the limit when it comes to the natural amount of magic someone can have."

"For someone her size, that is." Mira smiled at her. "Kel's a big lad, so there fits a lot more authority into him before the critical mass is reached."

"Oh, wow, that actually almost makes sense!"

"That's magic for you~." The overseer's smile got even more playful.

"Even so, even if we take size into consideration, he still seems to have a lot more internal magic than Aura, though."

"Well, that's because Kel's a bit of a cheater." Mira awkwardly scratched her cheek.

"You can cheat magic?!" The blonde got loud.

"You're constantly doing that." The overseer just stared at her.

"…" She paused for a second. "Regular beings can cheat magic?!" The tiger corrected herself.

"Actually, it's less cheating and more that he's found a loophole and decided to heavily abuse it."

"You might be right! It does seem like we would get along!" She was starting to like the dragon already. "So, what did he do?"

"Anna told me that you and Blu found a type of magic ore that stores raw magic, right?"

"The big shiny rock under my cherry blossom forest?" Sophia tilted her head. "Yeah, we used to turn a portion of it into a crystal forest! Great fun!"

"That one, yes." The overseer nodded. "There's a big natural deposit at the bottom of the lake. Well, it was underground before Kel made the lake, but let's not focus on such small details."

"What is the loophole with them, though? If anything, they sap magic out of you, after all."

"He ate a whole bunch of them."

"Ehh…?" The tiger looked incredibly confused.

"In other words, Kel managed to imbue his entire body with so much of the ore that his authority effectively quadrupled over what should be the limit."

"Wow… That's quite extreme." Sophia wasn't sure what to say. "That doesn't sound overly healthy, though."

"Nah, he's fine." She smiled at her. "Dragons are naturally tough, and elemental magic is harmless no matter the amount. The ore did affect his looks, though. He's gotten rather sparkly and iridescent."

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"Ohh, sounds cute!" The tiger came to like him even more. "We saw a bit of that peeking through the depths of the water when we rowed a boat over the lake, too."

"Yes, he's hard to overlook~." Mira nodded. "Some of the initial limitations of magic still apply to him, though. On top of that, it comes with some caveats, as well. Kal can still only use the power of his original authority all at once. The imbued magic ore only prolongs how long he can use it."

"He gained more fuel, but not more power?"

"Pretty much." The overseer liked her analogy. "Him being able to use his powers for longer does make him, for the lack of a better word, more powerful, though. The other caveat is that he needs to charge up first, as the ore eats away his authority until they are full. He managed to tweak things quite well, but the regeneration of his authority does suffer from the changes to his body."

"He's a bit of an enthusiast, huh?" Sophia wasn't entirely sure what word to use.

"Not wrong." Mira shrugged.

"Are you okay with him cheating the system, though? Your system, that is."

"I'm okay with you, aren't I?"

"Again, I'm talking about people who aren't running on Canir's software!"

"Hehe." She let out a small chuckle. "In my opinion, if someone finds a loophole in my system, they're free to use it as a reward."

"I really don't recommend you telling Steph about this. She'll dedicate her everything that isn't already reserved to Chloe to find every loophole there is."

"Sorry to disappoint, but that's a good thing in my eyes." Mira shook her head. "This is how progress is made, and more creative ways of using magic come to life. In fact, I might go ahead and encourage the other girls, and Fen, to give it their best shot."

"Putting it that way, I can see your point."

"Also, as you can see in Kel's case, the truly crucial rules still apply to him. Contrary to someone, his magic, even with the ore boost, can't go out of control in a way that it's a danger to a whole continent." She glanced at the blonde during the last part.

"Ahaha…" Sophia could only react with an awkward laugh. "Anyway, okay, I now understand how and why this interesting dragon has more authority than should be possible. Still, why has Aura's magic also considerably grown during the past couple of months, even though she was supposed to have reached the natural limit already?"

"Because she's good friends with the second-best actual cheater of the system, only being beaten by Canir himself." Mira stared right at the blonde.

"Ah." The tiger felt even more called out than usual. "I still would like a bit more of an explanation, though."

"Your authority, courtesy of Canir, is many times more potent than what everyone else in your group, including Aura, was attuned for. Inside your domain, that is the normal form of magic, though."

"Canir really did an oopsie there, huh?"

"Thanks to everyone being in your domain so much and constantly using their authority to play around and create more biomes, their authority is slowly becoming more compatible with yours, and thus, it seems like they're growing in power. It makes them able to sense higher-quality magic, as well. The more you and your domain grow, the more they'll proportionally grow with you."

"Wow." Sophia was still trying to process what she had just heard. "Wait, doesn't that mean my domain and I are turning everyone into monsters?! From a magic standpoint, at least? Ari will kill me if that's true!"

"Heh." Mira simply reacted with a slight smirk.

"Oi!" She didn't like that.

"I mean, technically, you are turning them into an anomaly." The overseer scratched her cheek.

"I'm so dead."

"It only affects them in your domain, though. Only there, the regular rules of magic won't apply to them." Mira tried to help her out.

"Huh?" The blonde kept getting more confused. "I can definitely sense their higher power in the regular world, too."

"Using your earlier analogy with Earth terms, they use higher quality fuel, but their engine is still the same outside your domain. The efficiency rose, meaning it takes longer for their authority to deplete, but the power output stays roughly the same. Only within your domain can they go into overdrive. In a way, the end result in the regular world is similar to Kel's approach for them, just without the sparkly part."

"Hmm, I hope that's enough for Ari." The blonde was still scared of the jaguar's reaction to learning that she had become even more special and outside the usual common sense, thanks to her.

"Don't worry, she'll eventually understand just how amazing her situation in the world is."

"Doesn't that also mean our aquatic desert dragon would love my domain?" Sophia tried to think about the situation and the implications that came with it. "It would make it possible for him to amass even more usable fuel by going for the higher quality option, right?"

"Oh, Kel would go completely crazy if he were to gain access to your domain." Mira nodded a few times. "He would build himself a lair so impressive that everything your group made so far would pale in comparison. It would be quite the spectacle."

"Heh." The blonde paused for a second.

"I've seen that expression before." The overseer noticed her smirk.

"By the way, is he friendly?"

"Kel?"

"Yeah."

"Mhmm… Somewhat similar to Fen, I guess?" Mira tried to come up with a comparison.

"So, sometimes grumpy, sometimes excited puppy?" The tiger tilted her head.

"Pretty much."

"I think he woke up after we went to the lake." Sophia shrugged. "I put a deactivated portal near him deep down in the water, and I can feel something trying to activate it. He obviously isn't able to do it, but he's definitely trying to figure out what it is."

"That much is to be expected when presenting unknown magic to an enthusiast." The overseer wasn't surprised by his interest in the matter.

"Would it be bad if I let him in? Wait, what would happen to the oasis if he's gone? You said he was the one who created it, right?"

"At this point, the oasis is more than self-sustainable." Mira smiled at her. "Kel being in your domain would certainly be interesting. I can very much recommend it!"

"Because it's fine or because you want to enjoy the show?" The tiger raised an eyebrow.

"Yes!"

"…" Sophia suddenly looked defeated.

Afterward, because the blonde first needed to think about it, she returned to the topic of her parents for a moment and asked Mira when she had time to meet them to plan it together with her sister. Naturally, the overseer was fine at any point in time because she really wanted to meet them.

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