DEMON'S VIRTUE

Nelli swam through the air and moved in front of Eiro, looking deep into his eyes with a soft smile on her face, "But remember, you still have an incredibly powerful evolution in front of you, and after that, once you become a Royal, your power will increase by many times as well. Your plans are all slowly coming together, so even if you're not there just yet, it won't take too long until then." The Spirit told the Demon, who looked back at her for a few moments before nodding his head.

"You're right, thank you." Eiro smiled lightly as he pushed himself off the rock. He took a few deep breaths, trying to get rid of the slight lightheadedness that he was feeling right now, "Let's continue, I guess."

Eiro turned around, quickly followed by his three contracted Spirits, reaching Lognir again just a few moments later, "Oh, you're ready again?" The Dragon inquired, and Eiro nodded his head.

"Yes, I am. Can you tell me about the next step in my practice?" The Demon asked. He wanted to get through this as quickly as possible. He wanted to grow stronger, as strong as absolutely possible. Lognir nodded in return and walked up to Eiro, placing his hand onto his shoulder, "Don't overdo yourself, child."

"Of course. I'll take breaks when I need them." Eiro quickly replied, and Lognir took a step back as he crossed his arms, "Then I'll trust your own judgement in this case. Basically, what you did with your cards just now, manipulating them like that, is exactly what you need to manipulate your own abilities. But of course, your <Memory of a Scholar> seems to be of a far higher grade than other abilities you might have. Hence, we will start with one of your simpler abilities that have an easily controllable effect. Something that changes your physical ability would be best for now. Do you have anything like that?"

Eiro thought for a moment, before he nodded his head, "I do. When my Resistance reached 100, I received the <Rock Skin> ability. Let me show you." The Demon said. With just a thought, a hard and thick layer of rock grew all over his body, covering every inch of skin that could be seen.

"Ah, interesting. That is a rare ability, you must have gotten quite lucky in that sense." Lognir said, rather impressed, "Well, this is just the perfect ability then. Try to manipulate it like you did with those card-abilities. Of course, that means you will have to figure out proper visualizations for your internal abilities first. The simpler they are, the best." The Dragon explained.

Eiro looked back at him for a moment before deactivating his rock skin ability and closing his eyes to start thinking about possible visualizations. Maybe he could just make it a rock that he could make grow in certain patterns depending on how much he wanted it to grow in specific areas of his body? That would translate to upgraded versions of this ability pretty well as well. As far as Eiro knew, the upgraded versions were based around different sorts of 'Metal' skin instead of just rock.

So then he could just turn the rock into the specific metal and have it grow in the same patterns as before.

But... This somehow seemed a bit too complex. Sure, the concept was simple, but remembering patterns before being able to apply them might take a bit longer than he wanted.

Maybe he could make the rock simply grow into the shape of Eiro's body depending on where he needed it.

"Wait, if I were to do that, then..." He could do something else that would come in useful for other abilities of his as well. Something like a more central image. Nothing too complicated. Most of Eiro's abilities were rather straightforward as well, and mostly based directly on his own body.

So, Eiro's 'image' was himself. Or rather, it was in the shape of himself, but more of a blank canvas in the end. His skin was pure white and he wasn't wearing clothes. So that Eiro would be able to paint himself depending on the situation, and depending on the ability.

He first went through the different steps of letting his rock skin grow on him. Simply activating the ability made it spread outward starting at the center of his chest, as if rock was flowing out from there.

Then, ever so slowly, Eiro moved the spot where this change started, from his chest to his shoulder. Then to his arm, and to his hand. He practiced what it was like having it in different parts of his body, instantly switching between different places even in the center of the transformation, so that it would flow out from more places.

The transformation usually affected Eiro fully within a few seconds, but like this he could speed it up quite a bit of he wanted to. Either way, he managed to do this surprisingly easily, although the next step was a little bit harder than Eiro hoped.

