(Leif)

I finish saying the words the big scary guy told me to do, and feel all weird and tingly. Empty. Like something left me. But I didn't pee or poo and puke. No know what happened.

"Hello!" Voice say in head. "Thank you-"

"Ah!" I exclaim. "Something talk in head!"

"Uh… you need Summon Demon to be able to do this," voice say. "So you did the Summon Contract Spell. You can't do that by accident."

"Say you'd like to establish a contract," big scary guy says.

"I wanna establish contact."

"Close enough."

"Okay!" The voice says cheerfully. "Can you forward me your stats?"

"Forward stats?"

"I'll need to see your stats to determine what type of Demon you can summon."

"What are stats?"

"Your Status," the big, scary guy says. "Just open up your Status like I taught you, focus on his name, and forward."

"What's a name?"

"You can call me Steve."

"It's what everything uses to identify themselves," the big, scary guy says. "Yours is Leif, mine is Tiol."

"He said his name Steve."

"Ah, you're being mentored in this. That makes things a little bit easier, since you don't really seem to know what you're doing. Strange that you have Access, but don't know what a name is."

"My name Leif."

"Alright! Nice to meet you, Leif!" Steve-voice says in my head. "Can you go ahead and forward me your stats?"

"Status!" I say, and the weird 'window' appears in my vision. Scary guy called it a window. "Forward Steve!"

Name: Stavnilmisia Species: Demon Sex: Male Total Level: 57 Age: 374 years Public Title: Scribe of Demons Class: Scribe Health: 415/415 STR: 85 AGI: 29 INT: 127 VIT: 86 Mana: 1,005/1,005 END: 1 DEX: 43 WIS: 201 LCK: 9 Rating: Green CON: 83 FLX: 27 PER: 107 LIF: 567

"Stahvulnimisha?"

"Huh? How did you get my stats?" Steve-voice says. "I didn't get yours – would you mind trying again? Oh! There they are! Thanks!"

"I no do it again."

"Well, they probably just got delayed in their delivery!" Steve-voice says cheerfully. "Well, it looks like you can't summon anything strong. Summoning a Demon requires a portion of your Mana, and its strength is dependent on both that and your INT. The higher your INT, the stronger the demon you can summon. The more Mana you can expend in the Summoning, the stronger you can summon. The faster, too."

"What's Mana?" I ask the scary guy.

"It's the force of magic that allows you to use magic," he says. "You make it passively."

"What's passively?"

"Over time, without you needing to do anything."

"Um… okay?"

"Did your mentor explain it?" Steve-voice asks.

"No understand."

"That's fine, I'm sure you had quite a restricted life, to be so ignorant of things," Steve-voice says. "And to have such low stats. It seems you just turned eighteen two days ago! Happy birthday, Leif!"

"Birthday?"

"Ask your mentor later!" Steve-voice says. "Let's get to summoning your first Demon! So for the 25 Mana establishment, there isn't much we can work with. Actually, there really isn't anything. Huh. I see three things on the list. Okay! What kind of Demon do you want?"

"Huh?"

"What do you want your Demon to do?"

"Protect me."

"Oh. Uh. Okay. Yeah. You need more WIS for that. What the fuck are these Demons for, anyway?"

"I dunno."

"Well, there is one type of Demon that could, technically protect you. But it'd have to get stronger, first. You can't even summon a stronger one of it, for this much Mana establishment. Since there isn't much we can do, do you mind if I fill in the rest of the stuff?"

"Okay."

"What did he ask?"

"He fill in stuff."

"What?" The scary guy asks. "You mean he's going to fill in the rest of the information needed?"

"I dunno."

"There we go!" Steve-voice says in my head. "All filled in! Now we just have to wait for a Demon to to accept! Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean it'll fall within your parameters, so you'll be notified and allowed to accept, if you agree to them. Any Demon that can be contracted for that establishment-one already accepted. Oh. It doesn't fall within your parameters at all. You're probably seeing the information anyway."

A Demon Wishes to be Yours! Name: Haxulmiara Species: Eye Demon Sex: Male Total Level: 0 Age: 1 month Public Title: None Class: None Health: 5/5 STR: 1 AGI: 1 INT: 1 VIT: 1 Mana: 5/5 END: 1 DEX: 1 WIS: 1 LCK: 2 Rating: White CON: 1 FLX: 1 PER: 3 LIF: 109

"He's practically worthless," Steve-voice says in my head. "He applies for pretty much every request he sees. Not very intelligent, but he's an Eye Demon, so he sees them fast. I should've expected him to see your post. Sometimes, I swear he just hangs around the board, waiting for new posts to pop up. There it is! He just did it again! Well, they rejected him after looking at his stats. You can support something with an actual Level, though. Plus something that can actually fight. This thing just… looks. It's been rejected a total of 5,879 times already. Don't accept it."

