Over the course of the week Devon had started to get into a bit of a routine, which starts with him waking up and eating breakfast. Then he would partake in casual conversation while he was still waking up, or more accurately he would be casually talked to as, while more responsive, he still was not quite helping any conversation that he was involved in to continue. After fully waking up he would practise sensing mana and eventually got to a point where he was to try sensing and controlling his mana without lady Jasmond’s help. This was done by creating a ring with his arms and basically trying to focus on, and move his mana to create the same kind of flow that lady Jasmond had made while Leonardo guided and watched over him. Leonardo also started to tutor him on other school subjects such as maths and literacy after they had lunch each day though Leonardo left the underworld and magic related subjects to Lady Jasmond which would be taught right after up until dinner. And finally Devon would wind down by playing some games in his room, or rather would say that was what he was going to do, meanwhile most of the time after he learned how, he would just be training his mana control and sensing until he decided to head to sleep.
Eventually he and lady Jasmond got back to their original lesson on the underworld and its inhabitants “Now then we covered most of the basics with the underworld itself, and what kinds of inhabitants are here, so let’s focus on the society you are now living in. Specifically, I want to go over the social hierarchy we have set up, and I suppose the best way to start is at the top of it, so let’s begin there with the rulers of the underworld. The underworld is ruled by a group of three beings called the three greats. Their positions are passed down every 30 to 40 years to someone they themselves have chosen to take over their position. Their main job is basically keeping everyone else in line, especially the middling group in the hierarchy, the nobles. The nobles are given their title by the three greats and earn them through, basically, community service, however there are other requirements to become a noble based on wealth and family history. One person in the family is considered the main family member and is called the head noble. their title is passed down to one of their children, though which one is up to them so long as they meet certain requirements....”.
“Are you ok?” Devon asked since Lady Jasmond had a weird look on her face. “Yes, I’m fine.” Lady Jasmond said, sounding annoyed “it’s just… I guess you would have to learn about this sooner or later, but…”. Lady Jasmond paused for a moment before continuing “alright, let’s just get this out of the way. I’m sure you realised I am from an upper class family, and yes said family has a noble title. In fact I was supposed to be the next head noble but missed out on my chance due to not meeting… a certain requirement, and now said title is being passed down to my younger brother which, while not a bad thing, does still hurt my pride a bit.” “What exactly was the requirement?” Devon asked, though he immediately regretted it after seeing the look that appeared on her face. “...Thats… Not important. Anyway the only other category in the hierarchy is just the common folk who have an upper class and a lower class and honestly you should be able to figure out the rest so I think we’re done here” she said seemingly rushing the last part before rushing off leaving Devon alone. “You know kid,” Emily chimed in seemingly having been listening in for a bit “this happens every now and then, so don’t worry about it. Truth is she’s just embarrassed about it is all.” and with that Devon was left to his thoughts worrying about how badly he messed up and wondering if there was anything he could do to make up for it.
As the week continued and time passed, Lady Jasmond seemed to just forget about the event even if Devon was still worried about it. And they started continuing on like normal, and eventually they got back onto the topic of magic. “So I know we’ve kind of been using terms while talking to you about magic which you have had no way of knowing the meaning of, so I’m going to take it back to basics for a bit starting with the categories of magic. The first category is called general magic, and is the only category that everyone with magic has access to even if only a little. It also has a sub category called basic magic that covers the effects everyone can cast.”. Realising from that last sentence she had gotten ahead of herself, Lady Jasmond decided to backtrack. “Alright, let me try that again, starting from where I should have started this off today, the magic process. As I previously stated, magic is about using mana to affect the world around you, yourself, and others. The act of utilising mana is called casting and is done by manipulating your mana within and around your body. This is done to create an effect, which do not have any specific terms attached to them as effect is as specific of a term as one can get. At least that is the case without naming every unique effect something different, which no one would want to do or memorise. These effects can take basically any form one can imagine. However the more complicated or powerful an effect is, the more mana is needed to be used in an instance. And typically prolonged effects need you to use mana over several instances. With how frequently said instances occur also being determined by how powerful and complicated an effect is.”.
