“Elder Alfred, is there a room created to train in shadow attribute magic here?” Boe already had a plan to get rid of Tsude, but he first needed to boost his own strength as much as he could in this short period of time, so he decided that he will execute his plan only after advancing to rank 1 in his “Demon Emperor” battle technique. He was now only a bit stronger than an ordinary human and would even lose in fight to well-trained soldier, but if he would achieve rank 1, his strength would increase tenfold in physical aspect alone. To achieve rank 1 he needed to gather a lot more shadow attribute magic battle aura into his body so some kind of special training ground would help him with that greatly.
“Yes, young master, please follow me.” Alfred took Boe out of treasury storehouse and they entered third door in main hall. Inside of third door were all kinds of training grounds, battle arenas and few closed rooms Boe didn’t bother to inspect. Alfred led Boe to one of the training rooms, which had very sinister aura inside of it and Boe instantly understood that concentration of shadow attribute battle aura in here was at least ten times higher than even in his school.
“This place seems perfect for me to train in, thanks for allowing me to come in here, elder Alfred.” Boe was genuinely happy to have an opportunity to practice here.
“I shall leave young master alone to train, call me if you will need anything, young master.”
“I think I will be staying here for a long period of time, so please bring me food 3 times a day, but don’t enter, just leave it behind the door, elder Alfred.”
“Your wish is my command, young master.” Alfred disappeared and left Boe alone in a dark room to train.
After a full month of training, Boe found himself at some sort of a bottleneck in gathering shadow attribute battle aura. ‘It seems that density of battle aura is too strong in here and my battle technique mastery can’t keep up with it.’ Before that, Boe was spending 6 hours on battle aura gathering, 6 hours on his battle technique trainings, 2 hours on eating and walking around manor and 10 hours sleeping every day, but now he decided to focus on battle technique. His battle technique was of higher level than any battle technique that existed in his world, so difficulty in training it was tremendous.
‘It seems like I’m doing something wrong with “Demon awakening” step, but I don’t get what am I doing wrong.’ First level of “Demon Emperor” battle technique consisted of 5 steps of mastery. First level was to feel battle aura around body, second level was to gather battle aura inside of a body, third level was to learn 26 battle moves, fourth level was to awaken demon inside of himself and final step was to use accumulated battle aura and release it using 26 moves in “demonification” form. Boe was having troubles with awakening his inner demon, information he received from his maser only said to use your all negative emotions to awaken an inner demon. Boe tried to spark that feeling inside of him that he felt when his brother died or when he was witnessing his master’s massacre, but it didn’t receive any kind of response from his body or soul.
“Master, please help this dumb disciple of yours to understand how to awaken demon inside of me.” Boe said these words looking at wall in front of him while kneeling on one knee. He was hoping to get help from his master, since master hasn’t actually instructed him on anything yet, but he didn’t get any response even after staying in that position for half an hour.
‘I guess he really won’t see me before I will pass all his tests…’ Boe was expecting this outcome, but he had to try to do it in most simple way he could think of, because he didn’t have much time, he was scared that Tsude would eventually come inside of a manor or Alfred would find out that Tsude is still right outside of a door. Boe ended up spending all evening trying to awaken his inner demon using all negative memories he had, but it didn’t work at all.
‘is there really no other way other than to kill people with my own hands to awaken demon inside of me?’ Even though Boe already lost most of his emotions and even watched massacre in front of him without displaying emotions, he hasn’t killed any living person with his own hands in his life yet, so he was feeling very nervous about this possibility. Boe decided to try his last guess before going with that plan.
“Elder Alfred, I need to talk to you, can you come here please?”
“I’m listening, young master”
“Is there any way for me to experience real battle and even kill someone inside of a manor?”
“Of course there is, you can go into an inner garden and battle with beasts, monsters, demons or even people there.” Alfred answered as if it was absolutely normal thing to have monsters, demons and people in garden inside of a manor.
“Are there any living beings with lowest level of rank 1 power or highest level under rank 1 there?” Boe wanted to battle and gain experience, but didn’t want to die in battle so he wanted an opponent of equal power.
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“There are plenty of them inside, young master. I shall accompany you in garden to guard you from beings that are too strong for you right now.”
“Then letss enter an inner garden right now.” Boe followed Alfred out of his training room and went deeper into training grounds before they walked to simple old door. Alfred opened the door and Boe saw that on the other side of the door was only stairs leading downstairs, but when he looked down to check how much do they have to walk to reach the end of the stairs, he was shocked. He couldn’t even see where stairs ended.
