(Correction from an earlier chapter: 1st Tier High Mage -> 1st Circle High Mage)

Caspian spent the rest of the day relaxing in the room provided for him reading through the books, quite fortunately they had enough information scattered across them with the information provided to him by the System was enough for him to put together a picture of the power structure of the world.

According to the System the only difference between worlds is which realm is the most ‘powerful’ under the worlds restrictions, so for example the High Mages that he had seen before could be considered the most powerful of this planet but in another world they would be no different from normal cannon fodder you could see on any street.

For this world however, the true power was divided between two major professions.

First the Mages, the most respected and powerful of the two – even the lowest tier of Mage was respected by the populace.

Mages were divided into three tiers respectively with three ‘circles’ in each tier; Mage Apprentice, Scholar Mage and finally High Mage. An example of the ‘circles’ that had been mentioned was that the two High Mages that had comes to investigate his descent were 1^st Circle High Mages making them the weakest amongst High Mages however, that didn’t mean they were weak.

According to what Caspian had read a single 1^st Circle Mage could decimate an army of a hundred-thousand normal soldiers with just a bit of effort. Whether this was exaggeration or a fact it still proved that the power of a High Mage was monstrous and was more than capable of placing them at the apex of this world’s food chain.

Caspian himself was somewhat familiar with magic despite never having practiced it himself however unlike this world the world lived in before had a lower density of mana according to the System which meant that only one in every million or so would have the innate mana to become a mage whereas here that number was far smaller with every one in a thousand having the prerequisite mana to become a Mage.

Then next were the Knights, unlike a Mage it was possible for anybody to become a Knight if they practiced enough and were provided with the right resources; according to the System unlike Mages a Knight would focus the mana of the world into their body to reinforce it and strengthen it.

Knights were also divided into different tiers: Knight Apprentice, Knight Captain and Knight Lord respectively. Unlike Mages they didn’t have sub-realms so it was as simple as a Apprentice Knight becoming a Knight Warrior after they had trained for a period of time, it was also because of this that they were considered innately inferior to Mages although it was possible for an experienced enough Knight Lord to go toe-to-toe with a High Mage.

According to the System these sorts of rankings were quite generic in low-tier realms with many being basically carbon copies of one another due to the limitations of the world not allowing for the existence of more powerful professions.

Although Caspian was somewhat anticipating visiting higher-tier worlds in the future he had been warned by the System that those worlds would naturally come with their fair share of difficulties as well, the natives would be much more powerful and just trying to descend his consciousness would require for him to become far more powerful than he currently was or just merely coming into contact with the world membrane would destroy him.

“So…” He began, placing the final book down beside him along with the rest, “How powerful am I?” It was an important question of course; it was necessary for him to understand the power that he held and where it placed him in this world’s hierarchy.

[The Host is only in possession of the basic tier ‘Fireball’ but due to the power of the Apocalypse Store you have achieved full mastery allowing you to display the prowess of a 2^nd Circle Mage Apprentice]

“What about the Demons I can summon?”

[The weakest Demon that you can summon possesses the power of a Knight Apprentice, the Middle-Tier and High-Tier Demons have a prowess of the Knight Captain realm in this world’s terms]

Caspian couldn’t help but feel slightly helpless considering that this technically made him the weakest power that he had at his own disposal, although it was possible for a 2^nd Circle Magic Apprentice to fight evenly with a Knight Captain but with only a single spell at his disposal it was likely he’d come face to face with death after a short exchange.

He mentally summoned the Apocalypse Store and glanced at his available AS: [Apocalypse Summon: 600/1000]

The count from the High-tier demons hadn’t yet reset but the additional 100 AS used on top of it was there to stay from him unlocking the [Fireball] spell to protect himself.

It was already growing dark outside, a testament to just how long he had spent reading through the many books albeit skim-reading the few that failed to catch his attention. It was interesting to see the different views and developments that another world had in comparison to your own and it was to say the least, a unique opportunity that not many could say they had experienced.

He sighed as he looked through the store once more, the options hadn’t changed apart from the fact that ‘Fireball’ had been blacked out and he wasn’t able to click on it again.

“If the system upgrades then does my maximum AS Limit also increase?” He asked to break the silence suddenly.

[Naturally, for every system upgrade the limit will increase by the multiple of ten]

“So, if I destroy this world and you upgrade, I’ll have ten-thousand to use in the next world… but that just means the items in the shop will also be more expensive.” He muttered as he stared up at the ceiling.

[Alert: The Host has been surrounded by five Knight Captains]

The system suddenly said causing Caspian to almost jump in fright, ‘Can you tell where they are?’ He said mentally being careful not to alert them if they were watching him currently.

[Three outside the door and two waiting by the window]

‘So they’re trying to ambush me if I try to escape.’ He smiled, it was obvious that these assassins had been sent by the Lord of the City, he’d probably already sent his men to find out the background of ‘Caspian Flynn’ only for them to find nothing.

For a man so eager to keep a tight grip on power it was the obvious choice and one that he had been expecting all along.

‘System as soon as all five of them are in the room summon five High-Tier Demons.’ He ordered before closing his eyes and pretending to rest, he steadied his breathing to give them the impression that he was falling asleep.

