Chapter 00074: Is Magic Hard to Learn
# Is Magic Hard to Learn?
Chapter 74
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 74: Is Magic Hard to Learn?
As time gradually passed, the entire city once again entered its nightly mode.
In a residential building on the fourth floor, separated from Li Chengxi's convenience store by only a single road within the complex, Lei Lei was bowing and scraping while on the phone in her living room.
“Yes, yes, I'll definitely be more considerate next time. You are absolutely right, your disciple will certainly correct her ways.”
A short while ago, just as Lei Lei was contemplating whether to go to Li Chengxi's store to check on the situation again, she suddenly received a call from her master.
Her master, who adhered to a hands-off policy and would never call unless it was important, had suddenly called her.
The reason was actually quite simple.
Section Nine had tattled on her.
Although Section Nine had smoothed things over for Lei Lei in front of Li Chengxi, it didn't mean they wouldn't report her.
Thus, Lei Lei received a call from her master and was getting chewed out from afar.
“Also, I wanted to ask you, do humanoid Earth Deities actually exist... They really do? You've seen one? Oh, he's already passed away? But that's different from what's written in the scriptures... What? The scriptures are from several hundred years ago and are no longer accurate?”
Lei Lei was suddenly rendered speechless.
If they're inaccurate, why did you make me memorize them?
Thinking back to her childhood days of burning the midnight oil to memorize the sect's classics, which were as thick as bricks, Lei Lei felt like cursing.
“Um... why do I ask? Well, this disciple has discovered someone who seems to be an Earth Deity. Yes, the spiritual energy around him is exceptionally dense, and I was just finding it strange... It's no big deal? Master?”
The person on the other end of the line left her with a “You're on your own,” before hanging up.
Lei Lei knew that calling back would be useless.
Her master despised mobile phones and had probably borrowed someone's phone or used a public phone.
In any case, it wasn't the first or second time her master had been unreliable.
The sect Lei Lei belonged to had a policy of not interfering as long as the disciples didn't stray from the main path.
Because of this policy, her master was also unreliable...
Putting down her phone, Lei Lei walked toward the balcony.
A large hole was in one of the windows there.
Lei Lei had temporarily sealed it with a foam panel taken from a fresh food delivery box.
She would have to wait until tomorrow for the landlord to send someone to replace the glass.
This was the result of her rushing to the convenience store this morning.
At the time, she had sensed a powerful energy source suddenly appear in Li Chengxi's store.
In her surprise, she thought some demon was trying to capture Li Chengxi to cultivate using the dense spiritual energy around him.
So, Lei Lei hadn't thought twice, directly smashing the glass in her home and jumping down from the fourth floor.
This was also why she was being scolded.
After all, if anyone saw a young girl jump down from the fourth floor and then pry open a security door with her bare hands, who knows what kind of trouble it would stir up.
But then again, Lei Lei had originally planned to slowly figure out why the spiritual energy around Li Chengxi was so dense.
She never expected someone to show up out of nowhere, and a transmigrator at that.
It had to be said, Lei Lei was very concerned about this.
She flicked her sleeve, and a piece of yellow paper flew out, which she caught between her fingers.
Having gone to the convenience store for several days in a row, Lei Lei wasn't just there to make her face known.
While wandering between the shelves, she had secretly placed a detection talisman inside.
Although it couldn't let her directly see what was happening inside the store, it could sense how many people were there, eavesdrop on their conversations, and get their general locations.
As a faint magical radiance spread across the yellow paper, Lei Lei sensed that there were only two people in the convenience store now.
One was standing at the entrance, pulling down the roller shutter door; that should be Li Chengxi preparing to close the store.
The other one...
Suddenly, Lei Lei felt a slight piercing pain in her temples, and the spiritual radiance on her fingers burst with a pop.
The reason was simple: her detection talisman had been dispelled.
As for who did it?
Did she even need to ask?
“Why hasn't that woman gone back yet....”
Lei Lei said this with a hint of gritted teeth.
