In the Forest, near the Tree, the leaves, trees, weather, and beasts never changed. Whether summer or fall, the grey leaves fell from the trees at a constant rate equal to their burgeoning. Without change say for the few sun rays which disappearing at night, Damon couldn’t identify the passage of time. In such a manner a year fluttered by his yellow eyes.

In this time, he practiced his alchemy, necromancy, and combat-related skills and this was now his status screen:

Damon Asmodeus LVL. 12 (2180/3380)

• All humanoid language acquisitions
• Arithmetic’s Lvl.6/7
• Black magic Lvl.2/10
• Dark magic Lvl.2/10
• Dark spirit communication Lvl.2/10
• Detect diseases and viruses through smell Lvl.3/5
• Earth magic Lvl.2/5
• Improved memory Lvl.3/5 (+1)
• Medium disease tolerance
• Night vision
• Telepathy Lvl.3/10

After all this time, he hadn’t gained more than six levels. Two months after his return from his adventure, he wondered if he couldn’t go on another one since he’d managed to level up so quickly in those few weeks. However, after further thought he decided not to do so. Yes, he did gain many levels. But his black magic would stagnate, since skills and levels weren’t interconnected, he’d need to put his main profession on the back burner. Therefore, he decided to stick with his studies, this way he could also increase his intelligence faster. More mana meant faster skill level ups. However, this didn’t mean he couldn’t go hunting, which he did twice a week. It let him gather materials as well. He wondered if perhaps it would take him two centuries to reach a level three and not ten.

With this constant and aimless labour, he understood why kids started to study and fight at such a young age, especially for humans. Five years made a huge difference when you only had fifty to sixty left.

He himself could be said to be around the level of a fifteen- to sixteen-year-old at the ripe old age of twenty-three. The last thing he wanted was to go on an adventure only to be beat up by a fifteen-year-old. At least at level 3 you entered the realm of young adults.

When Damon finished his morning routine, Gargano, the skeleton he received a year ago entered with various ingredients and alchemical tools. Lately Stolas sent him less corpses. He told him that he’d already mastered what was necessary for his level and to practise the art of potion making. Although some potions required the input of magic spells in the middle of the process, others required them at the end. As such Damon could prepare the potions and let someone else apply the magic to alter its state before being sold off.

This did make him feel like a cog in the machine, something he hadn’t expected from a fantasy world. However, he understood that this would benefit him later. He could probably make it as an alchemist in a small town with his skills, so it wasn’t all lost.

When he finished the tasks assigned to him, he took out a tray filled with skeletons and applied reanimation spells on each of them to keep levelling his black magic skill. He then went outside to go hunt some beasts. There were two main species in the surroundings, goblins, and wolves, but recently a third appeared, giant earth snakes.

Damon reached the swamps in the western parts of the forest. He climbed onto a tree and with his increased agility, Damon managed to totter from tree to tree. Although, he wasn’t near Tarzan, nor did he use vines, he impressed himself from time to time. Damon inspected the swampy terrain for the snakes. Their numbers weren’t great, and they weren’t easy to spot.

Fortunately, two hours later he stumbled on one. The snake laid silently half submerged in mud, weighed down by its excessive weight. From its nostrils to the end of the tail measured approximately twelve metres. Although they didn’t have magical power, their brute strength and tough scales made up for it.

Damon climbed down from the middle section of the tree to the lowest branch. Now, about two metres above the snake he used and earth spike worth fifty mana points.

The spike pierced the snakes head and raised it a meter above the ground. This made it easier to collect its teeth, which were great at storing magic, and were used to make potions. Apparently, the scales of the snake held some value for armour smiths. However, it wasn’t needed by the sect. Next, he went to the goblin hideout.

He still didn’t dare to enter the cave alone. He waited for a scouting unit to pass and dropped down. This time he didn’t perform a drop kill. Since he’d learned to read their movements and his own sword wielding skills had improved, he could dispatch them in a head-on-head fight. The first goblin swung down his bat towards Damon’s head, and the second swung horizontally towards his flank. Damon side stepped the first strike, parried the second with his shield, and stabbed his sword into the goblin’s armpit. The third goblin which had stayed behind started to run towards the cave. However, Damon pierced his foot with an earth spike. It caught the front of the goblin’s foot and tore it in half. The first goblin who had recovered started to attack in a flurry, but Damon stepped back, launched a small rock towards the goblin’s eye and cut him down when it flinched. He quickly went to stab the last goblin's neck.

The goblins had recently started to run away when the other goblins had died. A year ago, they would start retreating when two had died, however, since they couldn’t deal with the new snakes with three goblins. They learned to call for reinforcements earlier; although stupid, they did try to improve and adapt.

When Damon returned home. When he opened his status screen to see how many reanimations he could get done before going to sleep, he found that his dark magic had levelled up.

His heart started to beat frantically. Since he did his best to split his mana consumption equally in between all his magical skills, the others should also level up soon. As such he decided to wait before acquiring new dark magic books since it would only push back the time it would take to level up his other skills.

Damon pulled out the tray of skeletons and started applying resurrection magic all night long. Since his base level had risen, he could now recover two mana points per five minutes which let him apply a resurrection spell per twenty-five minutes. When he’d done so for three hours, he fell asleep, his level hadn’t increased yet.

When he awoke, Gargano had already brought the alchemical material. Damon called Stolas,

“Can you give me a break? I’ve levelled up my dark magic yesterday, so I should be able to level up the others soon enough,”

“Then you should have told me yesterday. Finish what I gave you then I’ll send you the books. You’re being too eager and rash. One day, one week, a month, even a year, isn’t that big of a deal. You have to slow down a bit.”

Damon understood this was real life, yet to him this it was a game. In fact, he often thought that the act of walking, eating, and sleeping put a dent in his progress. Shouldn’t there be fast travel, where was the time skip option or the experience gained from completing a mission. But, there then again, he had no power over any of this. He simply had to go along and enjoy the ride, even though the whole levelling system felt too much like a game.

When he came back from his hunting session the next day he opened his status, however, nothing had changed since last night. In fact, he went out the next day, the day after that, and the day after that one, yet it still wasn’t enough.

Finally, after four more days his earth magic skill increased to three. Unfortunately, two more weeks after that his black magic skill still hadn’t increased.

The whole time awake he kept his eyes plastered on the mana counter, and immediately cast his black magic spells as soon as possible. He didn’t go outside and kept his sleep capped at four hours a night. Finally, on the fifteenth day his black magic level ticked up.

Damon let his body fall onto the bed. He opened his status screen and noticed that his dark spirit communication had risen as well. He touched his gold ring and told the spider to come out. While the dark spirit walked on his arms, he wondered what kind of dark spirit he would receive next time. With that thought floating around in his mind, Damon fell into a deep slumber.

#

Frederick looked out his window onto the street where a few grey and white cars passed by. He made sure that he had his laptop and his lunch and left for the bus station.

The cold autumn air blew past him as he went towards the STEM building in his university campus. However, something felt off. There were too few people, had he missed an announcement of some sort? Well, it didn’t matter.

When he reached the entrance and tried to pull open the door, it didn’t budge. Perhaps a national holiday? He thought. However, he had already come all this way, he might as well make sure that they hadn’t simply locked this entrance and not the others. As such he placed his hand above his head to cover the sun and peered into the building.

He didn’t see anyone; however, he noticed that his skin and his figure wasn't human. His eyes were a deep yellow, his skin had darkened into a deep purple, and the tip of his ears were pointed.