Ch. 306
[……Learn? From who? Is there another electricity spirit besides me?]
I proudly introduced today’s teacher, drumming my hands on the table.
Tap, tap, tap!
“Say hello! This is Undine, who’ll be teaching you… invisibility!”
[You called, Master!]
Pop! With a cork-like popping sound, Undine appeared and immediately clung to my cheek, wagging her tail.
Invisibility was originally a specialty of water spirits and wind spirits. Water spirits could only turn semi-transparent, while wind spirits boasted the most perfect invisibility.
Fire spirits, perhaps because their attribute made it hard for them to blend into their surroundings, couldn’t use it at all. Earth spirits could produce a stealth-like effect only on ground covered with soil.
Theoretically, the stronger a spirit’s offensive power was, the worse it was at using it.
Electricity was the same as fire.
Because it had a tendency to damage everything around it, it couldn’t blend into its surroundings, and invisibility was therefore impossible.
[……Me? Learn that? What for?]
“Invisibility.”
[That’s nonsense! That’s something only spirits who can use it can use! I won’t! No, I can’t! I was born that way!]
“Do as you’re told! How dare you talk back when your Master is giving you an order!”
I was confident that if Ador mastered just this one skill, I’d be able to smack Rovenin in the back of the head.
There wasn’t any real basis for that. It’s not like I’m the one learning it, I’m just making him try!
[I’m telling you it’s impossible! I’ve never even seen an electricity spirit use invisibility! There’s no precedent!]
“That’s exactly why! If you pull it off, you’ll become a legend!”
[Th-that is tempting, but……]
Ador had a lot in common with fire spirits. Even his master couldn’t touch him, so no one could ride him, and he couldn’t use invisibility.
But unlike the mass-produced fire spirits, Ador had no history of being researched by Spirit Mages.
That meant his limits still weren’t clearly known. I pinned my hopes on that.
“Electricity is similar to light, right? Then you should be able to do it! Light is transparent!”
[……That’s different? That’s wrong? Light shines?]
[Master? Light spirits can’t use invisibility either?]
Anyway, Rai never says anything helpful.
“Don’t listen to Rai, Ador! You can do it!”
[Evidence?]
“The fact that you haven’t failed yet is proof! Let’s try it!”
[……Do you think it’ll work just because you keep insisting? I’m telling you I don’t know how! That’s like telling a human to fly in the sky!]
“That’s why I brought in a special teacher! Here! Undine, show us an invisibility demonstration!”
Undine’s invisibility had improved compared to before. If you didn’t look carefully, you couldn’t even tell she was there.
Spirit skills also became more refined the more they were used. If that was the case, then they should also be learnable.
[Like this?]
“Well done! Our Undine! See? There’s nothing you can’t do!”
[Master, make sure you take your medicine for your internal injuries!]
“Okay, I’ll take it!”
[Ptooey!]
Although invisibility had the fatal drawback of preventing attacks while it was active, it was still worth attempting if it lowered the odds of Rovenin cutting me in half.
Of course, the one attempting it was Ador.
If Ador mastered invisibility, it would be a huge boost to our combat power.
“You saw that, right? Ador, you try it too.”
[……If seeing it was enough to copy it, why don’t you try first?]
“I’m human. You’re a spirit.”
Even though Ador was just a ball of light, I somehow felt like he was looking at me with filthy eyes.
[What do you take me for……!]
“A sworn enemy, right?”
[Keh! It’s not something you can learn just by trying! Who would’ve thought I’d end up taking lessons from such a low-level spirit! I’m fundamentally different from something that common……]
“I was planning to call you over often for intensive lessons with Undine. Maybe once every two days?”
[May I call you Teacher?]
While Undine, who didn’t discriminate between students, taught Ador from the basics, I organized the information I had read from Theatrazen’s mind yesterday.
If I didn’t write it down before I forgot, I was definitely going to lose some of it.
I couldn’t trust my own memory either. I had tried to read only the important points, but since I’d done it in a hurry, I might have missed something.
Even just writing down what I remembered had already filled a fourth sheet of letter paper.
“The important ones are this, and this. And…… Ah! That too. I almost missed it.”
Digging out information unintentionally uncovered a few of Theatrazen’s secrets. One of them was that, like me, he had been hiding a contract with a non-attribute spirit.
If I had realized back then that he had contracted an illusion spirit, I wouldn’t have fallen for the illusion. I had been too focused on finding the location of the Spirit magic circle and overlooked it.
If I had known beforehand……
‘Then I wouldn’t have seen Mom.’
I tried drawing a small picture of Mom’s face in the corner of the letter paper, but soon gave up.
If I had something like a photo, I wouldn’t have to worry about forgetting.
[The feeling! The feeling is what matters! First, try to feel the water around you!]
[……Wouldn’t electricity work?]
[Then try with electricity! And imagine you’re in water. Imagine yourself becoming one with that water……]
[Aaah! Master! Change the teacher!]
“Isn’t it a little too soon to give up?”
Without even glancing over, I kept moving my pen and answered halfheartedly.
[I don’t even understand what she’s saying!]
“That’s what studying is always like.”
[I can’t do this!]
“If you take after me, then hating studying is only natural. Hang in there.”
[This really doesn’t seem right! And why am I the only one learning? He’s here too, him! The metal one!]
Rai, who happened to be passing by, looked half scandalized.
He had been snickering to himself while Ador was learning invisibility.
