Damon placed his twelfth and last vial of an unknown potion into a tray, called out for Gargano to come pick it up, and opened his status screen:

Damon Asmodeus LVL. 18 (1450/7720)

Charisma

Intelligence

Perception

Agility

Endurance

Strength

Mana

21

44

36

31

19

20

131

All humanoid language acquisitions Arithmetic’s Lvl.6/7 Black magic Lvl.4/10 (+1) Dark magic Lvl.4/10 (+1) Dark spirit communication Lvl.4/10 (+1) Detect diseases and viruses through smell Lvl.3/5 Earth magic Lvl.4/5 (+1) Improved memory Lvl.3/5 Medium disease tolerance Night vision Telepathy Lvl.3/10

After seven months of mundane work. Damon reached the fourth level in black magic. However, unlike the last time he didn’t want to adventure, he didn’t want to test his powers, nor level up. He wanted to sleep. He wanted a vacation. Although he wasn’t a fan of beach side resorts back on earth and preferred culture tourism. This time he wanted to lay down on a pearly white beach, drink various colourful alcohol concoctions, and eat mouthfuls of fried food and waffles.

For three years now he got up, used magic, made potions, fought goblins ad continuum. But it wasn’t all bad. If he compared his life to the disease-ridden villagers, the tribes which lived in mud huts, or the nobles who ran around killing their brothers willy-nilly. Life in the Tree was an Eden. Who knows, perhaps one day, the leafless tree would produce an apple. Not of knowledge, but simply a nice sugary apple. He hadn’t touched any kinds of sugar in a few years, and it did make him drool or dream of chocolate and cherries at night. Perhaps if he went to sleep now, he could find solace in such fantasy. As such, Damon stumbled to his bed and laid down in the straw.

However, much to his dismay, before he could fall asleep, Stolas swooped into his room and dropped a bundle of books on his chest.

“Let me take a break.” Damon, still in his bed clasped his hands, and begged. However, before he could beg once again Stolas interjected.

“You know you’ve cost me a lot of money to raise. The little potions you make do not make up for the costs of books, nor the rent for your room.”

“Hey, but you already had these books, no? And who else is going to take this room, it’s in the middle of nowhere, in the basement of a black magic sect.”

“Yes, these books are old, but it doesn’t change the fact you’re renting them. And I’m the landlord so I get to set the price of the room. Did I not let you go on an adventure for a year? And how much money do you think that cost me? You could have made a few thousand potions. That adds up to a few hundred gold coins.”

“Bullshit, but what do you want? Why are you rushing so frantically to have me learn all of this?”

“No reason, just learn. You have a month and a half to memorize everything. If you don’t, I’ll fire you.” The bird flew away.

Damon didn’t like the sound of what he’d just heard. Perhaps he should protest by not doing anything. Maybe then he’d get an answer. However, he was also curious about the material, and if he read a page, he’d probably memorize it, so he’d end up learning it anyways. Such was the struggle of a rebellious scholar in this world. Damon guessed that this next job had something to do with black magic, so he started with earth magic out of spite.

Damon opened the first book entitled “First steps into intermediate earth magic.” As always, the introduction spoke of different metals. This time Damon decided to pay a bit of attention.

It talked about the strength of different alloys and the components needed to create them. From copper and tin for bronze, to steel, dark steel, platinum, gold, adamantine, and orichalcum. However, to Damon, this could only aid him buy a weapon since the creation of metals would be unlocked at the sixth level of earth magic. At level 5 the most he could do is incorporate trace amounts of surrounding minerals into his earth and stone to slightly increase its strength. However, a level ten mage, could make a castle out of ruby, gold, and sapphire if the components were present.

Next were the spells. He went outside and tried the first one. It was still called earth spike; however, he could now decide where it appeared.

