Ironwing's teaching is vastly different then the one Carrie went through with Thalmor. The Warden Lord was far more focused on the physical aspect and making sure she is well trained enough she won't be stumbling on her feet when using her skills and what physical strength she was able to gain in the short time they had.

There was very little history or other school like subject talked about with the demon. Not due to lack of interest, Thalmor have been teaching Carrie more then just how to handle a weapon, how to fight or how her skills are used. It was just that it became clear to her that the demon wasn't all that interested in history or such subjects. But he nonetheless would tell her a few things here and there throughout the month she trained under him.

Like the ranks. It had been oversimplefied, Carrie is pretty sure of that, but it help to know what all these colourful names she has been seeing on her skills meant. Or on the armor along with the few weapons she has. She herself don't have a rank, which according to Thalmor was because of her type of undead. Lesser Skeletons don't have ranks per say, mainly due to how weak they are and the fact that unlike Carrie were not self-aware.

That did not mean there wasn't a way to measure what rank her kind usually are. Turns out that non sentient animales and monsters have their names in the colour of their rank. And surprise surprise, lesser skeletons have the lowest rank possible, Trash.

When she heard that she had actually dropped to the ground due to the various negative feelings that came up when she learned of that. As well as how tired she was to be reminded just how weak lesser skeletons are. If it is not Thalmor or some other demon or monster who points it out, then its the system turn to do so, or World's Voice as it is know as.

How'd she know that bit? It was due to Thalmor having quickly explained and reassure Carrie that she did not have that rank at all. Infact, she did not have a assigned rank to begin with as her name currently lacked any colour whatsoever. This, as the demon has explained it, was because of the World's Voice was still deciding on what her rank actually was.

See, when one gains either a class, varient, evolution, massive power or something else that puts a major change into your life, your rank will change. Either for the better or for worse. There are as many ways as to increase your rank as it is to decrease it. It seems the system as Carrie prefer to call it was very fair in its assessments, taking everything into account before it gave you your new rank.

Thalmor also told her, though he adviced her to get Ironwing to tell her more as he only knew the bare basic of this, that how strength is measured on this country is very different from the other nations found around the world.

In the other nations, they use the colours mainly to comfirm quality and rarity. And if something is of worth to them. While their strength and power used a different system all together. The warden had no idea why they did that to begin with, as in his honest opinion that just made things more complicated than they needed to be.

Other then that and a few more things, Carrie learned most of this worlds history and much more from Ironwing as soon as her first day of lessons started. In someways it was like going to school all over again. But this time she has a teacher that actually cared and taught you the right stuff. Sure it had been embarrassing that she had to learn how to write and read again, feeling like she was 6 all over again and just started elementry school to learn such basic things.

But the embarrassment had lessens somewhat upon learning that she was not the first who'd had to go through this. Nor would she be the last either. While not rare, should ones evolution or some other change be big enough, one often find themself having to relearn a lot of the basic stuff they thought they knew. Ironwing once told her, he once had to teach a small group of demons how to read and write again mainly because their handwritings had become terrible or non existence after their hands became knife like after their evolution.

Sickle Demons, as Ironwing recalled the demons new evolution was, had a hard time gripping quills and parchments with their new pointed fingers, which resulted in a lot of ink spills and squiggly letters. Carrie couldn't help but chuckle at the thought, imagining the frustration and determination on their faces as they tried to master the art of writing again.

It also ended with a quick lessons on how language skills actually works here. Well at least for monters, demons and undead. She already knew she had the language skill [Malpharic] from the get go, along with another language skill called [Common Tongue]. Malpharic is the language used in the Demonic Country, named after a close companion of the 4th Demon Lord who'd been the one to offically make a actual language that everyone could agree on.

This language is given to you the moment you gain self-awareness as a monster, demon or undead, as the system sees it as a neccesity for communication and unlike most other language skill was actually made to be used by monsters, demons and undead.

Her [Common Tongue] skill though is a skill that only the human nations and their allies uses for comunication, it is not something that is nativly known by demons or monsters. Each nation has their own language, but this one was made so that everyone had a common way to talk to each other without causing major misunderstandings.

