When Damon woke up, he saw Stolas standing on his chest, his talons digging into his skin. Next to him a pile of books towered over them. Stolas picked up three books and dropped it onto Damon's stomach. Although the books weren’t heavy, he couldn’t help but wheeze.

“These are the dark magic books.” Stolas tapped the pile of books.

“Why so many?”

“Black magic isn’t combat related and is heavily inclined towards alchemy. At level 2 you could make what? Two or three potions by yourself. But at level 3 you can start making a fair number of potions thanks to the various transmutation spells available to black magicians and here are the recipes and spells required to make them.”

“There’s nothing for necromancy?”

“Well, yes. You can make better mana conservation potions. But as I’ve already told you, to make a humanoid undead, you need to possess level four black magic, and to make a combat worthy one requires you to be at level 5, ideally six.”

Damon let his head fall back onto the straw bed, “It’s going to take me time. At least it’s only one level away.”

Stolas laughed and patted Damon’s head, “That’s the spirit my little prince. Now for the next one.” Stolas moved the three black magic books and slammed another two in their place.

“Do you have to do that?”

“Yes, now these books are for dark magic, the first book explains how light works and the second is the spell book. As you’ve probably already noticed, similar spells have similar schematics and there aren’t many variations. Well, there are lots of variation in low-level spells, however, most of them end up being less effective than the most common versions. The spells here,” He patted the books, “should serve you well.”

“Then can’t I just try making my own spells?”

Stolas patted Damon’s back, “Let’s wait half a century before you ask me that question again. OK.”

Damon sighed, he always had to ask two questions to get something out of this owl. “Why do I have to wait fifty years?”

“One you don’t even have enough mana to test a new spell with a safety schematic attached to it. Two it would take you a few years to learn how to read and analyze schematics. Three, well, do you not realize you just became a third-ranked mage. That’s like a child asking to learn how to hammer metal. It sounds more like a joke than anything else.”

Damon decided to jump to another topic. He guessed that the next books were related to earth magic.

Stolas, not one to miss his shifting thoughts explained, “The first book talks about the composition of earth. The second is a spell book. Now study well. In a month I’ll send you off again.”

Damon’s eyes brightened. He went in to hug his pet owl, but stolas pushed him back.

“Don’t touch me filthy elf. Your hair is full of earth clumps, your yellow eyes have turned brown, and your skin has two layers.” Stolas flew to safety. “I’ll have Gargano prepare a bath for you. I shouldn’t need to tell you to take a bath.”

Damon realized that he’d never even seen himself in the mirror. However, that wasn’t important now. “Am I going to get a new demonic item?”

“Not right now, I wouldn’t give my child to such a filthy creature, I feel sorry for the ring. And secondly, I still haven’t decided where to send you to. There are a few options I still have to vet. I’ll decide what to give you then.” Stolas left the room. Five minutes later Gargano brought in a bucket of water, a linen cloth, and a new tunic.

When Damon scrubbed off the grime, he felt light and free. He wanted to head outside and increase his level, especially since he hadn’t gone out in more than two weeks.

Damon decided to start with Black magic. The book which talked about light, spoke of basic concepts such as reflection, refraction, diffraction, and other concepts one should know and understand if you wished to make full use of dark magic.

He skimmed through the book. Everyone past ninth grade should already know everything here, and at a greater understanding than what was said.

His memorization skill had also increased to level three a few months ago. He no longer had to fear forgetting old spells. Although it still took time and practice to memorize their schematics.

The first new spell he learned; greater shadow meld was about twice as effective as shadow meld for the same cost. Most three spells replaced their level one counterpart, the same occurred for level two spells when one jumped to level four. Although at level five, the spells started to become more unique and weren’t as similar as their lower-level counterparts.

The second spell, shadow restraint lowered the endurance and agility values of anyone afflicted by the spell. Of course, to activate it the other person needed to be connected through shade with the shadow of anything you wished to slow down.

The third and final spell, smog, created thick black smog which impeded the sense of sight and smell.

This book seemed to have cost quite a bit since it also explained how they affected different people with different perk values.

This was especially important for the greater shadow meld skill. Apparently for shadow meld it made the user extremely hard to detect for those with fewer than 15 points in perception. It stated that goblins normally had a perception value of 8 to 10. This explained why the caravan had no problem spotting him in the forest. Now with greater shadow meld that value would go up to 25.

The book also stated that the value needed to detect you wasn't constant, but varied depending on the surroundings, i.e., if you made an active effort to hide using foliage or other camouflage means. It also stated that since shadow meld influenced vision, animals with good senses other than sight would be less affected.

Damon continued to read the book and realized that it read more like a beginner’s guide to assassination than a book on new spells. Well, it made sense if the main occupation of dark mages was either assassination, trailing, tracking, or scouting.

While he waited for the night to come, Damon memorized spells. As such when the sun set and the moon rose, he headed towards another goblin nest he’d recently found outside the swampy area. This let him avoid the snakes and travel on foot. A much more efficient and easier method of movement. When he wasn’t too far from the nest, Damon activated his greater shadow meld spell and stuck close to trees. The air blew and cold winds brushed against his skin while he waited for goblin scouts to leave the cave. When he saw one heading in his direction, he hid behind a tree.

The goblins approached the tree from the opposite side of Damon. He stayed still even when they passed him. They hadn’t noticed anything at all. Although he wondered what he looked like to them and how much of a fuss he’d need to make before they’d notice him. There were other skills he wanted to test out. He cast smog, at that instant a thick, heavy, and black mist emanated from Damon’s chest. At that instant the goblins started searching for an enemy and finally found Damon standing behind them. He hadn’t managed to create enough smog before they noticed him.

