Isaiah glared at Marcus as they walked back down the hallway. The contract wouldn't allow him to kill his master outright, but there were other ways of extracting revenge. Besides, Isaiah had time. In fact, as long as the goddess hadn't lied to him, he had all of time.
While Isaiah was converting guilt to anger, Marcus was considering the words of Judas. Despite passing Judas' test, he had somehow failed some hidden requirement. It seemed that Judas thought that his imp didn't know how to fight. Well, Marcus could fix that. He walked down a dead-end hallway, pushed on a protruding stone, and led Isaiah into what looked like a library.
The books were covered with dust, save for some few volumes that looked often used. Hidden among tall shelfs many uninitiated studied from the clean books. Marcus stumbled over to an unused desk and sat down. Beckoning, he instructed the imp to pay attention. Marcus then cleared his throat, doing his best to imitate Elder Brother Judas.
"What was that?"
Isaiah stared.
"I asked you, what were you doing out there on the arena?"
Isaiah kept his mouth shut.
"Answer me!"
Propelled by the system, Isaiah spoke up. "I was killing my best friend."
"Why did you hesitate when he turned invisible, your mind magic should have been more then enough to find him. Did you even know that he went invisible?"
Isaiah shook his head. "I had no idea that he could turn invisible."
Marcus stared, shocked. He was hoping that the fight's poor result could be attributed to a lack of knowledge, but he had no idea how abysmally bad the knowledge gap was! All efforts at intimidation forgotten, he asked,
"Can you even read your status? Illusion magic is a class trait that all imps have."
Isaiah bowed his head, sensing that if he played this right, he could finally get some answers.
"Forgive me master, I just arrived at this world a few hours ago. I have no idea what most of my status means."
His master's month wobbled a few times, like it wasn't sure if it belonged on the ground or on the face. Then it hardened into a determined line.
"Well, that I can fix."
Pulling out a piece of slate, Marcus began to lecture.
'He really is like a teacher.' Isaiah thought, before the system made him pay attention like his master ordered.
'Well, it is an effective way to learn at least.'
Marcus's lecture lasted a couple hours, before he seemed to notice that, even with his vocal instructions, Isaiah wasn't able to absorb any more information.
"Well, that's fine. It's definitely night time anyways."
Getting up, he gestured for Isaiah to follow him again. They passed back through the secret entrance and by the arena. Marcus ignored the glare Isaiah leveled at him. Continuing on, they passed to uninitiated, who Marcus also ignored. Then they approached two others who had copper in their robes. One of them held out a hand.
"Halt! Who goes there!"
'So cheesy' Isaiah thought-squealed, anger temporarily forgotten.
Ignoring the snickering imp, (he was doing that a lot) Marcus answered back.
"Its me, Marcus. Come on Drude, you know that."
"Your reason for passing?"
"I'm just going to have my familiar go training for the night"
The men stepped aside, but not before Drude muttered an angry, "You had better keep control of that thing."
Isaiah and Marcus rounded the last corner, before Isaiah stopped cold, surveying the sky. "its beautiful," he murmured.
Honestly, if it had been any other Earthling, they likely would have been disappointed. There were no glowing plants, floating islands, or bizarre magical phenomena. In fact, the only thing vaguely fantasy-like about the entire thing was a second, tiny brown moon peaking from a largish blue one. To Isaiah, however, it was the prettiest thing he ever remembered seeing.
Reality slapped him back into focus when his Master started talking.
"You will hunt here, outside of the base. Near the base, there are many guards, so all of the stronger beast stay away. Farther away, it gets more dangerous. You will come back here every night. You will not be seen by any humans not a part of the demonic cult. You will not hunt any humans. You will try to stay alive. And,"
Here Marcus turned fiercely to Isaiah, imitating Elder Brother Judas once again.
"You will kill. You will kill, you will kill, and you will kill, until ending a life is no more inconsequential than eating a slice of bread. Our order values strength, and you will prove yours."