What Eiro wanted to do then was to manipulate the spread of the rock itself, and not just where it started. Basically, he wanted to slow it down or speed it up somehow. This was a lot harder to do. Getting a grip on the flow was hard enough in itself, but it felt as if Eiro was trying to stop a rolling boulder back in his Lesser Imp days. It felt impossible to do. And at the same time, pushing it forward felt impossible as well. Simply because Eiro's manipulation didn't make a difference due to the natural flow in the slightest, either way.

Eiro took a deep breath and continued trying. He had to keep trying. The demon changed the way he looked at everything multiple times, trying to see if maybe he was choosing the wrong approach. Sure, it did seem like Eiro was doing a bit better than before, but even 1% was infinitely more than 0%.

He tried to see it as something completely separate, and he tried to see it similar as his magic infusion. Neither of this worked, although it seemed like at least one of them should. Eiro even thought that maybe he wasn't being determined enough. The Demon nearly popped a vein by straining himself that much.

Eiro didn't know what was wrong... he was able to manipulate the cards' abilities with ease at this point. Is that why Lognir chose this order? He did say that it would be easier since the cards were foreign to Eiro in the first place.

The Demon scratched the back of his head, deep in thought. He had to figure this out somehow.

"I told you. Think simple." Lognir told Eiro, noticing that he was having trouble properly manipulating this ability, although he was clearly trying to do so. Eiro opened his eyes and looked back at the Dragon. What did he mean with 'think simple'? Eiro was 'thinking simple', but it wasn't working at all.

What was simpler than just visualizing the change on his body in his mind? This question coursed through his mind for a few moments, before it sparked up within him. He felt excited about this idea, hoping that it would work.

What the Demon did was simple. Instead of thinking of his whole body while activating the ability, what if he just thought of smaller areas of his body? Maybe just his left hand would be about enough for now. Eiro saw his left hand float there in his mind, the same pure white as before. And then, he concentrated on the transformation to start on the back of his hand. It flowed outward, and Eiro could feel the rock grow on his hand, and only his hand.

Surprised by this fact, the Demon opened his eyes. A few thin layers of rock were still growing up to his shoulder, but it was definitely incredible progress! Maybe Eiro simply didn't need the step of slowing down the growth of rock at all. Somehow, this was a lot simpler, just like Lognir said he should think.

And so, the Demon continued practicing this. He started gradually changing the places where he allowed the rock to be. It slightly disappeared in any area it was before, still leaving a thin layer wherever it went, but the full layer of 'Rock Skin' only appeared in the places that Eiro specified.

It seemed like the rock was even a bit stronger than before when it was focused in those areas. With a broad smile on Eiro's face, the Demon stood up and looked at his rock-covered feet, while the rest of his body was free from it. He didn't particularly use this ability all too much, but it would definitely come in useful if Eiro was able to master this aspect of it.

Manipulating abilities like this was something that Eiro never really thought about before... But it was something necessary for him to keep growing. Eiro looked at Lognir, who was looking back at him with an impressed expression, "You did it pretty quickly. What a surprise... We're only at the end of day two, and you nearly managed to do what you came here for already. Although, it's not going to get any easier anymore, child."

"I figured so. It was hard enough to do it this time when I had the right visualization in mind, and that was with something that was so easy to grasp as the <Rock Skin> ability. With mental abilities, it seems like it's going to be a bit less so.

With a quiet laugh, Lognir looked back at Eiro, "Well, I said 'Simple', not 'Easy'." The Dragon pointed out. Eiro was a bit surprised to hear such a statement, unsure what exactly he meant with this just yet. He had a few ideas of course, but Lognir wasn't particularly the most straightforward being.

"Anyway, at this point, you should be ready to manipulate your <Memory of a Scholar> ability. But considering the sort of ability it is, and how powerful it is, you will need a much stronger image. Something that you connect with 'Knowledge' and the 'Past'. But this is the sort of ability that you need to complete the image itself. You need the memories that you have to appear within there in the truest form, and the ones that you lack to appear there in a lesser form. And then you need to spend quite some time repairing the 'lesser' parts."

Eiro looked back at Lognir and nodded his head. He understood what he meant, "I see. Then I'm going to try my best right away.." The Demon said bluntly, as the Dragon smiled back, "I would expect nothing else, child."