The Sword Devil

by Nathan Valerio

  She took a step back and let the pot float a bit before she activated the transformation spell causing the Iron pot to suddenly turned round and the thin S shaped legs turn thick. The thin walls grew to almost 1 cm in thickness and turned into a cauldron the size of the others, because she told it the size. The cauldron spell caused Nadir to realize she could control features and so she could change it of her choice after experimenting.

  The cauldron was put on the table and waited.

  “Today we will pass around the spells required for Alchemy. They are Mix, Boil, Dry, Grind, Cook, Combine, Extract and Synthesis. These skills and spells are essential for alchemy. No matter if you have a demon, monster or spirit, these spells can be used given time and training. For today, you will make sure you have all of these spells for preparing and properly producing alchemy such as potions. This is basic level alchemy.” She said and some teacher aides began to walk around and hand all the students a book with all the spells.

  Nadir took it because she was curious and began to ready the book and gasp before raising her hand. “Miss! Why is the spell so different from the ones my familiar has?!” She asked.

  The old teacher looked at her and her cauldron transformed pot. “Those are a particular group I have refined, none of you will probably understand half of the knowledge on it but they have been refined to a high level. It will take a very long time for each of you to properly perform these spells but the end result would be very high level alchemy spells with higher success rate and refining rate.” She replied.

  Nadir nodded, partially confused but she looked at the book again.

  Soon the teacher's aide did another round and dropped a small normal bag of common mana stones.

  “These mana stones are so you can copy the spells. For today’s assignment, you must work on properly implementing these spells into your familiar and try the spells.” She said and sat down.

  The looked into the bag and saw a large number of common rank mana stones.

  Nadir then blinked and took a stone, feeling the little bit of mana inside. She counted them and counted a few hundred.

  She looked at the book and then thought that the teacher sure was nice. Still, a little think at the very far back of her mind, for one reason or another, told her to make a new spell sequence instead of replacing her old one.

  She didn’t know why but she did just that and slowly built the new one and soon found why she had that strange sense. At the end of the sequence of the start up for the spell, there was a very dark feeling sequence that she didn’t know for what reason it existed. She frowned and thought a lot before getting rid of it and building the spell.

  To her surprise, there were more than a dozen of the same dangerous feeling sequences that she broke down and built the spell until it finished. The spell sequence broke down though because those bad pieces that made her feel danger were key parts to making the spell work.

  Nadir looked at each part and copied down each part one by one and then slowly put them in order that they were found until it formed a single spell and when she did she felt a horrible feeling and instantly crushed it.

  Unfortunately the spell activated just before it was crushed causing a very dangerous aura to come from Nadir and stimulate the spell of each and every student that had almost finished.

  The eyes of the teacher shot open and she quickly got up and walked to Nadir and grabbed her hand. “You little thing! You! What did you do when making my spell!? What kind of evil thing did you make!?” She shouted.

  “I-I didn’t…”

  “Silence! You little devil spawn can actually make such an evil spell from such a grand spell of my own design, you still have cheek to talk back!” She shouted back and pulled Nadir close, “If you tell anyone about the hidden spell, you will not know how you died.” She said in a cold but extremely cold tone. She then pulled the girl up. “Get! GET OUT! Never come to my class again!” She shouted and threw Nadir and her familiar out of the door and slammed it behind her.

  Nadir just looked at the door and heard the voice inside, “Don’t any of you become like that little brat who did random things and almost created a spell even demons would look down on! Now get back to copying the spells exactly as the books tell you!” She shouted.

  Without noticing, the old alchemist had thrown Nadir out along with the spell book. The girl just looked at it and was about to throw it before she thought about how advanced it looked. It did indeed match a huge number of spots to her real spells except for the dangerous sections.

  When she thought of that she grabbed the book and looked sad at her familiar and unsummoned it and went to the library.

  At the Library, the librarian frowned when he saw Nadir there, “Child, shouldn’t you be in class?” he asked.

  “I was!” Nadir said almost in tears, she then slammed the book the old alchemist put gave and turned to the page of the first section. “The teacher told me to copy these spells but while I was building it these sequences felt strange and I took them out and the spell failed! Then I put this one and this one…” she began to point out all the sequences to the librarian. “...then when I finally tried to activate, it gave a really really dangerous feeling and I smashed it instantly but then the teacher called me devil's spawn and mean things!” She said crying.

  The librarian took the book and looked at each sequence but didn’t feel anything off but then he took a sheet of paper and began to write each one she had pointed out filling the page. His eyes opened wide and he slammed his fist on the table. “That woman!” He hissed.

  “I-Is something wrong?!” Nadir asked afraid.

  “Yes, but not with you.” he said and looked at the spells. “Which of these spells do you have and don’t have?” He asked.

  “Um… my brother was a 2nd year student when he helped me make all but the dry and grind spells.” She said.