“Inner garden is the main reason my master built manor in this place. Deep underground of this mountain is a whole world hidden from people. When master discovered this world, he walked through whole world and was amazed to find out that this world was taking almost quarter of whole Shadow Kingdom and there were thousands of beasts and plants that are very rare in our continent. After that, he occupied mountain and divided an inner garden into 5 territories based on a level of danger inside. First level is where these stairs are leading to and it is the safest place in an inner garden and only requires strength of rank 1 wizard to be absolutely safe in there. Second territory requires at least rank 2 to walk inside and peak rank 2 to rule over all living beings there. Third territory is considered a forbidden zone for disciples and requires rank 3 power to walk inside and rank 4 to be absolutely safe there, that monster Tsude was captured in this zone and was one of the strongest in there. Fourth territory is where most of the captured demons and human enemies are being held and it requires rank 5 power to go there and come out alive. Fifth territory is a forbidden zone even for me, because there are entities even I can’t contend against.”
Boe was absolutely shocked after he heard all that information, it all meant that old master of this place was at least of rank 6 or even higher, while Tsude was probably monster of peak rank 3 or even rank 4 now. But what shocked him the most was the fact that Alfred was at least of rank 5. Spirit with a power of rank 5 was something he never heard of, with this kind of power Alfred could annihilate his Grain Plains Kingdom alone and no one could stop him there, but he was merely a butler of a wizard named Thomas. Boe now lost all his confidence in his plan to kill Tsude and needed to come up with new plan to leave this manor.
“Then I guess I will only walk inside of the first zone and will need a protection of an elder Alfred in case something will happen.” Boe was now even more respectful toward spirit butler in front of him.
“As you wish, my young master.” Alfred smiled to Boe as if he already knew what Boe was thinking about.
‘I need to get to rank 1 as fast as I can and find a way to leave this place before Tsude came in or Alfred felt something is off about me.’ Boe was very interested in a treasury, a training room and an inner garden, but he valued his life a lot more than those benefits.
After walking for almost two hours they finally reached the end of the stairs and Boe saw what Alfred was referring to as an ”inner garden”. It was absolutely different world from what Boe used to see, there were no dark forests or barren lands, everything around him was green and he couldn’t see anything but trees. What woke him up from his shock was loud growl he heard from inside of the trees, Boe looked in direction of a growl and saw black panther walking in his direction.
“It is a Shadow Panther, its level should be a little bit weaker than rank 1, it should be at bottleneck of breakthrough to rank 1, should I leave it to young master to practice his fighting skills?” Alfred was looking at panther like it was just an ant in front of him.
“Yes, it will be a good warm-up for me, don’t interfere in our battle, elder Alfred.”
Boe started walking in panther’s direction, took his Claws of Enthriil and put them on his hands, it was the first time he is going to use them in a real battle. Panther pounced at him and her claws was emitting strong killing intent and even some kind of dark attribute battle aura. Boe decided to check his claw’s power and went to meet panther head on.
*CLANG*
When his Claws of Enthriil met with panther’s claws not only didn’t they get damaged, they even managed to cut off three panther’s claws, but panther’s physical strength was a lot more powerful than Boe’s, so he was sent flying from impact. Boe immediately jumped up and was ready to fight panther further, but to his shock, panther has already ran away from him into trees.
“Claws of Enthriil are too strong for that panther and she got too scared of them so you couldn’t enjoy a proper fight with her. Should I track her down or find a beast stronger for you to fight, young master?”
“No need chasing her, she isn’t strong enough for me to experience a real battle, I guess I need someone of low level rank 1 power. Can you find me suitable target, elder Alfred?”
“Give me a minute, young master.” Alfred disappeared into thin air, Boe looked at Claws of Enthriil with a smile, he was very glad he chose this weapon as his melee weapon. Claws of Enthriil managed to cut through panther’s claws even though he was much weaker than a panther, this meant that if he would use claws to sneak attack his enemies he would easily cut through any kind of typical defensive armor of humans. Boe was now thinking if he could defeat one of Giant Huntsman spiders he met in a cave before.
“There are a lot of potential opponents of needed power level, but close to us are only three of them. First one is Frost Bear of low level rank 1, second is Three Talon Hawk and last one is Fire Tiger, which one do you prefer to fight, young master?” Alfred came back after only a minute and reported what he found to Boe right away.
“Three Talon Hawk is too troublesome because it is a flying creature and it needs to be taken care of fast or our fight would be hawk attacking and me defending until I would lose or hit it with my bow. Frost Bear and Fire Tiger are both good targets so I guess I will fight both of them today. Lead me to the Frost Bear first, but please conceal your aura so I could attack it with sneak attack, elder Alfred.”
“Follow me, young master.” As Alfred said it he concealed his aura and Boe didn’t feel him at all, if he wouldn’t see Alfred with his own eyes right now, he wouldn’t be able to notice Alfred even if he would be on alert.
“Kyolyokyo kyimyl” Boe whispered chant for Shadow Step technique and vanished into shadows of a tree, after he increased shadow attribute battle aura inside of his body, this technique became a lot stronger and common animals wouldn’t notice him even if he would be right in front of them.