Authors Note

Hi, so this is up here just so I can say this. I didn't jut change it to 3rd Person I also changed some details. Tell me if you think it's better since this is the day edited it, I'm a wait a day before I compare the two, but I wanted some input. Anyway I'm a work on changing Chapter 2 a more extensive not is down below

By the way as the author, I AM WATCHING YOU 0.0

THIS IS CHAPTER 21 EXCEPT IN 3RD PERSON RAWR!

Satou sat in that stone room silently experimenting for hours. Now why exactly did he spend so long in there? Well if you we to take a look at just how large the Elementary Spell Book by Satou's feet was, one could tell just how long it would take to even read through it.

Though he isn't actually reading all of it, but just the spells that he could cast. Now this includes Tier 1 spells and a small portion of the Tier 2 spells. And there are only so many Tier 1 spells out there, and only a portion of that is actually recorded in the Elementary Spell Book. So what's taking him so long to go through what's maybe a dozen or so spells.

It took less than a minute for Satou to learn [Ignite] and he managed to learn the spells [Aqua Forma] and [Create Water] just as easily. How could it possibly take so long to learn them all?

But let me ask you this, is magic really that simple? Would those Great Sages, and powerful Mages spend almost the entirety of their lives held up in their towers or dungeons if it were really so easy to learn magic?

Satou picked up on this after casting a few spells thanks to his experience manipulating his own blood. He casts a number of spells, but It all felt too sluggish. It was simple enough to cast a spell, you need to simply visualize it, chant it, and cast it. And there you have your spell.

But just because you can cast a spell doesn’t necessarily mean you can use it, well properly.

Think about this, if there existed two men who were almost completely the same in every aspect except for one, were to face each other with a sword who would win? The man who spent countless hours swinging the sword or the man who just picked it up now? Both men have entirely no battle experience, and possess the exact same amount of strength and intellect, and more than likely the man who’s trained for countless hours will win.

Both men were capable of swinging their swords, but one was able to swinging it properly. And this principle naturally applies to all sorts of things including Magic.

So, Satou went back to the start with [Aqua Forma] and [Create Water], and began trying to gain a further grasp on each of them. He began reviewing each element, and spell once more to see further what they could do.

He examined the Tier 2 Elementary Water Spell [Aqua Sphere] a rather weak and disappointing spell that simply launched a weak ball of water. It could hardly do anything. But after spending a few minutes going over the spell Satou noticed something.

[Aqua Sphere] relies on pressure too shoot. And by simply compressing the ball of water without changing its volume. it’s possible to build up a large amount of pressure. And by increasing the amount of pressure used to shoot a sphere with the same volume as earlier, it’s possible to increase the spell's strength multiple times over.

And after pouring nearly all his mana into [Aqua Sphere], Satou significantly increased the volume of water and compressed it into an incredibly dense ball as large as a baseball. And as Satou shoot the spell at the wall, the sphere shot out at extreme speeds leaving a large crack in the wall, which quickly began repairing itself.

[Aqua Sphere] was capable of inflicting a surprising amount of damage. If someone were to be struck with that much force it wouldn’t just injure them, it could possibly be fatal. Though, whether or not it could do so in this world is a bit questionable. But at least against a normal person, you’d be able to deal a substantial amount of damage.

Though to release a [Aqua Sphere] of this magnitude, would require a large portion of Satou’s mana. At most he’d only be able to fire it twice before running dry, and that’s assuming he hasn’t used anything else before hand

But that’s only for now, eventually when Satou possess a much larger mana pool firing [Aqua Spheres] like these would be a breeze. And with enough mana it’s possible to change the originally weak spell into something along the lines of a water cannon! And even in a world like this filled with monster that would definitely be fatal. And if need be he could change [Aqua Sphere] into a heavily pressurized water cutter than could easily cut through steel.

And this is only an Elementary Level Spell! Just thinking about all the possibilities, excited Satou.

You see to Satou, Magic is like a new game of sorts. It’s new, and fresh, and something he’s never seen before. But after playing with a part of it for a bit, and it got a little boring. He could try out all the other classes, but they’re only at the lowest level, and leveling up is quite tedious. So he was growing quite bored, rather quickly.

