Chapter 35: So Skilled

“So, it’s just going out. Did it really have to be done in the middle of the night in the dark?” Zheng Yichen spoke somewhat oddly to the girl beside him. It seemed this world’s academies had no rules about checking dormitories or restricting students from going out at night. Of course, if you went out too late, you probably wouldn’t be coming back tonight.

“To prevent your identity from being exposed, Connor, this is necessary.” Petty said plainly. After Zheng Yichen repeatedly insisted, she finally dropped the honorific ‘sir’ when addressing him.

“Relax, relax. Currently, I don’t have any thoughts of looking for anyone else.”

“I will always strive to prevent you from ever developing such thoughts in the future.” At this point, she scratched her cheek, looking a bit troubled. “Um, I will do my best.”

“Well~” Zheng Yichen spread his claws. He had already seen Petty’s talent; it was rather ordinary. Those with ordinary talent who still managed to stand out were ultimately a minority among the ordinary.

Even with his ‘cheat’ aiding her cultivation, she only maintained the speed of daily cultivation limits, not improving her innate talent. Someone with high talent, even if they only managed half their daily cultivation limit, could accumulate more than her maximum.

“Anyway, work hard, girl. I believe in you.” Sitting atop the hat Petty was wearing, Zheng Yichen looked around and found a tree where he had left a mana marker. “Over there.”

Arriving under the tree, Zheng Yichen looked at his claw. Mana Threads formed an impact magic that struck the ground, creating a small pit and revealing a buried bag.

He turned to look at Petty. The girl was staring at him, dumbfounded. “What’s wrong?”

“…Connor, do you always use magic like this?” She pointed in astonishment at the Mana Threads on his claw that hadn’t yet dissipated.

“In daily life, yes. For combat, it’s too slow.” Zheng Yichen shook his head. The Mana Threads had to be woven by him into Rune Patterns before he could release the magic. After all, they were continuously emitted. In principle, it was like drawing with a brush; there was a process. It couldn’t instantly weave the magic array.

So even with his fast hand speed, weaving from memory took a little time. In that time, he could directly activate the Rune Patterns engraved in his Mental Consciousness to release many spells… the efficiency was completely incomparable.

Hmm, speaking of Mental Consciousness… Zheng Yichen always found this term a bit weird. To put it simply, before he crossed over, he had read many novels and quickly found a more suitable name. Calling it the Mind Sea was much more descriptive!

“How is that possible…”

“You’ve seen this in the Forest of Illusions, haven’t you?” He had done this before, weaving magic array patterns with mana lines, back when Petty and the others were present.

“…At that time, I thought you were practicing with threads released by magic.” Petty had no comeback for Zheng Yichen’s words. There were many thread-type magics, so she never imagined that Zheng Yichen was using pure mana to create Mana Threads, not magical threads.

“Is there a difference? It’s quite easy this way.”

“Easy!?” Petty’s body swayed involuntarily. If it were easy, then she wouldn’t just be able to be a Summoner; she could also be a Mage!

The magic Rune Patterns contained within the Mind Sea were limited. A Summoner’s Summoning Marks were the same. Therefore, dual-cultivation would only waste talent. If one also cultivated as a Warrior, although it wouldn’t waste talent, it would divide energy. The difficulty of achieving high accomplishments would multiply. The already challenging task of Reaching the Tier might become nearly impossible.

“This is simply an impossible thing!”

“Oh… then it might be because of talent.” Seeing Petty so agitated, Zheng Yichen realized his actions seemed quite outrageous. Shaking his head, he brushed it off with another reason. This world had gifted individuals. Apart from conventional types, there were many unique Talents.

The appearance of a new type of Talent would only cause awe and envy, and… Talents didn’t just bring benefits. Some, while extremely powerful, also came with severe side effects.

“An enviable Talent.” Petty said sincerely. Zheng Yichen’s ‘Talent’ of ignoring the external environment and directly emitting Mana Threads might not seem as impressive as those that reduced elemental damage or increased elemental damage and affinity, but its uniqueness had already opened new possibilities for him!

“It’s alright! Check if it’s enough. If not, I’ll go get more.” He grabbed the bag from the pit. His body, only a dozen centimeters tall, possessed less than one percent of his original strength. Yet even this less-than-one-percent strength allowed him to easily pick up and move this rather heavy bag.

