Demon in the Shadow 3

The Great Jura Forest, by all means, is a large forest under the protection of one of the True Dragons, the Storm Dragon: Veldora, and his subordinates, the Dryads, is located in the middle point of the continent.

Various Monsters reside inside the forest that is splitting the various Western States and the Eastern Empire, as well as the Warrior Nation Dwargon, making trading a far more dangerous task than it should be.

But there is a Kingdom that isn't really famous or known for their trade products. Not only this, but it is even at the western border of the Great Jura Forest; it's name the Kingdom of Raja ruled by a Queen that is said to have a mysterious power.

This beautiful Kingdom is ruled, as mentioned, by a Queen, but of course there are noble families, and one of them a rather quiet one the Valerian Family/Clan that has been in this World for two thousand years. Such a thing isn't that uncommon, but most of those Families don't know exactly what their own history is.

The Valerian Family is different , a Family that had been created by an Otherworldly being, or to say it with normal words just a Human from another world called Earth. The Family has been over all generations interested in books. Some of them were writers others like to read more.

And then the last kind people that actually were able to learn new skills and wisdom out of special so-called Magical Books. Not only that but the Valerian Family has been able to read and speak in Latin and French. Two languages that don't exist in the Cardinal World.

In the Kingdom of Raja they are known as Otherworldly Bookworms and as such were not really popular within the Noble families, or they were rather feared by the others. Valerian Family members only rarely show up on Banquets, most likely only when the Queen demands it.

Because of that certain personality of a Valerian, they have collected knowledge from two thousands years. This could of course not be written in one or two books resulting in a problem of space.

Out of fear that they would need to throw or burn away books, the Valerian's had asked the royalty of the Kingdom of Raja for a place that only they could enter and use as their library to store thousands of books inside.

But there wasn't such a place within the kingdom, of course there were normal libraries like the one on the Valerian territory within the Mansion. So the royalty gave them a high class artifact. Of course it wasn't for free... on this day the Valerian Family would bind themselves to the Raja Kingdom.

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Race » Human

Name » Servius Valerius Valerian

Title » Great Magician

Age » 37

Evolution » Hero

Skills »

Unique Skill : Thinker

The holder of this Unique skill was born with this Skill attached to it's Soul.

↳Sub Skill : [Magic Perception]

↳Sub Skill : [Thought Acceleration] Raises thought-processing speed by a thousand times.

↳Sub Skill : [Analysis and Appraisal] Performs analysis and appraisal on the target.

↳Sub Skill: [Knowledge of All of Creation] Provides full coverage of any unconcealed phenomena. In other words, the user will be able to understand what is happening in a phenomenon just by seeing it. However, the outcome of this ability depends on what the user understands and the information that he/she knows about.

↳Sub Skill: [Revelation of Truth] by combining the abilities of [Analysis and Appraisal] and [All of Creation] to analyze and understand enough hints that've been previously got, the user is able to reveal the mysteries they're facing as if unraveling the strings.

↳Sub Skill: [Compute Prediction] Enables the user to predict what will happen by observing the pattern of energy flow around them.

Unique Skill : Aspectual Master

The holder of this Unique Skill is a Master of Aspectual Magic, he is able to use any Aspectual Magic without any catalyst. Meaning he can use the Magicules around him to bend the Natural Law with his bare hands.

Extra Skill : Chant Annulment

The holder of this Extra Skill has learned to cast Magic without a chant , making the Magic activate automatically.

Intrinsic Skills : Intrinsic Skills from Heros.

Resistances »

Pain Nullification

Status Ailment Resistance

Natural Elements Resistance

Physical Attack Resistance

Spiritual Attack Nullification

Magic »

Aspectual Magic

↳ ~any

Spirit Magic

↳ Spirit Summoning

Physical Magic

↳ Refers to any Magic that has a purely physical output that is not interfered or maintained by magicules and therefore able to bypass any kind of anti-magic defenses. (AN: Prominent examples include Rimuru's Megiddo and Argos.)

Engraving Magic

↳ Magic that allows the user to "enchant" people or objects with spells which allows them to use magic without having related knowledge or skills. It can also be used to design fully autonomous magical devices that are self-sustaining. (AN: like the automatic barrier generator installed along the pathway connecting and the.)

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It has been a year since Servius was announced as the new young head of the Valerian Family. The young and handsome , ginger haired Servius who had already been evolved into a Hero with the Hero Egg was walking towards the library.

"Sir, do you wish for any refreshments during your stay at the library?" His personal maid asked as she opened the door for him.

"No thanks Mary, you may take a break until you need to continue with your daily work," Serius said with a smile that made the maid blush slightly.