They attacked at once, each of them aimed for a different part of his body. Damon had already braced himself with his shield. However, he also activated his shadow restraint. Although the goblins fought in a crude manner, they were still quick. But now under the influence of his new spell they slowed down about twenty percent. This let Damon dodge two strikes without difficulty. He blocked the third strike, took a step back and used earth spike to impale a goblin. These goblins weren’t part of the horde which lived in the march and so decided to attack Damon once more. Damon side stepped and cut off both of their heads in one fell swoop.

With his increased combat proficiency and new spells, he now felt a real difference in power. In the past he dealt with them with ease not because he’d become a lot stronger, but because he’d learned their fighting patterns and his fighting proficiency had somewhat improved. He could only imagine the strength of the combat or offensive magic skills at higher levels.

He went back home and got a good night’s sleep. During the day, when the shade receded, he decided to go practice earth magic. The book on earth and its components explained the different types of minerals and their attributes. Apparently in the higher levels of earth magic you could decide which minerals, and the percentage of them you should use in different situations. Although this wasn’t very useful for level 3 earth mages. Learning early made the process easier. But for Damon, this didn’t concern him too much since his earth magic was capped at level 5.

The spell in the other book was as follows. Earth spear, an upgraded version of rock throw; earth wall, a defensive spell, and greater flatten ground, which was self-explanatory.

Since he'd try out his earth magic, he decided to try and fight a giant earth serpent head-to-head.

When he found one, he first made sure there weren’t any other beasts in the area. He jumped down from a tree and landed in front of the snake. As soon as he landed, he erected a square earthen wall two metres in height. Half a second later he heard something crash into it and four yellow stained. Teeth pierced through. The wall crumbled and the snake found itself with a mouthful of earth and rocks.

Damon flattened the ground. This created circular platform with a radius of two metres and let him move freely without restraint. He pierced the top palate of the snake’s mouth with his sword. It shook its head in a futile attempt to remove the foreign object stuck in its mouth. Damon took the opportunity to launch a rock spear inside the snake’s mouth. It hit the back of the snake’s mouth, yet it didn’t pierce through. The snake turned and slammed Damon into a tree with a whip of its tail.

It seemed that his strength wouldn’t be enough to fight head on with the snake. He still hadn’t completely restrained his game like attitude towards this world.

Since the snake had coiled and kept his head rested on its body, Damon couldn’t use earth spike to pierce through the softer scales under his lower jaw.

Damon sent two more rock spears towards the snake, but it swatted them out of the air with its tail. Damon knew that he’d lost, and the snake only wanted to remove the sword in its mouth.

Damon used two earth walls to cover his back, flattened the ground, and made his escape. When he reached his room, he asked Gargano to bring him a bucket of water.

Damon’s back hurt from the impact, and he wanted to sleep after a quick bath. He also felt pain in his lower chest area when he took breaths. The impact had probably fractured some of his ribs. Thankfully, his spine seemed to have held up. However, he shouldn’t try that again. Plus, while he recovered, he could practise black magic. Damon drank a restorative potion and felt his ribs set a bit; however, it wouldn’t fully heal the injuries.

The next morning, Damon opened the first book. There was an index with a list of concoctions ordered by their effects and uses. They were all lesser potions, however, some had interesting uses. One potion could apparently destroy any flesh it touched within the first second it made contact with air.

Perhaps this could probably disinfect an area. However, the skin would be striped once again, and look like someone had skinned the person. He guessed this was used if when the wound got visibly infected. A holy mage would probably be present to heal the wound once again and hope for the best. However, if the infection spread into the patient’s circulatory system it was all up to fate.

There were different types of sleep potions which weren’t very effective and only worked if the person hadn’t slept in a day, and nightmare preventing potions which cut one’s sleep in half.

Although someone other than a dark mage could make these potions, they required the use of higher-grade materials. Although for lesser spells this didn’t make a great difference, some higher levelled potions would be impossibly expensive if one used a non-magical method.

This was why, although shunned, the kingdoms kept the black mages alive. Perhaps they could be replaced at a price when it came to lower levelled spells; however, they were indispensable when it came to sixth to tenth level potions. The rest of the books contained information on curses. At level 3, lesser curses became available. Although they weren’t anything special and often lead to things such as mild nightmares, migraines, and unnatural bowel movements. They could still be used in conjunction with other substances to cause a snowballing effect. However, if one identified the curse. Holy magic, or potions could easily stop the curse. Perhaps in a small village a black mage could wreak havoc, but not anywhere else. This book also came the level three versions of the preservation spell.

The books went on to explain the different ways to apply a curse, by using a magical spell directly onto the target, a method unavailable to level three black mages. A curse could also be applied by making the target consume food or drinks mixed with the liquified version of the curse or by wearing a cursed item. Although the first option was the easiest, it was also the most dangerous since, if a stronger black mage could cast the same magic, he could make it rebound onto the original caster. If the mages were of equal strength, the curse would dissipate. The book listed the ingredients, and methods to make cursed potions. These could be added to foods and drinks later. The curses could also be made for a specific person by incorporating a part of the target’s body into the mixture.

For the next month, Damon stayed inside and tried to memorize all the new material. Once every three days, he’d went out to hunt, came back to the Tree, took a bath, wondered what kind of demonic item he’d receive, and went to sleep. On the other days he was too busy with his studies to think of anything else.