Well, everyone execpet those who lives in the Demonic Country that is. Whenever someone of her new homelande tried to learn or speak it, more often then not it did not end well for them as the other nations sees it as a great sin or taboo that a monster know how to speak the 'proper language' of society.

That last bit Ironwing had said with so much venom, sarcasm and bitterness in his voice, Carrie was certain it could melt platinum with how acid like it sounded alone. It also told Carrie that this was a sore subject to talk about.

Unfortunatly for Ironwing, this bit was part of the history lessons Carrie needed to learn. So the woman did her absolute best to avoid asking too much about this along with other subjects she picked up that also made Ironwing's mood soure quite a bit.

At least he was not mad that she had that skill whatsoever, he seems to think that since she was once human before turning into a undead it was a skill that just came naturally to her. She could even read it without issue, when she had struggled far more with basic Malpharic that took her two months to master.

Speaking of which. Ironwing have been asking his own questions over various things. From her class and skills to what she can remember of her life as a living human. Or if she has any titles or blessings to share. At first Carrie had been very hesitant, especially on the latter parts given she was not exactly from this world to begin with.

Its really hard to come up with something that works as a truth but is also a half-lie of sorts that hides the fact she is a Otherworlder and at the same time give satisfying answers. Carrie had no idea why, but there was a deep feeling inside her that she needs to keep that bit hidden as much as possible.

And yeah she means Otherworlder with a big fat O. Given its a title she was given and not shared with Ironwing for now. She had this strange feeling it would not end well if he heard the title. When she had first seen the title, she'd not thought much about it. Given that learning what she was and how her skills worked had a far higher piority then why she had something like a title to begin with.

But since she had plenty of time on her hands, she had eventually taken a proper look one night and suddenly a lot of things made sense to her.

Titles are rare and powerful things, often comming with all sorts of benefits that in the long game made them almost cheat like. And Otherworlder gave her just that. It was not a title that would make her a hero or some undefeatable monster. Far from it, but what it did give her was nonetheless valuable in the long term of her survival.

For one, she had a easier time gaining experience, stats, skills or spells than others. The increase wasn't much, as far as Carrie could tell given it was not giving her any numbers to use. But it was useful to know why it seems she picks up things with a bit more ease then others.

Second was that it was the reason why she had so many extra skills that did not make much sense to have at the start or why she had gained [Iron Will] so fast. The title converted all that she had lived through back on Earth into various skills for her to use. And she was greatful for that too as this gave her far more options when it came to whereever she was going to be assigned to ones all her tests and traning are done.

She just wish some of the extra skills she'd been given weren't based on some of her more thievery ways that used to keep her alive back on Earth. The only bright side of that was she only got three skills out of it and nothing more.

Then there was the last thing the title gave her, two Mystic ranked skills. [Summon Ingredient] and [Inventory]. She was already aware what [Summon Ingredient] does thanks to Ironwing, who told her he was going to arrange a few things so they could properly test it out. Mystic ranked skills often had hidden effects or were incredibly powerful, depending on what it did.

She had however not told him about [Inventory]. Mainly becasue she was actually scared on how he'd react. It had been bad enough when she told him about the [Summon Ingredient] skill and the look of shock had made a odd ill feeling come up inside her. That being said, Carrie was glad that she had this skill due to its utility.

[Inventory] is for lack of better words the thing that allowes you to have your very own dimensional pocket to store stuff in. Carrie was never into much games, but the few she did play made her very aware just how useful the skill is to begin with. Especially when it came to keeping things hidden or for her cooking for that matter. She's all for a storage space where time stay still and thus hinder all forms of rot to happen. She could have freshly made pot of stew in there for years and it will come out as good as the day it was made.

As such, Carrie was more then happy to keep this card close to her chest.

Blessing was even more rare and far more powerful. More often given by the gods than anything else, though the system has been know to bless a few on very rare occasions as well. Carrie did not have a blessing, but she was happy with that if she was honest. She was already a abnormality as it was without one to begin with.

And like how there are good titles and blessing, there exsist bad ones as well. Bad enough you'd almost prefer to die as painfully as possible than having such a title or blessing. Ironwing had made it clear that having such titles and blessings is also a guarantee to make you a outcast or getting killed without hesitation as many believed such things could spread like a disease.

