Stealth Mission I — Ambrosya

"Urgh," A groan escaped my lips as I looked at the contents of the Demonic Tome.

I borrowed this book on my way to class just yesterday, and a preliminary scan was already enough to give me a headache. It was too much for a supplementary piece of material.

The Demonic Tome tackled topics related to the concept of demons. Now, these were not the usual generic red-skinned, horned, and evil demons, no.

In the world I created, I gave them a twist.

A [ Demon ] was simply the name given to identify the followers of the Demon God, Mielha.

Demons followed the path of absolute separation. With Mielha reigning over negative emotions and all evil, his followers would offer up whatever negative thoughts and emotions they have.

They separate all that is evil from themselves to achieve a blinding purity of the soul.

Then, with this great divide between their impossible purity and innocence, the moment that Mielha returns their evil creates an immense reaction. Like two magnets smashing into each other, a powerful force is released.

This collapse and subsequent recombination of goodness and evil creates entities of mana that manifest any one demon. Usually taking the form of abominations and nightmares, these entities of mana obey only those whose hearts are untainted and pure. If a demon bore even a speck of evil in their hearts, they would be devoured.

—Turned into nourishment for Mielha himself.

This phenomenon and interaction between their god was what made the demons famous in the past. Their strength could rise to that of an A rank at times, shocking the world with every move they made.

Now, however, they were much more discreet about their presence.

Anyways,

I wanted to mimic this violent collapse and recombination of concepts. It was going to be a very important trump card of the item I was going to create.

Without this violent collapse, the item would lack the oomph I wanted it to have for the sake of future events.

Unfortunately for me, although I have the theory in my head, actually using the concepts behind the separation and recombination of positive and negative energy was proving to be an immense headache.

There was a lot of programming and mathematics required. I also needed to create spells that had yet to be invented and spells that were completely foreign to Emerallia.

There was so much I had to do to accommodate the main characteristic of the demons.

"...Perhaps Eve's Molecular Mana Arts could help me," I muttered.

Like this, I spent my hours studying.

...

Those hours turned into two days in the blink of an eye.

I finished my Thursday and Friday classes in a daze. Since the classes were actual classes now, I had to pay attention to things.

For reference, my schedule was as follows,

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Monday and Thursdays: Specialisations, Spellcrafting Theory, Martial Theories, Beasts of the World, Monsters and their Threats

Tuesdays and Fridays: Mana Programming, Individual Duels, Continental Mysteries, Mana as an Everyday Art

Wednesdays: Applied Mana Manipulation, Strategies and Tactics, Group Duels

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It was jam-packed like sardines. This was why I actually had no time to sleep at all. Replacing sleep with meditation was the only way for me to continue to grow with all the schoolwork I had.

Studies aside, every night I would go out to murder— Er, to feed Aventine.

I was able to let Aventine dine on eight more humans, bumping up his count to thirteen. His venom had gotten slightly stronger because of his meals, which was a pleasant revelation.

"Huaaaam~" I yawned as yellow sunlight poured into my room. It was a beautiful Saturday morning. No classes, no assignments because I had finished them all, and no one to bother me.

I had gotten into at least one fight every day because a bunch of idiots were challenging me with official duels. I couldn't really say no. Since the duels were official, I gained points for every victory.

These probing attempts were annoying, but at least they had something positive about them.

"What a week," I muttered.

I looked out my window and spotted a few students relaxing on the benches in the distance. They were in more casual clothes, ranging from robes to simple shirts and trousers. Some wore dresses, while others wore flowing cloaks as I did.

Wizards carrying books could be seen roaming around every now and then, and the rare martial artist could be seen jogging through the campus.

I held my hand out and waved it about. I watched as it turned blurry with my movements. Blur was working as usual.

But then I froze. I controlled my entire body to stop moving.

I held my breath, kept my gaze steady, and did everything in my power to be as motionless as possible.

Eventually, I began adopting the colours of my bed sheets. I began blending into my surroundings.

This was the result of engraving the spell, [ Camouflage ] to cover my entire body.

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Spell: Camouflage

Mana Consumption: Moderate

Number of Mana Programs: 5

Description: When completely motionless, slowly become one with nature. The colours of the target's surroundings would seep into them to allow them to achieve an indistinct presence.

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It was a nifty spell despite the difficulty that came with being completely motionless. It would be useful in an unexpected pinch. Moreover, not having to cast the spell before going into camouflage was a plus.

Any nearby Spiritual Mana Users with Spell Detection active would be unable to sense me.

I also upgraded Silent Being to its E rank version, allowing me to have a small aura of noise-cancellation that I could control.

On top of these two spells, I had [ Decrease Presence ] engraved on me as well. I thought about the time with Yannia and concluded that she had most likely sensed me through her sharp instincts. Decrease Presence would solve that problem.

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Spell: Decrease Presence

Mana Consumption: Heavy

Number of Mana Programs: 6-8

Description: Decreases the presence of the designated target by a flat amount. At low proficiency, only allows one to be vaguely recognisable. At higher proficiencies, one can be outright ignored.

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With these spells, I was ready for a weekend adventure.