I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Matthew chuckled.

"I brought a gift for this child."

He pulled a dried leaf from his pocket.

The leaves are about the size of a palm, with five lobes and a ring of fine serrations around the edges.

Richard didn't use his spiritual vision rashly, but his basic perception allowed him to see that there was no ether on the leaf.

"Don't bother, this thing isn't for you to use."

"Completely useless?"

"Not at all," Matthew laughed.

"It can't be used as a medium for casting spells, nor is it a rare item. Drinking water infused with it will give you diarrhea... I've tried this before."

"Then why are you giving it to me?"

"Use it to brag."

Richard raised his head.

A mocking smile appeared on Matthew's sunburnt face.

"The place where I picked this leaf is west of the central mountains of the New World."

He pointed his index finger in the air, as if a map was floating in front of him.

"The companions who went into that godforsaken place with me last time were all experts."

"One of them came out and said to me: Matthew, next time you go, don't call me."

No one inside the room responded.

Donna raised his hand, which was wrapped in cloth, as if he wanted to touch the leaf, but put it down halfway.

"That kind of tree grows there," Matthew continued.

"This is the only species that grows in the entire valley; nothing else grows there."

"Walking inside, all you see are leaves when you look up, and leaves when you look down. Even after three days, it's still just leaves."

"So from now on, if anyone dares to look down on you..."

He shoved the leaf into Richard's hand:

"Just say that this was given to me by an expert I know."

Richard's eyes lit up, and he thanked him.

He suddenly asked, "By the way, did you... see the hunter named Ashford over there?"

"The man should be wearing a ring on his hand, engraved with an oak tree and a standing lion."

Since he had finally met such a friendly and approachable expert from the New World, Richard naturally couldn't let this opportunity slip by.

Matthew's eyebrows twitched: "I have indeed seen one."

Richard sat up straight.

"He was a ship escort at the mouth of the River Styx," Matthew recalled.

He's taller than you and looks a bit like you, but his temper is much worse than yours.

He overturned the table halfway through a drinking session, and the next day he had to pay for a new one.

"He is now..."

"He's alive, but that was news from several years ago. I don't know about him now."

He stopped talking after saying that.

After Matthew finished delivering the leaves, there wasn't much else to do.

The man leaned back in his chair, and the poor chair creaked sharply again.

"Teacher, you really need to replace this chair."

Mrs. Mary said quietly.

"We've replaced several of them before, and you broke each one by sitting on it."

"That means the problem is with the chair."

"That means it's your problem."

The faceless porcelain doll came over again with a tea tray and replaced the cold tea with a fresh one.

Richard noticed that when the doll served Matthew tea, it took a small step around it.

"Kid," Matthew suddenly said.

"You've asked a lot of questions tonight, so I'll ask you one too."

"Please speak."

Why do you think experts don't go to the city?

Richard thought about it.

The book contains very little information about this category, repeatedly mentioning only a few phrases such as "has begun to deviate from the human realm."

He answered honestly, "Afraid of being seen?"

"What's there to be afraid of?" Matthew picked up his teacup, smelled it, and put it down again.

"At that point, it's no longer a matter of 'being seen'."

"Think about the well."

"There is water at the bottom of the well. You draw water from the well, and the rope is released and pulled in, so no one gets in anyone's way."

But what if one day that well stands up on its own and walks to the middle of your village…”

He spread his hands: "Everyone in the village will be scared half to death."

Donald added:

"My grandfather once said that a man came to Yazd in the early years, and no one in the city dreamed for three days."

"Three days is a short time," Matthew said.

He suddenly grinned, and the wrinkles on his sun-reddened face all came together.

"I went back to the capital once when I was promoted and stood at King's Cross Station for a while."

"The next day, several more names appeared in the missing children section of the newspaper."

"So those people in the Old World all relied on proxies."

"Those errand runners you see in the capital who do errands for them are all impeccably dressed, signing documents, stamping documents, attending meetings, and going to banquets."

Next, Matthew recounted his experiences in the New World.

What about the underworld city-states, Marquawet (the obsidian saw sword), the giant anaconda, the Sun Dance, and the Day of the Dead...?

After speaking for a while, Mrs. Mary said, "That's enough."

Richard stood up, bowed, and took his leave, departing with Donald.

As they reached the door, Mrs. Mary suddenly spoke again.

"By the way, you can keep an eye on the newspapers for the next two weeks."

Matthew finished his tea and casually added a comment.

"The teacher said that when people read the newspaper, it usually means that something bad is about to happen to them."

"No one will die," Mrs. Mary corrected him. "Dead people are troublesome."

She spread her hands out on the handrail.

"When a family member dies, a funeral must be held, colleagues must write a eulogy, and newspapers must publish a biography."

Once his biography was published, readers immediately felt sympathy for him.

"It's better to be alive."

"The living must sit in the same conference room every day before they go out, and the whole empire will remember what they did last week."

Richard stood by the door, looking at the high-backed armchair through the mirrors that filled the room, which reflected no one.

"Madam, may I ask you a question?"

"ask."

"Those hundreds of people who smashed shops on this street yesterday..."

"They're fine, they go home for dinner, and they go to work at the factory."

