So Skilled at This

"So we're only going out. Do we really have to sneak around in the dark at midnight?" Zheng Yichen asked the girl beside him, sounding a little puzzled. Schools in this world apparently had no bed checks, nor did they forbid students from going out at night. Of course, if you left too late, there was no point coming back that night.

"It's necessary to keep your identity from being exposed, Connor," Petty said. After Zheng Yichen had asked her again and again, she had finally stopped adding "my lord" when she addressed him.

"Relax, relax. I'm not thinking of finding anyone else right now."

"I'll keep working hard so you'll never even think of it." She scratched her cheek, looking troubled. "Uh, I'll do my best."

"Well..." Zheng Yichen spread his claws. He could see that Petty's talent was fairly ordinary. People of ordinary talent who managed to rise above the rest were, in the end, very few.

Even with him as a "cheat" to help her train, she was only growing stronger at the maximum pace her daily training allowed. Her talent itself had not improved. Someone more gifted could train at just half their daily limit and still surpass what she gained by pushing herself to hers.

"Anyway, work hard, young lady. I'm rooting for you." Zheng Yichen sat on the hat Petty was carrying and looked around until he spotted the magic mark he had left beneath a tree. "Over there."

At the tree, Zheng Yichen glanced at his claws. Threads of magic wove a shock spell that punched a small hole in the ground, exposing the bag buried inside.

He turned toward Petty. The girl was staring at him, dumbfounded. "What?"

"...Connor, have you always used magic like that?" she asked, pointing in astonishment at the threads of magic still lingering around his claws.

"In everyday life, yes. It's too slow for a fight." Zheng Yichen shook his head. He had to weave the threads into a Magic Array Pattern before he could release a spell. Because the threads flowed out continuously, the process was much like drawing with a brush. It took time; he could not weave a Magic Array Pattern in an instant.

So no matter how fast his hands moved, weaving a pattern from memory still took a moment. In that time, he could directly activate the patterns imprinted in his mind and cast plenty of spells... There was no comparison in efficiency.

Speaking of his mind... Zheng Yichen had always found that term odd. He had read plenty of novels before crossing over and had quickly found a more fitting name. Sea of Consciousness painted the picture nicely!

"How is that possible..."

"Didn't you see me do it in the Illusion Demon Forest?" He had woven Magic Array Patterns from threads of magic before, with Petty and the others right there.

"...I thought you were practicing with threads produced by a spell." Petty had no answer to that. There were plenty of thread-type spells, so it had never occurred to her that Zheng Yichen's threads were made of pure magic rather than conjured by a spell.

"Is there a difference? It's pretty easy."

"Easy!?" Petty swayed. If it were easy, she would be able to become not just a Summoner, but a Mage too!

The Sea of Consciousness could hold only so many Magic Array Patterns, and the same was true of a Summoner's Summoning Marks. Pursuing both paths would only waste talent. Training as a warrior alongside one's main path might not waste talent, but it would divide one's energy and make great achievements far harder. Reaching the first rank was difficult enough already; splitting one's efforts could send the odds of never reaching it soaring.

"That's simply impossible!"

"Oh... Then maybe it's a matter of talent." Seeing how worked up Petty was, Zheng Yichen realized that what he had done was apparently quite out of the ordinary. He shook his head and offered another explanation. Talented people existed in this world, and beyond the common kinds of talent, there were many unusual ones.

Even the appearance of a new kind of talent would merely inspire amazement and envy. Besides... talent did not bring only benefits. Some talents were immensely powerful but came with severe side effects.

"What an enviable talent," Petty said sincerely. Zheng Yichen's "talent" for producing threads of magic directly, regardless of his surroundings, might not look as impressive as talents that reduced elemental damage or increased elemental damage and affinity. But its uniqueness had opened up new possibilities for him!

"It's nothing special! See if this is enough. If not, I'll go get more." He picked up the bag from the hole. At just over ten centimeters tall, he had less than one percent of the strength of his real body, but even that was enough for him to lift and carry the heavy bag with ease.

