Garius and Heid stared at Satou in disbelief similar to the way the looked at Maria prior. They just looked at him dumbfounded, confused, completely speechless.
And it wasn't just them, Satou was also confused. In his head Satou thought,“These results didn’t seem particularly good, but i don't think they are so shocking. And it looks like they're shocked at something good not bad. Because if they were they'd probably be throwing insults left and right.”
Satou didn’t exactly know what each part refers to , but from what he’s seen he could still take a pretty good guess. For example, Rank appears to be a sort of level one would see in games, and the higher the rank the stronger you are. The group of imps mostly ranked in the 3rd Rank, while the monstrous Maria was hailed a genius ranking in the 7th Rank. As for Name, Potential, and Race well they naturally speak for themselves.
“Hmm, wait this is odd…”,Satou recalled Maria’s results, and wondered“ Why did only Maria get a name? Wait does that technically mean I’m not Satou? Does that mean my name is Nameless? So does that mean whenever the narrator talks about me I'll be referred to as Nameless ? Wait am i just a Mob character? Is he gonna say, And Nameless said!?”
“No….”, and the world answered him
And with that Satou was able to breathe a sigh of relief. Though he immediately forgot what he was thinking of or why he had such a mean headache.
He turned to look at Garius and Heid, who still happen to be staring at him unblinkingly. But this isn't because by some weird coincidence time somehow slowed as Satou questioned the world around him. You mustn't underestimate time, it waits for no one. Right now you might be a young man, but before you know it you'd have gone old and senile. And for no good reason the two just stared at Satou who has been making odd expressions of relief, pain, and shock as they observed him. They were simply shocked at something they just can't explain. And this silence could have easily persisted for much longer but.
“Ahem”, The silent maid coughed ending the silence, and drawing Garius’s and Heid’s attention.
“Sirs, Nevil has completed the examination and is making his way to the throne room. I would suggest that we promptly conclude these examinations”,.
So Garius threw the piece of paper back to Heid who returned it to the Tome. Heid motioned the imp behind Satou to come up. And he quickly began working.Soon enough the examinations finished. Heid put the last page into the Tome, and asked,” Garius so which ones are you taking?”
”I’ll just take Maria, the Rank 1, and the three strongest ones”
So Heid put his hand over the book and a blue circle appeared under his hand causing the Tome to rapidly flipped through the pages, until it landed on one. From one of his drawers in the desk, he took out five small, brown books embedded with a Latus Crystal on the front cover.
He tapped the one of the crystal on the book and it popped right out. He took it and quickly moved it over to the Tome page. He hung it over the seal on the page, letting it go he made the crystal to float a few inches above the paper. Heid put both hands towards the crystal, quickly mumbling some words.
A blue light emitted from Heid’s palms and the crystal began to shine with a weak blue light. The seal also began to shine, and then numerous small black and red lines shot out from it completely encasing the crystal in layers of black and red. The casing slowly disappeared, and small dark red marble sized ball of light could be seen shining inside the crystal.
Slowly this marble sized ball disappeared, and the crystal fell down onto the page. He picked it up and carefully inserted the crystal back into the book, and threw it in the air saying,”[Seek]”
And with that command the book flew over to one of the imps. Heid popped another crystal out and repeated the entire process,. Another book landed on another imps hands. He did this until Satou, Maria, and one more imp also had one.
Satou opened the book after he received it. Inside were a bunch of odd characters, but when he touched the words on the page they glowed, and he was suddenly able to read it.
He was able to read what was inside the book, but it was odd. Satou looked at the words, and charchters and thought “I understand it, but this isn’t English, or Japanese. It's not Chinese, French, Spanish, or any other language I’ve seen before. But i can still read it….”
On it were the results of Satou's test from before, Rank, Name, Race, etc. Other than that there were also a few other things the category Element, which had some characters that seem to mean Blood. He also had the ability [Lesser Blood Control], [Soul Furnace], [Essence Absorption], and [Demon Sight]. There were also a number of blanks spots that had categories like like, Master, Servants, Contracts, and Affiliation. But all this only took up the first two pages of the small book, every other page past them were just blank.
Satou couldn’t help but think,”Isn’t this sorta like a video game? It's like a Stat Window of sorts that doesn't have any Stats. Except this is in the form of books, I thought if something like this would happen it would be an odd floating message. But i wonder if i press the words or something thing will It give me an of an explanation!?”
So with that in mind he began readily poking the words. But disappointingly nothing happened, though it did get the other imps with books to start poking the pages over and over and over.
