Story 1: Chapter 2: Learning Magic (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 2: Learning Magic.

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- Elias Rimmon -

Three months in, I have completed my primary education and have joined a preparatory course for the Mid Class Devil promotion.

Berta had looked at me with an odd expression when I told her that I wanted to get admitted in one, but that was much better than when I had asked her to give me permission to sit for the examination for the Primary Examination Certificate. She hasn't said a word to me but had taken me to my room and prepared a few sets of questions for me.

I noticed that the level of the questions were far above what may have appeared for the examination but didn't complain. Putting almost all my stats to Mind Stat was already cheating enough. I didn't want to be a little bitch about something she was doing for my own good even if she was not required to do so. I had aced the examination in a quarter of the time. For the next paper, Berta sat in front of me and stared at me like a bird of prey while I wrote the answers. It was a bit distracting so I took longer to write this one… A full three minutes longer. 

She had checked the paper, twice, and then merely sat there without saying anything. 

This time however she didn't say a word and got me admitted to the examination the very next day. No questions asked. 

That very night, Dr. Aaron came over with a cake for me. It was both to celebrate my completing the Primary Studies and… My birthday. 

I was officially 9 years old. 

This was also the day I found just where I was in the timeline in this world, for today was also the first birthday of the Heiress of the Gremory, the one year old, Rias Gremory. 

Now one may wonder how I found out about it, when that house's name was a minor taboo of sorts in the mansion. Well TV is a wonderful invention. 

In seventeen years give or take a few months was when shit hits the fan… . or doesn't in this world, I would rather err on the side of caution. 

Aaron was very happy with my progress in his Magic Lessons and gave me a certain something I wasn't even expecting. 

It was a book on Magic, or to be more precise, a book on Human Magic.

He said that he knew some people in Mephisto Pheles' Magician Organization and it was easy to have a copy made for me.

Devils were disdainful of the Human Magic System because one needed to work for this. I mean why would anyone do complex maths and calculations to do something that you can just imagine and use some Demonic Power to achieve. 

This is why even if there were restrictions for Devil Magic and Magic Circles, there was no such thing for Human Magic. 

It was actually one of the best although nigh impossible things I could get for myself. 

I hugged the man for a full minute.

He explained the origin of the system of magic that the book he gave me belonged to. There were many systems of magic in this world. The spiritual magic of the Shinto priests - Onmyojutsu, the chant and ritual based magic from India that heavily relied on the faith system, the Buddhist spells used in both Japan and China, the rune based magic of The Norse, etc. The Western Magic that the magicians of Europe mainly used was based on the Devil's Magic System itself. It was actually developed by Merlin Ambrosius or rather Merlin Asmodeus, a bastard of the original Asmodeus. He was shunned and other crap that's basically forbidden from being mentioned because it was another one of the fuckups by the devils. 

This was one of the reasons why so many Human magicians made contracts with devils for knowledge of their magic.

What they do is simply imitate and improve the magic spells that devils imagine and make it suitable for Human use. The stronger the devil, the stronger the spells that they can power and the better the deal for the Human magicians.

On the other hand, it was why this magic system was not used in or by the church. 

This actually makes Human Magic very suitable for Devils although next to none learn it.

The book itself seemed handwritten, and had over twelve hundred pages. 

Yes, a fucking twelve hundred pages. This was apparently the basics of the Magic System, a starter book for Human magicians. 

It was still much better than the imagination power that I was doing all this time. So fucking wasteful.

I explained my decision of further studies to Aaron and he was all for it. He also gave me a lot of advice as he basically told me to expect failure the first time.

Apparently the two thousand seats per decade was also heavily rigged. The higher up devils use it to promote their own servants. The ones who get real promotions are two hundred at best.

Two hundred in among two million devils who take part in the exams every decade. 

I felt extremely frustrated but that was apparently not the end of it all.

The ones who score very well are often recruited by Pillar Houses. There are a minority who reject, they more often than not don't pass or disappear before the results make it to the general public. It depends on the generosity of the one who made the offer. 

I was however told by him that not all pillar houses are bad and some actually treat their members well but I was not interested in that bullshit. 

I know that I can become stronger if I am given time. I would take my time. 

Getting a patron was left on the side for now. 

I poured all my frustrations into studying and training the hardest I could. 

I put most of my stats into mind and started to work on the Magic Book. 

Host: Elias Rimmon

Body: 20

Mind: 1,681

Spirit: 50

Magic: 40

I had grown a lot when my body got used to the training I was putting it through. The food had healed my lack of nutrition and was now providing me a suitable sustenance to train. 

The stats were piling up faster. I had asked Dr. Aaron for some books about Devil Physiology and stuff to find a way to correctly train my body and he did lend me some of them quite easily. 

There were many things different in a Devil's Physique which explained how it was different from a human's from my limited knowledge of human physiology. 

The core reason for all of this was - Demonic Power.

Yes. Demonic Power was the cheat code of the Devil Race.