After all it only took a minute or so to learn a new spell, and after playing with it for another minute or so it’s just not as fun. After all Magic wasn’t exactly designed to be entertaining, it’s a skill derived out of necessity and one created out of convenience similar to technology on Earth.

And somewhere in his life, these spells will undoubtedly be useful. Should he ever need water, there’s magic for that. Should he ever require fire, there’s spell designed for that. And one day should his life ever been in danger, there’s a technique for that.

But what Satou sought was not a means to survival, a means useless to an immortal. He sought a passion to temporarily escape the confines of reality, and something dear to cling too to pass an eternity.

And that something just so happened to be magic. Because it turns out that, Magic was deeper than he could have ever imagined. More profound than he could have ever known. And more complex than he could have ever wished for.

But that was fine, for path beyond the light lit a flame in his eyes, and gave Satou a sense of renewed vigor. And with a new found passion, and an open mind he flipped through the pages of the Elementary Spell Book once more, meticulously reading everything related to the spells he cast earlier.

Satou looked through each spell once more and began studying them to find something that he missed, something that could possibly change the spell entirely. But this was no easy task, and it was only on by accident did he notice a few of the intricacies involved in some of these spells.

For example, amongst the Tier 1 Elementary Level Fire Spells, [Ignite] and [Heat]. These two spells were rather simple on the surface. [Ignite] creates Fire out of mana, and [Heat] controls heat.

Both were for the most part self-explanatory, and extremely practical spells. Warmth and Fire are crucial for survival after all, but too Satou these spells were relatively boring. And only after Satou come back did he ever noticed one particular characteristic, a peculiar sort of duality that exist in their very nature.

It was a characteristic that was sparsely mentioned within the Elementary Spell Book, and even then it required one to decipher a number of cryptic messages in order to truly understand.

[table=Cornsilk]

It’s very nature is to exist and not to exist with and without simultaneously. That which is not, but is, yet still neither completely.

[/table]

Only by a pure stroke of luck could Satou have understood what any of this could have meant.

After practicing casting [Ignite] over and over, just like he did with [Aqua Sphere], Satou accidentally set fire to the Elementary Spell Book. Naturally this was easily dealt with by casting [Aqua Forma] on the book. And since the water is formed out of mana the book was completely dry a minute after releasing the spell.

But that got Satou thinking. At first he thought [Ignite] was the Fire equivalent of [Aqua Forma], the creation of fire through mana. But that wasn’t exactly right, because if it was as soon as he released the spell and cast [Aqua Forma] the fire would have already disappeared.

And it all clicked, all the pieces of the puzzle were finally in the right place. The Duality, the fire, what the flames from [Ignite] are real flames, fueled by mana!

It’s just like a stove, but instead of using gas the flame is fueled by mana! As long as there’s mana the flame will exists, and once the supply is cut it disappears. But if you turn on the stove, and light a torch with it, even after you turn off the stove the torch will keep on burning.

Now this is just really another way of categorizing the abundance of spells out there. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have other uses. Only by understanding a spells nature to the fullest can one truly get the most out of their magic.

You wouldn’t constantly fuel [Ignite] to stay warm if you could just use it to lite a fire, just like how it’s pointless to drink water formed formed from [Aqua Forma], and it’s not wise to attack using water formed from [Create Water].

So with this in mind Satou began a few experiments, and began reading through the books Azule handed him.

And it turns out there’s a couple rather interesting points that he missed earlier. First off water doesn’t necessarily overcome fire. If a flame is strong enough, it’s naturally going to take a lot more water to put it out, but that’s not exactly what it means here.

Satou dipped a finger into a cup of water, and tried casting [Ignite], and naturally the fire instantly went out. But as he increased the amount of mana he was supplying the flame it grew stronger and stronger.

In other words as long as the Fire Mage has enough mana, it’s possible to contend with a Water Mage despite the elemental disadvantage.

Another point to note, is that there exists other types of flames within the Fire element. The fire created from [Ignite] is referred to as a Natural Flame, something that exists normally and it’s just like normal fire, as long as it’s not being fueled by mana. But there exists Magical Flames, and certain Special Flames that exist both naturally and in magic. Though those types of Flames are naturally far out of Satou’s reach.

