Whenever Lith would find something noteworthy, he would write it down in his grimoire. Lith could not trust his bad handwriting, so he would dip his finger into the inkwell and then use water magic to spread the ink on the page, and then to dry it.
The result was a whole page written with an outstanding calligraphy, even copying illustrations when necessary, in perfect English. All in just a second.
"Ah ah ah!" Lith inwardly laughed. "I don't need a secret code. I am the only one that speaks English in this world. My secrets are safe with my grimoire."
"They would be safe either way. Don't forget my pocket dimension." Solus chimed in.
"One more layer of protection never hurts. There is no such thing as too careful."
Lith found the sections about fire, water, air and earth quite bland. He already knew almost everything written in the book, but he read carefully every word.
Nana allowed him to read only until lunchtime, then he was forced to go back home and resume his previous routine, switching the hunting time from morning to afternoon.
It took him three days to get to the juicy part. Lith was aware that being a self-taught, light and dark magic were his weakest subjects. They were the only two elements that didn't exist on Earth, after all.
He spent a whole week on the light and darkness section, taking countless notes and finally understanding how shallow and rough was his mastery over those elements.
"Amazing, simply amazing. It never ceases to impress me how profound is Lochra's understanding of light and darkness. Her description of the mana flow in the patient's body is just peerless. I would have never thought of that on my own.
Only now I finally understand why she wrote about them in the same section. Light and darkness are not separate elements, but two sides of the same coin. Darkness is of paramount importance for healing diseases and congenital conditions.
Once I have fully absorbed all this new knowledge, I might even be able to cure Tista for good. If I really manage to do that, I will rethink my view about being a Magus."
Lith read that section again and again, until he became certain to have not missed anything. His magic power hadn't increased much, but his comprehension was now on another level for all the six elements.
Lith was sure he would be able to achieve even stronger foundations, also improving his spirit and fusion magic. But with his confidence, also new doubts arose.
"The more I learn the less it makes sense. How is it possible that with all this knowledge in her hands Nana didn't manage to cure Tista over the years?
Why she needed both hand signs and a magic word to kill Baronet Trahan and his son? A finger snap should have sufficed."
Lith decided to postpone those question until he had fully understood Lochra's book. Maybe he was missing some key element, or maybe it wasn't as easy as it appeared.
Nana was delighted learning that he had finished the whole book in just a week, and immediately gave him his first tier one magic spell book.
"Let's see if you are good at practicing magic as you are with its theory."
Lith took the book from her hands, treating it like a precious gemstone that could easily break. He walked solemnly to his desk, opening the book full of anticipation.
He would have never imagined to be disappointed to such a extent.
"What the f*cking f*ck is this? Is this how a spell book is supposed to look like?"
"By my core, what is this cr*p?" Solus cursed for the first time in her life.
Both Lith and Solus were too flabbergasted to make any further comment. So, they closed the book, re-opened it again, discovering it was unchanged.
They had expected for it to be filled with instructions about how to manipulate the mana flow in the mage's body, how to better connect with the world energy to obtain spells whose power was incomparable to those they already knew.
Instead all they found was an odd mix of a spelling book and a hand signs instruction manual. Not to mention that they already knew all of those tier one spells, just with different names that Lith had invented over time.
"Blasting Sphere is just a Fireball, Piercing Ice is identical to my Frost Lance, if not worse."
Lith did go back to the foreword, noticing that this book had not been written by a Magus, and was just a collection of the most common spells.
By reading the instructions for Blasting Sphere, Lith noticed how the author stressed out the importance of executing the hand signs in the proper order with precise movements.
Even the magic word was split into syllables, to help the student learn the correct pronunciation and accent. After skimming through the whole book, Lith couldn't find any mention of how to perform them with silence magic.
Becoming more and more confused, Lith went to Nana for advice.
"I'm sorry Lith, I had forgot how frustrating and painful is going from the simple and easy silent chore magic to the much more complex real magic. Only tier zero magic can be silently cast. All the superior tiers of magic require both hand signs and proper spelling of the magic word."
Lith's head was spinning so fast he had to sit down for a moment.
"This makes no sense at all." He thought. "I use silent magic with my ice spears and fireballs all the time. I wouldn't be alive otherwise."
Then a sudden thought erupted in his mind.
"Maybe I am special, after all. Maybe I use a different kind of magic because I came from Earth. Maybe I am some sort of chosen one!" Lith was both scared and flattered at the idea.
"None of the above." Solus words abruptly doused his enthusiasm.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Much appreciated. What's your explanation then?"
Lith could feel Solus's mind spinning so fast that it was hard for him to follow her reasoning.
"If my hypothesis is correct, then you, like Lochra Silverwing and all the other past and present Magus, are one of the few people in this world to actually use true magic."