She huffed and stomped her foot in frustration.
Immediately after, the ceramic tile under her foot made an ominous cracking sound.
Lei Lei: “…”
–‐‐——–‐‐——
On the other side, Audel pulled out a piece of yellow paper from an inconspicuous corner behind a shelf.
On it were written many symbols and characters she didn't recognize in crimson ink.
Judging by her professional knowledge as a mage, it felt like some kind of special scroll.
Was it left behind by the Demon God?
Audel formed a hand seal and whispered,
“Identify Magical Artifact.”
Information about the yellow paper then appeared in her mind.
“There's no divine power. As expected, it wasn't left by the Demon God.”
Audel immediately recalled the woman she had seen that morning.
She was a bit like a mage, but the nature of the power within her body was very different from magical power.
It was, however, very similar to this yellow paper.
And so, a wisp of flame ignited on Audel's finger, instantly burning the yellow paper to ashes, leaving not even a speck of dust behind.
“Are you still looking at the things up there?”
Li Chengxi returned after pulling down the roller shutter and saw Audel squatting by the bottom of a shelf.
A faint smell of smoke lingered in the air.
“Did something catch on fire?”
“It's nothing. I don't smell anything.”
After looking around, Li Chengxi couldn't find anything wrong.
Besides, the smell of smoke was very faint, so he thought it might have been his imagination.
He didn't think much of it and asked,
“I'm used to eating dinner after closing the store. What would you like to eat?”
“Instant noodles!”
It seemed Audel had been conquered by modern food industry...
“Alright then. We had braised beef noodles for lunch, so let's have shrimp and fish cake noodles for dinner. The one in the blue packaging.”
For some reason, Audel seemed to be in a very good mood.
As Li Chengxi led her upstairs, she was even humming a little tune while climbing the stairs.
Maybe it's because she really likes instant noodles? They say you should never guess a girl's thoughts, and the thoughts of a girl from another world are even harder to guess.
Li Chengxi decided not to dwell on such a brain-burning topic.
He first took Audel to the bathroom and taught her how to use the water heater.
Then, he left her to shower on her own while he went to the kitchen to boil water with the electric kettle.
He had thought a girl's shower would take longer and planned to prepare the noodles after she came out.
But just as a kettle of water had finished boiling, Audel returned to the living room, drying her hair with a towel.
“Right, I have a hairdryer. It'll dry your hair very quickly.”
“A hairdryer? A machine that can blow wind?”
“Yes, you can understand it literally.”
“Oh, oh, oh!”
Amidst Audel's exclamations, Li Chengxi returned from the bathroom with the hairdryer.
He had barely used this thing since he bought it.
After all, his short buzz cut didn't really need blow-drying.
But this was just like how 'mildly spicy' means something else entirely in Chongqing; a boy's short hair and a girl's short hair are not the same length.
The whirring sound of the hairdryer startled Audel at first.
Then, she tested the hot air with her hand before picking it up to dry her hair.
The high-speed airflow lifted the ends of her aqua-blue hair, revealing her fair neck.
Suddenly, the scene felt a little sensual.
Just as Li Chengxi was feeling a bit awkward, not knowing where to look, Audel suddenly turned off the hairdryer herself.
“This machine isn't very easy to use.”
She snapped her fingers, and a layer of water vapor immediately rose from the top of her head.
Just like that, her hair was dry.
“Was that magic?”
“Mhm, a little spell to make life more convenient.”
Li Chengxi finally seized the opportunity to ask the question he most wanted to ask:
“Is magic hard to learn?”
“That's a bit of a difficult question to answer. Many people say it's hard, but I find it quite easy. It's just that there's a lot to learn.”
Audel counted on her fingers, saying:
“Besides needing at least five years of basic magical education first, you also have to be well-read in astronomy, geography, law, biology, architecture, history, and other subjects. The most troublesome part is learning languages; you must be fluent in Elvish and Draconic.”
Li Chengxi felt that he probably couldn't learn magic...
(End of this chapter)