He looked out onto the desolate forest and without uttering a word or moving a muscle a spike emerged one metre ahead in the direction he faced. It cost him two mana points, then he cast it two metres away, it cost him four mana, three metres away it cost him eight mana, and he cast it four metres away, it cost him sixteen mana. Damon didn’t mind the fact that it was exponential since it made it easier to regulate his mana. He then tried to cast it angled diagonally. However, nothing happened. His magic seemed to be limited to the first dimension. Perhaps when he reached the fifth level in earth magic, he could gain access to the second, and later came the third. Fortunately, there wasn’t fourth dimensional magic, if there were, well he couldn’t imagine how much of a cluster fuck a fight between mages would be.

Next came the earth spear upgrades. Nothing changed other than its power. If he consumed one mana, the spear presented the same power as before. The next power level came at the cost of five mana points and with this it could break the bark of a tree. After that he could expend twenty-five mana points to create an earth spike which chewed halfway through the tree. Damon guessed the next power level came at 125 mana points, which was above his capabilities currently. The earth wall’s fourth level variant let him create a quarter sphere wall. It cost ten mana. However, there weren’t any variations. If he wanted a weaker shield, he could still use the old version.

Now came the only new spell, earthquake. It created a small magnitude 3.0 earthquakes with a radius of a kilometre; however, it only made the earth rumble a bit and generate a noise like that of a passing train.

These sets of spells disappointed Damon, however, he’d make us of them. A level four mages wasn’t anything special and wouldn’t even be allowed to join the adventurer’s guild unless he had potential.

Next came dark magic. His shadow meld skill didn’t change. However, it now cost him one mana point per five minutes to activate it. As such he could now use it indefinitely. His shadow agility now increased his agility by five points, and his lessen reflection also cost him one mana per five minutes as well. But the new spells were more interesting. He got shadow movement which increased his stats by five points in agility, endurance, and perception. Next, he gained shadow bind which reduced the enemy’s agility, endurance, and strength by five points. Finally, the third spell, shadow mind let him control insects and small rodents, for now, he couldn’t see nor hear what the beasts did; however, he could only imagine its power in later levels. All these three spells cost five mana points per minute.

For black magic he finally gained the ability to create a small humanoid (a humanoid which stood at a meter or less in its adult form) undead. The next spell let him make a few lesser curses such as vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and constipation. He’d let these spells rest until they became something slightly more attractive. But he had one which sounded pretty fun. Summon lesser dark spirits. He would explore this last one in greater depths latter, perhaps as Stolas.

Damon ignored the book filled with the different alchemical potions he could make with earth and black magic. Although he did skim through them, he only saw spells like glow in the dark paint for plants, lesser reduced reflection paint, and lesser fertilizer potions.

“Stolas come here.”

A few seconds later the owl reappeared in Damon’s room.

“What’s up with summoning dark spirits?” Asked, Damon.

“As it says you can now summon dark spirits.”

“But what do they do, are they going to seize my soul or ask for compensations?”

“It says it all in the book.”

“Yea but reading takes time and I think it’s better to hear it from a demon himself.”

Stolas facepalmed, “But I wrote that book.” The owl sighed. “This is how it works. Just like human’s dark spirits have ranks. You already know that we demons are one of them, and even within demons we have further classifications. However, no demon would expose that information since it’s equivalent to showing our cards. Anyhow, dark spirits are divided between, lesser, low, middle, high, and demonic tiers. To summon demons, you must sacrifice souls, for lesser dark spirits just some blood and guts are enough, however, to summon middle to high dark spirits you’d multiple pristine corpses, the more powerful, the better the result.

The powers of lesser demons are restricted to creating minor illusions or frightening people. However, its main use is to unlock a new black magician’s dark spirit communication. To gain a familiar you must first see a dark spirit, this is done in ceremonies. You just took a more complex, and dangerous approach to it.”

“Guess I’ll just have to wait for my level to increase before I make good use of it.”

Stolas shook his head, “Perhaps on another continent where black magic is accepted, however, here a black magician who is able to summon a lesser demon is quite valuable.”

