Ch. 50 - The Devil

Adam was interested, "Tell me about it."

The devil didn't expect Adam to ask this and stuttered, "Ah, well, I don't know, um, I was born with it."

Adam realised that simply asking the devil wouldn't work, since devils have no concept of human civilizations, so he changed his question, "Can you connect to my mind?"

The devil shuddered and shook its head, "No, no, master, how could your humble servant spy on your great mind?"

The devil continued with envy and excitement, "Speaking of which, I can't believe that I can actually become the servant of a mage! From my fragmented memories, the mage plane isn't something that us devils can provoke easily!"

Adam listened intently, learning that their ancestors' memories were passed down along the line. He was curious how something formless like the devil could reproduce.

"Do you know what you are?"

The devil morphed into a sexy woman with a seductive expression, "Master, aren't you interested in the opposite sex?"

Adam narrowed his eyes and lashed at the devil through the contract, "Answer my question. Don't do stupid things."

The devil screamed and its form morphed rapidly, "I'm sorry, master! Please stop!"

Adam continued to punish the devil through the contract's magic. Devils rely on deception, so mere apologies like these cannot be trusted. The devil must know to fear its master. Soon, the devil could only whimper and Adam stopped.

The devil collapsed into a blob on the ground, and it could only convey its message through the contract, "Hungry..."

Adam threw more than a dozen power stones at the devil, and the devil greedily devoured all the stones. It didn't dare to provoke Adam anymore, and said, "I think I'm a devil, but I think I'm a crossbreed of a creature from the abyss."

"You think," Adam emphasized.

The devil shrugged and explained, "I'm a devil, but I was conceived in an abyss egg. I don't remember! My memories are all over the place! I'm a crossbreed, a mix! I'm a devil, so I can conjure contracts... but... I don't remember how to."

The devil cried out, "Could you imagine, master? I can't believe I have the desire to eat disgusting flesh and blood... why?!"

"Shut up," Adam ordered. "How could you forget to conjure a contract? Isn't that the inherent talent of a devil?"

The devil stopped its whining and answered, "I... I don't know."

Adam glanced at it with disdain. Creatures from the abyss are strong, while devils can conjure useful contracts. However, a cross-breed between these two species seems incredibly useless. It was weak, but it couldn't conjure any contracts.

"I don't know what I am..."

The devil spoke and continued, "I don't know. I need to study my heritage."

That's what Adam was thinking as well, but he needs knowledge of other planes and its flora and fauna, and unfortunately, he has no way of obtaining such information. "Get out of my room, but don't leave the laboratory," Adam ordered.

The devil floated out of Adam's room with a sullen mood, and sat down beside James and Frank, startling them. The two of them immediately casted psychic barriers and shouted, "What is this thing?!"

Adam's voice could be heard from the room, "It's my pet. A useless devil."

The two looked at each other -- wasn't the egg an abyss egg? How could it hatch into a devil?

...

The devil was often chased out of Adam's room, and William was afraid of it. James and Frank often teased the devil in their spare time, its seductive forms having no effect on them. As a result, the devil could only endure their constant teasing.

After obtaining Adam's consent, the two taught the devil the meditation runes.

Elliot came to the laboratory, and when he saw the devil, he was curious, and kept using various potions to feed the devil. Adam frowned upon seeing Elliot, and asked, "Why do they keep sending you as an informant?"

Elliot gave him a bitter look and stuck his tongue out.

Elliot explained that he brought good news -- after a short investigation, they discovered that Adam dealt with all the antimage apprentices surrounding Bran Village, so the Academy has decided to reward Adam -- the penultimate floor of the library.

Adam only recently learnt that qualified mages don't come to the library because all the knowledge stored there was for an apprentice's level -- the penultimate floor held advanced rune knowledge.

James' class for Rune Studies only covered the most basic parts of conjuring runes, and it does not explain the principles behind the runes, and why they are arranged in that specific way.

Adam asked James these questions before, but James replied that he didn't know either.

Adam thought James was being ridiculous, but James didn't have Adam's computing power. He could only rely on a sample and countless complex operations to forcibly build a set of runes. Without knowing the principles of runes, it was no surprise that James' line of research failed.

James explained, "The third floor is the highest I can access -- you're the only apprentice allowed to access the penultimate floor, well, since the other geniuses died in the war."

Adam arrived at the library, and under the resentful eyes of the other apprentices, entered the penultimate floor of the library.

Adam was stunned reading the titles of the books -- [The Extension of Rune Lines], [The Stability of Rune Shapes], [Applications of Curves and Shapes in Runes]... Adam's mouth was agape, and he whispered to himself, "Geometry...?"

He flips through each book, skimming and scanning its contents as his eyes became brighter and brighter. The knowledge described in these books was exactly like Euclidean geometry back on Earth. However, these were the basics of geometry -- details on advanced geometry were limited in this world.

But it was enough for Adam, and he read through the books intently.

He knew that he was good at analysing a problem and finding ways to solve it, but he wasn't good at creating a hypothesis and verifying it.

Adam quickly returned to the laboratory and locked himself in his room. From what he had learnt, he discovered that his set of nineteen runes had a lot of redundant parts, which could be reduced to a more optimised structure.

A month soon passed, and Adam hadn't left his room. James, Frank, the devil, and William stared at the door daily, waiting for Adam to re-emerge from his cave.

"Won't Master starve to death?" the devil murmured, shuddering at the thought. Because of the contract, if Adam dies, then it would die as well. "Should we check up on him?"

William, James, and Frank were anxious too. Since Adam's absence, they ran into a lot of problems in their research and wanted Adam to clarify.

"Adam has a portable space -- I'm sure he has some food inside."

Another ten days passed, and the devil felt weak as it relayed its worries to the three, "I think master is starving himself to death..."

The three looked at each other, and James put his hand on the door knob, but retracted his hand, "I think we should wait."

Seven days passed and there were five days left before the Academy's trial. The devil laid motionless on the ground, feeling that its life was on the line.

The three didn't know what to do -- Adam might be at a breaking point, and if they ruined his research because they were worried about him, then Adam would never forgive them.

The devil gritted its teeth, and transformed into Adam's appearance, "Damn it! Get out of my way!" It rushed towards the door, not expecting it to suddenly swing open.

Adam's psychic barrier flicked the devil away, and he asked, "What are all of you looking at?"

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