Chloe was very proficient in the usage of magic, and she even was able to use chantless magic with an amount of magic power or authorization that shouldn't normally let her do so. Her magic teacher was rather strict, though, and she never was allowed to play around too much. Not once in her life had she caused a big and flashy explosion. Sophia, Fen, and Aura, deeply saddened by this, wanted to change that by showing the poor fox-girl how to create a nice explosion. As usual, the group got a little sidetracked, but once they got back on track, Sophia finally tried to teach Chloe how to create an explosion. She’s an expert in that field of expertise, after all.

“You said that an explosion with a crater the size of a house is good enough for you, right?" Sophia tried to remember her conversation with the fox-girl not too long ago while looking at her.

“More than enough, yes!” She nodded a few times.

“Hmmn…” She stared at her for a while longer before eventually facing Fen. “How much of her magic would she need for this? Around 10%, I guess?”

"To activate environmental magic or use it as fuel?" He looked back at her.

“I’m best with using it as fuel. I wanted her to make a small hole and fill it with her magic before igniting it.”

“I see…” He paused for a moment while thinking about it. “I think 5% of her power should be plenty for that already. 10% would probably make the crater at least as big as our mansion in the capital.”

“Aren’t you proud of us, Maya?" The tiger then looked at her cat. "I asked Fennyfenny for help to find the right amount of magic, and he actually suggested using less.”

“I’ll tell you after we're done with this." She wasn't entirely convinced that they were actually being careful here.

“Fair enough.” The blonde hadn’t hoped for much more than that. “Anyway… Chloe, can you control your magic in a way that lets you use 5%?”

“Flat 5% or around it? Like 4.9 or 5.1%?" The fox-girl tilted her head while replying to her.

“Uhh… I take that as a yes?”

“Yup!” She nodded a few times. “Finely controlling my powers was one of the first things Feyfey taught me!”

"Is it just me, or were you a pretty bad teacher…?" Sophia glanced at Fen. “You never taught me any of that.”

“Shut up.” He glared at her. “I taught you how to have fun and explode things, though.”

“I love you!” She quickly reevaluated his teaching abilities.

“Better.” The wolf looked happy again.

"A bit of essential common sense and some basics in holding back maybe wouldn't have been so bad, though." Maya needed to complain a little.

“You say that, but all of this is why you met Sophia in the first place, though.” Fen looked at her. “It was me who suggested visiting your village after we left the monster country and had a few troubles with some humans."

“I love you!” Maya had also reevaluated her opinion on his way of doing things.

“Anyway,” Sophia focused on Chloe again. “Where were we again?” She had lost track of everything.

"You asked me whether I can finely control my au- magic to only use 5% of it."

“Right!” She apparently remembered.

“I can, by the way.” The fox-girl repeated herself to make Sophia stay focused.

“Perfect!”

“I didn’t understand a whole lot earlier, but it seems like you have a plan?” The fox-girl tilted her head again while looking at the blonde. “Tell me!” She sounded excited.

“Instead of using my own internal magic to command external magic, I like to use it directly. Using it as actual fuel makes it easier to control, and it's more predictable, as well."

“Ohh, I see!” Her expression lit up. “I’ve used my own internal magic as fuel for nature-related things before, but never in a way to trigger an explosion with it. Sounds fun!”

“Nature-related things?” Sophia immediately took an interest in that.

“When you bathe plants in your magic, it works like fertilizer, and they grow like crazy. Feyfey got really mad with me when I accidentally made a tree grow over 100m tall almost in an instant…”

"Ohh!" Sophia's eyes started sparkling. “After we’re done with the explosion thingy, can we try that, as well?! That sounds amazing!”

“Sure!”

"I didn't know you could do that..."

“Never heard of it, either…” The wolves apparently didn’t know about this technique yet.

“Sounds fun, though! I like that idea." Surprisingly, Maya was on the side of the duo. "Even I don't know how Sophia could possibly create a catastrophe by simply growing plants.”

“Famous last words.” Aura decided to mumble these words only to herself. She wanted the cat-girl to have a good time as well, after all.

“With that being decided on, let's blow something up!” The tiger sounded even more motivated now.

“Yay!” So was the fox-girl. “So, what should I do?”

"You'll have to create a hole in the ground and fill it with your magic power.”

“I see!” Chloe nodded a few times. “How big and deep should the hole be?”

“Not overly big… Maybe a cylindrical hole about 30cm wide and 2 meters deep, I guess?”

“Sounds easy enough!” Saying so, the pink-haired girl concentrated for a moment, and immediately after, a hole with the exact dimensions Sophia mentioned appeared before them. “Are the 5% of my magic you mentioned earlier okay, or does it have to be a more specific amount?"

“Nah, that’s just fine.” The tiger only waved her hand. “This is no open-heart surgery, after all. It’s alright if you simply eyeball it.”

