DEMON'S VIRTUE

"No, I don't think I do. Again, it's been decades since I've spoken to him." Armodeus replied. Eiro let out a deep sigh, rather disappointed that he wouldn't be able to find that man so easily. And that was when Eiro remembered something.

"Armodeus... How old are you again?" The Demon asked, and the Elder Dwarf crossed his arm, "Somewhere around three hundred years. Stopped counting. But why, lad?"

"Well, was that 'kid's' name Merlin, by any chance?" The moment that Eiro mentioned this name, Armodeus raised his brows, "Yes, lad! Yes it was! How did you know?"

"Because that 'kid' is now an old man working for the Academy. He's the head of the magic departments." Eiro explained, "This can't be called a coincidence anymore, now can it?"

"I'm not sure it is just a coincidence. He was rather obsessed with magic, so it makes sense he would seek out a place like that Academy, which is basically a gathering point for all sorts of magic." Armodeus pointed out. Eiro nodded his head with a grin on his face, "Well, most importantly, I have access to someone that studied the arcane."

After this, Eiro and Armodeus kept talking a bit more about Merlin, so that Eiro could tell him things that showed that he really did know this elder dwarf. If Eiro knew an old friend of his, then he might be open to talking more about these rather unusual topics. Although from what Eiro already knew about that old man, he seemed happy to talk about magic to anyone that wanted to listen. That made him a pretty good teacher at the school, at least as far as Eiro was concerned.

But soon, Armodeus made his way out of the sitting room and back to his workshop to start preparations for the dozens of artificial artifacts he would have to make. Eiro finished his tea, and then headed outside, where he could aready see a few people training alongside each other. James, Krog, and Ariella as well. This was perfect, Eiro had to speak to Ariella a bit anyway. Eiro approached the Nephilim, and she soon stopped training as she saw the Demon walk up to ther.

"Congratulations. I heard that you succeeded last night, and got quite a reward through it on top of that." Ariella said with a smile, and Eiro immediately nodded his head, "Yes, both of that is true. It's not officially my name yet, but you're looking at Eiro Jura Daemonherz right now."

"A noble Demon, huh? Well, technically you already were, but that's beside the point." The Nephilim pointed out, "So... Do you want to turn Hannah into 'The Death' now?"

"About that... I don't know if I want to at all anymore. Especially since she's just a child right now. It probably has a high chance of succeeding because Hannah is a good fit for the card, but at the same time, it's still just... The abilities that come with the card can be dangerous for a young child. If she keeps leveling up, maybe evolves a couple of times... If her maturity and intelligence rises and she still wants to be 'The Death' at that point, I'll gladly support her. But for now... It would most likely rather rapidly change her from the girl she's now, to someone else."

Ariella listened to Eiro's explanation. He told her about the abilities that 'the Death' had, and which parts of it were because of the card itself. For now, it was simply too risky to give it to her, although Eiro would still make sure to keep this card safe somehow.

They even explained the situation to Hannah herself. Since she wasn't that excited about the idea in the first place, she didn't mind, although during the past week or so, the idea seemed to have grown on her the more she saw the way Eiro acted around others. He was a monster, but he still acted kind like that to those around him. So, she ended up choosing to simply make use of Eiro's suggestion. If she ever wanted to be 'the Death' in the future, Eiro would give her the card.

So until then, Eiro had to come up with an idea. He made use of his rough understanding of sealing arts, and began to meditate. Eiro visualized another room within himself. Not the library, but the treasury this time. Eiro saw the shelves with books, tables with clutter on them. Random small objects that Eiro nearly forgot about. Over time, the amount of things that he could hold within him really grew quite a bit.

And now, Eiro walked up to the wall on the other side of the room. He ran his finger across it, and as he did, cuts appeared in that wall, before a slab simply disappeared out of it. Eiro ran his fingers through the empty space along the wall, creating a certain pattern as if he was drawing a magic circle. It was a cubic space, large enough to hold just a few small items. And as Eiro finished, the visualization of what he just created in here appeared. A metal safe. The door slowly opened up, and Eiro picked up 'the Death's' card from the table, placing it into this safe. Eiro quickly closed that door, pulling on the handle a few times to make sure that it didn't just open that easily.

But the moment that the safe's door closed, Eiro stopped feeling this 'rejection' within him that came from that card. At the same time, Eiro could still open the safe with certain complex images in his mind. Like a combination that nobody would be able to copy, since only Eiro's never-forgetting mind was able to remember its complex nature. Like this, Eiro should be able to open the safe and get the card whenever he wanted, but it couldn't just be 'stolen' from him, and it most likely wouldn't disappear either. Maybe once Eiro gained a certain level of power, he should try and collect all the cards of the major arcana as well... And only give them out to monsters that he himself directly trusted wouldn't do horrible things with them.

However, for now, this was enough. Eiro opened his eyes again, having left his treasury, and then pushed himself off the ground. He looked at Hannah and smiled, "Don't worry, as I said, when you're ready, you can ask me to have it."

The young girl nodded her head in response, before Eiro swiftly turned around to look at two of his party members practicing, "And now, I have to check on someone else as well." The Demon said.

Together with Hannah, Eiro went inside. And while Hannah stayed in the sitting room with Clementine and Sammy, Eiro jumped through the hidden passages and soon found himself in the library. There, he could see Jess sitting on the ground, a mountain of books surrounding her.

The speed at which she was reading certainly sped up, and Eiro already made sure multiple times that she was really absorbing the information instead of just glancing at the pages and not really reading any of the words. This showed that her stat values were rising slowly but surely, and Eiro was excited to see this.

Eiro grabbed one of the bottles of water that he kept here for Jess and brought it over to her, "Come on, take a bit of a break." The Demon said. The woman slowly raised her head, and as if in a daze, she locked eyes with Eiro. When Eiro handed the bottle to Jess, she quickly drank from it, and then placed it back to the side.

"Thank you..." She said, and Eiro raised his brows surprised. It seemed like she was able to somewhat react normally again. Once Jess' mind returned back to what it was usually due to the growth in her stat values, that would mean that she had immensely grown, and she could keep growing beyond that. It was the same with the others. Once they reached the level they were at before this training began, then that was direct proof of their improvement. And then, they would keep on training to improve. And once they reached a certain level of improvement, that was when Eiro would bring them out to hunt again. Due to the strain that their areas that needed the most improvement were under, when they leveled up, those particular stats were going to rise the most, especially since all of them had classes that supported growth in that direction incredibly. Before they really began training under Eiro, the Demon made sure to have them pick high-tier classes for once, so that their stat-improvements would be generally higher anyway.

Either way, slowly but surely, those three were becoming stronger and stronger as well. They most likely won't catch up to Eiro anytime soon, or ever as far as he was concerned considering Eiro's own rate of improvement, but that was fine. None of them really cared about being 'the strongest', they just cared about being strong enough. Strong enough to do that for which they became adventurers in the first place.

To make a living, to protect those around them, or simply to find happiness. And with the idea of improving one's power in mind, Eiro opened up his status. He looked at the number of stat points he had left, and couldn't help himself but smile.

Right now, for Eiro, it was time for a bit of an upgrade as well.