After a full hour of magic exercises and some advice from Azule I’ve come to understand a few things. First off Tier 2 is out of my reach for now. I’m able to cast a few Tier 2 spells, but that only includes the weaker Tier 2 spells. A Tier 2 spell in the Lighting element ,one of the more mana heavy elements, like [Lightning Clad] is impossible for me ,for now at the very least.
But I am capable of casting the Tier 2 spells such as [Fire Clad], [Aqua Film], and [Feather Foot] though I can only use them a few times at the moment. I’m going to have to start compressing the mana inside my mana pool if I want to use the higher tier spells out there.
Though if I keep using the current spells in my repertoire I’ll eventually get better at them and I’ll be able to use the Tier 2 spells more easily. After all each spell utilize certain concepts from earlier and much weaker spells to form the foundation of a much more powerful and intricate spell.
For example the earlier Tier 2 spells I mentioned like [Fire Clad] and [Feather Foot] are the manipulation of the [Ignite] and [Heat], as well as a modification of the spell [Gust]. However casting [Heat] and [Ignite] simultaneously to invoke [Fire Clad] is actually a much more inefficient process than using [Fire Clad]. The process of using both spells simultaneously was transformed and simplified to form [Fire Clad] with both spells naturally serving as the base.
So by mastering the lower tier spells like [Ignite] and [Heat] I’d not only be able to use both spells more efficiently saving a great deal of mana, but I’d also become able to use [Fire Clad] and also some other higher tiers spells more often.
Though I’d still be suffering from a lack of mana. It won’t matter how much I’ve mastered the lower tiered spells if I’m incapable of even meeting the required mana for the higher tier spells. I can only support so many Tier 1 spells and a few Tier 2 spells as is, and improving my mastery of those spells will only allow me to use a few more Tier 1 spells and even fewer Tier 2 spells.
So I’m just gonna have to take some time to compress my mana. But at least it’s not as bad as compressing Demonic Energy. Compressing mana by itself hurts, but I’m able to absorb mana fast enough that it doesn’t really matter. The process itself though is just tiring, and if it weren’t for that warm, comfortable feeling that it gives me I doubt I’d ever compress my mana.
Other than that I’ve also started practicing sequential casting, or the more common name for it Active Casting.Basically whenever you cast a spell, unless you release that spell you won’t be able to cast another spell without losing control of the previous spell.
Active Casting however is to cast one spell after another in an order and maintaining them. This is usually used for things like barriers or buffs. You could cast the Arcane spell [Lesser Barrier] a weaker version of the Tier 3 spell [Barrier], and with active casting you could maintain that barrier while casting [Feather Foot] to boost your speed.
Active Casting is usually used in tandem with spells like these to create layers of barriers, and buffs. But Active Casting has another special use called, Active Loading. This is a technique that utilizes Active Casting to stock up on offensive spells.
It would normally be used on spells like like [Arcane Bolt], which would allow the user to create a ball of mana that could be launched at anytime. Each bot however as only a bit stronger than your average arrow, so it was a spell that was mostly used in large numbers. And this spell is only Tier 2, so a decent mange could naturally create a number of bolts at once.
But one could only make so many bolts at once, and even with the support of Chantless or Wordless Casting you’d still need time to create the next volley of arcane bolts. And in that instant someone could close the gap and kill you.
But with Active Loading you’d be able create a number of bolts, and just hold them there using Active Casting until you have a sufficient amount. And once that suitable amount has been created you could send out volley after volley of spells or bombard them with everything at once. That is Active Loading.
Oh, and Active Casting is different from Simultaneous and Dual Casting. Active Casting you are able to maintain a spell while casting another one. if you used [Ignite] and then kept it active, you'd be able to cast a spell like [Heat]. But you still wouldn't be able to use both the create a phenomenon similar to [Fire Clad]. To create the same phenomenon as [Fire Clad] you’d have to Simultaneously cast [Ignite] and [Heat].