  The librarian nodded and went into the library and took out a book. “This has the same spells, they aren’t as advanced but they are completely safe, trust me. You can copy this but I will take this book with me, I need to see the dean about this and quickly.” He said and let the girl stay in a backroom that was quieter and probably safer should the alchemy teacher come after her.

  She looked at the book and like the other spell she built it separate from her original but unlike the first, this one was indeed safe and when she finished it, the original spell and the new one overlapped and the stronger spell absorbed the old one.

  She sighed in relief, she felt a shiver when she remembered the alchemist. She pouted her cheeks and clenched her fists making her knuckles white, “That old granny is mean, I don’t like her! Hmm… hehe, doesn’t she have a herb garden?” Nadir thought and a mischievous grin appeared as she kept replacing her spells and adding the two new ones first before getting up and going out of the academy towards one of the green spots of the academy.

  She returned the library not even 20 minutes later and grinned and went to a section of books she had checked with the librarian about and took a book she had started to read and went to the quiet room to study.

  Chapter 28

  “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?” a roar that shook the entire room but was stopped by barriers. The source of this voice was a thick armed tan old man with white hair and beard. His face was bright red and his eyes had veins appearing.

  "I am securing the safety of our academy!” an old woman in front of him said.

  This same woman was the old alchemists that had handed out the spells to the children.

  “If we wanted to make a combat academy like any other then we would have started with that from the get go!” the muscular tan man who was dean, Glenn Rudy, shouted. “We are an academy of magic crafts and commerce! Combat is important but that is secondary! It is only to guarantee they can escape with their items and life! Power comes with time!” He roared.

  “Although being able to craft is good, we will not be able to if the spies are still snooping around
and stealing our knowledge! What use is that when we can just enslave them and keep them quiet!” The old alchemist said.

  BOOM!

  The dean’s table was crushed under his punch. To the side, a barrier protected the librarian who reported this. “Glenn, I shall let you deal with her, I shall deal with the aftermath by giving the children an extra lecture and ‘repair’ the damage.” the librarian said.

  “Please, please do, and give the little girl the true high ranked spells for reporting this. I can’t help but feel so much shame at letting this happen.” Glenn said.

  “You are going to wreck my hard work!?” The woman said.

  “SHUT UP!” Glenn roared making the room shake once more. “Your ‘hard work’ could allow the other academy invade us and steal our hard life’s work because of your selfishness! So what if there are spies!? We know the face of each and every one! Do you really think these low leveled things can break into my masterpiece restriction zone I forged out of my own blood and fifty magical metals!?” the alchemist took a step back but clutched her hand.

  The librarian called the children and gave them an extra lecture and after reading the sequence, he taught them a bit about how to identify these high level spells while replacing all the slave spell sequences that were hidden, and would slowly activate with each use, with proper sequences while repairing the areas of instability formed by their change giving all the children the true alchemy spells at a high level.

  Only when Nadir safely built the spell she calmed down and let they replace her lower grade ones she had built with a huge sequence allowing her to use them more efficiently.

  Sadly for her though, a great deal of damage was done to her. When class ended, she tried to talk with others but as soon as she approached, they distanced themselves.

  She just blinked and her smile slowly shrunk as she left the room and headed to the library. She went once more and started to further research the books she was seeing before.

  “My, my? What’s this, a cute child reading the remedial knowledge of space magic? What could a deal child like you need with such a complex book like that?” a gentle elderly voice said.

  Nadir looked up and found an elderly man dressed with a gardener overall and checkered shirt while a straw hat was hanging by a string around his neck.

  “Who are you gramps?” Nadir asked.

  “Hohoho, it’s not nice to ask others their name without saying yours.” he said.

  “Ah! Sorry! I’m Nadir Null.” she said standing and bowing to the elder.

  “I’m Rudius Spirits, I’m an old man that was hired as gardening and take care of the herbs of the academy. I couldn’t help seeing you causing trouble when you put that poison weed venom after harvesting all the herbs from your alchemy teacher’s garden all over it. Did you know the ground became infertile for almost two months before she can purify it?” he said.

  Nadir stopped and her face cramped as she began to sweat and turned like a rusted hinge to look at the man. Her face was like that of a typical child caught red handed.

  “Ahaha, you naughty child!” he laughed, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell but you have to tell me why are you reading such a hard book like something on space magic?” He asked.

  Nadir calmed down a lot and sighed before replying, “My familiar has an innate spell called Dimensional Pot. I wanna figure out how to use the spell together with my transformation magic spell I was making!” She said openly.

  The old man was a bit startled, “Transformation magic… that has no practical use child.” he said.

  “Naa ahh! I tested it! Watch!” She said and summoned her pot. “Watch, I will have it forge an iron ingot!” She said and made it use Smelt and soon the iron ingot came out.

  “Yes, and?” The old man asked.

  “Now watch gramps!” She said and let go of the pot that floated down and transformed into the Furnace Pot form and she had it Smelt again and when the metal came out, it was several shades lighter and better quality.