Turning on his heel, his master started walking back into what Isaiah now saw was a cave.
"Master!"
Isaiah watched as "Master" stoped at his slave's call, betraying his true inner weakness and insecurity. Isaiah snickered under his arm.
"Master, I am still under orders to follow you!"
Marcus nodded his head, slowly. "You no longer have to follow me." He disappeared into the cave.
Isaiah smiled, one restraint removed. He then raised his head and sniffed the air, ready to go hunting.
Isaiah couldn't find anything the first night, nor the night after that. Every day his master would lecture him, and every night Isaiah would wander the fields, looking for prey. He learned that as a demon, he didn't need sleep. He also learned that humans did.
By the end of the third day, Isaiah could truly say that he now followed the adage, "know thyself". His master had taught him about the stats. They were adjustable by equipment, and arranged in order of what was easiest to train. Intelligence was the first stat, useful for magic and scheming. No known equipment could raise its value. Defense was the second stat. It dealt with things like scales and armor. While various treatments done over long periods of time at great pain to the user could barely raise it, it was much more convenient to simply equip some armor for massive stat gains. Speed was difficult to train, and no equipment save for rare magical artifacts could raise it. Strength was the easiest and simplest to train. While some equipment could raise strength, it was actually better to train this stat. The Optimization stat changed the most frequently and showed how suited a creature was for fighting in an environment. It also showed the efficiency of a creature's build. For example, a bird might have low stats across the board, but because they could fly they had a very high Optimization. However, inside closed quarters, like the demonic cult's cave, that stat would drop sharply.
Isaiah also grew familiar with most of his traits. He learned that traits maxed their level out at level ten, and acquired a sharp increase in performance at level five. They were very hard to learn and even harder to level, to the point where most beings only learned one or two level one traits before they died.
He also learned about the specific abilities of his own traits. Even his Master did not know what Endless Compatibility and Instinctive Dimensional Navigation did. Isaiah had his suspicions, but kept them to himself. Holy Aura Resistance, Temperature Resistance, Holy Element Weakness, and Light Element Weakness all dealt with how effective these elements were at damaging him when used as an attack. Since Holy Element Weakness was level max, even being exposed to it had caused Isaiah damage, although the resistance now nullified most of it. With Light Weakness lv. 5, he could walk around in the daylight, but it wouldn't be pleasant. Night Vision lv. 4 allowed him to perceive dim places as bright, at level five it could actually become a liability in the daytime. Dominant Reproducer meant that if he mated with a different species, the offspring would possess his race and class. It seemed that demons and humans weren't the only two races of this world. Mischievous Personality made his personality more troublesome and flighty, although he was also a bit more clever. Clannish Nature allowed him to form friends with beings of the same species quite easily. Demonic Touch lv. 1 allowed him to drain the magic stores of creatures that he killed. At higher levels it could also be used as an offensive trait. Illusion Magic was what the other imp had used in the arena fight. Even at level one, it enabled the user to completely disappear. Mind Magic lv. 1 enabled Isaiah to sense the presence of nearby intelligences, though not precisely. It also made most mind attacks against him very magic intensive.
As Isaiah went out on the third night, he readied himself to test his mind magic. He had been siphoning off his master's magic during the lectures, and his MHR was back at a safe 54 points. He had been very injured after the fight with his friend, but hadn't checked to see exactly how badly. It was lower than his starting 9, he was sure of that.
Stepping past the copper guards, Isaiah reached for the organ that Master told him was there. Closing his eyes, Isaiah inwardly jerked, trying to sense "Intelligence and Activity" around him. Almost instinctively, like moving a finger, Isaiah got a sense of two lights behind him. He flung himself around, only to see the copper robed guards standing surprised.
'Oh,' he thought sheepishly. 'Of course.'
You have cast a magic spell, MHR 52/∞
Moving along at a steady trot, Isaiah went towards a stream he had seen on an earlier exhibition.
It was ok
it is time! Let the games begin!
Thanks for the chapter!