"Resources help a lot. Wizards can do an enormous amount of stuff and it's all, all, all bottlenecked on mana, everybody hoarding it and trying to spend it efficiently on the things most important to them and not investing very often in big collective stuff. The Scholomance got built but you've heard how that turned out and it's very unusual, there aren't lots of things like it."

"We're not massively convenient mana sources like the mimis are but we can do plenty of potion-brewing and rune-etching beforehand."

"...We might have higher mana generation than the mimis if we get within range of a maw-mouth." 

"Let's not test that."

"--Yeah, of course."

Charlie chooses this moment to burst into the office and hug his daughter.

Extremely valid of him! Possibly the most valid adult they have encountered yet. 

"Hi Dad these are my new friends from another universe."

"Hullo. ...thank you."

"You're welcome." Gosh it sure would be nice if someone who had a positive relationship with their parents would say something!!!

"If I'd been in her place I'd have wanted whoever I landed on to do the same."

Whew. Thank you. 

Hug is ongoing.

"Missed you too, Dad. - on the other hand, magic system interactions look really promising!"

SO VALID. 

Chu Wanning's arms itch to hug her own daughter, but they are in PUBLIC in front of LOTS OF STRANGERS so she will not. 

Won't she now. 

HUG. 

--Well alright it seems she has no choice in the matter. Hug. She is so so so glad A-Sao will never have to go to horrible death school, and also that she has agreed to hang back and be a mana battery in the upcoming mal purge. 

"The magic system interactions look great! Our mana storage situation is totally different, and we don't get any magic at all until--well, it depends, but it happens all at once and usually only when you're an adult." 

"I got awakened at eighteen and Xishi is set to do the same."

"Seventeen, for us; some families do it younger."

"When it's a family at all."

"And some of them can recharge really really fast," Bella adds. "So with our storage and their charging we're looking at a great big pile of mana for big projects."

"I'm a mimi! We recharge through headpats. And other similar interactions. It's really fast! Like, a couple of minutes really fast."

"What is... a mimi."

She tugs gently at one of her ears. "It's a kind of person with animal traits. There are two major kinds of those, Oreads and Mimis. Oreads have an affinity with the earth, and Mimis with life; statistically speaking, Oreads tend to be more introverted and Mimis tend to be more extroverted. What animal you're associated with is only loosely heritable--Mama's a clouded leopard Mimi, I'm a white tiger, a few of my little sisters are various kinds of cats, most of the rest are some kind of canine, and then Ying'er--Chu Aiying, my littlest sister--is a butterfly. Well, a caterpillar, right now. She'll grow into it."