Damien casually floated five books in front of him while sipping on some cheap wine he found left in the servant’s rooms. The red wine had a sharp, sour flavor, similar to vinegar, and it slightly burned his nasal passages as it went down. It was rather unpleasant, but he enjoyed the atmosphere it created. Swirling the wine in the glass made him feel like a true villain, which seemed to appeal to his soul.


    Speaking of soul, he had managed to slowly get control over his body and traits. They were still there but more controllable. He could almost touch things without gloves now, and he could reduce his sleeping to only twelve hours a day. His [Concentration] trait had only increased in potency, which aligned with Psychic magic. It took Fay more brute-force methods to break him out of a trance if he was deep in thought about something. It almost became a joke between them when she had to smash two frying pans next to Damien’s ear.


    Damien took out his pocket watch with psychokinesis and snapped open its lid with his mind. He looked at his deathly pale yet handsome face, and with a slight bit more concentration, his status appeared:


    [Damien Nightshade]


    [Noble Vampire]


    Schools of Magic:


    [Psychic Magic (C+)]


    Psychokinesis [C+]


    Automatic Writing [F]


    Telepathy [E]


    Pyrokinesis [E]


    [Blood Magic (F)]


    -None-


    =Null Spells=


    Mana Control [D]


    Traits:


    [Germaphobe] Unable to learn melee skills / 100% Increased control over ranged spells


    [Control Freak] Increased affinity to control skills by 10%


    [Lazy] Increased mana regeneration while resting by 20% / Increased exp to learn new spells by 10%


    [Concentration] Increased affinity with mental spells by 5%


    [Noble Aura] Intimidation increased


    His status had changed significantly over the last few days, but he was nowhere near the progress he was expecting. His skills were now grouped under the school of magic or affinity he specialized in.


    Damien looked over the list and pondered. Since this became a real world, specific game mechanics haven’t followed. For example, learning new skills is entirely different. In the game, a player just had to pick up a book that contained the spell, open it, and that was it. They would gain the spell in the book at the F tier. Of course, certain spells couldn’t be learned or locked behind restrictions, but usually, a player’s character could learn most spells through this method.


    Damien had opened the books from the library and expected to learn the skills instantly. But that was not the case. Instead, he was greeted with pages of diagrams and runes that showed how the spells worked. He flicked through the pages and felt utterly lost. How am I supposed to understand these diagrams? Chemistry exams made more sense than this shit. Although the diagrams were confusing, he could only laugh at the runes. It was just a simple programming language written in English.


    It seems I am reading, writing, and talking in this world’s native language without knowing it. Only after seeing English as the rune language did I realize I was even speaking a different language. How interesting…


    To everyone else, it looked like some ancient and profound language, but to Damien, it just looked something like this:


    Spell fireball (Size, Distance, Mana).


    Spell is the ‘function’ call. So, anyone planning to use the Fireball spell would first shout out ‘Spell’ and follow it with the spell name, in this case ‘Fireball.’ They then would provide the spell with the expected size, the target’s distance, and how much mana. This is all done mentally within the mage’s mind.


    Damien leaned back in his chair and sighed. So most of the spell construction is done mentally. That’s a shame since I understand the language, and it would be easy to beat other mages if they were shouting everything out to me.


    He put the book aside and decided to watch Fay trying to practice and read the runes from her book; it seemed genuinely hard for her to read the runes for some reason. Her pronunciation was entirely off at times, and it seemed to affect her ability to manipulate the mana around her body.


    He was sure he could speak the runic language fluently, which would surprise people. He had tried to see if he could cast spells just by saying them aloud, but it seemed impossible to learn or cast spells that were not of a psychic nature.


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Surprisingly, pyrokinesis is under the Psychic category. It is simply basic fire manipulation with the mind. An actual fire spell like fireball is impossible for me to cast, as I have no affinity for fire. The only spells I can use or learn are Psychic or Blood spells. Unfortunately, all the books on Blood magic are strictly controlled in the Mage Tower, while the rest are stored in the libraries of Kazimir.


    The only new spell Damien had learned over the last three days was Automatic Writing, a specialized version of psychokinesis. It allowed him to manipulate chalk sticks or any writing utensil and direct it to write for him. He didn’t have to manually move the chalk but just convey words or diagrams, and it would write them out for him. Useful for teaching but not for the upcoming duel.


    The five books floating around Damien covered different topics; one was even about world history instead of magic. He was desperately trying to find out how to raise his psychokinesis to B-grade as it was stuck at C+ no matter what he did.


    He wanted to learn other Psychic spells like:


    Materialization – S-Grade. The creation of objects and materials or the appearance of matter from an unknown source.


    Astral Projection - A-grade. The ability to voluntarily project an astral or mental body.


    Petrification - A-grade. The power to turn a living being to stone by directing mana into their eyes.


    Clairvoyance - B-grade. The ability to see things and events that are happening far away and locate objects, places, and people using a ‘sixth sense.’


