The book

A month had passed since Robert had arrived to Sefora, the word for earth in Lucanite. He scoffed at the creativity with which the ancients had named both this and his original planet after what was beneath their feet.

Robert threw a dirty look at Caras, tightly bound and blindfolded in a corner.

The lessons had been going well. Having reached a basic level where he could contextually understand sentences, even without knowing all the words, Robert decided to open the magic book.

From what Caras had told him, there was no magic in this world, it was only a child's fairytale. Robert didn't particularly trust Caras' intel capabilities, but being a respectably rich person and member of a long-standing military family he probably already knew much more than the average joe.

This could be explained in four ways:

Caras was an idiot and the butt of many jokes, thus no one ever bothered informing him about such secret matters.

Magic was so rare that there were very few magicians and what little they could do limited the rumors they could generate.

Magicians had transcended the society around them. Maybe somewhere in space, there was a citadel full of magicians treating the ground civilization as a source of entertainment.

Magicians were powerful but instead of flaunting publically their capabilities, they formed secret societies pulling the strings from the shadows.

Robert Feared the fourth one the most and wished for the second.

The fourth, because a cloak and daggers P2 would be able to identify him as a sinner and eliminate him to cover their existence, all without even showing their face. In the second scenario instead, he would be able to learn the basics of magic in a semi-safe environment.

(Author note: The P2 is an Italian secret mason lodge that counted over a thousand high-ranking Italians from army generals, members of the parliament, mafia bosses, billionaires, and ex nobles. Their main goal was to seize power by throwing society into chaos. The 1978 Argentian coup was partially caused by them, installing Jorge Rafael Videla as dictator. Fortunately, their leader Licio Gelli was exposed together with a full list of members during a random investigation in something unrelated. Now you can say that reading web novels taught you something interesting.)

Number one could coexist with all scenarios, and number three amused him. To pass time he would sometimes pretend to be in the Truman show and speak straight to the audience hoping for a reaction.

Anyway, back to the book.

Robert examined the contents of the book in great delight. The book turned out to be the diary and experiment journal of a young apprentice, Rodel Hash starting his journey into the magic world.

It started with a page filled with the excitement of being chosen to learn under a certain master Orwell. The two traveled the world together, master Orwell spent the time on the road teaching him while at the same time chasing any disturbance that could be linked to magic.

The pages written in neat calligraphy summarized every lesson given by Orwell as well as Rodel's experiments and observations. As he flipped through, Orwell's lessons grew sparser and Rodel's experiments took their place. Even the tone he used to describe his master cooled down as he went forward.

A small entry described a fight between the two of them.

"I can't believe that obstinate goat refused my offer! I managed to almost reach his level after a few years and, yet he doesn't see a problem with it. His methods are flawed and unambitious, following him I'm also destined to reach a dead end. I have devised a way to open a portal to the netherworld and harness its energy now, why should we run around looking for scraps of mana when we could simply seize the source! Tomorrow I'll prove to him that my method is better and then our roles will reverse, I, Rodell Hash will become the master!"

Next to the entry, a diagram he was familiar with filled an entire page, a summoning formation, however, he could spot various flaws, and the external circle was missing!

As he flipped to the next page, he could guess what he would find.

"Master Orwell is dead. The beast that came out of the formation proved too strong to suppress, I used all the mana accumulated for two years and barely stalled him for a few minutes. Thankfully master Orwell heard us and managed a powerful sneak attack on the monster. With what must have been 30 years of painstaking mana accumulation in one spell, he managed to explode his heart and vaporize the left side of his chest. Yet, it still managed to emit a shrill shriek that devastated my master and half a mile of forest. I mourn my mentor's death but, at the same time, can't hide my adoration for the beast."

"The power to ignore bullets and blades, to play with other's lives as he pleases. That's what I aspired to achieve when I embarked on this journey, and IT WILL BE MINE." The last four words reeked of insanity and were underlined 3 times. A drawing of a monster accompanied the entry.

Robert looked in awe at the four-meter giant, 3 horns grew all around his head like a bone crown, it had human features except for a scorpion tail and a diamond growing in between his chest.

Robert had seen previous entries about Rodell's ever-expanding spell repertoire, so he knew what he was capable of. The most lethal of the bunch worked like a microwave, able to instantly vaporize blood inside a body.

And the big man here apparently effortlessly survived something like that! Robert wondered wistfully where it would be his turn to turn into the hulk and rampage around.

The next few pages described an autopsy, possible uses for the demon's corpse parts, etc. This was also the point where the ripped pages began, Robert had to skip to an unspecified point in time. There were no more entries about his daily life, the last part of the book focused on his records of various demons he met, complex formulas and calculations for something Robert didn't understand, and his final will.

"I am the most powerful sorcerer this world has ever seen and yet I'm more aware than ever of my inadequacies. All of my progress and achievements can be traced back to the demon's leftover power. Even now, I fail to understand how my master managed to kill him, my only explanation is that he was simply playing with us.

Since the night when my master died, I summoned and attempted to subdue many of the demonic kind. Tet, beside the lowest of them, demons remain firmly outside my power, even with the assistance of the protection circle.

Thus I came to this decision, if I want to break through I will have to abandon my human weaknesses. I will leave this dairy in the hands of a talented young scholar, together with a fragment of my will to tutor and guide him on the right path. Additionally, I will include my latest method of binding a lower demon to a contract of servitude and sharing its power. Hopefully, this will be enough to let him grow and spread my achievements."

Rodell concluded the diary with his signature on the right corner of the last page.

Robert closed the book and ruminated over what he had read. The story of Rodell was short and badly articulated in the small entries that survived the suicide of what he guessed was Rodell's mind fragment. Yet it gave him greater clarity on what to expect in the future and from himself.

He also understood a few differences between mages, normal humans, and demons. Humans had 0 connections to the netherworld where magic originated. Mages, on the other hand, had the connection, but it was an empty one, they could use the mana, but not generate it; like a titled noble with no land they could exploit. Demons, finally, had both the title and the land. They could generate and use mana, and as a big plus would never die.

Robert couldn't wait anymore and flipped back to the first page where Rodell had inscribed his first spell, an incantation to summon fire. After all, if one had to find something that one could never have enough of, Robert would answer, fire.

"What could go wrong?" he thought with a grin.