"Thank you Sir, I wish you a good stay at the Library." Mary said, bowing shortly and then walking away.

Normally Servius would read a book while drinking one of Mary's self brewed teas but not today. As he wanted to bring back a special book into a room that no one else than the head of the family as well as the main bloodline of the Valerian Family is allowed inside.

Servius walked through the library that is accessible to everyone in the family until he reached a big black door that leads to the centrally located main room. He opened the magically sealed door and entered.

Servius sighed "Haaa... Father has been making a mess here again."

That's right, the centrally located room that should have been nothing different then the normal library outside is actually another dimension created by said artifact that the Royal Family handed out to the Valerian Family.

Servius walked through the stacked books 'Something feels wrong.. the flow of the magicules are slightly different... well guess it's nothing special' Servius thought and walked to one of the book shelves putting back his most favored book. A Book written by his Ancestor that created the Family two thousand years ago.

It's titled as "Fabula de Amore et Fide '' (Tale of Love and Faith) written down in it is the Ancestor's thoughts about Veldanava and Lucia's death and love lives. He wrote about the daily life of a being that could be called God and a Woman from the Human race - his wife Lucia. He wrote about his relationship with Veldanava which was in all means more than something special as not many humans were able to know him personally.

But he also wrote about their death , fighting for their daughter in his weakened human form and Lucia who had been hugging Milim to not let her be hurt in any way. With that, Servius was probably together with Rudra, the only Human being that knows about Veldanava's death and that the humans murdered him without a reason that would allow them to do what they did.

As soon as he stepped back from the bookshelf he heard a voice behind him "That's a really interesting artifact indeed , what a surprise to find something like this here and all these barriers.. I wondered what you guys would hide here but it's only books" The black haired person said as he was looking at the artifact.

"Who are you?" Servius asked, alarmed and tried to analyze the person in front of him which was blocked right away... but one thing he knew he was the reason for the strange magicule flow in here even when he could conceal his aura completely, it is probably from the time he made a way into here.

"Oh me? Don't worry I'm not here to kill you or steal anything. I was simply interested anyway, I heard you humans like to play chess... you wanna play a game together?" the person asked.

'Humans? So he is not a human what then? An evolved Monster that took a human appearance? A Majin or maybe a Spirit? Demon?' Servius was thinking about what to do, 'Why would he come here only to play a game of chess?'

"What exactly do you want?" Servius asked the person. He wasn't exactly a fan of fighting and would do things peacefully if there was a chance to. The fact that he couldn't see anything within the person concerned him there were three possibilities.

The person really has nothing, not even one skill, the person has a skill that blocks his analysis skill, or the person was way stronger then he is.

"Ah you know I am a person that really likes otherworldly stuff and a lot of those books are very interesting." The person said, stopping to look at the books and now focused on Servius.

Servius got a shiver running down his spine as he looked into his glowing orange/golden, fire-like eyes he knew that this couldn't be a human being.

'What should I do..? Should I attack him? But what if he is a demon, a species that has mastered magic? Should I summon a battle spirit? If it is a demon it would be the best against him' Servius thought and a smile appeared on the person's face.

"I knew that I made the right decision, you are a very interesting person indeed but don't dream around too much" as he said that he let go of his aura that even affected Servius, a great Magician.

Servius knew if this continued he could die from Magicule Poisoning so he spoke up "What do you want here demon?" Servius's survival instinct told him to not fight the being in front of him, it must be a very old demon.

"How about talking while playing a round?" The person asked and then summoned a table with chairs and a chess board, as he sat down he said "By the way my name is Fortune."

The moment Servius sat down and agreed to the game he noticed the flow of the Magicules thanks to his Unique Skill [Thinker] this was by all means not a simple game.

Fortune noticed the behavior of his human friend and smiled even brighter, "Human tell me your name I didn't acknowledge many humans so feel honored."

"Sir Fortune first I would like to ask what kind of game we are going to play, by all means this is not normal," Servius said more excited than everything else, which surprised the demon

"Fufufu don't worry this is not a game of life or death or something like this, but I have a mission to fulfill and I would like to use your Family as you are by far the most interesting humans. Because you got my interest I'm gonna tell you that this will be your hardest game you're ever going to play thanks to my Unique Skill [Gambler]." Fortune said with an honest tone.

Servius was relieved that his life was out of danger and that the demon in front of him obviously wasn't here to do something bad to his Valerian Family. He was still worried about said mission, but he knew that following the demon's words was better than to go against him.

"My name is Servius Valerius Valerian, Servius is enough Sir Fortune, let's play."

Little did Servius know that the decision to not go against the demon would bring him and his family new knowledge, a new level of wisdom, and would make his family one of the strongest in the future Cardinal World.