“Okay!” Afterward, she looked at the hole again for a moment before facing Sophia once more. “I felt a little fancy and used 5.5%!”

“Whatever makes you happy~.” Sophia was glad that the fox-girl seemed to be having a good time.

“Can I light it now?!” She was having a very good time.

“I’m not sure how you feel about it, but I’d like to put some distance between the hole and myself before you blow it up.” The blonde pointed at the hole in the ground that was only a meter away from them. "Personally, I don't want to be blown up. I had enough of that already."

"A-Ah…” Chloe’s cheeks turned a little red. “I got a bit too excited…”

“I know that feeling~.” Sophia showed her a happy smile.

“We do, too…” Everyone else just nodded.

Afterward, the group retreated to a safe distance before Sophia placed a hand on Chloe’s shoulder while also giving the fox-girl a thumbs-up with her other hand.

“Blast away!”

“Yay!” With a broad smile on her lips, Chloe then ignited the magic that she had poured into the hole earlier. Immediately after, a flame shot out of the hole before the ground around it exploded. Debris and earth flew all around it before a full-on pillar of fire rose towards the sky. Once everything calmed down again, only a bit of smoke and a giant crater around 50m in diameter were left behind.

"Well, I'm quite happy that I thought about retreating from the hole…" Sophia was awkwardly scratching her cheek while looking at the destruction and Chloe. “You might’ve overdone it a little, my dear. Oh! Is that how you feel with me all the time?” She then glanced at Maya.

“Shut up.” She apparently wasn’t in the mood for that right now.

“Was that really just 5% of your power, girl?” Fen stared at her. “That explosion felt more like double than that. Also, why is your magic fully recovered already?”

"Wow!" For Chloe, it wasn't time to respond to the wolf's questions yet. "That was sooo cool! You’re the best, Sophia! Thank you so much for teaching me how to do it!”

“Ehehe~.” The tiger liked her reaction. “Just call me for more~.”

“Yay!” She looked delighted about it before looking at the crater again. “Still… wasn’t the explosion a bit too big? I would've been more than happy with something half the size!"

“That’s exactly what I just said!” Fen raised his voice. “Did you really only use around 5% of your power? It felt closer to what 10% should've done. Also, why has your magic fully recovered already?"

“Really?” Chloe only tilted her head. "I did use only a little over 5%, though… Also, precisely because it was only that little, its recovery didn't even take a second, after all."

“Hmm…” He stared at the fox for a while before eventually looking over to Sophia.

“What?” The blonde didn’t like his stare. "I see no problem with that. My power also gets misjudged all the time, and it wouldn't take me any longer than a few moments to recover that much magic, either!"

“That exactly is my problem! You are you, after all.”

"A-Ah…” The boosted, half-overseer tiger finally understood what he was implying.

“Is there something wrong?” Naturally, Chloe couldn’t follow their conversation. “Feyfey’s magic has the same au… power, though… It recovers about as fast as mine, too. I don’t think there’s anything out of the ordinary?” She tilted her head again.

“Hmmn…” Fen then looked at Aura. “Did Feyanis have such remarkable powers? I remember her being similar to us? Also, it sounded like she wanted to say something else just now...”

“We parted ways with her looong before I had my accident, so the memories are a little hazy, but I definitely would’ve remembered something like that.” She shook her head. “Then again, my own power doubled with that accident, so who knows what happened with her since then. We came across so many exceptions that I have little issues with believing it.” She stole a glance at Sophia while saying so.

“Hey!” The blonde had noticed that. “If anything, Fennyfenny, step up your game! Aura got a huge boost, and this Feyfey seemed to have improved, as well. What did you do all those years besides lazing around?"

"…" He was unable to reply anything here and just hung his head. Sophia apparently had hit a nerve here.

“Anyway, don’t worry about him!” The tiger faced Chloe again. “He also got jealous of me because my magic recovers faster than his and has somewhat more power behind it.”

“Really?” The fox-girl looked at the wolf. “You shouldn’t be jealous about something like that, Fenfen!”

"Urgh…" He hung his head even more. "Maya, can you do something about those two…?" He didn't want to deal with them anymore right now.

"If you can tell me how and what, sure…" She had given up on it, as well.

“…” Fen had nothing in store.

“Okay!” Sophia sounded excited again. “Do you want to explore some more, or can we try out the nature magic thingy you mentioned earlier?!”

“Oh! For now, I’m quite happy with the destruction I was able to cause.” She looked at the crater again. “We can play a bit with that if you want to.”

“Yay!”

Even though Fen was still a bit confused about why the fox-girl’s magic seemed so different, as it didn’t seem like he was getting any answers, the wolf gave up on it for the time being and just looked forward to whatever catastrophe would result from the girls playing around with nature-related magic.