I had been training for so long while dumping my stats in Spirit and Mind but it turns out that demonic power helps to heal our body passively as well as increases the strengthening rate of the body. I had almost developed a habit of always keeping my stats in Spirit and away from Magic to facilitate its growth as well as to hide my progress but it had not been entirely correct. I changed it to Spirit and Magic when I trained my Body and experienced an enhanced growth in the Body Stat. I calculated and the increase was almost twice during the last two weeks. 

I still have no idea about the exact powers of this system. 

Apparently a devil child develops faster during the ages of eight to twenty two in general. Even without training their power, generally only demonic power increases to a certain level. Like for the Pillar Devils, they become anywhere between a Low High Class to a Top High Class level by their twenties. This is even more in case of the Satan Clans. I for one am lost because I have no idea how strong I am compared to others. These numbers are just a personal measure for me and I have no way to compare it to others. 

I haven't fought anyone and hadn't dared to ask anyone about how strong I was lest they find out about my unusual powers.

The Human Magic System was more or less like a programming language. The basics was the introduction and rules of the Programming Language. I could see why people would be so frustrated when using this to do something when they could just imagine the same and get it done far easier. That said, the degree of efficiency and control was much better in this system. The time on the other hand, yeah, not so much. Hardly anyone would be able to program a complicated magic on the go after all. It is not as flexible as Devil Imagination Magic.

Oh, on that thought. Devils were not the only ones with Imagination Magic. Angels and Fallen Angels had similar types of magic too. I don’t know much about them though.

This book entails a lot about how to separate different forces of nature and energy types into different magical commands and use them to weave a spell to get the desired results.

I got up from my study table and let out a heavy breath. Remembering all the basics of the Human Magic System is difficult. Thankfully after two weeks of intense studying, pulling all nighters, which let me tell you, are far easier as a devil, I can now do basic spells.

Yes, I can use a basic Fireball spell with almost fifty times less energy now.

Baby steps.

Apparently there are ways to store Human Magic too. In Magic Circles or Grimoires. The first one is harder to get and expensive but the Grimoires can be made pretty easily. Although the Grimoires have many disadvantages that the Magic Circles don’t, like the spells from the Grimoires can be read by others, they can be stolen, they have limited number of pages, they are hard to carry to everywhere and get in the way during a battle, it still doesn’t change the fact that these things are quite easy to make. In fact the method to make one was written at the end of the book.

There is something else that I learned from this book, well it was a self-discovery of sorts - Human Magicians are dicks.

There was a line at the end of the book.

Please do not try the spells without supervision of a trained personnel.

P.S - Well, since you are here and safe, you should be fine either way.

I had the urge to clober the writer of the book when I read that. It was partly because it was dangerous and partly because I couldn’t tell if he was making a joke or not.

This studying was taking a toll on my daily grind but I couldn’t stop it either. I was planning to study this till I figure out a way to learn Gravity Spells. That will boost my training speed by a lot. Compared to that, a little delay was nothing.

I got to the ground and started the pushups for the day. Grinding was my way to win in this world.

- Scene Change -

I walked through the markets of the city.

It has been a month since I took to learning Magic and while I do not like how my Stat growth slowed down. I had almost gotten to ten stats per day and that has again dropped to five to eight per day which I am starting to feel a bit iffy about. That’s why today I am out to find a solution to this problem and get something to increase my training speed.

The classes were just over and I was barely learning anything in the mathematics and language classes. The Social Sciences and Geography of the Underworld interested me much more than that.

I mean knowing the laws of the land is the basics of how to not fuck up. The culture was basically new to me.

On the other hand Geography had changed whatever I knew about this world on it’s head and then kicked it some more to show my foreknowledge its place.

The Underworld is huge. It is like earth in terms of area but with no major water bodies. The total water surface of the Underworld was less than 5%.

The Devils controlled an area of 11.2% of the entire Underworld, 10% went to the Fallen Angels, 14% went to Hades who managed the dead souls of many factions, around 18% was distributed among the Gods of Deaths of many other factions. That said, some factions had their own dimensions for their dead souls like Narka for the Hindu Pantheon and Yomi for the Shinto but many small Pantheons didn’t have that privilege. They all shared the Underworld more or less. That said they didn’t have entire factions to themselves and thus didn’t need much space. To be honest, if they had enough souls to need more area than they had, they could have been strong enough to get it too. The reason why they weren’t was because their Pantheons weren’t that popular and didn’t have that many followers.

The rest over forty percent of the area are called the Pits, for lack of a better term.

They were areas of extremely dense Demonic Energies which were basically the breeding grounds for Demonic Beasts in the Underworld.

These places have existed even before the Devil Race was supposedly created and was completely uninhabitable. The area housed some of the strongest Demonic Beasts in existence and they got stronger as the closer you got to the center.

There were fourteen known Pits in the Underworld of which five fell in and around the Devil’s territory. Apparently the original Satans wanted to use the Demonic Power for themselves and tame the Demonic Beasts but that clearly didn’t work.