"Accept?" I say.

Contract Established! Demon Haxulmiara is Now Yours to Summon!

"Well, damn!" Steve-voice says in my head. "I should've expected you to do that. Well, you can always sever the contract, but you'll need to summon it, first, so you'll have to wait for your Mana to regenerate."

"Regenerate?"

"Restore," Steve-voice says in my head. "You'll need to make more of it. Just wait."

"I wait."

"I need to be going," Steve-voice says in my head. "Before you do, can you tell me the name of your mentor? I want to know if I've heard of him or dealt with him before."

"Name"

"What does he call himself?"

"My name Leif."

"What's your mentor's name?"

"Mentor?"

"The one who taught you Summon Demon."

"That Tilo."

"Tiol."

"Tiol."

"Tiol?" Steve-voice says in my head. "Never heard of him."

"Scary man. Came from skin thingy. Lots of red squiggly thingies on skin thingy. He free now. Big man. Scary man. Make me clean. Got two thingies on his head. Red eyes. Black thingy not like other people black thingies. Thin, not circle. Lotsa muscle. Massive. Big thingy, too."

"Big thingy?"

"That pee come out of," I nod. "It's big. Bigger than my thingy. Mine broken?"

"Uh… are you referring to Tiolxravurnailialx?" Steve-voice says in my head.

"Yeah!" I say. "Tioxulravishnuralix!"

"I find it hard to believe that the most powerful Archdemon to ever exist is teaching a naive elf how to summon Demons."

"He say he Archdemon," I say. "What that? Really big, red person with thingies on head?"

"The most powerful type of Demon there is," Steve-voice says in my head.. "Lord Tiolxravurnailialx was bound up three thousand years ago by some mortals, after he went on a rampage after the idiotic mortal who summoned him didn't realize that the regular binding rituals wouldn't work on him. They protected him with a crapton of spells in the ruins of an ancient castle that's currently… you're in it. How in the hells did we not hear about him being free? Oh, my goodness! He actually is free! I need to go, so I can let the boss know he's finally been freed! For Chaos!"

Steve-voice stop talking, and I look at big scary guy.

"Chaos?"

"What did he tell you?"

"Steve-voice said Archdemon powerful for Chaos."

"I don't think that's what he told you at all," he sighs. "What type of Demon did you contract?"

"Hexamirror."

"How much Mana does it cost you to summon it?"

"Um…"

"Think the Demon's name, and you'll see the information on it."

"What's Mana?"

"Share it with me."

"Hexamirror share."

"That's not-oh, that worked. That's weird, it's not his name. That shouldn't work."

Big scary guy looks at window. I no see his window, but he do.

"This is probably the weakest Demon imaginable," he sighs. "I'm betting you were asking what 'accept' meant, too."

"Me no know what that mean."

"That's what I thought," he says. "It takes 10 Mana to Summon it. You should be able to in a minute. Open your status."

"Okay."

"See the one that looks different from before?"

"Yeah."

"That's how much Mana you have," he says. "The one next to it is the most Mana you can have."

"Okay."

"Can you read?"

"No."

"So you don't know what those numbers mean?"

"No."

"I'll have to teach you that," he says. "Anyway, something so weak won't be able to act against you, and it probably just wants to see the real world. If it causes a problem, I'll put it in line. Summon it once the number has two runes instead of one."

"Um…"

He crouches down and messes with the thingy on the stone floor, making squiggles in it. Then, he tells me that those are the numbers of one through ten, and tells me what each one is.

"You can have," he makes numbers in the thingy. "Up to 25 Mana. It takes 10 Mana to summon Haxulmiara. This number is 10. It has two numbers, instead of one. Once your Mana," he makes new squiggles. "The thingy with this in front of it, the one that's different, once your Mana has two numbers instead of one on the left, you can summon your Demon, Haxulmiara."

"Okay."

"Do you understand?"

"What's left?"

"Hold up your hands," he says, so I do. He touches one. "This is your right hand. It is on the right side. This one," he touches the other. "Is your left hand. It is on the left side. When looking at the menu, the thing with the runes I wrote out for Mana will be to the left of the numbers showing how much you have, and how much you can hold."

"It has one-two and two-five."

"Already at twelve?" He asks. "That's a fast regeneration. To be expected of an Elf of your type, even with such a low WIS! Summon Haxulmiara. It's good practice, even if it means it'll be almost impossible for you to Level up your Summon Demon Skill and Warlock Class, but once you get the hang of it and get some more WIS, we can cancel the contract and get you a better Demon."

"Better Demon good?"

"Very good," he nods. "Stronger demons can protect you better."

"Okay!" I say. "Summon Hexamirror!"