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Garius having finished what he needed to came to walked towards the door before saying,”Okay, anyone with a [Grimoire]come with me, I’ll leave the rest to you”
The maid in response bowed, she turned to the crowd and said,”Everyone else please follow me.”
She exited the archives allowing the thirty something imps to follow her out of the room. Garius followed suit, turning to walk in the opposite direction. He began walking down the hallway, and Maria, and the remaining imps followed.
Satou was getting ready to catch up , but before he even passed through the door Satou felt an odd sensation behind him as if there was something carefully inspecting every single part of Satou’s naked body.
“What in the world!?”
Satou turned around, to find Heid sitting down on his desk just staring at him, intently causing a chill to go down his spine. It was similar to the way a beast would look at his prey. Satou turned back around and hurriedly left. But even after closing the door he still felt eyes watching him. Only a minute or so later did the feeling disappear.
...
Heid was now alone in the Latus Archives , as things were and as they should be. Heid extended his arm over the large Tome once more and a blue circle appeared under his hand influencing the large book. The Tome quickly landed on a page as Heid had directed it, and he slowly read the contents of the page.
”Rank 1, Lesser Demon. Race: Blood Imp. Nameless. Sinless. Soul Complete. Potential: Clear, Undeterminable. Anti-Seal Rate: 99.99%.”, Nevil read these words to himself out loud, and as he thought about it he couldn’t help but laugh. He couldn't help himself for Heid knew far far more than Garius.
As a High-Demon, Heid and Garius naturally possessed a great deal of knowledge. High Demon’s lifespans easily exceed a thousand years, and Heid himself has existed for nearly two thousand. So it’s normal for someone his age to possess a great amount of wisdom, and experience. But his knowledge far outstrips average High-Demons, like Garius.
Heid isn't the strongest warrior, and from the way he looked he'd fit more as a mage. But even in that regard, Heid was by no means strong. But his real value is in his knowledge, and this value is do to one thing his Sin. And this is why Sin was one of the important parts tested in an Aptitude Exam. It can greatly affects a Demon’s personality, ideology, fighting style, goals, desires,and future prospects. And by indulging themselves in Sin, demons can end up growing more powerful and powerful.
As for Heid’s sin it was Invidias: Sin of Envy. And in search of greater strength he has for centuries closed himself into the Latus Archive studying book after book after book. So he understood far more than Garius could, that a Demon whose Anti-Seal rate was so high was an unprecedented event even among the absurdly large population of the Demon Realm. And this made him envious.
Heid made a book similar to the books that the imps received earlier, a Grimoire appear. A book designed to hold a vast amount information that even a Demon might not know about themselves.
Heid opened this familiar book of his, and with a grim expression he looked at the first page. On the first page there were the words Rank 1, High-Demon. Race: Greater Skeleton Mage Variant. Name Heid Rosen. Sin: Embodiment of Envy. Soul: Fragmented. Potential: Grey Poor Anti-Seal Rate: Negligible.”
Looking at the Grimoire Heid laughed once more. These results were truly sad, yet he didn't cry. Instead he laughed like a broken man who was laughing at himself, who was laughing at the world, and who was laughing at fate.
Heid thought,“It's quite ironic how the child with the worst aptitude, would have a free pass to becoming a king….”
He couldn’t help , but think of his thousand years of struggle to get to where he is now. The amount of effort he put into using what little talent he had to reach this level. And to no one in particularly Heid said in this empty room devoid of any life”How envious, how truly envious….”
And with a face full of despair and a heart filled with envy Heid just laughed. All he could do was laugh, and bathe in his madness.
A madness that became a trigger for events to come.
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Hey Guys I'm a try and post the next chapter soon, don't know when but soon. Editor disappeared somewhere so I'll get him to check over this at some point later. But anyway this is the chapter for i think either this week or next week. Either way I'm posting another chapter so I'm free for a week. You see there's a game called Tree of Savior, and I plan on putting a lot of time in the closed Beta. I'll every now and then work on another chapter, but until the end of the Beta you never know . So this one is sorta short, but expect another chapter soon. Not today soon i need to go out of state tomorrow and do stuff early. So don't expect a reply, or another chapter but you will see it soon.
That's the important stuff out of the way this chapter is more explanations, and a little bit more on Heid. I was planning to make the second part of this chapter a side story. Cause i like side stories where we get other views. Which i might do at one point. But anyway next chapter we finally have something other than a Test, though it is more talking, some new characters, and still no fight! Cause don't expect that too happen. But hey you can take a guess of what his abilities are now i suppose. So anyway tell me if i need to fix stuff, suggestions are welcome.