While most of these Demonic Beasts were mindless creatures, some did gain Humanoid forms and were called Demons.

The Satans other than Lucifer were all Demons.

The Leviathan territory is near a water covered Pit. That’s where the title of the Original Leviathan came from… The Sea Serpent of the End, The Sea Serpent born in the End. The End here referred to the pits where all is said to end.

In fact even one of the current Satans had a Demon in their peerage. Serafall Leviathan’s Queen, Behemoth, the King of the Magical Beasts, or rather Demonic Beasts.

That said, most of the Demonic beasts were mindless animals. The Demons were quite similar but most of them preferred to live inside the pits and only the relatively weaker ones roamed around.

The pits were dangerous because the Demonic energy there weighed on everyone and it took a great amount of strength to even go deeper in the zones.

Apparently these pits are the places where the negative energies of the sinners collect. Zones full of eons of negativity before the souls regain their purity to enter the cycle of reincarnation. No wonder these places were so dangerous and… feared.

The Underworld is after all a place where sinners of many Pantheons are sent. While not literally Hell, it is connected to several Hells.

While wondering about the Geography of the Underworld, I reached my first destination. The Blacksmith’s shop.

The Blacksmith’s shop was simple and so was the man inside. A gruff man who was hammering on a sword at the corner of the smithy. There was another person on the counter, a woman with a professional smile on her face. This area is near the Fallen Angel borders so the demand for weapons was never low. This and the fact that people hunted Demonic Beasts to sell their flesh.

“What do you need, laddie? Here to buy a toy sword or something?” the woman smiled at me.

“I need weights, rectangular blocks of metals, the heavier the better. Please make them two fingers width and a third of a foot long. I need enough to make eighty kilograms of them.”

She for her professionalism noted everything properly and even asked questions where needed.

“Okay, that’s good. I have a general idea about the shape and size of the things you need. Now I just need to know what kind of material and build you want. We have materials that can conduct Demonic Power but those are a bit pricey.”

“I need simple metals. As long as they don’t rust, don’t corrode and are non poisonous. Although heavier metals will be preferred I would like the price to be of main concern.”

“Hmm, may I suggest something?” she said after thinking for a few moments.

I nodded.

“You said you need weights. I have metals for this. Normal metals from the human world can do your work but what do you need these weights for? I think I might have an idea but will still be sure if you tell me.”

“For training.” I answered. It’s not like she would assume that they are for me by default.

“Ah. Training the body. The devils nowadays don’t even understand the meaning of training their bodies. Magic for every Satan damned thing. I married my husband, Lythor, partly because of that muscular body.” The man in question almost missed a hammer strike after hearing that. “Listen here my adorable hellspawn, ladies always like a fit guy. You gotta train your body perfectly. Anyways, one hundred kilograms wouldn’t be for you but you should also pay attention to it. Now, coming back to the topic. If you want body weights as I feel you do, you would be better off with the Sharp-horned Rhinoceros' bone used instead. These bones have the property to increase in weight as long as Demonic Power is poured into them and stay heavy for an hour long afterwards. You can adjust the weight as much as you want up to four tonnes. Although the price will be a bit more than normal. These bones are used as the core of Sledgehammers for Demonic Beast Hunters and tools for the miners.”

“Can a Middle Class Devil charge it enough?” I asked. I am pretty sure my Magic is around 20 right now and is nowhere near the level of a Mid Class Devil that said, being able to sense Demonic Power is also a difficult thing and not many can do it.

“Even a Low Class Devil can make the weights go up to 150 kilograms, a Mid Class could make it over a ton easily. The Sharp Horned Rhinoceros is stronger than most Middle Class Devils but weaker than any High Class ones so the bones might not be able to bear the magic of a High Class Devil and might break. We don’t guarantee any take backs for such a case.” she replied sharply.

“Can you tell me the price for five such pieces? One each for the limbs and waist. It would be helpful if the size can be adjusted for future use by other people.”

“Hmm, that will be Ⱡ25,000 each for the bracelets and Ⱡ35,000 for the waist bands, a total of one hundred and thirty five thousand Liliums.”

One hundred and thirty five… fucking hell.

I got a pocket change of twenty thousand Liliums per month. It has been almost six months and I have one hundred and ten thousand Liliums lift since all I needed was to buy clothes and some normal things for myself. Most of the stuff was provided by Berta for me, especially the most expensive one of all - food.

I was getting a very generous spending allowance every month according to what I know.

“Don’t look so surprised, Laddie. The Demonic Beast that we get this from is a borderline High Class. It takes over two dozen Mid Class Hunters to get it so it is obvious that these things cost a pretty Lilium.”

“A few dozen? Are High Class beings really that strong?” I asked completely innocently this time. I really had no idea about it. To be honest my knowledge about the anime was a waste from what I have seen so far. The world is quite different and I have no idea what is what anymore.