"It's enough, definitely enough." Seeing the gold and silver coins and jewelry inside, Petty nodded quickly. She picked up a piece of jewelry and examined it, her expression turning a little strange. "Connor... these things..."

"Well, there used to be people who thought they could be dragon-slaying heroes." Zheng Yichen made no secret of where the valuables had come from, but Petty clearly got the wrong idea. Before he could finish, her face had already gone a little pale. "So I stripped them all bare."

He glanced at Petty as he finished. She let out a small breath of relief. "I thought you'd eaten them all. Connor, you're so kind."

"I don't eat people!" Zheng Yichen pursed his lips. Dragons had powerful digestion; when hungry, they could even gnaw on rocks. Humans were therefore on a dragon's menu too, though few dragons would eat them unless they were starving.

Petty smiled softly. The gold and silver coins could be ignored. They had no identifying marks, so they belonged to whoever held them. The jewelry, however, needed careful inspection.

Some pieces might bear marks left by their owners, making them easy to trace if they entered the market. As Petty turned up one piece of girls' jewelry after another, her expression grew strange again. Every so often she stole a glance at Zheng Yichen, her cheeks bright red.

What had Zheng Yichen just said? He stripped every overconfident "dragon-slaying hero" bare, right? And he was a male dragon, wasn't he!?

"..." Zheng Yichen scratched his head, puzzled by Petty's odd expression. Why did she look so shy? Then he noticed the pieces of girls' jewelry in her hands and nodded in sudden understanding. She must be excited!

They had known each other only a short time, but Zheng Yichen could tell she lived simply. Back when they had searched through the bags in the Illusion Demon Forest, Petty's had been the shabbiest of them all.

"These, and these, need to be dealt with before we can sell them." Petty piled the pieces she had selected to one side. "They all have personal or Lineage marks. Selling them as they are would cause trouble."

Most personal marks were designs their owners had made themselves, so the chance of anyone recognizing them was not high, unless an owner was particularly famous. Lineage marks required more care. They were generally the wearer's Lineage crest, and Petty recognized four of them on sight. She did not recognize the rest, but a little research would probably identify them.

Any of these pieces could expose her connection to Zheng Yichen, so they had to be handled carefully!

"Why not just melt them down into gold coins?"

"...Huh? Wouldn't we lose too much that way?" Petty stared at him for a moment. Melting jewelry down into coins—trust him to come up with such a brilliant idea. All these pieces together would yield only a few dozen coins, while sold intact, they would fetch several hundred gold coins at least!

"How much could we lose?" Zheng Yichen asked, unconcerned. Back on Earth, jade and gemstones could be worth a great deal after being worked, but gold jewelry did not rise much in price. As he saw it, removing the gems and melting the gold into coins would not cost them much.

"More than ten times the value, maybe." Petty sounded uncertain. She had never owned many valuables herself.

"Then we'd better keep them as they are." Zheng Yichen fell silent for a moment, his mouth twitching at the difference. "What if we erase the marks?"

"Hmm... That should work." Petty thought it over, then nodded. "As long as we don't damage the jewelry, it shouldn't affect the value much."

"That's easy." Zheng Yichen waved a little claw. A searing red light appeared at its tip, and he brushed it gently over a mark. The heat erased the engraving completely. Polishing was simpler still: a pass with a compressed, high-pressure jet of water conjured by magic did the job.

"Connor, why are you so practiced at this?" Zheng Yichen's smooth, flowing work left Petty staring in amazement.

"Ah, I used to like making little things in my spare time. Magic makes it convenient, so I got the hang of it." Zheng Yichen looked at his tiny claws. In his projected form, his body was smaller and his strength diminished, but that came with another benefit.

His ability to do fine work had improved by more than a notch!

Tsk. Compared to this, he had been pretty stupid before. Fine work was hard with a big body, so why hadn't he thought of shrinking it? He would look through his books later and see if he could find a way to project himself without being summoned. "That should do it, right?"

Petty examined the jewelry Zheng Yichen had treated. No stray marks remained. Even the marking spells placed on the pieces had been erased. None of the jewelry was especially unusual, after all, and the spells on it had been fairly simple, so removing them had not been difficult.