The half elf's eyes narrowed at the mention of a "benefactor".

"Benefactor? Who is this?" inquired the half elf.

The director froze in place. He had probably said something he shouldn't have.

"This isn't something you need to know" aswered director Bavred.

"No, I think I do need to know who that is. Does that "benefactor" of yours coincidentally wear a horned leathery mask?"

Bavred had a confused look on his face "You met him?"

"I don't know if killing me twice counts as meeting, but if it does, then yes"

"Wait, killed twice?" the confusion of the director didn't fade away one bit.

"Once as an imp and the second time as an aco, yes."

The clouds of confusion faded away instantly as the director finally understood what the newly created being meant.

He still could barely believe that souls can actually fuse with eachother.

Another question crawled into the mind of the director. "Do you know something else about the benefactor?"

The half elf said with an tired expression "No, thats why I am asking. Except that he killed me with a dark red ball of fire and dark red flying knifes."

"So he is a demonologist?" mumbled Fehlim Bavred.

"Dark red energy is a part of demonology?"

Director Bavred raised an eyebrow "Weren't you a demon? How do you not know this?"

The half elf shrugged "How could such a young demon like my former self have known about this? The abyss isn't exactly a place where you can simply study in peace like in this academy"

"That.. is a good point" Bavred admitted. "The dark red energy is more formally known as chaos energy. It is created naturally within the abyss and then permeates into the multiverse."

"But anyway, I cannot tell you any information about the benefactor. I am sure you understand why, correct?"

The half elf sighed "I know, I know. You fear that he would kill you."

"Exactly" admitted Bavred.

The two were silent for a while until the half elf spoke up "Can you give me a name?"

"A name? Why should I give you a new name?" asked the director with confusion within his eyes.

"Although I am Krenas, I am also an aco demon and an imp. I am now something more than a simple half elf servant of a noble family within this kingdom, isn't it fitting to receive a new name?" told the half elf.

"I realize that but wouldn't you compromise your disguise if you did that?"

"Disguise? Oh please, no one knows me in my new class yet except that degenerate of a noble that my former self called "master"." snorted the half elf.

The director was amused at this sudden rise of hate within the half elf. He smirked while saying "You seem not to like your master, why is that?"

"Who wouldn't despise such an arrogant pig?"

Before the director could say something, a cruel smile crept up onto his face "Ah-, actually, didn't you also say that you would tutor me personally?"

"I did promise that, why do you ask?"

"Because there is a perfect piggy waiting to be slaughtered by my hand" The cruel smile transformed into one of pure hearted sadism.

"You know that if you murder him that you will be the first to be suspected, right? That isn't a good plan."

"Although I never laid traps for others except in contracts, I, like any other devil was taught how to lay simple but awfully effective traps. And if that happens in public, nobody would suspect me. Hm. Although it would be a shame not to torture him for hours before hand, so maybe I will simply wait for an opportunity."

The director chuckled. Hate was a feeling he could very much sympathize with.

"Do you want to torture him because he is arrogant or is there some other reason behind this hatred of yours?"

Malice flared up in the half elf's eyes just thinking about it.

"He raped my sister numerous times. Using her as a toy to get rid of his pent up desires"

Hundreds of torture methods appeared inside the half elf's mind. Just thinking about using them on him granted him some measure of peace.

"She is a servant just like yourself then?"

"No, she is still a slave" the half elf said with eyes full of sadness.

The director knew that he touched a touchy subject, so he quickly changed his subject.

"Nevermind that, I thought of new name for you."

"Which is?"

"Cal'rei. What do you think of it?" suggested the director.

The half elf thought about it and shook his head. "It sounds too elvish. Too simple."

Both of them fell into deep thought for a while.

"How about Nedoth then?" Bavred suggested another name after awhile.

"Nedoth? Hm. Nedoth.." The half elf repeated the name a few times. And every time he did, he liked the name more and more. The name sounded neither infernal nor abyssal. It was something in between. Just like himself. And although the name sounded short and relatively simple, it bore a sense of strength within it.