“Well obviously. A dozen Low Class Devils couldn’t fight a Mid Class Devil and over twice the number of Mid Class Devils wouldn’t stand a chance against a High Class one, especially those from the Clans. Although Demonic beasts are mindless, they still have stronger bodies and are resistant to magic which makes it hard to hunt them. However their meat and bones are high in demand. They naturally conduct Demonic Power and some even give the weapons made from them certain special properties. A single Sharp-Horned Rhinoceros can cost anything between 4 million Liliums to a whooping 14 million Liliums.” She was very enthusiastic when explaining about all these and I could tell that she actually liked talking. I for one was getting free information from her so it didn’t harm me either.

 “I… I would like to think about it a bit. Can I come again tomorrow?” I asked.

“Sure Laddie, take your time. Tell your elders about the price. I understand that you might be a bit intimidated by that. A Low Class devil would earn it in six months. One cannot just spend such money willy nilly without a thought, well… not people like us at least.”

I nodded and walked out of the shop but not before checking out the products first. It was time to do some through research.

Over the next two days I wandered around the entire city. Traveling is easy when you have wings. I visited almost all the Blacksmith Shops in the entire city that I could find out about. The price of such equipment was around the same range. Some were made up of different Demonic Beast parts but the overall price was quite similar. The first set of equipment was the most comfortable and well made one.

In the end, I bought only four weights, one for my arms and legs each. The waist belt had to wait a few more months. Thankfully the woman gave me a slight discount after a bit of haggling… or rather how dumb haggling with a nine year old might have looked like. She was busy giggling half the time and I was cursing my childish body.

The purchases however were the best investment I had made since coming to this world.

That day itself, my body's Stat growth increased by four times… I got an increase of twenty in my stats that day. Although the next day my body refused to move and I felt pain all over, it was proof that the training was working. I had trained my body for five hours that day and my growth was beyond anything I had seen so far.

This only steeled my decision to buy that waist belt when I acquired enough money. Right now, having only twenty thousand Liliums with me was a bit of a problem.

It also ensured that my progress is not slowed while I learn Magic.

- ??? Pov  -

She walked to the castle of her King. The servants cleared the way. This last task of her King was interesting after all….oh so much more interesting than she had thought was possible.

She entered her King’s office after a knock to see her sitting behind the desk, working on her daily chores. She looked up at her arrival and looked at the servant who was standing beside her. “Leave us alone.”

The door closed behind the servant and she threw some privacy spells just to be secure while her King merely raised an eyebrow at her actions.

“So I assume that there were complications? Since what needed to be just a few days of work took you five months.”

She walked around the desk and sat on the armrest of her King’s chair. For normal people, such actions would have been unthinkable but she had been with her King for the longest and was closer to her than anyone else, their pasts connecting them both. “Oh, the work was done in a few days alright. The boy was safe. He wasn’t sent by anyone. He indeed had locked away his memories due to trauma. There were no traces of foreign magic. I checked his body thoroughly for any drug use to put him into temporary amnesia and there was none. I checked it myself after putting him to sleep and then hypnotizing him to know about his intentions. He was really grateful to Ingvild and wanted to repay her favours someday. He held no grudge against any of us and was actually quite grateful to us. I had to skip anything that would stir his memories and cause his magic to act out so it was a bit hard questioning him. Apart from that I dug out each and every bit of information I could on him, matched his DNA with the deceased too and verified that he was not a plant by any faction, which was already unlikely if I may add. There was no way anyone could have anticipated that Ingvild would pick the boy up. In fact the people made his connection to her in some way, what with their similar hair colour and all. It was hilarious to see people making assumptions.” She giggled at the memories of the rumours around the entire city when they found out about the boy.

Her King put down her pen and slumped back into her chair and she took the opportunity to comb her hair with her fingers, slightly caressing her cheeks. “You are very tired. Did you push yourself again?”

Her answer was her King’s silent stare towards the wall.

She knew this even when she asked the question. After all, she had been through this too. To change the mood in the room she decided to get back to their previous topic.

“So… not going to ask me why I took five months for something that would only have taken a few days?”

“Knowing you, you would speak about the topic when you wanted. My questions wouldn’t have mattered when you are in this mood.” Her king rolled her eyes earning a giggle from her.

“And you would be right about that. I am happy, Grayfia. I haven’t felt this sort of excitement in a while.”

“Oh. And what would make you that excited? The boy?”

“Yes yes, my darling Grayfia. The boy. He is… an utter madman. An absolute maniac the likes of which are rarely seen and I was fascinated by him and everything he did.” she giggled remembering some of the boy’s antics, the more unique ones.

Grayfia raised an eyebrow.

“Well let me explain. Have you ever heard a young Low Class Devil, using the name of the Father of Angels to… train?”

Grayfia’s mouth opened slightly as her eyes widened in disbelief. “That would be… was it an injury to the brain, or maybe if you hadn’t confirmed it already, an implant of the Heaven faction?”