Lots of glowy thingies appear, and then an eyeball appears in the air in front of me. Just an eyeball. Its got a blue eye. It looks around the stone room, then looks at the big scary guy and flies behind me.

Since when do eyeballs live on their own?

At least Tilo scares Hexamirror, too, and not me only. That good. Me not only one scared.

"How did that even work?" Tilo says. "That's not how you do a Summoning Ritual!"

Summon Ritual is long and complicated. Why not just say summon instead?

Hexamirror lot to say. I call it Hex, now. Shorter. Easier.

"Hungry."

"I'm not surprised," Tilo says. "Come with me, I'll get you some food."

"Thanks, Tilo!"

"Tiol, not Tilo."

"Thanks, Tiol!"

Tiol leads me to another big stone room, this one with a big stone thing he calls a table, surrounded by a bunch more stone things he calls chairs. He said that he made them, since the wood and decorations of this castle have long since turned to dust. That's thingy on ground. Dust and dirt. Lotsa dust and dirt. Looooooooots.

Tiol say to sit and wait, so I do. Hex floats in front of me and stares at me. So weird.

"Hi!"

Hex stares at me more.

"I'm calling you Hex," I say. "Hexamirror too long to keep saying."

Hex stares at me more.

"Can you blink?" I say. "I no see thingies for blinking."

Hex stares at me more.

I stare back. Tiol eventually show up with more fruits. Plus something he calls meat. He say he cooked it. It tough to eat. It good.

Hex stare at meat as I eat it. I offer some, but he just keep staring, so I eat it all. It good. Delicious. Better than slop. Only had slop before Tiol gave me apple.

So good.

"Leif," Tiol says once I finish eating. "Would you like to learn other magics? It will help you protect yourself."

"Magics?"

Tiol holds up a hand, and fire appears above it.

"Magic," he nods. "It can do many things. It will help you protect yourself. Keep you from being not-free."

"You know magic, but got not-free."

"It took a lot of powerful magicians for that," he says. "Lots of magic-users with lots of magic. And a dragon."

"Dragon?"

"Only thing I worry about," he nods. "Powerful being, more powerful than me. If it hadn't hurt me, they would have failed in their ritual. I'm not even sure how they managed to survive. Then again, it probably killed them after they finished binding me."

"Huh?"

"You'll understand once your language is better."

"Okay."

"Want to learn magic?"

"Not fire. Fire scary. Fire hurt."

"It does," he sits down. "However, fire is also something that can protect you. If fire hurts you, it will hurt them, too. You control the flame, it won't hurt you."

"My fire no hurt me?"

"It might," he shakes his head. "However, once you learn to control it, you won't be hurt by your flames."

"Scared."

"It is scary," he nods. "But in the end, it will help you become stronger. Do you want to learn fire magics? If not, I can teach you something else, but fire magic is good."

"Fire bad, fire magic good?"

"Fire is bad," he says. "Fire is also good. Fire burns, but it also warms. Fire can burn your body and end your life, burn down a village, your crops and food, and cause powerful destruction. However, you also use fire to make meat safe for you to eat, clean water, heat water to wash your body, and keep warm in the cold. Fire is good and bad, but if you learn to control it, your fire is good."

"Fire good if I control fire?"

"Yes."

"Okay!"

"Stay here," he says. "I need to get supplies."

"I need poo."

"You need poo?" He looks confused. "You need to poop?"

"Yes. I need poo. To poo."

"Come on," he says, and leads me somewhere, finding a thing. "Sit on this, and poop," green thingies appear in his hand. "Use these to wipe your ass when you're done."

"Ass?"

"Your butt," he says. "Wipe the poop off your butt when you finish, and then drop the leaves into the urn. I'm leaving, stay in the castle when you're done. I'll be back."

"I need pee."

"You can pee in the urn, too."

"Okay!"

Toil leaves, and I pee and poo, then wander around the 'castle'. It's huge. The eye follows me, floating in the air. It's so strange. It just floats in the air, watching. It watched me poo and pee.

I return to the big room with the stone thingy. Stone table, Toll said. Toil? Toli? Tilo? Tiol! Tiol said! Table! Stone thingy is table! Stone thingies is chairs!

I sit down on chair and wait for Tiol to return. No know what to do, so just wait. Tiol seem good, not bad. He help me. Feed me good food. Clean be itchy, though. Not sure like.

Tiol return after get real hungry, but he have food, so that good. He also have others thingies. Lots of thingies. He put them in a thingy, and he put that on the thingy. The table thingy. Or table? It's table.

After eat food, Tiol put thingy in front of me. He say it a candle. He make a fire, and touch it to thingy on candle. Black thingy. Fire stay there.

"Put your hands to either side of the flame," Tiol say. "Focus on the flames, and imagine it growing taller."