This have been just some of the things she has been learning since she came unde Ironwing's teachings these past three months. She'd also gained a lot of new knowledge and history when it comes to the Demonic Country, which she is greatful for in many ways. It made easier for her to undestand why Thalmor have acted the way he did when it came to certain subjects about how things are ruled here.

By strength and proven power. The Demon Lord is the ruler by being the strongest there is, along with being able to lead and make sure there is a little as infighting as possible among those they rule over. Though that did not mean the Demonic Countey was a lawless land.

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There are laws, rights and many things any nations have that can be found here as well. All previous demon lords have improved how things works in these lands for centuries, even if some of the methods can be a bit barbaric. But it worked and that is what mattered to them.

The Death Matches being one of these barbaric methods. Carrie had heard whispers about them, but it wasn't until Ironwing brought it up that she understood properly what they were. They were a form of punishment, entertainment, and a way to display one's might. Along with being used as a way to gain a honor's death or to regain that lost honor. It was also a last resort of deal as well, so Death Matches was only used when necessary. And many took great pains to make sure that it was warranted to use at the time.

And then there was the history of the Demon Lords. From what Carrie learned there have been 7 in all so far. All of which have done a great deal of good and bad on their end. And when a new Demon Lord needs to be decided, it is not by birthright or anything like that. It can only be gained by winning a battle in a sacred place, where everyone in the nation participate to see who is the strongest. Though this battle has not been taken in centuries since the latest Demon Lord came into power.

Demon Lord Agen is as powerful as he is a mystery. No one really knows where he comes from nor what his life was before he became the current ruler for the past 500 years. Hell, no one even knows if he is a demon, monster, undead or something else entirely. He just short of showed up one day and took the throne with neary a sweat shed.

But he is well respected not just because of his strength and power or how he leads. Despite having been in a deadlock with the other nations, it have not stopped Agen from improving his people and make life better for them. He is loved for taking well care of the people he rules and many have benefit from his fairness and his just rule. These past 500 years having become a golden age not seen before.

Agen was also far more powerful than any of his predecessors. According to Ironwing only the First Demon Lord is his equal. Carrie had her doubts though, mainly with how prideful Ironwing was in saying that and the fact when she asked if the lord was that powerful why have he not taken over the world or at the very least tried to conquer the other nations that was at war with them.

That had ended with the gargoyle becoming far less prideful, gain a look that Carrie could only describe as forlorn and a half hearted shrug that did not really answer the question at all. No one really did for that matter as many saw it as Lord Agen right to do just that. But the gargoyle reasoned that Lord Agen must have his reasons as to why he hasn't done that yet.

Carrie had just let the topic be, espically since she was finally going to learn magic. This was what she had been waiting months for. Sure she has two spells, one of which she had accidently activated soon after she had gotten her class and varient type. And thuse she had already acheived something most could only dream of back on Earth.

But to actually learn and then to use magic properly and at will? Thats where the real business at. To say she was eager to learn how to actually do magic right is not a understatment. Especially since she wants to be able to use the type of magic that for lack of better words suits her best.

Fire Magic. It was one of the most basic type of elemental magic, along with Water, Wind, Earth, Light and Dark making up the rest. It was also one of the few basic types of magic that had more combat and attack based spells then anything else. Which did not surprise Carrie at all when Ironwing started teaching her.

Fire is destructive at its core, a dance of fiery fury that could burn down forests and reduce mountains to ash. It is a force to be naturally afraid of. So its no wonder it has so many spells made or focused on that aspect. That did not mean there weren't any defense or utility based ones.

Ignite and Hot Hands are such utility based spells. Ironwing had told that while they aren't powerful nor combat based spells they are nonetheless useful to have. And are often seen as good spells to start with when training to become a fire based Mage, Summoner or some other class that use fire as their way of work or attacks.

Her class of Cook though, found other usage of the fire affinity. Being able to use it not only to cook things that normal fire would not been able to but also use it to make what are know as Buff Food.