    Levitation - B-grade. The ability to float or fly by mystical means.


    Automatic Writing - C-grade. The ability to draw and write without conscious intent.


    Telepathy - C-grade. The ability to transmit or receive thoughts supernaturally.


    The number of skills available to Psychic mages was very limited but all incredibly powerful. But to Damien’s displeasure, all the useful ones were locked behind S, A, and B-grades.


    Damien was researching how to raise his Psychic affinity grade, but there was little information on it; very few books reached above C-grade. However, he understood why nations wanted to keep the number of powerful Psychic mages to a minimum; just Clairvoyance alone was enough to win a war, for example.


    Materialization wasn’t worth mentioning, as there were no S-rank mages that even walked the planet. The king of the vampires, Kazimir, had been the last recorded S-rank in Blood magic.


    Damien saw Fay sneaking glances at him, but he maintained his focus on his studies.


    His life depended on it.


    ***


    Fay sat comfortably in an armchair while reading a book. Occasionally, she would sneak glances at Damien.


    This darn vampire seems different these days. He’s still a bit insane, but his eyes are different. Before, they were almost as dead as a fish, and he would lie around in bed all day, occasionally waking up to take a bath and feed on my blood. But now, they have a purpose behind them, as if Damien has some big ambition or pressure on his shoulders.


    Fay took a cautious peek at Damien; he sat in a comfortable armchair with a glass of cheap red wine in his hand. A glowstone was embedded in the wall behind him and cast a soft glow upon him and the books surrounding him.


    Five books were floating around him. He was calmly switching his attention between them while frowning from time to time. His level of concentration was insane. Fay knew from her research on magic that psychokinesis would use up a lot of mental power to manipulate five books at once, but he was also reading them?


    Three days had passed since Prince August declared a duel between Damien and the Head Professor. Since then, Fay hadn’t witnessed Damien using magic; she was somewhat surprised to discover that he was a Psychic mage and seemed to never rely on Blood magic.


    Fay had visited the public library many times while Damien was asleep, and she found a book detailing vampires. They were long-lived creatures that survived off the blood of mortals to increase their lifespan. A typical vampire could live up to five hundred years, but noble vampires could live over a thousand years, if not more. There was also speculation that they could be technically immortal, but none had lived in recorded history for more than five thousand years. The oldest vampire was Kazimir Nightshade, who lived for four thousand seventy-three years. He died after being hunted down by a group of A-grade mages after he kidnapped the emperor of Oshal’s wife at the time.


    The records mentioned that vampires were weak against the Fire and Light magic schools. Silver-coated weapons were also highly effective. Fay had noted these weaknesses should she ever need them in the future.


    Fay had also noticed that Damien’s personality had slightly softened over the last few days.


    At least he stopped threatening to kill me for every little thing. But, of course, he is still a germaphobe control freak. But his attitude toward me has changed. Before, he ordered me around like some slave or livestock; although I technically had been one for a few weeks, I don’t remember much of it. It’s all hazy.


    But he seems to have released his mind control on me for some reason. He orders me around but leaves me on a pretty light leash, especially while sleeping. Maybe he also had a rough childhood, as I did. And that’s why he’s such an overbearing person?


    Although Fay noticed Damien’s slight change in personality, he also seemed to be wearier of her, especially when she used a knife to cut food in the kitchen.


    Is he afraid of knives? He never used to watch me cook. He only ever slept.


    Fay stopped looking at Damien and tried to focus on the book in her own hands. She enjoyed this cozy atmosphere of sitting in the study and reading during the evening.


    After trying to read the third page of Basic Principles of Mana Manipulation for the hundredth time and not understanding a word, Fay let out an audible sigh.


    Perhaps I can ask Damien to teach me magic? Will he just say no as Dad did? Maybe he knows how terrible my talent for magic is. Well, worse case, he says no and threatens to kill me, as he does with most things, yet I’m still alive.


    “M-master…can I ask something?”


    Damien broke concentration from his books with a visible scowl on his face. “What? I’m busy, don’t interrupt me.”


    “Sorry…”


    Damien sighed and shut the book, “Just tell me.”


    “Uhm, since you are so good at magic, could you maybe teach me a spell?”


    Damien seemed, for the first time, genuinely bewildered. His hand went to his chin, and he looked off to the side, deep in thought.


    Is he considering it? Fay thought with surprise. She expected to be outright ignored.


    After almost a full minute of deep thought, Damien returned his stare at Fay as if trying to read her mind and peer into the deepest parts of her soul. It was a scary experience, to say the least.


    “Sure.”


    He finally replied, and it didn’t involve ripping her head off.


    “Really!! I can finally learn magic?”


    “Yes, I think it will be quite useful.”


    Fay was giddy with excitement, “What spell are you going to teach me?” Fay forgot to address him as Master for a second, but he let it slide and answered casually.


    “A cleaning spell.”


    Fay almost fell out of her chair.