Magic

Magic is part of the world of Delicious in Dungeon.

Overview

Magic is the act of using a resource known as magical energy for various purposes.

Magical energy

Magical energy is present everywhere and is naturally absorbed into the body on a daily basis. An individual's ability to use magic is dependent on their personal reserve of magical energy. When a magic user runs out of magical energy, they pass out. Magical energy takes some time to replenish naturally, but consumption of things that contain a lot of magical energy (such as mandrakes or undines) can help it replenish faster, with any excess simply being excreted.

Of the different races, elves have the highest magical energy limit (as well as having high magical resistance), followed by gnomes and then tall-men. Dwarves have the lowest magical energy limit of all the races. Highly concentrated magical energy is poisonous to animals.

Magic users

Those who use magic are called magic users (魔法使い, mahōtsukai^?). While there are some magic users who can do magic by instinct, it seems that anyone can be taught how to do magic, regardless of innate ability. In addition, even if they may have a preference for a certain type of magic, magic users seem to be able to perform many different kinds of magic. There are also clerics in the world, who are implied to deal with the undead.

The elves and the gnomes appear to be the two main sources of magical education. The magic school near Kahka Brud, for example, seems to be run by a gnome. (Graduates of this school apparently all write spells in the same way.) The two magical systems are slightly different, but the fundamentals are the same. In addition, the scripts used by the two are different but can be confused (which in the past led to a number of preventable incidents involving golems). Magic users from the Eastern Archipelago use an Eastern script which appears to be based on gnomic magic. In addition, the spells typically used by each race apparently differ.

It's recommend to perform warm-up exercises before using magic. There are various methods like braiding ones hair and meditating. But the quickest and most effective is alcohol and drugs. It's also partly a matter of compatibility with whatever magic type the caster uses, suitable ones like size changing or altering dungeon structure where as teleportation and hypnosis is unsuitable. For mages who risks their lives on a daily basis many ended up being addicted, its most common amongst mages that use familiars.^{[citation needed]}

Most magic users have a tool that they use as they cast spells (commonly a staff of some kind, but other objects such as paper can be used), and temporary tools such as sticks can be used in place of a magic user's normal tool in an emergency. Magic can be cast without a tool, however. A few magic users have also been seen with what seem to be spell books. If an individual can read a spell book they should be able to cast spells written in them.

Magical sickness (魔力酔い, maryokuyoi^?) or Mana sickness is a temporary but incapacitating condition that affects new users of magic. Symptoms include nosebleeds, dizziness, hallucinating vivid colors even when eyes are closed and the sensation of something crawling around inside the body.

When magic users have used a lot of their magic energy they can suffer from symptoms that include loss of movement, shortness of breath, lightheadedness, headache, chills and dizziness until they recover their mana. There also magic transfer sickness which has worse symptoms of magic intoxication mainly headache, nausea, and dizziness.^{[citation needed]}

Forms of magic

Magic is typically either spoken in the form of spells or written. Both verbal and written magic can be dispelled, although the process can be dangerous if interrupted.

Spells have a vocal component, as when prevented from speaking, a magic user cannot cast spells. They also take time to cast. Spells can also be used to help make cures for certain conditions.

Written magic is present in the form of spell books, glyphs on the walls of dungeons, and magic circles, among other things. Magic circles appear to be a way to channel magical energy, for example as a controlled heating device, to cut out a section of ice or to create a familiar from scratch. They are made by using the magical implement of choice to etch out the circle. Spells can also be written onto people's bodies. Writing out spells allows them to be prepared for later use, for example to collapse a building at a desired time or for keeping track of runaways.

Magical objects are also present in the world - for example, the 'monster' commonly known as a Living Painting is in fact a type of magic that uses paintings to show illusions. The cores of golems are also presumably magical objects as they contain all the essential information about a golem and allow them to activate.

Known magic types

Lightning magic

Lightning magic revolves around spells that cause an electric charge to hit a target. This magic is powerful enough to take out a group of people and reduce them to ashes.

Known users:

• Rin

Fire/explosive magic

Fire and explosive magic revolves around casting spells that cause fires or explosions. While mostly used offensively, it is also useful for making fires for personal use. It is one of the types of magic that can be activated by magic circle. Magic circles using fire magic can be used similarly to an induction stove, such as when Senshi used the circles made by Marcille and Laios to cook dishes.

Fire and explosive magic is powerful so casting it multiple times takes a toll on the magic user.

Known users:

• Marcille
• Thistle
• Cithis

Teleportation magic

Teleportation magic involves the movement of objects and people from one place to another. This magic is mainly seen in the teleportation scrolls and paintings used by adventuring parties to travel from the dungeon to the surface and vice versa. Return spells are a teleportation technique utilising the spatial magic of the dungeon. After using magic to make a room a completely closed space it's then made part of the dungeon. The spell will be broken if the closed state of the room is altered. It's convenient, but requires complicated technology and extensive preparation, even then the the result are unstable. The technique shouldn't be used unless necessary because of this. However, the Canary Mithrun uses teleportation magic offensively, for example by switching the locations of people's bodies and the environment around them.