As for Dual Casting the difference between it and Simultaneous Casting is the difference it the phenomenon produced. Simultaneous Casting refers to spells that are combined to create a different phenomenon from what they usually create. While Dual Casting creates two separate phenomenons at the same time.
With Dual Casting you could cast [Ignite], and [Fireball] and use both separately. While with Simultaneous Casting you’d be using [Ignite] to increase [Fireball]’s strength. Though normally you’d cast a completely different spell like I suppose Dual Casting [Fireball], and [Aqua Sphere]. If you Simultaneously cast it they’d simply destroy each other.
There’s quite a lot to do in regards to magic, but I’m sure I’ll get to it all sooner rather than later ,though I’d prefer sooner rather than later.
I mean this world’s interesting, there’s no doubt about that. There’s just so many new and odd things to see, and do. But about half of those things will probably kill you, and ¼ of it will hurt like hell. So there’s no much I can do safely, and it’s sort of boring you know.
I mean there’s always work, everyone’s always busy working. That was true in this world and my old world, and I don’t blame them for putting their all into trying to get a better life, or trying to survive. That’s a wonderful thing, to passionately live your life. But what about me? I’m immortal, I don’t need to worry about surviving. What am I supposed to do? What do I do....
“Hey”
Hmm? I hear someone call out to me, and as I turn my head one of the dozen or so imps walked up to me.It’s one of the twins, what was his name again? Ah wait I never knew any of their names in the first place. My bad, “Hey, I’m Sa-Daemon.”
“Hey Sada,I’m Bryt!”
“No, It’s not Sadaemon, it’s Daemon.”
I almost called myself Satou there, that was closed. The other twin also walks up to me, “Hello, I’m Wryt. Let’s get to know each other Daemon”
Oh, so the right horned twin is Bryt and the left horned twin is Wryt. I wonder if it their names are so similar because they’re twins.
Bryt asks me,“Hey, Sada.”
“Daemon”
“Sada, why do you look so different? You look like Azule, and the Lord.”
Oh, did no one tell them? “Apparently I’m a vampire so I look closer to them then you guys.”
“How come?”
How come? Well I don’t actually know, no one actually explained to me how I became a Vampire. How did I become a vampire anyway? “I don’t actually know.”
“Eh, why not”
“How would I know?”
Bryt looked as if he was about to ask me another question, but he stopped. “Bye, Sada.”
Bryt quickly turned around, and left. Wryt turned to me and said, “Let’s get to know each other later.”
Wryt turned around and left as well.
What was that? I felt like he was going to continue, but he just stopped. Did he have to use the bathroom or something? Though he felt like the sort of unreserved straight forward person that would just say he had to go to the shitter.
I guess I should get to know a few other people then, it’s boring being alone. I went around the room and talked with the few imps that were still remaining. There was the Mat, Pat, Nat, who were apparently named by Garius.
Then there were Jen, and Riley who were named by Tristan. And finally the largest and most muscular imp was named Darren, and he was named by the Lord.
There wasn’t anything really to talk about so I just made my introductions and left. Now where to go? I could go practice magic some more, but there’s not much left to play with other than Darkness Magic and Arcane magic, and compressing Demonic Energy is tiring.
So I suppose it’s either go back to my room and sleep, go to the library, or walk around the castle. Well walking’s fine too…
I start walking around, and explored the castle for a bit. Most of the time I just walked through the hallways and looked at all the doors that were there. I didn’t want to intrude into anyone’s personal space, especially not when I noticed…. well some rather peculiar activities.
Calm down boy, calm down. It’s not time yet.
As I walked around the castle, I noticed Maria walking outside through the window. Hmm, let’s go bother her!
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I quickly make my way over to the stairs and head on down. I walk out of the castle pushing the heavy wooden doors open, and I get the guards to open the iron gate so I could get outside.