“Not really. The colourful language he used and swearing to surpass him after recovering every time was a pretty big giveaway. He was trying to… build up his resistance to it. His daily routine was studying and learning everything he could. From normal alphabets to history, political situations between different factions, the geography, common sense to anything and everything he could find. The amnesia might have awakened a thirst of knowledge in him. The other prominent thing that defines him is… training. The near-death experience might have left a mental trauma on the child but he is certainly benefiting from it so I didn’t interfere. He trains just like you do, putting in everything to become stronger. That was the first thing that attracted me to him… the second was his mysterious power.” She paused. “The boy has awakened a new bloodline trait, Grayfia. A very powerful one if my guesses about it are correct. This child… he can surpass every other devil if his power is what I think it is and if he could pass it on to his children, we are looking at a clan of supposedly Satan Class Devils at the very least… maybe even more.”

Grayfia stiffened. The topic was as such that it required such a reaction from even her.

Newly Awakened devils were not unheard of but were extremely rare.

When Lilith and Lucifer created the devil race, a few of them were born with power beyond their peers and special powers to go along with it, the Clan Traits. A total of seventy two special devils were born among the millions created and they were given the ranks of nobility by Lucifer and the other Satans and became the seventy two ‘Pillars’ that supported the devil race.

But that was not the end of it all. Later on, among the second generation of Devils, a few more awakened special abilities. These were however not given nobilities because ranks had already been established and being unsure of how much the awakening rate would be, they couldn’t hand over nobility to everyone. Thus they were given land and taken under the service of the Satans, becoming the Extra Demons. The first one among these were… the Lucifuges.

The latter generations however had one awakened and the ones after that rarely had any. In the period of over ten thousand years, only nineteen known awakeners were found and were made the Extra Demon houses. This was also something that had caused the Pillar Houses to look down on them and claim them to be second rate.

It was only their positions as the direct servants of the Satans that kept anyone from directly saying anything. The attitudes of the two sides caused some friction to develop between them.

The Great War saw to the end of the Satans and the Extra Demons mostly stuck to the old Satan descendants because their positions were bound to them. If the original Satan Houses fell, so would the positions of the Extra Demons which was exactly what happened. Some houses did remain neutral but only about half a dozen of the remaining eighteen houses survived (One had already been extinguished during the Great War) and none of them except the Lucifuge which was down to her King held any power. They had all been pushed to the borders of the Underworld with rarely any connection to the rest of the Underworld. 

In the last five hundred years or so, there had been no reports of even a single awakener.

There were rumours of some but they were ruthlessly suppressed and from what they could gather, such people were never found, completely erased.

The remaining Pillars didn’t want any new ‘low class upstart’ to share their powers and privileges and thus were ruthless.

This was why this topic was so sensitive.

“Tell me everything you know about this.” Grayfia got serious after realising the stakes.

"The boy seemed to have realised his Trait's abilities and drowned himself in training. He was still experimenting with the powers of his trait and doesn't seem to know everything about it. "

"What is this Trait? What powers does it have? "

"Umm from what I could guess, it seemed to be an Auxiliary type of Clan Trait. I believe it lets him shift his attributes among each other?"

"Shift Attributes?"

"See it this way. He trains his body and then shifts his increase in strength to magic, bringing his body's power back to its previous level. He could drastically increase his power by shifting all his attributes into one."

She could see the gears in her king's head turning. "So if he redistributes his attributes, he can maintain his body at a stage where the growth is at the fastest or do the same for his magic, thus always maintaining the fastest growth. Which aspects of himself can he manipulate? Only the body and magic?"

"That's what took me five months to find out, without violating his mind. I believed little Ingvild wouldn't appreciate that and neither would the boy. I have reasons to believe that he can even alter the strength of his mind and soul at will."

This time the reaction was exactly as she had expected.

"That's impossible. Increasing those two things is near impossible or I would…"

"I didn't believe it at first myself. It was just that ridiculous. But I observed that his gains were disappearing and yet he seemed happy. Then on further inspection I found out about his growth of demonic power. I used several spells and found out that he could indeed manipulate the strength of his soul. From the time I started observing him till the time I left, his soul's strength increased from a low Mid Class to a strong High Class Devil."

"The increased strength of his soul will increase his growth of demonic power which can be shifted to his soul further increasing his demonic power's growth in an ever increasing cycle." Grayfia whispered, finally understanding the immensity of the power and the sheer potential the boy represented. "If he doesn't have a limit…"

"Exactly. But you forgot the last part. He can increase his mind's strength too." She saw that she had successfully gained the attention of her King and continued, "it took him three and a half months to complete all his primary education after which I had Berta test him personally. The boy scored perfectly in a test far above his standard as long as it was something he was taught. He didn't have any extra knowledge but derivable things were still done to the best. I further tested him by having a personally written book on the Human System passed on to him both as compensation for participating in my experiment and the experiment itself. How much time do you think it took him to figure it out by himself?"