The half elf smiled "Yeah. I think I'll take that name. From this point forward I will be known under the name of Nedoth."

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Suddenly a loud growl could be heard. The sound originated from the half elf.

Just as he heard it, Nedoth realized how incredibly hungry and thirsty he was. It annoyed Nedoth. Only one day has passed without imbibing food or water and he was feeling this bad?

It reminded him how wonderful it was to be a higher being and not a mortal.

"It seems you are hungry. Not suprising, given that you were stuck in a coffin all day." spoke the director.

Nedoth nodded "I'll go back to my room then. There should be a few ingredients left for me to make something to eat."

"I have a different idea. You need to get used to this district of the kingdom anyway, so why not do it now? There are a few taverns around the district, where you can get food." suggested director Bavred.

"Taverns? I have never been to one on a mortal world, it could be a interesting experience, but I don't have any money on hand right now. Or do you really want to say that it is free of charge?"

"I will give enough coins for you to eat there. I wouldn't recommend sleeping in one that isn't expensive"

Nedoth raised an eyebrow in confusion "Why? Is there something shady going on there?"

"No but the bed sheets are often sticky in cheap taverns."

"Sticky? Why are they sticky?"

"Well why do you think they could be sticky? What kind of activity might attract a place with a lot of bedrooms?"

Nedoth fell silent for a moment. So that's what it was. "Oh. So there are also prostitutes in a mortal tavern?"

"Yes, because that is the place where those idiots that name themselves "adventurers" often hang out. And where idiots are, then there are a lot of prostitutes there." told the director.

Nedoth remembered those that called themselves "adventurers". People that hunted monsters for a living. Now that wasn't the odd part. The odd part was that almost all of them were completely suicidal. They hunted monster with normal steel weapons.

Yes. Normal steel weapons that more often that not weren't even enchanted. He knew of them because of his time as an imp. These adventurers often got into undesirable situations, so he, as a devil, offered each of them a pact.

He would make sure that they survive and he got their souls. A fair deal in their minds, but he knew the truth. Any mortal hardship, and yes, even a torturous death, was nothing compared to what awaited them in hell.

Most people with a brain would say that since they fight with unenchanted weapons that they wanted to die.

The truth to it was that they didn't. They are simply stupid beyond all belief. Out of thirteen adventurers that he offered a contract, only one declined.

"I am familiar with adventurers already."

"You are? Well then you probably know how arrogant and completely unreasonable all of them are."

The director continued as he streched out his own hand towards him. "Give me your hand for a moment."

"My hand? Why?" asked Nedoth.

"Just do it."

Nedoth did as Bavred said. The director grabbed his hand and put it on top the glassball again.

Now he didn't concentrate on the soul itself but on the magical talents.

A few talents became less potent but others on the other hand increased in potency.

The potency of auroramancy and pyromancy decreased considerably while the potents of necromancy and umbramancy increased.

The potency of demonology decreased a tiny bit too but it was barely noticable.

Though to the suprise of both the director Bavred and Nedoth, a new type of magical talent appeared that was incredibly potent. It was just as potent as necromancy and umbramancy.

It was a blue, transluscent face that continually changed it's expressions.

From happiness to sadness, from kindness and love to one of hatred and bloodlust and lastly from one of utter ecstasy to one of utter agony.

It was clear to what element this type of magic belonged to, it was the soul.

Was this the potential that Nedoth felt has unlocked? Or was there even more to that feeling?

When the director saw this, he grit his teeth in frustration. His jealousy was overflowing but there was nothing he could do about it. The glyph was already applied to his would be apprentice. And even if he could somehow steal it, he wouldn't. His benefactor would kill him for it. A glyph wasn't worth dying for, no matter how powerful it was.

The director shook off his feelings of jealousy and opened his glyph storage.

Out of there flew out a few glyphs. Most of them were variations of one glyph. The shadow weapon glyph.

One was a sword, another was a one handed battle axe and a few other weapon types.