"Taller?"

He waves his hand, and the flame become bigger, but only up, not around. So cool.

"Like that," he say, flame going back to small. "Just put your hands to either side, and concentrate. Safe way to train fire, not likely to burn. Might, but might not."

"Okay!"

I put hands to sides of fire. No know what concentrate and focus thingies are, but stare at flame real hard, wanting it grow bigger. Nonononono. Taller. Not bigger, grow taller. Grow taller!

"Taller!" I say to flame. "Be taller!"

"That's one way to try it," Tiol say softly.

He weird. Talk to self a lot. Like Brian.

Demon-guy killed Brian.

Fire no grow taller. Tiol say to no give up, though, and try again. Several days pass as Tiol teach me how to use fire, and how to speak, and what things are. He tells me it took a week, when I gain Skill.

New Skill! Fire Manipulation Active The power to create and manipulate the flames around you

"Good job," Tiol puts a hand on my head, messing up my hair.

He brought comb from village he visited to get things, so we can keep my hair neat. He also cut it, so it wasn't as long, and look good. Cut my hair, not the comb.

How would he cut comb? Can his knife do that?

Probably. It sharp. It's sharp.

After I gain Fire Manipulation, Tiol has me keep practicing it. We use a lot of candles. After I can make the fire three times as big and make it stay that way for ten minutes, Tiol has me make shapes with the fire. After two weeks, it reaches Level 2. Fire Manipulation reaches Level 2.

Then, Tiol has me concentrate on making fire on my own, not using fire from candle. He tell me to focus on making ball of fire. I no know what – don't know what a ball is, so he show me with his own fires.

"Oh!" I say. "It like Hex!"

"Uh," he looks at Hex. "Yeah, it's like Hex. Try making fire shaped like Hex."

"Okay!"

I do my best to make a ball of fire shaped like Hex, ignoring the two window that appear after a few days of trying. It not easy to make it look like eyeball. No iris or pupil. That what Tiol say they called, the color and black part. His pupil slit, he said, because he a demon.

Tiol keeps asking if I got the Skill, but I didn't. It still doesn't look like Hex. Fireball not Floating Eye of Fire, and Fire Adept a Class, not a Skill.

Two weeks pass before I get Skill. It not Floating Eye of Fire, but good enough, I think. I can see through it, too. It good. Realized I probably fail to get Skill because Hex can see, and I no make the floating ball see, even if general look is right. Once I start trying make it see, the iris and pupil start to form. Pupil darker red flames than rest of eye, iris more goldish flames.

I no expect – didn't expect – to be see out of it, just make it see, so that cool. It take all my Mana to make for moment, though. Real short.

New Skill! Fire Eye Active A powerful Fire spell, the Fire Eye can see and burn. The larger the eye, the more Mana it takes to create and sustain.

It takes lot for size of Hex. 40 Mana not enough to sustain, only make. Got new Class, too. But I got the Skill!

"Jumping around, huh?" Tiol enters the room. "You squealing and jumping means you finally got Fireball?"

"Fireball?" I ask. "You said make it like Hex. I got Fireball fifteen days ago! I got Fire Eye! It like Hex!"

Hex nods. That means it spun slightly, going up and down.

"Fire Eye?" He asks. "Seriously? Do you even have the Mana Capacity to cast that? Wait… do you have more Classes?"

"Yeah!"

"What do you have?"

"Fire Student and Fire Adept."

"Fire Student is expected," he says. "Gained after learning Fire Manipulation and a Fire Spell, but Fire Adept? I suppose Fire Eye is difficult enough to have enabled you to not need multiple Fire Spells. It would be the equivalent of a Level 30 Fireball, in terms of power and difficulty to… you are quite the enigma."

"What's an enigma?"

"Nothing for you to worry about," he smiles, and Hex looks at me. "Behave, Hex."

Hex looks at him innocently. Tiol said that that's what this type of look Hex is giving is.

"Can't be helped, I suppose," Tiol sighs. "You did do what I told you to do. For awhile, we can focus on just using the two spells you have and making them stronger, gaining Levels. Then, we'll need to have you actually use them in combat."

"Fight?"

"Yes, fight," he says. "There are rats in the castle's dungeons and cellars that could use clearing out, and your magic would be quite useful for that."

"I hurt?"

"Yes," he says. "You'll hurt the rats, but this is an okay kind of hurt."

"It is?"

"Rats aren't people," he says. "They're animals. They'll also prevent us from being able to store food, so we need to get rid of them."

"Store food?"

"Keep food for later," he says. "We could acquire bags of grain, rice, salt, sugar, and other stuff, but can't keep it, because of the rats."

"Keep it?"

"For later," he says. "So that we don't have to go out to get food every time you get hungry."

"I'm hungry."