"The Human Magic system is quite complicated and a normal magician of his age with proper help would take a year to figure out how to cast spells. A month probably?"

"A week. It took him just a simple week to completely understand the basics and even do a simple spell… without any sort of assistance. Although his mind was not at the same level during some other veiled tests I put him through. This leads me to believe that he can shift his mental attributes too."

A devil who can completely manipulate its entire being, completely change its fighting style, hide its power from others and drastically increase its powers at a moment's notice. That was indeed worth investing in. Now only if her King can get beyond her distrust of men.

A few minutes went by as Grayfia thought in silence before opening her mouth. "Observe him. It will attract too much attention if we take someone in. I don't believe that there aren't spies in the city from other devil houses. Ingvild taking the boy alone wouldn't attract attention if he is left alone but if he, a low class devil starts to be groomed by us personally, people will question, especially after the rumours of them being related surface. From what you have reported, he is preparing for the Mid Class Devil tests. Just make it so that he is fairly graded and kept away from other influences and hide his powers from others. A few years will calm this matter down. I will offer him a chance to decide if he wants to enter our services,  maybe in Ingvild's peerage. She still hasn't started collecting members yet. Till then ask Berta to keep him… humble."

"I want to take him in. It would be wasting his best growth period if we let him waste these four and a half years. If I put him through a proper training program, he can become a solid Ultimate Class or even touch the cusps of the Satan Class." She argued. 

"I understand that but too much power in a short amount of time would go to his head and talent doesn't matter if it can't be transformed into strength. Let him learn the meaning of hard work. If you want, give him an idea to hire a teacher for magic through Berta and teach him under disguise but do not reveal yourself. These few years can be used to test his character."

"Why test, Grayfia? This is a nine year old gem whose brightness grows more with each passing day. We have faced betrayals from men in the past. Why not raise a man perfect for ourselves. I know you don't want to let the Lucifuge line die with you. This boy can surpass Ajuka or even him."

"ENOUGH… We are not talking about this anymore." Grayfia snapped hard. 

She took a deep breath. Maybe she should have approached the subject slower. 

Silence prevailed for a while between them for a while and no one spoke any words. 

"I am not ready for such a thing. I don't know if I will ever be. Not until I am strong enough to protect my children from others. I don't think I can bear seeing another one of my family members die in front of me. Euclid's… dying face still haunts my memories and I see my hands covered in his blood. I can't do this. I can't, Medea."

She embraced her King and brought her to her bosom, simply caressing her hair.

She might not be strong enough to protect her future child… but… A child has two parents. That boy had shown her something that has the potential to surpass both Sirzechs and Ajuka in their own fields… At the same time. She would never let such a chance go by. She will make him a man that would make the whole world tremble just by his presence… and she will stand beside him, looking down on all who had scorned her. But… For now, she had a King to relieve and soothe. 

She lifted her face to hers and looked into her eyes and… their lips met. A snap of her fingers made their clothes slide off their bodies and whispers and moans filled the room.

-  Elias Rimmon -

An arrow of water shot forward, shattering the earth target twenty metres in front of me. Four months in and my magic has progressed at a reasonable rate. I haven’t been able to figure out Gravity Magic yet but when I asked Aaron about it, he had laughed it off. According to him, Gravity is a higher level Magic and would need a High Class Magician to even try something like Gravity Magic.

The stages of the Human Magic system is similar to that of the devil ranking system. Low, Middle, High, Ultimate Class. Except the likes of Merlin who was rumoured to have strength rivalling that of a Satan, no other normal Human Magic System user has reached that level. It was also a reason why Magicians like Samuel Liddel Mcgregor Mathews, the founder of Golden Dawn and Rudiger Rosenkreutz became reincarnated Devils, to pursue higher levels of Magic.

They still haven’t reached the fabled Satan Class yet.

Currently there are less than a dozen Satan Class Devils in the entire underworld including the two who are termed as Super Devils who far surpass the level of a Satan Class and thus people only use rankings upto the Ultimate Class when referring to power levels.

The Satan Class means rivalling the power of the Original Satans and currently even among the Top Ten Rating Games players, only Diehauser Belial was classed as a Satan Class devil and that too… barely.

These past few months have been very different for me.

It all started when I accidentally broke my bed after I had forgotten to adjust the training weights. This obviously had attracted the attention of Berta. I had to explain to her about the weights because hiding anything was not going to cut it there. I was not under the disillusion that they didn’t know about my workouts all day. That would be stupid to even assume in a place which was supposedly a house for nobility. The staff would be very well trained to pick out such discrepancies

Her reaction was what had surprised me the most. She had just rolled her eyes.

She had then gone off and explained how training with weights without proper supervision could be dangerous and then called Aaron and had him explain to me the proper ways of using the weights.

