Shiu didn't think that intonation was important for spell casting so what happened when he casted magic silently? The school teacher was surprised as he wrote about fire onto a piece of paper.
"In the air, you know, there's a substance called oxygen. There are other substances too. But we'll keep it easy for now."
"Y-yes."
"Fire is, you know, the result of a chemical reaction ――." Emina was googling with astonishment as Shiu quickly rephrased what he said. "To put it more simply, there's oxygen and combustibles in the air and it would light up if you ignite it. That becomes fire." He drew a picture and wrote fire.
"Air is the space where you can't see these things, but you know that there's mana there."
"I don't know anything about air, but I know there's mana in this space." Emina waved through the air. If she knew that then this would be fast. Shiu also drew pictures to help with his explanation.
"There are other things besides mana in this space. There's things humans need to breath and the remains of burnt things too. You can't see it but many things exist there. Mm, you can smell bread near here can't you?"
"Oh, so that's what it means. Smell. Yes, I can't see it but I can smell it."
"Yes, you can't see it but there's a substance there." Emina opened her eyes widely.
"There's oxygen and combustible substances there too, and in this case mana. It receives the damage and the result depends on your chant, right? I think it's similar to the collision between the mana in your body and the mana in the air."
"Ah! That's right because you're expelling the mana from within you."
"Yes, that's right. It's like that. In short, it's about imagination, so try thinking of it like that." Chanting was just an impetus.
"The combustible substance can be paper or minerals. However, if you want to light a fire with nothing then you will need substances, that is mana. Our mana manifests itself by burning and oxygen is needed for substances to keep on burning. When you want to put out fire, for example, if you put a glass cup over a candle the fire will go out, wouldn't it?"
"Ah." She probably remembered about the time when she prayed at the temple with a candle.
"If you think like that then it's extremely hard to light a fire in a place with nothing because the only combustible thing is mana."
"Ah, I see."
"You understand this construction now, don't you?"
"Yes." If she understood that then all that was left was for her to control the amount of mana she used.
"Don't think about lighting a fire, thinking of sparking a fire." Emina was confused and then finally nodded in understanding. She had probably seen many sparks in her lifetime. "I'll try it."
"You can chant anything you want. Just think about a spark coming out from your fingertips." Emina closed her eyes and swirled her fingers around in a circle a couple times and said. "《Snap》." A spark flickered where her fingers were and a small unstable flame appeared.
"I, I did it!" The flame disappeared as soon as she shouted, but she laughed happily.
It was easier to do after doing it once. Furthermore, Emina hadn't produced a large flame, she had imaged a small one which already decreased MP usage. She was finally motivated to study.
It was decided that Shiu would teach Emina magic and arithmetic in the store for an hour each day. Gracia and Ariella had heard about this and asked him to teach Aqela because she wasn't good at studying. Emina would probably be motivated to study with Aqela too and it wouldn't take more of Shiu's time. They decided to do this one evening.
Aqela looked reluctant but Emina said, "It's really easy to understand", and she agreed to learn from Shiu. He gladly accepted lunch payments and other methods.
The wind season had come and Shiu had finally learnt concealment magic when it got a little warmer.
The book for beginners on magic and magic theory had strange outdated theories and was difficult to understand. However, there were some hints and it triggered what he'd learnt in his past life. He also read a novel to relax and found it easy to image the magic and movements of the protagonist because they were based on the author's own movements.
It was boring to read long chants but there were many hints hidden inside of the text. Shiu thought that there were no useless books.
He also consulted with old man Stan about the magic theory that he knew. After that it was completed through trial and error ――.
"Concealing your current status?"
"Yes, I thought about status abnormality, decrease and perception obstruction, but it wasn't possible."
"Is that so? Abnormality and obstruction might be detected by the crystal depending on how you use it."
"That's why I thought of using my production magic as a gambit."
His production magic was already at level 5. It was really noticeable and it was still better for him to think that it was like a gift. Old man Stan understood this and nodded, then he leant over to listen to what Shiu was saying. Shiu also leant over for some reason and continued his explanation in a small voice, "I can disperse the crystal's function by using alchemy with production magic."
"Would you craft the crystal itself to deceive people!?"
"In the meantime, I would cast magic obstruction on myself with perception obstruction and status reduction. It's made from wind, unattributed and dark magic. I'll try to falsify the numbers with metal attribute magic as an aid to production magic."
"I see. The time delay would be the worst case if you use it simultaneously with production magic."
"Yes, that's right. That's why I intended to do the last process with metal attribute magic just in case." Magic composed from multiple attributes was more stable than magic composed of a single attribute. He wanted to use them all at once so he didn't want any delay.
"At least, it would be good if the poisonous herb was effective."
"You're being unreasonable again."
"It's a good item that makes it easier to lower status."
Unfortunately poisons didn't work on Shiu because he had asked the Goddess for a healthy body. Strictly speaking, medicine that was good for him also didn't work. His wounds healed up instantly and he had never gotten sick. Of course, he didn't tell Stan about the Goddess and only told him that poisons were ineffective against him.
"I think that you can deceive it with that but I'm not sure." Since Shiu's appraisal had hit level 5, no one could see his status, not even old man Stan. Now, all he had to do was deceive the crystal.
"Do you want to try it?" Old man Stan took out a high-end crystal that was on sale.
Incidentally the formal name of the crystal was Soul Spirit Crystal and it was said that the spirit of the crystal resides in there. It was an expensive item that was kept at the back of Bariado Tool Store, but even so Stan had buoyantly taken it out. He said it was an unsold good.
Shiu gently placed his hands on the crystal in front of him and held the test card in his opposite hand. He chanted status concealment before putting his hands on the crystal. The crystal activated with the the card held in hand, therefore words started appearing on the card at once.
His status was lined up carefully. He stared at it and not only had his spatial magic disappeared, his appraisal magic did as well. He had thought it would be difficult but it had worked out well.
"Mhm? Shiu, you'll be found out with these numbers."
"Ah! I didn't think that far ahead so it appeared like that." What… Well… Old man Stan said in an astonished voice and laughed. Shiu was relieved that he had managed to do this somehow. He exhaled deeply and laughed.