Su Mo: "To be precise, it allows you to master True Aether, which has the same nature as divine power."
Su Mo: "However, with your current understanding, it's not entirely wrong to roughly think of it as divine power."
Su Mo corrected Erica's statement, but his correction was, in effect, an affirmation. If one could learn this technique, one could truly wield power on par with the gods!
Erica: "Unbelievable! And this all came from Master Su Mo's... no, Grandmaster Su Mo's... no, Su God's 'little bit' of epiphany?"
Erica: "This has completely overturned my entire worldview!"
Rin Tohsaka: "Worldview overturned +1."
Rin Tohsaka: "Forget my father, I'm afraid even my grand master, the legendary Second Magician, might not be able to compare to Mr. Su in terms of sheer talent."
In the Type-Moon world, the young Rin felt a crushing sense of being overwhelmed for the first time.
However, as a magical genius herself, she didn't feel defeated by it. It wasn't because she couldn't see the gap between herself and Su Mo, but because she saw the gap so clearly that she couldn't even muster the will to compete.
Faced with a disparity vaster than the heavens and the earth, all she could do was gaze upwards in awe.
On this point, Erica's thoughts were identical to Rin's.
She might be young enough to underestimate a God-Slayer, but she would never look down on a man who could conjure divine power in a matter of minutes.
One might be able to solve a problem of strength through sheer luck, but not a problem of academia. Just like in mathematics, if you don't know it, you don't know it.
Erica: "Compared to you, even the peerless God-Slayers of my world are nothing more than beasts indulging their instincts."
She sighed, her admiration akin to someone staring up at a colossal mountain.
Meanwhile, although Madoka couldn't comprehend the full implications of Su Mo's words like Rin and Erica could, she understood from their reactions just how mind-shattering his "little epiphany" truly was.
And so, a simple question formed in her innocent mind.
Madoka: "An amazing person like the big brother... was he really just an ordinary person before this?"
It was unbelievable, no matter how she thought about it. An ordinary person, upon his very first contact with mana, had achieved something others couldn't in decades. Was that even reasonable?
At her question, the others' curiosity was also piqued. Could this be some max-level powerhouse pretending to be a newbie to mess with them?
Soon, Su Mo's answer dispelled this unrealistic speculation.
Su Mo: "I am indeed an ordinary person."
Su Mo: "I just happen to know a little more about occult studies, and my insight is a little higher, that's all."
As soon as he said this, a unified response appeared in the chat interface.
Erica: "?"
Kanae: "?"
Rin Tohsaka: "?"
Madoka: "?"
Rin Tohsaka: "A little? You call that a little?"
Erica: "Oh! I get it. He meant a billion bits, not a little bit!"
Rin Tohsaka: "A universe on a fingertip, is that it? That's more than just 'a little' different."
Madoka: "Big brother, you're being way too modest."
Flabbergasted by Su Mo's response, the group members all started to tease him. As for Madoka's question, after a moment's thought, they realized it was impossible.
Su Mo's status had been confirmed by the chat group: an ordinary person from an ordinary world. That much was certain.
As for why an ordinary person could be so formidable, they could only attribute it to their own good luck in stumbling upon a rising powerhouse.
The possibility that Su Mo was some supreme being capable of masking the chat group's detection was unthinkable. If he were such a being, they wouldn't have been able to find any flaws in the first place.
Seeing the conversation devolve from a Q&A into meaningless idle chatter, Su Mo immediately left the chat interface. He didn't mind chatting to relax, nor did he mind answering others' questions.
But today was his first contact with a supernatural world, and he had far more things he wanted to verify.
Seeing that he had gone silent, the others continued chatting amongst themselves, careful not to disturb him.
Were they kidding? Who would dare waste the time of a powerhouse like him? With the wisdom Su Mo had displayed, a casual deduction was enough to optimize their world's skills to their absolute limit.
Anything he did could change their strength, and even their destinies.
In this situation, the best strategy was to stay on the powerhouse's good side. Even the scraps that fell from his fingers would be enough to change their own fates, and perhaps even the fates of their entire worlds.
After exiting the chat, Su Mo opened the Group Store again.
Having solved the initial problem of mana, he finally had the foundation—and the energy—to study the various techniques and their different abilities.
After all, the "way" (Tao) and the "technique" (Shu) were two sides of the same coin. Even the simplest magical skill could contain the crystallized essence of an entire magic system.
Since it was a mana refinement method from the world of Campione!, I'll start by studying the magic system of that world.
With this thought, he observed for a moment and quickly selected his target from among the many skills Erica had for sale.
It was an unranked auxiliary magic costing only two hundred points: [Boots of Hermes].
Originally, Su Mo's point balance had been in the single digits after buying the mana refinement method.
But after Erica purchased the Master Edition, he now had over a thousand points, more than enough to buy this minor skill.
Upon successful purchase, the method for using the Boots of Hermes immediately materialized in Su Mo's mind.
After mastering the magic in an instant, Su Mo didn't rush to try it out. Instead, just as before, he began to analyze the principles behind it.
An incantation using the name of Hermes... it seems to be more than just a psychological suggestion. Is it using idol worship to obtain power?
In that first moment, Su Mo understood the principle behind the magic.
In occultism, idol worship is a fairly common practice.
Just as most temples enshrine statues of gods, people don't believe the carved statue is the deity itself, but they hold a simple belief that even if a replica doesn't have the exact same power as the original, it should at least have one percent of it, right?
The Boots of Hermes before him was the same. Even if this magic didn't possess the power of the god himself, it should at least have one percent, shouldn't it?
This kind of magic, built upon the Law of Similarity, was widely present in major religions around the world and was not particularly rare.
The only thing Su Mo found amusing was that this was one of Erica's commonly used spells.
If it were just the Christian rule forbidding idol worship, that would be one thing. They barely follow that rule themselves anyway. Strictly speaking, the veneration of the cross, the Son, and the Holy Mother should all be condemned as heresy.
But Erica, for all that, is a descendant of the Knights Templar, a believer in Christianity. For her to so flagrantly borrow the power of a pagan god like Hermes... the Church has no objections?
The instant this question arose, Su Mo remembered the basic setting of the Campione! world.
Oh, right! In a world where Heretic Gods appear from time to time, and where Demon Kings like the God-Slayers exist, the Church probably doesn't have the power to object.
Coupled with the tide of the Protestant Reformation, the Church in the Campione! world was likely so weakened that it didn't dare to assert its presence.
Well, that settles that.
Shaking his head and casting aside these stray thoughts, Su Mo immersed himself in the study of magical theory.
Idol worship itself was just the most basic principle of the spell; simply identifying that wasn't enough.
The actual construction of the spell formula was bound to be a complex technical problem.
If I can successfully master this method of constructing Spirit Armaments, I might not need to purchase any other magic of the same type in the future...
Amidst the curling fragrance of tea, thousands upon thousands of models began to form in his mind.