Known users:

• Falin Touden
• Mr. Tansu and Mrs. Tansu
• Maizuru
• Mithrun

Summoning magic

Summoning magic involves creating or finding familiars which follow the commands of the user. It is also the field of magic underpinning dungeon making.

The foundation of all summoning techniques is cultivating sprites.

There are three main methods to summoning creatures:

1. Taking control of existing spirits or monsters. The terms for doing so, however, are complicated, and if in a dungeon, the dungeon lord will almost certainly notice.
2. Turn existing plants or animals into monsters. The resulting monster will look similar to its original plant or animal components - for example, basilisks or cockatrices can be made from snakes and chickens. This method, however, requires a significant amount of time and preparation.
3. Make the familiar from scratch. While this method may seem the most difficult, it is good for making creatures that just need to move. It is not, however, ideal for making independent creatures. Making familiars like this is not particularly efficient, as it requires a large source of caloric energy, preferably meat (for simple familiars, this can be up to a week's worth of rations). Hair can be used in it as a magical conduit. When controlling a dependent familiar, their vision is shared with the person controlling it. The controller may also find it difficult to move their own body at the same time as the familiar.

Tampering with magical creatures such as golems is against the law.

Certification is required before being able to handle the dangerous spells necessary to make familiars.

Known users:

• Thistle
• Holm
• Marcille
• Fleki

Protection magic

Protection magic involves spells that protect against things such as fire or injury. Protection spells are implied to take some time to cast.

Known users:

• Falin Touden
• Marcille

Protection against the undead

This branch of magic revolves around blessings and wards used to prevent possession by ghosts. This can involve blessing the person themselves (a higher level of magic) or physical wards that can repel spirits.

The adventurer Falin Touden has a natural affinity with this type of magic, which was present ever since she was a child.

Known users:

• Falin Touden
• Marcille

Illusion magic

Illusion magic revolves around the changing of an individual or object's appearance to look like something else.

Living Paintings are an example of an illusion spell that manifests as painted pictures.

Known users:

• Corpse Retrievers' magic user
• Cithis

Healing magic

Healing magic revolves around the fixing of major and minor injuries. It can be performed by touching the injured area and allowing magical energy to flow from the healer to the injured party, matching their body temperature, breathing and pulse before reciting a spell. There is a certain amount of recovery pain that comes with magically healing injuries which seems to increase with the severity of the injury and speed of healing. One caveat is that if the injured person's body is 'empty', say due to becoming the victim of a succubus, healing magic will be too much of a burden for their body and could kill them instead.

It is possible that the curing of effects such as paralysis lies in the domain of healing magic. For example, the magic user in charge of resurrecting in the Corpse Retrievers is able to cure paralysis caused by Treasure Insects.

It can also be used to torture, according to the magic user Marcille.

Known users:

• Falin Touden
• Marcille
• Mr. Tansu
• Maizuru
• Pattadol

Resurrection magic

Resurrection magic is a longer version of healing magic that involves bringing people back to life. It is implied to be unique to and can only be performed while in the dungeon on the Island. One theory is that death itself is forbidden in the dungeon thus preventing people's souls from leaving their bodies on death. It is therefore linked to a mythical spell of immortality that fixes a soul to its body, which appears to be yet unknown.

Resurrection magic is described to work by healing the dead body of any damage, which brings them back to life. As it is apparently a longer version of healing magic, presumably those who have demonstrated the ability to resurrect people can also perform healing spells. The process of restoring body parts consumes a large number of calories in the form of fresh blood or meat, typically that of a goat or pig, (or even food if necessary) with more calories needed for more extensive injuries. If blood other than that belonging to the body is used, the results are not as perfect, so bodies should not be moved prior to resurrection so as to not waste any blood spilled. In addition, the body must also have enough of its own 'energy' to be able to be brought back to life.

Resurrection magic, however, is not guaranteed to succeed. The condition of the corpse plays a large role in whether or not the person can be revived, as the greater the injury, the weaker the bonds tying the soul to the body become. A majority of failed resurrections are due to the soul having left the body, or incomplete restoration of the body itself. For example, deaths via stab wounds or cuts are fairly easy to fix (with one tale even telling of a successful resurrection after being cut into tiny pieces), but it is said that if more than 1/13th of the body is lost or turned to ash, the chances drop significantly. The undoing of petrification is also fairly straightforward; however if the body is broken, care must be taken to not miss any pieces prior to attempting revival. Other complications include resurrection of a possessed body, as there is a chance the two souls can be mixed up in the process. In addition, while there have been a few cases where bodies have been resurrected from just the skeleton, this is implied to be very rare. Heavily damaged bodies require incredibly skilled magic users for a chance at successful resurrection.

