Damon had now called this world home for more than a month, and his wound had become a light-purple scar. Although he still felt weak, he could do some light exercise such as jogging and body weight exercises. But most of all he meditated.

Stolas told him that with the first level of dark spirit communication a person got the ability to see and feel the mana emanating from dark spirits. However, just like any other magic skill, it can’t be used if the user cannot feel mana. As such Damon started to practise its control and manipulation.

On another note, most of the Japanese had already left for Modega a week ago. They had practised their skills in the forest. The mages were now able to use level two spells, and the martial artists could handle their weapons well enough to deal with a few wolves. By this time most of them were halfway to their first level.

The only people still at the church were Pythias and Sakura, who felt responsible for Damon’s injury.

“Can you hear me?”

Damon looked up to the window. However, he couldn’t find Stolas. “Where are you?” he asked.

“In the forest.”

“Fly here, what want?” Damon asked again. He didn’t understand the owl’s intention. He waited for a response, but nothing came. He didn’t care much for the bird, so he decided to stay in his bed and relax.

Half an hour later Pythias entered the room with a questioning look, “What do you mean fly here?”

Damon realized what happened and why it did. Everyone's telepathic voice sounded the same. If only he'd realized this earlier he might have been able to avoid this situation. But, would it have changed anything? If he asked the identity of the speaker each time someone called, it would lead to the same development. Pythias wasn’t stupid after all.

“Did something happen? You have been looking rather solemn lately, I thought you were just sick, but you were talking to someone else, someone who can fly. Tell me.”

Damon didn’t have anything to hide from his friend. He just didn’t want him to worry about him. He knew that Pythias had been doing more than necessary to take care of him.

Damon told him everything which occurred during his sickness, his consciousness weakened enough to be able to speak to dark spirits and that he had made one his familiar. He didn’t mention the fact that dark spirits were demons, but since Pythias already knew that Damon had the ability to speak with dark spirits, he didn’t question it, although he still had doubts.

“Anyways, I called out to you to test our maximal telepathic range. I asked the priest since he can also use telepathy, and he said that the range depended on your level, the environment and talent for the skill. I started to contact you ten kilometres away.”

“How far were you when I answered?”

“Five kilometres.”

“Well, we’ll have to test it again when we level up again. But should you really go in the forest?” asked Damon.

Pythias gave a crooked smile, “I found a strategy to escape from anything.”

“Anything?”

“Well, wolves and bears.”

“What is it?”

“I can use a few spells now, one of them is air blast. The schematic is just a straight line, and it launches me a few metres up if I use all my mana.”

“So, your strategy is to hide in a tree.”

Pythias laughed. “Pretty much, don’t worry, if the bear tries to climb, I’ll just poke it with the spear I bought.”

“Well, it’s not like we can stay hidden in this church. Technically, we can, but I don’t think anyone would wish that upon their worst enemy.”

“True that, tell me, can you control mana now?” asked Pythias. Certainly as anxious to leave this countryside church.

“Not, yet, I’m still practising my control. There aren’t any spells as easy as air blast in dark, black, nor earth magic.”

“Is that so? Well, you can always hop on my back.”

“As if, what's your strength stat again, ten or twelve? We can’t even swing a sword properly, and want to go about poking bears.” Damon laid back down into bed. His louder voice made scratched at his previously exposed ribs. His tone quieted down. “Well, there could be an easier schematic, but I only know what I know. Anyhow, I should be able to use a few spells in a week or so.”

“Sounds good. When you can we’ll head to the same town as the others. It’s safer to stay together. They said they’d probably stay there for a month or so to get used to regular life before heading out. Apparently, there’s an adventurer’s guild there. Plus, when you register as an adventurer you become a free citizen of the country.”

Damon felt a presence outside his window. The owl landed on his shoulders but did not speak. Pythias couldn’t see him, so Damon didn’t mention it.

“But then, wouldn’t all the peasants try to become adventurers?” asked Damon.

“They’re too lazy. Just bums who stand on their assess and cultivate wheat and brew beer. And as a side note you must have at least level five potential and in any magical or martial skill. They have a magical device which shines green for five or more and red otherwise. Apparently, there are others which shows your exact potential in any skill, but you’d have to head to major cities for that.”

“Yes, it requires the blood of an angel.” Interjected Stolas in his mind.

“Angel?”

“I’ll head back to the forest to train,” said Pythias.

Damon nodded and said goodbye.

“Yes, angels or what we call high-ranking spirits. They require a level 10 spirit communicator to descent here. You see angels have the power of light, they illuminate the darkness and can see the unseeable. On the other hand, demons have the power of darkness, we have the power to hide or uncover the most obscene and atrocious elements of life. When an angel finds a demon, they will try their best to bring them to light, and the demon will try their best to hide.”

Damon remembered that Pythias had the power of spirit communication at level 10. But since he hadn’t reacted, it must mean he doesn’t know anything about it yet.

“Demons don’t fight back?” asked Damon.

“That is so,” Stolas looked slightly down cast, “If we could, we would; however, our powers are made to hide, not fight. People are given the exact amount of strength needed to survive, not more, not less.” The owl glided down onto the bed, “Demons win when men are corrupted, not when angels are destroyed.” Stolas’ eyes peered into Damon’s. “I heard what that boy said. That you would go to the adventurer’s guild.”

“Yes, what of it?” replied Damon in a curt tone. He no longer felt hindered in his telepathic speech. When he checked his status screen, he noticed his telepathy skill had levelled up.