Now as for the previous spell earlier, [Heat], this spells nature is more cut and paste mix compared to [Ignite’s] which is more of a blend of the spell categorizes of Creation and Manipulation.

[Heat]’s main function is as mentioned before, a spell increase the temperature. And it goes about it in one of two ways or a combination of both. [Heat] can manipulate the surrounding heat in the area and gather it in a single location, or it can directly create heat out of mana which will disappear as soon as the spell is released.

And this changes everything. This means that [Heat] isn’t a spell to create [Heat], but a spell designed to control temperatures. And that, that is exactly why [Heat] is considered the most vital spell a Fire Mage could ever have in the Guide to Magic.

You should understand that fire cannot discriminate between friend or foe, and naturally casting any high temperature Fire Spells not only endangers one’s allies but it even puts a heavy toll on one’s body due to the intense heat.

And Fire Mage’s naturally have to get used to such temperatures, or have equipment that helps them deal with this, but it doesn’t matter how great your equipment is or how used to it you are if you’re a powerful Fire mage who’s constantly creating flames that could easily melt steel then you’re going to get damaged one way or another.

So [Heat] is a real game changer right here. As long as a Fire Mage reaches a high enough mastery of [Heat] they could freely cast as many Fire spells as they wish without fear for their own lives, and in doing so their damage output could rise exponentially!

And [Heat] doesn’t just help defend oneself from the flames, you could even greatly strengthen your own spells with it! You concentrate the full temperature of a spell capable of melting steel to a single point rather than having it radiate heat to the surroundings.

And if you have a high enough mastery over the spell you wouldn’t have to worry about friendly fire or even other Fire Mages. Hell, you could probably enjoy a nice swim in a tub of lava if you were proficient enough in the damn spell.

It’s so damn important that it that spells that aren’t even in the Fire Element are derived from it! It even lead to the simplified version of the spell [Freeze] called [Chill] enabling others to more easily grasp the Ice Element!

It’s funny how that works really, you need to learn Fire element to use the Ice element, when you’d think you’d have to learn how to use Water element to do so. Though you do need to learn the Water element, but it’s was pointless if you couldn’t use [Heat] from the Fire Element.

That just goes to show you things don’t exactly work the way you think they do.

At first Satou though that the elements interacted like this. Water > Fire, Fire > Earth, Earth > Wind, Wind > Lightning, Lightning > Water, and Light and Darkness oppose each other equally. It would form a sort of color wheel of elements where each element where each element had an elementary complementary to it.

But it’s not as clear cut as that it seems. Obviously the elements has an element that they each naturally oppose, and they each have elements that they naturally boost, but it’s not as if each element completely destroys the other.

They all exists harmoniously, mutually assisting yet constantly contradicting each other. At times elements that naturally coincide will suddenly suddenly oppose each other. And at times there are elements that naturally contradict each other will suddenly assist each other.

It may sounds irrational, it may be absurd, but in the end that is the truth. And regardless if this effect is unnatural or not, it is within magics nature to portray it completely as it is and isn’t. For magic very nature is to follow nature itself, while contradicting it as it does so. And in doing so it has birthed countless odd, and unnatural effects, and phenomenons throughout this world.

For magic defies all laws, all logic, and concepts. For magic is in itself a miraculous existence birthed by the Gods.

And in this way Fire can turn to Ice, and Light may join hands with the Dark leaving but a Void. And as unnatural and perplexing it may be, it does nothing to douse the fire burning in Satou’s heart.

For, he who is but two steps through the door of magic has already witnessed a piece of it’s great mysteries.

Satou quickly went over to the next Element, the Earth Element. Though he wasn’t really able to figure out too much from playing with their two spells, [Terra Forma] and [Terraform] who were shockingly similar to Water’s own spells.

[Terra Forma] acted like [Aqua Forma] and it could create anything from dirt to stone to metals to gems as long as you had enough mana. And naturally as soon as you released the spell they would all disappear.

