Adam watched the monster go wild with a worried look. If this continued, the whole city's buildings would be ruined.
"Did you take out its summoner?" Adam asked the devil.
The devil nodded fast, "Yep, yep. The kid was a pushover. A hit of negative energy and he freaked out, hurting himself and kicked the bucket real fast."
Adam was deep in thought. This must be why the Aum family, who he and other battlemages perceived as weak, held their own on Ceylon Island. Ancient mages likely had mental issues, and negative energy magic set off these problems, leading to mental meltdowns.
Adam called up a massive bolt of lightning and zapped the monster. He quickly took off for the edge of the city. Without its master, the monster followed Adam like a robot.
Once he was clear of the city, Adam let loose, hitting the monster with spell after spell. The monster, which had once been a big headache for Adam with all its tricks, now seemed like a joke.
"Master, let me finish it!" After the fight, the devil popped out from behind Adam, eyeing the huge creature barely breathing on the ground, ready to attack.
Adam kicked the devil away and pulled out a little rusty knife. He held it up to the monster, then plunged it right into the monster's head.
Rust from the knife began to seep into the monster. The monster twitched wildly. For the first time, Adam saw something other than a desire to destroy in its eyes - it was fear. But it was as if the monster couldn't move a muscle.
The knife shone bright. At the same time, the monster's body started to fall apart from the tail end. Its flesh didn't drop but moved towards the knife through its body at a crazy speed. The monster twisted weirdly, unable to even let out a sound, forced to watch as it was emptied out.
The awful smell started to fade. The squished grass and plants under the monster began to stand up again. With a small pop, the knife popped out from the monster's skull, turned back to its rusty state, and fell to the ground.
Adam waved his hand to pick up the knife. It was still warm, feeling more alive than metal.
"Master, this thing's kinda gross," the devil moved away fast.
Adam gave the devil a curious look, and the devil scratched his head, looking stressed, "That monster, it seems to really like this thing, it wants to munch on this knife."
Adam thought for a bit, then walked over to the devil with the knife. The devil looked scared and tried to run, but found it couldn't move, "Master, no, keep that creepy thing away, stay away from me!"
But Adam ignored it and slowly walked towards the devil. As he got closer, the devil began to change. The wild energy that had shown up before filled the air, the devil's ghost-like form becoming shaky, his face quickly flipping between anger and fear.
"Master."
In the middle of the devil's pleading, Adam, feeling satisfied, put the knife back in his storage. This knife could bring out the devil's deep-down personality, which was key. It would save Adam a lot of unnecessary work. In future tests where this deep-down personality was needed, it would be much easier to call forth.
After the knife was gone, the devil sighed with relief and didn't dare stay out any longer. Once Adam gave the okay, he rushed back into Adam's mind. Adam, on the other hand, went back to the ruined city.
After grabbing the test gear for the transformed creatures from the monster's city, Adam kept going. In a week, he traveled through three regions and hit six cities. Compared to the coastal power of the Aum family, the defenses of these three were pretty weak. Adam figured this was because these three were inland, and while the spots where the apprentices were summoned were all over, they were all near the coast.
But this was just right for Adam. He quickly looted the necessary resources and, along with the devil, headed into the wild.
"Master, why are we going to a place like this?"
Surrounded by runes, Adam sunk into the earth, deep underground. The magical runes cut through the rocks and soil. Adam was busy using his earth magic to make an underground space for a temporary lab. In the middle of all this, he made time to answer the devil, "I have a new idea to try out."
The devil floated next to him, confused, the soil and rock not blocking its form. "But didn't the guy from the Tower say that Points are limited? Tests take a long time, right? What if the other apprentices grab all the Points? Killing only loses Points."
Lately, Adam had been nice to the devil, he wouldn't have answered his questions before. But now, he pulled out a map and even took a bit of his attention to answer the devil, "Ceylon Island is split into fifteen parts, six of them are around the coast, all the apprentices are summoned close to here."
Adam waved his hand, and a big chunk of soil was turned into rock by magic, firming up the basic underground space.
"They'll need a ton of time to break through the defense circle that's getting tighter. My test, if it works, should give results in a few months." As Adam said this, he patted the devil on the head in a way that gave it the chills, "But, I'll need your help."
The devil shivered, his body twisted for a moment. Just as he was about to run, he found himself being pulled into the earth's depths by Adam, like he was a puppet on a string.
"Master, I don't think this is right," the demon complained, "We can't just let others take the Points. I can go get them for you while you work on the test."
Under Adam's feet, iron sand rose and quickly gathered into a big cage in front of him. Electricity ran through the cage, making a strong magnetic field. He then tossed the demon into the cage, smirking, "No, without you, or rather, the true self inside your body, my test can't happen. So..."
The demon slammed against the cage, putting up with the pain from the electricity and the magnetic field, begging, "No, Master, please, don't do this!"
Adam didn't budge. He turned up the power of the magnetic field and the electric current. At the same time, he loaded up the cage with tons of ether crystals and various creatures' flesh and blood, soothingly saying, "Don't worry, I won't kill you. This is also good for you. As long as you help out, maybe I can help you fix the problem with your deep-down personality soon."