Buff Food is as it say, food that can give all kinds of buffs depending on what you cook, the ingredients and many other aspects used in the process. Ironwing says that the buffs tend to not be very strong like the ones potions gives. But they can last way longer. A potion of Power or Quickness might only last a few hours at the most. But foods with buffs in them can last for as long as a day at the bare minimum and many weeks at the highest.

He also told her that he was not very well learned in this aspect and many cooks keeps it a secret on how one are able to make such food for themself. So most likely she had to teach herself by trial and error once she was high enough level to pull it off.

But first, the basics. Ironwing made quite sure that before she started to actually practice any sorts of magic, much less the two spells she already has, she has to know and understand the basic on how to use it.

Starting with gaining a skill called [Mana Control]. This was a skill that regardless if you wanted to a basic mage or not, had to learn to be able to control the mana inside you. You can cast a spell without it but it is not the smartest of ideas as it could cause the spell to explode on you at a moment notice. This still happens even when you have [Mana Control], but the skill lessen the chances for it to happen along with allowing you to use mana more efficiently.

She did not know that it was possible to waste mana, but the look Ironwing gave was enough for her to understand that it was indeed a thing. She ended up getting at very thorough lesson on that.

It had been a slow process to learn the skill though, even with her little cheat. Mana was a strange force to use and feel. It made her bones tingle and leave a strange after feel that she could only describe as a cross between sticking your hand in a jar of jelly and sticking your hand in a hot pan. It took sometime to get used to if she was honest.

And being a living skeleton that used magic at a subconscious level to keep herself intact should at least have given her some way to quicken the whole thing but no. Slow and steady was a must here, as Ironwing told and demostrated when using some of his own spells to show just how dangerous it can be if one don't do it properly.

She still shivers whenever she thinks back on those demostrations. Magic is a dangerous force to being with and it shows when even the slightest of lost concentration or control can cause a explosion of mana to happen. And the fact she had to learn it from the basics with a body that didn't quite react the same way a human body would had made it all the more challenging.

But she got it eventually. And now that she had the skill it was time to actually do it. By not only learning how to use her spells but also gaining a couple more as well. And much like Thalmor, Ironwing wants Carrie to have a few spells under her belt to protect herself. And he makes sure they are not all fire based ones either.

She can barely use water based magic, thanks to being a fire varient. But learning a spell that allows one to find a water source is doable. Finding Water its called, and Carrie tries her best to not groan at the simple name. She's come to learn that basic and weak spells don't have the best of names, mainly due to how simple and weak they are. She just take it as a small blessing that none so far has been named something silly like 'Fluffy Cloud Walk' or 'Bunny Hug'.

Or named by using puns. God those she hates puns. She gotten too many of them back on Earth thanks to all the jobs she'd had. She's really not sure how she'd react if theres a spell named after a pun.

Ironwing also told her once she has this spell and the two she has already have mastered, they can work on some simple defense spells as well. Theres two in paticulary he wants her to learn on that front.

One was from the Arcane Magic spells. Arcane is a very odd type of magic for Carrie, its a sort of neutral force among all the other types of magic. Its not a very powerful type of magic, mainly due to its neutral nature makes it having no advantages or disadvantages. But that did not stop it form being very useful to have or learn several spells from it.

Arcane Magic can mimic other spells from other magic types. Fire, water, earth, wind, dark, light, lightning, thunder, magma you name it, it has it. But only for a short time and only one element at a time. Along with a much bigger mana cost then the original spell cost. It also has a few unique spells of its own that no other magic type can do. And one of them is Mana Shield.

Its basically a couple of floating shields made of mana that will take incomming hits for her up until its either destroyed or the time runs out. Its also one of the most basic defense spell know world wide and easy to learn for beginners.

The other defense spell Ironwing wanted her to have was from fire magic though. Ember Wall, a spell that summons a thick wall of embers to protect her from incomming attacks. And much like Mana Shield was one that was easy to learn too.

Of course there was also the classic Fire Wall spell as well in fire magic, but according to Ironwig she was too inexperienced with magic for her to learn that one. The same was said for Fire Ball as well. Accodring to him, he won't teach her either until he knows she can handle it. And well, there was also the manner of cost as well.