I looked around and found Maria walking up a hill, so I quickly make my way over. I ran through the red grass, and all the similarly red vegetation as I made my way up the hill. And finally atop the hill I found Maria sitting down, watching the orange sunset.
Atop the hill I could see far into the distant red plains, forests, the hills, and the mountains. I watched the orange sun lit up the sky, and blended together with the vivid red of the landscape. And as I approached her, Maria turned her head to look at me before slowly turning back to watch the sunset. I ask her,“It’s beautiful isn’t it?”
“Mmm”
“I’m Daemon.”
And she softly replied,“Maria...”
She doesn’t seem to be much of a talker, so I sat down next to her and watched the sunset.
“It's….so warm”
Yeah, it is warm. I sat there basking in the warmth of the sun, and slowly I fell asleep.
Once the sun fully set, the hill grew much colder. And as a cool breeze blew by I woke up, and Maria was nowhere to be seen.
She could’ve at least woken me up. I quickly make my way back to the castle, and head to the dining room to get some dinner before I went back to my room.
Rosalie offer me some of her blood again, but I just refused her before I went to sleep.
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The next day after I woke up I immediately head to training. We don’t walk to the training spot ourselves, instead we head over to the classroom where Tristan is patiently waiting to teleport us.
And then soon enough Garius and Azule would make their way over. We’d get another dosage of poison and pills, and if we didn’t take them they’d force us to take double to regular amount.
Then as usual we’d start fighting Garius and if we couldn't land our required amount of hits on him, we we’re “punished” but they basically do the usual and strap us to chairs and feed us poison. I passed my days like this for months. I’d wake up, head over to train, get beat up, get tortured, and faint until I wake up in a medicinal bath. Then I’d go about the rest of my day before going to Class again.
Day after day, after bloody day I had to go through this. And oh boy that was fun…
And I’m not a masochist. There’s a thing called sarcasm you know? Ah! Fuck my head!
Who was I talking to again?
*Bang*
I’m suddenly sent flying
“You’re dozing off Daemon”
Garius looks over at me with a smile on his face. God damn it, I’m trying to explain what happened in the timeskip! Wait, what timeskip? I don’t remember ever traveling through time? Wait, who am I talking to? Why does my head hurt so much?
Anyway after a week or so of this spartan training Maria finally managed to land three hits on Garius and was exempt from punishment. And soon enough a few others managed to hit Garius as well. Who would’ve guessed It turns out this crazy training actually works! But it hurts like fucking hell!
Though I’m stronger than I’ve ever been before, so there’s that. And eventually after the second week everyone was capable of hitting Garius at least once. So, they upped the difficulty.
They added more poison, required more hits, they made Garius hold back less, and increased the punishment. This lead to another few weeks worth of hell. And naturally after those few weeks the training got even harder, and harder, and hard-.Shit!
Just let me finish my exposition at least!
I hurriedly get out of the way of Garius fist. I quickly back up a good bit and suddenly a number of imps start charging at Garius and one of them managed to land a hit on his head.
It’s been about a month since the last upgrade to this training, and now we’re even allowed to use magic. But collateral damage is a frightening thing, so we mostly use self buffs or barriers to ensure we don’t kill each other. But this doesn’t stop Garius from using it.
Garius raises his hand in the air, upon smashing his fist onto the ground a massive fire pillar erupts rising to the sky, burning a few imps nearby.
At first Garius would use Tier 3 Fire spells, but somehow things have escalated to Tier 4 spells with power that rivaled Tier 5 Spells. That was just the Tier 4 [Fire Field] but it somehow ended up looking like the Tier 5 spell [Fire Pillar]. Oh god that’s a big fireball!
I cast the Wind Elemental Spell [Feather Foot] and quickly begin casting [Aqua Film]. I moved out of the way of the flaming piece of earth.
Azule yells from atop a hill, “You got 10 minutes”
Damn I’ve only hit him 4 out of the required 7 times, and I haven’t finished say...thinking what I wanted to.