Devon was given some time to take it in but only needed a second as it was basic fantasy game mechanic type stuff. And thus ended up prompting lady Jasmond to continue on. “As we implied when we went over your magic abilities not everyone has access to every effect either due to some effects requiring too much mana to be used at once for them, which can be overcome through making binding deals and growing their maximum mana output, or because their mana simply is not capable of creating said effect, which has yet to be worked around without outside premade tools that create the effect for you.”. Once again to Devon this has basic fantasy game stuff so he again prompted her to continue this time adding that he would ask her if he had any questions or needed a second to think something over. “Alright then next is the second category of magic called special abilities. These allow the wielder to cast an effect at a much lower mana cost per instance, and can even break known rules of magic such as allowing an ongoing effect to only require a single instance of mana cost at the start of the effect and none after that. What special ability you have is based on what type of underworld being you are, with demons each getting at least one random one, devils and anyone in the other category getting one based on their sub type, or rather just type for those in the other category, and daemons not getting any at all. As for humans… Well from what I know it is a random chance for what you end up with and not something that can be controlled. However the mystic devil giving a human their power can decide whether or not they get one at all, or to leave it to random chance like I did for our deal.”.
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Devon finally having a question even if a bit unrelated asked “Why did you leave seemingly everything about my magic up to chance?”. After she thought about it for a bit she finally responded “I guess the best way to put it is that I had no real idea of how it would be best for your magic to manifest, so I just gave you enough of my power to make sure you'd have a good amount of both total maximum mana, and maximum mana you can use in a single instance, and just let the rest of the details appear in a more natural manner.”. Devon then thought about what she said for a moment and came to a realisation “you didn’t really have a plan at all when we made the deal did you?”. “Well… I guess I never thought I’d adopt a human. Also I figured whoever I would adopt was going to have some sort of previous set up even if only in terms of what school they were going to. Hence why I was trying to adopt specifically from around here and not a different area of the underworld, as doing so would not take them away from any connections they may have had.”.
Upon noticing lady Jasmond had a sombre look on her face Devon chimed in “Well it’s not like you took me away from any connections.”. Lady Jasmond then looked a bit confused so he continued “I told Emily this before we made the deal but I guess you must not have heard. The only friend I had left town, and after a month of no contact I’m pretty sure they just didn’t want to keep in touch. They even said that they wouldn’t be contacting me anymore right before they left. The only other person who I was close to, in any sort of way, was my dad but he basically never took care of me and worse, he was… abusive… both verbally, and physically.”. Lady Jasmond looked upset at his past and was about to comment on it, however when she tried to speak Devon interrupted her “But now I have you and the others. And you all look out for me. And I know this may sound crazy but even the fact you all feed me proper food, instead of me having to… basically rummage around the kitchen for something that is either edible without cooking it or is basically precooked since i never learned how to even use a stove, means way more to me than it probably should. So please don't worry about the fact we made that deal and instead let's focus on what's in store going forward, and making the best of it.”. “You must have really had a harsh life to be this mature at your age.” Lady Jasmond commented “But I guess we can not change the deal we made anyway, so yeah, let's focus on making the future you have here the best we can.”.
After taking a moment to let both of them recompose themselves, Lady Jasmond continued the lesson “now then the second to last category of magic is enchanting which is simply binding mana to an object to give it an effect. There is more to it such as needing to set up conditions for when the effect happens, but unless you end up trying it out we do not need to get into the details. Finally we have binding deals which are specifically special deals made between humans and underworlders. We already went over it partially when we first went over underworlders so to recap the more a human gives up, and the less an underworlder uses their power, the more power the underworld gains. And that is really all we need to cover on magic, at least until you become good enough with controlling your mana to start casting with it.”
Eventually the last day before school came and before heading off to bed in order to get rest for tomorrow, lady Jasmond went over the plan for said day. “Now then Devon, as much as I wish I could be the one to walk you to school on your first day I have been called in for a meeting and can not join you. So in my stead Leonardo will be taking you there. There will be an opening ceremony set up instead of morning announcements, where you simply will listen to an... Extensive introduction to the school. Then you have homeroom where you will be given your schedule of your classes and greet your primary teacher. then you have two classes followed by lunch and then two more classes after which there will be a free hour that is normally spent on club activities or to just hangout, but that will be skipped tomorrow and thus you will be picked up early.”. “Got it” Devon replied. “Oh” lady Jasmond said seemingly remembering something “one more thing Devon. I know you were worried about having you being human getting revealed back at Noirs clothes store, but you should have no reason to worry. Even if someone somehow finds out you’re human, with my… influence, you will be kept safe from any potential harm. However I’ll still leave when, and even whether or not you reveal it to people up to you.”. “Understood.” Devon responded and after all was said and done he went to rest and get some sleep as tomorrow was to be a big day.