“It’s enough, it’s enough.” Looking at the gold coins, silver coins, and some jewelry in the bag, Petty quickly nodded. She picked up a piece of jewelry, looking puzzled, her expression slightly odd. “Connor… these things…”

“Hmm, in the past, there were always some overconfident people who wanted to be dragon slayers.” Zheng Yichen didn’t hide the origin of the wealth. However, Petty clearly misunderstood something. Before he could finish, her face turned a bit pale. “So back then, I just stripped them all bare.”

Glancing at Petty, Zheng Yichen finished his sentence. Only then did she let out a slight sigh of relief. “I thought you ate them all, Connor. You’re so kind.”

“I don’t eat people!” Zheng Yichen slightly pursed his lips. Dragons had extremely strong digestive systems; they could eat stones if hungry. So humans were on a dragon’s menu, but unless starving, not many dragons did that.

Petty smiled lightly. They could ignore the gold and silver coins; they had no marks, so whoever got them owned them. But jewelry needed careful inspection.

They might have personal marks left by their previous owners. If they entered the market, they could easily be traced. However, after finding several pieces of jewelry clearly meant for girls, her expression turned odd again. She occasionally stole glances at Zheng Yichen, her little face blushing.

Just now… what had Zheng Yichen said? For those overconfident ‘dragon slayers,’ he handled them all by stripping them, right? And he seemed to be a male dragon!?

“…” Looking slightly puzzled at Petty’s strange expression again, Zheng Yichen scratched his head. Why was she acting shy? Noticing the several pieces of female jewelry in her hand, he nodded slightly in realization. She must be excited!

Although their acquaintance was short, Zheng Yichen could tell her life was very simple. When rummaging through packs in the Forest of Illusions, Petty’s pack was the most shabby.

“These, and these, need to be processed before we can consider selling them.” Petty piled the selected jewelry to one side. “They have personal or family marks. Selling them directly would cause trouble.”

Most personal marks were self-designed, so the chance of discovery wasn’t high unless the person was famous. Family marks needed attention. Those were basically the wearer’s family crests. Petty recognized four just by looking. She didn’t recognize the others, but checking references should identify them.

These items could expose her relationship with Zheng Yichen, so they had to be handled carefully!

“Couldn’t we just melt them down into gold coins?”

“…Huh? That would be too much of a loss.” Zheng Yichen’s words left Petty briefly stunned. Melting jewelry into coins… only you could think of such a ‘brilliant’ method. Melting all this jewelry would only yield a few dozen coins. Selling them as is would fetch at least several hundred gold coins!

“How much would we lose?” Zheng Yichen said somewhat dismissively. On Earth, jade and gems were valuable after processing, true. For gold jewelry, the price didn’t increase much after processing either. So in Zheng Yichen’s view, after removing any gems, melting the gold into coins wouldn’t lose too much.

“More than ten times, probably.” Petty said uncertainly. She didn’t own many valuables herself.

“Then it’s better to keep them.” After a moment of speechlessness, such a huge difference made Zheng Yichen’s mouth twitch. “What about erasing the marks on them?”

“Hmm… that should be fine.” Petty thought for a moment, then nodded. “As long as it doesn’t damage the jewelry, the impact on value shouldn’t be too great.”

“That’s easy.” Zheng Yichen waved his little claw. A glowing, searing red light lit at his fingertip. He gently brushed it over the areas with marks. The high temperature completely erased the engraved marks. Polishing was even simpler; a compressed, magic-enhanced high-pressure water jet could buff them.

“Connor, how are you so skilled at this?” Petty watched Zheng Yichen’s smooth, fluid movements with amazement.

“Ah~ Before, I liked making little things when I had nothing to do. With magic assistance, it’s quite convenient, so I gradually became skilled.” Zheng Yichen looked at his tiny claw. In this Projection state, his size was reduced, and his strength was weakened, but there was an extra benefit.

His precision for delicate work had improved by more than a notch!

Tsk, thinking about it, he had been rather foolish before. With a large size, fine work was difficult. Couldn’t he just find a way to reduce his size? Later, he would flip through books to see if he could find a magic for self-Projection beyond being summoned. “Is this okay now?”

Petty examined the jewelry Zheng Yichen had processed. No extra marks could be found. Even any marking Magic inscribed within the jewelry had been erased. After all, these pieces weren’t too special, and the marking Magic on them was fairly simple, making it easy to remove.