Anyways it’s been around 7 months now, and other than a few incidents nothing has really changed. We’ve just been doing the same old exercises constantly. I mean I’m still a Rank 3 Lesser Demon, and only a few people have increased their Rank.
Though I’ve managed to get enough mana though to cast Tier 2 Spells and a few Tier 3 Spells. I’ve also managed to learn Active Casting. Anyways now isn’t the time to think about this, I’ve got 10 minutes before I’m fed a few dozen pills of poison!
I quickly cast a few Arcane spells, [Speed Boost], [Lesser-Barrier], and [Arcane Shield]. I felt as energy was drained from my mana pool, and instead directed towards my body. My already small and light body became even lighter with feather foot, and I grew even faster with the boost.
My body was covered by a clear transparent barrier and a water film ,while a transparent yellow shield floated above my arm. Let’s do this.
I start circling Garius, and only charge in when several other imps started charging as well. I made sure to be slightly behind everyone else to ensure that I wouldn’t be hit first.
As everyone is quickly blown away, I suddenly accelerate even further as I hold my Arcane Shield in front of me. Let’s hope this works! [Instantaneous Movement]!
I quickly cross the distance between me and Garius and strike his chest. That’s 5! He quickly chops at me, but I cast [Gust], and use my [Aqua Film] to slow the strike down enough that my Barrier could withstand it. I jump to the side, and soon enough Garius is once more assaulted by a group of imps.
I take a small break to catch my breath. Active Casting is rather useful in moments like these, but the amount of mana it requires is ridiculous. It’s just so exhaust, and fighting Garius is even more exhaust. God damn it I need a break!
Whatever, I only need 2 more hits to be free. I cast two more spells, [Fade] and [Shadow Step]. These are two Tier 2 Darkness Spells. I don’t have much time left!
Fade is a stealth type spell that makes it harder for one to sense one's presence or see, while Shadow Step silences movement and increases one's speed. I dash forward with even greater speed than before.
But as I approached Garius raised his fist into the air once more. His hand glows with a orange radiance, and everyone begins to run away. Shit it’s [Fire Field]! My the thin film of water can’t hold up against something like that! I don’t have enough mana to cast the Tier 2 Spell [Frost Shield], so I cast [Heat] instead.
I charged into the fire pillar striking Garius’s back. That’s 6!
The Fire Pillar rises into the air quickly heating up the surroundings. Shit [Aqua Film] and [Lesser-Barrier] broke. I quickly jump towards Garius’s head. I kick myself of his head, and get out of the pillar of flames nearly burnt to a crisp. That’s 7!
Phew, that was hot. Though I suppose this is better than that torture.
“And Time!”
Azule called the end of this morning training and a total of 6 Imps failed to hit Garius 7 times. And were dragged off to be tortured.
Everyone else was teleported back to the classroom, and we all went our separate ways. I sit down put my head down on the desk. I start absorbing mana frantically,
“[Cure]”
I turn my head, and I notice Maria standing above me casting [Cure].”Thanks Maria.”
“Mmm”
Afterwards she slowly walked away. I’ve talked with Maria a lot in the past months, but she's generally just a quiet person. Most of the time she just nods, or just outright doesn’t say anything. But she’s nice, and I share that little spot on the hill with her so I don’t really mind. It’s nice to have someone to nap with after all. Though I can never figure out what she’s thinking.
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Authors Notes
Okay, here's another time skip we'll be seeing a few time skips every now and again. Cause do you want to see him go through several years of training? Well even if you do, I probably don't wanna write that. Anyways it's snowing a lot outside I think like 2-3 feet. So yeah :D. But that's irrelevant, what is though is that this week and next week is gonna be stupidly hectic. I'm trying to get Gotta Gacha updated but idk if that will happen. Anyway enjoy, tell me any suggestions and mistakes while you guys are at it.