While [Terraform] exists to manipulate the surrounding earth. You can soften the ground or or harden it as you see fit. You can change a cliff into a plain or a plain into a mountain. You can raise an island into the sky or make a crevice so deep it reaches the ends of the earth. You can change the very world itself, as long as you have enough mana to do so.

From there he went to the Lightning Element, which Satou found great difficulty experimenting with. It’s Tier 1 Elementary Level spell [Spark] is one of the most mana heavy spell Tier 1 spell out there. And Satou could only use it a few times, before he was completely out of mana so it was too difficult to research.

But there’s at least one thing Satou’s certain of, the Lightning Element is frighteningly powerful.

Unlike other elements, Lightning relies heavily on the creation of electricity rather than the manipulation of it. All you need to do is create electricity and guide it towards it’s target. And with the small amount of electricity Satou was able to produce after using half of his mana, he was able to produce some frightening results.

As soon as he shot the spell towards the wall, it took less than a second to reach it’s target and a large amount of blue sparks began dispersing across the entire room. And at the point of impact was burnt black.This was most certainly the most powerful Tier 1 spell of Satou’s arsenal.

Lightning truly deserves to title of having the greatest amount of burst damage out of all the elements. If it weren’t for each spell’s mana usage than this might have been the most frightening element, though each element is powerful in it’s own regard.

Afterwards, Satou moved onto the Wind Element’s Tier 1 Spell [Gust. The Wind Element the opposite of the mana heavy Lightning Element and instead focuses on the manipulation aspect rather than the creation aspect. Thus Wind Element spells are actually one of the cheapest spells to cast, and it could be considered to be the most sustainable element.

[Gust] itself is a rather simple spell that simply allows one to control the surrounding air to create a gust of wind or a tornado of sorts. But the main purpose of Gust is simply to serve as a base for the higher tiered spells just like Ignite] and all the other Tier 1 spells.

And since the Wind Element is so lax on mana, Satou was capable of casting two of the Tier 2 spells, [Feather Foot] a spell that lowers the wind resistance of the user, and [Wind Blade] a gust of wind sharpened to a point.

Though after only casting both spells a few times, Satou was already out of mana. So after a full two hours of researching, testing, and thinking Satou finally decided it was time to stop and possibly get a bite to eat.

He grabbed all the books he brought inside the stone room with him, and awkwardly opened the door with his leg. As he stumble inside the room with the books and cup in hand he was able to see Rosalie patiently waiting on the corner of the room.

And as soon as she noticed Satou, she instantly made her way over helping him put all the books back.

Satou asked her, “Hey Rosalie, can you use magic?”

She piled all the books together and made the cup of water disappear before turning to Satou, “Yes Master, all of the Vampire Maids are trained extensively in housework, magic, and combat so we can serve our Masters to the fullest. And should it ever come to it we can also serve as the final line of defense in the worst case scenario.

“Then what can you use?”

“I can use all the basic elements Tier 1 spells, and I specialize in Arcane Magic. I’ve been trained as a Knight so my focus is in Enhancement-type magic, and Barrier-type magic. And naturally as a Vampire I can use Blood Magic.”

“Then how about everyone else? Like the Lord, and Azule. How about Tristan, and Garius, and Nevil.”

Rosalie paused for a second to think, “I don’t know the details regarding Lord Dein, but the Dein clan is famous for their Blood Puppets so I assume he uses some form of Puppet Magic. As for the Lord he’s a Blood Knight like his father, and his father before him. He specializes almost entirely on Arcane and Blood Magic, and in doing so he utilizes our race’s greatest advantage.”

Satou turned his head, perplexed, “What’s that?”

Rosalie smiled, “Our vitality young master, our vitality.”

“Our vitality?”

“Yes, our race was even able fight against one of the Seven Great Clans over who possessed the greatest vitality. And it may have been an event that occurred hundreds of thousands of years ago, but it remains a fact that we were once able to match the Wraith Clan, the mighty Berserkers!”

Satou asked, “How powerful are they?”

“Extraordinarily so. They are considered the strongest humanoid demons, and are inherently born with a monstrous physique and vitality that could rival even God Beasts and the Dragons. Though their special physique makes it nearly impossible for them to learn magic, so they solely focus on close-quarters combat as well as developing their Sin of Wrath.”

