Descending Into A Novel-Chapter 94:Instant Connection

The term Arts referred to any technique which used mana. But where did the term Arts originate from?

The answer was simple, it originated from the Wulin realm. One of the countless realms that fused together with the current human realm alongside the others during the Convergence of Realms.

The Wulin realm was larger then Terra, consisting of five different regions. Each with their own signature sects and families.

As a side note, the Wulin realm was also the same reason why the families were called the families.

Long ago, when the Convergence of Realms first occurred. Each realm had naturally started to explore the other realms.

At the time, humanity (Terra) was still unfamiliar with the phenomenon that was mana.

The story goes that one individual. Upon witnessing another person protect him from monsters, had asked how he managed to kill the monsters.

The unknown protector from the Wulin realm. Unfortunately, didn’t speak the same language.

After a lot of back and forth, they managed to communicate enough for the individual to learn that it was called Arts—when the full name was Martial Arts.

Said individual then popularized that term, and the rest is history.

Since the main inhabitants of both the human realm (Terra) and the Wulin realm was humans. The two realms were extremely close together.

Which made it the perfect place for someone looking to run away.

"Greeting, Raymond Vance."

"You can speak to me in Zhongwen"

Her voice was smooth and velvety, but it was extremely clear that she wasn’t proficient in english. Her pronunciation was off, emphasizing each consonant and the way she said the -mond part of his name was more like mhond and not muhnd like how most did.

She sounded pleasantly surprised at that, "You also know how to speak Zhongwen?"

"I learned it for fun."

Of course, he had actually learned it to decipher what she said back when he was writing his novel. She would constantly mutter, curse or ramble in Zhongwen. So he learnt it to translate for his readers. But he couldn’t exactly reveal that.

"How fortunate, I have been struggling in trying to communicate for the past month ever since I’ve transferred here. I’m glad there is another person who I can speak with. But your pronunciation seems a bit strange?"

"It’s probably because of my accent. I’m not from Wulin, so I grew up around the english language."

Lin Qingyi nodded in understanding, her original look transformed into one of familiarity. Just being able to speak the language was enough for them to instantly connect with the other.

Ellen looked back and forth between them, her eyebrow raised when Raymond suddenly began speaking the same language.

"Thank you for the gift you sent me while I was recovering. The tea was excellent."

"It’s a family tea brew. If you’d like, I can give you several more, we can have a tea gathering together."

The power of simply speaking the same language was really powerful. In just one conversation, Lin Qingyi had already asked Raymond to have a tea gathering together. Just for reference, it had taken Zachary and his gang nearly a month of being friends before she offered the same.

Raymond naturally agreed. When else would one get the opportunity for such a thing ever again?

Lin Qingyi was his second favorite character after all, only behind Ellen.

Ahem, not character. He had already put it on his list a long time ago. But he still kept referring to actual people as NPCs or characters.

As the two of them continued chatting, even on their way to lunch. Ellen quietly whispered into his ear.

"Psst. Can you cast that translation magic on me?"

Raymond naturally learned translation magic, he had used it when he needed to convince the other races back on Erde, used it when he was travelling between different dimensions. He only learned languages if he stayed in the dimension for a long period of time.

"Hmm. No."

"Why not?"

"Don’t wanna."

A vein snaked its way onto Ellen’s forehead. She really wanted to do something to him right now, but they were also currently in the academy cafeteria.

Seeing the two whisper to each other, Lin Qingyi asked him.

"By the way, who is this person that keeps following you around?"

"She’s my master."

Lin Qingyi tilted her head slightly, luckily Zhongwen had different words for master so she didn’t get confused. For example, if someone said master. It might mean—a teacher, a boss, or someone good at something. But it only made her more confused.

"A master..?"

"I’m her shadow. Just think of it as me being here servant."

"I see. The two of you do not seem to have a master-servant relationship however?"

"We’re just very casual about it. We’ve known each other since we were young after all."

Ellen was left out of the conversation once again. But inside, she was already mentally planning on what to do with Raymond once they were alone.

Sitting down, Raymond wasn’t surprised when Arthur joined the three of them—soon followed by Thomas and Zachary. Arthur had been coming to Raymond often recently to discuss the density of Thomas and Zachary. The other two, well Raymond was close with Thomas?

Well the guy was close to anyone, and Zachary was always just kinda there.

Arthur commented on Lin’s presence, "Yo, didnt know you were already familiar with Raymond."

"I familiar?"

Raymond translated it for her, leading to more surprised gazes from the trio.

"You know how to speak Zhongwen? How do I say, nice to meet you fine lady?"

"I like to eat my own sh*t."

"Make sure you pronounce it exactly like that."

"I think I heard a curse word though..?"

"My pronunciation is quite bad. Maybe you mistook it for a different word."

The thought to whether he should just come clean now and admit that wasn’t how you say ’nice to meet you, fine lady.’ did appear in his brain. But he mentally tossed it away.

Arthur, putting his full trust in Raymond. Turned to Lin Qingyi, with the biggest grin on his face. Repeated Raymond’s words nearly one-to-one.

Lin Qingyi froze in place, staring at Arthur for a few seconds. Mentally processing his words—try as she might, there wasn’t any other sentence he might have meant to say instead.

"...sorry?"

Raymond intensely focused on his food in front of him, not daring to look up.

Arthur repeated himself one more time, stressing every syllable and making sure his pronunciation was the same as what Raymond had told him just now.

"..."

Arthur suddenly got a bad feeling in his stomach. Seeing Lin Qingyi’s look of worry and...disgust?

Raymond continued focusing on his food, he could feel not just Arthur’s gaze. But just about everyone else’s gaze on him now as well.

Lin Qingyi suddenly seemed to gain an epiphany however. Connecting the dots inside her head as she realized what Raymond had just done. The corners of her lips moving upwards temporarily before being wiped away in an instant as she returned to her normal cool state.

"Can you tell him his pronunciation is wrong? It’s ’I love to eat my own sh*t’."

"She says that your pronunciation is way off. That’s why she was so confused."

Arthur nodded, he felt relieved—Raymond was a good guy after all!

"I see, I’ll need to touch up on my language skills."

All the doubt he held was wiped away in an instant, if he was a character in a dating sim. Their relationship would have progressed by an extra ten points. From friends, to slightly closer friends.

The five of them, or more like the four of them since Zachary stayed silent most of the time—only occasionally adding on a remark to their conversations. While Raymond constantly had to translate for the others, and Lin Qingyi could only reply with the most basic words and that was only if you spoke slowly.

At this moment, he couldn’t help but wander back to his friends he made while traveling. The World Tree, Flare and Valerie. He hadn’t spoken with anyone of them ever since he got his job on Earth. There was also his coworker Jake as well. He wasn’t close with any of his coworkers, but Jake was the sole exception.

Raymond was also reminded of the novel he wrote, it had nearly 1000 Chapters in total. Yet even with so many Chapters, Raymond had to skip over most of the daily, less interesting stuff the group went through.

A single mission alone would be enough for twenty Chapters, if Raymond tried to include every small gathering they had. It would have easily stretched into the two thousands.

He kind of regretted that decision, the entire story spanned twenty years. Starting from when they entered the academy until the demon king descended. In such a long period of time, countless small events had to be erased entirely.

The big fights, the plot twists and the wars. They were all important events, but didn’t they only stand out because of what lay in between? The mountains are as impressive as what surround them.

As they happily chatted on, Ellen noticed his sudden shift in mood. Quietly leaning in to ask him whether he was alright or not. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

He smiled wistfully.

"Just remembered a few things is all."