She might have reasoned that she was doing so only because she didn’t want to answer Miss Ingvild if something happened to me under her care but I could see that she actually cared. It was hard not to develop some sort of bond between people when you see mostly each other for eleven months now and we were starting to warm up to each other.

I still hid my stats though and my power but now I needed to reveal more to show that my training was actually working, the reason being Aaron regularly checking me for any health problems.

And let me tell you guys… my training speed soared with just a bit of proper guidance. It was the difference between someone who ran by themselves and a professional athlete who was being trained for the Olympics. The difference would be massive.

The second part was, the Magic.

I very well couldn’t practice Magic inside my room or the house.

I needed to try out the spells outside. I had considered trying it when outside the house but gave up on that idea remembering the place we were in.

I had to practice Magic outside in the garden near my room and that was easily visible to others. The maids of the house often took a look at my practice, especially Berta. I did get introduced to a few of them and they were all Mid Class or above, trained professionals.

While I did gain some favours due to my now adorable looks, it was all normal things like candies and snacks.

My practice in Magic however was noticed by Aaron who offered me a chance to get admitted to Gauzaberer Magicians Organisation if I wanted to.

I was ecstatic at the news. There was a catch like everything else. I was a Low Class Devil and the Gauzaberer Magician Organisation was in the human world which meant I couldn’t go there till I was a Mid Class Devil. Although there was a side route. If I impressed Mephisto Pheles, I could probably gain a favour from him and be sponsored to attend.

Mephisto Pheles was an Ultimate Class Devil and taking me to the Human World to be a part of the organisation wouldn’t be much of a problem for him.

This however required me to do extremely well in my Magical Studies and become a Mid Class Magician by the age of twelve because that seemed to have been the record.

If that was the case, someone could take me in as an apprentice.

As such I could prepare. He had offered to call his friend for a favour if I showed promise in Magic to arrange for more books for me. I agreed and even paid for the price for the extra books despite Aaron’s reluctance. I already owed the man a lot. Taking even more seemed unfair and thus my insistence to pay the cost myself.

I got a couple of books on magic the next day itself and this time they were paid for by me.

To become a Mid Class Magician, I have to take their examination or be referred to the organisation by a qualified Ultimate Class Magician or four High Class Magicians. They don't usually go easy in these tests because the referrals count as their contribution to the organisation allowing them to earn points for themselves.

As for the Ultimate Class Magicians, no one would care if they got a simple Mid Class Magician in.

According to him, when I pass the Low Class Magician examination, I will have to hire a tutor for myself.

My Stats have grown smoothly since I got the training weights. My natural growth of Magic Stat had also increased and further enhanced due to the daily training in Magic. I had substituted my extra Meditation time to Magic Training as the gain speed was much faster. My stats grew to a respectable range now. 

Host: Elias Rimmon

Body: 40

Mind: 2,000

Spirit: 2,250

Magic: 400

The only problem I was encountering was not knowing my exact strength.

The Preparatory Classes didn't teach any magic or fighting skills. So I could hardly see anyone fighting. 

There was also the fact that I knew nothing about fighting. I could just cast spells and I had recently learned how to make Grimoires and use them to spam my spells but I had no knowledge of any martial arts or how magical fights usually happened.

I also had no solid idea what range of stats represented what power levels. 

My only knowledge came from Berta's comments according to whom, 400 was barely a Mid Class Level.

I once had a thought of pushing my magic power to overpower my training weights and measuring if my Stats were upto the level of a High Class Devil but I gave up on that thought because I had grown attached to the weights and… I didn’t know how strong the explosion would be.

Curiosity killed the Cat is a very famous saying after all. Unfortunately satisfaction would not restore my blown up weights, refund my money or hide the fact I managed to somehow gain enough demonic power to blow them up in the first place.

So I had to keep my curiosity in check for now and believe 400 to be the Mid Class Devil’s starting range. According to that, I was slightly a Mid Class Level in all of my stats even if they were distributed equally. Above that is still a mystery.

Today was the day I wanted to attempt my first exam for the Rank of a Low Class Magician.

It consisted of four parts. There were some slight changes in the rules for me because I was a Devil and had an innate advantage in Magic so an extra part was added.

Spell Creation.

I had to show two spells of my own creation. As long as it is a Low Level Spell, I will get a pass.

The tests were, a written test, demonstration of two spells of my own creation, subduing or killing a Low Level Demonic Beast and finally spar with the examiner.

A Low Level Demonic beast was a mindless wild animal with Demonic Power and a normal Low Level Magician is expected to easily subdue or kill such a thing. The spar was for extra credits.

Soon enough I was called by another one of the maids to the examination venue which was the other side of the mansion.

In the venue, I could see Berta and Aaron along with another person. This woman had a cloak with black and gold, completely hiding the upper part of her face. I could only see her lips with a purple lipstick on them.

I guess this is my examiner.

“Elias, come and say hello to your examiner. This is Miss Maya, a High Class Magician from the Gauzaberer Organisation. She will be your examiner for this exam and your mentor if you pass this exam.” Aaron told me.