  The eyes of the old man widened in surprise and shock when he saw the drastic rise in quality and what’s more, how a normally alchemy type pot familiar as able to use something like a forging magic spell.

  Nadir went on and had her Spirit pot extract the medical extract from two low quality healing herb and the one that she used the cauldron had even improved to middle quality medical extract, mainly because of the high quality spell the Librarian had taught her but she couldn’t use completely well yet since the cauldron shook a great deal and almost cracked before completing the spell.

  “This is amazing.” the gardener said and looked at her notebook and looked at the spells and his brows raised. “What an amazing little girl, she didn’t make it simply a transformation spell, although I watched her when she passed and she gives you the feeling of a dunce, these spells incorporate several spells and theories merging other spells into one for it to work!” He thought.

  He looked at the forge spell and found the heat containment section that was a bit weaker while following it was the source of the fire which is a high temperature flame spell using second year knowledge she had learned before allowing the contained heat to be high enough to melt metal and purify it to some degree.

  “You’re quite something child, show me what you want to do child, I may be an old gardener but I do have a familiar and was a student once.” He said showing her the seal on his right hand.

  Nadir took out her notebook and showed the Dimensional pot spell and another one with the attempts she had tried.

  "I see, so you want to take that and merge it with your transformation spell and form a dimensional living space.” He said.

  “Yes gramps!” she said excited that someone understood her.

  “That is a very big and bold plan child.” he said smiling before patting her head, “But it won’t work like this.” he said and pointed at the space the dimensional pot spell fits in. “You need to improve how the spell merges but also, right after the spell, you need to add all the basic elemental magics because the world is formed by all the types of magic so if you want a livable dimension in your pot, you need to have all the elements.” He said and stood up before walking to the book shelves and soon came back with a book on all known elements. “All known elements child, Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Lightning, Metal, Sound, Ice Light, Dark and Space are the most basic of the basic you will need make this work child.” he said.

  “You're so smart gramps, are you really just a gardener?” Nadir asked.

  “Ahaha anyone who graduated can teach you this.” He said laughing.

  “Really, then gramps, can you help me?!” She asked.

  “Ahaha, it’s better you make the spell yourself but let’s do this, you make it and this gramps will check it for you and I can give you some tips. How is that?” He asked.

  “Really! Awesome! You're the best gramps in the academy!” She said really happy.

  “In the academy, oh well.” he thought and pat the girl’s head, "I got to go and tend to the remaining gardens. Don’t go messing with the other gardens alright, the alchemy garden you raided had a huge supply of herbs that we could have used for ourselves and the students so don’t do that again.” he said.

  “Aye~!” Nadir said but her nose was already in the books as she looked at the books the old man pulled out for her.

  He smiled at her and left the library.

  ***

  The dean felt his head hurting. It was like a drum, he had scolded the old alchemist for what she had done while having sent his people to make sure that none of the spies had caught word of the incident but unfortunately, the same alchemist came in like a demented witch saying that someone had stolen all her herbs in her garden and laced the ground with a highly corrosive poison which would make the ground improper for planting for several weeks. She was nearing the point of biting someone’s head off because there were quite a number of rare herbs in her garden.

  After that he was left along with the h
eadache to think of ways to deal with Nadir. He had sent for a detailed report of her background and her family connections.

  “You are quite stressed Glenn.” A voice echoed in the room.

  He looked up and noticed the shadows of the room extended and gathering into a blurred human shape.

  “Oh thank the gods you’re back!” Glenn exclaimed towards the formless shadow.

  "I have completed the investigation. I do not think you will like what I found.” The shadow said and put the formless hand on the table causing it to expand and release a file from the shadow. The formless shadow sank into the ground while Glenn took the file.

  The first section was about the father and his familiar and position as well as his contacts and as soon as he saw the familiar and what kind of creature it represented he paled.

  “What have we done!?” He said. Glenn was almost having a heart attack when he saw that Silver was being regarded by the Order of the Dark Ice God as the starting form of an Idol beast. If he kept growing then their family would be regarded as the family of a saint.

  “Keep reading.” The detached voice said.

  He flipped and saw the information about Opal and he further paled when he read the report about the harvest church’s complete reformation by true Dominions from heaven by the grace the goddess of harvest had towards the wife who, instead of throwing curses at the knight, instead made the mass of the village to pray to the goddess through her level 8 harvest angel in hopes to ask for forgiveness.

  Glenns breathing turned hard and turned to see the oldest son.

  The familiar was a devil of the blacksmithing trade causing his eyes to turn wide and he read the information, “Although the parents are fearsome, this young man is very interesting, maybe… maybe I can take him as a disciple to smooth things out.” He thought.

  When he flipped to the next one, which was Void, he didn’t find anything exceptional except for the Devil familiar making him mildly curious as for the reason that two of the children had demon familiar.