I took a moment to breathe, I used Demon's Breath to strengthen myself. My body was still weakened from the war, from torture, and from just existing to be honest. I wasn't a superhuman, I couldn't be at peak condition 24/7, especially when I couldn't even heal myself or replenish my physical stamina.
"Man, I need to get myself another cigarette... I saw a few knights smoking them before, I'll have one of the Hassan steal them."
And so, I commanded a Hassan to steal a cigarette for me, and he may or may not have come back with enough to last me a while. Apparently he had just 'borrowed' cigarettes from a bunch of different shops. Honestly it made more sense for him to steal from several stores rather than a Knight. This Hassan was probably among the weakest and his presence erasure skills weren't so good, so a trained person would find him if they put their mind to it.
So it probably did make more sense for him to just steal the cigarettes from the stores directly. This Hassan supposedly just had a very handy tattoo on his body that materialized and dematerialised, and it acted as a Dimensional Ring. I didn't remember if I'd mentioned them, but they were Artifacts that stored things and preserved their state, very handy.
The tattoo came under the category of a 'weapon' by my ability, and therefore, I was able to copy it, that was because it was originally an Artifact that bonded to him and gave him a rather convenient ability. Anyways, once I copied his 'weapon' he dropped everything out of his tattoo and I sucked it all up.
'I could probably use this with Ataraxia to defend myself...'
Anyways, this Hassan has probably stolen enough cigarettes to last me years even if I smoked four or so every day.
The tattoo formed itself on my right arm and extended from the back of my hand to my shoulder. The tattoo was significantly larger than the Hassan's. I hadn't tried using the Poison Blood Armour yet, because that would effectively fuse to my body and make my blood poisonous 24/7, and although I'd be immune, I don't think I needed it right now. And I'm 90% sure that I'd be incapable of turning it off.
Either way, for whatever reason, my storage capacity, range, etc. were significantly higher than the Hassans'. I had a sneaky suspicion it was because I was the master of the Fenrir who bore power over space. Like I'd said, special magic didn't exist, however, certain artifacts, scrolls, and stones were able to interact with it. Anyways, I thought being the master of the very being who ruled the domain was what made the Hassan's Artifact so much stronger.
After being lost in thought, I finally materialized a cigarette into my hand; using my Dark Flame, I set it alight. It had a much weirder feeling when compared to using a normal flame, but it was a nice feeling. No ashes were left by my flame and they were seemingly engulfed by it, but that was to be expected since it was a flame coming from me. But smoke was still produced because of the cigarette, so I sat down with the wall to my back.
"Stronger... I need to get stronger. I have the potential to be as strong as 'him', so I can't afford to waste that potential. My Eye, once that awakens, I'll be able to see way more than what I can see right now."
When I looked at the part of the cigarette that had been set alight, my vision flickered for an instant. I saw sparks of red, and then my vision returned back to normal, and the flame went back to its regular colour.
'My Demonic Eyes activated involuntarily? Maybe I activated them by mistake or something?'
I formed a blade with 'Weapon Creation' for a moment.
'Holding a weapon makes me feel... at peace. Well, to be fair, I used to go to sleep with a sword.'
I spent the rest of the day doing jack shit, one of the Hassan's had decided to station themselves at the mansion. He was among the higher ranked and he would serve as my bodyguard, not that I was weaker than him. But these guys would grow along with me to be fair, so their current strength wasn't an issue.
I had been told that Irene didn't remember anything from her fight due to her injuries, yet part of me didn't believe it, but it wasn't like this situation was bad, it was actually the best case scenario to be honest.
(E/N: You should never assume things are going good in this type of novel…)
I held the sword tightly and stood up, I aimed the sword at my forearm, I reinforced that part of my body with Mana and with Demon's Breath. I then sliced down at it with the Sword at an angle and the Sword shattered.
I then burnt up the cigarette and dematerialised the shattered sword.
"I need to get stronger."
A/N: Okay, I think it's time for a time skip and an academy arc. And it will probably be a VERY long part of this novel because it'll be an opportunity to add in a bunch of characters, antagonists and people to catalyse the mcs growth. I think academy arcs are my favourite arcs and my fav novels, so if any of you have any academy novels that I can take some inspo from lmk. But yeah, I think this is a good place to end off volume one. Now then, I'm gonna figure out how to section this off as the first volume. Anyways, next vol I wanna give a deeper insight into Mana if possible, more technical fights and just a better experience as a whole.
E/N: Anybody else excited? I certainly can't wait.
Edited By WorthyAdversary