Chapter 11: Why Am I Still a Four-Eyes in Another World?

Today marked my fifth day inside the magical barrier. Bloodshot-eyed, I finally finished engraving the last rune onto the Rune Engraving Tool. A flash of brilliant white light confirmed the runes were successfully set.

I exhaled deeply and collapsed onto my back. Exhaustion—both physical and mental—crashed over me. Not even a finger wanted to move. I shut my eyes and passed out.

I don’t know how long I slept. When I opened my eyes again, Helle’s face hovered above me. Her expression remained blank, but her eyes held a trace of concern. Glancing around, I noticed something shocking!

Oh! Oh! Oh! A lap pillow! A beautiful maid’s lap pillow! Pure bliss—I nearly teared up. Was this the perk of passing out? Decision made: I’d faint once daily. Twice, maybe?

“Klath, you’re awake?” Helle asked, her voice tight with worry as she saw me stir.

“Not at all. I’m sleepwalking. Please don’t disturb my lap pillow time.” I squeezed my eyes shut again, determined to play dead.

Before I could settle in, someone yanked my ear hard. The pain shot me upright. “Ow! Easy! It’s coming off!”

Interrupting paradise was infuriating. I grabbed the hand tormenting me, whirling to confront its owner—only to find Monaluna.

“What are you doing?! Ruining my happiness?!”

“Nothing. My hand moved on its own when I saw that perverted grin.” Monaluna turned away, cheeks flushed. Ridiculous!

“Master Klath! When do you plan to let go?” Helle’s voice dropped low as she glared at me. I looked down. My hand still clutched Monaluna’s. I hadn’t noticed earlier. Now, my face burned. Damn her for blushing too—this was already awkward enough!

“Let go now!” Monaluna snatched her hand back, shaking it violently. “Disgusting. I’m washing it. A hundred times.”

Watching Monaluna flee—making faces but still blushing—I turned to Helle. “What’s wrong with your mistress? Did she eat bad medicine?”

“Hmph! How should I know?” Alone with me, Helle’s expression softened. She pouted and stomped off.

“Women are all crazy.” Whether前世 or今生, they remained my failing subject.

I shook my head, clearing the nonsense. Back at the engraving table, I admired the two freshly made tools. Joy surged through me. Now I could truly race down the path of magic. Hmph! That stingy Creation Goddess dragged me here as a savior but gave no divine artifacts, no cheat skills—not even a hint about the apocalypse. She couldn’t even fix my incompatibility with this world’s rules! Just shrinking me ten years and abandoning me? Bullshit. If I hadn’t already been socially dead in my old world, I’d have cursed her entire family tree. But under someone else’s roof, you bow your head.

“Self-reliance is key. ‘As Heaven maintains vigor through movement, a noble one persists tirelessly.’” I muttered to myself. Slipping on the Star Absorption Gloves, I tucked the “Elemental Sniper” glasses into their case. At the barrier’s edge, I placed my right hand on the shimmering wall. I wasn’t the rookie who’d crashed into it days ago. My spirit sense probed the Magic Array’s structure.

“A mixed earth-water array? What’s the Old Mage’s specialty anyway?” I took a deep breath. First, I activated the mana-gathering runes on my palms. Magic elements swirled toward me. Then, the分流 runes on my hands sorted the five common elements, channeling them to storage runes etched at each knuckle. Feeling the crisp, abundant mana in my gloves, pure elation filled me.

Focusing spirit energy into my right hand, I targeted the thumb and ring finger knuckles. I replaced the array’s ownerless earth and water elements with my own. Joseph’s displaced mana, freed from the array, turned ownerless too—only to be instantly absorbed, sorted, and reused by the gloves. Within moments, the entire array bent to my will.

“Working perfectly.” I waved open the barrier and slipped through. Glancing back at the array I’d “overtime” on for five days, memories flooded me. Those sleepless nights felt like sitting again at that tiny desk in a high-rise. Past like smoke. I tightened my grip on the gloves and headed for the master’s lab.

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“Master? Are you in? Ma— Holy crap!”

The sight froze me: mountains of spellbooks, notes scattered like fallen leaves, and the Old Mage himself—pale, disheveled, muttering blankly to the air.

“Master! What happened? Did a dozen shirtless thugs gang up on you?”

“Can’t you say anything human?!”

“Tch. So you’re not broken yet?”

“Disappointed? My survival must disappoint you, culprit!”

“Whoa! Master, don’t say things that’ll get us rumors!” I clutched my chest and recoiled.

“Get lost! I meant your cursed new theories!” The Old Mage’s mood was far from my own high spirits. Understandable—he was old, forced to cram knowledge like *Software Engineering Fundamentals* and *Computer Science 101* without textbooks. Just a few questions at the array and he expected mastery? Don’t underestimate the tuition fees we paid for retakes.

“Master, this isn’t overnight work. How can you master a skill from half-finished products and vague explanations? Check my results instead.” I pulled the glasses case from my robe and dangled it before him.

“Oh? You succeeded? Let me see what monstrosity you brewed in five days!” He snatched the case eagerly. “You spent five days making a box?”

“Not the box—the thing inside!” I sighed, opening it to reveal the glasses. “I call them ‘Elemental Sniper.’ With these, I can see every magic element freely. If my spirit’s strong enough, I can even pinpoint mixed mana down to individual particles. No more blindfolded spellcasting.”

“But you’re element-blind! Can two crystal lenses really restore sight?”

“Technically, I’m not blind. As you analyzed days ago: no soul engraving means I can’t absorb elements—but I *can* use all of them. My eyes don’t see *nothing*; they see *everything*. Which is the same as seeing nothing.”

“What nonsense? Seeing all equals seeing nothing?”

“Ever mix paints, Master? Blend colors, and you get darker shades. Mix all, and you get black! Magic elements work oppositely: when all types mix, their fluctuations cancel out. Normal mages see only non-conflicting elements. I see ten—all canceling to nothing. I’m the one crying here.”

“Hm. Plausible. But how do these ‘Elemental Snipers’ fix it?”

“Break the balance! Inspired by the hall’s ‘element lamps’—those runes that amplify elemental colors for light. I redesigned it into a method. Parameters: ‘element type’ and ‘spirit strength.’ Now I control exactly which element I see, and how clearly.”

“Brilliant, boy! How’s it used?”

Ugh. Demo duty? Are you a product manager from some client company? I put on the glasses. Mana pulsed faintly through the lenses. The world exploded into vibrant colors.

“But I can’t show you what I see—you already see it all!”

“True. So this tool’s only useful to you?”

“Mostly. But simplified versions could help mages lock onto particles for delicate spells.” I adjusted the glasses on my nose. A wave of nostalgia hit me.

“Oh! I recall—you wore these ‘glasses’ when we first met. Though you took them off later.”

“Back home, glasses are vital tools too.” I removed the Elemental Sniper and waved the gloves. “And these are the ‘Star Absorption Gloves’ I mentioned. I sent the design days ago—though your research seems stuck.”

“None of your business! I’ll crack their secrets! Enough bragging—your tools must have flaws.”

“Sigh… You caught me.” I stared deadpan over the glasses. “The Elemental Sniper has a fatal flaw: it can’t see through clothes.”

“… What?”

“Didn’t hear?”

“No. I heard. My brain just refuses to accept it.”

“A true magic glasses that can’t peek under girls’ clothes? In my old world, that’s blasphemy against magic itself!”

“You’re the blasphemy against magic! Careful, I’ll smash those damn glasses, four-eyes!”

That nickname again! So even in another world, nicknames stayed brutally consistent. Which meant… I’d transmigrated, yet I was still a four-eyes?!