See, while Carrie is a fire varient which came with some rather nice perks of being far more resistanced to fire damage, dealt more damage with fire and even lessened mana cost for any fire based spell or skill, it did not mean she could hurl fire balls left, right and center.

Despite having been under Ironwing's teaching for months now, her mana pool had only gone from 23 to 47. Which while much better then what she had at the start, Carrie felt she should have more to use. Her intelligence and wisdom stats has increased by 6 and 5 points as well thanks to all her efforts too. So one would think that given she now had 17 intelligence and 15 in wisdom would mean a far more larger mana pool, but that was not the case.

According to Ironwing, both stats do a lot more than what she had understood back when she read the description of these two stats. Wisdom acts more like her endurance stat, increasing her resistance to magical attacks, bad status effects and debuffs cast on her. Along with making it harder for mind based spells or skills to affect her.

Meanwhile, Intelligence is the one responsible for her mana pool increase and generation. Along with improving her memories, understanding of things and making it easier for her to control her mana. One would think that meant she should have a lot more mana and better generation. But no, that was not the case thanks to her race.

Due to her undead nature a good chunck of her mana is used to naturally keep her skeletal body inshape and moving, which meant that her actual mana pool was drastically decreased as a result. The same went for her generating new mana as well, as what was should normal be at least 5 or 7 mana generated every hour was now down to 1 or 3 points a hour instead.

This however was natural when it came to the undead. No matter how strong or weak a undead was, they had to pay a certain mana cost to keep their bodies working and not just die within seconds after raising from the dead. The cost even increased the stronger one got. Though depending on what one evolved into and their class, the costs could decrease or at the very least make it a even break.

Liches and any magic oriented undead have both the easiest and hardest time in paying this cost. They are able to gain more out of their intelligence and wisdom when it comes to mana, but also pay a higher cost to maintain their bodies and abilities.

It made Carrie feel a little better knowing that. Just a little though. And learing these spells wasn't so bad even if it took a good deal of mental exercise that made her feel like she'd run a couple of dozen miles. The bad parts came with using them.

"No Carrie," Ironwing says, his voice a little strained as he speaks. "You need to concentrate more and focus harder on your target." He continues on as he watch Carrie struggle to lit the five simple torches before her. She was currently training her Ignite spell, given it was the only spell that had a good range and one she would most likely use most often once she works in a kitchen.

And trying to use it was proving difficult to say the least. When Carrie had done a spell the first time, it had almost been natural even if it was done by accident. However, Ironwing had told it was most likely due to her still being new to her powers and as she had put it herself, confused as all fuck when she had suddenly gotten her class and varient type. It was not unusual at all that she had ended up accidentally using the spell and not knowing how it was done.

Doing it by will though was like pulling teeth with pliers while using a unicycle and juggle some molotovs. Hot Hands had been eaiser to use, as Carrie had only needed to concentrate on her hands to get them hot and hold it for as long as possible. She could even do this in her room, as long as she stayed in the center and made sure to have a bucket of water near incase of any accidents. Not that she feared any, as the spell produced very little flames when activated. Unless she wanted to increase the heat that is.

She also learned that with her current mana, she can hold this spell for a whole hour. Which was not bad if she was honest, even if she was unsure on how useful it was.

But trying to lit a torch that was just a few feet away from her? Yeah, Carrie was getting fruatrated. She had tried everything, from whispering incantations to slamming her hand down as if trying to hammer in a nail, but the damn torches remained unlit.

And then she snapped her fingers, lighting the first torch up. She just stared at the now lit torch, a battle between dumbfounded and rage going on in her mind as Ironwing claps at what she just did.

"Good," He says, a proud smile on his face. "Now repeat that four more times and we can move on to the next target."

All Carrie did to that was taking a deep breath, somehow still able to do that despite not having any lungs anymore, and Ironwing suddenly found himself covering his ears at the scream and curses the skeleton let out about why that had worked when all the other times didn't.

'We may need to add some lessons about ways to deal with furstration when it comes to magic practice as well.' The gargoyle notes in his mind, watching as the lesser skeleton still going on her little tirade.

The rest of the day proved to be a long one for Carrie.