These Demons Do it for Free

After completing my fourth spell, Mark, my training wasn’t over yet. I sent Mea up to get some rest and stayed alone in the training room—or rather, not entirely alone.

After all, I always had three companions by my side.

[This one’s shaping up well.]  
[You’re getting a feel for it, huh?]  
[Oathkeeper, if you add my illusions, it’ll be perfect.]

It was getting a bit noisier, but it brought back memories of the training center. Back then, too, I’d stay up late, sacrificing sleep to fire shot after shot of magic bullets.

Of course, the purpose of this practice was different. I was constantly working on firing them faster and with greater power, but now I had a new goal.

Kiiiiing—@@novelbin@@

The sound of condensed mana echoed around me. Normally, a spell wouldn’t make this much noise. At my current level, I could fire a magic bullet almost instantly without a sound. My training had advanced to a point where I could release a magic bullet within two seconds without any unnecessary mana buildup.

But the fact that it was making this much noise meant there was unnecessary friction and collision in the mana condensation process. There was only one reason for that.

Piiii—

“Not working again.”

The black ball of mana in mid-air fizzled and faded.

What I was trying to do was this: firing a magic bullet remotely.

Inspired by Mea’s demonology lesson, I realized that it’s possible to develop demonology beyond the fixed structure of spells.

The properties of a demon’s mana—the faint but distinct traces embedded within it, even if they couldn’t be called fragments of power—how much I could leverage those was also part of demonology.