These shadow weapons that the glyphs produced were much more effective than normal weapons. They weighed nothing, thus they were able to be used without the caster having to train their body and when an opponent was cut with this shadowy weapon, the opponent not only was cut, but they also experienced a deep chill.

Although the cold produced by the blade didn't do any sort of damage to the body, the extra pain could distract the opponent long enough for the caster to make the finishing blow.

One other glyph resembled the creature that it produced. A shadow.

Shadows resembled horrifically thin humanoids and consisted entirely out of darkness.

They couldn't be harmed by any physical attacks unless they were magical. They had only two weaknesses. They could only be created in atleast dim light and they had a major weakness against magical attacks.

Thus they were completely useless against mages but very powerful against those that didn't utilize magic. Common monster and many adventurers for example.

The last two glyphs that flew out of the director's storage were the lesser shadow cloak glyph and the animate dead glyph. Both were relatively self explanatory.

The lesser shadow cloak was a glyph that cloaked the caster with shadows. It was the inferior version of the shadow cloak glyph. It was useful for hiding in dark areas. The glyph's appearance was a tattered shadowy robe.

And the animate dead glyph was the most basic, yet at the same time the most important necromancy spell. The glyph looked like a human bone that emanated a faint sickly green glow with rotting flesh still hanging on certain areas of it. A corpse with flesh would be raised into a zombie while a corpse without would be raised into a skeleton.

For more advanced forms of undead, a more advanced glyph was needed.

After a few minutes, the director finally explained every little detail about these glyphs. The properties and when and how to use them.

The choice of a shadow weapon vexed him quite a bit. He liked both maces and one handed battle axes.

He thought about it for a bit and came to his decision. He picked the mace. Maces were effective on both armored and unarmored opponents. Of course the battle axe was far better for cutting up unarmored enemies but bashing in a skull with a mace wasn't that difficult either.

He also didn't know how effective spells were on heavily armored enemies, so he picked the most safe option.

And something about bones shattering under the impact of his mace was always incredibly satisfying for Nedoth.

Though there was one thing that confused him. Why did the director gift those glyphs to him?

"Director Bavred, could I ask why I have received these glyphs from you?"

"Because you are going to a tavern where these hot headed simpletons are often located. I don't want my new apprentice to be killed by some drunk with a weapon. Don't misunderstand, it probably won't escalate that much but being cautious is much better than being dead, if something goes wrong." answer the director.

Nedoth could only agree with such a reasoning. One couldn't be cautious enough. A lesson that was deeply rooted inside Nedoth through the experiences of both the former imp and aco.

"And before you go, I have another gift for you." said the director while walking to a table in the secret hall.

On the table laid a pitch black robe with a hood attached to it and a pair of black boots with a brown sole.

When the director gave it to Nedoth and he changed his clothes before the director. Shame was the last emotion that Nedoth could have felt.. What was the point of such a useless feeling anyway? Both the imp and the aco demon never understood why mortals felt that way. Why was it so horrible to be butt naked before others? It was completely alien to both the fiends.

Through the soul of Krenas, Nedoth now atleast understood why mortal beings felt shame, but because the two other souls had no shame at all in whatever they did, that feeling of shame was completely absent from the mixed being that was now named Nedoth.

He finished changing into his new clothes. The robe and the boots were incredibly comfy. Both the boots and the robe were soft to the touch, as if touching fur. Only that it wasn't fur and didn't really feel like fur either. It felt like.. some kind of mix between leather and wool. It was a very odd robe to say the least.

The boots were the same, only that the sole was just as sturdy and hard as any other shoe sole.

"Now that you are finished, here are some copper coins. The tavern is not that far from the academy, so you won't have difficulties finding it. It is named "Tasty river inn"."

Nedoth took the copper coins and stuffed them inside an inner pocket of his newly acquired robe.

He then stormed out of the director's office and quickly left the academy to find said inn.

This hunger was eating him from the inside and he most certainly didn't like it.