They no doubt knew they were dealing with a Mage which was why they hadn’t just charged in to try and kill him but were instead waiting patiently.

What he didn’t expect was how long it would take for them to act, it had been a full hour since he had closed his eyes and yet still, they did nothing. Caspians’ patience was beginning to wear thin when finally.

Crrr…

He heard the quiet creaking of the doors hinges as it opened obviously whoever had opened it hadn’t expected that and went silent for a full minute while they confirmed that Caspian was still ‘asleep.’

He could tell from this fact that the men sent to kill him weren’t professional assassins, if they had been, they wouldn’t have cared less about the sound the door had made and would’ve instantly went for the kill without a seconds thought.

The perks of being a former Prince, learning to deal with incompetent assassins was just another lesson he was forced to learn.

He continued to pretend to sleep until he could somewhat sense the man close to the side of the bed.

“Fireball!” He aimed his right hand in the man’s general direction and shot a flaming ball directly in his face catching him by surprise.

“Aghh!” He screamed in surprise and pain as the flames melted the skin on his face, although he was a Knight Captain the intensity of the heat of a flame created by mana was not something to laugh at – had he been wearing armour it wouldn’t have even been an issue but no one tried to assassinate someone while wearing a suit of armour, no one who didn’t want to be caught that is.

The other two assassins burst in upon hearing the scream of their comrade, swords in hand as they aimed them for his neck and heart respectively trying to impale him before he could react. Luckily his body could only barely keep up with their speed as he pushed himself off the bed grabbing a book as he did and moved towards the window.

The two assassins didn’t stop however and even seemed to be eager for him to try and escape, as although they didn’t stop moving, they did slow down slightly.

Shatter.

The book went straight through the glass panes shattering the window into shards as they fell to the floor and outside of the window, he glanced over to see two swords had impaled the book mid-air outside stopping it from falling.

“Tch” One of the assassins grumbled as they pushed on with their attack, the first who had had his face burnt finally re-joining them with a vengeful fury as he pounced towards him.

All Caspian could do was watch while he glanced at the window as a second passed, the swords in the book had been withdrawn and he could make out two shadowy figures crouching through the broken window.

Another second passed as the first entered, immediately rushing to join his comrades in attacking putting more pressure on Caspian as he fired fireball after fireball to keep them at bay.

Being attacked by four assassins was difficult to say the least, his arms and legs had been gashed several times and his shoulder once again was stabbed straight through despite having healed just a few hours earlier. It was a completely one-sided battle where the pain was gradually wearing him down, it was only out of sheer endurance that he was managing to hang on only for a few short seconds longer.

Another few second passed and the second assassin waiting for him outside finally came in, the moment his foot contacted the carpet of the room however was where the tables turned in Caspians’ favour.

Immediately, familiar grotesque blood red portal ripped open, this time on the ceiling, as five disgusting figures dragged themselves out of it and into the room. A single High-Tier Demon dropped through first catching the man by the window by surprise and ripping his head off before he could react – the demon delighted itself by beginning to chew on his flesh, ignoring Caspian and the dumbfounded assassins.

They had little time to rest however, as the remaining four demons found themselves arriving in the room facing each of the four remaining guards.

Caspian took their brief lapse in concentration to send another fireball at the man he had burnt alive earlier, causing him to drop to the floor in agony once more.

“Pick up Seven and get him out of here. Now.” One said calmly as he pulled out a knife and held a blade in each hand, facing down the demons alone.

The other two nodded and quickly picked up their fallen comrade and made for the door only to be blocked by a demon that split off from the others, blocking their escape.

“I’m sorry but, the moment you were given the task of killing me was the moment your lives ended.” Caspian said slowly catching them by surprise, they weren’t stupid despite their inexperience and looked between him and the demons with complex expressions displayed in the eyes of their half-masked faces.

“If you let us go-“

“Let me stop you there. You’re all going to die here.” He said calmly, in fact how calm he was began to scare them as they looked over this Mage who had blood dripping from most parts of his body yet showed no sign of collapsing.

‘Monster’ That was their consensus.

Caspian sent several fireballs at the remaining four and let the demons clean up the rest, they delighted in picking apart the corpses bit by bit as they sucked the blood of the assassins like it was a delicacy.

As soon as they were finished their attention turned to Caspian, greed in their eyes yet they didn’t dare make a move. They could feel the invisible chains wrapped around them, if they so much as dared to try and harm a hair on this mans head they would die immediately – that was the contract they had made for being allowed to come to this world after all, one enforced by the system.

“You want to kill right?” He looked at them each in the eyes as he spoke, their grotesque bodies shaking with excitement as they heard what he said.

Caspian hesitated as he looked at them, “We’re going somewhere, kill anyone who gets in our way.” He said after a while then walked towards the door to the room.

Behind him the demons trailed along, their mouths a mix of human and animal teeth shaped in a twisted grin as they followed behind closely.

“I wasn’t planning to do anything if you’d left me alone and swallowed your arrogance… it looks like you couldn’t even do that, how disappointing.” He muttered to himself as he began his night-time search…