[Why are you dragging me into this! You traitor!]
[We should all die together!]
“Cut it out! Rai has no hope anyway, right? Metal turning transparent…… maybe that could work……? Diamond, maybe…… Rai? You learn too.”
[Master!]
[Kekekeke!]
I had never thought about making Rai transparent.
Since he couldn’t fly anyway, it wouldn’t be especially efficient, but if he learned it, it would still be useful. A transparent snake could bite and bring back anything.
[Grr! Master’s only ordering us around because she’s not the one learning, right!]
“Yep. You go sit over there too.”
At my gesture, Rai reluctantly went and sat down in front of Undine.
Seeing the three of them gathered together—a deceptively pretty ball of light, a wolf made of metal, and the semi-transparent water spirit Undine—made me feel pleased.
I really liked this method.
Keeping them summoned nearby increased our affinity, and since they played among themselves, I didn’t have to worry about them.
And the biggest advantage was that, despite how it looked, they were actually training.
[Hey, you sparky! What’s so hard about invisibility that you keep whining and dragging me into this too!]
[So you’re saying you can do it!]
[Of course! Watch!]
[……That’s just glass! I’ll break you, you bastard!]
[Keheheheh!]
Since they pushed each other like that, the learning effect seemed pretty good.
I had worried Undine might cry after being stuck between two sworn enemies, but fortunately, she was smiling brightly.
[I have more students! I’m happy. Shall we continue the lesson?]
[Ptooey.]
[Yes, the spirit who spat. Rai-nim! I’ll remember this!]
[……What are you going to do by remembering?]
[I’ll report it to Master! She said she punishes students who have bad attitudes during class!]
Undine had a surprisingly brave side despite her appearance. I had realized that when she burned with the desire to smack Rovenin in the back of the head……
[Wait! I only pretended to spit, I didn’t really spit, right? Shouldn’t the first time just be a warning!]
[Master said! Real life doesn’t give warnings!]
Somehow, she was pretty fierce too.
I think I picked a good teacher.
To Rai, whose defense was powerful enough to clash with a Dragon, and to Ador, whose destructive power was terrifying enough to turn a human to dust with a mere graze, Undine was clearly a weak and laughable existence, not even worth a bite.
But unless they wanted to provoke my temper, it was better not to even think about harming Undine, who had held the undisputed position of my favorite for ten years.
They probably knew very well that if they fought among themselves, the one who would end up bleeding was me, the summoner.
[Don’t get cocky just because Master favors you a little! You damn water blob! Do you think this body would listen to the likes of you……]
[Teacher, he is insulting you.]
[Yes! Rai-nim, the insulting spirit, and Ador-nim, the leave-early spirit.]
[……Wh-why? Why leave-early?]
[That’s not an insult! I never insulted anyone!]
They were getting along well. I left the troublemakers to Undine and continued organizing the newly acquired information.
Then I took out the materials I had bought from the Information Guild and began sorting through them as well. There was quite a lot. Stacked together, they easily exceeded two hand spans.
No wonder the inside of my Magic Bag felt cramped.
Even though this trip had started with a kidnapping and should have begun with me empty-handed, I was now constantly suffering from a lack of space.
Was the problem my habit of boldly buying things without thinking about where to put them?
It had been a while since I’d felt the need for more Magic Bags, but they were expensive items that weren’t sold just anywhere.
Like most Magic Tools, demand exceeded supply, and the fact that they were sold strictly by reservation was another annoying point.
They were one of those things that money alone couldn’t get you easily.
‘Should I contact Dmitri and ask him to send one? Or should I have Bright get one? Which would be faster?’
Even searching the secondhand market for a Magic Bag was like trying to pluck stars from the sky.
If I had a space spirit, I wouldn’t have to worry about things like this.
I know the grass is always greener on the other side, but it felt like Theatrazen had too many good things.
I should have tormented him more.
I let him go too easily, and my stomach was starting to ache.
“Ah, Rai?”
[Yes?]
“About yesterday. I read Theatrazen’s mind to find out where he hid the Spirit magic circle, right?”
[What about it?]
“I found the location, but…… you said it before, didn’t you? That a space spirit can create a separate space and store things there. But Theatrazen didn’t hide the Spirit magic circle with a space spirit. He hid it in his parents’ graves in his territory.”
If it were me, I would have hidden it in a subspace made by a space spirit so that no one could ever find it.
Why did Theatrazen hide the Spirit magic circle somewhere else when he had a special space that only he could open?
[Probably because it’s too unstable a place to entrust something truly important to. If the space spirit disappears, the things stored inside disappear with it.]
“Hm…… That is risky.”
[If either the summoner or the spirit is unstable, the space can’t be opened. And if you close it carelessly, cracks can form in the space, causing you to lose everything. Things lost to a Dimensional Rift are considered impossible to recover; even a god would have to search for thousands of years.]
I could understand that it wasn’t just something to envy, but a spirit that was difficult to handle in many ways.
The image of Theatrazen, with his limbs grotesquely twisted from forcing Spatial Movement, came to mind.
“You know quite a lot. You said your former master handled a space spirit…… Then do you know what a space spirit looks like? I didn’t see one yesterday.”
[They’re just transparent. They don’t have a form. They’re not the kind that needs a physical body like me.]
“……I’m so jealous my stomach hurts……!”
Here I am, struggling to teach invisibility the hard way!
And over there, it’s just a basic skill!