More than half of them couldn't even explain what they had smashed yesterday; they were all being manipulated.

"Then you..."

"Just watch the show," Matthew said lazily from behind.

"Teachers rarely do these kinds of things physically; she usually does..."

"Matthew."

"...I didn't say anything."

It was already completely dark outside, but the sound of hammers hadn't started yet on Huayue Street. Only a sliver of light shone through the crack in the door of the tailor shop at number two.

The old tailor probably hadn't slept all night, as he was mending the unfinished lining.

Richard glanced back as he walked out of the doorway.

The door was already closed, and the copper plate still couldn't reflect anyone's image.

Back in his dorm, Richard lay on his bed for half an hour but couldn't fall asleep.

The two little wings on the soles of his feet were still flapping gently, making him float on the water.

He simply brought up the control panel.

Hermes Tararia

[Current Abilities: Levitation, Rapid Travel]

【Swift Crossing (three times daily): Short-distance teleportation】

The increase behind the curtain is influenced by the concentration of ether in the environment;

The material world decays, becoming an insurmountable barrier.

"An insurmountable barrier in the material world." He frowned.

The following afternoon, he signed the form to borrow the training room.

With the iron gate secured, Richard first tested levitation.

He pushed Ether's right inner thigh to his ankle, and the two little wings stood up, lifting him up completely.

He walked across the layer of accumulated dust in the training room floor without leaving any footprints.

However, floating also consumes ether, and the higher and faster you fly, the more ether you consume.

"Swift Crossing" only emerged after the night of the fire split, and he had never dared to try it until now that there was a place to do so.

Richard pushed Ether up to his ankle, and the two little wings that were attached to the top of his boot flapped up.

He mentally pointed to a spot, about ten meters away from the bronze target on the east wall of the training room.

Richard didn't take a single step, and the spot where he was standing was already empty; he was already in front of the bronze target.

The breath in his chest lingered there, and it took him a while to catch up.

Richard leaned against the wall to catch his breath, then looked back at the spot where he had just been standing; there wasn't even a drag mark left on the ground.

But ten meters is still too short.

He walked back to the center of the field and placed his landing point further away.

It's in the innermost corner of room number three, about twenty meters away.

The swift crossing was initiated, and the person landed about fifteen meters away.

Richard frowned, and the still water of the Mirroring Technique spread out, illuminating the entire training room's ethereal background noise.

The walls of this room are covered with inscriptions, and the entire etheric field is compressed to an extremely low level.

It's so much easier for him to practice the Condensing Mirror Technique here than outside, because there are fewer distractions.

The other side of less interference is that there is also less available ether in the environment.

He recalled the line describing it: greatly affected by the concentration of ether in the environment, increasing behind the veil, and decreasing in the material world.

Richard summoned the shadow from behind the curtain and let it test it on the other side of the shallows.

The shadow wore a mask, and the two gold lines on its ankles flashed.

It went out in an instant.

Through that wisp of spirit, Richard could sense the distance.

When the shadow settled on the shallows, it was so far from its original position that he had to spread out his senses to reach it.

"Amplification behind the curtain."

This makes sense; messengers cross borders, and the material world is not their domain.

All three chances have been used up, but all the tests that needed to be done have been conducted.

The double serpent staff gave him the "inviolability of messengers," but he often wondered what he would do if he really encountered someone who didn't follow the rules.

Now, the flying shoes allow him to float in the air and teleport, and this latter feature is the most crucial.

If you really encounter danger, you at least have three chances to teleport.

The next day, he tried it on the first floor of the Petrie Building.

The corridor was lined with old walls, each containing a centuries-old seal. I tried to see if the distance was reduced, and it was indeed impossible to pass through the walls.

The landing point was set on the other side of the iron gate, but the spell was not activated at all. The two little wings on the ankles didn't even flap, as if they hadn't heard anything.

He tried it again under the old sycamore tree in the college area.

The roots of the sycamore tree are planted in the etheric active layer, and that area has one of the highest ether concentrations in the entire school.

He landed at a distance of twenty meters, but suddenly jumped thirty meters, almost crashing into a handcart carrying lecture notes.

The elderly school worker pushing the cart looked up.

"Sir, where did you come from?"

"I've been standing here for a while."

"...Oh." The old school janitor pushed the cart away, but after taking three steps, he looked back again.

Richard recorded this number in the database: for every increase in ether concentration, the distance roughly doubles.

He added another line below: Impassable obstacle.

"In other words, the flight shoes only helped me shorten the section of the road that I could already walk."

Richard suddenly felt that this sentence was somewhat similar to what Matthew had said.

After completing the basic tests, Richard left his dormitory and walked to the main road of the college area that day.

He was also thinking about something else: the little bit of ether that he stored in his body every day would dissipate most of it after he slept.

The condensation mirror process requires a portion of the energy, the warming of the Sphinx lamp requires a portion, and the rest simply evaporates.

He has never liked waste.

So he set the levitation to its lowest setting, so low that the levitation height was barely higher than the paper.

On the surface, it looks like he's just walking normally, but he's saving himself some effort.

Richard stopped at the entrance of the Petrie Building.