- Interlude -

- Berta -

Berta watched as the boy sat for the exams.

She had very complex thoughts about the boy from the first day when she was told that someone will be living in the mansion by Lady Ingvild. Berta had avoided all contact with everyone outside the mansion because of her fear of losing them. She knew this much without anyone else pointing it out to her, although she didn’t lack of being pointed out by her stupid brother, Aaron. Thus, this was a shock for her when she was told to temporarily take care of a child, a boy nonetheless.

Aaron had taken a shine to the little boy with amnesia, probably projecting his own child on him. After all they were in a very similar situation, one lost his parents and the other his child, but she had maintained her distance.

She wasn’t mentally as strong as Aaron.

The child however made it hard to hate him or even dislike him no matter how much she wanted to keep away. He had been perfectly obedient, always studying or training while hiding. She scoffed at the attempts of the child.

Each maid of the house was recruited after a very harsh test and were all Mid Class Devils… at the time of their recruitment. They were however put under hard training so that each of them were pushed to a High Class level within five years of recruitment. Any Pillar Devil would have lost their minds at the sheer force present in just one of her mansions. Lady Grayfia wasn’t afraid of anyone rebelling from their side because unlike other Pillar Devils, she never gave anyone a reason to do so, and… she was too strong to worry about mere High Class Devils.

She monitored the child for the signs of anything amiss, lest he be a spy and while she found many inconsistencies from normal children, she could be sure of one thing and that was that the boy was not a spy. This fact was only confirmed when Lady Medea had questioned him under her spells, and verified his identity herself… And that’s where things became strange.

Lady Medea, someone who was known to hate men in general, had taken a shine to the child without even meeting him directly or having a ‘proper’ conversation.

She for her life didn’t understand why that was so at the beginning. Well that was until he was passed the Book on the Human Magic System by Aaron.

She had watched with mouth agape as the boy did something that would take even geniuses a few months with the assistance of a good teacher.

And that was when she started realising different things about the boy.

The training weights that broke the furniture had to be at least several hundred kilograms if they could break the material of the furniture. He was far stronger than she realised.

She had never felt his strength at Mid Class Devil but that…

From then on she started to observe his training more and more and found to her sheer incredulity that the boy was completely out of common sense.

Lady Medea had relayed a direct order to keep the boy humble and thus she had to severely understate his strength to him. It wasn’t hard for her. She was the Head Maid of two hundred High Class Devils. Something like that took strength. Berta herself was an Ultimate Class Devil in terms of strength although she never took her High Class examinations.

This observation however had another effect. She began getting close to the child, unwittingly.

“My Lady, would he really be alright… that’s a Mid Class Demonic Beast. I know he himself is Middle Class, almost at the top of that range in terms of strength but… he has never fought anyone. He just doesn’t have the experience to go with it. The Demonic Beast is also resistant to magic attacks. He might…”

“Oh my, is that worry I see there Berta?” Lady Medea giggled and she stiffened at the realisation. She was however unperturbed, “Don’t worry about it, Berta. The Demonic Beast would probably be the easiest for him if he really wanted it to. Also… he is not a Mid Class Devil level in strength. He is easily a High Class Devil, upper ranges. I told you to not judge the boy by conventional means. Always estimate his strength a level above you can observe, two for caution.”

“A High Class Devil? But that… he’s just nine. Not even the Pillar Devils have that…” Aaron stuttered at the realisation.

“Don’t compare my gem to those entitled little brats. He is destined to surpass them all.”

Aaron went still at the bite in her voice and Berta realised that the things were probably far more complicated than she understood initially.

With several thoughts in mind, she watched Elias take on a test that would have other Mid Class Magicians running for their lives while still thinking of it as a Low Class exam.

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Beta Reader: LuluViBritania(FF.N, SB and QQ)/-LuluViB|99th Britannian Emperor(Discord)

Author’s Note:

So, I decided to write another chapter of this one.

The next one may be different or the same. I am not sure.

I took some liberties to make this a slight AU…. Okay More than a slight AU.

The idea came to me when I actually calculated the area of the Gremorys and compared it to the percentage of area of Earth(Underworld was stated to have the same surface area as Earth) I found it to be 0.00044% of the total Underworld. I used that as a basis to calculate the area for seventy houses, made it four times just in case and it was just around 12%. So what happened to the rest of the area? Thus I tried to introduce this.

It has already been done in another fic I have read. I think it was called ‘Flame Emperor’ on FF.Net. It’s a good fic. Read it. Anyways, I took the idea and changed it for my own use.

As you have probably already realised, this story will have OC and or Expy(characters from other fandoms adapted to fit into the DxD setting, not an actual crossover) characters. We were never shown Grayfia’s peerage or rather she was never said to have one in the first place despite being an Ultimate Class Devil. I took my liberties and till now we know of two pieces. Ingvild Leviathan and Medea, the Witch of Colchis.

Hope you all like this.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.