When I woke up I was in my room. The last thing I remember is that I lost conscious when I tried to control my magic. It seems I was carried back here, but why? I can hear footsteps and by the sound of them it’s Ellen. If there is somebody who can tell me what happened it would be her.

When she came inside I looked at her then in my mind some pieces of information appeared in my head like name, age, abilities, skills, and a threat level. I already knew her name, age and race, what surprised me is that apparently she was a black magic user and her threat level was 5. So another one of my passive powers seems to be working. Apparently the threat level went from 0 to 10. Apparently I couldn’t beat anything higher than level 1 because it seems that the threat level is based on my current power so maybe a threat level 5 might become 1. This might be the first time I used this power but why do I have a migraine?

When Ellen came to my room and saw I was awake she hugged me tightly and started sobbing. I still have no idea what happened but if she is like this then something horrible must have happened. After she finished crying she let me go and regained her composure.

“What happened to me?”

“You tried to control your magic but it failed. You exhausted your magic too fast for it to kill you and you have been asleep for four days.”

“So what went wrong?”

“Your body is a conduit. When I told you how to use body enchantment I didn’t know that your body is different.”

“What do you mean by different?”

“As I said your body is a conduit. Basically your magic flows through your body just like a demon’s BUT you have control over your magic, now we just need to find a way for you to control it.”

“Before that can I ask you a question?”

“I haven’t seen you have such a serious look on your face before. Go ahead.”

“I can barely feel my limbs and my head hurts. What happened to me?”

“I really don’t know. I don’t have that kind of knowledge, the only people who know about a demon’s biology can be found in magic academies or in the imperial capital.”

“That aside, if black magic is so dangerous why do you use it?”

It was then that I realized that I just DDoS-ed Ellen. She looked at me with a surprised expression and I think she forgot how to blink.

“Did I say something that strange?”

How about changing your CPU, it seems this is too much to process. After a minute she sighed and her face looked exhausted.

“How is it possible for you to know that? The only person who knows I was a black mage is my teacher, not even Kraft knows.”

“I can see it. I looked at you when you entered the room and some information just appeared in my head.”

“Don’t move.”

Ellen put her hands on my head and looked me in the eyes or she looked at my eyes. She kept moving my head left and right. My migraine was getting worse and her shaking my head wasn’t helping.

“What are you doing?”

“Keep quiet for a second.”

“I was looking at your iris.”

“Huh?”

“Your flow of magic is so strong that it makes your eyes see things they couldn’t. Your eye colour is darker than four days ago and your magic aura can barely be seen in your eyes. It’s like you used body enchantment only on your eyes. Look at my eyes, I will show you.”

I looked at Ellen’s eyes and I saw her pupils, they were enveloped in some kind of red-ish light.

“So what is that?”

“A technique used by those who practice black magic. You can concentrate your magic on one part of your body and gain a special ability. I used fire magic on my eyes and I can now see fire magic, fire demons and I can see through fire. There are various abilities but humans can only use black magic on their eyes because using it for a long period of time leads to injuries and my teacher almost lost her sight, but I wasn’t that fortunate.”

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“Did I just hear something disturbing right now?”

“Since you already know that I can use black magic I might as well tell you what happened. I used fire magic on my eyes for a whole day and my eyes burned. I was fortunate that my teacher found a bandit, we took her and sacrificed her life in exchange for my eyes.”

“That’s something I couldn’t even imagine you doing. I understand killing a person but the whole sacrifice thing, I don’t buy it.”

“Believe what you want. My teacher stopped teaching me black magic and I still believe she made the right choice. Now I’m going to make you use some black magic techniques to help you control your magic.”

“How can black magic help me?”

“You know the major differences between a rabbit and a demon rabbit?”

“Not really?”

“The magic empowers their body passively. That’s why a rabbit dies after one arrow while a demon rabbit can be hit several times and still live.”

“So I should just fuck the traditional methods and empower my body passively?”

“Why not both? You can empower your body and if you need a boost you can use body enchantment.”

“So I can do both?”

“When I looked in your eyes I saw that your magic flow was stable and you are still alive after what happened so I believe you can.”

“Can you teach me how to meditate?”

“For once we are on the same page, I was about to tell you about meditation. The only method of meditation I know is the one associated with black magic and is the most dangerous one because you can be swallowed by magic and lose your sanity.”

“The last part sounds a lot like a training day for Kraft since he always acts like he is insane when he trains, especially those sounds.”

“Let’s not talk about your father’s inability to use any magic other than body enchantment.”

“I still don’t know Kraft’s threat level.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Let’s go outside, I will explain on the way.”

By the time we got to the “training ground” Ellen understood how the threat system works. Ellen instructed me to sit with my legs crossed, put my arms on my legs and bend my body forward. I felt like somebody who fell asleep sitting down. Next I should be able to feel the magic inside me and somehow try to empower my body.

While I was waiting for a miracle I started hearing water drops. When I focused my senses to the origin of the sound I found myself in a dark place. The only thing I could see was a lake. There were water drops rising up from the lake.

It was just like the world was upside down and the water was dripping upwards. It was quite an interesting sight, the water was clear and I could see it well but I couldn’t see anything else. Since I was meditating I expect this water to my magic and I just have to learn how to control it. Since I was too tired for this I took a deep breath and I went for a swim. 

It was a huge mistake, the water somehow was getting absorbed by my body and endless amounts of pain surged in my body. I don’t know what happened but it appears I passed out because I was floating in the water instead of absorbing it. There was one thing I was sure of, somehow I absorbed some magic in my body.

After that I stopped meditating, and when I woke up I saw Ellen and Kraft looking at me. I understand that they are worried, but what’s with those faces?

“Somehow it worked.”

“Alex look at your reflection.”

Kraft took his greatsword and placed it in front of me. The veins on my face and neck were black and so were the ones on my arms. It was safe to say that my all my veins were black, but the ones in my eyes were returning to their original color.

“Well done Ali, you were able to absorb magic in your body without dying. Go and rest for today. We will be discussing what to do next tomorrow.