“Well, I guess there are few black magicians here. But isn’t it more of a recruitment tool? Wait, are you going to send me out as a recruitment agent?”

“Ah… well in a way.”

“Do you want me to get hunted down?”

“Well, I’m not sending you to go door to door. I’m sending you to a specific person.”

Damon thought about it for a second, “Why would a noble want to get someone initiated with black magic. Won’t they get caught by the angels in the capital?”

“I’m not sending you to the capital, nor is the client the king—”

“I still don’t understand why a noble would take that risk, isn’t the—”

“Do you know how much it costs to hire a black mage? Let’s just say it’s not free. You really are oblivious to the value of money. I’ll have to fix that someday. Anyhow, the client is a duke, and you are to teach his third son black magic. The kid has level eight potential. If the duke can have his personal black mage, it would more than make up for any risks he takes. This isn’t a small viscount. He has the wealth and power to cover for his son. Not only that but he also paid the cost for a demonic ring of concealment. Although it’s not cursed, it should hide the kid from any lesser angels.”

“Which duke is it?” asked Damon.

“Falengio di Calegula, the duke of Cassandrino.”

“Yep, I forgot that I know nothing about this world’s politics. Perhaps I should learn a bit about the nobility before I head out.”

“No shit, and that’s not the only thing we’ll have to change.”

“Don’t worry I already have noble like clothing.”

Stolas shook his head. “Your name.”

“My name? What’s wrong with my name, and if I must change it, I can just lie, no?”

“Last time I checked you don’t have an item which hides your lies.”

“Well, since I’ve levelled up you can just give me one.”

“Do you really want to waste one item just to lie about your name?”

“Well, it’s not just about my name but everything else.”

“What other secrets are you hiding? Last time I checked you don’t have any great secrets and I doubt anyone will care about your dick size. You came into this world a few years ago, even if they ask you where you come from, since you technically don’t come from anywhere in the eyes of this universe you can pretty much invent anything you want.”

“Is that so? Well, why do I have to change my name anyways?”

“Because you can’t just go around with the name of a demon prince without his consent. Until now it didn’t matter since you haven’t told it to anyone, however, if you do then good luck escaping from a demon, and a prince at that. I should know.”

“I guess there should be a ritual to change my name, like marriage, or adoption.”

“Exactly, I will adopt you.”

Damon jumped up, but quickly settled down and nodded. Sounds good. “So how the adoption ritual work.”

“It depends on the race of the individual. Humans, who are social creatures, need to get it recognized by an organization with more than a thousand individuals. The elves need to get the approval from a spirit, and we demons need to give our blood to the other party.”

Damon frowned, “Isn’t that how vampires and other demonic creatures are made.”

Stolas scratched his head, “That is true but—”

“Hey there bud, I don’t mind being adopted, but I don’t want to turn into a rotting corpse whose flesh can be peeled off by the passing wind.”

“Oy, relax for a second. Do you think my blood will turn you into that kind of beast?” Stolas’ voice became audible and started to grow louder, it seemed to come from all directions, and resounded inside Damon’s chest. “I am a Stolas, a Demon Prince. Receiving my blood is an honour. Do you know how many souls I’ll need to borrow to do this, do you know the interest on those, do—”

Damon couldn’t bear the mana pressure emanating from the small owl. It reminded him of that time in the forest. Although he was a nice person, you couldn’t forget that this was a demon. Damon fell to his knees, “Yes, it’s an honour, I’m sorry for doubting you.”

Stolas retracted his mana and patted Damon’s head with his wing. “Good, as long as you understand your mistake.” He stopped speaking, “Then open your mouth.”

Damon looked up to the owl, but before he was going to speak, he shut the fuck up and opened his mouth. Stolas’ feathers on his right wing turned into silver, slightly cut his chest, enough for a few trickles of blood to accumulate on his silver feathers, moved said wing above Damon’s mouth and the few drops of blood trickled into Damon’s mouth.