“I’ve been away for the past few days, no?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know why? It was to set up your training ground. You cannot go to the guild, you are a user of black magic, all that would happen is your extermination.”

“From what I’ve heard two seconds ago they don’t have a way to find us. You can’t trick me as easily as before.”

Stolas shook his head, “No, I’m not tricking you this time. The guild keeps a tight leash on its adventurers. It is directly controlled by the kingdom. Joining it is equivalent to joining a lower military class. With your abilities it wouldn’t take long for you to get noticed and ‘asked’ to head to the royal capital and become a knight or an exclusive contractor to the royals.”

“Then I’d refuse.”

“Refuse the orders of royalty? Are you insane!” Stolas slapped Damon with his wing. “Did I not say two seconds ago, all the strong adventurers eventually fall under direct rule of the King? All they’d have to do is send one or two high-ranking adventurers, an angel, and you’re toast. Angels can’t normally spot demons, but you’re not a demon, are you? And don’t think I didn’t notice your little friend there. Angels do not hide; I clearly sensed the potential to contract an angel in that boy. It’s as clear as the moon. Why do you think I was telling you about the nature of demons and angels? It was to tell you that you have no choice but to part ways! How do you think angels keep a leash on desires? They exterminate the little guys and cull their numbers, that's you in this case. That’s why this is an eternal conflict. They can’t find us, and we can’t kill them.”

“Then where am I supposed to hide? In gutters or is a forest a better choice?” asked Damon, he wanted to strangle the owl, but the little fucker didn’t even have a neck.

“No, that’s why I left. I was able to get in contact with one of my subordinates and I say we head there. You’ll be able to learn black magic properly and no one will come looking for your head.”

“I still refuse,” said Damon unwilling to be tricked again.

The next moment Damon felt his spine being pulled out of his body. The owl had wrapped his wings around his head and had begun to pull with incredible force.

“How do you not even understand this? Look, how about this. We will head to that little town of yours and you can ask the guild if becoming an adventurer means subordinating yourself to the crown. Normally they don’t mention it but if you ask, they can’t lie. If they say ‘yes, please sign on the dotted line to become the king’s little errand boy’ then you leave. If they say ‘No, the king will suck your dick if you ask him kindly’ then have it your way. Sounds good little prince.” The owl stared deep within Damon’s eyes.

“Yes, yes, yes. Now please stop.”

Stolas let go of his head and Damon felt his vertebrae’s fuse back together. The pain remained.

“OK good, now keep practising your mana control, you should get it down in a day or two.”

The next week Damon stood on the meditation hill. He’d finally managed to get a basic control over his mana, first he needed to try a few spells. Since trying his dark magic would be rather problematic without shadows and black magic required not only enemies, but a god forsaken spell book to learn the actual spells. As such he went with a basic earth spell, an earth pillar. He placed his right foot half a meter in front of him and bent his knee in a reversed r shape. He then applied magic through his leg in the shape of the schematic for the magic spell. A fifty-centimetre pillar rose two metres in front of him.

He jumped in joy and checked how much mana it cost him, he only lost five mana points.

“Now try pouring all your mana into the next one,” said the owl.

Damon nodded and did as told. This time he intentionally held back the mana which seemed to be trying to escape his body. It built up and he felt a great amount of pressure on his leg. When the mana reached his foot, he couldn’t control it any longer and five a metres tall and a meter wide pillar of earth rose from the earth.

“Is this really level one magic?” asked Damon to his new teacher.

“Yes, but don’t be too excited. Although big, size isn’t the only thing that matters. Look, it’s exactly two metres in front of you, you couldn’t control its location nor its inclination. Unless some idiot stands at that exact spot and let’s you’re slow ass cast the spell, it’s completely useless. Power is the result of mana, and you have a good amount of mana for your level. Some mages at level 5 have just as much as you so that’s not the problem. The problem is precision and finesse. After all, it’s all in the movement and that’s the main advantage of a higher-level mage. A level one spell can be just as powerful as a level 10 spell; however, you cannot compare a pillar of earth with multiple earth spikes which tracks down its enemies.”

This lecture calmed Damon down slightly; however, all he wanted to do now was to increase his level. It seemed all too game like. As such the natural continuation was to go farm experience points; In most games this meant killing monsters and … humans… He wanted to ask Stolas but decided against it. He would ask someone less likely to temp him into murder. Perhaps a bandit would offer himself to him later. However, these, weren’t thoughts to be engaged with.

“Damon, I saw your magic. It’s huge.” Pythias had also levelled up his telepathy skill recently, and they could now communicate up to twenty kilometres. Perhaps the range was greater, however, going further would be dangerous. The depths of the forest held dangers a level one, or two mage couldn’t deal with. They’d have to test the telepathy’s limitations later.

Damon turned back to the earth pillar, it seemed that once created, magical creations remained in place. Which made sense; however, he could dismantle it by moving his mana in the opposite direction to the spells schematic.

“Yep, just give me a day to recover my mana and we’ll be able to leave for Modega.” Answered Damon to Pythias's earlier question. Apparently, mana recovery speed differed from person to person and seemed to be related to your endurance and your magic skill level which did not bode well for Damon. He currently recovered two mana points per five minutes. As such it took him about three hours to fully recover.

“Sounds good.”

The next day Damon, Pythias, and Sakura gathered at the church’s entrance and left for Modega. It would take them six days to walk there.