On the Island, there are people who make their living by finding and resurrecting adventurer's corpses. Payment is generally set at 10-20% of what the dead person was carrying. The profession is also subsidized by the government, with bodies found at deeper levels bringing greater reward.

Known users:

• Mr. Tansu
• Marcille
• Holm
• Maizuru
• Falin Touden
• Mithrun
• Pattadol

Ancient/black magic

Ancient magic or black magic is a forbidden type of magic. It can take many forms, but revolves around access to a dimension with infinite magical energy, allowing the user to perform great feats of magic beyond their physical capability. It is one form of magic that can be channeled into magic circles.

Knowledge and practice of ancient magic is illegal - any involvement with it, no matter how minor, is considered a criminal offence. The elves have even been known to kidnap those of other races who discover magical objects from the ancient magic era. In elven society, those convicted of ancient magic use appear to have the option to join the Canaries, a task force sent out into the world to find and contain dungeons before they become too dangerous.

The reason behind its unlawfulness is because ancient magic is, in effect, a ritual that summons creatures known as demons, who are able to grant wishes at the cost of people's desires and eventually, their lives. If a demon consumes enough desires, they become strong enough to break free of the surface and cause catastrophic damage. The elves believe that knowledge of this would not be a strong enough deterrent for people to not summon demons to grant their wishes and hence intentionally conceal any and all information on ancient magic and demons.

Some examples of ancient magic include the combination of monster and human souls and the curse of immortality on the people of the Golden Land.

Known users:

• Marcille
• Thistle
• The Canaries - Cithis, Otta, Fleki, Lycion

Necromancy

Necromancy is the illegal branch of magic that involves animation of the dead. It is implied to be the source of the wandering ghosts, ghouls and skeletons in the dungeon. This is different from Resurrection Magic as it is a form of Ancient Magic that actually has an already dead person come back to life using the flesh of other animals and the person's reassembled skeletons (such as the previously digested Falin whose soul's connection to her body was extremely weak) compared to resurrection magic which is simply a form of healing magic which is healing a body that still has its soul bound to it.

Known users:

• Marcille
• Thistle (presumably, due the presence of zombies and skeletons in the dungeon)

Dungeon Lord magic

Dungeon lords have special powers over their domain that cover a range of magical disciplines. They are able to create monsters that do their bidding, change the shape of the dungeon as desired and kill creatures indiscriminately. Killing their special summons will alert them to your presence. Their lifespan is also extended by the power of the dungeon.

Dungeons must always have a connection to the outside world, otherwise the flow of magical energy will be cut off. In addition, magical energy is sparse near the entrance of a dungeon.

Known dungeon lords:

• Thistle (former)
• Mithrun (former)
• Marcille (former)

Named spells

There are a few named spells in the series, which include:

• Confusion - presumably causes confusion.
• Waterwalk - enables the target to walk on water. It appears to work by repelling water, which can be unsettling. Activated by tapping the target with the magical implement of choice. Can be used to forcefully cause an aquatic monster to surface, such as when it was used on a Kraken.
• Petrify - implied to turn the target into stone.
• Resistance - to recover from the effects of petrification faster. Implied to be more effective the sooner it is cast after being bitten.
• Heal - heals the targeted area on the person being touched. Activated by touching the injured area. Side effects include itching and pain (especially with healing that is performed quickly). May inadvertently cause problems due to the usage of touch on parts of a person's body that they are not comfortable having touched (seen with Senshi being uncomfortable when Laios touched his pecs when healing him).
• Protect - appears to protect the target, but does not make them invulnerable.
• Repel Monster - presumably to repel monsters. Apparently useless unless cast prior to being discovered.
• Light - creates magical lights that do not ignite other objects.
• Blinding Flash - presumably blinds the target with a flash of light. Possibly the same spell that Marcille casts to stun the Treasure Insects.
• Summon - creates a summon or familiar.
• Sleep - presumably puts the target to sleep.

Trivia

• According to Marcille, hair is important for magical purposes and taking care of one's hair is one of the basic tenets of magic. This is based on an old belief that using hair, nail-clippings or blood can be used to make a spell directed at the intended target more effective. Blood is also allegedly used in black magic, which is also seen in the series.
• Monsters supplement their natural energy with magical energy, with larger monsters like chimera needing more magical energy to function. In addition, monster blood and fat appears to nullify the effects of magic.
• Curses and cursed items are part of the world. It is implied that those with higher magical resistance are able to recover faster from curses.
• The types of magic seem to take heavy inspiration from magic systems from TTRPGs such as Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, both games which Ryoko Kui enjoys playing.