“Developing their sin?”

“Yes, well you see young master the more one delves into their sin the more it affects the Demonic Energy within them. And this causes their bodies to change, causing them to grow stronger and stronger while inhibiting other emotions. One’s sin is usually split up into the levels: Sinner, Embodiment, Personification, and Manifestation. And a majority of Berserkers happen to be at the Personification level, a level that would normally put them at the level of an Elder or Great Elder of an ordinary clan.”

The Rosen Clan is considered one of the more powerful clans out there, but a normal clan’s elder would either be a High Demon or an Archdemon, while Great Elders would either be Archdemons or a Noble Demons. The Rosen Clan’s elite personnel however consists mostly of High-Demons to power Archdemons and Elders and Great Elders are at minimum a Noble Demon.

Now this doesn’t seem like a lot, but even for a powerful clan like the Rosens they have less than 200 personnel who are at or above the High Demon level, a fraction of the clans actual size. For the majority of a clan to be at least the High-Demon level is terrifying, and you can’t forget that Berserkers are born with inherently powerful physiques.

Their rank may only be at a High-Demon’s but they could easily match several dozen other demons of their own level, and possibly match Demons a rank above them.

“Luckily there’s only so many Berserkers out there. Just like all the powerful races out there, conception is extremely difficult and there’s only enough Berserkers to fill a single clan otherwise we may have lost that war. It doesn’t matter how immense their vitality with enough blows and injuries they’ll fall eventually! However we vampires can easily remain at peak condition even on the battlefield.”

Satou looked at her wide eyed,”How?”

“With Blood magic of course. Young master, Berserkers have an immense vitality, and an immense amount of strength so naturally there are a few trade offs. Other than their inability to use magic, they also have difficulty thinking clearly as in the midst of battle due to their innate abilities that force them to start rampaging, and finally they possess weak regenerative capabilities. In other they can’t heal, and their wounds won’t close as easily. But we Vampires possess great vitality, extreme regenerative capabilities, and relatively large mana pools. By constantly absorbing blood of our victims we could almost sustain ourselves in the battlefield indefinitely.”

Basically Berserkers were built like tanks, extraordinarily powerful and fast tanks. They could take a lot of damage and deal just as much damage while traversing a large amount of distance. But with the lack of mana and any form of regeneration they can only go on for so long.

While Vampires were more balanced knights who could deal a moderate amount of damage, and had a moderate amount of health. They could use their magic as the situation progressed or use it to heal themselves. And as the battle rages on they could constantly use the blood of their victims to heal themselves. In other words Vampire’s immense vitality comes from their ability to use lifesteal.

“Rosalie what about the others? What can they use?”

Rosalie replied, “Sir Nevil is capable of using a large number of elements at the Elementary Level and a few at the Intermediate Level, but his focus is on the subcategory of Darkness, Death Magic, and Arcane Magic. Necromancy is actually a mix of both Death Magic and Summoning Magic a part of Arcane Magic subcategory Spatial Magic. As for Sir Tristan, he specializes almost purely on Arcane Magic, specifically Spatial and Barrier Magic. And Sir Garius utilizes Fire Magic, Blood Magic, Arcane Magic, and Destruction Magic.”

The Real Authors Notes

Hey guys sorry for that whole not uploading a chapter thing. Anyway the results of the poll are 1st Person > 3rd Person but I'm a test out 3rd Person first. I originally wanted to write the story in 1st person but it was getting difficult so I changed it to 3rd person. At some point I felt it was a good time to switch back so I changed it, but now I changed it back. Let's see what happens.

I don't know if I'll follow that poll's results, and if you guys prefer the previous version of this chapter I'll work on it and see if I can make it better. As for why this took so long to come out, well I didn't exactly edit it I more or less rewrote the entire chapter. It actually took a while, and there were a few things that were a bit iffy. Anyway tell me what you think, my PR went AWOL and so tell me if there are any mistakes. I went over it twice and I think I found most of them.

Suggestions are also welcome, and if not a suggestion your opinion on this would be nice too.